Now that was apt, but she attempted a shrug. It didn’t work very well considering how close they were. “Nothing.”

He looked at her like he was trying to read her mind, but for all his super spy abilities, he couldn’t do that. Thank goodness. She looked back, blanking her expression so she would not expose her churning emotions any further. She had a lot of experience with that particular feat.

His green gaze narrowed like he wasn’t buying the suddenly peaceful façade. Her dad used to look at her like that, but if he hadn’t been able to break through the barriers she’d learned to erect around her emotions, Ethan sure wasn’t going to.

He shook his head. “You are going to learn to trust me.”

Not likely, but she was smart enough to keep that thought to herself. An alpha male like him would see it as a challenge and he was determined enough where she was concerned.

“I want to kiss you.” He massaged her jaw with his thumbs like he was getting her ready, his expression still probing. “I need to taste your lips. So, if you’re saying no for real, you’d better say it now. Once my mouth takes yours, my body isn’t going to be long in following.”

The proof of that statement pressed hard against her tummy.

An atavistic part of her suspected that if she said no, he would just look for another way to convince her. One thing was for sure. She wasn’t going anywhere. She didn’t want to, not really. Even though she should. And he wasn’t about to release her without an argument. One she knew she was destined to lose because too much of her was on his side.

The man looking at her so intently right now had no intention of being thwarted and yet she knew with just as primitive a certainty that he would never actually force her to do anything, nor would he ever physically hurt her. The truth was…he would never have to. She was a hair’s breath from kissing him herself.

“Dinner first,” she forced herself to say. “And then I look over your apartment.”

“And then I strip you naked and keep you that way for the rest of the night.”

“We’ll see.”

“Yeah, baby, we will.” It was as much threat as promise and she shivered in spite of her certainty he would never push her beyond what she could deal with.

He sighed and shook his head. “Dinner? You want dinner?”

The level of disgust in his voice made her smile. “It smells good.” And it did. Some kind of pungent barbecue and cornbread. It had been making her mouth water since he opened the door. “You’ve been tantalizing me with it since I got here.”

“I’d like to tantalize you,” he said suggestively.

With a man like Ethan, a woman had to take charge, or she’d find herself doing nothing but reacting. She didn’t want it to be that way…in or out of bed.

She pushed against his chest. “Feed me.”

He stepped back, albeit with obvious reluctance. “All right, but I’m warning you…dessert is going to last a long time.”

She said nothing and followed him into the kitchen, where he had set the table to eat. She liked that they weren’t using the formal dining room. It felt warm and homey. He’d made BBQ ribs and all the trimmings and served them up, refusing her offer to help.

“How did you find time to make all this?” she asked.

“I did the ribs in the slow cooker…one of my mama’s recipes. I threw the cornbread in as soon as I got home and everything else was pretty simple. Don’t tell Mama, but the beans are canned.”

“I promise to keep your secret.” She crossed her heart.

He grinned. “Good. I’d hate to have to silence you.”

“Would you?” she teased.

His gaze settled on her lips with tactile intensity. “Maybe not.”

Oh, my. Time to deflect. If she wanted to get anything done tonight, she had to get their attention on something besides sex.

She indicated their full plates and tall glasses of sweetened iced tea beside them. “A lesson in getting to know you?”

“You could call it that.”

They ate in silence for a little while until she felt the need to say, “It’s delicious.”

“I think so. Mama’s recipes are foolproof.”

“Do you cook this kind of thing often?”

“At least a couple of times a week. It reminds me of home.”

“I’m surprised you chose to leave Texas.”

“I couldn’t have the life I wanted there.”

“Why not?” There were plenty of opportunities to be some kind of government agent in Texas.

“TGP is here.”

“And you wanted to work with high-tech?”

“It’s where I’m needed the most.”

“Even so…you could work remotely. You don’t have to live in D.C., at least not anymore.” Her father allowed certain agents to operate from bases in other locales and she knew he’d give the option to Ethan over losing him.

“I like being in the center of the action.”

“You take the hardest assignments and usually the most dangerous.”

“It seems that way sometimes.”

“This one isn’t.”

“It’s personal though.”

“But if it wasn’t, the assignment would be too tame for you, wouldn’t it?”

“I like a challenge.”

“You like danger,” she clarified. “You live for it.”

He thought about that for a second. “Living on the edge can be addictive.”

“I know.”

“Not from experience.”

“No, but I’ve seen it enough and not just in my dad.”

“Alan’s addicted to the danger lifestyle,” he guessed.

She didn’t argue, though why he kept harping back to Alan and decidedly old news, she didn’t know. “So are most of our agents. Men and women alike.”

He nodded, smiling. “I think Elle and Jayne have it the worst, if you want the truth.”

She thought about the cases the two female agents gravitated toward and had to agree. “They’re good at what they do and aren’t afraid to tackle anything. They’re true professionals.”

“My favorite kind of agent.”

“Is it going to be a major problem for you working with me on this case?”

“Have I implied that it would be?”

“I’m no Elle or Jayne. I’ve got rudimentary training in procedure and the fact is, we both know I’m doing this out of necessity.”

“I don’t expect you to be an experienced field agent. Just do what you do best…be yourself and leave the super-sleuthing up to me.”

“But you’d probably rather be doing this with Elle.” That woman was truly scary and Beth wouldn’t want to face her in even an exercise-sparring session.

“No, I wouldn’t. And you know why. We don’t have a choice on this assignment. For a lot of reasons.”

“I suppose.” But she still had her doubts.

He squeezed her shoulder. “I think you’ve got depths you never realized, Sunshine. You’re going to be great in your role. Trust me.”

She grimaced. “You’ll make sure of it, right?”

“I am the senior agent on the case. Your success is my responsibility.”

“Some might call you a control freak with an overdeveloped sense of responsibility.”

“It all comes with the territory.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You think I’m different from other agents?”

“You like being in control. A lot.”

“Usually.”

She actually snorted at that. “When don’t you?”

He leaned back in his chair in a way that would have given her mother conniptions. “You told me you fantasized about tying your lover to the bed and having your way with him.”

She tried to maintain a casual attitude, but heat bloomed in her cheeks and she wanted to strangle him. “That’s me, the closet dominatrix.”

“You’re not a dom, baby. We talked about this. You aren’t into pain. You don’t secretly want to dress in a black leather corset and wield a whip.”

Maybe a velvet whip, but he was right. She didn’t find pain a turn-on…though she wasn’t sure about a sexy spanking. She shook her head. “I think I must be depraved. I fantasize about handcuffing you to my bed and doing all sorts of sexy things to you. What does that make me?”

“Adventurous. And it makes me horny as hell.”