“You look surprised,” Kara commented as he stopped in front of her desk, giving him a cool-as-cucumber lift of her lips. “I do love surprising people.”

He towered over her petite five foot three height by close to a foot, his rich brown eyes fixing intensely on her. He was big and broad, and she wished she didn’t know just how deliciously carved to muscular perfection he was beneath his clothes.

Long seconds ticked by without him speaking, his hot stare sliding over her pale pink silk blouse to the top of her black fitted skirt, then lifting, the look in his eyes telling her he remembered all too well what was beneath her clothing. Heat spread over her shoulders and down her arms, and her mouth went dry.

One of his dark brows arched and he finally broke the silence. “Surprise? Is that what you call this impromptu meeting?”

“Were you expecting me?” she challenged.

He studied her for a second, maybe two, that felt like another eternity. “Were you expecting me? That’s the real question now, isn’t it?”

“I have you on the schedule, Mr. Wright.”

“Mr. Wright? Aren’t we a little beyond formality?”

“No,” she said tightly. “We aren’t. We were business.”

“Business?”

“Richter, the head of the Denver division used to work here,” she explained. “He wanted to know you could stumble and cover your tracks before he recommended you to my boss.”

“And he asked you to help?”

“He was certain you’d recognize his staff.”

“And Mendez knows about this?”

She shook her head. “It’s our secret.”

His eyes glinted, narrowed, and he moved suddenly, leaning forward, his hands on her desk. He was close, so close she could smell the spicy, wonderful scent of him. “Why would you, or Richter, keep this our secret?”

“I don’t know. I just know he told me to keep it a secret.”

“For leverage over me.”

“I don’t know.”

“And what did you get out of this?”

“A bonus.”

Anger crackled off of him. “So he told you to fuck me, then fuck me over, and you did it.” He paused. “For money.”

Kara had been confronted, she’d been in awkward positions, but not since her rookie days had she felt rattled like she did now. “I did my job.”

“Which included fucking me.”

Kara flinched, and not just because it was part of the character she’d created. She’d never meant to sleep with him. She just…had.

“Did it include fucking me?” he demanded softly, and the tightness in his voice was more an order than any shout would have been.