Femme Fatale by Virginia Kantra, Doranna Durgin, Meredith Fletcher Read Free Book Online

ticker-tape announcements scrolling across the bottom of the screen and a small, clear image of Shane Dellamer himself. He looked every bit as cold as his reputation, an impression not helped by his flat gray eyes. “Mr. Dellamer, challenged by his political opponents to answer charges that the many facets of Dellamer Enterprises will pose no conflict of interest should he be elected, declined to respond with anything other than a reference to his campaign platforms. Dellamer Enterprises is involved in successful ventures spanning munitions to entertainment; Dellmore Pharmaceuticals just posted a significant profit increase from last year.”
    Shane Dellamer. Multinational, multicorporation…the man had his fingers in everything. Beth wouldn’t be surprised if one day she ended up in the field dealing with the dirty underside of all that success.
    First things first. She tucked the PDA away in her sling pack, her mind on the taxi she intended to catch and the bolt-hole she was about to dig into. Maybe she’d grab some takeout on the way. Brain food. With one of Barbara’s lists to sort through, brain food was definitely in order.
    If only she hadn’t looked out into the mall to see Mr. MI6.
    Jason Chandler.
    And he was looking right back at her.

Chapter 3
    J ason almost missed her. He’d been through the shopping center once, cruising the sunlit, mall-like interior and shifting from one parallel set of stores to another. He thought perhaps he’d never need to see another African mask or stylized walking stick again, and he’d set his mind to filter out everything but the silhouette he remembered from that morning. Slender, straight, stiff little ponytail at the back of her head.
    Almost …but not quite. Not anymore. Now her athlete’s curves were nearly hidden in a finely knit sweater buttoned at the top, her hair framing her face and changing it from fresh and sporty to strikingly aesthetic. At first he looked right past her.
    And then she moved, easing absently toward the store exit, and his gaze snapped back to her.
    There was no mistaking the quality of that movement.
    She saw him an instant later. Annoyance flickered across her features, and then resignation. At first hethought she might bolt, but then she walked toward the seating arrangement in the center of the walkway, a sunken area bordered by tall, exotic and leafy plants—and deliberately passed by him so closely they almost brushed against each other.
    Bloody well looks like an invitation to me.
    She stepped down into the seating area, sat on one of the contoured wooden benches placed along the back of each planter in the triangular space, and crossed those long legs of hers. She had a sling pack now. No telling how well armed she was even without the goodies that had been in her parka but Jason imagined…
    Well enough.
    They stared at each other a moment, and then her gaze went quite deliberately to the squall parka nestled on the seat beside him. He nodded at it, giving no indication that he’d used it to cover his Browning. “Yours, I believe.”
    “Mine,” she said, composed. “Though I don’t suppose you left me any of the fun stuff.”
    “Depends on what I missed.”
    “Everything,” she muttered, and scowled as if she were arguing with someone who wasn’t even there; she certainly wasn’t looking at him. “You missed everything.”
    The next step, he supposed, was to convince her she might as well come with him.
    Right, because that worked so well last time.
    He eyed her as she struggled with her internal conundrum, and wondered just how she managed as a field agent. Nothing was hidden on that face with its spare but expressive features; like her body, it was not a face of excessives. Audrey Hepburn as an athlete, with eyes that were wiser and lines of jaw and cheek that came lean instead of square…not to mention that incredible neck.And just as her internal struggle was plain to him now, so had been her anger on the dock, and