Secret Agent Boyfriend by Addison Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

her once more. She’d accepted the feeling of confinement the day before because her sports car was so small, hence the decision to take her boat of an SUV for today’s little errand.
    So how did he manage to eat up all the space anyway?
    Ignoring the zing that lit up her nerve endings, she turned toward him and kept her gaze somewhere around his ear. “Where to?”
    “Los Angeles. To my office.”
    “We’re going to the FBI?”
    “I want to look into a few things, and it gets us out of the house for a while.” He kept his gaze steady on hers and she fought the urge to look away, reminding herself he couldn’t see through the dark black lenses of her sunglasses.
    “Can’t you access your files remotely?”
    “I can do it faster and quicker at headquarters. Besides—” He broke off and she caught the sense of something lying just beneath his words.
    “Besides what?”
    “I want to check in, that’s all. I’ve been out of pocket for a few days and it makes me itchy.”
    Landry hit the button for the ignition, the high-end model she drove already registering the key in her purse, and shifted into reverse. Despite herself, she was intrigued. By their outing and by whatever else he wanted to accomplish in LA. “What are you looking for?”
    “Birth records, for starters. I want to know when and where Noah was born.”
    The reminder that their hunt centered on digging into Noah’s background took some of the wind out of her sails, and Landry couldn’t help but eye the large gate that swung closed behind her car after she pulled out of Adair Acres. Two large
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s sat at the top of the fence, their swirling script as familiar a sight to her as her own signature.
    So why did they suddenly appear so menacing? Like a brand, marking the property and all the secrets that hid in its folds?
    She shook off the fanciful notion and kept her eyes on the road. The rolling countryside flew by her windows as she traveled the canyon roads she’d grown up on.
    “It’s beautiful country.”
    Derek’s voice pulled her from her thoughts, echoing what she already knew to be true about the land she called home. “It is. It’s so vibrant and lush, and no other place smells quite as sweet.”
    “You truly love your home.”
    Heat crept up her neck at his observation. She did love her home and always had. It was a large part of why she’d never ventured all that far, even if it meant living with the stifling expectations of her family.
    She’d thought about New York as a teenager, and later fantasized about a flat in London or Paris. She’d even spent a winter on the French Riviera during a college break. But no matter how blue the water, the Côte d’Azur simply had nothing on her little corner of Southern California.
    Several thoughts drifted through her mind as she imagined how she wanted to play Derek’s question, but in the end she simply settled for the truth. “I do.”
    “It’s good to belong somewhere.” She risked a glance at his profile as she took the entrance to the freeway, surprised to see a forlorn expression that turned his masculine features craggy.
    But when he turned and caught her gaze, she knew without question there was more beneath his words. “It’s good to have roots, Landry.”
    “What about wings?”
    “Sometimes flying’s overrated.”
    His cryptic words smacked of sadness and loss. And as they sank in, the wholly unexpected need to nurture stuck in her chest, tightening her muscles like drawstrings.
    She had no right to nurture.
    Or question.
    Or insert her opinions in whatever had put that haunted look behind his dark, solemn gaze.
    They weren’t in a relationship. And despite the strange tug of attraction that had been her constant companion since he stood above the pool staring down at her the day before, she didn’t know Derek Winchester.
    But you do know the feel of his lips and the caress of his hands.
    She tamped down the traitorous thought as her car flew down the road, the