Cassius, Stevens, Madison [moboreader txt] 📗

CJ shrugged. “Not sure.”

“See if you can take her at night when there are fewer people.” Julius’s gaze flicked to a car passing in front of them in the lot. “Tell her it’s part of your PI crap. She’ll eat that up.”

“True.” CJ looked down and furrowed his brow. “I wish I didn’t have to lie to her.”

“There are a lot of things we all want, but right now this is about getting a specialist to help us with our job. Keep your head in the mission. We only have more evidence Ouroboros is involved now.”

CJ nodded quickly. He wasn’t sure why he was so bothered by lying to Kendra. She was just a woman he’d met. He was letting raw attraction cloud his mind. He’d decided there was no way she was his Vestal.

Even after he settled on that explanation earlier, he’d pushed it away. He wanted to believe it, but wanting something didn’t make it real.

It’d be a stronger attraction in such a case. It’d have to be.

Did it? There was one disturbing possibility he’d not been able to let go of. If Ouroboros was there, they might be there for her. It’d make sense if she was a Vestal.

But the rest of it didn’t flow with any logic. There was no reason to bother with special supplies or waiting until the race rather than snatching her from her apartment.

CJ was looking for excuses for his attraction and trying to convince himself she was his Vestal because of his dick, not his soul. He sucked in a breath. At least he’d see her again soon. Vestal or not, he liked that.

“You good?” Julius asked with a frown.

“I’m good,” CJ mumbled, not sure who he was trying to convince.

* * *

CJ was grateful Kendra didn’t mind going to a corner diner. He’d not brought anything from the island approaching nice clothes. Everything was casualwear to blend in or tactically oriented. Suits and ties weren’t his thing, or most of the hybrids’ for that matter.

They’d been chatting back and forth over their meal, nothing serious or deep. CJ was better at information gathering than Julius gave him credit for. He mostly let her talk about herself, from her childhood to the rise of her show in more detail than earlier. As expected of an internet video star athlete, she wasn’t that shy.

CJ liked the confidence, the warm personality. He’d half-wondered before if she were just putting on a show, but as the night stretched on, and he pressed more and more, he grew more confident that the ambitious but kind woman in front of him didn’t harbor a secret dark side.

“The truth is,” Kendra said, slicing off a piece of roasted chicken, “people always get it backwards with me.”

“Backwards?” CJ asked.

She nodded and downed her chicken. When the muscles in her neck twitched with her swallowing, CJ couldn’t help but imagine what other things he’d like to put in her throat. He hid behind his glass of water trying to focus on what he was there for.

“A lot of people think that I’m all about the show, the fame, that sort of thing.” Kendra shook her head. “They think that athletics is just my internet niche.” She lowered her utensils, and her shoulders slumped. “Even Graham was talking about me becoming a fitness model.”

“But it’s not about that.” CJ nodded, not minding the idea of her in sexy model poses, but understanding her discontent. “The show and the fame just make it so you can do what you really want to do, challenge yourself.”

Kendra smiled brightly. “Exactly. You get it. It’s hard to make a living doing sports and athletics outside the more standard team sports. A lot of people doing the kinds of things I do have a day job running gyms. I get why they do it, but I feel like I can devote more of my time to myself this way. Eighty percent of the show is just Graham recording me doing my thing and us thinking of clever voiceovers later.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” CJ said, trying to keep up his smile.

It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy talking with her. The problem with the exact opposite. Every minute he spent with her, he was more drawn to her, not just her words or her beauty, but all her small gestures. The way she tilted her head or wrapped a curl around a finger when thinking deeply, the way she wetted her lips on occasion.

CJ tried to keep his breathing normal despite his tightening pants. The guilt about lying had only grown. She was obviously not an Ouroboros spy, and he burned for her. More than that, he allowed himself to believe the impossible, no matter how much his rational side said it was stupid. The evidence had piled up.

Kendra could be his Vestal. He had to be careful for her sake and protect her until he knew for sure.

Her phone vibrated, and she pulled it out with a grimace. “Oh, yeah. My bedtime warning alarm.”

“Bedtime warning?” CJ raised an eyebrow.

“When you’re prepping for a big event, you have to be careful about a lot of things. I don’t want to lose because I’m exhausted. I should have thought about things more. I better get going soon.” Kendra sighed. “I just realized like how much I spent talking about myself. I didn’t mean to dominate the conversation like that.”

“It’s okay,” CJ said. “I liked hearing what you have to say, and it’s not like I can spend a lot of time talking about my cases. It’s hard not to give out identifiable information even when you’re being careful.”

“Of course.” Kendra nodded sagely. “Client confidentiality.”

“Exactly.” CJ inclined his head toward the door. They hadn’t gotten as far as he needed to convince her to perform a scout mission with him. “Care for a PI escort back to your room?”

Kendra stared into his eyes, a hunger there that mirrored his own. Julius hadn’t placed