Melanie Webber, CIA computer geek, grumbled as she pushed a maid's cart down the dingy hallway in Columbia. The most she'd seen of her new tropical local was the nondescript hotel room. Jeb was using it as their base of operations and this off shoot of the Sumerian Embassy. Downstairs, a fancy dress ball was going on but she, dressed in a skimpy pink uniform two sizes too small, was schlepping a mop bucket down the hall.

Sometimes life wasn't fair but she of all people ought to know that. Raised by a single mom, after her father had died, it wasn't until she was hired by the agency that she'd learned the truth. Her handsome, loving father, had ties to organized crime. Even more shocking her great uncle Harry Leone was actually a reputed mob boss, Harry the Horse. She'd been seven years old the last time she'd seen Harry, he'd pulled a poker chip out of his pocket, one of his favorite tricks. He'd slipped it into her pocket telling her it was her favor chip. After her father had died she and her mom had moved cross country and she'd almost forgotten about him.

When she'd almost failed to get clearance with the agency it had come as a shock. It wasn't an auspicious way to begin her career at the agency and it had kept her from anything but a subordinate position until now. Actually, she was almost surprised that the agency had hired her, but she figured her straight arrow record had won them over. Breaking the law was abhorrent to her. Still she'd taken pains to keep her past from her coworkers, learning quickly when she'd admitted it to an old boyfriend and he'd promptly dumped her. Apparently, the field agent she'd had her brief fling with considered it career suicide to keep seeing her. She didn't care... who wanted to date a man in black anyway?

Jeb Mason had recruited her out of the computer lab two weeks ago, exciting her with promises of adventurous, even exotic field work. It'd seemed to come at a fortuitous time, seeing that the case she'd been building against The San Sebastian Mines had gone south. When she taken her suspicions that the formerly inactive mine was now supposedly producing emeralds was actually a smuggling operation she'd been shot down severely. Then Jeb had come along dangling an opportunity she'd never thought she'd get before her and she'd jumped.

So far the only action she'd seen was fending off her new bosses clumsy advances. She tugged at the uniform's buttons, strained to the limit over her too generous breasts, wishing she was flat. Damn, he'd done this to humiliate her. It was another of a long list of passive-aggressive moves Jeb had pulled since she'd bested him on the rifle range then kicked him in the groin when he'd tried to make up for it by trying to kiss her.

The mean-eyed creep had practically drooled when he'd seen her in the skimpy maid's uniform earlier this evening and she'd wasted no time squashing any lusty ideas he might be harboring. She might have to work under him but she wouldn't sleep with him. She had much higher standards, even though men weren't exactly beating down her door. As a thirty-two-year-old slightly plump wall flower she wasn't holding out for a hero. The truth be told, her vibrator was her only sexual outlet these days and she was happy with it, wasn't she? She ignored the little voice in her head that screamed... hell no. Coming into this steamy jungle setting had to be warping her brain, she thought with wry self humor. One thing was for sure it was turning her formerly resting hormones up high. Damn, how she wished she could meet somebody, even if only for a hot one-night-stand, but that wasn't in the cards for her.

She gave her mop bucket a shove and winced when water splashed on her ugly maids shoes. Right, it just went to show her that she needed to keep her mind on business. She was going to make her first and probably only field assignment a success, and then she was high tailing it back to the computer lab where she belonged with the rest of the nerds. But first she had some clandestine files to find and decrypt.

* * *

Delta Star Agent Ace Riser silently assembled his sniper rifle in the dark, as he listened to the footsteps out in the hallway. Whoever was out there wasn't bothering to use stealth which made him cautious. The collar of his tailored tuxedo was turned up to block out even a hint of white, but it could be turned down if he had to blend in. He raised his weapon and caught his breath, waiting. Another dirty but necessary job to do...so why did this one feel different?

Maybe too many years in the field had finally burned him out, like Miles Vance had been saying. Suddenly he was getting tired of the deadly game he played so well. One thing was sure, after this mission he was taking a well deserved vacation back. A few weeks holed up at the Texas ranch he loved so much would help him refocus. After that it would take something a hell of a lot more tempting than this crap to make him jump to Bran Frost's bidding again.

He watched the doorknob turn and let out a slow breath, deliberately slowing his pulse, his finger on the trigger as he waited. All he was take aim and shoot, piece of cake. He never missed, especially when his foolish targets wandered into the kill zone. When a statuesque blond beauty in an undersized maid's uniform stole into the room he froze in surprise, taking his finger off the trigger. Well hell, he'd encountered female assassins before but not like her. He knew in a heart stirring instant that she was no pro as he watched her fumble with the door. Moonlight bathed her curvaceous silhouette in an angelic glow giving him a prime view of her sexy tits and ass as she looked guiltily about the room.

He grinned in spite of himself because she reminded him of a kid about to raid the cookie jar. He ought to take her over his knee in retribution he thought his mind wandering as his cock got involved throbbing in response when he watched her bite her lip. Plump and fully curved, she reminded him of an old time pin up not classically beautiful but arresting just the same. If she wasn't the assassin he'd been assigned to take out, then who the hell was she?

In that instant, she spun to look at him, her eyes widening in shock. He looked into her shocked lavender eyes and hit her with a knock out dart as she opened her full sexy lips to scream. The dart hit her on the left shoulder, right above one truly impressive Dolly Partonesque breast, and she let out a breathy little whimper as she fell. He caught her before she hit the ground, pulling her sweet weight against his hardening body as he pulled her into his arms. Dazzled and confused as the mingled scents of strawberries and sweet woman tantalized his senses, he bit out a curse. His gut tightened and his stupid cock twitched as he gazed down at his prisoner. Well, hell, what a cluster fuck. One thing was clear; one of them had been set up to take a fall, but which one, and why? Until he knew the truth he couldn't let her go.

He'd have to take her out the same way he'd come in, because no matter what, he had to find out why she was stealing secrets. After securing his weapon, he tossed his sexy captive over his shoulder and carried her out to the balcony. Sweet smelling jasmine grew outside the window, toying with his senses but not as much as the woman he carried. Masculine laughter, a spattering of Spanish and the smell of cigarettes told him the embassy's rent a cops were making their hourly patrol. He eased back into the shadows watching them pass by undisturbed. Only when they were out of sight did he shinny down the vines, with his sweet smelling burden over his shoulder, going out the way he'd come. It was a little tricky with the distraction of the pin ups ample tits pressing into his back but he did it. His cock pulsed hungrily every step of the way, making him scowl as he told himself to knock it off.

Gritting his teeth, he silently made his way across the grounds with his sweet smelling burden over his shoulder. He laid her down gently in the back of his panel van, stopping to gaze at her under a streetlight as his lusty cock stirred again. She was soft and even prettier close up with long dark eyelashes that looked like angels wings against her flushed cheeks, an impudent little nose, and soft pink lips that were now slightly parted in sleep and long gold blond hair that didn't come from a bottle. Innocent he decided again wonder how she'd gotten involved in this mess. She let out a little snore and he grinned even though he knew they were both in trouble deep. Delta frowned on kidnapping civilians, but he frowned even harder on killing innocents. It was time to get out of Dodge and come up with Plan B, whatever the hell that was.

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