Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
Whoa. She’d never realized the man actually looked a lot like her dad.
Ewww. What was her twin thinking?
He stared at her for a moment, taking her in like she was some gorgeous piece of art. She wasn’t. She probably looked like shit, but Ben Parker didn’t seem to mind. He just didn’t realize he had the wrong sister since he didn’t understand there was a sister at all. “I know it was cowardly of me to leave Toronto when you were coming up to see me.”
“I was coming to give your team a briefing.” He was annoying. She didn’t need this right now. She already had way too much rolling through her. It would be great if she could start a fight with this man. Maybe get him to throw a punch and get a lot of this awful emotion out of her system in a wholly violent fashion.
But that would likely end in her team cutting ties with Parker and his team. They needed the Canadians. They had more experience with Huisman.
This was what she’d tried to tell Cooper. There were times when one sucked it up and did their job. No matter how badly it hurt.
“Did you? You were the only one who could do it?” Ben asked.
She could fix this whole situation right now with a few carefully chosen words. She could tell him her boss had forced her to come since she seemed to be the only one who could properly play Ben Parker. That’s all she’d been doing. Playing him for intel, and wasn’t he a moron for falling for it?
Except that wasn’t what her sister had been doing. Her sister was at least half in love with this man, and that meant something. Kala disagreed with her. Kenzie could do better. Parker was nothing but a hot dude in a nice suit.
And yet he’d saved her even when he’d thought she was doing exactly what she’d thought in her head—playing him.
Her sister was in the middle of an epic love story, and she could cut it off right here and now.
She forced her expression to soften. “No. Of course not.”
He moved in, standing over her. He was close, but he didn’t touch her.
If this was Cooper, it would be a move that threatened to melt her panties off, but she mostly thought Ben looked like a big old goofball. “I thought so. I’m sorry. I’m afraid it’s hard to think strategically when it comes to you.”
Be Kenzie. Be Kenzie. Do not tell him what you want to which is to ask him if he thinks strategically at all? Does he know the meaning of the word? Because she wasn’t sure they spoke the same language.
But she was Kenzie, and she was sure her twin would be all gooey at this point.
Did Kenzie think Coop was a big old golden retriever? Did she barf in her mouth a little when Kala curled up on his lap? But would also do anything to see her twin happy?
Like Kala was about to do.
If she was so fucking filled with darkness, why was it easy to make this decision?
“You wouldn’t meet me in Toronto. Why?”
He stared down at her like he was memorizing the moment. This man wasn’t playing. He was in deep. “You know why.”
Oh, this made her slightly ill, but it was the only thing she could think to do. Tell the truth. Or at least a version of it. “Because of how Cooper reacted. But that wasn’t me. I can’t control how he reacts or feels, Ben.”
Cooper would always be the guy who had big reactions because he felt things deeply and didn’t have a switch inside that told him it was wrong to show the world. He never hid his feelings because he wasn’t ashamed of them.
Was that why she did it? Or was she afraid they wouldn’t be accepted? Those voices always told her to keep it all inside.
“He loves you,” Ben said.
“But I don’t love him.” Such a lie. And it came out of her lips so easily. This. This was why Cooper should run. She could lie, and she didn’t even feel bad about it because it wasn’t for her. It was for Kenzie.
She was certain if Cooper was in the same position, he wouldn’t be able to lie at all. His Captain America stalwartness would force the truth from his mouth.
There was an intensity in Ben’s eyes that likely would have Kenzie swooning. Kala thought he looked like a starving dude who’d found the last Snickers bar on earth. “I don’t know what to do about you, Maggie.”
He called them Maggie, a nickname for the Agency code name they used, Ms. Magenta. It was good to hear that name because it reminded her beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was work and she shouldn’t punch him in the face and tell him to back off. Because she wanted to. Intimacy was hard for her. It was why Kenz so often handled the jobs that required flirting.