A/N Here we go a new chapter of Illusion. I seem to keep changing my mind about Zack’s age but the final decision is that in the present chapter and I’ve changed the others accordingly although I said he was around 22 and born after the end of season three he is really now about 25 born sometime during the first season and Rory is 21
<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Illusion Of Sin
Part Four
Not all Fairy Tales end happily ever after</span>
Zack took the last sip of his wine and glanced at his watch. It had been over a half an hour since he’d left Rory to examine the contents of the file for herself. It had to be killing Rory and the thought that there was nothing he could do about it, made him feel like he was failing her. He hadn’t looked in the file, but Vaughn had told him exactly what it contained. His apartment had been clean, only Rory’s had been bugged but he would remain at the safehouse with her as a precautionary measure. His life had been threatened. Only Rory, Vaughn, Dixon and himself knew of the present circumstances. He’d elected not to inform his father of the situation. There was no need to worry him until something concrete had been established.
He was shocked when Rory stumbled slightly, tripping over his feet and plopped down on the couch beside him brandishing a full bottle of tequila and two shot glasses. He allowed her to pour him a shot without protest. It was clear that she was already close to being drunk from the wine. She passed a shot glass to him and raised hers.
“To Andrei Slother. May God forgive me when I get my hands on him.” They touched glasses and Zack watched as she downed the shot in one gulp. He swallowed his more slowly. She downed another. She was obviously in a lot of pain. She poured another shot for herself but did not drink.
“What was up with that Vaughn guy at the warehouse?” she asked. “He was starting to creep me out.”
Zack knew full well that her words were an exageration, but not by much. Vaughn hadn’t been himself. “It was my fault. I should never have asked him to meet us at the warehouse.”
Rory looked to him for further explanation.
“About twenty five years ago, he was a handler. This was back when handlers were specifically used for undercover agents, not like it is now. His asset was a double agent named Sydney Bristow. What I know has been pieced together from conversations with him and my father. You know about The Alliance?” Rory nodded remembering the basic agency history lesson she’d received when she joined the CIA and he continued. “Sydney worked for SD-6, a branch of The Alliance. She was their top agent. She didn’t know that SD-6 was a part of The Alliance. She thought she worked for the real CIA. Eventually she told her fiancée what she did and SD-6 had him killed. It was then that she learned what SD-6 really was. She was working for the very organization she thought she was fighting. She became a double agent for the CIA and my Uncle Mike became her handler.” Zack broke his story and took the opportunity to pour himself another shot of tequila.
“You know what’s really great with tequila? Ice cream.” Rory used the break in his story to jump up from the sofa and stumble into the kitchen. Zack winced hearing a giggle and an oops as several items were dropped from the freezer in her search for the desired treat. She returned several moments later with a pint of chocolate ice cream, two spoons and settled down beside him cross-legged. She peeled off the lid and stuck her spoon in. “It’s not coffee, but it’ll do. Ice cream and tequila, perfect.” She sighed through a mouthful of ice cream.
Zack ate a spoonful of ice cream before continuing with his story. “She began working for the CIA, the real CIA. She wanted to bring down SD-6 and to do so she had to keep the truth about what SD-6 really was from those she worked with. Marshall worked in tech ops-you haven’t met him yet-but you’ll like him. And Dixon was her SD-6 partner.”
Rory’s eyes grew large learning that Director Dixon had once worked for the wrong side. It was impossible to envision in her mind, even if he hadn’t been aware of SD-6’s true allegiances.
“Sydney and Uncle Mike got close. She even got him a promotion once,” he added with a smile. “I can’t really go into what they did but suffice to say not all their missions were CIA or SD-6 sanctioned. Uncle Mike, became a bit of a rule breaker. There was something between them that I don’t think either ever anticipated. But there were boundaries that could not be crossed.”
Zack looked over at Rory. She was listening intently, completely enthralled in his story as she made a large dent in the pint of chocolate ice cream. He knew she was ignoring the situation by drinking but he couldn’t fault her for doing so. Her life had been torn up and her privacy ripped away leaving her trying to hold on to any shreds of dignity that she had left.
“What happened?”
Zack relayed a few of Sydney and Vaughn’s earlier escapades, including breaking into the Vatican, Vaughn’s deadly virus and ending with their attempt at dinner in Paris. “They wanted to be together, but there was protocol to follow and they both knew it couldn’t happen.”
“Sounds almost like a fairy tale, but they got together right?”
Rory’s words were slurred even more now and Zack realized she’d had at least one or two more shots since he’d began the story. He poured one more for each of them and capped the bottle setting it on the floor away from her. There was no need to allow Rory to give herself an even worse hangover than she was already promised to receive.
“I’m getting to that.”
Rory sighed heavily; her face flushed red and handed Zack the slowly melting tub of ice cream. He raised an eyebrow as she struggled with her sweatshirt nearly smacking him in the face as she tried to pull her arm out of her sleeve. Zack grabbed her sleeves to help her and swallowed hard as he pulled the sweatshirt over her head and the black tank top she wore underneath rode up high exposing her stomach and the bottom swell of her breasts. He had to avert his eyes. This was a sight he never thought he’d see.
Aurora Summers had been through hell in the past few days. She’d been captured on a mission, beaten and tortured and then extracted by the CIA. She’d discovered a mole inside The Agency, was threatened by the enemy and had an uncharacteristic emotional breakdown in the middle of the night on the pier. Finally she’d discovered that her apartment had been under extensive surveillance by an arms dealer Andrei Slother. Now she was holed up in a CIA safehouse, far too close to her handler than she should be, utterly and completely drunk on wine and tequila and listening to a seemingly tragic love story while eating chocolate ice cream by the carton.
“Take it easy,” Zack cautioned watching her down the last shot he’d poured.
“Zack, I basically had two options here.” Rory spoke slowly in effort to pronounce all her words properly. She took the carton of ice cream back from him and waved her spoon around in the air as she spoke. “I could have gone out, found Slother and tortured the hell out of him myself probably getting either killed or fired from The Agency in the process. Or gotten so completely drunk that hopefully I wont remember anything in the morning and this will be just a bad nightmare. I believe I’m well on my way to accomplishing the second option and that in turn is preventing me from accomplishing the first, which I believe is beneficial to us all.”
He had to agree with her. Drunk or not, she was logical.
“You know what’s great about ice cream?” Rory dug her spoon in not waiting for an answer. “When it’s half melted it’s smooth… like soup.” She giggled and stuck a spoonful in her mouth then retrieved another from the carton. “Here.” She held the spoon up to his lips and wouldn’t take it away until he’d opened his mouth and taken a huge mouthful. “Now tell me more about Sydney and Vaughn.”
He almost laughed at the sight of her and used his thumb to wipe away a blob of chocolate from her bottom lip.
“The only way they could be together was if Sydney was free from SD-6 and eventually they did it. Sydney was able to obtain information that would not only bring down SD-6 but the entire Alliance. They succeeded and Uncle Mike was no longer her handler. That left them free to pursue a relationship.”
“And they lived happily ever after?” she asked hopefully.
“No. Their lives were no where near the fairy tale you would hope for.” He reached out his hand to wipe away another blob of ice cream from her lip. This time she caught his thumb between her teeth and sucked the sweet substance from his skin, swirling her tongue around the digit. Their eyes locked and Zack swallowed hard pulling his thumb from her lips. “Rory-“
“It’s chocolate,” she whispered her eyes never leaving his as she dug another spoonful of ice cream from the carton. She held the spoon to his lips. “Can’t let it go to waste.”
Zack opened his mouth and accepted the spoonful. They were so far beyond crossing the line, it was unimaginable. “You want to hear more about Sydney and Vaughn, don’t do that again,” he requested in a low voice trying gaining control over the situation.
When had he lost control?
Was she playing him or was she just a scared girl using a bottle to hide her pain because she didn’t know what else to do. She was used to being in control at all times, but now someone else was dictating how she should live her life.
Zack knew he should have ended things there. She was drunk and he wasn’t far off and both were in an incredibly awkward situation. But he didn’t stop. Some nagging voice inside his head was making excuses. One of those excuses being that he was beginning to find out who Rory really was. He’d been her handler for nearly three months and over the past twenty-four hours he realized how very little he knew about her. He knew her work history, her educational background and the basics she’d revealed, but he didn’t know her.
He found her to be incredibly intriguing. While drunk she was an entirely different person than he was used to seeing. She had more freedom, more honesty and more innocence than her demeanour at the office or while on operations portrayed. She was vulnerable and so child-like.
One of the other things Zack hadn’t failed to notice was how incredibly sexy Riry was. It didn’t matter that she was not in a revealing designer dress while on a mission in Paris but was just sitting on the couch in sweats and a tank top; she was beautiful. Flushed from the wine and tequila, she seemed to elicit a sort of glow around her. She had an elegance that reminded him of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffanys with a certain charisma that captured the attention of all those around her.
He held back a smile watching as she struggled to remove her socks. She nearly fell backwards off the couch in the process, but he prevented the fall and pulled the socks off for her. Zack took the nearly empty carton of ice cream from her as she’d finally lost interest in it and set it on the coffee table. She really had no idea what she was doing and considering how drunk she was, he doubted she would remember a thing in the morning
“Zack, Zack,” Rory whispered in his ear and he looked over at her surprised to find that somehow she’d manoeuvred her body around to lean against him and he had his arm around her absently stroking her silky dark hair, which smelled of spiced apples. “You promised to tell me more about Sydney,” she reminded him sullenly.
“Right.” He thought for a moment to remember where he was in the timeline of events before continuing.
“With SD-6 destroyed Sydney and Vaughn did pursue a relationship and they were very much in love. They had to keep it quiet though. Interoffice dating was frowned upon, especially when the two were partners. There was protocol to consider. It’s not like it was a big secret though. Everyone seemed to have a good idea that the two were involved. My dad was also helping them to keep it under wraps.”
“Sounds like they were so much in love, what happened?” Rory interrupted. She yawned snuggling down into his side slightly, her head slipping to use his chest as a pillow. The top of her head tickled his chin and he smoothed her hair away.
Zack swallowed hard not knowing what to do. Things were getting way out of hand. Correction. They’d already gotten way out of hand. Against his better judgement he continued the story hoping it would distract them both from the situation at hand. “It wasn’t easy for them and their families played a large part in that. Sydney’s dad was CIA; in fact he’d also been a double agent for SD-6. They weren’t very close and when she found out the truth it was difficult to trust him. He was the one who told her what SD-6 really was. Later on she discovered that her mother who had died when she was a little girl, was really a KGB Spy sent to American to seduce and marry her father Jack and to steal American secrets from him. She also found out that years before, her mother was responsible for the deaths of twelve CIA operatives. Amongst those twelve was Vaughn’s father.”
“My god, how horrible for them.”
“That’s not all,” he said regretfully. “Her mother turned out to be alive. Her real name was Irina Derevko and soon after Sydney discovered the truth, Irina turned herself into the CIA.”
“Poor Sydney,” Rory whispered empathetic to the plight of a woman she’d never met. “She had to live every day with all those lies and falsities.”
“She was strong. That’s what my dad always said. ‘Sydney Bristow was the toughest chick he’d ever met.’” He heard a small sigh from her lips and he looked down realizing that while his one hand continued to stroke her hair, his other had begun trailing his fingertips up and down her bare arm. When had that started? Why couldn’t he stop?
“Did she ever see her mother?” In a quiet voice Rory prodded him to continue.
Zack nodded with a slight hesitation. “She hated her at first… but Irina was her mother and she began helping the CIA. At first Sydney was the only one she would talk to. She provided information until she betrayed them and escaped.”
“She betrayed her own daughter? How could she do that?” Rory murmured her questions rhetorically not really bothering or wanting an answer. “How do you know so much about her?”
Zack shrugged. “My dad and Uncle Mike used to tell me bedtime stories about their adventures when I was a kid. Now, working in the same office as she did and with my dad and Uncle Mike, some of the employees are still the same and I hear things. Their stories about her, always seemed to catch my attention because I remember very little about being with her.”
Zack sat in silence for a few moments as he regained his place in the story. “One night after Vaughn dropped Sydney off at home, there was a fire. Sydney shared a house with her best friend… Francie.” He had to think for a moment to remember her name. “Her other friend Will was there a lot. He survived the fire. They found him stabbed and passed out in her bathtub.” His fingers on her arm stilled as he told this portion of the story. Rory shivered slightly suddenly feeling cold in the room. “They found two bodies in the remains of the fire. DNA evidence identified them to be Sydney and her friend Francie.”
“It wasn’t just a fire was it?” Rory spoke up angling her face upward to look at him; there were tears in her eyes. “Her friend was stabbed…”
“You’re right.” His fingers started moving again. Trailing them up and down her arm he felt her adjust her position slightly, turning in to face him. “They couldn’t get any leads though. Everyone was devastated. Uncle Mike was a wreck. He missed her so much…”
“She was the great love of his life.”
Zack looked down at Rory realizing that her eyes were half closed and she was nearly asleep thanks to combination of wine, tequila and exhaustion. “Why don’t we finish the story another time?” he suggested.
“No, no Zack please don’t stop. I want to know what happens.”
She asked him with such a pouted look on her face, he couldn’t help but relent. “Alright,” he agreed. “Vaughn drank a lot. My dad used to get called in the middle of the night and drag him home from whatever bar he was at. It happened a lot. Eventually his grief overwhelmed him and my dad convinced him to go to France to be with his mother, to recover. It was some time later that he met Lauren Reed. She was an NSC agent assigned to the JTF. He met her when he returned from France and quit the CIA. He became a French teacher and they were married, less than two years after Sydney’s death.”
Rory stared at him, her mouth hung open in shock. “How could he do that.”
“I think, he was doing anything he could to forget Sydney; she was dead. Even if it meant marrying another woman. He did love Lauren, in the beginning.”
“In the beginning?” His words seemed to perk Rory’s interest again and she tried to stifle a yawn but was unsuccessful.
“About a month after they got married, Vaughn got a call from someone in the CIA. I was there when it happened and for as long as I live, I’ll never forget the look on his face-“
“Was it about Sydney?” Rory interrupted him impatiently.
“She was alive.” Rory’s eyes lit up excitedly and he smiled at her sadly. “It’s not that simple though. Sydney woke up in an alley in Hong Kong. The last thing that she remembered was finding her friend Will, stabbed in the bathtub and being shot in her apartment. She didn’t remember the last two years of her life.”
“She woke up to find Vaughn married to another woman,” Rory whispered almost inaudibly. “She must have been devastated. Two years--her entire world was different.”
Zack nodded and paused his story allowing Rory a few moments to process all the information. He continued to trail his fingertips up and down her arm and shoulder in slow wavy strokes enjoying the slight shiver it would cause every once in a while. Her skin was cool to the touch but her face still flushed from the alcohol. She seemed to be completely entranced by the story of Sydney and Vaughn. She wanted a happy ending like all fairy tales should end and Zack wasn’t looking forward to telling her the end. “She was very hurt. It was hard on everyone, her most of all.” A large smile broke across his face. “I can remember her a little bit. I was around four and she and my dad started spending a lot of time together.” He laughed suddenly. “They woke me up at night once laughing and talking too loud, something about pink elephants and I spent weeks asking everyone I knew if pink elephants really existed.”
“Did they?” Rory giggled.
“No,” Zack laughed. “My dad told me years later that they were actually drunk and referring either to Vaughn or Lauren. I can only remember bits and pieces of being with her. She lived in the house beside ours and she used to look after me a lot when my dad was at work or away. She told great stories and she always smiled at me, even when she was sad. My dad once told me that being with me, made her happy.”
“You were quite perceptive for a four year old.”
Her speech was slow and quiet and he had to listen carefully to understand her. Exhaustion was setting in and the wine and tequila seemed to have worn off slightly, but Zack was quite sure she would not even be able to stand on her own.
“I liked her,” he said with a light shrug. “But I missed Uncle Mike. After he married Lauren, I didn’t see him much. Things between him and Sydney were tense, as I’m sure you can imagine. He went back to the task force and Lauren began working at the JTF too. Sydney still didn’t remember those missing two years. She did learn that it was an organization called The Covenant that had taken her. They’d brainwashed her into believing she was another woman. An assassin, Julie… Jule…Julia something. They didn’t really brainwash her though, she was just pretending. She was specially trained to be able to withstand severe brainwashing. As soon as she could, she escaped and she became a double agent for the CIA working inside the Covenant. When she left them, she knew she had information and knowledge that they wanted and would stop at nothing to get. In order to protect herself she had her memory erased.”
Rory’s eyes grew wide and her mouth hung open in shock. “Sydney erased her own memory. How could she do that-“
“It was the only way she could protect herself and those around her, if she honestly didn’t know what they wanted. It didn’t work though. They came after her again and again, but each time she got away.”
“Where was Vaughn in all this?” Rory interrupted suddenly.
“He was dealing with some problems of his own.” Zack’s hand abandoned its repetitive movements in her hair and moved to her cheek. He ran the back of his hand up and down her cheek. Her skin was like silk and he almost ached to touch it. She was intoxicating.
“Sydney’s father discovered that there was a leak, a mole within the agency. He traced it back to Vaughn’s wife Lauren. Vaughn didn’t want to believe it, but then he discovered that Lauren was really the co-head of the American Sector of The Covenant. He became intent on revenge. He had to make her pay for what she had done to him. She did pay.”
“He killed her didn’t he?”
“Yes he did.” Zack nodded thoughtfully. “I never liked her, I can remember that much. She always seemed so cold and unfriendly. After she was made, she went after Sydney. It was then when Lauren was trying to kill Sydney that Vaughn shot her.”
“And Sydney and Vaughn?”
“They got back together.” Zack smiled at the pleased look on her face. He’d discovered that beneath her tough exterior, Rory was a romantic at heart. He hated to discourage her with the truth. “It was hard for them. They’d been apart for nearly three years. Vaughn had been married, Lauren’s betrayal and Sydney’s lost memories were only the start. They still loved each other, but had difficulty trusting each other.”
Zack ensured he had Rory’s full attention before continuing. “When I first began working at the JTF I researched old cases to see how things were done and one of the cases I looked at was one completed by Sydney and Vaughn about two months or so before Lauren died. They were on an operation in Lisbon going after information on the Covenant. They were separated because Vaughn didn’t follow orders and as a result Sydney’s position was compromised and she was captured. She went missing for six days. Teams searched everywhere for her but they couldn’t locate her. She had just vanished. They were sure it was The Covenant but then a few days later she turned up. She had either been drugged or just kept unaware for her entire period of captivity. She could not escape and she had no idea who had held her prisoner. They didn’t even interrogate her. During a transfer she was able to escape and she found herself in Vienna. Sydney never found out who took her or why. She held Vaughn partially responsible for that. If he had backed her up, her position wouldn’t have been compromised and she would not have been captured. Vaughn didn’t take that failure lightly. It really got to him. After Lauren died trust was difficult for them, but they were in love and finally things seemed to be getting back to normal.” He stopped there not sure if he should tell her the ending of the story.
“And they lived happily ever after…” Rory’s voice trailed off slightly and Zack detected an edge of wistfulness or possible envy in her voice.
“No, they didn’t.”
Zack’s voice forced Rory to sit up. She turned to fully face him and did her best to hold back the tears in her eyes.
“Not all fairy tales have happy endings Rory.” Zack reached up and swept away strands of dark hair that had fallen over her eyes. He cupped his hand over the side of her face, gently drawing his thumb across her cheek. Once. Twice. Again and again. Rory had some sort of magic over him. “Some love stories are tragic, like Romeo and Juliet, two star crossed lovers who would give up everything for each other.”
“Zack, no-“ She whispered shaking her head knowing what was about to come.
“The warehouse we met in today is where Sydney and Vaughn used to meet when she was a double agent. It was special to them. It’s the last place he saw her when she said goodbye.” A single tear slipped its way down Rory’s cheek and Zack fought the urge to be the one to wipe it away. “About two months after Lauren died Sydney said goodbye to Vaughn and she disappeared. No one ever saw her again. Twenty one years ago, about a year after they last saw each other, Sydney died.”
“How?” Rory’s voice was a mere whisper so quiet he barely heard it. She was oblivious to the tears staining her cheeks.
Zack tucked Rory’s hair behind her ear. “There are rumours that she went rogue. No one really knows for sure or why she left. She was just gone one day. A year later she was shot and killed and Vaughn never really got over it.” A second tear followed the path of the first down Rory’s cheek. He stopped it with his thumb. “It’s just a story Rory. It happened years ago.”
“She seemed like an incredible woman.”
“She was,” Zack agreed. “I think you two would have liked each other.” Rory slipped against him, her head resting in the crook of his neck and yawned. “It’s late,” Zack said softly against her ear. “You should get some sleep. You’re going to have one hell of a headache in the morning.”
Rory protested profusely. Her words were barely understandable in her intoxicated state. Zack ignored her ramblings and stood pulling her to her feet. He supported her weight and slipped an arm around her waist as he helped her to her bedroom. Rory fell awkwardly into bed, her eyes already closed and Zack pulled the blankets up around her before leaving. He was almost out of the doorway when she called him back. He turned and approached the bed. Rory moved her body slightly so he could sit down on the bed. Her face was illuminated in the low light from the hallway.
“What is it?”
“Do you believe in soulmates? In love at first sight?”
He was taken aback. While he’d learnt that Rory was a romantic at heart despite her tough exterior, he couldn’t have expected such a question to come from her lips. “I suppose that depends on your definition.”
The light from the hallway created a shadow across her pillow. He leaned one arm across her body in order to see her properly in the dim light.
“A soulmate, a person you were destined to be with. Every person on this earth has that certain someone out there that God created just for them, to spend their life with, to give their life meaning.”
“I suppose it’s possible, but what if you never find your soulmate? What if you’re so intent on finding that one person that you miss out on a great love. What if a person’s soulmate dies, does that mean they can never be completely in love with another? Can you have more than one at different times? I suppose there are just so many questions or inconsistencies to give a definite answer.”
Rory considered his words. Maybe everyone in the world did have a soulmate, a person they were to love completely but some were just not destined to find each other.
Zack watched the change in her eyes as she thought about what he’d said. She turned slightly and light strands of hair fell over her eyes. He moved them to the side as he spoke again. “’To say that you can love one person all your life is just like saying that one candle will burn as long as you live.’ That was…”
“Tolstoy,” they both said in unison.
“Right,” Zack smiled resisting the urge to touch her face again. It must have been the tequila and chocolate ice cream. She was driving him insane. “It’s from the Kreutzer Sonata. You’ve read Tolstoy?”
She nodded. “Anna Karennina’s my favourite but they totally destroyed it with the movie.”
He had to agree. “Are we finished with the profound questions for the night?”
“Do you think Sydney and Vaughn were soulmates?” she sat up slightly closing the distance between them.
“If you mean the definition that they loved each other so completely and were meant to spend the rest of their lives together and would have if Sydney hadn’t died, than yes I do.”
“I do too.” She reached her hand up and traced his jawline with her index finger. “You’re cute, you know that,” she whispered sleepily
Zack caught her hand and pulled it down to the bed. “Rory don’t-“
“My parents were soulmates, I know they were. My parents were and Sydney and Vaughn were.” Rory used her free hand and touched his face again. “Somewhere out there, maybe there’s someone for us too.” She weaved her fingers through the slight curls above his ears and leaned forward pressing her lips to his.
Surprise, shock and every emotion imaginable ran through Zack’s mind. He tried not to kiss her back. He tried to remain unaffected by her kiss but it was impossible and he kissed her back, if only for the briefest moment. He could taste the tequila and the sweetness of the ice cream on her lips. Her hand in his hair drove him insane. He didn’t touch her. It was all he could do to force himself not to touch her. Not to be lost in the hold she seemed to have over him. Not touching her gave him back a little bit of the control she seemed to be taking away.
Her lips were firm and insistent on his urging him to participate more, but he didn’t; he couldn’t. It didn’t matter what he wanted or what she wanted. She was drunk. She didn’t know what she was doing and he knew that it was wrong and it could not happen. He’d already allowed things to go too far. It had to stop.
Rory was leaning back trying to pull him down on top of her. He raised his hands to her shoulders and pushed her down as gently and firmly as he could separating their contact. “Rory stop!”
“Zack-“
“This is wrong and you know it.” Zack stood and backed away, looking past the confusion on her face. “This has to stop. You’re drunk and this entire situation has gotten so far out of control. Get some sleep, you won’t even remember this in the morning.” He closed the door without even pausing to give her a chance to respond.
With Rory’s bedroom door closed safely behind him he entered his own room and collapsed onto the bed. He wasn’t sure what had prompted him to tell her the story of Sydney and Vaughn and it surprised him that he had actually remembered most of the events. There was a lot he hadn’t told her and even more he didn’t know. Particularly th parts about something called Rambaldi that he’d heard mentioned in reference to Sydney on several occasions.
“What happened,” he wondered aloud. He’d gone over the entire evening in his head trying to pin point exactly when things had gotten out of control. Was it when he gave her the file containing the surveillance information on her home or when she’d poured him that first shot of tequila or was it that last shot he’d poured for them both?
Regardless of when it happened didn’t seem to matter anymore. The fact was that it happened and he could only pray that she was too drunk to remember any of it. Especially the kiss. He touched his lips. They still burned from the contact and he couldn’t remember a time when someone had made him feel like she had. Not that it mattered. He attributed it to the significant amount of wine and tequila he too had consumed and the responsibility he felt towards her as her handler.
He closed his eyes not even bothering to change his clothes or get under the covers. He wanted this day to be over more than anything. He could only dread what tomorrow would bring.
No. Just kidding! LOL! :lol: Yes I like this story!!!!!!!!!!!