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what to do,” he said.
    I blinked. “Do?” Hadn’t we just solved the problem?
    Adam looked at me appraisingly. “He still wants to fuck you.”
    I stiffened, partially from hearing a superior drop the f-bomb, partially from the reminder. “Maybe he was just kidding around,” I said, flushing.
    “I don’t think so.”
    “He’s got plenty of women.”
    “And yet he called for a background check on you. He’s interested in you. ” Adam stared at me. “That gives us an angle.”
    I can be a little slow to catch on, sometimes. I didn’t see where he was going. Then it hit me like a freight train in the face. “You don’t mean...you want me to see him?!”
    Adam leaned forward. “I want you to be his girlfriend. Meet him. Seduce him. Get him to confide in you.”
    “I can’t do that!” I jumped to my feet. My heart felt as if it was going to smash its way out through my ribs. “I can’t—” His girlfriend. Luka’s girlfriend. Kissing him and, inevitably... Jesus! “He’s only here for a few days.”
    “Yes. You’ll have to go to Moscow.”
    I just stared at him. He can’t possibly be serious.
    But Adam just sat there, watching me calmly, seeing how I’d respond. I stood there staring at him, panting. I don’t know what disturbed me more: the fear of what he was asking me to do, or the fact that there was a deep, dark part of me that actually wanted to do it.
    “I’d have to sleep with him?” I said, half to myself.
    Adam nodded. “I’m pretty sure that’d be on the cards, yeah.”
    I swayed, almost staggering. This is not happening. I am not discussing my sex life with my boss’s boss’s boss. I stared at him. How could he ask me to do this? Luka was a monster. God knows how many people he’d hurt or killed, between prison and his mafia days and now his arms business. And I’d have to smile at him and then close my eyes and open my lips for his kiss….
    If I did this, if I had sex with a guy because it was my job, did that make me a prostitute?
    Or—my chest tightened—if I wanted to be with him but couldn’t, because of what he was, did this make it okay? Was this just the excuse I needed?
    Obviously, this was insane. Obviously I had to say no. But I remembered how he’d made me feel. Not just the all-consuming lust, but that sense that I was waking up after three years asleep, that he was real and was making me real again. I’d give anything for another taste of that.
    I’d been staring at Adam’s desk as I thought. Now I lifted my eyes to his face. “What if he finds out? What if my cover’s blown?”
    “Then he’ll kill you,” said Adam simply.
    It felt like freezing water was sluicing up my spine. But, at the same time, I felt the ghost of Luka’s hand on my chest, pinning me to the wall. His other hand, exploring me. A flame sprang into life at my core, black as night yet furnace-hot. I could barely breathe.
    I was terrified and yet turned on. And some indescribable third feeling, a mixture of the two.
    “How long?” I asked. “How long would I be with him?”
    “Until we find out how big this deal is,” said Adam. “We don’t have jurisdiction to arrest him ourselves. But, once we have evidence, we can pressure the Russians to act.”
    My legs felt as if they were going to give out, so I flopped down into the chair again. I couldn’t meet Adam’s eyes anymore, the twisting heat inside me out of control. God, did Adam know how I felt?! It must be written all over my face. Certainly, he must have figured out what happened in Luka’s bedroom.
    “Arianna,” he said softly. “This is one of the hardest things an agent can be asked to do. I don’t do it lightly. But Malakov is a difficult man for us to get close to. He doesn’t trust anyone...except maybe you.”
    I nodded.
    “If you say no,” Adam said, “I swear to you, it won’t affect your standing or whether I send you on future field ops. You have a choice.”
    I could feel Luka’s hand on my