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that dramatically, do they? You don’t spend your life in a basement and then suddenly transform into a male model with an aircraft that screams, “Put me on the front page of Forbes.”
    He started down the stairs, saw her, and smiled.
    She surprised herself by smiling back.
    Jeremy, huh? I never would have believed it.
    She expected him to approach her awkwardly, as he always had, with that look that said he longed to hug her in greeting. Instead, he strode confidently to her and held out a hand as if she were a business associate of his. “Alethea,” he said smoothly, “I’m glad you made it on time. Our meeting is in twenty minutes at Alvo’s compound.”
    His strong hand closed over hers , and she forgot what she was going to say.
    Jeremy?
    This can’t be Jeremy.
    He was the one who broke contact and motioned to the armed jeep detail that surrounded the limo he had sent for her. “I know you like to keep a low profile, but with the recent uprisings, these are necessary.”
    Alethea nodded, slid back into the limo , and gathered her thoughts. A hundred questions swirled through her head, but none of them sounded flattering, so she held them in and waited for her filter to surface. “Nice jet,” she said and mentally kicked herself. Since when don’t I know what to say to a man?
    His smile turned to a pleased grin that spread across his face, and for just a moment she glimpsed the boy she’d known for so long. He used to smile like that when he’d successfully hacked into a site someone had told him was impossible to access. “I’m glad you like it,” he said in a deep voice that was both familiar and completely foreign to her.
    He sat across from her and opened a briefcase on his lap. “I brought you a hard copy of the layout of the compound we’ll be in today , as well as that of the base that was attacked.”
    “Whatever happened to breaking in first and getting hired later?” she joked.
    One of his eyebrows arched in subtle recognition of her humor. “You can try that, but in Tenin they tend to kill more than they imprison. This is the big time, Alethea. You get in with this government and you can set your price with countries instead of companies.”
    Damn, Jeremy. I want t o take whatever vitamins you’re on.
    “I appreciate you bringing me in on this,” Alethea said, and she did. This was exactly the kind of adventure her life had been lacking. She took the papers from him.
    He shrugged. “You were a natural choice. We’ve known each other a long time.”
    Not true, Jeremy, Alethea thought. If this is you, I never knew you at all. Putting down the papers, she studied him again and shook her head in bemusement. Were you always this good looking and I didn’t notice? Or was it that, for the first time since she’d met him, he didn’t look the least bit interested in her? She sat back, crossed her legs, and watched his reaction from beneath her long lashes.
    She’d chosen a blue-and-black color-blocked tank dress. She was fully aware of how the material molded to her body like a second skin, and she’d never been above using her natural assets as leverage. Men were easier to handle when they were slightly off balance—something she’d always found disappointingly easy to do. Jeremy’s eyes drifted to her legs, back to the view in the window behind her, then returned to her face. Casually, dismissing her flirtatious move.
    A zing of excitement coursed through Alethea. Jeremy, you can pretend, but I know you’re into me. You’ve always been into me. She graced him with the sexiest smile she had in her arsenal. Heat flooded her cheeks when he looked amused instead of flustered.
    In a perfectly calm, surprisingly disinterested voice, Jeremy said, “If you have any questions about the plans, we only have about ten more minutes before we arrive.” He pulled out a tablet from his briefcase and began to read over a document.
    Oh, I have questions, but not about the plans.
    What the hell