"Do you always frequent places like this?" Travis asked, leaning back against the leather couch. He crossed his right leg over his left, slowly swirling his drink.
He looked so effortlessly captivating that Jillyanna found it impossible to look away. She stared directly into his eyes before answering, "I'm not particularly fond of places like this. I can adapt to any environment easily enough, though, and my friend really wanted to unwind tonight."
Travis glanced over at the woman dancing wildly in the center of the crowd. "She certainly seems to be having fun. Your friend, I mean." He watched Cielo for a brief moment before returning his undivided attention to her.
With the alcohol humming in her veins, Jillyanna felt a sudden surge of liquid courage. 'Tonight is the night to graduate from being a virgin!' she resolved internally.
"Don't you like this kind of atmosphere? We can always find a different location," Jillyanna suggested, sliding even closer to him. Her intoxicating scent drifted directly into his space, wrapping around his senses. She smelled sexy, sweet, and dangerous—a beautiful trap. She was undeniably a trap.
Travis clenched his hand into a tight fist to maintain his ironclad control. He subtly turned his face away, splitting his focus to listen to the ongoing conversation in his ear. The moment Jillyanna had approached him, he had muted his microphone but kept the audio feed live to ensure he didn't miss a single beat of the mission.
"I'm not interested in hooking up with women from bars or clubs," he said, his voice dripping with an icy detachment that sent a sudden shiver straight down Jillyanna's spine.
She stood up abruptly, holding her drink, and looked down at him as she responded in a low, quiet murmur, "Too bad. A rare failure on my part. Well, it's the first time I've ever taken the initiative with someone anyway."
She hadn't even taken five steps away from the table before Travis caught her by the wrist, pulling her backward with a sudden, smooth motion until she landed squarely on his lap.
"What did you just say?" Travis asked, pinning her hands to keep her close against him.
"It doesn't matter. Since you don't like me, nothing is going to work anyway," Jillyanna countered, attempting to break free from his grasp, but his hold was frustratingly unyielding.
Travis let out a low, amused chuckle against the crook of her neck. He leaned his head forward, pulling her flush against his chest as he deeply breathed in her scent.
"Who exactly said I don't like you? I said I wasn't interested in women from bars and clubs. I never said I wasn't interested in 'you'." He placed a deliberate, heavy emphasis on the last word, causing a cheeky, triumphant smile to break across Jillyanna's face.
'I really am the absolute best at tracking down my prey!' she praised herself mentally, a sly smirk hanging on her lips. Aloud, she teased, "What am I supposed to do then? I've already changed my mind."
Jillyanna made a feigned attempt to stand up again, but Travis's grip only tightened around her waist. "Can't we really just go have some fun tonight?" His hot breath brushed against her bare shoulder, making her blush furiously.
Despite her bold, confident front, she knew the reality of her own innocence. "Your choice of place, or mine?"
"You choose." Travis finally allowed her to stand, though his hand remained possessively wrapped around her waist, making them look exactly like a doting boyfriend and girlfriend.
Jillyanna smiled, looking up to meet his gaze. Even though she was quite tall compared to most women, Travis still towered over her; the crown of her head barely reached his nose.
"I'll pick the place, then," she murmured, her face flushed as the combination of the thumping bass and the alcohol began to make her head spin.
She discreetly opened her phone and turned on her real-time GPS sharing so Lucian and Cielo could track her coordinates if an emergency arose. She shot a quick text to her best friend letting her know she had found someone, and followed it up with a message to Lucian, telling him to pick Cielo up in ten minutes.
All the while, Travis watched her fiddle with her device. He pulled up his own encrypted channel, quietly informing his team that the mission was secure and they didn't need to wait up for him.
"Seriously?! The boss actually hooked up with someone? I can't believe my ears. Honestly, I'm way more interested in seeing the woman who managed to pull this off!" Valkyrie blabbered over the wireless feed, keeping his sniper scope strictly trained on their target across the street.
Brown let out a cold scoff, knowing exactly what was driving Valkyrie's sudden outburst. "You're free to go join the crowd the exact second the mission is fully wrapped up." Brown's voice was unusually lazy and detached—completely lacking the usual annoyance, irritation, or sharp correction he typically threw around whenever Valkyrie brought up women.
Savannah and Hawk both paused in their tracks inside the gala hall, exchanging a highly concerned look. Even Valkyrie, stationed miles away on the roof, felt the sudden, freezing shift in the air.
"Look, if you don't want me to go, you can just say it out loud. You don't have to use that kind of tone with me," Valkyrie muttered into his microphone, his agitation clear.
Brown smiled, though the expression didn't reach his eyes in the slightest. "Why on earth would I do that? I'm not your mother. Do whatever you want once the target is down. No one is stopping you."
Valkyrie felt entirely thrown off by the icy remark, utterly failing to find a comeback.
Travis chuckled quietly as he listened to the friction on the comms. He knew exactly why Brown was drawing a hard line; it was high time for Valkyrie to finally wake up and take real action.
He pulled Jillyanna closer against his side as they navigated the crowded exit and walked into the cool night air of the parking lot. Travis opened the passenger door for her with practiced grace. A gentleman with a distinct, undeniable motive.
Not long after their car pulled away, Lucian arrived at the Aviary Bar to pick up his girlfriend. Cielo was currently leaning against the counter, chatting with the bartender while sipping on a glass of warm fruit juice to help process the alcohol out of her system.
"Thank you for keeping an eye on her," Lucian said, offering a tight nod of appreciation to the man behind the bar.
The bartender simply smiled back, offering a polite nod. He wasn't a standard hospitality employee; he was a covert police operative embedded deep within the nightlife scene to monitor local narcotics traffic. His orders were strictly restricted to intelligence gathering and reporting, meaning he was a vital asset to Lucian's department.
Cielo waved a quick goodbye to the undercover officer before wrapping her arms around Lucian's arm, leaning heavily against him. "Am I a terrible best friend? I was literally joking when I told her I'd support a hookup, and now she's actually out there doing it!" she lamented, sounding exactly like a child who had just lost her favorite toy.
Lucian gently rubbed the top of her head to soothe her anxiety. "Jillyanna has always been fiercely willful, Cielo. If she sets her mind on a specific goal, she makes sure she achieves it. It's never in a malicious way—she'd never step on someone else to lift herself up. We've known what she's been fighting for it ever since we were kids. All we can do is back her up. She knows exactly what she's doing."
"But what if the guy turns out to be dangerous? What if something horrible happens to her? I will literally never forgive myself if she gets hurt!" She stamped her heel against the pavement, venting her pent-up frustration. "God damn it!"
Lucian couldn't help but sigh, steering her gently toward his vehicle. "Honestly? I'm significantly more worried for the guy. If he tries to push her into doing anything other than what Yanna explicitly signed up for, he's going to be in an immense amount of trouble."
The mental image instantly cut through Cielo's anxiety, making her burst into a fit of wild laughter. "You're so right. Even though she looks completely harmless on the outside, you really have no idea what she's capable of until you provoke her. Anyway, she sent me the hotel address. It's practically right around the corner from here. How about we book our own room there and wait out the night?"
Lucian lightly flicked her forehead before instantly soothing the spot with the pad of his thumb. "Don't be so anxious, alright? Let's have some faith in Jillyanna. Besides, we'll get an automated alert the second her emergency signal trips."
"Exactly, so let's go secure a room and wait! I can't shake this massive wave of guilt!" Cielo insisted, marching resolutely toward the car.
"You know, you could have just told me if you wanted to spend the night at a hotel with me. It's really not an issue," Lucian teased, watching a brilliant blush paint her cheeks.
"Shut up! We are strictly not sleeping tonight. We are staying awake to see if she actually walks out of that lobby at six in the morning." She securely clicked her seatbelt into place and took a deep, steadying breath, still harboring a strange, protective gut feeling that her friend might somehow end up being played.
Travis and Jillyanna pulled up to the luxury hotel within minutes. Jillyanna deliberately handled the check-in process herself, ensuring the reservation details would align perfectly with the GPS data Lucian and Cielo were tracking.
Watching her calculated, perfectly calm movements from a step behind, Travis found himself thoroughly amused. She was doing an admirable job of acting entirely composed, but he didn't miss the subtle, nervous tremor in her fingers as she filled out the registration form.
Travis smoothly took the electronic room key from the receptionist, wrapping his fingers around Jillyanna's hand to guide her toward the elevator bank.
"This whole thing was your grand idea," he whispered leaning down close, his teeth grazing the shell of her ear in a ghost of a bite. "You better prepare yourself."
Jillyanna's eyes went wide with shock. She immediately clamped her free hand over her ear, shooting him a lethal glare while her entire face flushed a brilliant, flustered red.
"I was only testing the waters," Travis chuckled, his dark eyes locking onto hers. "How much can you actually handle? Do you want to back out while you still have the chance?" He genuinely wanted to claim her, to draw her completely into his world—but if she chose to halt the brakes right now, he would respect her boundaries without a single question.
Needless to say, Jillyanna possessed a rare streak of stubborn bravery. She hadn't come this far just to back down over a bit of heavy flirting.
"Oh? I am absolutely not backing out," she challenged, tilting her chin up defiantly. "You just better make sure you make me happy tonight. After all, I'm the one paying for this room."
Her defiant statement earned a rich, genuine laugh from deep within his chest. Unable to resist her charm, Travis reached out and lightly pinched her cheek. "Understood. You're the boss tonight."