Embrace the Night by Alexandra Kane Page B

the students would be expecting them back on Monday the first of November. He'd been lucky in the past five years, no mission had ever been assigned to him around mid-terms or finals. He shrugged it off, figuring he could get a student assistant to help him if he needed to.
     
    “Does anyone have any conflict with traveling to Wilmington on next Saturday?” She looked around for a moment. “I will have to tell my sister I can't watch Ava.”
     
    Junjie and Marcelo shook their heads, both stating that they never worked weekends.
     
    “I'll leave Lalah in the capable hands of her sisters for a few days while I'm gone. Since she got pregnant, they love to dote on her anyway.” Junjie smiled as he talked about his fiancee, who was carrying his first child.
     
    John remembered the day J had told him Lalah was having a baby. They didn't know if the baby was a girl or a boy, or what kind of powers it would have. As crazy as John thought they were, they insisted on letting both those tidbits of vital information be surprises.
     
    “What about you, John?” She turned her attention to him, hitting him with those eyes again.
     
    “I'll be grading mid-term papers, but other than that, I'm in.”
     
    She nodded, and looked like she was searching his face for a moment. Then, she picked up her phone and purse. “Dismissed,” she announced, and everyone gathered their things to leave.
     
    Marcelo left first. John stopped J for a minute to ask how Lalah was doing.
     
    “Other than complaining that she feels like a beached whale, she's great.” He chuckled. “I keep telling her she's glowing and beautiful. Some days she believes it, other days, not so much.”
     
    He slapped his friend on the back. “Keep your head up J. You only have, what, two and a half more months?”
     
    “Yeah, but the question is, will I survive them?”
     
    Still chuckling, Junjie made his way out.
     
    “Take it easy, man,” he called after his friend, who waved over his shoulder as he sidled out.
     
    That left him alone with her, again.
     
    His plan was to get the hell out of there before she said anything. But just as he tried to ease out the door, she called his name.
     
    “John, wait.”
     
    He stopped, but didn't turn around. “Yes, Lieutenant?”
     
    “Why are you being so formal with me?”
     
    “Isn't that how I'm supposed to address my superior?” He turned around, leveling his serious gaze on her. “Surely, you don't think you're more than that to me, do you?”
     
    Her lip trembled, her eyes becoming wet. “How can you say that?”
     
    He folded his arms across his chest. “After the way you behaved, I don't know why you're surprised.”
     
    “What if I wanted to apologize?”
     
    He kept his gaze impassive. “Why should you apologize? You were just showing me who you really are.”
     
    Her expression changed, as if his words stung. She wiped at her eyes with one hand, clutching her purse with the other. “Oh, I see. Then I guess I'll see you here next weekend, Agent Groves.”
     
    As soon as the words left her mouth, she stalked past him without making eye contact. He stood in the corridor and watched as she barreled toward the door, head down, and finally out into the crisp night air.
     
    On the heels of her exit, he felt a twinge of something. It made him wonder if he'd been too hard on her. But if she was that kind of woman, who let jealousy overrule common decorum and could let it make her act so childish in public, he knew it would never work between them.
     
    Sexy as the Lieutenant may be, I've got to focus on the mission now.
     
    Resolved to put her out of his mind, he made his way down the silent hallway and left the building the same way he'd come in.
     
     
     
     
    **
     
    Monday morning, Tatiana rolled out of bed around nine. She would usually be on her way to the shop, but she’d taken two weeks off to deal with all the tasks involved in getting ready for the upcoming mission. With less