Lover Beware

this and that. Tools of my trade, so to speak.”
    They move into a dark courtyard, then to her apartment door. She fumbles with her keys, and he gently takes them from her and unlocks the door, stepping aside to allow her to enter first.
    She giggles. “Now ain’t you just the gentleman?”
    As he closes the door and locks it, she moves toward the bed, kicking off her shoes, unbuttoning her blouse. “So what’s it gonna be? Gotta be good, right? for five hundred bucks.”
    As the backpack slides from his shoulders, he drops into a chair. “Remove your clothes and dance for me.”
    “You want music?”
    “No.” He smiles.
    Slowly she peels away her clothes, her hips swaying, her long blond hair feathering over her upthrust nipples. He hums to himself and unzips the side pouch on the backpack. His blood is beginning to thrum, turning warm. Flesh flushing with anticipation. The arousal is there, awakening. Sweet, hot pressure that will only mount as the night progresses. With each delicate prick of his knife. With each whimper and pitiful plea for her life.
    “Very nice,” he whispers, and her smile grows. “Now get on the bed—on your hands and knees.”
    “You like it doggie fashion?”
    “Um-hm.”
    As she turns her back to him and moves to the bed, he slips his hand into the pouch and withdraws the ice pick, cups it behind his fingers as he moves toward her.
    “Are you ready?” he asks softly.
    “Whenever you are,” she says.

Chapter 2
    ANNA WAS FBI through and through, the highest-ranked female agent to come out of Quantico in the history of the force.
    The first three years that she worked in the Criminal Investigation Division, she solved several high-profile cases, including the apprehension of three of the FBI’s Most Wanted serial killers. No doubt, she had a reputation for taking risks that went above and beyond the call of duty. Her “loose cannon” techniques too often warranted disciplinary actions from her superiors, but there wasn’t a one of them who didn’t begrudgingly respect her tactics.
    No, Anna didn’t always play by the rules.
    Anna had known Dr. Jeff Montgomery for three years, since the afternoon she’d arrived in his office buried in the bowels of the Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico. Not only, he informed her, did the agency require her full, patriotic cooperation in joining the Behavioral Science Unit, but she was to become only the second agent to be recruited into the Classified Parapsychology Investigations Division of the BSU.
    They’d knocked heads more times than she could count. First, over her refusing to acknowledge that her insights into killers’ psyches were due to anything more than her training and the criminal psychology degree she had attained from Tulane. She hadn’t wanted to acknowledge her so-called gift. She didn’t care to be looked at like some kind of sideshow freak.
    She’d learned soon enough that she had little choice in the matter.
    Anna had despised Dr. Jeff Montgomery in the beginning. Resented him for forcing her to embrace her talent, to forge it into something solid, keen, and shining. Ultimately, however, their relationship had become one of grudging respect—at least on her part. He, on the other hand, had fallen in love.
    Oh, he hadn’t admitted as much to her—not the I’m in love with you kind of admission. Not that overt. Simply the I love ya, kid, kind of thing that passes between good friends. He wouldn’t dare admit the depth of his true feelings for her. That sort of thing was frowned upon in the FBI and got in the way of business.
    Not that he hadn’t put the hits on her early in their work relationship. Not blatantly, of course. He wasn’t the type. But he had certainly dropped enough hints that he would be interested in putting in a little overtime with her if she was game. Which, she’d pointed out, she wasn’t. Business and love were far too complicated as it was without getting mired in that kind of quicksand. Not that she wasn’t attracted to Montgomery. Who the hell wouldn’t be? The man could pass as Harrison Ford’s twin brother and more than once she had found her mind drifting toward such possibilities. But no way. She had already been down that road—loving a man whose devotion to career had made her a second priority. She wasn’t about to relive that sort of heartbreak and disappointment.
    However, there was no mistaking the bond that had formed between them. Could hardly avoid it,