by Debra Webb
The desire that glittered in his eyes was almost her undoing. “I can’t stay with you, chief. Not if I ever hope to gain the respect of the other deputy chiefs, not to mention the detectives in my unit. And we won’t even go into all the legal crap.”
He reached out, toyed with a wisp of her hair. “Is this the way it’s going to be? I know what I felt the other night. . . I know what you wanted.”
“We can’t always have what we want, Burnett.” She had to get the situation under control. Her body was humming with need. . . she wanted him. Damn she wanted him. Ten years. . . they hadn’t been together in ten long years.
He straightened, took a step inside.
Her breath caught. She backed up a step.
“Our private business is just that, private.” He took another step. This time he closed the door behind him.
Jess stood her ground. “Is that what this is? Business?”
He wrapped his fingers around the strap resting on her shoulder and lifted her bag away, dropped it to the floor.
“I think you know the answer to that.” His hands molded to her face and he leaned down to kiss her.
She encircled his wrists and pulled free. “If we’re going to do this. . . there have to be rules.”
He dropped his hands to his sides. “All right. Tell me your rules.”
“First and foremost, just because we have sex doesn’t mean you own me.”
He rolled his eyes. “This is not the same as when we were kids, Jess. I think I’ve matured a little since then. Hopefully we both have.”
She folded her arms over her chest. “Are you listening or are we finished already?”
He held up his hands. “Okay. Okay. Rules.”
“You will not do that whole protector thing. I am a deputy chief in your department, you will treat me with the same respect and confidence you do Black or any of the others.”
“You wouldn’t have the job if I didn’t respect you and have confidence in your ability, Jess.”
“Do you hover over Deputy Chief Black and try to protect him?”
Dan said nothing.
“Do you agree to that rule or not?”
“Agreed.”
“Third, this. . . thing between us. . . it’s about sex.” She forced the words past the lump in her throat. “This does not constitute a relationship. Agreed?”
“Wow.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I think I’ve lost interest now.” He glared at her. “Why is it you have to make everything so damned complicated? Can’t we just let things take their natural course?”
Lost interest? Like hell. Her fingers threaded into his hair and she kissed him with all the repressed anger and passion, need and desperation that had been mounting inside her for days. She showed him with her mouth that she could get him plenty interested in about five seconds. She wanted him right now. No more ignoring her personal needs.
She kicked off her sandals. He toed off his sneakers. Slowly they peeled off each other’s clothes. It was terrifying and exciting at the same time. Would he still find her body sexy now that she was over forty?
No matter that his chest and abdomen were covered with bandages, he still looked amazing. She glided her palms down those muscular arms. . . walked all the way around him admiring the lean, power of his body.
He molded his hands to her breasts, traced her ribcage down to her waist and then pulled her close. “How can you be more beautiful now,” he murmured against her ear, “than you were at seventeen the first time we made love?”
Emotion burned her eyes. “You need your eyes checked, Burnett.”
He cradled her face in his hands and looked deeply into her eyes. “The only thing I need checked is my head for letting you get away the first time.”
She pressed her finger to his lips. “Shh. Remember rule number three.”
He lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed.
Her body curled around his and he settled fully between her thighs. There was no need for all that foreplay required back when they were crazy teenagers. Their bodies meshed skin to skin, heartbeat to heartbeat, he filled her completely. . . and that was the perfect starting place.
Felt like home. . . where she had always belonged.
At least until Monday morning when she became Deputy Chief Jess Harris again and he became her boss.
But they had nearly forty-eight hours before that happened. Unless some freak took a hostage or there was a heinous murder. . .
Dan tangled his fingers with hers and braced their arms on the pillow above her head. He nuzzled her neck with his lips, trailed kisses along her skin, and then he whispered such sweet words that she forgot all about psychos and killers and everything else beyond this moment.
“I’ve missed you, Jess.”
She smiled. “Missed you, too.”
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Book
About the Author
Also By
Praise
Epigraph
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
