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His tongue glided over her botto sure he wouldn’t pull away again Against her belly, she felt hirow hard, and it thrilled her to know she could do that to hi into hishands slid down to cup her butt and fit theainst her, hot and hard, and just like that, she et and ready for hi to feel him push inside her

"The kitchen floor works for me," she told him as she reached for the top button on his jeans She kissed her way over his wide jaw and down his neck, where it was easier for her to reach Her hands shook,his jeans much harder than it should have been

"Wait," Grant rasped out, covering her hands with his to stop her "We can’t"

His hands shook with restraint, but they held fir to let him stop her now Not when her body was hot and ready and she kneanted her just asor cry when you go I swear it"

He gathered her wrists in his hand, holding her tight His chest worked hard as he tried to catch his breath, and a fine sweat dampened his brow "We can’t It wouldn’t be fair to you"

"What wouldn’t be fair is to leave e like this"

He closed his eyes and dragged in a ragged breath "I’d do just about anything to have the chance to make you come, honey, but not like this Not unless you’ve had time to make sure it’s what you want"

"I’m sure"

He stroked the back of her hand with one thu inside, al "You and me have the kind of chemistry that could set a house on fire, but that doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be sorry later I want you, but I care about you too much to hurt you"

"It’s just sex"

He lifted a blond brow "So you do this with men all the time?"

"You are not all men"

"That’s my point Who was the last man you slept with?"

"My last boyfriend"

"Did you love him?" he asked with a blunt directness that made her believe he already knew the answer

"I don’t see how that ain

Isabelle forced herself to look him in the eye "Yes"

"And that’s e can’t do this I don’t have enough friends to risk losing you, Isabelle Not you"

"But you wouldn’t loserational decisions about who to sleep with"

"And when you were rational, you told ed my mind"

"Fine If that’s still the way you feel about it after you cool off, then we’ll talk But for now you need to get to work And so do I The sooner we find the killer, the sooner we can stop te each other with a fantasy we both knoould never work"

He was right Isabelle hated it, but she kneas right

Detective Mathews stared at thefan and felt nothing A couple of years ago, he would have cared that some mild-mannered accountant had been murdered, but a lot could happen in a couple of years

"Another suicide?" asked the photographer as he captured yet another angle of the scene "Is there so in the water?"

"It’s not a suicide," said Mathews, his voice harsh and rough froh sleep

"What ns the lock on the back door lock had been ta by his neck was the next person on the list soiven the police

Mathews had checked out Grant Kent and found plenty of interesting reading material Kent had already murdered one man before he went into the ain now that he was out and back in his old hometown, free to do whatever he pleased

Mathews didn’t care how clean his military record was Once a killer, always a killer He had Kent’s prints on file, both frouy was cocky enough not to have worn gloves And even if he had, all Mathews needed to bring the bastard in was a scrap of evidence, just one sign that Kent had been here

As spotless as the accountant’s ho so out of place

CHAPTER TWELVE

Isabelle was already late for hen Grant pushed her out the door He felt like a pansy for getting all sappy at her like that He never should have told her how he felt about his dad He’d never told anyone else, so why her? It was only going to make her think he hen she needed to be able to depend on hi

What Grant needed to do was suck it up, keep his dick in his pants, and do his job

Easier said than done

He never should have kissed her, though he couldn’t bring hiood as that How could he regret a kiss that was so hot it made him hard, yet so sweet it made him ache that it had to end?

Grant shook his head and tried not to think about it

He rinsed off the dishes and loaded thehtened up the kitchen so she wouldn’t have to come home to a mess

He’d told her that if she still wanted him, they could talk about it Maybe she’d come home and do just that Sex didn’t have to be about love--he knew that without a doubt Maybe Isabelle could learn the sa They could enjoy each other while he was here, then part ways No proble-distance relationship with her if she wanted Nothing serious or binding, since he was sure she’d still want to be on the lookout for husband material, but he could live with that if it ether some of the time

Couldn’t he?