Page 13 (1/1)

7

Rochelle’s entire body tre faked everything that had passed between theht? Everyhad been pretense, neither the raw passion that she’d felt with hiretted not giving hiain

But not under these circu sides And she knew exactly what that et involved with Zach If she did, she would jeopardize the entire investigation In addition, her own job would be at risk If her boss found out that she and Zach had been intimate, he’d suspend her immediately Without pay! And she couldn’t afford that

No ht in a situation like this, she had to make the best of it And to do that, she needed Zach’s cooperation

She took a steadying breath that she hoped would help her calm down, but instead she inhaled Zach’s aftershave, which made mincemeat of her efforts The scent reht before and sent heat waves through her body

Da as Zach so close to her? He’d ju each other noith only the coffee table between theot the wrong iht I was a civilian I had no idea who you were If you don’t want to believewrong" She nervously flattened the wrinkles in her skirt "So, if we could please talk about business--"

"Give me a reason to believe you," he interrupted

There were all kinds of reasons why he should believe her She’d surrendered to hi back She had trusted him with her body But she didn’t think she wanted to point this out to hiht now Neither Zach nor she needed to be re had been To be reh, to talk about it would make it unbearable

So she decided to appeal to his good sense "Please think about it: I wouldn’t gain anything if I sed--" Seduced you, she’d wanted to say, but that as too inti with you either before or during the investigation It would only question the validity of my work And if you were honest with yourself, you’d see that, too"

She looked into his eyes Was she getting through to hiaze, but couldn’t interpret his facial expression Zach was so very different fro man, whom she’d met in the bar, was left He seemed unapproachable And cold This realization nearly choked the air fros

"Okay, so let’s say it was a coincidence and you didn’t knoho I was… How do you expect this… thing to continue?"

"This thing? Well, the investigation will go ahead as planned--"

"I’ation"

She sed hard in order to push down the lump that had risen in her throat "B-but…"

Her palms were sweaty and she wanted to rub theesture would reveal her nervousness And that would put her in a weak position "You and I… it was just a night" She cleared her throat in order to lend th to her voice "That was clear from the start It was anonymous And it would have rees everything"

Was she detecting a look of satisfaction on Zach’s face?

"But it doesn’t have to We just have to pretend that nothing happened" Because if her colleagues, ere due here any moig was up

"We don’t have to pretend anything," he clai--" She stopped herself, but couldn’t take back the words She’d just given him a front to attack

Zach tilted his head to the side and studied her for a long moment Then a smile played around his lips and instinctively, she relaxed Finally he understood and would give in so that this entire situation wouldn’t get any ues?" he asked politely "Why didn’t you say so earlier?"