He clenched his jaw. “No.”
“Good. What’s your location?”
Lucas returned to the desk where he found a piece of custom stationary—also pink, go figure—and rattled off the address so Eli would be able to find the place.
When he hung up, he sank onto the edge of the bed, not caring that he was still wet. By following orders Max would be transferred into police custody and he couldn’t shake the feeling he needed her to nail Blackwater and find the weapon. Needed more than her just identifying a dead Russian.
Didn’t he? Or was he letting what happened between them—sex that Max had insisted wasn’t worth talking about—cloud his judgment even further?
The bathroom door opened a short while later and Max breezed out, her body wrapped in a towel. She snagged one of the robes from the closet and slipped back into the bathroom long enough to change.
“You didn’t take very long.”
“It was hard to enjoy a good soak when I knew you were out here still wet and probably not very comfortable.”
She padded past him without meeting his eyes. An unsettling vibe ticked in his chest. Had she somehow overheard him?
Max collapsed on the bed, massaging her feet and ankles. He noticed she wore the same dark polish on her toes, which had somehow escaped his attention yesterday.
Grinning, she snatched up the remote control. “I think I even saved you some hot water.”
Lucas stood there another minute, searching her face for some hint she’d been listening at the door.
She sprawled on her stomach, her knees bent and ankles linked in the air. If she had overhead anything, she didn’t seem too concerned. An act? Or had his brief conversation with Joe just reminded him that he couldn’t let his personal feelings get in the way of doing his job? Personal feelings that made him want to keep her close, to trust her completely.
Stripping out of his shirt, he headed into the bathroom. The mirror over the sink was still clouded with steam and the smell of some fruity soap lingered on the air. He turned the shower on full, peeled off the rest of his wet clothing and climbed in.
Hot water sluiced down his back, slowly warming him.
A knock at the door had him pulling back the curtain, and he watched Max grab his wet clothes.
“Thanks.”
“No problem,” she echoed, her gaze drifting down over his shoulders to his chest. “Uh, how are your ribs?”
“Fine.” If he didn’t count the lingering soreness from their little trek to Miss Maddy’s B&B.
“Good.” She lingered another minute, then slipped out, leaving him with the impression she’d wanted to say something.
Alone, he closed his eyes and stepped back under the water, but instead of turning the water as hot as he could stand, he turned the dial in the opposite direction. Once he was satisfied he wasn’t going to emerge from the bathroom with a raging hard-on, he looked for the soap, but the tray was empty.
Pulling back the shower curtain, he scanned the countertop, but didn’t see the soap.
“Max?”
No response. She probably couldn’t hear him with the television on. He stepped out of the shower and snagged the extra towel from the shelf over the toilet, wrapping it around his waist.
“Hey, Max, what did you do with the soap?”
No response.
He opened the door wider and stepped into the room. “Max?”
Fuck.
She was gone. Again.
Chapter Ten
“It’s good to hear your voice, Max.”
Leaning against the wall opposite Miss Maddy’s registration desk in the foyer, Max smiled at the sound of Glen’s voice. “You too. How is everything? Your suspension was lifted I take it?” When her partner hadn’t answered his home number, she took a chance and called in to the precinct.
Not until she heard his voice did she feel relieved that she’d talked herself into calling him. If she stood a chance of repairing the damage Blackwater had done, she would need a little help, someone with access to information she didn’t have. As long as she was careful and didn’t tell Glen any more than she absolutely had to, it would keep him off Blackwater’s radar.
“If that’s what you call sitting on my ass behind a desk, but at least I’m back to work,” he paused. “Shit, I’m sorry, Max. I can be an insensitive asshole some days. You okay? I’d ask where you are…”
“But I probably wouldn’t tell you,” she finished for him. “I don’t want you to have to lie for me, especially not now.” Her chest felt tight even though she was happy that he could focus on work. He deserved that much after losing Jillian. “How are you?”
“I’m sleeping and still remembering to eat, if that’s what you mean.” He kept his tone light, but underneath she heard the slight catch to his voice.
They’d been partnered together three years ago, right after Wade had earned his shiny new promotion and decided he didn’t want to get married after all, but most days it felt like they’d been working together longer. Glen seemed to know what she was thinking and often tried to talk her out of whatever risky idea she was entertaining.
He’d wanted her to hide out at his family’s cabin upstate, and she’d thought about it until she realized it was the last thing he needed. Having a partner wanted for murder was enough for him to deal with. He didn’t need to get caught helping her.
“You sound tired.”
She smiled at how well he knew her. “Exhausted actually, but I'm alive and that counts for something, right?”
“What happened?” Glen demanded.
“Too much to get into right now. I’m headed back to New York.” She waited to feel that initial panic that always snuck up on her whenever she started to think about going home, but this time it passed quickly, reaffirming that her decision was the right one.
“Are you sure it’s safe enough? You’re not thinking of turning yourself in, are you? You know the evidence is stacked against you. They even have your prints on the murder weapon, Max.”
Blackwater had certainly pulled out all the stops to guarantee she went down for Cara’s death, hadn’t he? “I can’t sit and wait for someone else to clear my name.”
“I just don’t want you taking unnecessary risks.”
Max glanced up at the ceiling thinking of Lucas. Nope, no unnecessary risks for her.
“I’ve tried digging into the witnesses’ backgrounds, trying to figure out what Blackwater could be holding over their heads, but haven’t turned up much so far. I’m not giving up, though.”
“What about Burton? Anything new there?” She’d met Captain Ralph Burton nearly eight years ago through her oldest brother, and spent the last six working under him.
Burton had always been fair and alternated between bouts of offering wisdom and encouragement and being a general pain in her ass. All of which made it harder to face the possibility he could be in Blackwater’s pocket and had played a role in their suspension.
Glen sighed. “No. He’s been quiet for a while. No late meetings or out of the ordinary calls or disappearances. I—” He broke off and she heard him talking to someone in the background.
Her stomach prickled and a moment later she asked, “Was that Wade?”
“In all his dickhead glory. Guess I got lucky today since he usually never has anything to say to me.” Glen sighed. “He’s putting off a weird vibe so maybe we should keep this short. When will you be back?”
“In a few days but I don’t want you getting too heavily involved.” If anything else happened to him because of her… Maybe it had been a mistake to call him after all.
“Don’t shut me out, Max. Not now.”
Max closed her eyes, recalling the way Glen had fought back the tears as they lowered Jillian’s body into the ground. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“I want to nail that bastard as much as you do,” Glen snapped.
Maybe more than she did, but that only gave her one more reason to keep him out
of it. “I know. I’m working with someone―”
“You know I’ll always have your back, Max.”
“I know.”
He said something to someone else in the background, then lowered his voice. “Can you trust whoever it is?”
Wasn’t that the million-dollar question? “Yeah, I can.” She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt.
A door slammed overhead followed by running feet pounding the floor.
Max rolled her eyes. “I should go. I’ll call you when I’m back.”
“Stay safe, Max.”
“I will.” She missed the sound of Glen’s familiar voice the second the line went dead.
Max replaced the cordless handset just as Lucas barreled down the stairs. He’d wrapped a towel around his waist and water still glistened on his chest. Her stomach tightened at the picture he made standing there, arms crossed, looking too damn hot for his own good.
“Something wrong?” Max met him at the bottom of the stairs.
He paused, shrugged one shoulder casually. “I was just wondering what you did with the soap.”
She arched a brow. “The soap?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t find it…” he trailed off, glancing away.
“You ran down here like your ass was on fire for soap?” She folded her bottom lip between her thumb and forefinger to hide a smile.
He relaxed against the wall opposite her. “I figured I might run out of hot water waiting for you to come back up. It’s an old farmhouse, right?”
“Right,” she readily agreed, earning a speculative look from Lucas. “Old farmhouse.” She started up the stairs ahead of him, glancing back over her shoulder. “And the soap was in a dispenser right by the faucet.”
“Oh.”
She continued up the steps, half wishing she’d ducked into a closet just to see how far he would have gone in the towel. “And just so you know, if I had planned on taking off, I wouldn’t do it wearing just a robe.”
Upstairs, Lucas released a long sigh and eyed the bed thoughtfully.
No freakin’ way. “Hey, you get the hide-a-bed, remember?”
His lips curved arrogantly. “You were the one who wanted separate beds. The way I see it, you should get the hide-a-bed.”
“Arm wrestle you for it.”
He laughed, then realizing she was meant it, straightened up. “Arm wrestle. Seriously?”
She fought a grin. “Worried you can’t take me?”
His lips twitched, and he laughed harder. She crossed to the sofa table, removed the pink African violet in the center and dragged it to the middle of the room.
Setting her elbow on the polished pink surface, Max flexed her hand then crooked her finger at him. “Unless you’re too scared.”
Lucas immediately sobered. “You’re really serious.”
“Come on, tough guy, I don’t have all day. Show me what you got.”
Grinning like he had it in the bag, Lucas approached the table. He leaned down and fit his palm tightly against hers. He didn’t seem to notice when she curled her wrist the tiniest bit forward to give her an edge.
An edge quickly sacrificed when he lightly rubbed his fingers over the back of her hand. A hot, feathery sensation rippled under her skin.
Okay, so maybe this hadn’t been her best idea.
“Winner gets the bed, agreed?”
Max nodded. “On three. One, two—”
“Just one more thing,” he interrupted.
“Quit stalling.”
Lucas leaned closer, amused eyes locking on hers. “I just wanted you to know that I’m going to enjoy every inch of that king-size mattress.”
“Three.” Max leaned forward, getting her upper arm and shoulder lined up above her elbow as much as possible. The move would draw his arm a little closer to her, giving her the advantage.
For endless seconds their tightly clasped hands hovered over the center of the table. His eyes widened as though he hadn’t expected that much resistance from her. She concentrated on pushing into his hand, forcing him to widen his fingers.
Surprising him was more important than getting his arm down, and the second he got cocky again, Max reached her free hand under the table and ripped his towel off.
He instinctively released her hand, groping for the falling material.
Waving the towel like a victory flag, she grinned. “I win.”
Lucas spun around, treating her to a fantastic view of his ass, and seized a pillow off the bed. He fired it right at her head.
A little distracted by how aroused he was, she was too slow to block the fuchsia-colored missile. The pillow caught her square between the eyes.
“You cheated.”
Max threw the pillow back. “You forfeited, so I win. And just so you know, I’m going to enjoy every inch of that king-size mattress.”
“Over my dead body,” Lucas growled.
Dead wasn’t the word that came to mind when she ran her gaze over his body, lingering on his smooth chest and sliding much lower.
“Max.” The rough edge to his voice gave her half a second to brace herself.
He threw a second pillow, and then lunged for her.
Laughing, she darted around the sofa table, determined to make it to the bathroom. She would have made it too, except the stupid robe she wore snagged on the corner of the table.
Lucas caught her around the waist and tossed her onto the bed. She scrambled to get up, but he quickly trapped her beneath him, pinning her arms overhead.
“I said, you cheated.”
“So?” She tried to wiggle out from under him.
He shifted, applying more weight to keep her still, and his arousal nudged her inner thigh through her robe. His gaze snapped to hers, and he moved again, inching higher to rub against the center of her.
Fiery threads coiled tight low in her belly. “Not fair.” She absently tugged at his grip on her wrists, feeling herself sink a little deeper into the mattress.
“You weren’t worried about that a few minutes ago.” He didn’t look away from her as he bent his head and slid his mouth over hers.
Fireworks exploded in her stomach, sailing outward until her whole body was in a slow burn. Need, pure and unrestrained flared through her. She parted her lips, inviting him to deepen the kiss.
He caught her lower lip between his teeth and slowly pulled it into his mouth. Between one long drugging kiss and the next, he released her hands and traced her jaw with his thumb.
Moaning, she dragged her hands up his back, holding him close as his tender caress pushed her heart into a full-out, knock-down pace that would have taken her to the floor if she wasn’t already on her back.
So much for keeping her distance and pretending last night had been a one-time thing. What had even possessed her to believe she could put the whole thing out of her head when every nerve ending begged for his touch?
His tongue swept across hers possessively, and the slight tremble that slid up her backbone turned into a full-body shiver when his hand moved beneath her robe and found her breast.
Max arched against him, deciding she didn’t care why he could make her feel so damn good. She just didn’t want him to stop.
With a teasing bite, he left her mouth to trace a sensuous path down her throat. He laved at the soft hollow, sucking at her skin in deep, hungry pulls. She breathed deep, hoping a little more oxygen would make it easier to believe he wasn’t taking a piece of her inside himself with every taste.
His thumb brushed her nipple and her back bowed off the bed. He groaned and slid his body against hers, settling hard and heavy against her sex. Once more his mouth returned to hers, and the deep stroke of his tongue heated her insides with a delicious, meltdown intensity.
“I thought we weren’t going to do this again,” she murmured.
“You thought we weren’t going to do this.” He pushed her robe apart and bent to slowly suck her nipple into his mouth. “I can’t keep my hands off you long enough to not do th
is.”
“I drive you crazy wanting me, do I?”
Lucas lifted his head and the fire in his eyes softened. “You have no idea.”
Afraid to read too much into that, she dragged her palm along his rough jaw. He turned his face into her hand and pressed an open-mouthed kiss to its center. The slow, wet heat was both carnal and inexplicably tender, and whatever Lucas saw on her face made him glance away.
“Max,” he began, his tone cryptic.
A knock sounded at the door, followed by Miss Maddy’s voice. “I brought you two a little snack.”
Lucas rolled away from her and sat up.
Choosing to believe she hadn’t somehow revealed just how much his touch undid her on every single level, she sat up and tugged her robe closed. She stared at his back for another beat, wondering what he’d been about to say, then tried for a smile.
“I think I’ll get the door so you don’t give the poor woman a heart attack.” She reached down and handed him the towel, then stood just as another brisk knock came.
“Coming,” Max called out, unable to stop herself from watching Lucas drape the towel around his waist and disappear into the bathroom.
Running her hands over her face and hoping she didn’t look as warm as she felt, she opened the door. Miss Maddy stepped inside carrying a tray weighed down with two thick wedges of chocolate cake covered in inch-thick frosting and two tall glasses of milk.
She shuffled past Max and set the tray on the sofa table without commenting on the room’s new arrangement. “Settling in?”
“We are, thank you.” Her attention strayed to the cake, and her stomach rumbled at the thought of devouring her piece in one bite.
“It’s an old secret family recipe,” she confided.
“I’m sure they’re delicious.” Wondering if the milk was cold enough to bring her internal temperature down, Max picked up the closest glass and took a long drink.
Miss Maddy arranged the napkins and forks on the table. “Chocolate is an aphrodisiac, you know.”
Max choked on her milk, which quickly turned into a coughing fit when she couldn’t catch her breath.
Lucas poked his head in the room. “Max?”
Trust Me: The Lassiter Group, Book 1 Page 15