Page 4 of Unspoken Passions

“Something is happening in town,” Loretta said in a low voice. Ella turned, pretending to wipe down the countertop. “Any ideas?”

Ella shook her head, but in that moment, Mick looked up, directly into her eyes. There was a jolt of electric shock, and it took her several long seconds to remember that she should look away.

With a sigh, she continued pretending to clean. “I think it’s bad, though.”

“I agree,” Loretta whispered back.

Ella nodded. “I’m going to go refill their coffee,” she told Loretta.

“And eavesdrop?”

Ella grinned, completely unrepentant. “Of course!”

Loretta laughed, then Ella turned to discover that Mick had stepped up beside her. He was behind the counter and looming large, powerful, and oh-so-sexy.

“What are you two whispering about?” he demanded, his voice low, but filled with authority. His voice never failed to turn her on. She often dreamed about him using that voice to give her instructions on how to pleasure him.

“Nothing!” she gasped, wanting to step back but he was too close. And the counter was behind her. She was trapped! And goodness, the man smelled delicious!

“It was something,” he argued.

Ella watched with fascination as he clenched his teeth, a muscle flexing along his jawline. However, he just lifted one of those sexy, dark eyebrows, letting her know that he didn’t believe her.

“Well, of course it was something,” she teased, then had a brilliant idea and leaned closer, as if telling Mick a secret. “We were comparing notes on our last gynecological visit.” Mick’s jaw went slack. “Loretta said she always brings fluffy socks because she doesn’t like the cold stirrups” Ella heard Loretta snort with laughter at the other end of the counter. “But I argued that it’s the doctor’s office’s responsibility to cover those torture devices with something warm and fluffy. Oh, and I said that every doctor’s office should tape a poster of some gorgeous hunk on the ceiling so that we have something nice to look at while the gynecologist is doing whatever it is that she does down there.” Ella gestured vaguely towards her hips, trying to smother her amusement at his horrified expression.

Mick cringed and stepped backwards. “Never mind,” he snapped and turned, heading out of the shop without getting a cup of coffee. As he walked out, the men sitting at one of the café’s tables nodded slightly, proving that Mick knew them and the group of “strangers” was working with the sheriff’s department on whatever was happening in town that they didn’t want people to know about.

Intriguing, she thought.

“You’re evil!” Loretta hissed, still laughing.

Ella chuckled. “Serves him right. He was trying to intimidate me.”

“He was, but admit it. You don’t actually mind him intimidating you.”

Ella groaned, her shoulders slumping with defeat. She’d thought she’d been so careful about hiding her interest in the man! “Is it that obvious?”

Loretta shrugged. “Only because I’m here most days when he comes in and I know to stay out of the way so that I don’t get caught in the sparks that fly between you two.”

Ella blinked, surprised by that. Loretta’s words implied that Mick felt it too. But he wouldn’t act on it. She sighed and went back to work, sad and angry at the stupid man.

Mick nearly sprinted out of the coffee shop and dove into his cruiser, still picturing Ella’s legs up in stirrups, spread wide so that he could see all of her delicious parts. The things he could do with her like that! Damn, he could give her so much pleasure! And he’d bet his entire yearly salary that she tasted better than any other woman in the world!

“Uh…boss?” Bobby’s worried tone broke through his contemplation of Ella in that position. And all of the things he could do with her like that.

“Yeah?” he asked, blinking as he looked around. It took him several moments to figure out where he was and what he was doing.

“Did you…uh…get the coffee?” Bobby asked.

Mick looked around, stunned. “No,” he grumbled, silently reciting a string of curses.

“Okay.”

There was another stretch of silence and Mick struggled to figure out where he was. Right, Market Street and…Old Man Wuther’s farm was up on the right.

“Maybe we could stop by the convenience store and grab a cup of coffee then?” Bobby suggested.

Both men winced. The convenience store’s coffee was…adequate. But they had been looking forward to Ella’s coffee. No one knew what she added to her coffee, but it was freaking delicious.

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