Page 10 of Locked In Ice

His pupils flared as she touched him.A hungry need flashed in his eyes.Was that a physical need?Did he feel the same, unsettling desire that was knifing through her?

Or was that need because he wanted to know more about the monsters out there?

Because you fear that you are one, don’t you, Lane?

“So, shall we be partners?”Ophelia asked him as she kept her tone light.“Or do you want to do the smart thing…and cut and run now?You have a nice, safe life that you can live.Walk away.Stop playing with the dark.Go back to—”

“There is no going back.”Rough.“Partners.”

Your funeral, my friend.“Then the first training session will start now.Hope you’re ready.”Her hand fell away.

Or, tried to fall away.

He caught her hand.The faint calluses on the tips of his fingers skated over her skin and goose bumps chased over her body.Staring straight into her eyes, Lane told her, “Don’t worry about me.I’m a very fast learner.”

“Great to know.”

Chapter Three

The arousal was inconvenient.The dick that shoved stubbornly against the front of his jeans was a problem that he would keep ignoring.Lane could pretend it was a side effect of the adrenaline rush that still rode him, even after all the long hours at the police station.

The crash from the events of the day hadn’t hit yet.It would hit, sooner or later.

Not yet.

No, the hard-on that he had wasn’t because of the adrenaline or the whole nearly dying BS.It was because of her.

Ophelia Raine.

The woman he’d first met months ago, via Memphis.The PI who lived on the edge, who had the sexiest smile he’d ever seen in his life, and who was now…

His partner.

Trainer?

He held her wrist, and his thumb traced over her drumming pulse.Ophelia appeared completely at ease, but her racing pulse belied the pose.A good point to note—Ophelia was very, very good at disguising her real feelings.

Then again, so was he.

Otherwise, Ophelia would have known that he’d been lusting after her since day one and that she’d starred in more than a few of his late-night fantasies.

After he’d been cleared of the murder charges and officially released, there had been a line of women eager to warm his bed.Those women had wanted to fuck him for a variety of reasons.Some had wanted the thrill of being with a celebrity—because he’d gotten celebrity status with his face being splashed all across the news.Others had been drawn to him for a darker reason.

Because they wanted to say they fucked someone dangerous.

They’d all wanted to use him.No one had given two shits about who he really was.Probably a good thing.These days, Lane wasn’t exactly surewhohe was, deep down.

Good or evil?What the fuck am I?What had he become in those cells?

“Okay, fast learner.Are you going to gaze soulfully into my eyes all night or do you want the lessons to begin?”

His thumb stopped mid-stroke.He was not gazing soulfully into her eyes…was he?Hell.Maybe.He let her go.Dropped his hand to rest on the table.

“I’ll take that as a ‘Yes, please, Ophelia, let’s start our lessons.’”Her hair slid over her shoulder as she made herself comfortable against the back of the booth.

“Are you ever serious about anything?”

“I was serious about saving your gorgeous ass earlier.Which, you know, you still haven’t thanked me for doing.But I’ll help you out with a thank you idea.I like chocolates.Not dark chocolate—too bitter for me.Milk chocolate, please.And flowers work wonderfully.”

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