Page 48 of Locked In Ice

“Protecting myself,” he corrected.“Not fighting.”

“Anyone would be claustrophobic after that.It’s a normal response.”

I’m not normal, baby.

“You don’t have to take that room.Just thought you might like it better.”She headed into the foyer and scooped up her bag.

He followed.“Where will you be?”

She pointed down the hallway.“Ground floor bedroom.”Ophelia took three steps forward while he watched her.Then she stopped.“We should talk about it, shouldn’t we?”

“It?”Lane sawed a hand over his jaw.“A whole lot has gone down since I signed on to be a partner with you.Got to say, sure feels like a crash course.You’ll need to be a whole lot more specific about the ‘it’ in question.”

Ophelia glanced over her shoulder.“I was referring to the sex.You.Me.And the bed we tried to break last night.”

His hand froze mid-saw.

“We should talk about it, shouldn’t we?That’s what mature people do.Not act like it didn’t happen.”

“Acting like it didn’t happen isn’t a possibility for me.”He took his time closing in on her.

She eased around to fully face him.“Why is that?”

“Because I want it to happen again.”Didn’t get more blunt than that.

Her eyes widened.

“Were you thinking it was a one-time thing?”Laned asked, for clarity’s sake.

Her tongue slid along her lower lip.“I had no idea what it was.Thought it might have been a bad idea.”

Fuck, no, it wasn’t—

“Or thought it might have been the best idea I’d had in ages.”One shoulder rolled.“Still trying to figure out for certain.”

“Hmm.”Definitely the best idea I’ve had.“When you figure it out, how about you let me know?”

She sucked in a breath.

And when she released that breath, he took it.Lane leaned forward and his mouth pressed lightly to hers as he stole her breath.A faint, tender kiss.

One that surprised the hell out of him because he hadn’t thought he had any tenderness left inside of him.“And when you do figure it out,” he rasped, “remember I’m upstairs.”Then, keeping his control in place, Lane climbed the stairs.

One slow step at a time.

And he felt her eyes on him every inch of the way.

***

Ophelia waited until she heard the bedroom door close upstairs.Such a faint creak, then she bolted for her study.Her hands were shaking as she threw open the door and hurried across the small space to the bookshelf.She reached for the second shelf from the bottom, and Ophelia locked her fingers tightly around it as she hauled the entire bookshelf—actually a secret door, not just a bookshelf—open.

She’d been a big fan of Scooby Doo growing up.Sue her.She freaking loved secret passages and scary houses, and she’d fallen in love with this place at first sight.The study had actually beentworooms when she first purchased the place.A sitting area and then a much bigger “visiting” room.Or, at least, that was what the real estate agent called it.Ophelia had just known it would be perfect for her.

She’d put up a wall of shelves, installed the bookshelf door to blend perfectly with them, and ta-da, she’d had her secret sanctuary.She rushed into her sanctuary right then.

Her files waited for her.Ophelia ignored the big board with her victim profiles—all left over from her hunt for Thomas Bass—and she went straight to the cabinet in the back of the room.When she pulled out the manila file, it was so thick that it took both hands to hold.

Forget-Me-Not.

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