Page 73 of Locked In Ice

“Ah.There it is again.”A shake of her head.“How could you have thought even for a second that you were the bad guy?All you want to do is protect.”

His hands slapped down onto the cushions behind her head as he leaned over her.Got really close.Close enough for her to pull in that delectable, masculine scent of his.“I don’t thinkprotectiveis the word I’d use to describe me right now.”

Her hands rose to his chest.“No?Then what word would you use?”

“Beau wants to fuck you.”

Hello, change in topic.“Beau wants to fuck anything that moves.”Full disclosure.

“He wantsyou.”

“I’m not interested in Beau that way.We’re…” She thought about it.Despite the way Beau could push her buttons earlier, they were… “Friends.”

“You searched yourfriend’soffice.”

“Guilty.So good of you to notice.Memphis was right.You’ve got great instincts.”His chest was rock hard beneath her touch.Just how often did he work out?

“Why?”

“Because I can be suspicious, even of my friends.He had the key, he had access, and he had magically unavailable video cameras.I wanted to do some digging.”Her head tilted back a bit more.“But you knew that already, didn’t you?You realized what I was doing—or what I wanted to do—the minute I said I needed to use his office.And you kept him busy for me.I could not ask for a better partner.”Truth.

“I barely kept from punching him.”

“I did ask you to be nice.”

“Why didn’t you fuck him?”

There was a whole lot of tension in those words.And, honestly, those words had just pissed her off.“Because I don’t want to fuck everyone I meet.”

He shook his head.Kept caging her in.“Why did you fuckme?”

Ah.Her right hand rose from his chest.Drifted up to touch his cheek.“Because I want you.I like the way you make me feel even when all I’m doing is touching you this way.”She looked at her hand against his cheek.“I have never felt more aware of someone than I am of you.And when we touch, I feel it through my entire body.”But she put both hands in her lap.Straightened on the couch.

He backed away.

“And I thought all of that was something worth exploring.”Her stomach twisted.“Don’t you?”

If possible, his jaw hardened even more.

She heard footsteps outside.Ophelia rose.“Saved by the bell,” she murmured.“Or…” She went to the door.Opened it and peered outside.“The local FBI agents who are coming to take our statements.”

***

He’d gotten bail.Fucking hell, yes, he’d gotten bail.

Royce Nicholson kicked his condo door shut.He smelled like shit.Piss and shit, and he’d just had the worst time of his life.Interrogated.Searched.Locked in that cell.Trapped.

But he’d gotten bail.He’d gotten out.

He would not be going back.

Oh, but that bitch who’d tricked him would pay.The bitch with the black hair and the devil eyes.And that hulking bastard who’d been with her?Pay.He would destroy them both.

But first, he was getting in the shower.He was washing off the piss and shit.

I won’t go to prison.I won’t.He could run.He had money.He could disappear into the night and never be seen again.

Maybe head down to Mexico.Hell, yes.Drink some margaritas on a beach and live out the rest of his days with a new identity.

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