Page 79 of Tell Me Something True

The kid flushed, his mouth going flat.

Then deliberately turned away from the house and walked toward his truck.

“Why did you tell Tabitha you’d ask Ian to watch your dog while you drove her home?” he asked as Walsh opened the passenger side door of his truck.

The dog in question hopped onto the seat and Walsh shut the door. “You’re a detective,” he said, walking around the front of his truck to the driver’s side. “Figure it out.”

Miles watched the kid get in his truck and drive away.

Fucking smartass.

He paced from the porch to the driveway, then back again, the hot sun beating down his head. He was on his third loop when Tabitha stepped into view.

She’d changed into a green cotton dress with skinny straps and sandals. Had redone her hair, the strands smooth and pulled back into a ponytail. She looked even prettier now—and she’d looked damned good in those leggings and that clinging tank top—her cheeks flushed, her lips a glossy pink, the hem of her dress swishing above her knees.

A hunger rose inside of him, swift and sharp. One he was afraid he’d never be able to satiate. Not with any other woman but her.

He still wanted her, and that pissed him off.

But what terrified him was the way his heart picked up speed when she lifted her gaze and met his eyes, how it thumped in time to the sway of her hips as she walked toward him.

Like it beat on her command.

Or worse.

Like it beat for her.

Only for her.

She closed the distance between them. Stood close enough for the awareness between them to arc and crackle, bright and powerful and dangerous, like lightning splitting the sky.

Longing filled him, sweeping through his veins and rooting in his bones with a deep, sweet ache. Reminding him that no matter how many times he dug it out, no matter how often he tried to kill it, he’d never fully gotten rid of it.

It still had the power to grow.

And if he wasn’t careful, if he didn’t prune it back, it would consume him.

“You can follow me to Bissett’s,” he said.

She frowned. Glanced around as if just noticing they were alone on the street and Walsh’s truck was gone. “Where’s Reed?”

“I told him I’d give you a ride.”

She raised her eyebrows. “And why would you do that?”

He scowled. Was she fucking serious? “We need to talk.”

“We do need to talk,” she agreed in a gentle tone that set his teeth on edge. “But I think it would be better if we do it another time when our emotions aren’t quite so high.”

When it came to her, that’s all he was. Emotions. Any logic or reason, any sense of control was swept away by a toxic mix of anger, betrayal, and grief.

And those were only the emotions he’d admit to having.

The ones that didn’t scare the shit out of him.

“There won’t be a later time. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no reason for us to see each other again, let alone have a conversation. You lied. That night at the bar. When you told me you were just passing through town. You knew you were moving here.”

“Yes.” She shook her head. “No.” She stopped. Shut her eyes on a deep inhale. Opened them to meet his. “I knew there was the possibility that I’d be moving here. I was in town for a job interview.”

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