Page 44 of The Sheriff's Baby

“Tempting, but I’ll be okay,” she muttered. She hoped. It was possible she was too tired and had too much firing through her head to actually sleep.

The corner of Duncan’s mouth lifted. Apparently, he was going for his ownworst reaction. He compounded that by pulling her into his arms.

Her body landed against his. Familiar territory for both of them. Bad territory, too, because it instantly spurred some memories that shouldn’t be spurred right now. Their defenses were down. They were both vulnerable. Yet, neither one of them pulled away from each other.

Joelle actually moved in closer, sliding her arms around his waist and dropping her head onto his shoulder. Mercy, it felt good. Not just because of the heat but because of the comfort this gave her. She wasn’t a weak woman. Definitely wasn’t a coward. But it felt good to be this close to someone who had her back.

She felt Duncan brush a kiss on the top of her head. Not really any kind of foreplay per se, but anything they did at this point would qualify as foreplay. Again, that was a good reason for her to move away from him,

But she didn’t.

Joelle lifted her head, came up on her tiptoes and kissed him. It wasn’t an especially heated kiss, but it shouldn’t have happened at all. Nothing about this could stay at the comforting level. It never would between Duncan and her. The heat that stirred between them would never allow a comfort level. It would only demand to be sated.

That didn’t stop her from fully kissing him. Nor did it stop him from returning the kiss and tightening his arms around her, pulling her even closer to him. Until they were touching in all the wrong places.

Duncan used his foot to shut the bedroom door, and he was the one who deepened the kiss. Joelle didn’t do anything to stop that, either. In fact, she welcomed it. Needed it. She needed him, and that made the situation even more dangerous. This kind of need wouldn’t just rip down barriers, it would put a permanent end to them.

That still didn’t stop her.

She slid her hand around his neck, pulling his mouth down to hers so she could deepen the kiss as well. So she could take. And burn. Oh, yes. She was burning all right, and the heat continued to skyrocket when he dropped his grip to her bottom and aligned them in just the right way.

Of course, the baby bump didn’t allow for the usual direct body to body contact in their midsections, but it was plenty enough for Joelle to recall in perfect detail just how good this could be between Duncan and her. Good but with serious consequences. Remembering those consequences gave her just enough steel to ease her mouth from his.

Duncan stared down at her and blinked as if trying to clear his head, and then he muttered some profanity. “I didn’t think,” he said. “I didn’t think of the baby.”

He had created a wonderful steamy heat inside her head so it took a moment to cut through that and realize what he meant. She had to smile again.

“Pregnant women are allowed to kiss,” she pointed out. “And have sex.”

That last part flew right out of her mouth before she even knew she was going to say it.Stupid, stupid, stupid. Of course, it made Duncan smile again, and Joelle gave up and smiled right along with him.

The moment seemed to freeze. Their gazes certainly did while they were locked with each other. And the heat came at them like an out-of-control train. Cutting through what was left of any common sense.

There was a ringing sound that cut through as well, and it had Duncan and her flying apart. For one horrifying moment, Joelle thought it was the security system alerting them that someone had broken in. But it was Duncan’s phone.

“It’s Slater,” he said when he looked at the screen and put the call on speaker. She started to move away from him, but Duncan kept his arm around her waist.

“Hope I caught you before you crashed for the night,” Slater greeted.

“You did,” Duncan said. “Did you get something?”

“Yes.” Slater stopped, cursed. “Shortly after you left, Willie Jay got a phone call. From Kate Moreland.”

“Kate?” Duncan questioned. “What did she want?”

“She wouldn’t say, but I told Willie Jay she’d called and tried to get him to tell me why she wanted to talk to him. He stayed clammed up. So, I went back to my desk to see if I could get the answer from Kate. She clammed up as well and said she had to go, that the doctor ordered her to rest.”

Clearly, Duncan and she would be having a chat with Kate first thing in the morning.

“I dug deeper, looking for a connection between Willie Jay and Kate,” Slater went on. Joelle could hear some chatter in the background at the sheriff’s office. “When I got nothing, I went to check on Willie Jay, to see if he’d changed his mind about talking to us. He was unconscious when I found him.” Her brother cursed again. “Duncan, Willie Jay’s dead.”

Chapter Twelve

Duncan poured himself another cup of coffee—his third of the morning—in the hope that it would help get rid of the headache that was throbbing at his temples and behind his eyes. That was a lot to ask of mere caffeine, but he needed a much clearer head than he had right now.

He heard the shower going in the guest room and figured Joelle would be out soon to join him in the kitchen. Maybe she’d gotten some sleep after he’d left her in the guest room an hour or so after Slater had called with the news about Willie Jay. Maybe. But like him, she’d obviously had to try to get that sleep while processing what the hell had happened.

Duncan was still processing that.

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