Page 21 of The Jade Stone Sleuth

He swallowed, his gaze still searching hers. “I don’t know if I could claim it’s for the best. Those kisses … you …” His hand swept over her. “All of you, Clara Gem … You are as unique and beautiful as your jade-colored eyes.”

She felt the stirrings of hope and desire again. He thought she was unique and beautiful, but he’d also admitted he was leading her on. Who did that? He was too honest, which made his sweet compliments deeper but also made the rejection deeper.

She pushed any hope of developing a deep relationship with Brex away. It was for the best. It would keep him safe physically and keep her heart intact. She hadn’t had Melody research him on social media, but she could only imagine the classy and perfect women a charming security operative of Aiden Porter’s would date.

“Please don’t,” she said softly. “You’re the one who said you shouldn’t be kissing me. Is that true or not?”

He drew in a breath and squinted at the sun, pushing out the air like a heavy burden. “It is.” The two words were slow and weighty. He didn’t want to say them, but he was being honest.

“Well …” She said a prayer for strength. “It was very nice to have met you, Brex Cabella.”

Clara turned and ripped her car door open. She was humiliated, drawn to him, confused, and knew she was right that it was for the best they not kiss again. She could get himkilled if someone had killed her other boyfriends. Besides, he was focused on his job and would be leaving the valley in a few months.

Training the police each afternoon. It seemed like a piddly excuse for a job from what Aiden Porter had shown his operatives to accomplish.

Then it hit her. Training the police was just an excuse. He was here for something bigger, something more nefarious.

No. That couldn’t be, could it? Jade Valley didn’t have much excitement or crime. What if there was a trafficking ring in her valley and she didn’t even know about it? You couldn’t be much farther from the southern border and still be in Arizona, but who knew. She wanted to pry out details, but this was hardly the time.

“Clara.” He wrapped his hand around her arm and studied her. “I apologize again. I’ve never met a woman as innocent and angelic as you. You’re not my type at all, but I can’t seem to fight how drawn I am to you.”

She was yanked from any speculation about why he was really here to the longing for her and confusion battling in his gaze. His words weren’t all sweet. She wasn’t his ‘type at all’ and her being ‘innocent’ wasn’t particularly a compliment. He was used to high-maintenance and successful women; that was what he was drawn to. Clara hardly knew how to use makeup, sewed her own clothes, and her career was all charity work.

“It’s probably better we never see each other again then.” She begged him with her eyes to refute that. Maybe she shouldn’t have a boyfriend again and put Brex in danger, but if any man could handle danger it was this one. She was drawn to him, and the thought of never kissing him again made her want to whimper with pain.

“No.” He shook his head. “Can we just … be friends? Go on hikes each morning like we planned and maybe spend more time with my buddy Linc?”

“Friends?” She’d gotten excited about his quick no, but then he threw out the ‘friends’ idea. No way. She shook her head and backed into her car. “You don’t kiss someone like that and then go back to friend status.” She narrowed her eyes at him, frustrated, confused, and wanting to kiss him all over again. “Goodbye, Brex.”

Last night they’d teased about a kiss goodbye. They were far from that teasing now. He had kissed her—thoroughly and beautifully and repeatedly—but he didn’t want to develop something with her. Because he was leaving after this job or because his job was something he couldn’t share with her?

She slid into the car and yanked the door closed. He didn’t move to stop her.

As she drove out of the parking lot, she could see him watching her go. It wrenched at her heart to leave him like that, but it was for the best, no matter how they both longed for each other.

Either she’d leave for a mission trip or he’d finish his job and leave. They had no future, and she wasn’t his type.

No future.

No relationship.

No hope.

She touched her fingertips to her lips.

It gouged to think of never teasing with Brex, seeing that sparkle in his dark eyes, being held in his strong arms, or kissing him again.

Even if being without him was the only path open to her.

Chapter

Seven

Brex stayedbusy the next few weeks following Clara every morning on hiking trails, diving deep into the investigation, and finding nothing. The research was frustrating, but staying busy was good. He couldn’t get Clara’s sparkling jade eyes, her authentic beauty, her teasing, or her kisses out of his mind. It didn’t help that he follows her every morning.

The training with the police was going well. He was developing some friendships there and after the initial ‘training’ the first few days, he mostly just worked with them on their cases, improved shooting and sparring skills, and got to know the police and the valley. It was almost April and the weather was an ideal sixties to seventies every day. He spent a lot of time out of doors hiking, biking, at the shooting range, and meeting locals.

He got the lowdown on the Hendrys and the Gems from his fellow officers and the research he did alone in his rental home every night. He alternated between cussing himself for kissing Clara like he had and messing up the job and being grateful he’d kissed her like that because he at least had the memories to savor.

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