Page 3 of Stripped Bare

“Will do,” Shep replied.

“I’m going to head out.”Griff gave Shep a knowing look.Apparently, he’d picked up on Shep’s interest in Stace.“Meet back here in a couple hours?”

“Meet at my place,” Shep answered, never taking his eyes of Stace.

“So…” she said when it was just the two of them.

“Why don’t you come with me?”Shep said.

“Come with you?”she parroted.

“Yes.It’ll give us a chance to talk more.You can fill me in on what you’ve been doing since you got back and discovered Chloe’s missing.Tell me more about her.The better I know her, the better I can help figure out why she was targeted.”Shep had no doubt Chloe Anders had been targeted, but was it random or did it have to do with something she’d been involved in?

“Okay.”Turning, Stace walked out the door ahead of Shep.He glanced down, almost groaning at the view of her perfectly rounded ass.The woman was his walking dream.He wanted her.Badly.But he wouldn’t take advantage of a woman in crisis, and Stace Anders, with her missing baby sister, was in crisis.

She turned to face him, and he barely stopped his stride in time to prevent crashing into her.

“I want you.We both know it.At some point, now that I know there’s no one else in your life, I plan to seduce you.Understand, though, I won’t let sex interfere with finding my sister.”

“Understood.”

She stepped into him, and he groaned at the feel of her hardened nipples against his chest.She slid her hands up his chest and wrapped them around his neck, tugging his head down the few inches between them.

“Why don’t we get this out of our systems.”

That was Shep’s only warning before she skimmed her lips along his jaw.It was like a stroke of electricity that seared straight to his dick and had it flexing against the snug fabric of his jeans.She nipped his bottom lip which only revved his lust higher.What really did it for him was the fact her eyes remained wide open and locked on his.This was no tame woman.Stace Anders would be a wildcat when they finally got together.He opened his mouth but let her retain control.Her tongue slipped inside and rubbed against his.He cupped her ass and pulled her closer against him, locking their lower bodies together.She let him hold her there for one long moment before dropping her hands to his chest and pushing away.

“I want you,” she repeated.“This kiss doesn’t mean I won’t make you work for it.”

Shep watched her stride ahead of him.He had no problem working for it, for her.He wanted those long legs wrapped around his waist or resting on his shoulders.Or bent in front of him with that stellar ass on display.Hell, at this point, he could only hope she didn’t plan to make them wait too long.

Chapter Two

Stace sat in the passenger seat of Shep’s truck while Griff followed behind them in her vehicle.She still wasn’t exactly sure how she’d been talked into that, other than the taste of Shep’s mouth had left her reeling.Since that kiss, it was all she could do to curb the sexual thoughts filling her mind.She wanted to crawl into his lap and ride him until they were both screaming with pleasure.It had taken all her control to keep her hands to herself while they’d been in his apartment, knowing one of the rooms he’d ducked into had a bed she imagined held the scent of his skin.Luckily, he packed quickly and chatted the whole time, asking her question after question that kept her mind occupied.

“Why use us?”Shep asked, interrupting her perusal.

“Hmm?”Her gaze snapped from the stretched denim covering his thighs up to his eyes, which flicked toward her before turning back to the road.

“You told me at my place that you find people.That’s your job.Then why come to us for help?”

“A friend of mine knows Jack through Gil Daniels.He told me to be smart and ask for help with this,” she admitted.

“You have a habit of not being smart?”Shep asked, and the only thing that saved him was he didn’t seem convinced that observation was true.

“I have a habit of going solo.I was reminded that, when we’re emotionally involved, we can overlook things that others would hit on.”

“Sounds like someone knows you well enough they’re comfortable giving you advice you might not like,” Shep continued.

“Yes.”

“No heat between the two of you?”

Ah, he’d told her he wasn’t dating anyone currently, but she hadn’t offered him the same information.

“More like a brother.Most of the guys from my military days are.At least, the ones I chose to keep in touch with.I know too much about them to ever date one of them,” she assured him.

“You didn’t keep in touch with Gil?You mentioned you knew him, but a mutual friend told you about Jack,” Shep said when she didn’t respond right away.

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