Page 11 of Desire Me
Which meant he was using company time for a search that shouldn’t be happening. He shouldn’t be using company access to do what he was doing, either, no matter how fruitless. There were a lot of things he shouldn’t be doing, including chasing after a woman who obviously hadn’t wanted him beyond a quick roll in the hay.
There was nothing quick about it. You took hours with Rae, and you’d take hours more—if you could just find her.
He flipped his inner voice a mental bird.Fuck off.
King settled into the chair to one side of Saint’s desk and crossed an ankle over the opposite knee. The elegant shine of his John Lobb’s sent a shot of envy through Saint’s gut. He really needed to buy a pair instead of drooling over his friend’s. He’d only been jealous of the damn things for half a year.
Who was he kidding? He might covet them, but he knew buying his own wasn’t going to happen. If he was gonna drop a couple grand, it would be on his nieces and nephews, not a pair of shoes. He had a feeling King would feel the same way about his goddaughter, Sophia, as she grew older.
And really, who gave a damn about shoes right now?
King’s toe dipped back and forth. “You never get distracted at work. How about sharing?”
He met King’s direct gaze and saw understanding there. They might rag each other often, but they always had each other’s backs. So why was he reluctant to share this secret?
Because it felt too personal. Too…close. He’d never been one to kiss and tell, but this…this felt so much bigger than one night with a woman he barely knew.
Oh, what the hell. If he didn’t spill his guts, his mood would just get worse, and right now he couldn’t even stand himself, so…
“Friday night, after you left…”
There went that blond eyebrow again, cocking up in the air. “You met a woman?”
Yes, he’d met a woman; he had to make a significant effortnotto meet a woman, and that wasn’t arrogance talking. “I did.” He hesitated, sighed. “I took her home.”
King’s gaze dropped to Saint’s chest, and he realized he was rubbing a hole in his sternum. He let his hand fall to his lap.
“Her name is Rae. And no”—he waved away the question King was obviously preparing to ask—“I did not get her last name. I’d planned to, later, but…”
“Oh my God.” King barked a laugh. “It finally happened! I thought I’d never see the day.”
“See what day?” Saint asked sourly. As if he didn’t know what was coming.
“She snuck out on you, didn’t she? You, the great ladies’ man. I can’t believe it.”
King’s laughter grated on Saint’s already thinly stretched nerves. “Believe it,” he gritted out.
He waited not so patiently for King’s amusement to subside. Refused to do more than growl his irritation when King had to wipe tears of laughter from his eyes. Let his friend get it all out; he could take a joke at his expense. Jokes had never bothered him before.
They’d also never been about Rae before.
He leaned back in his seat and stared up at the ceiling. Closed his eyes. Since when did he lose his patience or his control over a woman?
Maybe since the woman had touched something deeper than his body.
When things got quiet, he raised his head and spread his palms out. “What can I say? I took herhome. Not to a hotel, King. Not just to my car for some quick back-seat action. I took her to my apartment, and by God, I wanted to keep her there. And I did, for a while. It says everything that needs to be said that I was so deeply asleep after having sex with her that I didn’t even notice her getting out of my bed, much less leaving my house.”
King seemed to consider that, his eyes narrowing, head tilted. He glanced at the computer screen as if remembering what had been displayed there before Saint turned it off. “You’re searching for her.”
“I can’t stop thinking about her. It’s been almost a week, and I cannot stop.” He shoved a hand through his thick hair, pulling the strands hard. “It’s driving me insane.”
“Have you tried the bar?”
A bitter smile curved one side of his mouth. “Every night. I’ve talked to every server, every bartender. No one has seen her since Friday, and no one had seen her before. She’s just…poof…gone.”
“What else?”
King knew Saint was hunting, and there was nothing the two of them liked better than a hunt. “I started with DMV records. Every variant spelling of her name, Rae, both as first and last. Nothing so far, at least not in Georgia. Even narrowing by hair and eye color, age, and height wouldn’t get a national search down to a manageable number.” As it was it had taken him days to go through the local pages. “No warrants or BOLOs.” Yes, he’d checked with local law enforcement.
