Chapter 9
It was several hours later, when Hayden got home from work, before Anna felt she could leave Wendy. She’d told Owen he didn’t have to stay, but he had. And then Hayden had shown up with a tray of his mom’s famous taquitos and it would’ve been plain old rude to leave without eating a few. Or a dozen...
When Hayden and Owen carried all the dishes down to the kitchen, Anna turned to Wendy and brought up something Hayden had mentioned while they’d been eating. “Why does your husband think you have ghosts in this house?”
Wendy bit her lower lip.
Anna laughed. “I knew it. You did something. Spill.”
“A few days ago, he annoyed me by suggesting I might want to tone down my sarcasm when he’s just trying to help. I mean, first of all, being sarcastic on a regular basis can add up to three years to a person’s life.”
“Which means you’re going to live forever then.”
Wendy thought about it and shrugged at the truth. “Anyway, then he went downstairs to the living room to watch TV in peace, whatever. But also, eff that. I downloaded the LG remote app and turned off the TV from up here... twice.” She bit her lower lip again. “Okay, five times. When I heard him coming upstairs, I pretended I was asleep. So yeah. Now he thinks we have ghosts.”
“Wow,” Anna said.
“Right? Brilliant.”
“I was thinking evil.”
A few minutes later, Hayden and Owen finished cleaning up, and she and Owen said their goodbyes and got into his truck in companionable silence. Up until then, there’d always been a sense of... not competition, that was the wrong word, but she’d always been aware that they were on very different sides, even with the undeniable attraction and chemistry between them.
That hadn’t gone away.
In fact, if anything, the sexual pull had intensified. But something new had happened as well. They worked shockingly well as a team. Like, it was... easy. Which made no sense to her. “I hope you won’t hold anything that happened in there against me,” she said. “I’ve never brought a guy to Wendy’s house before, and I think I blew some of her brain cells.”
He smiled. “I like her. I like watching you two banter. You’re close.”
“We’re something,” she said on a rough laugh. “I think our relationship is like... you know how when you go to reheat something in the microwave and forget to cover it?”
He snorted, but she held up a hand. “Wait, I’ve got one more. I have no doubt she’d give me a kidney if I needed one, but I’m not allowed to touch her charger.”
He outright laughed as he parked behind her car at his aunt’s. “What’s next, Anna?”
Gah, the way he said her name... Her mind raced, dropping images of all the things they could do to alleviate their sexual pull. “I don’t think I’m ready to sleep with you,” she burst out with.
At the flash of surprise on his face, she winced. “Aaaaaand... that’s not what you were asking.”
“No, but...” His smile was way too confident. “You’re thinking about sleeping with me.”
If he only knew the things she’d imagined them doing, none of which involved sleeping. Just thinking about it made her cheeks hot.
His smile faded and his eyes darkened. “When you’re ready, just tell me when and where.”
She closed her eyes and very nearly put a hand over her mouth before it could say NOW! “Back to the topic of our investigation,” she said desperately. “You were asking me what’s next in the investigation.”
“Yes, and you seemed surprised that I would ask.”
“Most men would have their own agenda.”
He studied her for a minute. “I’m not most men. Plus, you’re smart and good at your job. I trust your instincts.”
That was kind, but she knew it went deeper. Unlike her, he didn’t need a plan. He could go off script and was open to... well, anything.
Her virtual opposite.
He was still watching her. “One of these days we should have a talk about the men who’ve been in your life. The ones who hurt you.”
Dammit, Wendy had a big mouth. “It isn’t necessarily them. I can be cold and aloof and hard to understand.”
He shook his head. “We’re going to have to agree to disagree there. The Anna Moore I know is fierce, wildly passionate, and deeply caring.” He looked into her eyes with an intensity that not only surprised her but made her heart beat a little too fast. “Not cold or aloof or hard to understand at all.”
“The plan is to go visit Will at work,” she said, in desperate need of a subject change.
He looked at the time. “Under the guise of a nightcap?”
She nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
“Still okay in the truck, or do you want to drive?”
The way he offered her choices and really cared about her agenda as well as his was... way too attractive. “We’re already in the truck, so let’s just go.”
He turned over the engine and pulled back out into the street. “Feels like a date.”
“You’d have to work a lot harder to get that lucky.”
He looked amused, like he knew she was lying. “Tell me something about you,” he said.
“You did just hear me say this isn’t a date, right?”
He smiled. “You like people to think you’re all work.”
“Yep, and no play. Ask anyone.”
“I’m asking you.”
Turning in her seat, she studied his profile. “Because you’re curious about me.”
He glanced over at her. “Is that hard to believe?”
“Yes,” she said frankly, and was surprised when he laughed low in his throat, a very sexy sound. Dammit.
“I don’t believe you’re all work and no play,” he said. “What are your hobbies?”
“Work.” She had no idea why she was being so stubborn. Or maybe she did know. He was tempting, far too tempting.
He sent her a knowing look, and she sighed. “Fine.” She thought about it. “I like switching between the same three apps for hours, not speaking to anyone for days at a time, and listening to the same songs I’ve been listening to for years.”
“You’re a daydreamer.”
She stared at him in shock, because no one, no one, had ever guessed that about her, that when she was using social media for brain rest or listening to music, she was usually imagining herself in situations that would literally never happen—such as having a family of her own, like Wendy was.
Owen flashed her a smile, and she shook her head at him. “Show-off.”
“But I’m right.”
She wasn’t going to admit it. “Your turn.”
“My entire life is a hobby.”
She shook her head. “That’s a cop-out so you don’t have to tell the truth. You forget, I run my own business too. I know damn well that even when you love the work so much it doesn’t feel like work, there’s a lot more to it than people see. It’s hard. It’s stressful. It’s not all fun and games, no matter what you want people to believe.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything, and she thought that was it. He wasn’t going to open up.
But then he spoke, quietly there in the dark, intimate interior of his truck. “I like to fish. It’s quiet and relaxing and calms my brain. Also, if I’ve had a long week or month, I’m the happiest on a couch with a remote for an entire day.”
“Sounds like we both like to be alone to de-stress.”
“Or we haven’t met the right person to de-stress with.”
Or that...
Before she knew it, he’d parked at the restaurant. He looked over and flashed a grin that had a whole lot of bad boy in it.
Remember:You’re done with bad boys!
“We’ve all got our secrets,” he said. “I respect that. But I think one of yours is that you like me a little bit.”
She sucked in a breath because he was wrong. She liked him more than a little bit.
Unbothered by her silence, he just smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll grow on you.”
That was what she was afraid of. “Not going to happen. We live entirely different lives. And you put yours on the line to entertain people.”
He shook his head. “I don’t ever put my life on the line, not for fun. I know what I’m doing, and a lot of prep and planning and research goes into every adventure that Ky and I provide.” He paused, his gaze holding hers prisoner. “You should let me prove it to you. I could take you out sometime. Do something new. Maybe camping.”
Her stomach bottomed out. “Been there, done that,” she said grimly as memories swamped her, none good.
His eyes were warm, curious... caring. “Think I lost you there for a minute.”
“Bad experiences is all,” she said as lightly as she could. “Adventuring, like dating, isn’t for me. Something always goes wrong with either.”
“Like...?”
She went with the easiest story to tell. “My dad took me and Wendy camping once. I was a brat, complaining the whole hike in, then fell asleep instead of helping set up. When I woke up, I was alone. They’d jokingly left me on my own, thinking they were being funny.”
His smile had faded. “How old were you?”
“Ten. I should’ve just stayed put, but I freaked out and ran off and took things from a bad joke to dangerous when I slipped off the trail into a ravine and broke my ankle.” She shook her head. “They felt horrible, and I should’ve known better, that they wouldn’t have really left me.”
“Not at ten.” He reached across the console for her hand. “You said experiences,” Owen said. “Plural. As in there are other instances where you got hurt.”
“Yes, but it’s probably not what you think.”
“Well, I’m thinking some bad shit,” he said. “How many experiences are we talking?”
“Just a couple of others.”
His hand was warm against hers, his palm a little rough with calluses. She turned her head away from the sight of their entwined fingers to look out her passenger-side window. “The second time was around five years ago now, out in Desolation Wilderness with a college boyfriend. He’d talked me into hiking in to camp for a few days. On night one, we got in a huge fight and Adam... left. I actually thought he was kidding at first, like my sister and my dad had been all those years before, but...” She shook her head. “I stayed up the whole night, expecting him to show back up. At dawn, I started walking back on my own and ran into a bear.”
He drew a deep inhale, then let it out, like he needed the calm. “Were you hurt?”
“No.” She actually found a rough laugh. “The bear and I took one look at each other and both squeaked, falling to our asses. He was quicker to get up and took off. I did the same, in the opposite direction. Thankfully, before I got too lost, a nice couple took pity on me and led me out.”
He was quiet a moment, looking at his thumb as he stroked it over hers. “And the other time?”
She shook her head. She wasn’t ready to go there. Might not ever be. “Tell me one of yours.”
She felt the weight of his gaze, but he didn’t push. Instead, he said, “I got my heart stomped on by someone I thought I loved.” He paused. “I wasn’t enough for her. We’d been together since high school, but she thought of me as a fixer-upper. Only, I didn’t want to be fixed. She wanted a guy who made more money, someone who didn’t put good living ahead of a big fat paycheck.”
“I’m sorry, Owen.”
“Don’t be.” He lifted a shoulder. “It was lesson learned for me. I ran into her a few years ago. Ky and I had made a success of ourselves, and she admitted she’d made a mistake.”
“Don’t tell me you forgave her.”
“I do forgive her.” He smiled. “Which isn’t the same thing as forgetting.”
She smiled too. “You deserve better anyway.”
“Right back at you.”
Somehow she was leaning into him, so close she could feel the warmth of his body and his breath against her lips.
“Anna?”
She tore her gaze off his far-too-sexy mouth. “Hmm?”
“I want to kiss you.”
Only he didn’t. “Is there a ‘but’ coming?” she asked. “Because I sense a but.”
“But...” His eyes were both heated and amused. “I’m going to need you to say you want that too before I pull you in close, put my mouth on yours, and make us both wish we were somewhere far more private than a parking lot.”
Her body had some interesting reactions to that, all of them pretty shocking given that she’d abused her shower massager that very morning. “Yes.”
He arched a brow. “Yes?”
“Yes! Yes, I want you to kiss me, dammit.”
She caught a quick grin from him, and then he closed the distance and all annoyance vanished. Everything vanished, because his lips were warm and somehow both soft and firm and then his tongue touched hers and the next thing she knew, she was climbing over the console—with an assist from a pair of strong, determined arms—to straddle him.
“God, you taste sweet,” he murmured, one hand wrapped up in her hair, the other on her ass, when she heard her own soft moan. She’d be embarrassed if she didn’t know, if she couldn’t feel, that Owen was right there with her. After all, she was rocking on the evidence, and all she could think was yes please—
A phone rang.
Hers.
They froze, eyes locked on each other as her phone continued to ring. She slowly pulled back, frustrated and yet also relieved because whew, no time for bad decisions today.
Owen felt Anna pulling away, felt also her walls starting to close herself off from him. “Stay with me,” he whispered.
And she did, for another deliciously long moment, but then her phone immediately started ringing again, and she looked at the screen. “I’m sorry.” She rested her forehead to his for a single heartbeat. “It’s work.”
She pulled away, a visceral reminder that he wasn’t, and probably never would be, a priority in her life. He’d definitely seen this movie and hadn’t liked the ending. It was all a little hard to accept since she still had her free hand in his hair. He was no better, currently still holding two palmfuls of a very sweet ass.
“Yes,” she said into her phone. “It’s being handled.” Her hand dropped away, and then she was no longer even looking at him.
The sweetly eager Anna, the one who’d melted for him at his touch, had disappeared, and in her place was the stubborn, uptight woman he’d first met in her office.
He’d spooked her.
To make matters even worse, she wasn’t just ignoring him, but had straightened and was sitting on his lap like he was a damn chair. Then she opened the driver’s door, slid off him, and walked away without so much as a backward glance.
He drew a deep breath, feeling dismissed and not liking it much. He didn’t need this, he really didn’t. His current single lifestyle suited him, casual encounters only, both on the job and off. And nothing about Anna would be casual—
A tap at the window had him looking up into her face. When he powered down the window, she put a hand over her phone. “Just got a text from Wendy, who found out Will isn’t working again until tomorrow, evening shift, starting at five. I plan to be here at four thirty to get the lay of the land, if you want to meet back here. But for now, I have to go, I’m needed back at my office.”
“This late?”
“My cases are often a twenty-four seven endeavor.”
“Get in, I’ll take you to your car.”
Adding insult to injury, she shook her head, barely meeting his gaze. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve already ordered an Uber.”
Yep. He’d most definitely spooked her. And maybe himself as well. He spent the rest of the evening telling himself it was absolutely for the best.