Page 42 of To Catch a Sub

Colette spun to face him, her back pressed against the door, his hand braced near her shoulder.

“Colette, you just gave me probably the best lead I’ve gotten yet.”

She ducked her head and wouldn’t look at him.

“I really appreciate it.”

She nodded once, still not looking up.

Fuck it.

Landon shifted his hand so it was above her head and leaned in, their bodies not quite touching. He notched two fingers under her chin and raised her face. Their gazes met, held, and there was a sharp intelligence and awareness in her eyes that seemed at odds with her distress and fumbling.

“I’ll have to put your name in my notes, but the museum director won’t see those. I won’t tell them how I found out that a room I’m pretty sure was labeled as general storage is actually an unsecured photography work space containing artifacts.”

Colette nodded, and the movement caused her lip to brush against his thumb.

They both froze at the contact. Then, slowly, Colette opened her mouth just enough he caught a glimpse of white teeth and a pink tongue.

He wanted to ask her to dinner. The words hovered on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t do it. He’d allowed himself to be inappropriate and unprofessional several times already. He was stressed to the breaking point, because this was the biggest case of his career, and it was damn-near unsolvable. Combine that with his failure to make it to the club, meant he’d had no emotional or physical outlet recently.

He could explain, maybe even justify, his actions…at least to himself. But objectively speaking, he shouldn’t be doing this.

Still, Landon liked to think that he would have maintained professionalism despite the stress, if there hadn’t been this spark of chemistry between them. Those first touches had forged a bond that solidified and thickened as they went on what had felt like a fun adventure, but was actually a grim discovery that was about to make his job harder.

He slid his thumb to the corner of her mouth and leaned in, wanting to feel her breath on his skin, and have her feel his in turn. Then he’d pull back. Any second now.

“Would you have dinner with me?” Colette whispered.

Landon grinned. “You asked.”

She groaned. “I’m so sorry, Detective, I don’t know?—”

“Landon.”

“What?”

“Landon. Call me Landon. And I’m glad you asked. I wanted to ask you, but can’t.”

“Because I’m a suspect?” Her eyes were wide.

“Technically, yes, everyone is.”

“Everyone who works at the museum?”

“At this point, everyone in London is a suspect.”

Colette’s lips curved, and she looked confident and sexy in that moment. He wanted to kiss her.

“Tonight. Seven.” He didn’t want to wait.

“There’s a nice restaurant in the hotel on Little Russell Street.”

“I’ll see you there.” Landon slid his thumb along her cheek, just to see how she’d react to being touched.

She swallowed hard as he dropped his hand from her face, then let his other hand slide down the door to the knob.

He stepped back, and she shifted to the side so he could open the door. Together they exited. Once back in the public part of the museum, Landon paused, gathering himself. He needed to prepare himself to confront the museum director about lying, because one way or anything, the director had lied. Either the man didn’t know what was happening in his own museum, or he’d deliberately lied to cover up things he knew were, at the very least, poor security practices.