“Hey, man, I—”
Keller Luttrell stared at Carson, then at the woman sprawled on his desk in front of him. “Sorry, man.” Luttrell executed an about-face and cleared the room before Carson could utter a word. The door banged shut.
Carson released her, frantically righted his clothes.
She draped her legs over the edge of the desk, lifted into a sitting position, then hopped off. “I suppose that was my cue to go.”
“Don’t approach me again without an official invitation,” he warned. Too many violent emotions to label roiled inside him. He was a damned idiot! “If you do, I’ll file charges.”
She straightened her dress and stared at him, cool, utterly collected. “You’ll change your mind.”
He twisted his belt into place, struggling with the need to kick his own ass. “Whatever you think you’re doing,” he advised, “is over. If I have to step aside on this one, I will.”
She laughed softly, brushed a wisp of hair back from her cheek. “Like that’s going to happen.” She skirted the chairs in front of his desk and walked deliberately toward the door, her hips swaying provocatively.
Idiocy seized first chair in his brain. “Whatever there is to find on you,” he threatened, “Iwillfind it. And then you’ll talk or you’ll do the time.”
She paused at the door and turned back to him, that unreadable smile still in place. “I’m sure you’ll try. But keep in mind, I know things that could bring down this entire office. You walk away and I’ll do just that. I wantyouon this case.”
Lies. All of it. If she had anything on this office, she would have used it to stop this investigation before it started. “Get out.”
“Just one question.”
“We have nothing else to discuss, Ms. Baxter.”
“Tell me, Tanner, when didyoustop caring about the truth?”
She didn’t wait for an answer.
She left.
Her question delayed the action he knew he had to take next. He had to square this with Luttrell. Yet ... what she’d said nagged at him. Hadn’t Stokes made a similar statement?Tell me, Tanner, when did you stop caring about the truth?
Instinct nudged him. Dread trickled. How could she have known?
He’d worry about that later. For now, damage control was his top priority. Carson found his friend in the supply room at the copy machine.
“Look,” Carson said, his head bowed a moment before meeting his colleague’s eyes, “I want to apologize for what you walked in on. It wasn’t—”
Luttrell waved his hands in front of him as if erasing the whole matter. “Hey, you don’t have to apologize to me. I’m just glad you’re finally getting some.”
Uncertainty gave Carson an instant’s pause. Shit. Luttrell did think the worst. Baxter being in his office was bad enough. “You don’t understand. She was—”
“I didn’t get a look at her face.” Luttrell shrugged. “But judging by those gorgeous legs and what I saw of her fine ass, I’d say you have yourself a hot one on your hands.” He growled like a horny beast. “I haven’t banged a chick in that position in weeks.”
Carson took a deep breath for the first time in about ten minutes. He would never convince his colleague that he hadn’t been going at it. The good news was that Luttrell hadn’t identified her. “Well.” Carson cleared his throat. “There’s a time and place for everything. I fell down in both categories.”
Luttrell clapped him on the back. “Pussy’s pussy, man. Take it when and where you can. We won’t be young and single forever.”
A laugh choked out of Carson’s throat. “There is that.”
“You had dinner yet?” Luttrell grabbed his original documents and the copies he’d made. “I was out with a client, but we never got around to dinner. I had to run back here and pick up a file.” He shoved the documents into the briefcase lying next to the copy machine. “You want to get a bite?”
Carson grappled to regain some semblance of composure. “Sure.”
Luttrell talked enough for the two of them as they stopped by Carson’s office to lock up, then exited the building. For once Carson didn’t care. He was just thankful that his colleague had no cluethe woman caught in such a compromising position with him was Annette Baxter.
Carson had never really believed in luck. He’d always insisted he made his own with intelligence, preparation and persistence.
