“I could, I guess,” she stammered trying to appear willing. “Like when he’s in the shower. He usually has his phone on him but he doesn’t take it in the bathroom with him.” She let a giggle slip to keep up her ruse.
His hand rubbed up and down her arm again then moved to her back lingering near her hip. “Good, good. That will do for now. I believe it’s your day off tomorrow so you will have plenty of time to find this information. Perhaps later you can get other details about his work and I will take more off your debt, huh?”
She opened her eyes wide and forced an enthusiastic smile. “Oh, thank you, Mr. Moreno. I’ll see what I can do. I’ll try hard and get it for you as soon as I can.”
He reached his hand down and squeezed her ass. It was all she could do to keep from popping him one in the face.
“You are certainly eager to please. Are you as eager with Mr. Martin? Are you enjoying what he is teaching you?”
She recalled the kisses she and Chris had shared. Remembered her lips on his chest as they stood on the balcony. Heat suffused her skin and she lowered her eyes. She’d never been the bashful type but needed to appear that way now.
“Mr. Moreno. I can’t…I mean, Mr. Martin is great and I like him. And yes…I enjoy being with him.”
“Excellent. I wish for you to enjoy him. I would like some of that enjoyment for myself at a later time, hmm?”
He dipped his hand inside her shorts and pulled her against him, then lowered his lips to suck on her neck.Oh, gonna retch right here. She pushed away gently and let out a breath when he didn’t resist. “I uh, need to clock in, Mr. Moreno, or I’ll be late for my shift. Wouldn’t want to make the boss mad.”
He ran his hand over her bare arm again, his grin unpleasant. “No, my dear, we wouldn’t want to do that.”
* * * *
“Chris?”
Meg’s honey-filled, just-woke-up voice floated toward him as he left the bathroom. She stretched like a lazy cat and he sucked in a breath as the sheet slipped off her arching body. That loose top should be declared illegal. It never covered the areas it was supposed to. And he shouldn’t like it as much as he did. The fabric slid up to show off her firm abs and fell off her shoulder to allow him a glimpse of her rounded…
“Chris?” Her voice was firmer now and she was staring at him. “I needed to tell you something but was too exhausted last night.”
He took a step closer to the bed. Her eyes held concern so he sat on the edge. “What’s up? Something Moreno said in the back room?”
She nodded then bit her bottom lip. He could stare at that all day long. Her sigh got his attention back on track.
“He wanted to see me in there right before my shift and he asked about you. Ithoughthe’d been too calm the night before.”
He reached out and touched her shoulder, her skin silky under his rough fingers. “Are you all right? Did he hurt you again?” He’d kill the rat bastard. Forget evidence, forget a trial, he’d simply wrap his hands around the man’s neck and squeeze.
She shook her head, her hair spreading out over the pillow like a fan. “No,” she rolled her eyes. “He didn’t hurt me, though I wanted to barf when he touched me.” She held up her hands. “It’s fine. He doesn’t know how to talk without touching. But he asked me aboutyou.”
Her eyebrows knit together and her nose crinkled, folding some of her freckles into the creases. “I was nervous at first but he didn’t seem to think you were a cop. He wanted me to get more information on you. Without you knowing about it.”
Chris gritted his teeth. He hated how many people touched her. The only one doing it should be him. And if Moreno wasn’t around, he wouldn’t need to either. That thought kind of sucked.
“So he wants you to become a double agent, huh?” He inflicted humor in his tone, more for his own benefit.
“Yeah, I played dumb.”
When he smirked, she swatted at his chest. He grabbed her hand and held it there.
Her lips pursed and she glared at him then continued, “I played dumb and he suggested I check out your phone and get the numbers you call and the ones that call you.”
His thumb moved back and forth over her hand in a caress. “Okay, we can give him some numbers. We’ve got a few set up for situations like this. We’ve also got a convict looking for an early release who is willing to give a little misinformation to our friend Moreno.”
Meg stared at their entwined hands, her breathing picking up. He liked affecting her like this yet she had no idea she did the same to him. As she chewed on her lip again, her tongue ran along the rim of her mouth. Yeah, no idea.
He dropped her hand before he did something he’d regret. It was bad enough he had to kiss her in public. He couldn’t be doing it in private no matter how much he wanted to throw his professionalism out the window. She was still lying in bed, hair tousled, clothing askew and her lips so damn kissable all he could think of was sliding under the covers with her and sliding….
He stood abruptly. “Maybe I should add a few extra numbers as well.” Sitting next to her was still too dangerous. “A local pizza place, cab company, even a sex toy shop. There’s a kink club not too far from here. I wonder…that would make him stand up and take notice. What do you think?”
Pushing to a sitting position, she shrugged her shirt back over her shoulder, then pulled her hair out of her face causing the cropped hem to show off her toned stomach again. He moved away to grab the local phone book on the dresser. She was trying to kill him.
