Sighing, he leaned his forehead against the wall. There was something about this woman. She was vastly different from the other women Derek had fixed up for him. And he enjoyed the difference.
As he made his way back into his penthouse suite and closed the door, weariness consumed his body again, reminding him how he hadn’t slept for forty-eight hours. Although his body was exhausted, his mind was not.
One way or another, he’d figure out how to find that woman. Next time, he’d make it so she wasn’t afraid of him.
~*~*~*~
Brittany stared at her reflection in the steel walls of the elevator. Tears pooled in her eyes. Her hair hung down around her shoulders, and her mouth was swollen from passionate kisses. Inside, she died of shame.
Why had she kissed him? Anger welled up inside of her. Why hadn’t she remembered that she was a detective? She was actually a very good detective. But nobody would know it now.
Disgrace racked her body, making her feel worse now than a few minutes ago. Austin Reeder was a classAjerk, just like she’d thought earlier when she’d asked him about his relationship with Hillary. Why her instincts had lead her in that direction, she’ll never know.
Closing her eyes, her body shook. She wanted to cry over the mistake she’d made, but she couldn’t. Soon she’d leave this elevator, and she didn’t need anyone seeing her this distraught and asking questions.
She wiped the smudged mascara from underneath her eyes. As shame washed over her, she became more determined to find the evidence needed to put Austin Reeder in prison for murdering Hillary Banks. Men like Austin should be locked up forever!
The ding of the elevator announced the lobby of the grand hotel as it opened the doors for her. Taking a deep breath, she tried to rid herself of the proof she carried of her steamy kiss with Austin.
As her high heels clicked on the marbled floor, she focused on the front doors. She couldn’t get out of this place fast enough. But when a man came rushing through, she paused. He saw her and stopped. His gaze swept over her from the top of her messy head clear down to her high-heeled shoes.
He gasped, stroking his sandy colored, well-groomed goatee. “Brittany Russell? Why are you all dolled up?”
Growling, she marched toward her partner, Kurt, and slugged him in the arm. “Where have you been? I called you several times. Didn’t you get my messages?”
He rubbed his shoulder and grimaced. “No, I haven’t listened to your messages, yet. I figured you were calling me to tell me about the captain’s instructions, which of course, I’d already heard. And I was in a hurry to change my clothes so I could meet you here.”
“You changed?” She glanced over his attire, looking exactly the same as he does every day they have worked together in the past year. Today he wore navy blue slacks, and a beige, button-down shirt that had the sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and a blue, white, and black striped tie. Sometimes he wore a suit jacket that matched the slacks, sometimes he didn’t. Today, he didn’t.
“Of course. You didn’t expect me to come here wearing my sweats, did you?” He shrugged. “I was jogging when the captain called.”
She groaned. “I can’t believe you went home and changed your clothes. The captain wouldn’t let me do that. I was at my father’s engagement party.”
Kurt chuckled as he eyed her dress, once again. “So you went and talked to Reeder looking this hot?”
She rolled her eyes and walked past him out of the hotel’s automatic front doors. Several times during the year they’d been teamed up together, she had wanted to punch him in the nose. Now was one of those times. He enjoyed teasing her, which she could dish right back, but she wasn’t in the mood for it. Not after what had happened with Austin.
“Did you find out anything when you talked to Reeder?” he asked, keeping up with her long strides.
“A little.”
“Tell me.”
“Reeder is definitely a suspect. He was carrying on with Hillary before she was murdered.”
“Carrying on?Do you mean they were lovers?”
She rolled her eyes again, but this time she looked at him. “He didn’t consider them lovers because there was nolovebetween them.”
Kurt shook his head. “What does that mean?”
Once she reached her silver Volkswagen Jetta, she stopped and leaned against it. “I’ll tell you about it later. Right now, I want to go home and change. My feet are killing me. I’ll meet you back at the precinct in an hour, and I’ll explain more at that time.”
She didn’t wait for his answer before climbing in and shutting the door. Kurt waited a few moments before turning and walking to his dark blue Honda Accord. She started her car and drove out of the parking lot, feeling lower than dirt.
She’d treated Kurt badly. Of course, they all had their bad days, and she was always there to help lift Kurt’s spirits, just as he’d been there to lift hers. But not today. Nothing could cheer her up. Maybe if she could go back in time to right after getting the call from Captain Martinez, she’d certainly do things differently. First off, she’d go home to change instead of being afraid of the captain reprimanding her forwasting her timeas he’d told her before. Then, she wouldn’t have acted unprofessionally.
This wasn’t the first time she’d pretended to be someone else in order to obtain the answers she sought—and it wouldn’t be the last time—but it was the only time she’d forgotten that she was a police detective. She’d somehow forgotten that Austin Reeder was a suspect.
Tears streamed from her eyes as she drove toward home. How could she hold her head up now? And how was she supposed to tell Kurt what she’d done?
She was such an idiot…an idiot who’d pretended to be a call girl. Could she sink any lower than that?
