“That’s because I know my sister.” When Maude looked at him, he couldn’t help himself. He placed his hand on her back and began rubbing her. “Don’t beat yourself up,” he said. “You did nothing wrong.”
Maude could feel her body temperature rising when he began massaging her back. But unbeknownst to her, a sudden look appeared in her eyes that was filled with bewilderment, as if she, like he, was wondering why he was touching her so affectionately. He didn’t know her like that. He didn’t know her at all! Itfeltto him as if he knew her very well, but feelings didn’t count. He quickly removed his hand.
Maude immediately missed his touch. The kind of few weeks she’d had made it clear she needed a touch. It also made it super clear, now that she no longer had a boyfriend nor a job, how very alone in this world she truly was. That was probably one of the main reasons why she was even there. She had nowhere else to be. “Why wouldn’t your sister just tell me the code rather than give me a list to run down?”
“Each of them probably told you a piece of the puzzle. You just wasn’t listening.”
This felt so over Maude’s head that she could feel herself getting dizzy with it. “Maybe that was why everybody, and I mean everybody on that list were so negative.”
Then that sad look appeared in her eyes again and Edmund could hardly take it. He wanted this girl in his arms. And he did it. He pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay,” he said to her. “You’re here. You did the right thing. I’ll get my investigators to find out where that safe deposit box is locatedand see what’s inside. I’ll also get them to look into what we can do for Natasha to get her out of jail. If she isn’t already.”
“She isn’t,” said Maude. “People accused of murder in our county aren’t allowed to be bonded out.”
But both of them were more preoccupied with his arms around her and her head against him.
For Maude, it was that same feeling of protection that overcame her when she sat in his lap at his sister’s meet and greet. But it was adead end streetkind of feeling because it was going nowhere and even she knew that.
But for Edmund, it was that feeling of need. As if he didn’t just want her, but he needed her, and that scared him. That scared him to death.
He quickly released her, she leaned away from him, and he stood up. “I have a major surgery to perform first thing in the morning,” he said. “I’d better call it a night.” He began heading to the front door.
Maude, already dizzy by her reaction to him, and the fact that they met before, hurried to grab her shoulder bag and follow him out. She was being dismissed again. But at least Natasha was going to get some help.
“What you need to do,” Edmund said when they made it to the front door, “is to go down that list and try and recall every one of those conversations you had with the people on that list.”
“Yes sir.”
“Then you need to jot down everything you can remember of each one of those conversations, and then contact me.”
“I tried to contact you for several days but you wouldn’t return my calls.”
“Give me your phone.”
She pulled it out, put in her password, and then handed it to him.
“This is my private number,” he said as he put his number into her contacts. “If you find anything odd, you call and let me know.”
“I will,” she said. “And somebody’s going to look into that safe deposit box?”
“My investigators, yes. But knowing my sister and how chaos follows her, I don’t think that will tell the whole story. Or even most of it. I’ll have my lead investigator contact each person as well, but they may have told you what they won’t tell him.”
Maude nodded. “Okay.” Although she was still disappointed in herself for not figuring that out herself, she was glad he figured it out. And she was overwhelmed by his presence.
She extended her hand to Edmund. “Thank you for helping her,” she said.
But when their hands touched, both of them felt a sensation rippled through their bodies. His eyes grew heavier, lustfully, as if it was purely just that for him. But her eyes grew larger, as if she’d never felt that way before. It was a sensual feeling for her as well, but one so deep down she couldn’t even quantify it. She couldn’t even explain why she was feeling that way.
But she wasn’t alone. Because although his eyes said lust alone, his heart made it clear that there was so much more to it than that. And that was just as new to him as it was to Maude.
But when he opened the door to the cool night air, he suddenly felt a sense of obligation to her. He was not the man for her. Because she was not the kind of woman that would accept his lack of commitment. “Are you going to be okay?”
“You mean the cool breeze?”
That was only partly what he meant, but he took it. “Yes,” he said.
She pulled a small jacket from her shoulder bag. “I always come prepared,” she said as she sat her bag down and put on the jacket. Which only made her outfit look like even more of a smorgasbord of thrown together pieces. A fashion disaster just like he said.
“I hope you be very successful,” she said to him.
