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Many minutes later, when he stopped kissing her, they were both breathless. His eyes were so full of lust it was mind-blowing. He dragged his thumb across her bottom lip. “I’ve waited thirty-three years to find this sort of real connection that defies logic. I won’t ignore that, Chloe. I can’t.” She couldn’t look away from his mouth. God, she wanted more of that. “Don’t ask me to,” he added, “because you won’t like my answer.”
She forced her eyes up to his. “I’ve been single for a day,” she reminded him again. Dammit! “I can’t be with you, no matter how fun that sounds. It wouldn’t feel right. I need time.”
“Fair argument. But I don’t care how long you’ve been single. I only care that you are.” As if he hadn’t rocked her fucking world, he left her standing there as he walked toward the door. “Come on. We need to get moving.”
She blinked, pulling her mind from the gutter and p
lacing it back on the investigation. Her emotions were in a whirl; if there were such a thing as a female case of blue balls, she had ’em.
Chapter 4
It turned out Chloe’s friend was a criminal. A good one.
Sawyer crossed his arms, frowning at Shane Taylor’s wide smile. His thick-rimmed black glasses weren’t so much nerdy as trendy. Shane wore dark skinny jeans and a gray T-shirt beneath a black sweater vest. Most people thought criminals lived rough lives, but good criminals had money. Shane clearly fell into the latter category, living in a lavish two-story house on the north end of Las Vegas. Unimpressed, Sawyer scanned the six computer screens set up on a circular desk in the living room.
A hacker, Sawyer thought.
The PD had a team that hunted criminals like Shane, and here Sawyer stood in the middle of an elaborate hacker setup. He turned to Chloe, feeling guilty even to be standing in this would-be-felon’s home.
Chloe gave him a nervous smile. “Shane’s good at what he does.”
“I don’t doubt that in the least,” Sawyer replied, voice dry. Chloe had told Sawyer before they entered the house not to let on about his occupation; a hacker would not be eager to invite the law into his place of work.
Shane dropped into a leather chair and hit a button on his keyboard, powering up the computer screens. “What did you bring me today, Chloe?”
She tapped the laptop in her arms. “I need you to get into Travis Marks’s Gmail account.”
“Only that?” Shane frowned. “You disappoint me, Chloe. Why don’t I track his credit card usage? He’s probably bought something with it. Maybe I can pinpoint his location for you.”
Sawyer grunted. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
Shane frowned at Sawyer.
Chloe shifted on her feet and cleared her throat. “Sawyer’s not…ah…a private investigator, so it’s best we stay away from the credit cards on this one.”
Sawyer sighed. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that, either.” He wondered why Chloe had admitted he was an outsider when just a little while earlier she’d made it clear that they needed to keep his job quiet. Though he rather liked that she couldn’t lie. It was a trait he appreciated in her.
Shane’s mouth dropped open, clearly possibly understanding the line of work Sawyer was in. “I knew it—you’re a fucking cop, aren’t you? You’ve got the look,” he said to Sawyer, then added to Chloe, “Tell me, when you woke up this morning, did you realize you’d lost your fucking mind?”
Chloe placed Ashlyn’s laptop in front of Shane on the desk. “I’m sane. Promise. This matter is personal to Sawyer, not police business. It’s all under the table, so to speak. We’ve never been here. You’ve never seen us. Cool?”
Shane regarded Sawyer, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “You agree with Chloe? I don’t want to see you months from now with a warrant.”
“I’m here unofficially.” He shrugged. “Besides, I work SWAT. This isn’t my department.”
“Fine. I’ll hold you to your word. But Chloe, never again—I can’t risk it.” Shane turned to his computer, cracking his knuckles, obviously still a bit annoyed. “Getting into Gmail is elementary stuff.” He plugged in Ash’s laptop and began typing on his keyboard. “What did this guy do, anyway?”
“Beat up my baby sister.”
Shane glanced over his shoulder at Sawyer, pushing his glasses higher on his nose. “Shitty deal.”
“Undisputedly,” Sawyer agreed.
Chloe rested her arms on the desktop, watching Shane work. Bent at the hips, she gave Sawyer one helluva view. It surprised him that he’d lost control with her earlier at Ash’s house and kissed her. But those heated looks she’d been giving him all damn day had left him with a permanent hard-on.
Embracing the silence around him and inhaling the scent of popcorn coming from the kitchen, Sawyer considered what exactly it was about Chloe that entranced him. Years ago he’d played casually with submissives, but she stood apart from them all. His reaction to her raised her far above anyone he’d ever played with. That made her interesting to him. He wondered if he’d come to the point in his life where interesting was exactly what he needed.
“I’m in.” Shane’s words broke into Sawyer’s thoughts. “Sorry to say you’re shit out of luck. He hasn’t been on his email in over two weeks. But I can go through all these if you want, see if anything stands out as unusual.”
