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Her eyes were as busy as his, touching on every feature of his face, exactly as they had at the gas station seconds before he kissed her. That was part of her sexiness, that seemingly total absorption in whatever her eyes focused on. The intensity with which she looked at
him made him feel as though his face were the most captivating visage in the world.
He began. “Saturday night—”
“Please don’t ask me—”
“Why did you lie about where you were?”
“Would you rather I had told them the truth?”
“What is the truth? Did that man see you standing outside Lute Pettijohn’s hotel suite?”
“I can’t discuss this with you.”
“The hell you can’t!”
The doors opened on the first floor. No one was waiting for the elevator. Hammond stepped out, but kept his hand on the rubber bumper to keep the door from closing behind him. “Sarge, did Ms. Mundell leave a file down here?”
“File? I haven’t seen anything, Mr. Cross,” he called back. “If I see it, I’ll have it run up.”
“Thanks.”
Stepping back into the elevator, he depressed the button for them to go back up. The doors closed.
“The hell you can’t,” he repeated in a harsh whisper.
“We’ve got a few precious seconds. Is this what you want to be talking about?”
“No. Hell, no.” He took one step nearer and growled softly, “I want to be all over you.”
She raised her hand to the base of her throat. “I can’t breathe.”
“That’s what you said the second time you came. Or was it the third?”
“Stop. Please stop.”
“That’s one thing you didn’t say. Not the whole damn night. So why did you sneak out on me?”
“For the same reason I had to lie about being with you.”
“Pettijohn? I know you didn’t kill him. The time doesn’t fit. But in some way you’re culpable.”
“I had to leave you that morning. And we can’t be caught talking privately now.”
“If you weren’t somehow implicated,” he said, taking another step closer, “why would you need to establish an alibi by spending the night fucking me?”
Anger sparked in her eyes. Her lips parted as though she were about to refute him. The elevator came to a stop. The doors opened. Steffi Mundell was waiting for it.
“Oh,” she exclaimed softly when she saw the two of them together. She sliced her eyes over to Alex, then back to Hammond. “Uh, I was just coming to get you. I found it,” she said, absently raising her hand to show him the file she had mistakenly sent him to retrieve. “Sorry.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Excuse me,” Alex said, stepping between them so she could get out.
“Mr. Perkins is already here, Dr. Ladd,” Steffi told her as she moved past.
She acknowledged that information with a dignified thank-you, then continued down the hallway toward the secured double doors.
