AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rocking back on his heels, Archer slides his thumbs into his pockets and studies me with an appreciative eye. “Either sex makes you really angry, or lack of sex makes you livid.”
My face burns with rage.
“You seemed pretty fucking chill the other night while coming on my face.” His tongue comes out and licks his bottom lip, and instantly, my panties turn wet, and my stomach drops with lust. “Which leads me to think you miss me.”
“I absolutely do not miss you.”
“You may not like me, Miss May—”
“Doctor,” I growl. “Doctor Mayet.”
He looks straight down at my crotch. “Doctor Mayet. You might not like me, but you like what I can do to your body. And though I pride myself on never getting attached, I can’t say I disliked the things you did to mine.”
“Never to be repeated.” I drop onto my chair and desperately tap the mouse to get my computer started. “I’m busy, Mr. Malone, so if you could just—”
“Detective.” Placing his fists on the edge of my desk and leaning down until I meet his eyes, he allows a small smirk to play across his lips. “DetectiveMalone. And you’re gonna be seeing a lot of me if this,” he lifts his chin in a way that saysthismeansme, “isn’t an act. I’m in the George Stanley building daily, lady. I work exclusively in homicide, and only half of your team works those.”
My brows lift high in surprise. “Excuse me?”
His eyes drop to my lips. To my dimples, perhaps. “Half of ‘em only wanna work the natural causes cases. Slap on a C.O.D. when the hospital told them it was cancer or heart disease or whatever. The other half work my cases, and half ofthemare assholes, lazy, or stupid, which means if you wanna run a tight ship and clean up the mess Chant left, you and I are gonna get cozy as fuck over the next little while. And truth be told,” his eyes fire with something dangerous. “I’m looking forward to it.”
At a shadow approaching in the hallway, Archer glances over to find Aubree and Fletcher grinning. Then coming back to me, his eyes darken. “Keep her close.”
“Aubree?” I look to her again and try to see something other than a chatty pathologist. “Is she gonna be a problem for me?”
He licks his lips, slow and intentional enough to draw my gaze. “She’s gonna become your new best friend and most valuable asset. She knows everyone inside this building, she knows everything that goes on inside it, and she has the memory of an elephant. You’d be stupid to cast her aside.” Pushing up to stand straight, he places his hands on his hips and smirks. “It would do you good to set aside your pride and take my word for it.”
“She good in bed too, Archer?” I lift a brow and hate how badly I want him to answer the question. “A little young for you, don’t you think?”
His lips twitch as his eyes flicker between mine. “I’ll see you around, Minka.” Just like he did yesterday when I made my escape from his apartment, he says my name like it feels nice on his tongue. “It did me good to see your face.”
“I wish I could say the same.” I cast a look to the closed door where Aubree and Fletcher wait on the other side. “I trust you know the way out.”
He chuckles low under his breath. “I know the way.”
Turning on his heels, he slowly moves toward the door, and strapped to his back, I see the outline of a set of guns I never, before now, considered he might have.
Stopping before exiting, Archer angles back to look me up and down. “I’ll be around a little while longer. I still have to find me a killer from last night. And if you find you have time later, I have another body you could take a swing at. She rolled in a week ago, and to date, your team have no fucking clue what happened to her.”
My eyes narrow to slits. “So you just leave her here to rot and snag a new case?”
He shrugs. “I’m doing the best I can with the information I have, but as lead detective with no suspects, no obvious crime scene, a body that has nothing to say, and a team of M.E.s unable to tell me how or why she died…” He places his hand on the silver door handle. “What do you suggest I do, lady? Make shit up and hope it sticks?”
I loathe him. I loathe the choices I made on Saturday night. And I loathe the fact I’m going to go search for that body just as soon as he walks away.
When I say nothing, Archer nods and opens the door. “Yeah. Okay. See ya, Doctor Mayet.”
He steps into the hall and meets his colleague and mine for a quick chat, but they’re only there for half a minute before Archer and Fletcher step away and Aubree whirls through my door with eyes wide like saucers. “Oh. My—”
“Don’t even.”
“Sweet baby cheddar cheese!” The moment the door closes at her back, Aubree bounds across my office and leans onto my desk. “You slept with Detective Malone!”
“I neither confirm nor deny.”
“You slept with Detective Sins-A-Lot. What the hell?”
Glancing up, I search her eyes. “How often does he sin? And is it possible he’s a killer? Because I was so sure.”
