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I lean in and bite her neck until she groans and stumbles on the stairs. “Uh huh. I don’t believe you, Minka.”
“Don’t say my name like that.” She pulls a set of keys from her coat pocket as we round the landing on the third floor. “It sounds dirty.”
“It’s because I cum every single time I say it.” Chuckling, I hold her tighter as we make our way toward the fourth floor. “How are you liking the new place?”
“It’s nice. How do you like charges brought up on you for stalking, intimidation, and harassment?”
“Report me to Fletch. He’d get off on arresting me.”
We stop in front of the door labeled 4B, and I take the keys from her shaking hands and push one into the lock. The moment I open the door, I shuffle her in and look back with a scowl when I find just the one lock, and higher up, a chain that hangs on with dying efforts.
“You need more security on this place.” Closing the door at my back, I turn and hand her the keys. “One lock isn’t enough.”
“You’re now officially trespassing.” Yet, Minka takes off her coat and drapes it over a couch that has clearly seen a lot of use but could in no way be described as crap. “You’re in my apartment when I asked you not to be.”
“You handed me the keys.” I take my coat off too and lay it across hers, then I follow her toward the mini kitchen that is more of a nook. “I let myself in via the keys while you stood right there with me.”
“Under duress.”
“Oh please.” I cross to where she stands at the fridge, and frame her in until we touch from where my toes meet the backs of her feet to where my lips rest in her hair. “You can’t be intimidated, Minka. And I’m not gonna accept your lies where you pretend to be gentle and afraid.” I inhale the scent of her shampoo and don’t stop until the fresh oxygen lingers in my lungs. “Let’s start over and get to know each other.”
She scoffs and turns in the small space until her back presses to the fridge. “You were literally standing with another woman not ten minutes ago. You don’t desire to get to know me, Archer. You only want to soothe your fragile ego, because you’re not used to rejection.”
“Quite an observation. Now let me try you.” When her eyes narrow to slits, I smirk. “Oldest child of three. You were the parental figure and often took care of your siblings.”
“No. And how did you look up my address but not the rest of my information?”
“I’m old-fashioned, I suppose. Wanted to find out fromyou.” Leaning in, I slide the tip of my nose along her jaw. “Your parents never spoiled you. In fact, you were solidly middle-class, but not the new middle class. The old middle class, where you got your ass beat for wasting food.”
“My ass was never beat, for any reason,” she growls. “Capital punishment was never something my parents dabbled in.”
“Lucky you. My father considered it a sport. Siblings?”
“Only child.” Slipping out of the gap between me and the fridge, she crosses back to the living room and slows near the couch. “My parents were good people, I was an only child, and because my parents were immigrants, I had no extended family to grow up with.”
“All alone in this big bad world?” My eyes drop to her hands when they come up to fiddle with the button of her blouse. “Did you like New York City?”
“Uh huh. The anonymity was nice. I was hoping I wouldn’t lose that by moving here, but even in a city of four million people, I’ve still crossed paths with you three times in as many days.”
“You make it sound like a bad thing.”
“I assure you,” she sneers, “it is. How’s your Dowel case?”
I allow my eyes to stray back to hers. “Ongoing. Perp was smooth, evidence is frozen under the snow or tossed in a trashcan somewhere within a twenty-mile radius.”
“Twenty miles?” Her lips twitch with a smile. “That’s a lot of area to cover. I thought you were supposed to be good at your job?”
She’s taunting me. Mocking me. And whether she realizes it or not, her hands on her buttons are sending me to the brink of insanity.
“Department shrink says our perp is highly organized. Fit, and lives a healthy life. Strong.” I clear my throat as she turns away and pops that top button. “Implies they’re smart, determined, and not likely to come undone through a stupid mistake. My perp won’t have dropped the knife in the same block they live; that’s just too obvious. So Fletch and I have to cast our nets wider.”
“Interesting.” Does she realize her hips sway when she walks? Does she have any clue how the way she moves makes me thirst to come closer? “Implies your bad guy is successful in their job, maybe? Maintains relationships with their colleagues too, no doubt. A front, so if they’re ever questioned, every single person would sayFrank’s a good guy. No way he did this.”
My eyes drop to the portion of her belly exposed when she pops another button. “Frank?”
“Our hypothetical killer’s name.” Her eyes drop to my hand, which cups my steely cock. “Instead of sayingperporthey, we’ll name him Frank.”
“And by doing so, you create a bias in your mind.” I groan when electricity zings through my blood and her hands move to the button of her pants. Something changed in the last few minutes that turned herfuck offto a sweet, slow torture. “You’ve completely ruled out half the population by assuming the perp is male.”
