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Owen nods. “Good idea.”
The second the door swings shut behind Max, my body is alight with awareness. The tingling sensation of being watched is an itch beneath my skin. At one point, I’d craved this with all my being—a moment alone with Owen.
“We’ll have to make sure we don’t damage any of this furniture,” I say in a desperate attempt to keep my mind where it belongs—on work. “Budget won’t accommodate eight grand for a chair.”
“And how do you think we’re going to damage the furniture, huh?” Owen walks up beside me, and I feel his presence right down to my toes.
“Not likethat.” I don’t need to spell out that sex isn’t part of playing man and wife for this job. Owen might be a larrikin, but he’s not an asshole. In fact, the one time he had the chance to take advantage of our situation—the time Iaskedhim to—he declined due to “personal ethics” and I never quite got over the humiliation. Even thinking about it now makes my stomach churn. “But I do remember one young recruit who managed to break both a dining chairanda bed frame in one evening.”
“Harmless fun.” He slings an arm around my shoulders and I force myself not to lean into him. “It’s been a long time, Anderson. I missed you while I was in New York.”
I snort. “I didn’t think about you once.”
“Liar.” He laughs and his delicious scent fills my nostrils again. Damn it. How does he smell so freaking good? “You ready to take the bad guys down?”
“Absolutely.” This time my response is genuine. I love my job and I’m damn good at it. “They won’t even know what hit them.”
CHAPTER THREE
Owen
ITTAKESLESSthan a day for us to argue about every little thing—our approach for gaining the trust of the people in the building, where to set up discreet surveillance...what flavour pizza we should get for dinner. She wanted Hawaiian. Gross. Pineapple doesnotbelong on pizza.
We compromise and get Thai food instead.
“We should be talking to people already,” Hannah argues. Her dark hair started the day floating around her face, brushing the tops of her shoulders, but now it’s pulled back into a messy little knot. “You think they want to pay us for sitting around? That might be how things work in your cushy world, but we’re wasting taxpayers’ dollars right now.”
“Sorry, I was under the impression you were a detective senior constable, not the chief commissioner.” I spear a piece of duck and make sure I get some coconut rice on my fork, as well. Damn, it’s good. “And cushy, my ass. My job keeps me fit as a fiddle, and don’t think I didn’t notice you staring earlier.”
When some women blush, it’s like a delicate pink flush over their cheeks. Hannah’s blush goeseverywhere—over her cheeks and nose, down her neck and under the edge of her simple black T-shirt. But my favourite bit is how it colours the tips of her ears.
“I have to stare. It’s not often I see a class-A idiot in the flesh,” she snaps.
The defensive comeback bounces right off me—I’ve been called worse. No-hoper. Slacker. Troublemaker. I saw my eleventh-grade science teacher in my first month of being a constable and her eyes almost popped out of her head. To say most people didn’t expect me to do much with my life is an understatement.
Have you done much with your life? Really?
I promptly ignore that inconvenient thought and file it away where it belongs: in the corner of my mind marked “shit not to think about.”
“You’ve got such a way with words, Anderson.”
“It’s Hannah, remember? You can’t mess that up.” Her cheeks return to their usual colour as she tucks into her Pad Thai. “Now, back to work. We’ve got to get out and talk to people.”
“Have you ever met a newlywed couple who wanted to become BFFs with their new neighbours the second they got married? No, they want to fuck like animals and not leave their apartment.”
She rolls her eyes. “Youwouldthink that. How many times have you been married?”
“Zero. But if Ididget married, I wouldn’t make hanging out with the neighbours my first priority.” I reach for my Coke. “However, I do agree we can’t sit in here all night.”
“Then what?”
“We go for a romantic evening walk in the garden.”
She looks at me like I’ve sprouted a second head. “A romantic walk?”
“It will give us a chance to scope out the property, look for anything out of the ordinary and find some surveillance points.”
“And then we can talk to anyone we come across?”
