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“I will still help you, but I will not help Jason.” He brushed a stray hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. That gesture seemed absurdly intimate. She wanted to back up but she was already against the window. She didn’t want him to know how badly he was affecting her so she tried to casually turn away but he blocked her exit.
“Did Jason learn anything in the interviews?”
She wished he would back up or she could escape past his big, beautiful body. “Why should I tell you?”
Heat came off him in waves and landed point-blank on her chest. Her nipples were getting hard.Ridiculous. Grow up.She’d been yelling at Susan for behaving like an oversexed teenager and here she was doing the same thing. She wanted him again no matter how much she tried to deny it.
“Because you want my help,” he said and then propped one forearm on the window next to her head, “Harper.” His rumbling voice caused a needy vibration between her legs. He ran a finger down her cheek. “You need to decide if you want to know who killed Astrid or if you want toprovewho killed Astrid. I can help you with one but I can’t help you with the other.”
Heat pooled between her legs as she tried to remind herself to behave like an adult. Astrid.Focus on her.
She cleared her throat. “I don’t understand.”
His voice was soft and sent shivers across her skin. “Jason needs to follow the rules and find proof. I just need to find answers. You need to decide what you want to find.”
She took a deep breath.Big mistake.His scent swirled about her. A mix of citrus and something darker, but wholly masculine. It made her think of having sex with Flynn which in turn made heat creep up her neck into her cheeks. He was right, of course. Jason would do things by the book and that may or may not lead to the truth. She had no doubt that Flynn would get to the truth, but he may not get justice.
“I can live with just knowing who did it. That’s a start. We can build on it. Find proof later.” It came out quickly as one run-on sentence. She hated that she rambled when she got nervous.
“What did he find out from all those interviews?” he asked as he traced her jawline, his touch feather-light.
She swallowed. “Nothing interesting. No one has an alibi. They were all in bed alone.” As she said it she had a mental image of Flynn in bed, naked and alone. She sucked in a breath.
Flynn seemed to be able to read her mind because he slanted his mouth across hers, capturing her lips, opening them with his tongue. She leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his neck. It felt so fucking amazing, so…right. He slid his hands down and cupped her ass, pulling her against his erection. Heat pooled between her legs, and she deepened the kiss, sinking her fingers into his hair.
There was another sound. Flynn broke off the kiss and looked at the wall. The hair on Harper’s arms stood up. A book fell off the shelf behind the desk, and Harper jumped. Maybe there really was a ghost and they didn’t like people making out in their library. She was completely creeped out.
Flynn walked over and stared at the shelf the book had fallen from. She immediately felt the loss of his body next to hers. He put his hand on the back of the shelf and then shifted the books on it all around.
“What is it?” she asked her heart pounding against her rib cage.
“I’m not sure,” Flynn said. “But whatever it was, is gone.” He bent down and picked up the book, placing it back on the shelf. Turning he moved around to the front of the desk and rested his butt against it, crossing his legs out in front of him.
She was immediately disappointed that he wasn’t coming back over to pick up where they left off.
“Tell me about Astrid’s murder,” he said. “I want to know details. I understand she was found recently but had been missing for a while.”
“Three months.” Three torturously long months. “She told her father she had plans to go out with friends. They were celebrating before going off to college in the fall. She was dressed up which Paul, her father, thought was weird, and he’d asked her about it. She said they’d all wanted to dress up and go out to dinner. He just figured it was kids having fun until she didn’t come home.”
“What was she wearing?” Flynn asked.
“A little black dress. She and my niece had gone to the mall and bought it the day before. Astrid told my niece that she had a secret date and didn’t want to tell her father about it. She said she would tell Audrey all about it after the date, but of course, she never came home again. I have a theory about that.”
“What’s your theory?” he asked.
“I think that Astrid knew Audrey wouldn’t approve of whoever she was seeing so she didn’t want to tell her until…something happened. Until they were official or until…her stomach turned at the next thought. “Until they were serious.”
“You mean until she’d slept with him,” Flynn clarified.
She nodded her assent.
Flynn rested his hands on the edge of the desk. “Who would your niece not approve of?”
“An older man. I floated the idea to Jason and George Crawley and Lazlo last night over dinner but they didn’t say much. Flynn, I know it. Like, I know it in here.” She put her fist over her heart. “She was seeing an older man.”
“Where did she meet this older man?”
She shook her head. “I have no idea. School possibly, but a better guess would be The Clam Shack. It’s an upscale restaurant in town. Astrid worked there when they needed extra help for functions and stuff.”
