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As if accepting her positive appraisal as his due, he smirked and winked one of his slate-blue eyes at her. She snapped out of her trance. Pretty boys. They were all the same, self-centered jerks who looked like Apollo and acted like Hades. She’d learned that lesson the hard way.
So he wasn’t the Voice of Doom. Who was he, and why was he in Harvest asking questions that were better left to law enforcement? Time to find out.
“I’m Claire Layton and I own Harvest. Is there something I can help you with?” Proud of her steady, almost neutral tone, she drummed her fingers on the gleaming bar.
The man sauntered over and stopped an inch shy of her toes. He was tall and so close. She inhaled his musky scent. His black shirt’s buttons, level with the tip of her nose, worked valiantly to hold the material together across his muscular chest. Part of her hoped they’d burst just so she’d get a peek at the treasure beneath.
She forced her gaze upward. Her feet ached to take a step back, or forward, but she’d be damned if she’d give him the satisfaction.
“Who’re you and what do you think you’re doing in my restaurant?”
He laughed. Her nipples tightened at the warm, sensual sound. Her breath caught when he tweaked her on the nose.
“You’re a spitfire, aren’t you?” He chuckled, low and soft.
Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. She couldn’t believe it. He’d tapped her on the nose as if she were a five-year-old girl or a dog. An indignant flush swept up from her toes.
She managed, just barely, not to kick him in the shin.
“I’m Jake Warrick with Absolute Security in Denver. You must be Claire Layton, the girl who finds dead bodies in her garbage.”
“Only one body, thank you very much.” The words flew out before she could formulate a witty response.
“Yes, Kendall Burlington. Her father hired me to act as the family’s eyes and ears during the investigation. They want to make sure everything stays on the up and up.”
Claire’s jaw jutted out at the insinuation about her brother’s law enforcement ethics. Hank was the most ethical man she knew. He’d lock up his own mother before he’d be part of a cover up.
“Oh you, you…”
That’s it.
Quick as lightning, her hand snaked across the bar. She snatched the water hose attached to the sink under the counter. With a flick of her wrist, she aimed the nozzle and let it rip.
The geyser soaked his shirt until it clung to his brawny chest.
Chris cut short her satisfaction, much to her dismay. Yanking the nozzle out of her grasp, he handed it to Suzie like a hot potato.
A wolf whistle blasted across the room.
“You better get that man a new shirt quick,” Celestine hollered from the dining room. “Before one of the old biddies out here gets a little too excited seeing all those muscles.”
Claire glanced over. Sure enough, Jake had peeled off his sopping-wet shirt. He did, indeed, have muscles on top of hard muscles. A dusting of dark hair covered his pecs. Her mutinous eyes followed the narrowing trail of hair until it dipped into the low-slung waistband of his jeans. She balled her hands to avoid reaching out and tracing the shadows on his six pack. Gritting her teeth, she forced her gaze to his face.
The bastard grinned at her. Her clit tingled in response.
Damn. Why did she always want the cocky jerks? There must be something wrong with her. She had to get out of here and give herself a chance to get her treacherous body under cont
rol.
“Chris, why don’t you come with me to get a shirt for Mr. Warrick? We wouldn’t want him to catch cold.”
She stomped toward the storeroom.
Jake winked at the interfering old lady in the dining room and sat down at the bar. Man, that water had been cold, even if the woman spraying it had been on fire.
What the hell had he been thinking, challenging her like that? He knew the rules. He had to win over the witnesses, gain their trust and charm them into telling him everything they knew. He’d just given the middle finger to every one of those requirements. What had this woman done to him?
She’d walked in with flames shooting out of the ends of her auburn hair, chocolate-brown eyes blazing. Dressed in a dark purple dress that wrapped around her tight body, highlighting her large breasts. His body responded to the fierce pixie. Strongly. He couldn’t stop himself from stoking her inferno. Her heat had spread to him and turned any thought of his mission to ash.
