Explosive Attraction - By Lena Diaz Page 0,64
leaning over her, wearing a T-shirt tucked into his jeans. He pressed a kiss against her lips before she could turn away.
She pushed at his shoulders, shoving him back. “Need to brush my teeth.” She covered her mouth with her hand.
Rafe laughed and moved back to lean against the wall beside the bathroom doorway. “Fair enough. I’ll just stand here and enjoy the view.”
View? Darby glanced down, and let out a shriek. She was completely naked, and the sun was shining through the blinds, leaving nothing to the imagination. She grabbed the sheet from the foot of the bed and yanked it up to cover herself.
“Such a shame to cover up all that luscious skin. I especially love it when you get embarrassed. Your blush goes from your neck all the way down to your—”
“Get out of here,” she said.
“I’m going to enjoy working that shyness out of you.” He grinned and turned to leave.
Darby’s mouth fell open when she saw the words on the back of his T-shirt—I’m a bomb tech. If you see me running, try to keep up. She shook her head. What was it with cops and dark humor?
She hopped from the bed and ran into the bathroom to take a shower.
* * *
BREAKFAST, OF A SORTS, was waiting for her when she came downstairs.
Rafe was sitting on a bar stool at the butcher-block countertop that separated the kitchen from the main room. A pile of cereal bars was strewn across the wooden surface. Two bottles of water sat beside the mountain of food. He waved his hand. “Whichever family member uses the cabin last is supposed to stock non-perishable food for the next person, and keep the freezer stocked. Apparently one of my sisters was the last one here because there’s nothing in the freezer and we’re stuck with a stash of extremely healthy and bland breakfast bars to choose from.”
“What makes you think it wasn’t one of your brothers who left these bars?”
He gave her a droll look. “We eat real food, not woman food.”
“Woman food?”
He waved his hand at the countertop. “Low fat, low taste, high fiber.”
“It’s good for you.” She grabbed one of the bars and peeled the foil open. “What do you normally eat for breakfast?”
“Anything I can fry in a pan.”
She shook her head and took a bite of her cereal bar. Rafe seemed different this morning. Happy, less serious, more approachable. Did that mean he would answer her questions? There was so much she wanted to know about him, but one thing in particular.
She finished her cereal bar, then rested her chin in her palms while she watched him. “Why do you let Jake believe you cheated on your wife when she’s the one who did the cheating?”
Rafe choked on his water. He set the bottle down and coughed several times. He turned watery eyes on her. “What makes you think she cheated on me? I thought you believed Jake’s version.”
“Not anymore. You’ve risked your life time and again for me, even when you didn’t like me. There’s no way you would hurt someone you loved by breaking sacred vows. Besides, it’s obvious you knew who Clive McHenry was. And you admitted it had nothing to do with work. The only remaining conclusion is that it was personal. I figure you hired McHenry to see if your wife was cheating on you. So, again, why haven’t you told Jake you’re innocent?”
The carefree look on his face disappeared and his brows drew down. He took a long drink from his bottle of water.
Darby regretted that she’d destroyed his earlier light mood, but after last night, she knew what she wanted. She wanted Rafe. Not just for one wonderful night in a secluded cabin. She wanted more. She wanted a relationship. And to do that, she needed to understand him, to get to know him better. She didn’t want a lie standing between them.
“Why haven’t you told him?” she repeated.
“You don’t give up, do you?” He set the bottle down on the counter, a bit more forcefully than was warranted. “Bobby Ellington—the reporter we saw at the station—he snooped just enough to figure out that McHenry had evidence about an affair. Ellington assumed I was the one cheating, and that’s the story he ran in the paper.”
Darby gasped. “That’s terrible. Wait, are you saying you didn’t dispute the story? You let it stand? That’s why Jake thinks you’re the bad guy?”
“The only way to make the paper run a correction would