Her Christmas Detective - Laura Ann Page 0,12

if it hadn’t worked, though he tried to hide it.

He snorted. Choking on your steak was not the best way to hide it.

“What?”

Hank looked up from the dresser he was studying. “What, what?”

Bella stuck out her bottom lip and tapped her foot. “You snorted? Am I doing something wrong?” She looked at the bookshelf she was going through as if it had tattled on her. “I know you said you already looked in here, but am I missing something obvious?”

A smile grew on Hank’s face and he shook his head. Dang, she's cute. “No. I was just thinking.”

“About what?”

He felt the blood rush from his head. There was no way he was telling her he was thinking about the fact that he hoped she was serious about wanting to kiss him. “Nothing,” he choked out.

“It can’t be nothing.”

“Oh, it can.”

Bella rolled her eyes. “Why do men always do that? How can you honestly be thinking about nothing?” She shook her head. “It’s just not real. Minds are always going.”

“Women’s maybe,” Hank hedged, grateful the subject was shifting. “We men can absolutely be completely blank.”

She made a face. “That sounds horrible.”

He shrugged. “It’s relaxing.”

“Whatever.” Bella turned back to the bookcase.

Hank studied her. “So...what are you looking for?”

Bella glanced over her shoulder. “I don’t know. Something out of the ordinary.”

He couldn’t help but smile again. Usually he found newbies like her annoying, but she was just so eager...and so off the mark. “While it’s good to look over the whole room, the most important part of the room is going to be the place where the valuable was kept.”

Bella marched over to him. “So no bookcase?”

“We can look there if you want, but the odds of finding something there? Pretty slim.”

She sighed and squished her lips to the side. “Fine. Show me what you’re doing.”

Hank stepped back and opened up the dresser to her. “Come up here and tell me what you see.”

She stepped up close, her shoulder brushing his chest, sending a thrill through him, and Hank caught his breath. This tiny woman packed a powerful punch, but Hank wasn’t one to go down easy...he hoped.

“I see a jewelry box,” she stated, looking up at him.

Hank nodded encouragingly.

Bella bit her bottom lip and went back to looking at the display.

Hank forced his lungs to move just a little. The way she bit her lip made it look red and plump, and he found himself fighting the idea of kissing it. She was far too enticing for her own good. Suddenly, he realized she was looking at him with a concerned expression on her face. Crap. Did she catch me watching her mouth? “What was that?” he croaked out, clearing his throat. He took a long breath, only to breathe in her citrusy perfume, and his heart began to pound. I’m having a heart attack. At thirty-two years old, a tiny bite-sized woman is gonna put me in the grave.

“Henry?” Bella reached out and put a hand on his arm. “Are you okay? You look really pale.”

Hank coughed and stepped back. “Yeah. Fine.” He stepped away from her, his hands on his hips as he sucked in several long breaths, coughing in-between. “Fine,” he finally managed in a much more controlled tone. So help him, he was going to conquer this attraction. He couldn’t do this while on a job. He was here to fulfill a debt owed to Bill, not to hit on the innkeeper’s granddaughter, no matter how enticing she was. “Tell me again what you see. I was lost in thought.”

“Lost in something, that’s for sure,” Bella muttered under her breath, though Hank caught every word.

Hank barked a laugh. “Come on, Belle. Tell me.”

She shot him a look and Hank realized he’d given her a nickname. He shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “What? It fits you.”

Her look softened and she finally turned away from him, but not before her eyes darted to his lips and back.

Hank cursed in his head. This woman really was trying to kill him.

“Okay...I already said the jewelry box. But I also see a perfume bottle.” Bella picked it up and smelled it, then coughed. “Yep. That’s what she wears,” she wheezed. “You can usually smell her perfume cloud from ten feet away.”

Hank chuckled. “A lot of older women are like that. They get to where they can’t smell the scent as well, so they put on more until they can smell it.”

“Remind me never to get old,” Bella grumbled.

“I hate to say it, but it happens