this…wanted you…since the minute I laid eyes on you.” Her smile faded. “But this certainly didn’t move us any closer to solving the case, and it’s probably just complicated things between the two of us.”
He frowned. “Complicate things how?”
A tiny smile danced across her features once again. “Because now that I realize how very well you do this, I just might want to do it again.”
“And I would have a problem with that, why?” he asked wryly.
“Because I think maybe you’re ready for something more in your life than me.” She moved out of his arms and sat up and worried a hand through her long hair. “Whatever this is that we’re feeling, it’s just a fleeting thing…lust and nothing more. I’m here to do a job, and all this can be with us is a fringe benefit.”
She slid from the bed and padded naked into his bathroom and closed the door behind her. Cole folded his arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.
The euphoria he’d experienced only moments before had vanished, squashed beneath a sudden weight of depression.
How had this happened? How was it that he had three murder cases he wasn’t closer to solving than the day the bodies had been discovered and a potential victim living beneath his roof?
Still, what bothered him at the moment was the fact that he was precariously close to falling in love with a woman who’d made it clear that romance and marriage had no place in her life.
Chapter Ten
Amberly paced the floor of the conference room, occasionally stopping in front of the bulletin board to stare blankly at the crime-scene photos, but her thoughts weren’t on the crimes. Her head was consumed with thoughts of Cole.
He’d left earlier with Ben to drive to Kansas City and question John. She was anxious to hear what they’d discovered when they returned, although she was certain there was nothing to discover.
As anxious as she was about their investigation of John, she was equally confused and still a little flustered by her lovemaking with Cole.
Nothing in her marriage had prepared her for what had happened between herself and Cole in his bed the night before. The passion she’d always feared she’d never experience had exploded out of her in Cole’s arms, and it had been sheer, unadulterated passion for him.
Lust, she tried to tell herself. And everyone knew that lust didn’t last, that it eventually waned and left nothing behind. That hadn’t been her problem in her marriage. There had never been any lust for her where John was concerned, just a bottle of champagne and a night of mistakes.
Had last night with Cole been a mistake? How could she possibly categorize that splendid act as a mistake? She hadn’t known how wonderful lovemaking could be until last night. And now she would never want to settle for anything less.
He was getting to her, with his blue eyes and hot body. But more than that, he was getting to her with his compassion, with his intelligence and with his very heart, and she couldn’t allow that to happen.
Her life was complicated without a man in it. She had Max to consider, and she’d absolutely made a vow to herself when she’d divorced that she wouldn’t drag a parade of men through his life.
At least she hadn’t slept in Cole’s bed. After they’d made love, she’d gone back to the guest room, afraid that by sleeping in his arms, by awakening with him in the same bed to the morning light, what they’d shared would somehow transform into something deeper than mere lust.
She needed to be home. There had been no other threats against her since the photo and dream catcher hung on her mailbox. Maybe they’d jumped the gun by removing her from her home, from her son.
Sure, there was no question that the message sent to her mailbox had frightened her, but maybe it had been nothing more than a prank played by one of the men she’d fooled the night she’d gone to the bar and hadn’t told anyone she was an FBI agent.
She stared back at the crime-scene photos, her heart beating an uneven rhythm as she gazed at the victims. Was she willing to take a chance with her life, assume that it had been just a prank? Was she willing to take a chance on Max’s life?
She turned away from the board as Roger Black entered the room. “Thought you might like some lunch,” the deputy said