There is no current adrenaline rush, though, and I’m not physically touching you at this moment, yet I still feel the attraction. You are an extremely handsome, fit man, so it’s only natural to—”
His mouth had fallen open. He quickly snapped it closed. “Shit, I thought you were thinking about the case.”
“The case? What about it?” They hadn’t gone inside the coroner’s office. She didn’t have new information to ponder.
Joel dragged a hand over his face. “I cannot figure you out.”
“Good. That means you’ll never be bored by me. And, so far, you are most certainly not boring me.”
His hand dropped. “You want me.”
Hadn’t she just said as much? “It won’t get in the way of our partnership, don’t worry about that. I have outstanding self-control.”
“I just bet you do,” he muttered.
That hadn’t sounded like a compliment. “You want me, too. There’s really no point in acting all shocked and maidenly.”
His eyes widened. Then turned to slits. “Did you just call me maidenly?”
Her hand gestured toward his lower body. “You have this physical reaction to me. I notice—”
He spun away from her. “Fuck. Chloe, you’re not supposed to point out a man’s hard-on.”
Yes, she knew that. But he was oddly cute when he was flustered so she’d been messing with him. “You’re not doing anything about the attraction either. I thought it might be best for us to simply put things out there. This way, you won’t be uncomfortable when you have a physical reaction to me again.”
He swore. He had some truly inventive curses. She waited for him to get it all out and then Chloe delicately cleared her throat. “You didn’t ask me.”
He swung back toward her. “Ask you what?”
“Who I killed? Don’t you want to know?”
“You haven’t killed anyone.”
“You certainly sound confident about that fact.”
“You look like a strong wind would blow you over.”
“To be fair, a hurricane force wind would knock anyone down.”
He stared at her.
She stared back. Chatting with him this way was quite fun.
“Your brother,” he rumbled.
Now you’re on the right track. “What about him?”
“He wanted me to be your bodyguard.”
Technically, she’d been the one to send Reese with that offer. Her lips parted—
“No, correction, you sent him.”
Good of him to remember.
“That means you wanted protection. That means you were afraid of someone or something. If you were a cold-blooded killer, I doubt you’d want a bodyguard. You’d just go after the threat yourself.”
She crept nearer to him. Saw the flare of his nostrils and the slight widening of his pupils. He likes it when I’m close. Only fair. Chloe had discovered that she rather enjoyed being close to him, too. “What makes you assume that every killer is cold-blooded?”
His gaze searched hers.
“When you dug yourself out of that grave…”
Joel didn’t flinch. His square jaw hardened.
“And you saw the man nearby…the guy still holding the shovel that had been used to toss the dirt over your body, did you feel cold-blooded when you launched your bleeding, broken body at him?”
He wasn’t speaking.
So she kept going. Her hand rose, and she slid her finger over the scar that cut across his upper lip. “He hit you in the face with the shovel. Left you with this mark. Broke your nose. So you took the shovel from him. You hit him. You stopped him. If you hadn’t, you wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
“The bastard buried me.” His lips moved against her finger. “He tortured me for hours, and when he thought I was dead, he dug a shallow grave and covered me with dirt.”
So much pain. So much rage. “Do you see yourself as a killer because of what you did?”
A muscle flexed in that hard jaw of his.
“Because the police didn’t,” Chloe continued as she caressed that scar one more time, then let her hand fall. “The DA didn’t. Everyone agreed it was self-defense.”
“I killed him.”
“But that doesn’t make you a killer. Self-defense isn’t murder.”
“You think you know so much about me.” He shook his head. “You got access to my files. Now you figure you’re in my head.”
“I am in your head.” She rose onto her tiptoes. Her gaze was on the scar. No, on his mouth. She could feel the darkness surging from him, but Joel was so much more than the monster he thought he’d become. He was—
“So, Chloe, are you going to make out with the new guy or were you planning to come inside to see the dead bodies? Because I’ve got a date, and I can’t wait on