“Just once,” she answered.
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“Why?”
She hesitated just a second, but he caught it. “A local woman was murdered.”
“What made that interesting?”
Her lips pursed and her eyes took on a hardness that startled him.
“Don’t glare at me, Darcy. It’s a valid question. The Feds have bigger fish to fry than a small-town murder. What caught their interest about this one?”
She exhaled in a rush. “The MO was a match to a serial killer they were looking for.”
From the moment Darcy had spotted Jared Cameron in the police station, she’d known he was going to tear through her orderly life like a whirlwind.
His looks had knocked her back first. It had taken everything she had to keep her mouth from falling open when he’d walked up to her epitomizing the description of tall, dark, and dangerous. Then, he’d swept her right out the door, his touch sending tingles racing up her arm and through her body. Now she was sitting across from him, faced head-on with how seriously freakin’ delicious he was. Her mother would call him a “cool drink of water,” but Darcy wouldn’t. Every time their eyes met, her mouth went dry. Despite his purely professional discourse, the way he looked at her with those electric blue eyes was with raw animal hunger.
And damned if she didn’t want him right back. It was a primal response she couldn’t suppress. Socially, he was gruff and abrupt, so she was inclined to imagine him screwing her senseless without talking. Sweaty, grasping, grinding fucking. That’s what he radiated with his agitated energy and fierce gaze, and she was sold. It had taken his force-of-nature energy to make her realize she’d been dead for a while. A no-holds-barred one-night stand was just what she needed to knock the dust off.
“Which serial killer?” he asked in that clipped rough voice that brought to mind golden whisky in a crystal tumbler. He brushed back a lock of inky black hair with a careless hand, and she couldn’t help but notice the veins coursing along his powerful forearms and biceps. He was perfectly built to her tastes—lean, ripped, and not the slightest bit bulky.
“Some guy from the Midwest who carved Mayan symbols in his victims’ torsos.”
“The Prophet.” Jared leaned back in the booth, the casual pose doing little to soften him. “Counting down to doomsday. Sick fuck.”
Her brows rose. “Is that your professional opinion?”
“In my professional opinion, he was a whack job. And so is this guy torching your town.”
She almost smiled. Jared Cameron was a blunt object, no doubt about it, but it made her feel better knowing he was here. She couldn’t fathom anyone getting anything over on him.
“Listen.” His fingertips drummed on the table. “You can’t carry around guilt and blame for these fires.”
“I’m not.”
“Bullshit. The waitress tells you she’s taking steps to protect her property and you start apologizing like it’s your fault.”
Darcy’s hackles rose. “This is a small town, Deputy. People around here aren’t exactly rolling in the dough. She spent—”
“The name’s Jared. Use it.”
“You’re just full of charm, aren’t you?”
“You don’t want charm, and we’re talking shop.”
“How the hell would you know what I want?”
“Because I want the same thing.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice, his blue eyes burning like flame. “I want it so badly my dick’s been half hard since the moment I saw you.”
Arousal swept through her like a sudden fever, flushing her skin. No man had ever talked to her so crudely, so there’d never been a chance for her to learn it turned her on. Now she knew, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d be vocal in bed. Just thinking about him growling raunchy and obscene statements while screwing her made her ache with desire. She struggled not to squirm, but she couldn’t resist goading him for more. “And what is it we both want, Deputy?”
He didn’t move a muscle for a moment. Then his lips curled on one side in a wickedly carnal smile. His eyes glittered with fierce, hard lust. “You want a sheet-clawing, back-arching, mind-blowing fuck, and I want to pound my cock into you until I’ve come my last drop.”
Darcy sagged into the seat back, her hand lifting to her throat. “Whew.”