she’d distracted him from touching her. After all, finding out what had happened to her was more important than another round of mind-blowing sex. Though at the moment—at any moment—mind-blowing sex sounded a hell of a lot more fun.
“Yeah. I remember because it sounded so cutting-edge. I know it’s in here somewhere.” She tossed the journal she’d been studying in a pile of others and grabbed a new one from the coffee table.
“What are you doing with all of these?”
“McKellen Publishing handles several scientific journals, including medical ones. Occasionally I’ll paw through them if something on the cover catches my eye. I know I saw it somewhere.” She glanced around the room and bit her lip. Journals littered the floor. She’d already been through all the ones she had at home.
She pushed to her feet. “I need to go into the publishing house today.”
Ryan rose. “No way.”
One look and she saw the worry in his eyes. Why did she have that strange feeling he was keeping something from her again?
“Ryan, I’ll be fine. I can check the database at work. The article I’m thinking of will be listed there. I need to find it.”
“I don’t want you going there. Not until we know who’s connected to this.”
Fighting him on this wasn’t going to help. He was stubborn and domineering and way too sexy standing there in her living room for her to want to argue with him.
Biting her lip, she rested the palms of her hands on his chest and tipped her eyes up. “You could come with me.”
His hand slid up to cover hers. “Teasing me will not get you what you want.”
She moved closer, rose up on her toes, ran her lips softly over his. “Why not?”
“Because I’m not that easy.”
She laughed, trailed her lips across his jaw to his ear, pressed her body against his. His sharp intake of breath told her she was doing a good job at seducing him. His arms came around her, and the muscles in her stomach tightened when his lips caressed her neck. She felt his arousal against her hip.
“You can have your shirt back if you go with me,” she said in his ear.
He walked her forward until she bumped into the couch. Swift fingers streaked up under the hem of his shirt, whisking it over her head. It landed on the newel post. He flipped her around and bent her over the arm of the sofa. “I think I get my shirt back either way, babe.”
She gasped, then shuddered when his lips found her nape again, when his hand dipped between her legs. Then finally sighed when he stroked the fire already burning inside her and made her forget everything but him.
***
Kate slipped on her sunglasses as she stepped from Ryan’s Jag. She waited on the sidewalk with a frown while he took his sweet time. He’d been dragging his feet all morning, almost as if he didn’t want to help her after all.
He’d wasted time making her breakfast, had lured her into a long, hot shower where he’d washed her with his hands and tongue, then convinced her he had to stop at his house on the way in to change clothes and see the kids before they left again. It was now close to noon. Not that she was complaining about any of it, but she was itching to find that article. And his snail pace was grating on her nerves.
“You’re worse than a woman.”
He slipped the keys into his pocket. “Don’t start with me. I have a bad feeling about this.”
Okay, so he was worried. She could deal with that. Then why was that underlying feeling that there was more to this still eating at her? Shaking off the thought, she tucked her arm in his and pulled him toward her building. “Come on. We’ll be in and out. No one will even know we’re there.”
The office was abuzz when they stepped out of the elevator and onto Kate’s floor.
“Kate, you’re here. Thank goodness.” Jill scrambled from her desk, grabbing a handful of messages. “The phone has been ringing off the hook since Monday morning.”
Oh, great.
Kate glanced at Ryan. “Jill, this is Ryan.”
To his credit, Ryan said nothing about Jill’s nose ring. Or the plethora of tattoos up and down the twenty-something girl’s arms. “Hi.”
Jill’s gaze darted from Kate to Ryan and back again. Her eyes widened when she finally recognized him, and a silly grin spread across her face. “Oh. Hi.”