Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,107

hear.” She patted the boy on the head. “You take care of your guest tonight, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” She waved and headed for the door.

“How about some dinner?” Ben asked, looking at Claire for agreement as much as Sam.

Sam vigorously nodded. “I’m starving.”

Claire looked pale and not the least bit hungry.

“You need to eat,” he said, encouraging her, and finally she nodded.

Ben served the meal, including the crisp green salad Emma had made, and they all sat down together. It felt the way it had when he had first brought Sam home and Claire had been staying at the house with them.

He thought about the last time he had taken her to bed, the hot sex they’d had at Buster’s cabin. He thought about all the days since then that he had wanted her and not been able to have her.

He looked at her, noticed the way a few strands of dark hair had come loose from her clip and floated against her cheek. He noticed her soft blue cashmere sweater and how it curved over her pretty breasts. Arousal slipped through him, tightened his groin.

He wanted her just as much as he had when she had been in the house before. And his bed was going to be just as empty.

He waited till they all finished eating then shoved back from the table. “Time for you to put on your pajamas and brush your teeth,” he said to Sam. “Say good-night to Claire.”

He did so politely, the way he always did, then disappeared into his bedroom to get dressed for the night he would spend on the sofa.

Ben wondered what Claire would do if he came to her tonight. He rubbed a hand over his jaw at a memory of a slender palm burning his cheek and wondered if she’d hit him again or invite him to join her.

“The cleaning lady was here this morning,” he said. “Clean sheets all around. I’ve got a T-shirt you can borrow if you need one.”

“That would be great. I’d...umm...like to wash my underwear before I wear it. I can’t stand to think of who might have handled it.”

He remembered her sexy red bikini panties and his blood heated. “Go ahead.”

He watched her head back to the bedroom to retrieve her things, walk past him into the laundry room to start a load of clothes.

The nights had been long without her. Now that she was back in his house, it was going to be a long night again.

* * *

Sam was asleep in the living room when Claire threw her clothes into the dryer and padded down the hall in search of Ben. She found him sitting at the computer in his study.

“What are you working on?” she asked, only a little self-conscious in the olive-drab T-shirt he had loaned her with just a pair of bikini panties underneath.

When he looked up and saw her, his shoulders tightened. She wanted to walk over and massage the tension away.

“I’m reading the exposé your boyfriend wrote for the L.A. Times.”

A chill slid through her. “Ex-boyfriend. Why are you doing that?”

“Because, angel, your friend was tortured. Whoever did it either wanted payback for something he did, or they wanted information. If they were looking for something they thought he had, that could also be the reason they trashed your apartment.”

“I thought they were looking for something to sell.”

“Could be. Could be they were looking for something else and what they took was just a bonus. Since the vandalism occurred a day after Sullivan was killed and I’m not a big believer in coincidence, I’m trying to figure out what your friend was working on.”

Claire straightened. “Oh, my God, you think what happened could have something to do with Michael.”

“If they were pressing Sullivan for information and didn’t get it, they might think you have it.”

“But I don’t have anything. I only went out with him a couple of times.”

“Unfortunately, no one knows that but you.”

“What...what should I do?”

“Be careful. Don’t go off by yourself. Tomorrow I’ll talk to Castillo, tell him what happened at your apartment. There’s a chance it was just what it seems, a drug addict looking to make enough for a fix, or a bunch of destructive kids. But we need to find out.”

Claire said nothing.

“Listen, baby, it’s been a long day. Why don’t you try to get some sleep?”

She nodded, but didn’t walk away. Even with Michael’s death and the vandalism, there was something she had to know. Something she’d