Hard Line - Pamela Clare Page 0,52
and then verified the readouts on the computers. But still, her thoughts kept drifting.
Thor had called her beautiful. He’d made her feel beautiful.
It will all be over when they leave. But in the meantime, I’m going to take what I can and enjoy myself. That’s what you should do, too.
Kristi’s words came back to Samantha, a sinking feeling in her stomach.
She couldn’t get too attached to Thor—or his kisses. He would be leaving soon, going back to his life of jetting around the world. She would be here until her flight back to Chicago in November. There was no chance that their relationship would outlive their time on the ice.
Thor is temporary. Science is eternal. Remember that.
Yes, but science didn’t make her scream the way Thor had. If he hadn’t covered her mouth, she wouldn’t have been able to show her face in the galley for breakfast.
Sweet heaven.
She set the telescope to scan a new sector, raw data flowing into the computers, her focus slipping again.
Was Lance the killer? Part of her hoped he was because then the mystery would be solved. But the thought that someone Patty had loved might have ended her life was too awful. It was also terrifying to think that Samantha might have been friends with a murderer, sharing meals with him, splitting bottles of wine, talking about her research, trusting him with Patty’s heart.
There was another thing. When the killer was caught, Thor would leave.
He’s not going to stay here until November, so get that idea out of your head now.
Yes, she’d stupidly let herself fantasize about that. Months of nights with him—great sex, conversation, companionship. But it wasn’t going to happen. Her time with him would end soon. This was just a fling, a few weeks of stolen joy.
A burst of radio static made her jump.
“Dr. Park, this is Isaksen.”
“Samantha here.”
“Are you ready to head back?”
She glanced at the clock, saw that it was almost six. “Yes. I’ll wrap up.”
“I’m on my way, over.”
She rebooted a computer that had slowed to a crawl then checked all the connections between the telescope and the computers. By the time Thor knocked at the door, she was ready.
He stepped inside, removed his mask and hat. “We need to talk.”
That sounded serious.
“Okay.” She sat, motioned to Patty’s chair.
But Thor remained standing. “I’m going to read the last week of entries in Patty’s journal.”
“You want to read Patty’s journal?” Samantha stared at him.
He stood there, still in his parka, mask and hat in his hands. “It’s for the investigation. I wish I could explain, but I can’t.”
“You can’t even give me a vague idea?”
Thor seemed to wrestle with this. “We have reason to believe something unusual happened that last week of her life, something she didn’t share with anyone—not you, not Lance. We’re hoping she wrote about it there.”
Samantha tried to remember the last week of Patty’s life. It seemed like it had been so long ago now. Had something happened? Had Patty been caught up in something without Samantha knowing anything about it? “Why are you telling me? You have the legal authority, right?”
“You and I have a personal connection, so I’m telling you out of respect. Not telling you would feel like lying.”
And that right there was as good as foreplay.
“Thanks.” She stood. “That means a lot to me.”
His gaze stayed on her chair, his lips curving in a smile. “I had a fantasy about you on that chair.”
“You fantasized about me?”
“Oh, yeah.”
She looked back at her chair.
He laughed. “It’s not the chair, Samantha. It’s you.”
Samantha’s heart skipped a beat. She walked over to him, slid her hands up the front of his parka. “What did we do in my chair?”
He wrapped an arm around her, palm in the middle of her back, a lop-sided grin on his face. “You straddled me and rode me until you came.”
Heat flared between her thighs. “Well, the chair is here—and so are we.”
He touched his forehead to hers. “I didn’t bring a condom.”
She was about to say something about how sad that was when she remembered. “Well, I have a similar chair in my room.”
His lop-sided grin became a sexy smile. “Is that so?”
15
Thor sat in Samantha’s chair, her back to him, her thighs straddling his, their gazes fixed on her mirror—and the erotic sight of his cock sliding in and out of her. “See how beautiful you are?”
She stared at their reflection as he withdrew then thrust into her again, burying himself completely. “Oh! That’s so … hot.”
“Fuck,