Settling an Old Score - Delores Fossen Page 0,28
around,” she said, and Ashlyn reached up and touched her fingers to the muscles that were bunched up there.
Eli probably should have just blown that off and gotten the conversation back on the right track. He could do that easily by telling her the bits and pieces of info he’d learned about the investigation. But apparently, this was going to be the day his brain joined the other stupid parts of him.
“Naked thoughts,” he admitted.
Her eyebrow rose. “Of us.” Now she got some color when she blushed. “Of us in your truck,” she continued without waiting for him to say anything. “It’s firm in my memory because you were my first. That creates a strange intimacy. A connection. No matter what happens afterward, it stays with a woman.”
“It stays with a man, too.” Apparently, the stupidity was just going to keep on coming from him.
The corner of her mouth lifted for a quick smile. “I wasn’t your first,” she pointed out.
He nearly blurted out that some were more memorable than others. Ashlyn had definitely been memorable. But he’d filled his dumb things to say quota for the day.
“Losing you was hard,” she went on. “Then, hating you for Marta...” She stopped, waved it off.
Eli just stared at her and waited her out. It took her several moments, and she kept her gaze on the floor, but Ashlyn finally continued. “This might be easier if I really did hate you. I don’t.” She looked up at him, and yeah, their eyes locked.
“It wouldn’t be easier,” he assured her. “I didn’t like you hating me.”
She gave him that half smile again and brushed her hand down his arm. It wasn’t a flirty kind of gesture. More the signaling of some kind of truce.
Despite that, it went straight to his groin.
That wasn’t a good direction for any kind of feeling to go, and before Eli could talk some sense into himself, he slipped his hand around the back of Ashlyn’s neck, pulled her to him and kissed her.
Eli grimaced at her taste. Not because it was bad but because it was damn good. Like a really nice present that he’d just unwrapped. A hot one, and that heat did a number on him when it slid right through him.
Ashlyn moaned, her pleasure mixed with some hesitation. Which meant she was smarter than he was right now because he couldn’t muster up any hesitation whatsoever. None. Eli just hauled her closer and deepened the kiss until it was more than a mere slide of heat. There was need. An urgency. The kind of rush that upped the stupidity and made him remember being naked with her in his truck.
Gunnar’s noisy yawn caused them to jerk apart—which Eli was certain he should see as a good thing. Once his body softened and the steam cleared in his head, that is. Gunnar lifted his head, glancing at them from over the back of the sofa. In that glance Eli got a reminder that Gunnar was a good cop, because he saw the realization in the deputy’s eyes. Gunnar knew what they’d been doing.
“I’ll be back,” Gunnar mumbled, tipping his head in the general direction of the hall bathroom. That was no doubt an invitation for Ashlyn and him to continue the mistake they’d just been making. They wouldn’t. But Eli figured he’d be thinking way too much about doing it again.
“I know you’re sorry that happened,” Ashlyn whispered. “There’s no need to apologize.”
She didn’t give him a chance to even consider if he wanted to do that. Ashlyn went back to the fridge and took out one of the sandwiches that they’d picked up earlier from the diner. Apparently, kissing him made her hungry. He was hungry, all right, but not for food.
“Were you able to find out any more about Dominick’s bank account?” she asked.
He reminded himself that talking about the investigation was a good thing. Whether it felt like one or not. “Nothing. No suspicious withdrawals.” Of course, Eli hadn’t expected there to be, since Dominick had voluntarily given them access. “I called the prison, and the warden is setting up a phone call with Leon. I want to ask him about Oscar, about what he said.”
She nodded. “It’s true that Oscar visited Leon?”
“Yes. He’s been there three times since Leon’s conviction, but two of those visits have happened in the last month. The conversations were monitored, but the recordings of the visits have already been wiped.”
Judging from her expression, she wasn’t any more