Strong, Sleek and Sinful - By Lorie O'Clare Page 0,103
wall. School papers and artwork. One might think these were Perry’s daughters instead of his sisters. Kylie wondered why he had never married and started a family of his own; obviously fatherhood appealed to him.
No. It wasn’t fatherhood. Kylie knew better. Like her, she guessed, Perry was married to his job. His sister’s daughters were safe because he wasn’t obligated to show up at the house at a decent hour or risk being called a bad dad. Control appealed to him, manipulating and running other people’s lives.
Kylie turned and looked at the closed bathroom door when the shower started. She really should leave. He wasn’t the man for her. There wasn’t a man for her. Like Perry, her work was her life. Although unlike Perry, she didn’t have a ready-made family that she could step into when she needed the fix.
Usually being alone didn’t bother her. When she was assigned a case, she submerged herself completely and didn’t give anything else any thought. It kept the loneliness away. In fact, Kylie wasn’t sure she’d ever felt lonely. She’d felt alone, but there was a difference. Ever since her perfect older sister was ripped out of her life, Kylie had walked through life alone. And being alone kept her strong, kept her moving from one case to another and nailing bad guys. With every arrest, she assured herself that she had saved one more person from the pain she’d endured at too young an age.
Her eyes suddenly burned and she realized she stared at the bathroom door without blinking. And she hadn’t left yet. He’d be out of the shower soon, and it would be too late.
Kylie dragged her fingers through her hair, feeling a wave of exhaustion hit her when she tried to get her brain to decide whether her smarter move was leaving or staying and demanding that Perry promise not to reveal who she was.
“He’s not going to promise you shit,” she mumbled, dropping her chin to her collarbone and feeling the stretch in the back of her neck. All of this would be a hell of a lot easier to figure out with at least a few hours of sleep. If she held out much longer she would lose the entire night, and sleeping tomorrow away—or was it today?—wasn’t an option.
There were large wooden blinds closed over two windows in his room. Her eyes still burned as she stared at the one next to his bed. She swore lights beamed against the pane outside. Frowning, she turned and reached for the bedroom light, switching it off.
“Interesting,” she whispered, walking to the bed and flipping off the lamp.
When she did, the light shining through the blinds grew quite obvious. Her heart started pounding when she climbed on the bed and crawled across it on all fours, instead of taking time to walk around. Then barely lifting one blind, she squinted outside at what appeared to be headlights, glaring straight at the side of the house.
“What the fuck?” she hissed, sliding off the bed and hurrying out of the room. All other lights were off in the house and she found the closest window in the next room where Perry’s computer was.
The headlights weren’t shining directly on this window, making it easier to peek outside. She spotted the dark vehicle parked across the intersection facing Perry’s house. Why would someone sit there with their car running and headlights glaring at someone’s house at this hour of night? Or very early morning, as the case might be.
Her heart thudded in her chest as she patted her gun in her thigh holster. The only way to find out whether someone was up to no good or not was to do a little investigating. She turned toward the living room and stopped in her tracks at the sight of Perry.
“What are you doing?” he asked, standing there with a towel wrapped around his still-damp body and not wearing anything else.
She pointed toward the window, dumbfounded briefly at the incredible view he offered. If whoever was out there was up to no good, Kylie needed to get out there quickly. That thought helped clear her head and gave her the strength to stare at Perry even though he was damn near naked, still slightly damp from his shower, and looking sexier than he did when he was outraged and all pumped up on adrenaline prior to going into the bathroom.
“Someone outside has their headlights pointed on your house,” she said, and moved her