LITMIR.BIZ

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up real quick. “Oh.” Her frown was fierce. “I’m working on that.”

      “Work harder,” Dane suggested. “Or better yet, I can do it.”

      “No! I mean, I’ve got it covered. I’ll have something for you in a few hours.” Disgruntled, she seemed to sink in her chair. “Will that be good enough?”

      “That’d be great.” Dane picked up a file and headed for the door. “I’ll be staking out the Westbrook Motel today if anyone needs me.”

      “A stakeout?” Dane and Alec handled a lot of mundane, annoying cases—like cheating spouses and stolen lawn ornaments. But they also got involved in some really cool situations that Harris loved hearing about.

      “Yeah. The owners of a small motel suspect one of their employees of spying on guests in the pool changing rooms. I’m going to hang out back in the bushes and catch him in the act, then we can call in the cops.” Dane winked. “You kids be good. I’ll see ya later.”

      Finally. The second Dane was out the door, Harris headed for Clair. Anticipation hummed inside him. He couldn’t wait to taste her again.

      As he advanced, her eyes widened and she hastily pushed her chair back, but Harris didn’t give her time to retreat. He braced his hands on the arms of her chair, caging her in, and leaned down to take her mouth. She made a small sound of surprise—and then the sound got muffled.

      Oh hell yeah, he’d missed her mouth.

      Clair stayed stiff for about three seconds, then melted with a small moan. He liked that. He liked her. Maybe a lot more than he’d ever realized. When her lips parted, Harris accepted the invitation and slipped his tongue in for a deep, hot, wet kiss that lasted just long enough to get him semihard.

      “I missed you,” he growled against her mouth.

      Speaking must have broken the spell, because she blinked and shoved him back. She was breathing fast and her lips were slightly swollen and very pink. She readjusted her crooked glasses, then scowled. “Yeah right. You missed me so much that you’re following strange women around, desperate to meet your secret admirer.”

      “Not desperate.” Harris wasn’t all that steady on his feet at the moment. The idea of laying her out on the desk, pushing up her sensible jumper and indulging in a little office sex tempted him. But she didn’t look too receptive to that idea. “Just curious. If some guy was in love with you, wouldn’t you be curious?”

      A myriad of expressions—anger, frustration, hopelessness—crossed her face before she sighed and flopped back in her seat. “Maybe.” Her chin lifted. “But not if I was interested in someone else.”

      Harris propped his hip on the desk. He needed the support. “I’m more than interested, Clair.”

      Eyes flaring, she caught her bottom lip in her teeth. “Really?”

      Was she in love with him? As to that, was he in love with her? Harris had always figured that when he fell in love, the realization would hit him over the head. He wouldn’t have to wonder about it, he’d just know. But Clair was so different, he couldn’t figure her out. And that meant he couldn’t really figure himself out either.

      Choosing his words carefully, Harris hoped to talk her around to his way of thinking, without looking too pushy or, God forbid, desperate. “I like being with you, Clair. Even before all this sexual teasing started between us.” That brought another thought, and he asked, “You won’t go changing on me if we get involved, will you?”

      Clair was as still as a statue. “What do you mean?”

      “You tell me what you think and what you feel. But you don’t get hung up on little stuff. You’re always honest with me.”

      She’d closed her eyes and Harris wasn’t sure if she was listening. “Clair?”

      Leaving her chair to pace, she said, “We’re already involved. We just haven’t slept together. If you like me how I am now, well, I can’t see why sex should change anything.”

      “Sex changes some stuff.”

      She turned to face him, one brow raised in an attitude of skepticism. “How?”

      How? Harris shook his head and rethought his words. “I should say that sex between us will change things. If you were a different woman—”

      “Your secret admirer?”

      “Don’t sneer, Clair.” He liked her show of jealousy. It sort of tickled him, because he’d never thought of Clair as a jealous woman. “All I’m saying is that with another woman, I might not care. But if we do this, I’ll expect some rights.”

      She crossed her arms over her chest. “What rights?”

      Somehow, this was backward, Harris thought, almost laughing at himself. Here he was, a man who avoided commitments, now trying to pin her down. But what had seemed so appealing just days before, now felt too open-ended. Clair never pressured him, never wanted to know where he was or when he’d be back or if he’d call. He was a firefighter, yet, to his knowledge, she never worried. And that had been cool—till now.

      If she cared, shouldn’t she show a little concern every now and then? Shouldn’t she want to know if he was with another woman? Damn right, because if she didn’t demand that special consideration, how could he demand it of her? And he wanted to. All this talk about her past boyfriend had him feeling his own dose of jealousy. He didn’t want her with anyone else.

      Harris pushed away from the desk. “I won’t want you to ever jog at night without me.” He warmed to his topic, moving closer to her. “Hell, I don’t want you to do that now. If I can’t make it, you’ll skip it.”

      Her mouth fell open, then snapped shut and she declared with feeling, “I will not.”

      “Now Clair.” He closed the space between them, forcing her to back up. “It’s dangerous.”

      “You never cared before.”

      He was a dumb ass before. “We didn’t have that kind of relationship. Now we will.”

      “Ha. What if you find your mystery lady? Then I’ll be put on hold. So until you resolve your feelings for her, I’ll just continue to do as I damn well please.”

      Harris loomed over her. The thought of her alone at night infuriated him. “Then I guess I’ll just have to make sure I jog every damn night until we’ve got this settled.”

      Her back touched the wall and stopped her retreat. “You do anyway,” she grumbled. And then, a little defeated, she added, “Besides, I don’t enjoy jogging without you. Odds are, if you couldn’t go, I’d skip it too.”

      Harris cupped her face. Logical, honest Clair. “Thank you.” He kissed her again, but kept it light because he was running late. “I’ll be over tonight as soon as I get off work.”

      “Why?” Thanks to the kiss, her eyes looked soft behind her glasses. “We don’t run until it’s dark.”

      “We’ve got a lot to talk about. Me, you, sex.” He grinned at her. “We’ll hash it all out, because I don’t think I can wait too much longer.”

      He started to turn away, and she said, “Harris?”

      “Yeah?”

      “I don’t want to wait either.”

      Oh hell. A statement like that guaranteed he’d be semihard for most of the day. Not a comfortable circumstance while working with a group of men who lived to harass each other. And no doubt Ethan would be the worst, but then Ethan still prodded him about the shoebox. If he found out how much Harris cared about Clair, there’d never be an end to it. Without another word, Harris made his escape.

      But just as he’d suspected, Clair stayed on his mind, distracting him, filling his thoughts and making him edgy. That is, until a truck driver swerved

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