The Private Serials Box Set(15)

“The drawers are empty,” he said with confusion.

“Oh. Yes. I might have thrown some things away,” I said, trying not to sound as embarrassed as I was.

“You might have thrown some things away?” His voice had a smile to it, but he was busy opening and closing empty drawers.

“The night we followed Derrek and saw him with his other family, I came home and needed to relieve some stress.”

“So you threw away some papers?” His question came with a chuckle.

His words made my spine straighten. He was laughing at me.

“First, I threw them all over the room, then I threw them in the garbage.”

He was trying to keep the smirk from his face, I could tell. “So you came home, emptied his drawers in a fit of rage, scattering his documents all over the room, and then you cleaned up your mess?”

He was definitely laughing at me.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“What are you getting at?” I sneered.

He came from behind the desk and walked toward me. For just a moment, his eyes were on mine, but then they moved to the wall behind me where Derrek had his diplomas displayed. He passed me, but left no room between us, his arm brushing my shoulder, but then I felt him turn sharply so he was just behind me, pressed up against me slightly. I stiffened when I felt his front graze my back. I lost the ability to breathe when I felt his breath against my ear as he spoke.

“I’m just saying,” he practically growled. “There are better, more gratifying ways to release your aggression.” I felt him move away, but the absence of him made no difference to the storm that was now brewing inside my traitorous body. I was stunned silent, my heartbeat pulsing through me, pumping blood to areas suddenly awakened by his breath on my skin. For the second time in just as many days, I found myself pressing my thighs together, trying to stave off the physical reaction I was having to Preston. My breath shuddered out of me, not quietly, and I winced, thinking he had heard and could tell I was affected by him. Although, it wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out I was aroused; my entire body seemed to be quivering.

I tried to be angry at him, tried to be appalled that he, the supposed professional in our arrangement, would be hitting on me, a married woman. But even though the notion was there, the intention to find his actions repulsive, I couldn’t move past my acute arousal.

“I think,” I managed to say, although I sounded completely unsure of my words and not at all as forceful as I imagined I would in my mind, “I think you need to leave.”

“Why’s that?” His voice was still behind me, but I turned to see him inspecting the certificates on the wall.

“What if Derrek returns? How will I explain a strange man in his office? In his home?”

He turned back around, but didn’t look at me. He moved again, heading to the big chair behind the desk and sat down, powering on the computer. “You obviously have no faith in me and my ability to do my job. Why in the world did you even hire me?”

“Your company was just the first one I came to,” I answered honestly. He nodded but didn’t speak immediately. He pressed some buttons on the computer then spoke again.

“You hired me to investigate your husband and his extracurricular activities. He is currently in Bend. Whether he’s there for business or pleasure, I’m not sure.”

“Then shouldn’t you be there trying to investigate that?”

His eyes snapped to me and his voice was smooth but dark. “Would you like to pay me six hundred dollars, each way, to follow your philandering husband on a ski weekend?” He paused and watched me. I tried not to give away that no, I did not want to pay him twelve hundred dollars to drive to Bend, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

Instead, I turned and left the room, throwing over my shoulder, “Let me know if you need anything else.” I continued back into the kitchen, where I found Sam leaning her hip against the counter, one hand to her mouth, unconsciously biting her nails.

“Holy shit, Lena,” she said loudly when I walked in. “You did not tell me your private investigator is the most attractive man I’ve ever seen in person.”

“Keep your voice down!” I whispered to her. The very last thing I needed was Preston Reid hearing us talk about how attractive he was. “And he is not the most attractive person you’ve ever seen,” I countered.

She scoffed at me. “He abso-f*cking-lutely is the hottest man I have ever encountered.”

“You had your eyes on him for all of ten seconds,” I said as I moved past her, trying to busy myself with cleaning the kitchen, needing a distraction.

“I only needed three,” she replied. “What are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“What are you going to do about the man in your husband’s office who exudes sexual prowess?”

“Sam, you’re being ridiculous. I’ve hired him to investigate my cheating husband, that’s all.”

“So you’re not even going to try to see him naked?”

“What? No! I’m married.”

“You’re married to a man who has another woman on the side with whom he has two children.” This was information I already had, but hearing someone else say the words so callously hurt.

“That doesn’t mean I’m going to jump the first attractive man I come across.”