A Profiler's Case for Seduction(35)

“So, you think he’s the one?”

Mark didn’t reply and he stopped walking, his eyes with that hazy cast that let her know he’d disappeared into his head where murders were solved and where his desire for her had been stowed away when she’d denied it any life the night before.

She allowed him to stay inside his head for several minutes and then tugged on his arm. “Mark? Come back to me.”

He looked at her with the heavy-lidded blink that indicated he was rejoining the here and now. “Do you think you have the right man behind bars?” she repeated.

“To be honest, I don’t know. There are still some things that bother me,” he said as they continued on down the sidewalk.

“Things like what?”

He smiled. “Things that you shouldn’t be worrying about.” They passed a new banner that hung between two trees. Go Gladiators, it read. The background was bright red and the letters an electric yellow. “So, tell me about more about these homecoming festivities. Do you usually participate?”

“It would almost be sacrilegious not to,” she replied with a small laugh. “I always attend the bonfire on Friday and then go to the football game on Saturday night. That’s about the extent of my participating.”

“If I’m still in town could I join you for the fun?”

She looked up at him and as always her heart leaped in her chest. “I’d like that,” she replied as they reached the coffee shop.

As she took their usual table and he went to get the coffee, she thought of his request. If I’m still in town...it was a definite reminder that he was only here temporarily to do his job and then he’d be gone. They already had a viable suspect under arrest. Mark would probably never make it to homecoming. He’d be gone back to Dallas and his life.

A bittersweet feeling of both regret and relief flooded through her as she thought about the near-capitulation of the night before. She’d wanted more than anything to let him take her into her bedroom and make love to her until the morning light.

She knew she’d made the right decision in denying them both what they wanted, and his words about homecoming merely confirmed her decision.

She was used to being with the wrong men. Unfortunately, she believed that Mark might have been the right man, but at the wrong time.

When he returned to the table they sipped their coffee and talked about other cases he’d worked on in the past. Dora found it...him...fascinating. She told herself it was because she wanted to go into his line of work, but she knew it was much more than that.

She loved his clean scent and the way his slow, sexy smile began at the left corner of his lips and then spread out. She liked his abruptness, found his awkwardness in a social setting endearing. She was fascinated by the host of trivial information that occupied so much space in his amazing brain.

She was going to miss him when he left. He’d filled a space in her life she hadn’t realized was empty until he’d given her back the pen he’d borrowed.

They were just about finished with their coffee when Amanda Burns came whizzing through the door. She looked exhausted and frazzled as she headed to the counter. After she got her coffee, she turned and appeared for the first time to notice Mark and Dora.

“Hi, Dora,” Amanda said, her brown eyes deep with weariness.

“Hello, Amanda. Amanda Burns, this is FBI agent Mark Flynn,” Dora said.

“Nice to meet you, Agent Flynn.”

“Please, make it Mark.” He offered her a friendly smile.

“Amanda, you look absolutely exhausted,” Dora said.

Amanda offered her a grim smile. “To tell the truth, I am. Professor Grayson is on a research jag, and I seem to be the one assigned to do all the work.”

“What kind of research?” Mark asked.

“Everything I can find on sociopaths. Sociopathic killers in society, traits and backgrounds of known killers who have been diagnosed as sociopaths.” Amanda shrugged. “I think maybe she’s secretly writing a book or something.”

“Isn’t that the name of the course she’s teaching? Sociopaths in Society?” Mark asked.

Amanda nodded. “Yes, and she’s already gotten everything she needs for the course. She just wants more on the topic.”

“She’s well published in the industry,” Mark said, and both Amanda and Dora looked at him in surprise. He smiled at them. “What can I tell you, I have an eclectic taste in reading material.”