A Profiler's Case for Seduction(5)

“Grace. Her name is Grace.”

“That’s nice. So, you’re from Dallas?”

He nodded. “A little apartment in Dallas is my legal address, but I’m not there very much. I’ll only be here in Vengeance until we wrap up these murders by getting the guilty in custody.”

She’d understood that the moment he’d identified himself as an FBI agent. In town to do a job and then he’d get back to his life in Dallas, a life that had nothing to do with hers here in Vengeance. Once again she recognized that this was safe...he was safe and wouldn’t screw her up with a single cup of coffee.

No matter how attracted she was to him, he wouldn’t be around to tempt her into old, bad habits that would derail her. She could never allow that to happen.

“So, are you also investigating Professor Grayson’s kidnapping?” she asked.

“We’re all working to seek answers both in the murders and kidnapping case.”

“Why were you at the lecture this morning?” she asked, curious about his presence in the theater.

“The topic of sociopaths always grabs my attention. I just stopped in on a whim, but a phone call vibrated my phone and I had to leave to take the call.”

“Would you like my notes from the lecture?”

He smiled at her, the smile that wove heat through her entire body. “I suddenly feel like I’m nineteen again and sharing notes with the sharpest mind in the class.”

Dora laughed. “Sharpest mind. Wow, I definitely have you fooled.”

“I doubt it,” he countered easily. “I saw how diligently you were taking notes and it’s not the slackers who take a lecture so seriously.”

A blush rose into her cheeks as she saw the approval in his eyes. “I take my education very seriously.”

“As you should,” he agreed, and took another sip of his coffee.

Dora checked her watch. “I also take my job at the bookstore very seriously since it is part of what pays the tuition, and unfortunately, I’ve got to go.” Although she still had a few minutes to spare she felt the need to escape his disconcerting and gorgeous blue gaze and the sexy curl of his smile.

She stood and grabbed her laptop and her purse and then lifted the foam cup of the remainder of her drink. “Thanks for the coffee.”

He also got to his feet. “Thanks for the company,” he replied. “This has been a pleasant break from business as usual.”

“But it’s time to get back to business as usual,” Dora said briskly. He followed her outside the coffee shop and they stood for a moment on the sidewalk.

“I’ll guess I’ll see you around campus,” she said. “Thanks again for the coffee.”

“You’re welcome.” He murmured a goodbye as she turned to head in the direction of the bookstore. She could swear she felt his gaze burning in the center of her back until she turned left on the sidewalk that would take her out of his view.

Silly, she told herself, gripping her laptop against her chest. She was just being silly because for over three years she’d scarcely noticed the male population around her. Somehow FBI agent Mark Flynn had managed to sneak beneath her antimale radar.

No harm, no foul, she thought as she stopped beside a trash container. She finished the last of the coffee and then tossed the foam cup into the trash and continued her walk to the bookstore, her thoughts still consumed by the handsome Mark Flynn.

She hoped his team could not only solve the murders but also find out who had kidnapped and beaten Melinda and then had released her. It made no sense, and to date, nobody had come up with a reasonable motive for what had happened to the professor.

So far the investigation into the murders had spilled secrets left and right about the three male victims, tawdry tales of bribery and betrayal. They were ugly secrets that had everyone gossiping about who the victims had presented themselves to be and who, in truth, they had been.

Dora wanted the FBI to get to the bottom of the crimes, but she certainly didn’t want anyone digging around into her life, past or present.

Her past was filled with shame and regret, a place she tried not to visit in her dreams or thoughts. Her present was still filled with a secret she didn’t want known. Not because it would embarrass her, but rather because it would embarrass one of the two people who had plucked her up from the stinking back alley of her existence and given her a reason to live.

Professor Melinda Grayson was not only her teacher but also her older sister and her salvation. Dora would turn herself inside out to keep people from knowing that she was related to the esteemed, intelligent professor. She would never want Melinda’s reputation to be tainted by her own past.