Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(55)

It was oxytocin. Being around Owen Shaw rubbed at the pleasure center of her brain and released all those hormones meant to trick her into fulfilling her biological function. She was already addicted to it and it had only been one night.

“I mean, I’ll be there in a moment.” She forced herself to slow down and make sure her robe was firmly tied around her body, that she wasn’t all flushed and breathless with anticipation. She was going to be normal, like this was something that happened every day.

It’s totally normal to be crazy about the insanely hot guy who played your body like a freaking violin master.

Her primal brain wasn’t going down without a fight, but she didn’t have to listen. She could be a reasonable adult who knew that this road only led to heartache. It was like that old saying about the definition of insanity—doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.

She wasn’t going through that again. She was having a perfectly normal, adult relationship in which one of the partners sexually dominated the other. In which one of the partners had the most spectacular penis in the world. Not that she’d had the largest study of them, but she was a doctor. She knew a perfectly made body part, and Owen’s was thick and long, and when she’d pulled back the foreskin she’d seen a beautifully made cockhead.

She wanted to have sex again. Like all-day sex.

“I don’t understand why you’re here.” That hadn’t been said by Owen. A familiar voice floated down the hall. “She wouldn’t have given you a key to her apartment. Dr. Walsh is a careful woman. I’m the only one with a key. She locks herself out from time to time.”

She rushed into the living room where Owen stood with a cup of coffee in his hand. It was from the café downstairs, and she spied a brown paper bag sitting on the bar. He’d gone down and gotten them breakfast. The only thing marring the situation was the fact that Carter was standing there looking up at Owen with suspicious eyes.

“Well, you’re not sleeping with her so I guess you can give that key to me and I’ll take care of her from now on,” Owen shot back, and it was easy to see from the tense set of his shoulders that this morning was not going the way he’d planned.

Damn it. “Carter, you met Owen. He’s my guest. Now what’s going on?”

Owen passed her the coffee. “Not a thing for you to worry about. I went downstairs to get you some coffee and breakfast. It’s a vanilla latte and a couple of croissants. The lady who works down there told me it’s what you have on Sundays.”

She nodded, taking the coffee. “Thanks. I love their croissants.”

Not that she ate them often. Only one a week.

Was she going to parse her time with Owen out like that? Only once a week, and never more than a few hours. Wasn’t that the smart play? Indulge lightly but never so much that he could hurt her when he inevitably left?

“I hope you enjoy them. And I used this because I didn’t want to leave the door unlocked. You left it sitting on the bar.” He held up her keys briefly before placing them on the bar beside the croissants. “I’m glad I did, too, because this one was hovering around when I came back. He’s called the cops. You’re going to have to deal with that one, love. I have to get to work.”

He was leaving?

Carter had called the cops?

She was confused, but oddly the idea that Owen was leaving and he was irritated with her took precedence. She followed him to the door. “It’s Sunday.”

He turned, his hand on the door. “Yes, it is. And I have to work. I was going to stay and have breakfast, but I don’t think that one is going to make it possible. Watch out for him. He’s not the friend you think he is. He’s got a thing for you and he doesn’t like me. There’s more to this than you think.”

She reached out to him. This morning he seemed untouchable, distant, but then she wasn’t sure how she would feel if she’d been confronted with a guy who’d called the police on her when all she’d been doing was getting her boyfriend some breakfast.

Not her boyfriend.

“Besides, you have a date in a couple of hours.” He leaned over and kissed her swiftly. “I’ll see you soon.”

He walked down the hall. She stood in the doorway and watched as he strode down the hallway. She couldn’t see his apartment from her vantage. It was past the elevator.

“This is very dangerous, Rebecca,” Carter said from behind her. “What do you know about that man?”

“I know he was a guest in my home and apparently you called the cops on him.” Irritation rose swiftly inside her as she closed the door and rounded on her unwelcome guest. “You want to explain that thought process?”

Carter blinked once and then again. “I saw a strange man trying to break into your apartment. I didn’t realize he had a key.”

Was Owen right? Had she been misreading the signals Carter had been sending to her? He always seemed so uptight and prissy. She’d never once thought about him as anything but a colleague who was likely getting close to her because she was a department head. He was obviously ambitious, but he was also a man. Honestly, she’d kind of thought he wasn’t interested in her entire sex. “He doesn’t, but he certainly had permission to use mine. I wish you had talked to me before you involved the police.”