“No.”
“Can you tell me which executives are involved in the price-fixing?”
“No.”
Reese groaned in frustration. She applauded his ethics for his job, but it only made it all that much harder for her to do hers. Given what she’d seen in the notes the witness had taken of several meetings, Ashton Chatterton was more than aware of the price-fixing scheme. He was ordering it, he was negotiating with the competitors for volume, he was sending his top executives when he wasn’t present at meetings.
An idea was forming. “I can help you. If you can’t get your witness to talk, I could do it.”
Knight blanched in horror.
Reese hastened to reassure him. “No, I mean, I could get a job at Delco as an executive assistant or something. Then I could record their meetings.”
Knight undid his gun holster and tossed it on the dresser. “You’ve lost your mind. Why would Delco hire you? It would take weeks to go through the whole resume/interview process, and then you’d wind up as secretary to some guy in accounting or something. They don’t give new inexperienced secretaries to the big boss. And,” his finger went up to tick off the point, “they wouldn’t talk about price-fixing while you’re serving their coffee.”
Clearly, they were not going to agree on this. Reese thought he was underestimating her considerable powers of persuasion. She said, “You’re very negative. And cranky tonight.”
He walked towards her, stalking, hands fisted at his sides. “Because you insist on poking your pretty little nose into this case, jeopardizing a six-month-long investigation. And you’re talking about it again, when all I want to do is lay you flat on that bed and sink into you.”
As Reese tried to think of something to say besidestake me,Knight reached into his back pocket and emerged with a row of three condoms.
Oh, yeah.Desire hit her below her belly, hard, heavy, aching want. Without her brain even being involved, she tugged at the waistband of her pajama pants and let them drop to the carpet.
His nostrils flared.
“You went to the store.” Smart man.
“On my way home from work,” he agreed, taking another step towards her.
The room was hot and the backs of her knees were sweating. But her inner thighs were burning, wet liquid heat rushing in anticipation, dampening her panties.
Knight’s phone buzzed.
Reese froze in the act of tearing her tank top off.
Knight swore. “Reese…shit, I’ve got to go. My witness needs to talk to me.”
She pulled her top back down to cover her breasts and took a shuddering breath to regain her sanity. Knight must be as rattled as she was, since she couldn’t imagine he would have offered info about his witness otherwise.
He was strapping his gun back on, the condoms disappearing into his pocket. “Can I come back when I’m done?”
She should tell him no. Who did he think she was? She wasn’t going to just hang around waiting for him to grace her with his presence.
Except she couldn’t worry about her affronted dignity when she was this aroused. If he didn’t come back, she was going to suffer through a long and lonely night. Besides, she had every intention of following him to find out who his witness was.
It only seemed right that after that little bit of deception, she should have sex with him.
Aware that something sounded a little strange about that whole line of reasoning, nonetheless she said, “Yes. You can come back.”
He leaned towards her like he was going to kiss her, then jerked back at the last second. Looking uncomfortable, he gave her arm an awkward pat. “I’ll see you later, then.”
“Bye.” Reese smiled and waved, pulling her pants back on.
The minute the door closed behind him, she dove for her purse and shoes. Except she couldn’t exactly wear nude pumps with pajama pants. Afraid she’d lose him, Reese shoved on her fuzzy white slippers, grabbed the sweatshirt Knight had left on her bed and stepped into the hall, peeking first to make sure he’d gotten on the elevator already.
Reese sprinted for the stairs. By the first floor her thighs were burning, her lungs collapsing, and her slippers sliding off. But when she burst into the lobby, sucking air like a vacuum, she saw Knight step through the doors to the hotel parking garage.
In another minute she was in her Ford Taurus rental car, following Knight as closely as she could without risking him noticing. If he discovered her, she didn’t think it would be pretty. Likely it would involve handcuffs. Not part of a fun-sex-game handcuffs. But you’re-heading-for-the-slammer handcuffs.