Diamonds Can Be Deadly by Merline Lovelace

theft of the sultana of D’han’s emerald?”
    He sent her a scathing look. “I may be out of the loop on some matters, but headquarters did read me in on that little incident. They also advised me Bartholomew Greene is one of the prime suspects behind the heist. In addition to being in bed with the Colombians, which is why I was sent to Hawaii in the first place.”
    â€œHave you uncovered any evidence that points to either the theft or Greene’s involvement in money laundering?”
    â€œNot yet. Have you?”
    He’d slipped the blade in so smoothly it took Jordan a moment to feel the prick.
    â€œOkay, okay. I admit it. I did some snooping around last night.”
    He didn’t appear gratified by her grudging admission. In the dim glow of the moon, his face was all hard angles and deep creases.
    â€œHow did you bypass the security systems?”
    â€œI used a sniffer to detect and avoid the motion sensors.”
    â€œWhat about the Y-beams?”
    â€œHeadquarters outfitted me with a thermal suit that contains body heat. It also,” she tacked on after a moment of brittle silence, “makes me sweat like a pig. That’s why my foot went out from under me on the bathroom tiles.”
    He angled her another look. “Did you find anything while you were poking around?”
    â€œNo.”
    She hated having to admit failure to another operative. Particularly this operative. She hadn’t yet made the mental leap from thinking of him as a dirty cop.
    A short, charged silence spun out while Jordan remembered the humiliation, anger and hurt she’d nursed for so long. She had to ask, had to know.
    â€œWhy did you get involved with me back in New York? Was I part of your cover? Crooked cop needs extra cash to romance his supermodel girlfriend?”
    â€œYou were never part of the sting, Red. You just…happened. For what it’s worth, I never intended to take things so far between us.”
    â€œWhat did you intend?”
    â€œA hot date,” he replied with brutal honesty. “An even hotter weekend. That’s all I had in mind when I approached you at the charity ball. I’d spent months perfecting my cover and setting myself upto take the fall. I knew the bust was coming, knew I couldn’t get serious about any woman.”
    â€œSo you were just filling time.”
    â€œYeah. At first. Then…”
    â€œThen?”
    â€œThen things got complicated.”
    That was one way of describing the fire they’d ignited in each other, Jordan supposed.
    â€œThe bust wasn’t supposed to net anyone except me,” TJ said after a moment.
    â€œSo what went wrong?”
    â€œA vice cop picked up a pimp I’d put the squeeze on. The pimp squealed, Vice took it to Internal Affairs and IA came down on the captain in charge of the anticorruption task force. We had planned the bust for later in the week, but with the crap about to hit the fan, the captain had to move on it. Unfortunately, he picked the same afternoon I finally got you into my bed.”
    â€œFinally?” She let out a huff of derision and disgust. “As I recall, we’d tangled between the sheets several times before that supremely regrettable session in your apartment.”
    â€œYou can’t regret it any more than I do.”
    She wasn’t so sure about that. Resting her chin on her sandy knees, she let the memories of their last hour together sweep back.
    As if it were yesterday, she could feel the tiny beads of sweat that had pooled at the base of TJ’s spine. The rasp of his unshaven cheek against hers.The sheer wonder of exploring his lean, muscled body with mouth and tongue and teeth. She’d never experienced anything close to that level of sensuality before. Or since.
    She wouldn’t have been so angry or so disgusted with herself afterward if the hunger had been purely physical. What hurt then, what still hurt, was the aching