Material Witness by Lisa Mondello, L. A. Mondello Page B

safe?
    What the hell was he thinking? And
Lord have mercy, that was just the problem. He was thinking way too much about
how much he wanted to take Cassie to bed when he should be staying focused on
the job he was sent here to do.
    In all the years he'd been on the
force, all the women he'd ever known who'd come and gone from his life, he
never had trouble keeping himself detached and focused on his work. A mere
twenty-four lousy hours with this tiresome woman, and he was forgetting all
he'd worked so hard to achieve. He couldn't keep his mind focused on anything
except the way her bottom lip jutted out just slightly when she pouted. Or the
way her laughter bubbled up inside her.
    How Cassie could even laugh at all,
given the situation they faced, was beyond him. But she did. And every time her
lips spread into a slow smile, Jake's mind went into a complete nuclear
meltdown. All he wanted was to crush her soft, tiny body against his and kiss
her until he couldn't breathe, until the rest of his body found the release
that would make all the craziness he felt inside make sense.
    He needed to stop this madness right
now. As attracted as he was to Cassie, there was absolutely no way he was
taking this woman to bed.
    “I think maybe we should go to bed,
ah, get some sleep.”
    * * *
    Cassie stared at Jake's face, trying
hard not to read into the multitude of expressions stretching and changing his
features. She was being ridiculous. She knew that. As much as she tried to
convince herself what Jake said was true, she couldn't keep the hairs on the
back of her neck from dancing on end.
    Maybe Jake was right. Maybe she had
been writing about crime too long and it had tainted her, making her unable to
deal with reality. She wasn’t living the story in one of her books.
    But then most people didn’t live with
the reality of getting showered with bullets as they had last night at Rory's.
That was not something out of one of her books. That had been real.
    She rolled her head on her shoulders,
easing out some of the tension plaguing her. Last night and the long drive had
taken its toll. She needed a hot bath and some distance from this incredible
pull she felt toward Jake, so she could regroup.
    “Okay. Where?” she conceded.
    “The center room here,” he said,
reaching dangerously close to her in order to open the door behind her. “It has
a private bath with no windows. You’ll feel safe there.”
    Stepping inside, he reached for the
light switch. Cassie was completely unprepared for such a beautifully decorated
room. Sure, the rest of the house was gorgeous, but this room looked as if it
had been decorated just for her. A queen-sized bed rested against the interior
wall. The mound of floral throw pillows piled high against the wooden headboard
looked like a huge welcome bouquet. The soft violet of the carpet brought out
the delicate stripes in the wallpaper. In the corner by the bathroom door sat
an empty secretary’s desk, just waiting for her and her laptop to set up home.
    Cassie had always dreamed of writing
in a secluded place, free from noisy traffic jams and telemarketing calls. But
never once in her wildest fantasies had she dreamed it would be like this. She
had all the peace and quiet she needed now.
    She drew in a short breath, amending
her thought. How could she have any peace when Angel Fagnelio was still out
there? Until that was resolved, she didn’t know if she’d ever find peace.
    “I'll take the room right across the
hall. Just knock if you need anything.”
    When she turned to the sound of
Jake's voice, she saw that he was by the doorway, stepping back into the
hallway.
    “Are you going to bed now, too?”
    He stopped and looked back at her
over his broad shoulder. “Just as soon as I check in with Bellows and tell him
we're all locked up for the evening.”
    “I'll just get my bag then.”
    She eased past him, filling her head
with the scent of his lingering aftershave and the faint smell of the