Shadow's Lady (A Pajaro Bay Cozy Mystery + Sweet Romance) by Barbara Cool Lee Page B

she was going to stay an object of his desire. Nothing more than a distant fantasy to haunt his dreams.
    What had gotten into him? He couldn't blame his indiscretion on the hypothermia. He'd been in tight spots before and he'd never lost control so completely around a woman. He'd never felt this dangerous impulse to bare his soul before.
    Some part of him had wanted her to know the truth—the whole truth about him. But this wasn't the time or place for self-revelation, so he'd ended up giving her just enough information to scare her, but not enough to let her know who he really was.
    Now he was caught in limbo between the safety of anonymity and the dangerous truth. And he was stuck there. Until he left the Project and came back to the normal world. He doubted that would ever happen.
    His partner George had urged him to give up the Shadow. It had served him well. It had served the Project well. But it had cost him years of his life. He had wanted it that way. No home life. No connections to anyone or anything but the task ahead of him. His job became all-consuming, and he had thought himself satisfied by work rewarded only with the friendship of fellow agents and the pride in a job well done.
    But now he'd returned to the town that never wanted him, and all the old questions came rushing back.
    The Shadow had been so easy at first. A faked crime, a false rap sheet, and college student Matt DiPietro was gone. In his place stood the murderous Shadow, working deep inside a network of meth dealers supplying every college campus in California. And he soon had his revenge for the innocent lives destroyed by that organization's cheap thrill. But after that syndicate fell, there was another case, and another. The years had spun past, until he was no longer sure where the Shadow ended and Matteo DiPietro began.
    He watched Lori open the refrigerator and take out a carton of milk. Her hands shook. She was alone with a murderer, and knowing that he could wipe away her terror with one sentence—but knowing he would let her suffer—stabbed an ache deep into his heart.
    He couldn't let go of the Shadow. Not now. Not yet. There was just this one case to solve.
    And then?
    She turned around to face him, and he saw the fear in her eyes.
    And then there would be another case. And another.
    He should go back to bed and leave her alone. She was an innocent caught up in this, and he shouldn't keep inflicting himself on her.
    But he wanted to be closer to her. He loved to hear the sound of her voice. He loved how even when it was clear she was terrified of him, she still stood up to him, giving as good as she got.
    She was more addictive than any drug. He should stay away from her, but he couldn't.
    He'd already learned that she was smart, tough, and loved history; that she crinkled her nose when she was annoyed, and that her epilepsy had kept her from doing what she wanted to do with her life. And that the last fact bothered her more than she wanted to admit.
    He watched her plop into her seat at the kitchen table, set her bowl of cereal in front of her, and stare down at it.
    What other secrets were hidden inside that remarkable mind of hers?
    He pulled himself up out of the settee. He felt like he'd been stomped by a linebacker. But he had finally stopped shivering. And he didn't feel so woozy any more.
    He took a step toward the kitchen and she looked up, startled.
    "We probably won't be stuck out here much longer," she volunteered.
    "Really?" he responded. "Why's that?"
    "Fishermen come by here all the time. All the time," she repeated, pointedly. "Even with a small-craft advisory, the big boats are out on the bay."
    Of course he knew that. He knew the life of a fisherman. Nothing short of an earthquake would keep them ashore. They had boat loans to pay. Families to feed...
    "Hardly a day goes by without someone stopping by just to say hello," she added.
    ...Attractive lady lighthouse keepers to visit. He noticed how that one blonde curl