Fatal Series 01 - Fatal Affair

with exhaustion. After an almost-sleepless night with him, she’d planned to catch a couple of hours on the plane if her nerves allowed it. “I’m asking you to do this for me. He was a lot cooler about me getting caught with you than I expected him to be. It would just be better if you stayed out of it.”
    He came around the bed and backed her up to the wall. “You want me to stay out of it?”
    “Um, yeah, that would help.” Only her hands on his chest kept him from completely invading her space.
    “Let’s get one thing straight, Samantha. I’ve been the guy behind the guy my whole career, and that’s fine with me. But if you think, for one second, I’m going to ride shotgun in my personal life, you’ve got the wrong lapdog on your leash.”
    While she should have been pissed at a comment like that, she was ridiculously turned on. She looped a hand around his neck and brought him down for a kiss intended to make him forget all about being mad with her.
    With his hands on her hips, he jerked her tight against him.
    “I don’t want a lapdog,” she said when she finally came up for air. “That’s not what I’m asking you to be.”
    “What are you asking me to be?”
    “Do we have to decide that right now? It’s bad enough the whole town’s going to know we’re sleeping together.”
    “Damage done,” he said with a bitter laugh that jangled her already frazzled nerves.
    “That’s easy for you to say. Your job isn’t on the line.”
    “No, it’s not. I lost my job when my boss got himself murdered. Remember?”
    “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to be sniping with you when we’ve got so many bigger things to deal with.”
    “See what you just said there? We have so many bigger things to deal with? You just made my point.”
    She studied the floor for a moment before she found the courage to bring her eyes back up to meet his. “I’m not used to we .”
    He laughed, but at least the anger seemed to be gone. “And you think I am? This is all new ground for me, too, babe.”
    “I’m sorry we’re being forced to go public before we’re ready.”
    “Something tells me that nothing about you and me is going to be simple or easy. We may as well get used to it. At least you’re calling us ‘we’ now. That’s progress.”
    Ignoring that, she said, “So you’ll be cool with the captain?”
    “I’ll be cool.”
    With her eyes fixed on his, she kissed him softly. “You really are super sexy when you’re all steamed up.”
    “Is that so?”
    She loved how embarrassed he got when she said stuff like that. “Uh huh.” After patting his face, she headed for the door.
    “Samantha?”
    She turned back.
    “You owe me twenty-six minutes in handcuffs, and I fully intend to collect.”

    Damn him! When all her attention and focus was needed to deal with the captain and whatever was waiting for her at home, all Sam could think about was being cuffed and at Nick’s mercy for twenty-six minutes. Her whole body tingled with anticipation.
    Turning to glare at him, she was rewarded with a shit-eating grin that told her he knew he had rattled her.
    “You really are super sexy when you’re all steamed up,” he whispered, earning another furious glare. When he tried to hold hands with her, she tugged hers free and jammed it into her coat pocket where she encountered the cuffs and her bra. Her head pounded, and she began to believe it was possible for a head to actually blow off a neck. As they approached the waiting area, her stomach took a nasty dip that caused her to gasp with pain.
    “What?” Nick asked, taking her arm to stop her.
    “Stomach.”
    “Why don’t we get someone to look at that while we’re here?”
    She tugged her arm free. “It’s been checked.”
    “It needs to be checked again,” he said, rubbing his hands up and down her arms.
    “It’s better.” She stepped out of his embrace. “No PDA in front of the captain or anyone else.”
    “You’re not giving me orders, remember?”
    “Nick—”
    “Sam.”
    With a growl of frustration, she marched into the waiting room several strides ahead of him.
    Captain Malone put down the Time magazine he’d been flipping through and stood up. “Ready?”
    “Yes, sir. Ah, this is Nick. Nick Cappuano.” Gesturing to Nick without looking at him, she added, “Captain Malone.”
    While Sam’s stomach grinded, the two men sized each other up as they shook hands and mumbled, “Nice to meet you.”
    “On behalf