If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

of making a heavy-handed pass, right?
    He pretended he was being responsible. Had even insisted that was the only thought in his mind when he carried her into her hotel room and laid her on the bed. Although responsibility had nothing to do with why he’d decided to brush his fingers down her face. She had the softest damn skin …
    “Stop thinking about her skin,” he snapped.
    “Excuse me?”
    With red creeping up his neck, Law looked up and realized he had an audience.
    And it was Deb Sparks, of all the damned people. Son of a bitch. Setting his jaw, he gave her a tight smile and said, “Just talking to myself, Deb. You know me.”
    “I see.” She sniffed and glanced at the coffee in his hand. “Are you … visiting somebody?”
    “No. I’m just here to talk to myself and stare at a door all day. You?”
    “You don’t need to be so rude,” she said, drawing ina sharp breath through her nose and glaring at him. Then she smoothed a hand down the front of her butter-yellow skirt. “I’m here to talk to Sam … you might not know him, being new in town, but he’s the owner. He’s looking for an assistant manager and I was thinking it would just be the
perfect
job for my daughter-in-law. My son is …”
    New in town
—never mind that he’d been here for about a decade now. But she’d call him new in town after he’d lived here fifty years.
    “Uh-huh. That’s nice, Deb,” he cut in and lifted a hand, banging on Nia’s door with a lot more force than necessary. Okay, if he had to choose between humiliating himself in front of a beautiful woman, or even waking up a beautiful, potentially hungover woman and listening to Deb Sparks?
    He’d take either option with the beautiful woman over Deb. Hell, he’d take having his eyes jabbed with red-hot needles over Deb. Dealing with Deb was akin to being in the ninth level of hell, he figured.
    Feeling her censuring gaze on him, he glanced back at her.
    “You are such a
rude
young man,” she sniffed. “Your mother must be
appalled
.”
    “I know.” He bared his teeth at her. “I can’t help it. If I’m going to be rude, though, at least I do it to a person’s face instead of gossiping about them behind their backs. Got to give my mom credit, though—before she died, she got that through my head, at least. You know, if you’re here to talk to Sam, don’t you think you’d have more luck if you checked out the office?”
    She opened her mouth to reply as he lifted his hand to bang on the door again.
    That was when Nia opened it. Wearing … holy shit … a towel.
    Law just about swallowed his tongue.
    A towel. Droplets of water. Nothing else.
    Suddenly, he realized that maybe dealing with Deb
wasn’t
akin to the ninth level of hell. At all.
    The ninth level of hell was staring at Nia Hollister, with all those little droplets of water clinging to that smooth, warm skin. Here he was dying of thirst and he already knew, even before he looked into her eyes, there was no way he’d be getting a taste.
    “Ahhh … I brought you coffee,” he croaked out. Shit. Now his voice was all but breaking on him like a horny teenager’s. Clearing his throat, he held out the coffee and lifted her keys. “And your keys. Ah, your bike’s here, too.”
    She glanced at him, then at the coffee, the keys, still blocking the door, that towel clinging to the sweet swell of her breasts.
    Off to the side, Deb sniffed again—that prissy sound managing to convey shock, displeasure, and avid interest all at once.
    Nia blinked, her lashes drooping slowly over her eyes and then she slanted a look at Deb.
    Recognition flared in that golden gaze. A dull flush stained her cheeks red, but she said nothing. All she did was smirk and then step back, pushing the door open wider.
    Law lifted a brow. As he stepped inside, he tried to figure out … had he just stepped completely into that ninth level of hell or was this maybe some hidden doorway to heaven?
    He was pretty sure it was hell, though.
    He wouldn’t be lucky enough for anything else.
    After she closed the door behind Law, Nia accepted the coffee and sauntered away hoping he wouldn’t seethe fact that her knees were all but shaking just from the sight of him. Damn it, what in the
hell
was it about him?
    She heard her keys jangle as he laid them down.
    Focusing on that, she grabbed her robe from the hanger near the sink and pulled it on, discreetly slipping out of the towel before tying the robe’s belt