If You Know Her: A Novel of Romantic Suspense

the day. Important ones. And he wasn’tabout to let his aggravation at himself, his anger with Nia Hollister, or anything else interfere.
    Sliding a hand down her arm, he made himself stop thinking about Nia Hollister. “Come on … we need to get over to my mom’s house. Lunch and all of that.”
    It wasn’t lunch that had him in a hurry. It was what he had planned after.

CHAPTER
NINE
     
    S OME PEOPLE BITCHED ABOUT THE BLUE SCREEN OF death—the computer locking up on them.
    Law’s current problem was the white screen of death. It wasn’t writer’s block. He knew where he needed to be going with the story and he was getting there—slowly, but surely. His deadline was getting close, but he wasn’t worried about it. He’d get there, he always did.
    The problem was every time he paused to think through something—and that was often—he found his thoughts drifting. Shit, screw
drifting
. That made it seem aimless, like there was no destination.
    His thoughts were on a zipline, drawn straight to one place—to one person. Nia. And instead of the story, he’d find himself thinking about her.
    Thinking. Wanting. Craving. Twice, he even found himself thinking about heading to the hotel. Once, he even made it all the way to the door before he stopped himself. He couldn’t be doing that.
    Not yet. What he needed to do was get his head on straight—as far as Nia went, whenever he saw her, the thought process stopped and he needed to get a grip on that before this went any further.
    It seemed like a good, simple, straightforward plan.One he could stick to easily enough. After all, she wouldn’t be in town forever, and it wasn’t like he had to go into town, right?
    At the sound of an engine rumbling down his drive, Law’s body sprang to immediate reaction. Swearing, he shoved back from the desk he’d crammed along one wall and headed to the window, staring in disbelief as Nia came cruising down his drive.
    “Nia,” he muttered. “Fuck.”
    Oh, hell—that was a bad couple of words to use so close together, because that was exactly what he
thought
whenever he thought of
her
.
    Mouth dry, he raked his nails over his stubbled jaw, glanced down at himself. He’d showered that morning—only way to wake up—but he hadn’t shaved since Friday and the jeans he was wearing had seen better days. Hell.
    This was stupid. He was not going to stand there and worry about his fucking jeans, any of that shit—he wasn’t Remy, damn it. What in the hell did he care what clothes he was wearing, as long as they were clean? He’d showered, he was dressed, and that was all that counted, right?
    He didn’t even know why she was here, right?
    But when she knocked, his body was already one tightly coiled spring and his blood boiled, burned. Walking was an agony, his cock aching, thick and ready, even before he opened the door. He could still taste her kisses, still feel how tight, how hot she was.
    “Get a grip,” he muttered as he reached out, opened the door.
    Nia was staring off to the side, giving him another microsecond to get a grip, not that it helped much. As her head turned and her gaze settled on his, he was left standing there, floundering, burning … aching.
    “Hey.”
    A smile curved her lips.
    “Hey, yourself,” she murmured, cocking her head. “You up to much today?”
    Law jerked a shoulder. “Not much that has to be done, really.”
    She sauntered forward, closing the distance between them, and he tried to remind himself—he had just decided he really needed to figure out what was going on here, whether there even
was
something here … it was the smart thing to do. The logical thing. The adult thing.
    But as he breathed in, her scent hit him, low and hard, spreading through him, heating his already overheated blood, fogging an already fogged brain. She lifted one hand, rested it on his chest. “Maybe I can come in for a while …”
    “Maybe.” The fog in his brain heated, turned to steam, melting brain cells, turning everything to mush, and it only got worse as she stroked her hand up, curled it around his neck, tugging him down for a kiss. “Depends on why you want to come in, though. Not looking to sell me anything, are you?”
    Nia chuckled against his lips, then she pulled back and stared into his eyes. “I was thinking about settling up on that rain check.” Then she pulled out a strip of condoms.
    Shit. Screw logical. Screw mature. Screw adult.
    Staring into Nia’s eyes, he