The Private Eye

you suppose there might be something to his theory, after all?”
    “No,” Josh said flatly. “I don't,”
    Maggie drummed her fingers on a file cabinet. “It's possible someone thinks he can create it and is after the formula.”
    “Damn it, Maggie…”
    “Okay, okay. It's highly unlikely.”
    “Highly unlikely.”
    “But not impossible,” she said coaxingly.
    He gave her a wry glance and realized for the first time that in her haste to rebutton her dress, she had put the top button through the wrong hole. The dress was skewed across her breasts. The edge of her lacy bra peeped out at him. He found the sight incredibly endearing.
    “All right,” Josh replied gently. “I'll concede it is not completely beyond the realm of possibility that some other screwy inventor thinks the Colonel is on to something and wants to see how the experiments are progressing or wants to destroy them. But, to be brutally frank, I'm still ranking that theory very low on my list.”
    She nodded. “Fair enough. In exchange, I'll agree to consider your vandalism theory.”
    “It's a deal,” he murmured. There was a short, suddenly charged silence as the conversation on possibilities and theories came to an end. The expression in Maggie's eyes started to change.
    Josh recognized the exact instant when it occurred to her that they were still alone together and the night wasn't over. Uneasiness and a deep, feminine shyness shimmered in her sea-green eyes.
    The moment was lost and Josh knew it. He reminded himself that he had never intended to take things any further tonight, anyway, no matter how tempted. He smiled with what he hoped was reassurance. “Why don't you go on upstairs to bed, Maggie? I'll relock the window. Tomorrow I'll rig up something to keep it from being opened from the outside. We can talk about this in the morning.”
    Maggie hesitated and then nodded quickly. “Good night, josh.”
    “Goodnight, Maggie.”
    He watched her dash back up the stairs and felt as though she were taking a part of him with her. It was all he could do not to call her back.
    But Josh knew he had to let her go tonight. She needed time. Besides, he told himself, the memory of Maggie shivering in his arms as she found her first real, exquisite release would be more than enough to warm his bed and his dreams tonight.

Chapter 6

    THE BEACH was shrouded in fog. On the horizon, the gray sea met the grey sky in such a seamless fashion that it was impossible to tell where one began and the other ended. Bundled up in a hooded down jacket, Maggie stood at the water's edge and tried to come to terms with the unsettling emotions that were churning inside her.
    There was no getting around it. She was falling fast and hard for Joshua January. The realization simultaneously thrilled and terrified her. He was so different from every other man she had ever known. A part of her recognized something deep within him that mirrored a fundamental part of herself. She knew in her heart that Josh January was one of the good guys in a rough world.
    And yet, for ail her instinctive certainty about him, Maggie was forced to admit that there was a great deal she didn't know about Josh. She had always assumed the man she would someday love would be safe and comfortable. Josh was neither.
    She should never have allowed him to kiss her and touch her the way she had last night. She was his employer, for heaven's sake. He was working for her.
    Where was her common sense? She ought to be keeping a strict, arm's-length distance between them. Things were complicated enough around Peregrine Manor. She didn't need to add a potentially explosive affair with Josh to the brew.
    But last night had been extraordinarily special, Maggie thought with a rush of joy. She had felt incredibly beautiful and passionate and free in Josh's arms.
    The exhilaration of the experience still hadn't faded entirely. If she closed her eyes, she could relive the glorious moment. Her body even began to respond to the memory.
    “Hello, Maggie.” Josh's deep, dark voice broke into the delicious spell that bound her. “I had a hunch I'd find you down here this morning.”
    She turned, with a tremulous smile on her lips, and watched as he emerged from the fog. He was wearing a shearling jacket over a pair of jeans. He had his hands buried in the warm pockets of the jacket and the fleece collar was turned up to protect his neck. He looked potently, vitally male. In some strange fashion his recent