Lorie O - Strong, Sleek and Sinful

“You don’t have a choice.”

He grew before her. She was sure of it. Muscles flexed under his shirt and it seemed she was forced to tilt her head farther to maintain eye contact.

“I definitely have choices,” he whispered, his baritone sending chills over her flesh. “The obvious one was whether to walk away from you, or not. You’re here. That choice is made. Now to decide if you’re going to bring this guy down alone, or not.”

“Wait one minute,” she hissed, pointing her finger at him.

He grabbed her wrist, keeping her hand raised between them as his face came closer to hers. “Possibly one minute, but not much longer. You’re going to keep me advised on where you’re going.”

“I can’t do that.”

The passion, anger, whatever emotions made his eyes glow, seemed to disappear at once. He stared at her, his green eyes flat, closed off to her. Perry nodded once, releasing her wrist. “Okay then. I guess there’s nothing else to discuss.”

There were things they needed to discuss. If she thought Perry would blow her cover, she was obligated to report in and let John know she’d been revealed as FBI. Policy was very clear on this matter. Kylie crossed her arms, studying the dull gaze Perry offered her and his stance, not confrontational but not intimidated, either. Not that she ever thought he would be by her.

“I need to know what you’re going to do now that you know I’m FBI,” she said, her heart constricting as she fought to suppress all the feelings she had, pain over how he looked at her, frustration that he was acting like a big baby, and fear that he might do something to make her life hell.

“What I’m going to do?” Perry raised one eyebrow while a muscle twitched over his jawbone. “What I’m going to do,” he repeated. Then turning from her, he walked across the room to a doorway shrouded in darkness. “I’m going to bed.”

She stood there, confused and suddenly alone in the room. It was either turn around and leave, which was probably her smarter move, or follow him and demand that he talk to her.

“Damn it,” she hissed, and stalked after him, fisting her hands at her sides. “You’re being a-”

She stopped talking when, even in the incredibly dark room, she got an eyeful of incredibly hard-packed ass. Perry dropped his jeans to the floor and stepped out of them. His shirt came off next. Her mouth watered as her eyes adjusted quickly so as not to miss a moment of viewing roped muscle twitch across his back when he raised his arms, pulled his shirt off, and dropped it on top of his jeans. Then walking barefoot across his bedroom, he turned on the light in an adjoining bathroom and closed the door on her.

Kylie listened when water started running but then looked at his bedroom. Spotting a lamp next to his bed, she turned it on, then sat on the oversized bed. Everything in his house seemed so masculine and large. Just like Perry. His bed was firm and high off the floor. She couldn’t sit on it and put her feet flat on the floor, so she pulled her legs up and sat cross-legged, taking in the contents of his room, and waited.

Perry’s bed frame was the same dark varnished wood as his dresser. There were a handful of snapshots arranged in frames on the dresser, and after a minute of sitting there, wondering why she waited for him, Kylie got up and flipped the switch on the wall by the door, flooding the room with light, and leaned in to see the snapshots better.

Perry’s nieces, at different ages, were posed in each shot. There were a good ten pictures framed and placed on the dresser. She arranged them with her eyes in chronological order, not touching any of them, and noted that Dani didn’t wear the amount of makeup she did today in the recent past. Kylie focused in on a picture of the girls, all close to the age they were now, maybe a year or two younger, surrounding a very pretty woman. Her hair was brown, like the girls’, and her oval face gave her an air of regality. But it was her eyes, slightly large for her face, that reflected the strong family trait. Kylie knew without a doubt she was looking at Perry’s sister. They had the exact same dark, all-knowing eyes. The woman sat with her girls around her, but by the length of her slender arms and her long neck Kylie guessed she was a tall lady. Height must also be a family trait.

Kylie glanced at the papers thumbtacked to the wall. School papers and artwork. One might think these were Perry’s daughters instead of his sisters. Kylie wondered why he had never married and started a family of his own; obviously fatherhood appealed to him.

No. It wasn’t fatherhood. Kylie knew better. Like her, she guessed, Perry was married to his job. His sister’s daughters were safe because he wasn’t obligated to show up at the house at a decent hour or risk being called a bad dad. Control appealed to him, manipulating and running other people’s lives.

Kylie turned and looked at the closed bathroom door when the shower started. She really should leave. He wasn’t the man for her. There wasn’t a man for her. Like Perry, her work was her life. Although unlike Perry, she didn’t have a ready-made family that she could step into when she needed the fix.

Usually being alone didn’t bother her. When she was assigned a case, she submerged herself completely and didn’t give anything else any thought. It kept the loneliness away. In fact, Kylie wasn’t sure she’d ever felt lonely. She’d felt alone, but there was a difference. Ever since her perfect older sister was ripped out of her life, Kylie had walked through life alone. And being alone kept her strong, kept her moving from one case to another and nailing bad guys. With every arrest, she assured herself that she had saved one more person from the pain she’d endured at too young an age.

Her eyes suddenly burned and she realized she stared at the bathroom door without blinking. And she hadn’t left yet. He’d be out of the shower soon, and it would be too late.

Kylie dragged her fingers through her hair, feeling a wave of exhaustion hit her when she tried to get her brain to decide whether her smarter move was leaving or staying and demanding that Perry promise not to reveal who she was.

“He’s not going to promise you shit,” she mumbled, dropping her chin to her collarbone and feeling the stretch in the back of her neck. All of this would be a hell of a lot easier to figure out with at least a few hours of sleep. If she held out much longer she would lose the entire night, and sleeping tomorrow away-or was it today? — wasn’t an option.

There were large wooden blinds closed over two windows in his room. Her eyes still burned as she stared at the one next to his bed. She swore lights beamed against the pane outside. Frowning, she turned and reached for the bedroom light, switching it off.

“Interesting,” she whispered, walking to the bed and flipping off the lamp.

When she did, the light shining through the blinds grew quite obvious. Her heart started pounding when she climbed on the bed and crawled across it on all fours, instead of taking time to walk around. Then barely lifting one blind, she squinted outside at what appeared to be headlights, glaring straight at the side of the house.

“What the fuck?” she hissed, sliding off the bed and hurrying out of the room. All other lights were off in the house and she found the closest window in the next room where Perry’s computer was.

The headlights weren’t shining directly on this window, making it easier to peek outside. She spotted the dark vehicle parked across the intersection facing Perry’s house. Why would someone sit there with their car running and headlights glaring at someone’s house at this hour of night? Or very early morning, as the case might be.