Seductive Reasoning Read online

  “Loves?”

  Del nodded. “Just don’t say anything to her. Not sure if she’s ready to handle that much change in her life.”

  “Fuck. That is just…fuck. Why did you have to do that?”

  “Fall in love with her?”

  He nodded.

  “Kind of hard not to. Been falling for her ever since she smacked me with that two-by-four.”

  Sean got up and paced the office. “This changes things.”

  “What, you were going to beat me up?”

  He stopped and slanted him a look. “Maybe.”

  “Emma would be mad.”

  “That I beat you up?”

  “No, when I had to explain why I had to kick your ass.”

  Sean snorted. Del hated to explain himself, but this one time he felt he owed Sean. Not so much because of any debt, but thanks to him, he had Emma in his life.

  “Listen, I did not go lightly into this, and I’m not about to ask your permission. That would be a disservice to your sister.”

  Sean studied him for a moment. “You’re afraid of her.” he concluded.

  “Not of her, but what she might do if I spring a more serious relationship idea on her. Plus, our work right now…it’s just a little much. This case has us all on edge.”

  Sean nodded. “I stopped by to see her earlier.”

  He looked down at his cell and saw the text. “Ah, yes, she warned me, but I’ve been too busy.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “And just don’t tell her about the love thing. I sense she’s not ready.”

  “She isn’t.”

  Something in Sean’s tone caught his interest. “What?”

  “She didn’t tell me not to tell you, so I feel I have a right. Although, I will deny you heard it from me.”

  “Oh, good God, quit being afraid of a woman who barely weighs a hundred pounds.”

  “She told me she wasn’t looking for forever.”

  Del blinked as his heart thudded almost to a stop. “What?”

  Sean looked at him. “Damn, you really do love her. I didn’t mean like that. You have to understand that it isn’t that she doesn’t want it. It’s almost as if she doesn’t think she deserves it.”

  Del released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. “It’s probably because of how her parents died. She told me about it the other night.”

  Sean’s eyes widened. “I’ve never asked because I thought she would tell me when she was ready. I’m assuming it’s as bad as I imagined?”

  Del nodded. “Probably worse. So, I understand she’s not that trusting. I can prove to her that she can trust me.”

  Sean studied his face for a long moment then nodded. “Well, I have said my piece. Just don’t hurt her.”

  “Of course I will, Sean. I’m a man. We fuck things up.”

  Sean chuckled. “There is that. Make sure you keep her safe. I don’t like her working on this thing.”

  “Yeah, well, she claims she isn’t a target with a man in her life.”

  Sean nodded. “She told me the same thing at lunch.”

  “Oh, good. That woman forgets to eat. I don’t know how many times I tell her to eat, she just pushes me aside and says she has work. Worse, when she does eat, it’s like feeding a hoard of locusts. That cannot be good for her.”

  Something he couldn’t discern passed over Sean’s expression. “Yeah. Randy and I push food on her when we can.” He stood. “You know, when you went to pick her up for me, I would have never thought this could happen.”

  “Well, I guess we didn’t know Cupid carried a two-by-four and not a bow and arrows.”

  Sean chuckled. “There’s that.”

  Still, he stood there staring at Del.

  “What?”

  “I’m trying to come up with a good excuse for not kicking your ass.”

  “Emma would not be happy.”

  “That’s true. Randy wanted me to take care of it.”

  “It? I’m an it?”

  Sean nodded.

  “Next time you need help, don’t call.”

  Sean laughed out loud at that. “You’ll help, Delano. You’re a boy scout, and they always play by the rules. Hurt her, we make you disappear.”

  With that warning, he smiled and left Del alone.

  Adam walked into his office, his face grim.

  “Don’t worry. No pistols at dawn.”

  Adam shook his head. “We got a couple issues. Seems that after talking to Denise Rutledge—you know the teacher who had been on the mainland—we found out that Grace was actually seeing a mystery man. And, worse, she’d already told Jin Phillips. She’s posted it on the news blog.”

  “Fuck. We were keeping that out of the papers for a reason.”

  “I know. From what Denise said, though, Jin knew about it. She used the term Sugar Daddy when talking to her.”

  “Double fuck.” He thought about the ramifications. They had kept that close to their vests, but there was always a chance someone not associated with them had info they were divulging to Jin. Of course, the one person who could be feeding her info...

  His blood ran cold. “We need to get Jin in here right now. She might have something we don’t know.”

  “Called the office, she was out. Called her personal cell, went straight to voice mail.”

  He dialed her number, and it also went straight to voice mail. His gut churned. This was not a good thing. The lead detective on the case she was trying to make her own called, and she didn’t answer.

  “I guess we’ll just have to wait. We really need to find out who the fucking leak is.”

  “You know this is going to cause more problems than just this job, Boss.”

  “Yeah, they already don’t trust me, and if we go on what they will see as a witch hunt, there will be backlash.” Del thought over his options. “Ask around, quietly. If they find out, we will deal with it, but right now, I think we need to do everything we can to find out who the hell is giving Jin info.”

  Adam nodded. “You don’t think it could be Kaheaku?”

  “No, for a couple of reasons. Emma tells him very few details of the job. He doesn’t handle what she is doing well, and I think this one has him more unnerved than any of the others. But, it would have put her at risk. That is something he would not do. Exposing her as part of the research team on this one put her on TV, and put her in the path of a killer. That is something Sean would never do.”

  “Makes sense. I’m gonna call around, start looking into who has been dating Jin.”

  “She dates cops?”

  He smiled. “I’m assuming. She tried it with me a couple of times in the past. And not so much as dating, but meeting for drinks. She’s very good at stroking egos.”

  “Let me know what you find.”

  He waved his hand to him as he headed out of his office. Del looked out the windows and fought the need to break something. Right now they were in a holding pattern—waiting. Waiting to hear from Jin...and worse, waiting for the bastard to steal another woman.

  Del was an impatient man.

  As Jin waited in the dark parking garage, second thoughts started to crowd her mind. She had done some insane things to get her name out there, but none of them had been as chancy as this one. Still, she was looking to get the desk job that would be opening on the weeknight news cast here. Getting a scoop about how both women had been seeing a mystery man—that would help. It would inch her ahead of that bitch Maggie, because Jin couldn’t—and wouldn’t—do what she was doing to get ahead. Sleeping with Frank Han, the station manager, was over the line for Jin.

  She knew the moment she posted about the mystery man that someone would contact her. If this man was dating these women, someone saw them somewhere, even if it was just a drive-thru window. Also, she had wanted to jab at the informant who had told her about it in the first place. She wanted more contact with whoever had the info. If she could get the person on camera, even if he or she was hidden, it
would guarantee her the weeknight anchor job.

  With a sigh, she looked at her watch. The person was already thirty minutes late. She would wait a little longer, and then she would leave. She knew for a fact that Adam Lee had been trying to contact her. And, truthfully, she would much rather be trying to pump the sexy Hawaiian for more information about the case than standing in the very back of a dark and dirty parking garage. That one weekend two years ago had been the best two days of her life—well almost. Then, he had assumed she’d worked him for a story and he’d walked away. It had hurt, but she had moved on.

  It still didn’t explain why she felt the same pain each and every time she saw him.

  Minutes ticked by and just as she was about to leave, she heard someone behind her. She turned, but never saw who it was. Someone grabbed her, and she felt a sharp prick in the side of her neck.

  Then, her world faded away.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Emma had gathered more info than she could ever possibly figure out in her lifetime when there was a sharp knock at the door. She looked at the clock and realized it was six in the evening. The whole afternoon had blown by, and she hadn’t noticed. She opened the door and Del smiled.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  His smile faded. “That’s sort of what people who are dating do.”

  “It is?”

  He cocked his head to the side. “I would rather not have this discussion out in the hallway.”

  She stepped back to let him enter. He removed his shoes, then walked into her living room. “Been busy, I see.”

  Emma nodded. “I don’t feel like I have accomplished much. My head is getting fuzzy. It’s just...I know there is something there and I can’t seem to grab hold of it.”

  He said nothing for a few moments as he looked over her work. She watched him, his hands in the pockets of his jeans, studying her work. Many people dismissed her at times. They would happily take her work, use it, but most of them took no time to look at it. They wanted to utilize her brain, but they could care less about learning what she was doing or how she was doing it. Del was different. Still, he was acting kind of odd even for him.

  “So, you want to tell me what this is about?” she asked.

  He turned to face her. “What?”

  “Why are you here?”

  “Oh, well, we are dating.”

  “Sort of.”

  “No sort of about it. We are dating, or did I confuse what went on here?”

  There was something in his tone, something she wasn’t understanding.

  “Are you trying to ask me if I am sleeping with someone else?”

  His expression grew colder. “I didn’t think there was a question about that.”

  All of a sudden, it clicked. She wasn’t good with subtle undertones any more than she was with sarcasm. He apparently needed some kind of reassurance that she wasn’t sleeping around.

  “Well, there isn’t. Why would I want anyone else? I can barely keep up with you now.”

  His mouth twitched. “Is that a fact?”

  The way his eyes warmed made her heart beat faster, her palms sweat. How could he do this to her? Just a little look, a change in the tone of his voice, and she was melting.

  Then, he did nothing. Just stood there and stared at her. She didn’t know what he wanted or what to do. Men she had relationships with...well, she hadn’t had relationships with them. She’d had sex and that was it. For her, these kinds of interactions with other people were difficult. She didn’t understand some of the cues, and she definitely never understood what they wanted from her.

  “Listen, while I like you, and sex is fantastic, I need to work.”

  He nodded. “Why don’t you pack a bag?”

  She blinked, confused by the question. “What for?”

  “To stay at my house.”

  He said it as if it was fact. “No.”

  Now it was his turn to blink. “What?”

  “I need to work and right now, I can’t acclimate to a new place.”

  He frowned. “I don’t think you understand.”

  “No, you don’t understand.”

  “What’s wrong with my house?”

  Great, now he sounded as if his feelings were hurt. She shoved her hands through her hair and tried to keep calm. Sean had told her that people did not understand her need for the status quo. Right now, she could not fathom moving everything over to the cute little house Del had in Hawaii Kai. She liked it, had stayed there months ago for protection, but at the moment, the idea had her skin crawling. Most people would label her difficult, and she didn’t care. There were things she could handle and right now, this was not one of them.

  “I wouldn’t mind going over when we are done with this, but I need to have everything where it is.”

  He sighed and looked around her flat. Comprehension filled his gaze, and he nodded. “Normalcy. I get it. Well, then I need some clothes.”

  “Alright,” she said looking back at her notes. She saw a name that she had seen before. Stanton. Where had she seen that before? It was on some report, she was sure of it. The bugger had been arrested somewhere else there had been a goddess killer.

  “Just alright?”

  She looked up and shrugged. “I figure you’re going to want to sleep with me, so yeah, you need clothes for work.”

  His lips twitched again.

  “What did I say now?” she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

  “Nothing. Just…you.”

  “Great. And people say that I am not good at communicating.”

  “I’m Italian. Italian men don’t feel the need to communicate unless we are yelling.”

  “Great. And just for the record, I don’t like yelling. At all.”

  “Noted.”

  But he still just stood there. He apparently wanted to talk, but she really didn’t know what about.

  She stepped closer and her head spun. Damn, she needed to eat. “Have you eaten lately?”

  “No, I haven’t. How about a stop at the Side Street Inn, then we can run out to my place and grab some things?”

  She wanted to research more, but the truth was, she had missed him today. Also, a break would be good. It had helped earlier when she went out to eat with Sean. Stepping back always seemed to refresh her ability to think better.

  “Sounds good. Got your bike?”

  He nodded.

  “Yay. I love riding at night.”

  He stopped her before she could bounce away into the bedroom. He kissed her, sweetly, deeply. It turned her knees to Jell-O and her mind to mush.

  “What was that for?”

  “For being you.”

  She shook her head and went into her bedroom. The man was messing with her mind and making her act as if she had an average IQ. As she dug through her drawers looking for a pair of long pants, she knew she had to keep her mind on work. If she was right, he might be bringing clothes over for more than one night. The overly large dresser definitely had room for his clothes. She didn’t have many clothes. Board shorts and T-shirts just didn’t take up that much room.

  She looked up at herself in the mirror…stunned. She was standing there thinking about giving Del his very own drawer. A year ago, she hadn’t even met the man.

  Just this morning, she was talking about how she couldn’t trust anyone. She had told Sean she wasn’t looking at an extended relationship. Okay, she had used other words, but she had meant that. She couldn’t. She had survived day by day for so long, she couldn’t look past that.

  Emma waited for fear to hit her, or maybe panic. She did not do well with abrupt changes, but now that she thought back on the last six months, she realized she had been moving to this point all along. In her reflection, her lips curved. This felt right. She liked the idea of having her clothes next to his and that they were spending all this time together.

  “Hey, hurry up in there,” he shouted from the other room.

  Hmm, they would just have
to do something about his manners.

  Del stepped out of the shower and grabbed a towel. They’d had dinner, rode out to his place for his stuff, and returned. Emma was practically humming with the need to work. It was his damned fault he found it so sexy.

  Great, Delano, you’ve lost your damned mind.

  He used to take out women who cared more about their makeup than their IQ. Now, he found hearing her talk to herself as sexy as a woman who spent thousands on lingerie. Sexier actually. Hell, he was pretty sure she didn’t even give a second thought to lingerie. Now, thinking about the way she would look while so focused on work turned him on more than any small scrap of lace.

  His mother always said a woman with a brain would be his undoing, and she didn’t know how right she was. Emma’s brain, the way she thought, the things she could accomplish with that intelligence was appealing to him. Hell, he wanted to brag about her all the time to people he knew.

  Worse, she was a woman who was complicated. Until now, complicated women. And Emma didn’t come with regular complications. Her brain and her quirks made her even more of a challenge. He had been a man who shied away from entanglements—especially with difficult women. While he was in the military, Del hadn’t wanted to get married. Special Forces made it challenging, and he hadn’t met a woman worth it. Until Emma.

  Damn, he had told her brother he was in love with her, but Del really hadn’t realized just how deeply it went. As it turns out, gone under for the third time deep.

  What happened to the man who liked easy women, the kind who understood the game, and wanted nothing more than some fun? He got hit upside the head with a two-by-four six months ago and he hadn’t recovered.

  He finished drying off, grabbed a pair of his boxers, and stepped into them. It was getting late, and while he knew she wanted to stay up and work, Emma needed sleep. She wasn’t thinking straight, which always led to a meltdown of some sort.

  He stepped into the bedroom, grabbed a condom off the bedside table, then approached the doorway. She was standing in view, a pencil in her mouth as she stared at one of her whiteboards. She was wearing a pair of old flannel boxers and a tank top that had seen better days. It was probably the most unappealing piece of clothing he had ever seen a woman wear, but it was the sexiest thing to him at the moment. Bottom line, it had everything to do with the woman who wore it.