“You think I’ll be able to forget that Stuart was murdered? That my father suspects I did it?” He strode after her.
“You don’t care about your father’s opinion, remember?” she replied, tossing the words over her shoulder.
“Maybe I’m not quite as indifferent as I’d like to believe. Have you ever considered that?”
“No.” She was safer not to consider it. Because then she’d start hoping that he did care. About her.
He followed her into the house, pausing to shut the door with his foot. “What went wrong today? I mean, besides the obvious.”
She hurried into the kitchen without stopping. “They fired me, okay? I have thirty days while they interview possible replacements.”
He nearly missed a step. “You’re kidding.”
“That wouldn’t be my idea of a joke. Although this should be funny—I bet it’ll be Leonard Taylor who replaces me.”
A frown tugged at his lips as he shoved his hands in his pockets and leaned against the doorway. “Come on, they couldn’t be that stupid.”
“Wanna bet? He’s been talking big, telling everyone that he could’ve solved these murders weeks ago. That Stuart never would’ve been killed if he’d been chief of police.”
“That’s easy to say when you don’t have to prove it.”
“Doesn’t matter that it’s all talk. It’s what they want to hear. Think about it. The council’s so desperate they’re searching for a savior, and he’s setting himself up as just that.”
“Which has given his supporters a chance to gain power again and reverse everything that happened when you were hired.”
“Exactly. But it’s all good for you, right?”
His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean by that?”
“Your revenge is complete. Not only did you bag the girl who stood you up for Homecoming, you stuck around long enough to see it ruin her career.”
His frown darkened into a scowl. “That’s not what I wanted. Besides, I didn’t tell anyone, you did.”
She slumped into a chair. “I know,” she said miserably.
“Why’d you do it?”
“Isn’t it obvious? I couldn’t let them continue investigating you when I knew you weren’t involved.”
“Yes, you could have. They wouldn’t have been able to pin Stuart’s murder on me.”
Pressing a finger and thumb against her closed eyelids, she shook her head. “Innocent people go to prison all the time, Rod. Why take the chance?”
The difficult-to-read front he sometimes maintained slipped, giving her a glimpse into the far more accessible, maybe even vulnerable, man she’d made love with last night. “Because, contrary to what you might think, I don’t want to be responsible for this,” he said.
She dropped her hand so she could look at him—and recognized that, even now, after her whole world had collapsed, she wanted to touch him. And she wanted it more than last night.
“How ironic,” she muttered.
His eyebrows came together. “What’s ironic?”
“Nothing,” she said, but she found all of it ironic. For years, she hadn’t been able to summon much passion for the men she dated, hadn’t even realized it was passion that was missing. Not until Rod had walked back into her life had she felt so compelled to be with someone.
She was finally tempted to love—the one person most likely to hurt her.
“Why are you here?” she asked. “What do you want from me?”
He crossed the room and squatted in front of her. “I’m sorry.”
Sophia wasn’t sure why he was apologizing. For the resentment he felt toward her? For giving her mixed signals, treating her as if he couldn’t keep his hands off her one minute and snubbing her the next? For being part of the reason she’d lost her job?
Maybe that “I’m sorry” was meant to cover it all.
She told herself to accept his apology and let it go at that. If she was careful, maybe she could finish out her month without making her situation any worse. It was even possible they’d solve the UDA murders or Stuart’s murder or both, as he’d said. Then she could probably get a recommendation and find a job somewhere else.
But she didn’t speak. She couldn’t come up with the right words. Instead, she raised her hand and ran her fingers down the side of his face, feeling the rugged contours, the prickly beard growth and, eventually, the softness of his mouth.
His eyes drifted closed as she touched him.
“You’re so handsome,” she said.
Parting his lips, he flicked his tongue against the pad of her thumb, and that was all it took for desire to swallow Sophia’s other, far more conflicting emotions. “And you’re dangerous,” she added.
His hand went behind her neck, bringing her mouth to his for the lightest, sweetest kiss she’d ever had. “I’m harmless,” he whispered. Then his tongue met hers and five minutes later he had her naked on the living room floor.
Rod didn’t want to think about what he was doing, didn’t want to examine the consequences. He knew he shouldn’t be forming any ties to Bordertown. His goal, from the beginning, had been to break free. He’d only come back to do his duty by his mother’s people—to stop a killer—and, at the same time, celebrate the fact that he’d escaped so cleanly.
Instead, he was celebrating the feel of the girl he’d always wanted clinging to him with her bare skin against his. Why couldn’t he resist her? It wasn’t, as he’d thought before, that he had something to prove to Stuart. Stuart was gone for good. Rod couldn’t even claim he was acting to satisfy the promise of a dream long denied. He’d fulfilled that promise last night.
So what the hell was he doing? Sophia belonged to his past, and yet, when he made love to her, he forgot all the reasons he wanted to turn his back on her. The rise and fall of her chest, her hands clutching his hair, her mouth moving greedily on his—these were the only things that seemed important.
Outside, the sun was beginning to set, but enough light filtered in that he could see her, and of that he was glad. Last night he’d welcomed the darkness. It had allowed him to hide what he wasn’t ready to reveal. This time, he didn’t have that same need. He wasn’t sure what Sophia meant to him, but she meant something, and he wasn’t afraid to let her know. Whatever they had, for however long it lasted, he wanted it to be honest.