Free Deathblow by Dana Marton Page A

sweatpants.
    At home, he slept naked. And alone. If he spent the night with a woman, he usually stayed over at her place. He didn’t have a rule about not taking women home; it just never worked out that way.
    He checked in on Justin on his way downstairs, the kid all snuggled up with his plastic dinosaur as he slept. Joe’s nephew, Max, was about the same age. They were both pretty great kids.
    Wendy walked up softly behind him, her steps barely audible on the carpet.
    Joe shifted. “He’s a good sleeper.”
    The soft, exotic scent of her perfume surrounded him. It mixed with the scent of baby powder in the room. She was incredibly hot, and a mother. He’d tried to avoid that kind of complication in the past. The fathers were always in the picture and could be a pain.
    He liked his affairs hot and intense, and his women all to himself. He didn’t want to want this—playing house. This wasn’t who he was. Yet there was something here that reached him on a deeper level.
    “You’re good with kids,” Wendy said, close enough that he could have easily reached her to pull her into his arms.
    “I like them.” He gave a carefree grin to mask how much he wanted to touch her. “As long as they’re someone else’s responsibility.”
    An unreadable expression crossed her face. “Never settling down, huh?”
    He shrugged. “When you have a good thing going, no sense messing it up, right?”
    She turned and walked back down the stairs without responding.
    He followed and dropped to the couch while she shut down her computer, pulling the rubber band from her hair, then massaging her scalp for a second. The overhead light glinted off her long silky hair that covered her shoulders in a cascade of gold.
    The soft material of her shirt outlined her breasts.
    Shapely, but definitely not a rack.
    There, so she wasn’t perfect. He was a boob guy, so sue him. But Wendy Belle couldn’t be called stacked by any stretch of the imagination. No reason for him to feel all that tugging all over the place.
    “So, what’s going on with your ex?” he asked. “Bing was a little sketchy.”
    She turned to him as she shoved the rubber band into her pocket. “Everybody is completely overreacting.” She paused. “What happened to your face?”
    Okay, so she didn’t want to talk about her ex. “Rough night on the river.”
    “What river? Broslin Creek?”
    “Never mind.”
    “Chasing someone?”
    “Something like that.” He couldn’t share details of his undercover mission. “Back to the boyfriend.” He hadn’t jumped right into questioning her earlier, didn’t want to in front of Justin, but he did need as much information as she would give him. “Keith Kline, is it?”
    She flinched.
    The fact that the bare mention of the asshole’s name could make her flinch said something right there. “Bing said he’s turned threatening.”
    “He’s going to be mad if he finds out that I was talking to the police. I don’t want to make him mad. I’m hoping he’ll sign over full custody to me.” She tucked her hair behind her ear.
    “Is he using Justin to get to you?”
    She pressed her lips together. “He’s been difficult.”
    Violent , she meant. Joe kept a lid on the anger that bubbled up inside him. “A lot of smart women have been known to fall for difficult men.”
    “He used to be different. Then I got pregnant with Justin, and Keith changed.”
    “How?”
    She hesitated again.
    He didn’t want to push hard, but he did have to push. “The more I know about him, the more I’ll be able to anticipate his next move if he means to do you harm. Knowing more about him, about his personality, would be helpful.”
    He also planned on running a background check on the guy, although, he was pretty sure the captain had run one already. Something to check in the morning.
    Wendy rubbed the heels of her hands over her knees. “He’s a top insurance broker at his company. Driven. Type A. We met at an art gala. I was modeling