Free Dead Ringer by Annie Solomon Page B

it over her cheek, and rubbed her face against his palm. "Tell me, Finn. Tell me I'm doing a good job."
    He could barely get out the words. "You're doing a great job." And he meant it, too, though some distant part of him knew he'd regret saying it.
    She gazed at his mouth and whispered, "Tell me I'm good." Her ringers moved over his lips again, sending an arrow of desire straight to his groin. "Tell me I'm a good person."
    He opened his mouth to speak and she slipped her fingers inside. Jesus Christ. He sucked one long, slender digit and kissed the tip. He was drowning, suffocating with the lush smell of her, the hot taste of her. "You're very good." He sucked another and kissed that one, too. "You're a very good person."
    And then her arms circled his neck and he was lifting her out of the chair and kissing her mouth. She opened to him readily, hungrily, as if she'd been waiting years for his lips and his tongue to possess her. She moaned and arched into him, gasping his name, and he was gone. Lost. The fight to resist her over. And he was going down in flames.
    'Touch me, Finn. Touch me with your good hands. Make me feel good."
    Was he breathing? He didn't know. Didn't care. Her hands made sweet circles on his back, gliding lower, pressing him into her. God, he wanted her. Like he'd never wanted anything or anyone before. She filled his hands, his arms, soft and rounded and plentiful. Her hips against his rigid flesh sent a shock wave of pleasure through him. On the tail end, a voice penetrated the sex and scotch clouding his brain.
    What are you doing, pal?
    He shut off the nagging, but the voice wouldn't let up. Don't get sucked in. You're drunk. Don t do this.
    Her fingers reached around his waist to tug at his zipper. Her voice moaned in his ear. "Don't stop."
    But he already had.
    She looked up at him, the green eyes hazy, her beautiful breasts rising and falling in a rapid dance of desire. "What's wrong?"
    What wasn't? Those who don't learn from history. ..
    His own breath none too steady, he pushed himself away and retreated to the chair. "Look, we can't."
    "Why not?"
    Been there, done that. "We just... can't." Head in his hands, he leaned over his knees. "I'm your boss, for God's sake. There are rules about that."
    "Believe me, I won't sue."
    "We have a job to do, and we don't need complications. Besides, last I heard, you hated my guts."
    "The feeling is mutual, isn't it?"
    He glanced at her. The haziness had left her face. She stared at him coldly, the defiance back in her eyes. But beneath the hard shell he saw something else, something he didn't want to see, but couldn't avoid. A softness, a tender vulnerability, as though a little girl hid behind a grown-up. He thought of the eighteen-year-old honor student, of what the town of Ruby had done to her. He wasn't about to do the same.
    "Right." He got up and ran a hand through his hair. "Let's not get confused about where we stand with each other."
    She rose, green eyes shooting fire. "No contusion here."
    "Good." He looked around for a graceful exit and found none. "Well then, good night."
    Angelina watched him walk into his bedroom and close tile door. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop the trembling. What had just happened? She had one powerful weapon against men and when she used it, no one ever turned her down.
    Panic bubbled and she crawled into the chair before her legs gave out. Was she losing her touch? If she couldn't get to Finn, who had coveted her from the start, how would she ever get to Victor Borian?
    She pictured Finn's face if she failed, and couldn't bear the disappointment she imagined in his eyes.
    Her tongue slicked over dry lips and she tried to still the frenzied clatter of her heart. Failure was not an option. Neither was backing out. She'd stick with the assignment until Finn Carver told her she was the best thing that happened to the TCF, law enforcement in general, and him.
    Especially him.
    Her stomach flopped. What did