Free Master (An Impossible Novel) (Impossible #6) by Julia Sykes

ignored the jibe.  “You should have called me to let me know you were working last night.  I would have come into the office with you and helped out.”
    “I wasn’t at the office.”
    My brows drew together.  He didn’t strike me as the type to stay out at bars all night when he was working a case.  Unless he was with a woman…
    “Where were you, then?”  My question was a touch more incisive than I would have liked.
    “Outside your place.”  He shrugged, as though that information was of little consequence.
    I blinked, taken aback.  “You slept in your car?  Why?”
    His expression told me I was being a bit slow.  “I didn’t sleep.  I was keeping an eye out for your stalker.  Now that we know who to look for, I wanted to make sure Parnell was nowhere near your apartment.”
    A long moment of silence passed as that sank in.  I knew Reed wanted to protect me, but I hadn’t thought he would go so far as to keep watch over me.  I suddenly felt guilty for being so snappish when he first arrived.
    “Sorry I don’t have any coffee,” I said softly, at a loss as to what else to say.
    He smiled.  “I’m sorry, too.  You look like you could use some.”  He took inventory of me.  I was sure my eyes were as red as his, and I probably had ugly dark circles under them.  “Rough night?”
    “I couldn’t sleep,” I admitted.
    It suddenly struck me that I was wearing my ratty old sweatpants and a thin camisole.  And I wasn’t wearing a bra.  Of course, as soon as I realized that, my nipples hardened.  Reed’s eyes flicked to my chest, and his nostrils flared before he lifted his gaze back to my face.
    I bit my lip and looked away, my cheeks flaming.
    “I, um…  I think I have eggs in the fridge.  Can I make you breakfast?”
    “I’d rather have a shower and change, if you don’t mind.”  Reed hefted a small tote bag that I hadn’t noticed hanging at his side.
    He hadn’t even gone home to get dressed?
    “You didn’t have to do that,” I told him.  “You didn’t have to watch my place.  I can look out for myself.”
    “I know I didn’t have to, and I know you can.  That doesn’t change the fact that I did.  Now, can I take a shower here or are we going to my hotel?”
    “ We? ”
    He nodded.  “I’m not leaving you alone until we catch this guy.”
    I stared at him for a moment, dumbfounded.  He stared back, waiting.
    “Just give me a sec.”  I found myself darting into my room.  I threw my covers back in a semblance of having made my bed, and I hastily tugged on my work clothes.  It was a relief to know that my peaked nipples were concealed by my bra and blouse when I returned to the small living room.
    “Okay.”  I jerked my thumb at my bedroom door, letting him know he could pass.  “You can take a shower.  Towels are in the linen closet to the right of the sink.”  An image of him under the hot spray flashed across my mind.  Reed Miller was going to be naked.  In my shower.  With only one thin wall separating us.
    He smirked as he took in my pink cheeks.  “Thanks.”
    He brushed past me before I could make my brain function properly again.  His scent wafted over me, further impeding my ability to think.  Half a minute passed before I realized I was standing frozen in the middle of my living room.
    Idiot.   Reed probably thought the same.  His smirk told me as much.  I had caught glimpses of desire from him, like when his gaze had riveted on my chest only minutes earlier, but he didn’t seem as strongly affected by me as I was by him.
    And why would he be?  I was nothing special.  I wasn’t some bombshell or enticing temptress.  Hell, I had only had sex with one guy other than George, and that had been one drunken night in college.  I had been a twenty-one year old virgin, and I decided I needed to do something about it.  The sex had been so lackluster that I hadn’t really gotten what all the fuss was about.  I only had sex with