Free He's the One by Linda Lael Miller Page A

own, filled not with water but yearning and memories that made her want
     to sink to her knees and pound the sand in frustration.
    She’d missed him, so damn much.
    They’d met three years ago when she’d still been just a clerk at the insurance company.
     Big surprise, she’d butted into a case that had gone bad, and had been mugged coming
     out of her parking garage late one night.
    James had been the responding officer.
    And the rest was a sweet, sexy, shivery, heavenly blur as he’d insinuated himself
     into her life until she couldn’t remember what she’d done without him.
    She’d been forced to remember that very thing these past six months.
    The water was nearly the same temperature as the air, and as she waded out, the black,
     swirling depths and the dark night sky above her blended into one, like a comforting
     blanket. When she could no longer touch the bottom, she began to swim.
    As if sensing her coming, James turned. She couldn’t see his features but felt his
     eyes search hers as he waited for her. “Still here?” he asked.
    “I wanted to talk to you before I left.”
    “Why?”
    Why? She blinked at that, but he took the next swell, giving her time to think about
     her answer. When he came close again, tossing back his wet hair, his face and shoulders
     gleaming in the moon’s reflection, she tried a smile. “Maybe to thank you?”
    Treading water, Ella remembered in vivid Technicolor how they used to thank each other
     for things. With sexual favors . She’d always wanted the same one, his talented mouth on her body. He, however, had
     been forever inventive with his own owed favors, and she’d never known what to expect—maybe
     to find herself bent over the arm of the couch for him to take her from behind, or
     on her knees before him . . . and then there’d been the time he’d requested a raunchy
     striptease on their brand-new kitchen table, culminating in dinner, which, in fact,
     had turned out to be her.
    “You’d have been fine if I hadn’t shown up,” he said now, his eyes dark and glimmering
     with the same memories. If that was so, she marveled at his ability to keep his cool,
     because even in the water, she was beginning to sweat.
    “Yeah, maybe.” She managed to smile at him. “But I’m glad I didn’t have to find out.”
    He treaded water effortlessly beside her, saying nothing. His manner bespoke quiet,
     rock-solid confidence. It always had.
    She, however, had to work at feeling confident on the best of days. “I know I was
     unwise today,” she admitted, getting a little breathless from keeping herself afloat.
     “Letting my guard down like I did.”
    “Wasn’t the first time,” he said, not at all breathless.
    “No, it wasn’t. But at least I didn’t get myself mugged in the parking lot, and then
     splashed across the human interest section of the paper.”
    One black eyebrow shot up. “Or locked in the meat freezer of a packing plant, and
     then on the front page.”
    That had been last year, and after his fury had worn off, he’d had the nerve to laugh
     at her. “Or locked in a trunk,” she said softly.
    Another episode, from eight months back, and he let out a sound that might have been
     frustration or dark humor as he shook his head. “Good thing you had your Nextel on
     you that time.”
    “It’s a good thing I had you on the other end of my Nextel,” she corrected. “Come on, admit it, some of my more
     colorful cases might have brought me trouble and grief, but you eventually always
     found the humor in the situation. You think I’m cute.”
    He shot her a baleful look and caught another wave.
    She watched him vanish beneath the black, swirling water, then caught sight of his
     strong, lean body riding the crest. When he came back, she reached out for him, setting
     her hand on his rock-solid shoulder to hold herself up.
    “Tired?” he asked.
    “Nah. Just wanted to make sure you weren’t too cold.”
    He snorted and slid his hands