Free Hollywood on Tap by Avery Flynn Page B

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    A half–hour later, she collapsed back against the cool leather of Sean’s couch. He relaxed beside her, his shoulder touching hers, the contact sending delightful shivers across her skin. His touch might—okay, did—distract her, but not enough to pull her completely away from the task at hand. Few things did. It was one of the things that had helped her become one of the top efficiency consultants in the country. She was always about the task at hand.
    “Please tell me you’re seeing some overlap of employees in the chart because I have a big fat goose egg after going through the accident reports.”
    Sean shook his head. “Some folks keep showing up, but we have a small staff, so it’s bound to happen.”
    “Who do you have?” The answer was there, they just weren’t seeing it yet.
    “Well, Billy was at the fermentation tank before it started leaking, but he just got ten stitches in the head from the nozzle valve switch.”
    Billy was relatively new and still familiarizing himself with the ins and outs of the brewery. To say the goofy kid had a bad case of hero worship when it came to Sean was an understatement. Billy spent most of his time following the brewmaster around like a puppy dog hoping to hear “good boy” from its owner.
    “I don’t buy it,” she said. “Who else?”
    “Hailey, but she’s been with the brewery long before I ever got there, and your Uncle Julian always seemed to trust her more than anyone else.”
    Plus she understood the value of color coding. That was always a mark in favor in Natalie’s world. “It has to be someone.”
    ‘‘What if it’s someone who used to work at the brewery?” he asked.
    “Like Carl?” Just mentioning the former brewmaster’s name pissed her off. “He’s still in the county lockup. His wife can’t make bail.”
    Sean snorted. “More like his wife’s family can’t make bail.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “She’s a Peterson. Her parents own a big chunk of Salvation County.”
    “You don’t think she asked for their help?” Natalie asked.
    “Probably asked, doubtful she got it.” He took off his cap and ran his long fingers through his thick hair.
    “Why?”
    “Rumor is her family objected to the marriage.”
    Juicy stuff, but not the right kind of information she was after, which was really starting to annoy her. Every problem had a solution, and with enough time, she’d find the one to who was sabotaging the brewery. The only question was, did she have the time? “Will Billy be back at work tomorrow?”
    Sean shook his head. “Gave him the day off.”
    “Okay, let’s plan on chatting with Hailey tomorrow. Maybe she saw something she didn’t realize was important at the time.” Natalie gathered her pens and her notebook and slid them into her bag. The crinkle of paper being crumpled reminded her of what else she’d brought with her. She took out the three pieces of paper. “I was going through the personnel files today and noticed your W–2 wasn’t in the file. I brought you another one you can fill out real quick.”
    He drummed his fingers on the coffee table. “I’ll do it later.”
    “Might as well get it over with.” She handed him a black pen. “Anyway, bringing it in tomorrow will give me an excuse to—”
    Before she could even get the words “talk to Hailey” out, Sean’s lips came down on hers.

    Desperation to get her to stop asking him to fill out the W–2 had pushed Sean into the kiss, but it was going to take a tow truck to pull him away. She tasted too good, felt too right, and moaned too sweetly for the realization that this was all wrong to pierce the lust fogging his better judgment.
    She relaxed opened up beneath him, and tasting her was like getting a glimpse of heaven. But Sean wanted more than a view from the cheap seats. Without ever losing contact with her hungry mouth, he tangled his fingers into the knot of hair at the top of her head and found the metal clip holding it