Free Edge of the Heat 3 by Lisa Ladew Page A

up and there would be little he could do to convince her. Damn stubborn woman , he thought. Damn strong-minded woman , another part of his mind threw at him. That’s why you love her.
    Craig switched gears. How could he keep Emma protected at work, even if she wouldn’t carry? And that’s when the perfect idea hit him. He almost sat back and cooed in delight at his genius idea, but he caught himself. Normally he would never lie to Emma, but he didn’t care what the cost of this little omission was, as long as it kept her alive.

Chapter 14

V ivian stopped reading for a second and listened to the click-clack of Hawk’s keyboard in the other room. The clicks and clacks sped up, to an almost frantic pace. She wished she could go in and ask him what was going on, did he find something? But she knew if she did she would hit a brick wall. He never shared anything with her. In the past 4 days, he had barely said 4 words to her. Since they’d arrived he’d spent all day and most of every night on the computer, or poring over his notes. Now that Norman had escaped, things seemed even worse. He was on the computer when she went to bed, and he was on it again when she woke up. She wasn’t sure if he was sleeping at all. But he had to be, didn’t he? He did most of his eating at night too, probably concerned that he would run into her if he entered the kitchen in the daytime.
    But things weren’t all bad. This evening, she’d taken a walk in the forest and listened to the birds chirping good night to each other. She was enjoying having the time to just sit and read on her tablet. She’d already caught up on her 2 year backlog of professional journals and she’d even finished a few books that were strictly pleasure reads - for the first time in years.
    She’d also gone to the grocery store yesterday after seeing how much Hawk ate. She had made a large casserole the day before, eaten a small portion, and when she’d woken up yesterday morning the glass dish had been washed and put away. Mouth open, she had wanted to go in and ask if he really ate the entire casserole, but she couldn’t stand the way he refused to look at her or say more than one word at a time to her. So she just went shopping and bought more food.
    Besides, if she stayed out here she could pretend they were getting along and that maybe there was even something between them. She could imagine his muscular body in the other room just waiting till his work was done so he could come in and sit down next to her. She would lean into his chest and smell his cologne. He would caress her hair and say something sweet to her, then lean in and kiss her gently. She imagined his kisses would start out gentle, but become more and more fervent while his hands roamed around her body. Eyes closed, she saw herself rip off his shirt and cover his chest in kisses. She felt the hard denim of his jeans under her hands as she yanked at his zipper. And when he finally sprung free her breath caught in her throat at the sight -
    Vivian’s tablet dropped out of her limp fingers and hit the floor, startling her. Her cheeks blushed crimson when she realized she’d been doing it again. Day and night she‘d been fantasizing about Hawk. In fact, she’d been so busy dreaming of Hawk she hadn’t had one of her nightmares about Norman since their first night here. The day they’d gotten the news that Norman had escaped she’d been certain that her sleep would be filled with horrible images of running from Norman, or of Norman taking her from her apartment and shooting her up with that drug.
    She was quite irritated at herself, not only because she couldn’t seem to control the erotic picture show in her brain, but also because she hadn’t had the nightmares. Was it really that her mind was just too busy getting busy to dream about Norman? Or was there more to it? Did Hawk somehow make her feel safe? Safer then she felt alone? Because that was ridiculous. She was a modern woman. She