Free Dangerous Tease by Avery Flynn Page A

you that.”
    Sam grabbed her arm, sending another spark of awareness skittering up her skin. “I need to know what the hell the urgency is all about on your part. What's the real threat?”
    Her spine stiffened. “None of your damn business. Let go of me now.”
    His gaze dropped to his fingers wrapped around her upper arm and a flush creptinto his cheeks. He let go and stepped back as if burned. “Sorry, I shouldn't have touched you.”
    An awkward silence filled the room, pushing the tension higher.
    She couldn't tell him the truth. The less he knew, the easier it would be to take what she had to and walk away. A pang of regret clanged in her belly, but she turned a deaf ear to her conscience. If waitressing had taught her anything,it was how to spin a tale that paralleled the truth as closely as possible to get the customer on her side. If it worked for a messed-up drink order, she'd make it work for something much more important—her parents' lives.
    Ignoring the unease burbling in her gut, she pressed forward. “Forty thousand.”
    “What?” Those hazel eyes of his rounded in surprise.
    “My brother, Cy, owes his loan shark,Snips, forty K for a can't-miss business opportunity that did. Snips can't find Cy, but still wants his money.” The words tumbled out, burying her in deceit. “When I read Rebecca's diary, I realized the treasure is real. She buried something—probably jewelry.”
    “People have been hunting for Rebecca's Bounty for longer than I've been alive.” His tone turned harsh and dark, pain bleeding throughdespite his attempt to hide it. “They've found maps in the past, all of which were exposed as fakes. Can't you come up with the money another way?”
    Josie snorted. “I've already emptied my lavish savings account and been turned down for a personal loan from every bank in Vegas that doesn't do business with a baseball bat. My dad's been out of work for months, but finally found a job with the friendof a friend in Arizona. My mom needs dialysis several times a week and is on disability. If Snips goes after them, it won't be pretty.”
    “Your brother sounds like a real winner.”
    Her protective instincts perked up. “Hey, he's a good guy. Mostly. He'd been in trouble in the past, but Cy cleaned up his act a few years ago.”
    “So where is he now?”
    Her brain went into overdrive, searching for aplausible location. “Northern California. He took a job with a traveling construction crew.” That was the cover story he'd been telling their parents.
    “So you're stuck holding the bag.”
    Now it was her turn to shrug. “Yeah.” Time to bring this back to the treasure because as much as she didn't want his help, she needed it. “I need your help to find the treasure. If we work together, we can splitit down the middle. I just need enough to cover Cy's debt.”
    He shoved his hands in his pockets. “You're still not telling me everything and until you do, I'm not helping.”
    Snips had been clear about the consequences of telling the truth. As much as she was drawn to Sam, she couldn't risk hurting her parents. “I can't.”
    “Then it looks like we don't have anything left to talk about.”
    Judgingby his clenched jaw, the smartest move would be to admit a temporary defeat. No matter what it took, she'd make him change his mind about finding Rebecca's Bounty. She reached past him to retrieve her jacket from where she'd laid it on his desk. The movement brought her lips within kissing distance of his mouth. The attraction buzzing between them grew to a deafening level. She paused, hoveringnear him, her lips parting of their own volition as she stared at his mouth. Images of all the things he could do—all he had done—with his mouth flashed in her mind. Anticipation stretched between them as tangible as an invisible wire. Her clit twitched with need and she squeezed her thighs together.
    The slight movement broke the spell. Sam blinked his golden hazel eyes and pulled back.
    Sam