Free Player & the Game by Shelly Ellis

now.
    Once again, she was wearing an impossibly short dress. She seemed to be fond of them. The dress revealed the long legs that were as familiar to him now as his home address thanks to the hours he had spent watching her. The imprint of pert nipples was visible through its silk fabric. It didn’t look like she was wearing a bra. Her moist pink lips were parted. She looked like she was begging to be kissed.
    Stephanie frowned, as if feeling the radiating heat of his charged gaze. She took another uncertain step back from him.
    â€œYou can’t . . . You can’t walk out like this,” she murmured. “Do you realize the bomb you just dropped on me? You’re following Isaac because he’s done this before. If you’re still looking for him, I want updates. I want to know where he is so I can deal with the bastard myself!”
    Keith pursed his lips. “Look, when I find him, I’ll contact the police and tell them that he stole from you as well. But I can’t—”
    â€œI’ll hire you,” she said hurriedly. “If you’re tracking him down for that woman in Maryland, why can’t you track him down for me too?” She tilted her head. “I could get the money together. What’s your fee?”
    Keith wavered. They could use a new client, but he wasn’t too keen on the idea of working for Stephanie. The woman in Maryland had been in her early sixties. She was comely for her age, but matronly. In fact, Keith could see how a younger, suave guy like Isaac had won her over and conned her. She hadn’t stood a chance. But Stephanie didn’t look like the woman in Maryland. There was nothing matronly about her. She was dangerously attractive and she knew it. She was a gold digger who seemed well attuned to the powers of seduction. Now that Isaac had moved on from Chesterton, Keith planned to put as much distance between himself and Stephanie Gibbons as possible. A woman like her could cause him to do irrational things and get him into a lot of trouble.
    â€œYou can’t . . . You can’t hire me,” he said slowly, shaking his head. “I work for one client at a time,” he lied.
    Her face fell. “But—”
    â€œLook, I gotta get going.” He started backing toward her foyer. “I’ll tell the police. Don’t worry. I’ll give them all my supporting documents.” He opened the front door. “When they arrest Isaac, I’ll give you a call. You can give them your written statement.”
    He stepped through the doorway and shut the front door behind him, not giving her the chance to ask him to take on her case again. As he walked back to his SUV in the rain, the overpowering heat inside him slowly began to dissipate. He felt like an unbearable weight had been lifted.

Chapter 8
    S tephanie took the steaming hot cup of coffee in her hands and blew on it to cool it down.
    â€œWait. Back up,” Lauren said, making her glance up from her coffee cup. Her little sister pulled up a stool to the granite kitchen island and sat beside her. “Are you telling me Isaac was being followed by a detective? ”
    Stephanie sighed and nodded, gazing out her sister’s kitchen window at the tennis court in Lauren’s backyard. She then began the story about yesterday’s encounter with Keith Hendricks, PI.
    Today was a beautiful Saturday morning, but last night had been anything but beautiful. It had been long and restless for Stephanie. Each time she closed her eyes, she replayed the events of the past few days and tossed and turned in bed, unable to get any sleep.
    She needed to talk to her family to help sort through this mess. But she didn’t want to confide in her mother.
    â€œYou know the rules, Steph,” she knew her mother, Yolanda, would say. “Never let a man hold the reins, and certainly never let a man hold all the keys to your financial future. All of this could have been avoided