Free Detect Me by Selma Wolfe

Embarrassment threatened to well up inside of her when Nikki started the dance of jiggling her key in the lock, but she pushed the feeling aside and carried on determinedly.
    Mark said nothing at all, just waiting patiently and then gestured for Nikki to walk in the door before him like a gentleman.
    Mark stopped abruptly in the entrance.
    “You have a reptile.” He sounded completely baffled. Nikki couldn’t help feeling a prick of gentle amusement at his confusion.
    “What, can you usually tell if someone owns a lizard? There’s cat ladies and lizard ladies?” She poked around the cabinets, taking advantage of Mark’s momentary stunned state to check her housekeeping abilities. The state of affairs in the apartment was looking bleak. Nikki made a summary decision not to offer Mark any coffee, since she didn’t have any. Or filters. She also seemed to have neglected to buy a coffee maker at all.
    Mark shook his head and walked over to the cage, checking it out with the curiosity she expected. When he turned back to look at her, his eyes were soft, and all the affectionate amusement Nikki had felt a moment ago slid away, leaving her with only the butterflies in her stomach for company.
    “You keep surprising me,” he said. They looked at each other for a long moment before Mark dropped his gaze and moved past her into the kitchen, rubbing his knuckles against her bare arm almost absently. Her skin prickled up in goose bumps.
    “His name is Charm,” Nikki found herself stammering. If the iguana made Mark look at her like that, give her those casually familiar touches, she wanted to keep talking about it. Usually she kept Charm’s existence a state secret, since she’d learned quickly that people looked at you oddly for finding a slithery reptile impossible to resist. People who bought puppies from the shelter on impulse never got that look, she was willing to bet. “He’s kind of useless actually. Just sits there. Not much company.”
    Even though Mark’s lips barely curved upward, his eyes warmed. “Well,” he said in a voice full of good humor, “perhaps I can best a lizard for good company, at least.”
    “Probably,” Nikki said, smiling back helplessly. She remembered her loyalty, though, and added, “but he is a really good boring iguana.”
    She was rewarded with an honest laugh that seemed to fill the whole apartment and brighten it.
    But when Mark quickly recovered himself his face smoothed back into something solemn and dignified, and the comfort Nikki had been feeling vanished into the air.
    “It’s not much,” Nikki said, nerves jangling under her skin. Exhaustion suddenly washed over her like a wave and threatened to pull her under. All the stress of the day finally hit and she thought she might fall asleep right there on the kitchenette floor. “But there’s a bed - um. And a couch. You’re injured, why don’t you take the bed?”
    Mark was standing in the middle of the apartment, craning his neck to peer around the small rooms, looking every inch the curious detective. At Nikki’s words he snapped to attention and looked around sharply at her.
    “Like hell,” he said in an amused rumble. “Go to sleep, Nikki. It’s been a long day. I’ll see you in the morning. If you’re lucky I’ll be awake enough to make pancakes.”
    Nikki rubbed at her eyes. “I… okay,” she said, too tired to protest. She stumbled toward her bedroom and paused at the door.
    “Goodnight,” she called over her shoulder. “Just come get me if you need anything.”
    “Have sweet dreams,” Mark told her with a small smile, and to Nikki’s surprise, she did.

 
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SIX
     
    At the sound of footsteps padding along the wooden floor Mark glanced up from the stovetop, where he was tossing pancakes one-handed.
    “Morning,” he said, and tried not to stare at Nikki’s long legs. She was leaning up against the wall, her blonde hair tumbling around her shoulders, disheveled from sleep.