Free Born to Darkness by Suzanne Brockmann Page A

standing by the door, watching her.
    Damn, he was attractive—tall and lean, with broad shoulders, narrow hips, and long legs. He was almost impossibly handsome, too, with that head of thick, reddish blond hair, a straight nose, a strong chin, and an almost elegant, gracefully shaped mouth that was quick to quirk up into a smile.
    Kind of the way it was doing right now.
    He was well-educated, and well-mannered, and his intelligence gleamed in his perfect-cloudless-sky-blue eyes.
    And as scornful as she’d pretended to be about the whole officer-and-a-gentleman thing, it was a total turn-on.
    He was the anti-Justin—a full-grown man to Justin’s often-petulant boy.
    His smile broadened at her perusal, and she didn’t doubt for a second that a man this handsome knew exactly how good-looking he was. She would’ve bet her entire month’s pay that he knew just how to make his eyes sparkle like that, in order to make a woman’s heart beat a little harder.
    It was working.
    But she, too, had her own tricks in the charm department, so she couldn’t blame him or cry foul.
    He let a little heat into his eyes as he continued to just stand there, and her mouth actually went dry.
    “You got another name,” he whispered. Even his voice was sexy. A rich, accentless baritone with just a hint of smoke to give it a unique texture. “Besides just Mac?”
    “I do,” she said.
    He waited, but when it was clear that she had no intention of telling him what it was, he laughed a little. His laughter was almost musical. “Okay,” he said.
    “Is it?” she asked.
    “It has to be, doesn’t it?” He took off his jacket then, and tossed it onto the sofa, but still didn’t come any closer.
    “You could leave in a huff,” she pointed out.
    He laughed even more at that, genuinely amused. “I suppose, in some alternate universe, I could, in fact, leave in a huff. But that’s not going to happen here.” He looked around then, at the small, austerely furnished living room, the attached dining area, the pass-through to the tiny kitchen, the hallway that led—just a few steps—to the bedroom. And then he looked back at her, clearly waiting for a cue.
    So Mac gave him one. “I’d offer you a beer, or something to eat,” she said, as she went down that little hall, “but I haven’t been here in a while, and I’m pretty sure the cupboard’s bare.”
    “I’m good. But … can I ask you something?” he asked as he followed her into the bedroom, where she turned on the bedside table lamp. He didn’t wait for her to respond. “Am I here because—or in spite—of being blacklisted?”
    “Neither,” Mac said. “You’re here because you were honest.” She looked at him over her shoulder as she sat on the side of the bed that was farthest from the door. There was real irony in her words, because no way in hell was she going to be honest enough with
him
to say,
You’re also here because just touching you put myself-healing mental powers into overdrive. I can’t wait to see what happens to my ankle when we actually have sex
. “I happen to really like honesty.”
    “Note to self: Be more honest.” He’d stopped in the doorway again, just leaning against the jamb as he watched her unfasten the laces of her boots.
    “Don’t forget the smiley face emoticon,” she said. Her right boot came off easily and hit the floor with a thump. The left was going to be more of a challenge and she hesitated.
    He laughed. “I don’t think I’ve ever included a smiley face in a note.”
    “No?” she asked.
    “Nope.” He let the P pop.
    “I didn’t really think so,” Mac said. It was probably better if she just kept her left boot on for now. Although
that
could be awkward when it came time to get out of her pants—which was going to happen soon. She hoped. “I was kidding. You’re just such a … Boy Scout.”
    “Hardly.” He laughed again at that as he broke eye contact to look around the room and take it all in: Cheap