Free The Ex File (Behind the Blue Line Series Book 1) by Alexis D. Craig

to her for permission before he sat next to him, she shrugged. “It’s okay. Good to know you were home safe with a cop. How you doin’, O’Leary?”
    “Not too bad, Graham. Yourself?” His voice still sounded all rough and aroused and her thighs clenched involuntarily.
    She needed to move this along. There were other things she could be doing, naked things, and it just felt weird having her best friend and his friend there. “I’m sorry I didn’t call. I got distracted, as you can see.”
    He looked her up and down and she knew he was taking in every mussed and rumpled inch of her. “Oh,” he replied slyly, “I can see that fine.” He picked up her purse and plucked her cell phone from the top. “Did you mean to turn it off?”
    She took it from him and looked it over, hitting the power button. It jumped to life in her hand, dinging with her several texts and voicemails, ostensibly from Josh. “Hell, I must have shut it off when I was talking to Pia.”
    “Excuse me?”
    All eyes in the room swung to Sean, whose expression demanded an explanation. Josh turned to Dane for a moment and then back to her. “Okay then, that’s our cue. You two have a lovely evening.” The two men stood and started for the door.
    Ellie hugged Josh at the door. “Thanks for looking after me.”
    He kissed her cheek. “Someone’s got to, clearly.”
    Dane actually leaned way down and hugged her, too. “He was really worried,” he whispered, casting a quick glance at Josh.
    “I know, and I’m sorry,” she murmured. When he stepped back, she looked him over again. “Really? You just happened to have a halligan?”
    He shrugged, a play of muscles so large it should have had sound effects. “It was in the trunk.”
    “Of course it was. Have a good night, boys.” She closed the door behind them and rested her head on it for a moment. Now for the real issue. She turned to find him leaning against the wall just behind her. “Sean.”
    His head was down with his face obscured by his hair, but she could see him watching her from beneath his lashes. “You saw her today.”
    She nodded in embarrassment, not proud of the emotional tailspin she’d sent herself into and inadvertently dragged him with her. “I did. Not on purpose, believe me.”
    His lips curled into a small smile. “I don’t doubt that for a minute.”
    “She said these things, like you and she were, and I just…” if she could find something that didn’t make her sound like a raving lunatic, she’d complete a thought, finish a sentence.
    He reached for her hand, and pulled her in close to wrap his arms around her. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that,” he whispered into her hair.
    Ellie shook her head and brushed her lips over his jaw. “Don’t apologize for her. She doesn’t deserve it.” She rested her head on his chest and sighed, feeling all the angst and inner wildness drain out of her. “I’m sorry the rescue squad intervened.”
    His chest shook under her cheek with laughter as his fingers played in her curls. “They care about you, I can relate. More interrupted, less intervened, anyway.”
    “Oh yeah?” Ellie looked up at the tone of mischief in his voice and found it mirrored in his cobalt eyes.
    “Yeah.” He took her hand and turned toward her stairway. “I’d be more than happy to discuss this further in a more comfortable setting.”
    “Oh,” she said on a laugh, starting up the stairs, “and did you have one in mind?”
    “In fact, I do.”
    The light in the room was confined to the clock on the cable box at the end of the bed. When she reached for the light switch, he stopped her with a hand on her wrist. Her eyes rendered useless by the night, all she had was the warmth of his fingers on her pulse point and the sound of his breathing, calm and steady.
    Ellie felt him move behind her, the shift in her hair, his breath on her neck. The zipper of her dress gave up with no fight at all and pooled around her feet without