Free 04 A Killing Touch by Nikki Duncan Page A

maintain control while her body seduced his. Glide after glide she milked him while ramping herself higher and higher, until with a final groan low in her chest, she surrendered to pleasure.
    Now that he knew what waking up with Lana could be like he could almost imagine mornings without coffee. Before he could formulate a response or verbal thought, she rolled off him with a stinging slap to his thigh.
    “You make coffee. I’m getting dressed.” Then, with her perfectly toned ass waving hello and good-bye, she bounded off the bed and into the bathroom calling as she went, “I’ll be five minutes.”
    Her departure shafted through him with the pang of loss and loneliness. In the next moment it reminded him of their deal. She did the no-emotion thing well. Better than he appeared to be.
    Pouring a cup of the coffee that waited for him in the automatic coffee pot and adding some butterscotch creamer from the fridge, Aidan considered what he was getting into. It was probably best that Lana acted so carefree the morning after. First trying to sneak out and now heading into the bathroom where she’d put her clothes during a snack break last night. One of them had to observe the rules of their… Fling? Affair?
    Taking the first pull of the cloud-clearing liquid, he ignored another pang of discomfort and realized he should be the one putting these stops into place. So far he’d allowed Lana to keep him off balance and distracted. That was going to end because thanks to her he had a new case to work. He couldn’t work it if he was constantly thinking about getting her naked.
    “I love your shower.” Lana stepped into the small kitchen with her hair hanging straight and wet behind her shoulders and her face washed free of makeup. She was stunning. “That thing is huge.”
    “All those extra heads were a selling point.” He nodded at the ocean beyond his window as he poured her a mug of coffee. “The view’s not bad either.”
    She picked up his creamer and chuckled. “So this is why you always smell like butterscotch.”
    “What?”
    “How long have you been using this creamer in your coffee?” She sniffed his coffee cup.
    “A few years.”
    Then she sniffed him. “It’s in your pores. Butterscotch coffee, though mostly butterscotch.”
    “No way.”
    “Yes way.”
    “Whatever.” His mom had always used butterscotch to sweeten things he and Liam hadn’t liked, and she made the best butterscotch cookies. The coffee made him think of her each morning so while it maybe wasn’t the most masculine of flavors he loved it.
    “It gives you a sweet edge.”
    “Sweet isn’t something I’m accused of being.”
    “Because you’re more often a hard-edged ass focused on your cases and hatred of reporters.”
    “If there weren’t so many cases and if reporters could learn when to back off, I could relax a little.”
    “If we back off we miss the story. If we miss the story we lose our jobs.”
    “So others suffer for your cause.” He’d known it was only a matter of time before they stopped getting along, but he hadn’t expected it quite this quickly.
    “You know what?” Lana set her mug gently on the counter and faced him. “I’ve enjoyed the last ten hours with you so I’m going to forget the last few minutes.” She headed toward the door. “I’m going to go home and get ready for work and pretend you don’t see me as a soul-sucking, moral-lacking journalist.”
    “Lana.”
    “Good-bye, Aidan.”
    Just like the morning before, she left him standing at his door, uncertain.
    Uncertain as to whether or not to pursue her.
    Uncertain of what to say if he did.
    Uncertain of how to be with her.
    Rubbing the ache in the middle of his chest, he shook his head and closed the door. The only thing he was certain of was that it was probably for the best that they’d argued and she’d left.
    Now he could focus on rash-ridden corpses.
    After a quick shower, he grabbed his jacket and headed for the office. If