Hot as Hell (10 page)

“Are we done now?” Noah asked as he tapped out a familiar rhythm on the desk with a tip of his keys.

“Do you have somewhere better to be, Mr. Paxton?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.”

“You are not permitted to leave the state,” the detective snapped out.

Noah’s keys kept clicking out that song playing in his head. “No plans to do that.”

“Good.”

“Yet.”

“Suddenly you want to hang out here?” Lexy asked.

“Definitely not.” Noah tossed the keys and caught them. “The real issue is that we need to head back to the spa to meet a guest.”

The odd news kept on coming. “We do?”

“Yeah.”

From his dismissive tone, Lexy knew Noah wanted her to drop the questions. But since when did she jump whenever he told her to jump? “Who’s the guest?”

Noah shot her a frown. “Your brother.”

“Gray is in town?”

“Do you have more than one brother?”

Typical Noah. He wanted to change the subject and pulled out a huge load of sarcasm to accomplish just that. “You’re going to be a smartass when we’re this close to all of these weapons? That’s ballsy.”

Noah’s eyebrow lifted. “On second thought.”

Lexy realized Noah had knocked her off topic, but she got right back on track. The idea of Gray in Utah did not make a lick of sense. “Why is he coming here?

The detective clicked the end of her pen and started scribbling. “What is this brother’s full name?”

Lexy wondered if the detective planned to investigate every man in her life. “Do not write down one more thing.”

Something worked, because the detective stopped writing. “Excuse me?”

“Gray wasn’t even in Utah at the time of the murder. He is not involved in this. Dig somewhere else.”

Detective Sommerville leaned back in her chair. “I have to ask you something, Ms. Stuart.”

Lexy’s defenses rose. “You mean ask me something else.”

“Do all the men in your life come running when you’re in trouble?”

Lexy wondered why she ever liked this woman. “I see you don’t understand anything about the men in my life. If you did, you’d know I spend half my time getting them out of trouble.”

Lexy stood up. It was well past time to go.

“You mean trouble like murder?” the detective asked.

“You walked into that one,” Noah mumbled under his breath.

Stumbled into it was more like it. “Nothing so advanced as murder, I assure you.”

Noah’s chair screeched against the hard floor as he pushed away from the table. “What Lexy is trying to say is that she doesn’t find the men in her life smart enough to pull off something so advanced. Hell, I can’t seem to get an engagement to stick.”

“But yet you can make important paperwork disappear,” the detective said.

“You give me too much credit.”

The detective looked from Lexy to Noah. “The one thing I don’t do is underestimate either one of you.”

“Can I at least have my files back?” Lexy asked.

“No.” The detective smiled. “’Fraid you’ll have to do your investigating without it.”

Noah smiled at Lexy. “You had to know she was going to say that.”

“A woman can hope, can’t she?”

L
exy barely waited until they got out of the interrogation room to start unloading. “Were you lying in there?”

Noah had a few questions of his own, but held off until they were across the eavesdropping officers in the squad room and out of Detective Sommerville’s line of sight before answering. “Be more specific.”

“Only you would think that is an appropriate answer to a straightforward question.”

He slipped his hand around her elbow and steered her down the steps and out of the building. “You’re asking about the papers? Yeah, I took some out of your room.”

“Where are they?”

“In
our
room.”

“Why?”

He noticed she did not bother to correct his assessment of their sleeping arrangements. He took that as progress. “When a person has that many file folders along on vacation, you figure there’s something important going on that’s unrelated to sunbathing or hiking.”

“Not necessarily.”

“And then there’s the part where some of my office papers were missing and somehow turned up in your vacation stash.” His eyebrow lifted. “Care to explain that?”

He hoped to hell she would explain it. Seeing the documents sitting there on her bed cut off his breath. After the ambulance had carted Henderson away, Noah returned to his room ready to confront her and demand answers. Then she touched him and his concentration blew all to hell.

“I must have picked them up by accident.”

“Off my desk.”

“Things happen.” She shrugged as if to prove her point. “You could have warned me you took them.”

He stopped about ten feet from his car’s parking spot. “Hard to do that when you refuse to tell me what you’re working on, what really happened between you and Henderson, and what you were hiding in all of those other documents you’re carrying around.”

“I see you’ve given this scenario some thought.”

“You could say that.”

Hell, this situation with Lexy was all he thought about. Her secrecy annoyed him, but the how-dare-she reaction had given way to a more reasoned view about a half hour ago. Lexy was investigating something. Something related to him. He did not know what or why or the Henderson connection.

For a woman who claimed to want complete honesty between them, who ended their relationship to prove just that point, she sure was engaging in a lot of covert behavior lately. He thought about pointing out the hypocrisy but knew from experience that ticking Lexy off would not get him anywhere. Feisty Lexy was one thing. Pissed-off Lexy was another.

He had to tread carefully and let her come around to filling him in on her own. He just wished she’d move a bit faster. A man could only be so patient.

“So, was I right? Do these documents that aren’t mine point to anything the good detective will use against you?”

He asked because being prepared always made more sense than being caught off guard.

“You haven’t looked at them?”

Truth was he wanted her to just tell him about whatever was happening. He was tired of guessing and trying to read her. Why couldn’t women just say whatever they had to say without all the other crap?

“I can control my impulses.” Barely.

Lexy looked amused at the idea. “Since when?”

“In case you didn’t notice, I’ve been pretty busy during the last few hours, what with the dead guy on your floor.”

“That kept you from reading through my documents?”

“I also made love to you and got accused of murder. It’s been an unusual twenty-four hours even for me.”

“No one pointed a finger at you.”

He noticed she skipped right over the sex. “You’re right. Detective Sommerville is more convinced you’re involved than I am.”

“I’m not.”

“Me either.”

“I know.”

He let out a breath he had not even realized he was holding. “Well, that’s something at least.”

The tension pulling across her cheeks eased. “What information did she find out about you?”

“How should I know?” He aimed his key chain at his car and heard it unlock with a chirp.

“You’re not worried?” Lexy reached for the door handle.

He slipped his palm over her hand before she could open the door. “About?”

“You were willing to throw away our relationship in order to keep your secrets. God only knows what else you’re involved in.

“What does that mean?”

“Silly me, but I figured the information was worth hiding.”

That was his Lexy. Never missed an opportunity to dig for answers. She just did not understand she kept planting the shovel in the wrong dirt.

“The detective found what anyone else who bothered to look would find.” He fought to keep the edge out of his voice.

He knew someone had been looking into his past for months. The investigation triggered an internal alarm at the Defense Intelligence Agency and resulted in a bunch of calls and many warnings. All of the protocols stayed in place and only the nonclassified information showed up for anyone to find, but the higher-ups at DIA where Noah once worked were not happy. A second investigation by the Utah police was not going to play any better.

“What information would someone find on you?” Lexy asked.

She acted as if she did not know. “That I served in the Army. That I worked for the government for a short time once I left the service. That I have a mortgage, pay my bills, don’t gamble or drink to excess, and hold down a job.”

She slipped her hand out from under his. “The basics.”

“The only truly pertinent information.”

Her gaze did not leave the red taillights of a police car as it left the lot. “But there’s more to your background.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Educated guess.” She shook her head as if clearing her thoughts and then reached for the door again.

He held the door shut with his palm. Touching her now was not the answer. “Hold up.”

Her gaze went from his hand to his face. “You want to lose those fingers?”

“Since I plan to use them later on you, no.”

“There’s wishful thinking.” Her voice said no, but that smile she tried to hide said yes.

“We’re not arguing about sleeping arrangements now.”

“What are we arguing about?”

He was done fighting. He wanted an answer or two. “What did you find when you checked up on me?”

The question had been bouncing around in his head for months. He tried to push it out, to make her investigation of his background not matter, to never voice it. But there it was. The thought struck him and out the words came.

“What?” she asked with genuine confusion in her voice.

“Your background check on me.” He fought to keep any sign of emotion out of his voice.

“Noah, I—”

“You looked into my life. Dug around in my history. Tried to get those damn answers you insisted you needed in order for us to stay together and get married.”

Her face blanched white as she stepped back from the car. “I didn’t.”

Her denials pricked at him. “Lexy, just tell me the truth. It’s too important.”

She shifted until his back pressed against the car and she stood in front of him. “Listen to me. I’ve watched what you’re doing now at the company, but did not try to investigate your past.”

“You did.”

“I wanted
you
to open up to me.”

Sure. He got that part. “And when I didn’t?”

“I handed back the ring.” She exhaled long enough and heavy enough to grab his attention. “I needed you to want to share your life with me, the good and the bad, without me begging or hunting for any tiny morsel you were willing to give.”

The tremor in her voice vibrated through him. Up until her recent behavior in hiding the details of her hiking trip, he never questioned her honesty. She spoke her mind even when her comments played to her detriment. She was not one to sneak around, which was what made their current circumstances so frustrating.

Who she was, how she led her life and never ducked hard work in favor of claiming entitlement, proved rock solid the entire time he had known her. This time was no different. It just took him a few minutes of silence to realize that fact. From her stick-straight back and unblinking stare, he knew she was telling the truth.

Some of the bonds between them strained to the point of breaking, but not this. He still knew
her
, the deep-down real her. The woman she was before she started running and investigating and lying to the police and him.

Like that, so simple and fast, the anger seeped out of his blood, leaving behind only a stream of thick confusion. “If you didn’t go looking into my past, then who the hell did?”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

He pushed off from the car and stood up with only a foot separating them. His mind raced as questions hit him from every direction. “Someone has been poking around in my military record. There was a second investigation, this one less intrusive, into the rest of my life. Around the time you gave the ring back, someone started checking into my past. I figured it was you.”

She blinked but stayed quiet.

“It was a logical assumption.” He hesitated to bring up a sore subject, but he needed her to understand his position. “You were so pissed off about Karen.”

“I wouldn’t mention your wife right now. Not if you want to live.” Lexy crossed her arms across her stomach.

The pleading look in her eyes had evaporated. Her usual spunk seemed firmly back in place.

“Ex. And that’s the point. You turned rabid on me when you found out one thing about my life before you. You wouldn’t let up.”

“Excuse me for caring.”

“When I didn’t fill in all of the other blanks, I figured you went looking for the information you appeared to crave.”

“You still don’t get it.”

He started to wonder if there was anything he did “get” in dealing with her. “What?”

“My questions about you did not have anything to do with your past or wanting to analyze your life before me. Not really.”

“Sure seemed like it.”

How the hell did they get so off track? He wanted to talk about who else was out there poking around in his life. She wanted to fight.

“My questions related to trust. I wanted you to trust me and to be able to trust you in return.”

The ache did not return to her eyes, but he heard it in her voice. And she could not have shocked him more if she hit him. Here he thought they communicated well and understood each other. He had been pretty damn wrong on that score.

“Lexy, listen to me.” He touched her then, rubbing his hands up and down her arms. “You have this all wrong.”

“Oh, really?” She sounded as snotty and unbending as he had ever heard her, but she did not pull away.

“There is no one in this world I trust more than you.” When her mouth turned down in a frown, he pressed on. “You are the only person who matters to me.”

She stared at him. Did not move. Did not speak.

Her lack of a response scared the shit out of him. “If you told me you saw a wild coyote break into your room, pick up a lamp, and smack Henderson over the head with it, I would believe you.”

“Then we’d both be insane.”

He pulled her closer. “There is nothing you could do to push me away or make me not want to be with you. That’s what I’m saying.”

Her gaze searched his.

He inhaled, drawing as much air into his lungs as possible as he broke his cardinal rule. “Don’t you get it? My life before you is something I want to forget. I need to forget if I want to survive in society.”

“Noah.”

His hands moved to cup her cheeks. “You are the only person or thing in this life that I’ve ever found to be worth remembering.”

He waited for her to pull back or argue—something—as his head dipped lower and his mouth covered hers. Instead, she slipped her arms up and around his neck. As he pulled her in tighter against his chest, she deepened the kiss by slanting her lips over his again and again.

If not for the sound of a car horn, he may have bundled her into the backseat and put that condom in his wallet to good use. “What the…?”

Detective Sommerville pulled up next to them in a dark nondescript sedan and rolled down the window. “You two may want to move along.”

Lexy’s eyes clouded in confusion as she continued to hold onto his shoulders. “What?”

“If you want to answer a few more questions, fine.” The detective pointed at the small camera mounted by the door to the police station. The same one aimed right at where they were standing in the parking lot. “Otherwise you may want to know that you are the afternoon entertainment for every officer in the station. At least the male ones.”

Noah tried to wrestle back some of that control he lost whenever Lexy stood in the vicinity. “Goes to show there’s no crime in this town.”

The detective shrugged. “You picked the location for the show.”

This is what happened when a guy went too long without sex. His body now waited on alert every second. If Lexy looked at him sideways, he was up and ready to go, even if that meant flashing every cop in Utah.

“We are engaged, you know.” Noah explained that fact for what felt like the fiftieth time.

The detective smiled at both of them. “I’m starting to think that’s the truth.”

Lexy finally snapped out of her stupor and dropped her arms to her sides. “And I’m starting to hate this town.”

“That’s a shame, since you’re stuck here for now.” The detective winked. “You have a nice day.”