Dangerous to Her by Virna Depaul Read Free Book Online Page A

deputy arrived, Dom snapped, “Keep this inmate cuffed and contained until I get back.”
    Then Dom went in search of Mattie.
    It didn’t take him long to find her. She was in the staff break room, facing the sink with the water running, her back to him. He took a few seconds to regain his composure, but when he noticed her trembling, he immediately wanted to go back and pound Dusty into the ground. Instead, he stepped forward with a soft, “Let me take a look at your arm.”
    Gasping, she whirled around, her forearm dripping. Her eyes were wide, her face pale. When she spoke, her teeth were chattering, “I’m fine. I—I told you, I don’t need—”
    Moving slow so he wouldn’t scare her even more, he reached around her to turn off the water. He gently lifted her arm to inspect it and asked, “Why are you in here alone?” to distract her.
    “I told them I was fine and to stop hovering. Court should be starting soon.”
    “Hmm.” Gently, he smoothed his fingers over the red welts on her arm, noting that one mark had drawn blood and several bruises were also starting to form. She was right. She seemed fine, but Dusty was a druggie and a transient. Who knew what he was carrying.
    Barring that, she’d been lucky. Inmates manufactured shanks all the time. If Dusty had managed to slip one in with him—
    “Where’s the inmate?” she asked even as she pulled away.
    Dom clenched his jaw and barely resisted the urge to grab for her. He forced himself to take several steps back. “He’s in the holding cell. Don’t worry, I have another guard watching him, one who isn’t a damn fool this time.”
    She nodded. Looked over his shoulder. “Good. That’s…good.”
    When he didn’t speak or move away, she gestured to the door. “Well, I need to get the—”
    Unable to help himself, he raised his hand and hooked a strand of her hair that had fallen in her eyes. Despite her quick inhalation of breath, he tucked it behind her ear and let his hand hover there. Their gazes locked and he felt his heart slam against his chest, over and over, beating into his brain, It’s her, It’s her, It’s her .
    Her lips parted and she moistened them with her tongue. Helpless, his gaze followed the movement and lingered. This close to her, his body shifted into autopilot, as if ten years had never passed. He grew aroused. His breath deepened. His fingers itched to reacquaint themselves with her hair and breasts and hips.
    “Dom…?” she whispered. It had the effect of a gunshot.
    Dropping his hand, he swiftly moved back, putting several feet between them. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d meant only to check up on her, yet the minute he got anywhere close to her, he lost his mind. She was certainly staring at him as if she believed that to be true.
    “I’m going to need you to fill out a statement. Since I was a witness, I can’t take it myself, so I’ll send another deputy over. Please wait here.”
    “But I—”
    Turning away, he pretended he didn’t hear her.
    He knew exactly what that made him.
    An even bigger coward than when he’d broken up with her.

    Mattie’s knees were trembling so much she barely made it to a chair before she collapsed. Although she’d been shaken by the incident with the inmate, most of her current distress had to do with the man who’d just left—the same man who’d looked as if wanted to suck on her from head to toe. What was even worse, his intense scrutiny had made her own libido, put on ice for far too long now, go into overdrive. She felt flushed. Achy.
    Empty.
    But also confused.
    Dom had looked at her with such tenderness. It seemed she was right. He did remember her. So why was he continuing to pretend he didn’t?
    A thought occurred to her and her chest constricted with shame.
    Maybe he was worried she’d try to pick up where they’d left off. Maybe he figured, now that she was a single mother and getting on in years, never mind packing on a few extra pounds, she’d