Harlequin Nocturne March 2016 Box Set by Megan Hart Read Free Book Online Page A

downed one shot before getting in the shower, where his cock got hard as soon as he tried to soap up. He took another when he got out. His hair was still wet and he’d barely put on a fresh pair of jeans and a plain white T-shirt before she was knocking on his front door.
    â€œI brought dessert.” She held up one of the cook’s chocolate cakes. Jordan knew it by the scent of the icing. “I got it from the main house.”
    â€œLooks good. C’mon in.” He stepped aside to let her pass. He’d managed to tame his dick, but barely. When she brushed his belly with her arm, he felt it stirring again.
    They sat at his dining table. He’d put out a box of cheap chocolate doughnuts and made coffee, though the caffeine was going to do a number on him, as well. All of this was. Shit, he was going to need another run.
    She’d brought along her tablet to show him some of the things she’d been working on, and before he knew it, they were side by side on his couch while she ran through lists of what she was putting together. She smelled so good. It had been a mistake to invite her here, Jordan thought. He was too hungry.
    â€œBut I don’t know.” Monica shook her head, then tucked a dark cherry curl behind her ear. She flicked her finger along a line of photos she’d pulled up. There was no denying the edge of excitement in her voice. “None of these things match the patterns. I’ve run through all the databases, and really, just...nothing.”
    â€œYou love this, don’t you? The unknown.”
    She looked at him. “Love it? I’m not sure. I’ve always thought of love as something that makes you happy.”
    â€œMe, I’ve always thought it was something that made you miserable,” Jordan answered.
    Monica laughed. “How many times have you been in love, Jordan?”
    He didn’t have an answer. He’d been homeschooled since the age of fourteen, when his parents had yanked him out of public school at the first signs of what they both had prayed would never come true. He hadn’t gone to the prom, basketball games. Hadn’t played in the band. He’d gone to college too wary of other people to trust anyone enough to fall in love.
    â€œI thought so,” she said when he didn’t answer. “Sure, love can make you miserable. But it also makes you happy. So happy.”
    For a second, her gaze went faraway. Unexpectedly, Jordan envied the man who’d married her, the one who’d made her look that way. The one who’d died, he reminded himself.
    Monica shrugged off her expression. “Anyway. I have some calls and messages out to some of my colleagues, but at this point, I’m looking at something big. Something strong. Something that lives in the bayou.”
    â€œAnaconda? Python? Something like that?” He shook his head. “I know there’s a huge problem with that in Florida, but I told you, not so much here.”
    â€œSnakes don’t have claws.”
    â€œGator?” He laughed at the idea, but Monica looked thoughtful.
    â€œSomething like that,” she said. “You can laugh all you want, Jordan, but I’m good at what I do, and based on what I’ve seen and what you told me, I wouldn’t put something like a gator off the list.”
    â€œGators can’t climb walls.”
    She smiled. “I said something like an alligator. But it’s definitely smart enough to figure out how to get through that wall and get what it wants.”
    He was silent for a moment, thinking. “You really believe all this stuff about things that go bump in the night.”
    â€œI believe in things that go bump in the sunlight, too.”
    He glanced at her to see if she was making a sexy innuendo, but all she gave him was that same blank, assessing look that was starting to make him crazy enough to want to do something to wipe it off her face. He frowned and scooped up