Overheated by Laina Kenney Read Free Book Online

and the intensity of the moment sent tears running down her face. He leaned in, sipping at them tenderly.
    Lowering his head to taste her throat, he buried his sweaty face in her tangled hair. “God,” he muttered.
    Sara giggled, still gasping for air. Dash was a heavy weight above her, pressing her into the mattress, but she didn’t mind not being able to breathe. The man was dangerously talented.
    “Lethal,” she said softly. But she was smiling as she drifted off to sleep, secure in his strong arms.

    * * * *

    “We’ve had people watching her house, her entire neighborhood all weekend,” said Isaac. “Nothing. We’ve got every agent we can spare working this case and we know everything about Martin Brent, right down to his shoe size and the name of his therapist. We don’t know where he is yet, but we’ll find him.”
    Dash turned away from the window where he was watching Sara and Carolyn set out food for the Sunday night barbecue that had become the custom on the ranch in summer. They were laughing like girls, faces flushed and eyes shining. Sharing some wicked secret, probably, he imagined. That Sara could still blush after their weekend descent into debauchery was charming to him. He felt a deep need to protect that beautiful innocence in her, and wanted just as strongly to devour it. She was turning him inside out.
    “We know where the hell he is,” Dash said grimly. “He’s here, close enough to terrorize Sara, to see the results of his handiwork.”
    “Well, he hasn’t surfaced yet, but he will. He wants her to be scared enough to jump back into his arms, so he needs to be reachable. Don’t growl at me. I’m trying to state facts.” Isaac held his hands up in surrender.
    Dash checked himself. Damn it, he had been snarling softly at his friend. He raked impatient hands through his hair. “Christ, I’m a mess.”
    “You’re nuts about her,” Grange said calmly from the doorway.
    “He’s nuts, period. He always has been.” Isaac grinned.
    Dash grimaced. “Don’t you two jokers have a job to do? Could we concentrate on finding this asshole bothering Sara, and then you can laugh at me all through the wedding.”
    Grange straightened. “You asked her already?” His tone was disbelieving.
    “No, I haven’t asked.”
    “He doesn’t ask. He gives commands. He probably just ordered her to show up at a certain church at a certain time wearing a white dress and carrying flowers.” Isaac was still grinning, needling his friend.
    Seeing that Dash was about to explode, Grange stepped forward. “I have a report on Martin Brent,” he stated, effectively distracting his friends and preventing an outright brawl in the living room. He didn’t mind them fighting, had happily joined them on occasion in bars and barracks, but he preferred that his friends didn’t fight each other.
    “Martin Brent’s credit card secured a room for a Brent Martin at Hollywell’s Hotel in San Antonio, booked a week ago and registered for another two weeks. He’s a college guidance counselor, so he needs to finish this business with Sara before September, or give up his job. He’s got a month left of summer vacation, so he’s escalating right on schedule for that.”
    One of the things that Sara had stressed about Martin Brent was his obsessive time-awareness and his down-to-the-minute planning.
    “Did you see him?” Dash was a bottom-line man, always.
    “No, looks like he hasn’t been there for a couple of days, but his stuff is still there. All clothes hung up, pressed and perfect. Sara didn’t say he was a neat freak,” Grange commented. “He had a couple of things that look like they might be hers there as well. Has it all in this little silver box with Sara’s initials on it. Probably the missing stuff from her apartment.”
    “He’s a freak, period,” Dash said softly. The other men nodded.
    Dash didn’t even ask how Grange had gotten a look inside the hotel room. Locks and alarms weren’t