Take It Down by Kira Sinclair Read Free Book Online

bedraggled state. She supposed the front-desk clerk had seen plenty of shocking things at Escape…especially if she usually worked the night shift.
    Elle watched as the woman’s expression changed the minute Zane walked in behind her. Purely from objective observation, Elle recognized the feminine interest in the woman’s eyes. How her dark brown irises sharpened.
    “Zane. You’re out and about late tonight.” His shoes squeaked loudly against the highly polished wood floor. “Wet.”
    Elle heard the barely suppressed giggle in the woman’s voice and fought the urge to snarl.
    “We had a small mishap at the pool.”
    “Should I call Marcy?”
    “No!” The word burst from both of them at the exact same time. The last thing she wanted was to have to explain how both she and the head of security had ended up wet. Together.
    Without another word, they continued past the reception desk and into the hallway. Elle reached for the up button by the single elevator, but before she could punch it, Zane’s hand was wrapped around her elbow again.
    It was a nasty habit she was definitely going to have to break him of.
    Zane steered her down the quiet hallway, toward a door marked Staff Only. Pulling a key card from his pocket, he unlocked the door, saying, “Faster.”
    The elevator he unceremoniously pushed her into spit them both out directly across from the door to her room. She’d looked at the door they walked out of several times and could have sworn it housed another suite…definitely not a freight elevator.
    The building did have a few mysteries.
    This time, it was her turn to yank out her key. Once the lock disengaged, Elle maneuvered herself so that her body stood between Zane and her open doorway.
    That didn’t stop him from peering in. And then pushing inside. “Jesus. Someone’s ransacked your room. What did they take?”
    Zane shoved her behind the towering wall of his body. His palm stayed wrapped around the jutting bone of her hip. The heat of his hand soaked through the suddenly cold material suctioned to her skin. A wave of awareness rolled through her.
    It took her several seconds to register his words and see the room through his eyes.
    “Nothing.” Elle batted his hand away, both for the liberation and as a reminder that she really didn’t want his hands on her. She didn’t.
    “I was…looking for something before I went down to the bar.”
    Zane turned to stare at her, genuine bafflement written all over his face. “What? The Hope Diamond? This place is a mess.”
    Elle spun around slowly, taking in her toiletries spread out across the top of the antique dresser. The way her jewelry spilled out of the little pouch she kept it in, one of her favorite necklaces hanging half in and half out. Reaching over, she pushed it back inside. One of her shirts hung over the arm of a chair. Another rested in a heap on the floor beside it. Her silky half-length robe fluttered against the porcelain washbasin that stood in the corner.
    She shrugged. She was used to living inside chaos. It came with the territory. When inspiration struck, she dropped everything to paint or sculpt or draw or whatever.
    She had to admit that the room looked a little worse than normal, thanks to her earlier scavenger hunt. But she was always one to acknowledge her faults and being scattered was definitely among them.
    “Let me guess, your room is spotless. I bet there isn’t even a speck of lint on the floor.” Regimented. That was definitely a word she’d use to describe Agent Zane whatever. She had no idea what he’d done with the CIA, but all law-enforcement officers were pretty much the same.
    And she admitted that part of her refusal to make the bed every morning stemmed from being forced to do it every day of her childhood. Rebelling was healthy…sometimes.
    “Maybe.”
    However, in the face of his scrutiny, Elle found herself walking through the room, gathering her things so that she could dump them into the waiting