The Wharf

“I couldn’t get back to that system you were using.”

“I’ll find it.” He sidled next to her at the desk by the window and brushed her arm with his fingers as he reached for the keyboard.

Standing shoulder to shoulder with her, he felt her body quiver. Must be the excitement of discovering the identity of her contact. Couldn’t have been because of their close proximity, since she’d been shoving him away from her with both hands ever since he’d carried her bikini-clad body from the sauna.

He pointed to her screen background, a middle-aged couple with a spaniel between them. “Your parents?”

“And their faithful dog. They’ve had him for fifteen years.”

He studied the pair, a sleek blonde with straight chin-length hair and a balding man who looked fit for his age. Kacie must have taken after her dad because she didn’t resemble her mom at all.

He entered a URL and typed in his username, password and number from his token. The system whirred to life and he let out a breath. “It’s up.”

Kacie stepped away from him and planted a chair between them. “Have a seat. I’ll give you what I know.”

He settled on the edge of the chair, his hands hovering above the computer as he waited for it to connect. When the search bar appeared, he turned his head to look at her. “Date of incarceration?”

“Can you enter a range of dates?” She leaned over him and her fragrant hair tickled his cheek.

He swallowed. “Yeah.”

“Maybe twenty or twenty-five years ago.”

He typed in the date range. “Location?”

“Let’s go with Washington State.” She jabbed her finger at the display, and the side of her breast skimmed his upper arm. She pulled back.

He got rock hard. He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth. “Washington. Crime?”

“Murder.”

He entered the man’s heinous crime, but even that couldn’t tame the heat surging through his body. He’d need a cold shower for that.

“I can’t exactly enter his initials, but I can enter B followed by an asterisk and that should give us everyone with a last name starting with that letter—unless he’s lying to you.”

“An ex-con lying? Say it ain’t so.” She knelt down beside his chair.

“Then this is it.” He entered the initials in the name fields and clicked the search button.

A little hourglass blinked in the center of the display.

“Uh-oh. This could take a while.”

“We have time.” She rose from her seated position and tapped at the clock in the lower right corner of the screen. Then she settled back on the floor. “Did you have a good afternoon?”

Leaning back in the chair, he stretched his legs out to the side. “I took that doll to the SFPD.”

“You didn’t have to do that. There’s no crime.”

“Doesn’t matter. They know me there from my brother Sean, and besides, it’s professional courtesy.”

“Did you give them any details?”

“They didn’t ask, and I didn’t tell.”

“Well, thank you.” She folded her hands in her lap. “Did you get a chance to visit some old haunts in the city?”

“I dropped in on my brother.”

“I thought he was on extended leave.”

“My other brother—Judd.”

“He’s the youngest, right?”

“Youngest and wildest.”

“He’s a P.I.”

That wasn’t really a question. She seemed to know his family history as well as he did. “Yep.”

“Why didn’t you just stay with him?”

“He was on his way out of town, too. He’s been doing some bodyguarding, and this time I think he’s guarding a suitcase full of jewels instead of a person.” Ryan’s gaze dropped to the top of her head. Besides, all the excitement he needed was right here at this hotel in Fisherman’s Wharf.

“Wow, I bet he has some stories to tell.”

“If he does, he keeps them to himself.” He jiggled the mouse to wake up the display. “Just last month he was working as a bodyguard for some pop princess on tour in Hawaii.”

She snapped her fingers. “Oh, oh, I know who that is, but her name escapes me now. Aren’t you just a little bit envious?”

Right now, working with Kacie and enjoying the way her quick mind picked up on his next thought and their easy back-and-forth banter, he didn’t envy anyone. “Naw. That’s Judd’s thing. He’s kind of rootless. I like my small town.”

“Of course, you did have an opportunity tonight to party with that attractive hostess.” She threw up her hands. “Don’t let me get in your way of a good time. If you want to check it out after we meet my informant tonight, go for it.”

He drew in his eyebrows. Was she trying to push him into that hostess’s arms? “Ah, not interested.”

“Not a party kind of guy?”

He would prefer a party of two in that king-size bed across the room. Leveling a gaze at her, he said in almost an undertone, “I like certain kinds of parties.”

She jumped to her feet and brushed off the seat of her snug jeans as she wandered to the window.

His voice must’ve betrayed his meaning, and it sure did fluster her. Either she wanted nothing to do with him, or he was growing on her.

“If you change your mind, I’m sure she’d welcome you with open arms.”

The beep of the computer saved him from trying to analyze her obsession with sending him away with some other woman.

He hunched forward and scrolled through the entries. “There are quite a few here, but it won’t be an impossible task to comb through them.”

“Too bad we can’t split them up.”

“We can’t.” He rose from his chair and dragged the other one next to his and patted the seat. “So you might as well sit down next to me.”

She moved the chair a few inches away from his and sat on one corner, ready to take flight if necessary. “Okay, what do you do, just click on the entry?”

“That’s it.”

They spent the next fifteen minutes selecting the cons, and Kacie’s shoulders began to get sore from holding them stiffly so she wouldn’t accidentally brush against Ryan again.

When she’d accidentally mushed her breast against his biceps, she had nearly melted into a puddle. Of course, her chest had done a bunch of mushing against his when he’d carried her out of the sauna, and she’d been wearing a lot less then, but she’d been half out of it and hadn’t yet formed this powerful attraction to him.

She rubbed the back of her neck as Ryan clicked on another possible suspect.

He swung his head toward her. “Are you tired?”

“My neck and shoulders are tight. I already put in a few hours of computer time this afternoon.”

“Why don’t you go stretch out on the bed? If anything looks promising, I’ll call you over.”

Her gaze darted to the bed and back to the computer. What would be worse, lying on a bed in the same room as Ryan or continuing to sit inches away from his hard body, inhaling his fresh, masculine scent?

She pushed back from the desk so fast her chair tipped back.

“Whoa.” Ryan caught it and righted it.

She scurried to the bed, dragged the pillows from beneath the bedspread and punched them into position. Then she hopped onto the bed, her head sinking against the pile of pillows.

“Let me know if you find anything, and help yourself to the mini-bar.”

He hunched over the laptop and continued tapping and clicking.

Good move. Her head began clearing once she was out of the Ryan realm. Without all his manliness parked next to her and invading her senses, her muscles relaxed and her breathing deepened. The sounds from the computer became hypnotic and she closed her eyes.

Rough fingertips dabbled against her cheek and she burrowed into the pillows, a smile curving her lips.

“Kacie?”

“Mmm.” Warmth spread through her body and she felt safe, like the first time her foster parents brought her home.

She rolled to her side and flung out her arm. Her hand hit an immovable object, and she peeled open one eye.

Perching on the edge of the bed, Ryan smiled at her. “You dozed off.”

She opened her other eye, noticed her hand resting against his thigh and snatched it back. She grabbed a pillow and hugged it to her body, bringing her knees to her chest.

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