His sweet sincerity made her heart ache with something she refused to acknowledge. “I know.” The emotions were so overwhelming and new to her, she did the first thing that came to mind. She tried to escape.

His arms clamped around her like a vise. “Not yet.” He brushed his lips over hers in a gesture so tender it all but stopped her heart. Her eyes flooded with tears that she desperately tried to blink back. “What?”

She shook her head.

“Sam.”

Letting her eyes drift up to meet his, she said, “I like this. I know I shouldn’t because of everything…but I like it.”

“Sex on the sofa?”

“This.” She had to look away. It was just too much. “You. Me. Us.”

“So do I.” He kissed her softly. “So does this mean we’re together now?”

A stab of fear went through her. She just wasn’t ready for the magnitude of what this had the potential to be. “Why does it need a label? Why can’t it just be what it is?”

Once again, the flash of pain she saw on his face bothered her more than it should have. “And what is it exactly, Sam? I want far more from you than just a sex buddy.”

“That might be all I can give you right now.”

He sighed. “I suppose I’ll take whatever I can get.” When his lips coasted up her neck, he made her shiver. “We could move this somewhere more comfortable. There’s a big soft bed in the other room.”

Her stomach ached as reality stepped in to remind her of why she’d needed to see him. “There’re things we need to talk about. Stuff about the case.”

“We’ll get to it. Can I just have a few more minutes of this first?”

Because he seemed to need it so much, she said, “Okay.”

Chapter 20

The bed, as advertised, was big and soft. How he managed to coax her into it was something she planned to think about later when she reclaimed her sanity. It would be so easy, so very easy indeed, to curl into him and sleep the sleep of the dead. But the grinding sensation in her gut was an ever-present reminder of the conversation she needed to have with him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as his talented hand worked to ease the tension in her neck.

“Nothing, why?”

“I had you on the way to relaxed, and now you’re all tight again.”

“We need to talk.”

“So you’ve said. I’m listening.”

“I can’t do cop work naked.”

Laughing, he said, “Is that in the manual?”

“If it isn’t, it should be.”

Sitting up, he reached for the pile of their clothes he had deposited on the foot of the bed, found the T-shirt he’d been wearing when she arrived, and helped her into it. “Better?”