The P.I.

“Oh.”

Yes—oh, thought Kit as he watched her return to the chair and sink into it.

“Then, surely, you’ll agree we can’t kiss again. At least, until you know that I’m not a killer or a thief.”

Because he wanted very much to go to her, he leaned back in his chair. “Sugar, I can’t give you any guarantees on that one. Number one, I don’t believe you’re either a killer or a thief. And I’m not sure it would make any difference if you were Lizzie Borden. I wanted to kiss you from the moment you walked in the office. And I still want to kiss you. I want to make love to you very slowly in a cool, dark room on a big soft bed.”

She didn’t say anything, but what he saw in her eyes made it almost impossible for him to stay seated behind his desk. This is not helping. Stick to business, Kit. “However, you are a client. And you’re paying me to help you. You have a right to complain if I don’t do that. So, for now, we’ll stick to that. How does that sound?”

She met his eyes and nodded.

“Good.” Picking up his pencil, he tapped it on his notepad and forced himself to focus. “In any case, it always comes back to the evidence. You walked in here with the wedding dress, a gun, the money and my card.” He reached for it and studied it. “I wonder where and how you came by it.”

“I don’t know.”

“Since I don’t leave these lying around town, someone had to give it to you. Perhaps a satisfied client. I do have a few of those. I could go through my files, toss out some names and see if anything clicks for you. But first let’s try this.” Reaching into his bottom drawer, he pulled out a phone book and began to leaf through it.

“You’re not going to just read off names from that, are you?”

Kit shot her a grin. “Have some faith. The taxi driver said he picked you up on Bellevue. You’re carrying a wedding dress in that bag, so I’m going to check for churches on that street.”

Her eyes brightened as she rose and came around the desk to peer over his shoulder. “I hadn’t thought of doing that.”

“That’s why you’re paying me the big bucks, sugar.” He flipped to the Yellow Pages and they began to scan the church listings together. They might have found it sooner if she hadn’t laid a hand on his shoulder and leaned just a little closer. Though her palm rested only lightly on him, heat radiated from that contact point.

He caught her scent just as he eliminated St. Alban’s Church. She smelled fresh like soap and water, and a man would have to get close to learn that. He was just past the Church of Latter Day Saints and moving on to St. Patrick’s when she reached around him and began to trace one finger down the column. Her arm brushed against his, and his gaze shifted to her hand. It was delicate-looking, the fingers long and slender. Perfect French manicure aside, her nails were short. She worked with her hands. He’d lay odds on it. And he wondered—no, he had to know what they would feel like moving over his skin.

Focus, he reminded himself. And he might have if he could have stopped breathing—or if she hadn’t chosen that moment to lean just a little bit closer. So close that if they both turned at the same time, his mouth would brush hers. The image filled his mind and he could no longer see the words on the page.

“Move your hand,” she said.

“Hmm?”

They turned at the same time, and their lips did indeed brush before each of them drew back a little. He didn’t have to wonder if she’d felt the same flash of heat that he had. He could see it in the darkening of her eyes, her parted lips and her quickened breathing.

“You need to…move your hand.”

He knew exactly where he wanted to move it, but he was a professional, Kit reminded himself. He reined his thoughts in from the little detour they were once more taking and glanced down to where her hand was nudging his.

“It’s blocking half the page.”

“Right.” That was when he saw the bracelet, and it instantly cleared the sensual fog out of his brain. He hadn’t noticed before, probably because it had been hidden beneath the sleeve of her suit. The bracelet was made of small, flat gold squares, four of which were engraved with letters. “What have we here?” Lifting her wrist, he spelled out the letters. “D-R-E-W. Drew.” He met her eyes. “Odds are it’s your name. Does it ring a bell?”

She stared down at the letters and repeated the word, testing it on her tongue. “Drew.” Something flickered in her mind. The sound of someone calling her that? “Drew, run! This way!” She tried to capture the memory, but it faded.

“You’ve remembered something else,” Kit said.

“I think someone was calling me that, telling me to run. The name seems…familiar. I just don’t—I can’t be positive.” She glanced down at the bracelet. If she remembered someone calling her that, and she was wearing a bracelet with that name engraved on it…logic told her that the name was hers. “Drew,” she said again. For a moment, as the word lingered in the air, she allowed herself to hope. Shouldn’t the simple sound bring more memories flooding back?

Seconds ticked by. Her hope dwindled.

“Nothing,” she finally said. “Nothing.”

“You’re wrong.” He was still holding her wrist, and with his free hand, he tipped her chin so that she had to meet his eyes. “It’s definitely something. I’m betting it’s your name. So that’s a start. From now on, that’s what I’ll call you, and you start to think of yourself as Drew. Soon you’ll have more. It’s all going to come back to you, Drew.”

There was something in the intent way he looked at her, in the sound of the name, her name, when he said it that made her want to believe him—to believe that he could make it all happen.

But it wasn’t merely his kindness that she wanted. She wanted more than anything else to kiss him again. When his lips had brushed against hers a moment ago, she’d felt the explosion of warmth right down to her toes. And it hadn’t been fair of him to plant that image of the dark room with the big soft bed in her mind. Hadn’t she decided that she would have to be the strong one? How could she kiss him again? How could she even let herself think of what it might be like to make love with him when she didn’t know anything about herself?

But she couldn’t think of anything else. Right now, all that seemed to matter was how fast the pulse at her wrist was racing against his thumb. Her heart was racing, too. And his mouth was so close.

She should move, pull away, but she’d lost the will to do so. He moved a finger over her bottom lip and she trembled.

“You’re so responsive. Watching you, I can’t stop thinking of what it will be like to be inside of you.”

“I…” Her mouth had suddenly gone so dry that words were sticking. Just as well, because what she wanted to tell him was that their thoughts were identical.

Her gaze dropped to his mouth and, for a moment, neither one spoke or moved. She wasn’t sure she could do either. She realized that he was leaving it up to her. There was a sweetness to him—an irresistible contrast to the danger she’d sensed in him from the beginning. A smart woman would draw back. And hadn’t he said she was a smart woman? Plus, she was logical. But there was nothing logical about what she was feeling—it was purely sensual. But he’d also said she was an artist. And they took risks, didn’t they?

She wasn’t sure quite how it had happened, but suddenly he was closer, his mouth just a breath away from hers. She wondered if she’d ever wanted anyone quite as much as she wanted Kit Angelis right now. Throwing caution to the wind, she pressed her mouth to his.

The moment she did, he took over the kiss, moving his mouth expertly over hers, parting her lips with his tongue. Yes, she thought. More. Whatever her reservations, there was absolutely nothing not to like about kissing Kit Angelis. Pleasure moved through her from each and every contact point—the press of his mouth, the scrape of his teeth, the arousing slide of his tongue. And there was such heat—glorious waves of it crashing through her until she was sure her bones were disintegrating. Tension, fear, all of her worries evaporated until she was aware of only this moment, this man.

Had anyone ever made her feel with such intensity before? If they had, surely, she wouldn’t have forgotten. One of his hands cupped the back of her neck, the other gripped her waist, but she felt as if he were touching her everywhere. She couldn’t wait until he actually did.

When he drew back, they were both breathing hard.

“Don’t stop,” she said.

“I won’t.” He moved a thumb over her bottom lip. “I can’t.”

“Neither can I.”

This time it was Kit who closed the distance between them and pressed his mouth once more to hers.

Here she is. Here she is. The words thrummed in his blood as her taste once more poured through him. The sweetness was still there, but beneath it was the darker nuance of a desire as desperate as his own. Dragging his mouth from hers, he sampled the skin at her throat. It was damp, salty and vibrating with the sound of his name.

His name. The sound of it on her lips sent an avalanche of feelings ripping through Kit. Needs sharpened to an ache in his center. He couldn’t get enough of her. He might never get enough. Hadn’t he known this would happen? Hadn’t he foreseen that she could strip him of control?

Even as the questions formed in his mind, her fingers dug into his shoulder and she wiggled on his lap trying to straddle him. Minds in tune, he lifted her off him and their fingers tangled, fumbled, as they sent her skirt sliding to the floor. The breath backed up in his lungs as he stared at the tiny scrap of white lace she wore beneath.

“Wait.” She would have climbed back onto his lap if he hadn’t pressed the palm of one hand flat against her stomach, trapping her between the chair he sat in and the desk. The soft dampness of her skin nearly distracted him, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the thong. “I wondered what you were wearing under that skirt.”

He drew one finger of his other hand along the satin ribbon hugging her hip and then slowly down the triangle of lace to where it disappeared between her legs.

He fastened his gaze on her and watched those sea-green eyes darken and then glaze as he pushed aside the lace and eased two fingers into her. Wet heat enfolded him.

“Kit!”