Midnight Man Read Free

outfit. They’d have snowed her with fancy alarms and seven-digit codes and their equipment could have come out of a cereal box. No freakin’ way was he going to live and work in a building secured by Interloc. He stood up. “I’d appreciate it if you were to secure the alarms after I leave.”
     
    “I—okay.” She stood up too, looking puzzled, and walked around the desk. “If you really want me to. I tend to just have the door locked during the day because it’s so fussy putting on the alarm system then switching it off when I want to go out. So…I guess we have a deal?”
     
    “You bet.”
     
    He stuck out his hand. After a second’s hesitation, she offered hers. It was almost half the size of his, slim and fine-boned. He carefully applied a little pressure and ordered himself to let go. It was damned hard to do. What he wanted to do was pull her into his arms and take her down to the floor.
     
    Some of that must have been coming through because her eyes widened in alarm. He stepped back.
     
    “I’ll start moving my stuff in tomorrow. And I’ll definitely be taking you up on your offer to help me decorate. Of course I’d like to pay for the design of my office. I can see that a lot of work went into it.”
     
    She waved that away. “No, don’t worry. I was just doodling. Consider the design a welcome present.” She turned into the hallway and he followed, trying not to ogle her backside and trying not to be obvious about smelling the air in her wake. His men said he had the sense of smell of a bloodhound. He could smell cigarette smoke on a man’s clothes a day after he’d smoked. Suzanne Barron’s smell nearly brought him to his knees.
     
    Her scent was perfume, something light and floral, mixed in with an apple-scented shampoo, the smell of freshly washed clothing and some indefinable something that he just knew was her skin. Soon, very soon, he’d be smelling her skin close up. Just a matter of time.
     
    The sooner the better. Christ, the view from the back was as enticing as the one from the front—sleek curves, dark-honey hair bouncing with every step she took.
     
    He’d never seen a woman as curvy yet as delicately made as Suzanne Barron. Everything about her was dainty, fine-boned. He was going to have to be careful. No rough sex when he took her to bed. He’d have to enter her slowly, let her get used to him before…
     
    She turned and smiled at him. “That’s all right, then.”
     
    All right! His eyes narrowed and his body quickened until he stopped himself just short of reaching for her. She’s talking about the lease, you idiot, he told himself.
     
    “I’ll get a contract drawn up and have a copy of the keys made for you. When do you want to start moving in?”
     
    Now! His body clamored. Right this second. But he had things to take care of. “I don’t have much to move. Mostly filing cabinets and computer equipment. Lots of that.” He smiled into her eyes. “You’re going to order the rest of the furnishings for me, right? Spend whatever you have to, I’ll be good for it.”
     
    She was looking up at him, breathing slowly.
     
    “Right, Suzanne?”
     
    She blinked and seemed to come out of a daze. “Oh, yes, um, that’s right. And I’ll have a copy of the keys made for you.”
     
    He opened the door. The contrast between what was behind him—a delicate lady in a jewel of a building—and what was in front of him—bleak burned out storefronts, liquor stores and empty lots—made him turn back to her. Little Miss Muffet had to know that there were spiders out there. Big bad ones.
     
    “Check me out, Suzanne. Make sure you know whom you’re putting in your house. Call Bud. Call him now.”
     
    Pale pink lips slightly parted, gray eyes wide, she stared at him. “Okay, I…” She swallowed. “I will.”
     
    “And set the security system when I leave.”
     
    She nodded, her eyes never leaving his face.
     
    “Do you know the seven digit code by