No In Between Read Free Page A

fell asleep.”
    “I don’t remember any of that. Did I sleep through any call-backs from Blake or Mark, too?”
    “No calls from anyone.” He reaches to the coffee table and double-checks his phone before setting it back down. “Nope. Nothing.”
    “Why hasn’t Blake called you?”
    “I’m guessing he has nothing new to tell us and didn’t want to wake us up for no reason. It’s only eight in the morning.”
    “I suppose that makes sense—but Mark’s ignoring us doesn’t. We’ve been trying to reach him for days now. I was really hoping he’d give us some insight on how the police are handling the case before this afternoon.” I half climb over Chris to grab my purse from the coffee table.
    “Knee, baby,” he grumbles, grabbing my leg. “Knee.”
    “Oops, sorry,” I say and quickly snatch my phone, checking the caller ID as I settle back beside him. “No one called me, either. Hmmm. The only two full-time staff members left at the gallery are Amanda and Ralph. Maybe I can catch Ralph, and he can tell us what is going on with Mark.” I start to punch in the gallery’s number but hesitate, worried about what I’ll say if he asks questions when he calls back. If he calls back. No one seems to want to talk to us right now. “How much do you think the gallery staff knows about what’s going on?”
    “I talked to David and Blake right before we left Paris, and both confirmed that nothing outside of Ricco and Mary’s arrest has gone public.”
    “I thought this kind of thing always made the press.”
    “The police can seal the file in the public relations department, and apparently they’ve done that here. David says the DA doesn’t want an unsolved missing person’s case with the word ‘murder’ floating around, until they have a certain conviction.”
    Murder. My heart twists and I quickly shove the word aside before it starts messing with my mind, too. “I wonder what Mark has told the staff, if anything. I guess I’ll leave a message for Ralph and hope that by the time he gets in, we hear something more from Blake or Mark.”
    “Leave your message,” he says. “I’ll stay busy while I wait.” He drags me to the center of the couch, the deliciously heavy weight of him settling on top of me.
    “Hmmm,” I murmur, as the thick ridge of his erection presses into my belly, “apparently my knee didn’t hurt you all that badly.” I indicate my cell phone and hit the auto-dial. “Behave. I’m making my call.”
    “Whatever you want,” he promises, and I’m pretty sure he’s not talking about my call when his hands caress from my waist to my breasts.
    “Stop that,” I chide. “The line is ringing.”
    Undeterred, he shoves my T-shirt up my belly, his fingers teasing the delicate skin he’s exposed.
    “Stop,” I demand, shoving my fingers into his wildly sexy blond hair to hold him steady, and dragging the burn of his stare to mine.
    “No,” he replies simply.
    “Yes.”
    “Yes is a good answer,” he agrees, and despite my grip on his hair, he manages to slide his thumb between my thighs and turn the seam of my jeans into an erotic distraction.
    My lashes flutter with the heat licking at my sex, and I can’t help but think of him licking me there. Somehow I still hear the options for the answering service menu, and I release Chris to hit the button to bypass them and get to Ralph. Chris embraces the opportunity to unsnap my jeans and tug down the zipper. And when his mouth comes down on the newly bared spot, his tongue dipping into my belly button, Ralph’s voice comes on the line at the same time, and I can’t manage to form words, let alone coherent speech.
    Chris reaches for my phone and I grab it. “No. I have to call back.”
    “Call back when they open.” He takes my cell from me and tosses it onto the chair to my right. “We have too many hours to kill before the meeting for you to stress this much.”
    “Time we need to use to get some answers.”
    “And