Taking the Heat Read Free Page A

Colossal fucking mistake number one. “I thought you needed a little time to cool off.”
    “No,” she argued, setting her elbow on the windowsill and her head in her hand. “You thought I needed to grow up. That I’d eventually see things your way, which just goes to show what a mistake we were. I’m always going to be Jacob’s kid sister to you. I grew tits and reached the age of consent, but you were never going to treat me as a woman who deserved a say.”
    “You’re starting to piss me off.”
    “Hitting too close to home?” she taunted, with a sly smile that made his dick hard.
    “No, sweetheart. You’re way off base.” At least in regard to the way he felt about her. Yeah, the sex between them had always been white-hot—in that aspect of their relationship, they’d never had any trouble—but he loved her, too. So much it ate at him. There were times in the last few years when he’d been half-insane with the need to see her and hear her voice, to hold her and feel her hands on him.
    Silence fell between them, thick with all the things that needed to be said. With every mile that passed, he was taking her closer to the point where he’d lose her again. Once she testified, she’d get sucked back into WITSEC. A new identity, new location and occupation, a new inspector to check on her. He had three days to clear things up and fix everything that was fucked up between them. Three days to remind her of how good they were together. She was a captive audience, with no one around to screw things up for him.
    Except himself. Unfortunately, he could do that well enough on his own.
    Time was racing away from him, but that didn’t stop him from sitting there with his jaw locked shut and his gut churning. Scared shitless by the possibility that she was over him by now. She had grown up since he’d let her walk away, while he was the same guy he’d been before—rough around the edges and unable to say how he really felt about the most important thing in his world.

Chapter 3
    I ’m going to head over to the diner and get us something to eat.”
    Layla arched a brow at the brooding, impossibly sexy man standing by the motel room door.
    One motel room. With one king-sized bed.
    Outside in the parking lot, there were so few cars or rooms with lights on that it was obvious the motel had a room available with two beds.
    He met her gaze with a defiant scowl, knowing damn well what she was thinking. “What do you want?”
    “Looks like you already made that decision for me,” she shot back dryly.
    “To eat,” he grated.
    Him, for starters. But she wasn’t going to let him off easy. He could have at least been subtle enough to get two beds, even if she was a sure thing.
    They both knew they wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off each other when they were alone. Especially not while they were getting stripped down for showers and there was a bed nearby. In their present situation, while they were on the run and people they’d respected had paid with their lives, they were going to need each other more than ever. And time was so short. She had less than seventy-two hours with the man she’d loved for as long as she could remember.
    She toed off her running shoes and pulled her shirt over her head. When she heard him inhale sharply, she hid a smile in the folds of the cotton. “A cheeseburger and fries would be great, with an unsweetened iced tea. I’m going to grab a shower while you’re out. And don’t forget to order a cot from the front desk. It’s too bad they were sold out of double-bed rooms. Those rickety rollaways are especially uncomfortable for men your size.”
    The door closed behind him with more force than necessary.
    Laughing softly, Layla propped one of the suitcases open on the luggage rack she pulled out of the closet. She paused in the act of digging a razor out, her gaze caught by a box of condoms and personal lubricant. She whistled.
    She knew him. Knew how he worked.
    Brian Simmons