Read Online Busted: Promise Harbor, Book 3 by Sydney Somers - Free Book Online Page A

weren’t really dating. Still, he was glad there hadn’t been anything between them. Maybe too glad.
    “What’s with the scowl?” Hayley dampened a cloth under the water.
    He shrugged. “Just thinking about that crazy cat,” he lied.
    She stopped in front of him. “Undo your shirt.”
    Probably the best idea he’d heard in a while. Which meant he couldn’t possibly have heard her right. “Pardon me?”
    “I would have thought you’d be used to women asking you to take your clothes off for them.”
    Forget other women, the idea of taking off his shirt for Hayley was what interested him. A lot. “Are you trying to take advantage of me, Detective Stone?” Christ, he hoped so.
    “I’m trying to get the blood off you.” She tossed him the cloth, then faced the mirror. She pulled her hair back and probed the area around a scrape on her cheek. “From your watch, I think,” she volunteered when she caught him frowning at the abrasion.
    “Sorry.” The scrape was almost directly on top of the faint bruise from last night. “Sorry about that punch too.”
    “First time anyone has been stupid enough to hit me.” One corner of her mouth quirked, and she reached for the buttons on his shirt. “We don’t have a lot of time to get you straightened up and to the church.” Her fingers brushed his as she took the cloth and dabbed at the claw marks on his upper chest.
    Jackson made a mental note to help her save more mangy kittens if it ended with her hands on him. “You said that like you’re not going.”
    She ducked her head. To concentrate on her task, or to avoid meeting his gaze? “I just may be a little late.”
    “If you’re trying to get out of being my date, you’re going to need a more original excuse than pushing me out of a tree.”
    Her eyes snapped to his, giving him that stormy fire he wanted to see more of. “I did not push you.”
    “Would make a great headline, don’t you think? Local cop tosses hockey All-Star out of a towering maple.”
    “Towering maple,” she echoed, trying not to smile, and pressing a little harder than necessary on the scratches. “You’re unbelievable.” She went to work on his shirt, dabbing at the spots of crimson. “Your jacket should hide the bloodstain.”
    Who the hell cared about a stain when he was trying not to think about kissing her? A tip of the chin and her mouth would be at the perfect angle. He inched just a fraction closer, but she was already turning away from him, throwing the cloth into a laundry basket.
    “How’s your wrist?” Maybe if he focused on something else, he’d stop thinking about coaxing her within reach and discovering if he was the only one feeling the buzz beneath his skin when she got close.
    “It’ll be okay.”
    “We should put ice on it.” It didn’t look very swollen and she should probably try to keep it that way.
    “After the ceremony,” she conceded. “We’ll be late if we don’t get going.” Hayley shooed him out of the bathroom, pausing just long enough to take the sandals he grabbed and handed her. “Allie might have a problem with you going barefoot, you know.”
    She closed the door, leaving him to put his socks and shoes back on. He took his time, expecting to wait at least fifteen minutes. He’d never waited less than that once a woman locked herself away to get ready. Even his mother took at least that long, and she wasn’t anywhere near as high maintenance as most of the women he’d dated.
    He’d barely gotten his jacket on when Hayley sailed out of the bathroom less than five minutes later, the high heels on her sandals clicking across the hardwood floors.
    Her limp was only marginally obvious on the walk to his car. He opened the door for her, then rounded the hood and slid behind the wheel. Even with the windows down, the scent of her in the enclosed space hit him instantly, throwing his insides into a lazy backspin.
    God, she smelled incredible.
    Jackson thought about inventing a reason