Read Online In Bed with the Enemy by Kathie DeNosky - Free Book Online Page A

kiss, then leaned back to look down at her. The need, the burning passion she saw in his hazel eyes sent a shiver of delight straight to the most feminine part of her.
    He stared at her for endless seconds before bringing his hands up to tangle his fingers in her hair. “When I found you missing from your room…” His voice trailed off as if he was unable or unwilling to put into words what he’d felt. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head. “Please, promise me you won’t go out at night like this again, unless I’m with you.”
    If she’d been able to form words, she’d have told him that she’d do no such thing. But even as her mind resisted his ridiculous request, she nodded her agreement.
    Â 
    Cole glanced at the clock on the beside table, then forcefully punched his pillow. It would be getting light soon, but he hadn’t so much as closed his eyes. Every time he did, he remembered the cold emptiness that had gripped him when he’d opened the door between his and Elise’s room, only to find she wasn’t there. In that split second when he’d realized she was gone, a thousand different scenarios had run through his mind, and all of them had ended with her fighting off John Valente’s slimy touch.
    Throwing the sheet back, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, sat up, and propping his arms on his knees, rested his head in his hands. What the hell was wrong with him? And what had possessed him to grab her and kiss her until they both came close to collapsing from lack of oxygen?
    Why was he feeling this way about her? She was nothing like the calm, agreeable women he was normally attracted to. Elise Campbell had an acerbic tongue, an argumentative streak that drove him nuts, and her stubbornness would drive Job over the edge.
    Sighing, he stood and walked into the bathroom to splash cold water on his face. He didn’t need this. He worked alone. And that’s the way he liked it.
    But the thought of Valente laying a hand on her, whether from anger or lust, caused Cole to grit his teeth against the pure fury burning at his gut. Why was he so consumed with the need to protect her from Valente?
    He’d tried telling himself that she was too inexperienced in fieldwork to know how to deal with the head of the Mercado crime family, and that all he wanted to do was make sure she didn’t get into something she couldn’t deal with. But there were other, more intelligent, ways he could go about it than grabbing her and kissing her senseless whenever he got the chance.
    Hell, it was no wonder she insisted on calling him Caveman. The only thing he hadn’t done was throw her over his shoulder to drag her back to his bed. And he’d even mentioned doing that to her.
    He shook his head, walked back to the bed and stretched out. Staring at the ceiling, he blew out a frustrated breath. In the past three days, he’d displayed less smarts than that of a day-old jackass.
    But the memory of Elise’s sweet lips beneath his, the feel of her soft body pressed to his, had him feeling more protective, more territorial than he’d ever felt in his life. And he had the disturbing suspicion that until this case was brought to a close, that emotion was only going to intensify.

Five
    E lise yawned as she tried to concentrate on the columns of figures in front of her. She’d been trying for the past hour to find a discrepancy between Carmine Mercado’s accounts, those of his successor, Frank Del Brio, and the records of the Mercado Trucking Company. On the surface, everything looked to be in order, but even though the numbers added up, there was something that bothered her. She couldn’t put her finger on it just yet, but she knew whatever it was, she’d find it.
    Giving up for the moment, she leaned back in the chair and rubbed her eyes. Part of the reason she was having trouble concentrating was due to her run-in with Cole last