Read Online Internal Affair by Samantha Cayto - Free Book Online Page A

expression conveyed exasperation. He ate his food and tried to pretend he wasn’t listening. A minute or two later, she hung up.
    She rolled her eyes at him. “Sorry, that was my mother. I was getting an earful, make that another earful, for not showing up on Sunday for dinner. I thought she’d gotten the tongue lashing out of the way when I called to cancel. Apparently not.” She picked up her fork and tucked back into her meal.
    “How does she feel about your being a cop?” And why would he ask such a personal question? His cock twitched to remind him why.
    “She says she hates it, that it is a terrible career choice. But I’ve also heard her brag about her daughter the cop at her mahjong games with her friends.” She bit a crab Rangoon in half, chewed, and chased it down with a sip of soda. “I think the thing she’s most upset about is my blowing off the guy she picked out for me.”
    Wow, how had she lost so many of her brain cells so quickly? It seemed like every time she was in Daire’s presence, a few more flew out of her ears, or something. Her self-control held on by a thin thread, too, because all she could think of at the moment was to knock everything off the table and wrestle him onto it. Not even the sound of her mother’s voice, wielded by a tongue so sharp it could cut Parker in two within seconds, had made any impact on her state of arousal.
    Even though this was only her second visit to his house, she already felt at home. Sitting with him, eating a take-out meal, and bitching about her mother seemed far too much like a cozy domestic scene. Bringing up her almost-husband also made it like they were on a date. Food notwithstanding, they weren’t. This wasn’t a social call. They’d agreed to meet because of Forrester’s death. The investigation had just entered a new intense phase. She should stick to work, period. There was no room for silly romantic notions or steamy sexual ones.
    Daire, apparently, hadn’t received the memo on that. “Your mother tried to arrange your marriage?”
    Okay, may as well barrel through this inappropriate door she’d opened and be done with it. “Not exactly arranged so much as maneuvered. Evan is a really nice guy and the son of one of my mother’s oldest friends. He and I were thrown together at just about every turn. Our mothers left no doubt in either of our minds what they expected of us.”
    “I take it you both balked at some point.” Daire’s lips held her attention as he spoke. They shined a bit from the greasy food, and when his tongue swept down to lick some of it off, she tracked the movement like a hawk homing in on a rabbit. Except that, if she were visualizing them as animals, he more appropriately would be featured as the predator. There was nothing fuzzy and cute or helpless about him.
    The man exuded raw masculinity in such an understated way, she bet most people missed it. He probably didn’t even realize how much he represented the quintessential male. His outward appearance was all button-down, by-the-book. More like the man who wrapped his coat around the child pulled from the river than the man who jumped in to save the kid.
    But she’d seen more than that outward shell when he’d raced up to her that afternoon and seconds later when he’d reacted to Benson’s dressing her down. She felt ridiculously safe in his presence, as if she could just jump into the abyss of any trouble and Daire would be right there to protect her.
    She tore her gaze away from both the man and the fantasy and answered his question. “I did. Evan had been willing to placate his mother. He even said he loved me, but I knew he didn’t know me well enough to feel that strongly. I’m sure he would have made a very nice husband—kind, devoted, stable in personality and in profession.”
    “Wait, let me guess. Was he an accountant?”
    Parker sat back on a laugh. “How did you know that?”
    Daire shrugged and grinned. “I stereotyped him through your