Read Online Murder in the Smokies by Paula Graves - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Paula Graves
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the soup and gave another soft murmur of pleasure that made Sutton’s jeans feel two sizes too tight. Worse, he’d just realized she wasn’t wearing a bra under that snug-fitting T-shirt.
Why the hell couldn’t he get sex off his mind around her?
A faint trilling noise came from somewhere nearby. Ivy sighed and crossed to the table where she’d left her purse. Digging her cell phone from one of the inner pockets, she answered. “Hawkins.”
Another murder? Sutton edged forward in his chair, keeping his eye on Ivy’s face, trying to read her expression.
Her face remained carefully neutral. “Yes, thank you for calling me back tonight. Can you hold for a moment?” She put her hand over the phone speaker and looked at Sutton. “Excuse me. I have to take this call.” She walked into one of the rooms off the living room and closed the door.
He released a slow breath and looked down at his uneaten food, his gut in knots. He’d never let a woman derail him from anything he put his mind to, and he’d been involved with his share of smart, sexy women, in the service and out. So why was Ivy turning him inside out all of a sudden?
She was pretty. Curvy and physically fit. Gutsy to a fault. And she had a bright, inquisitive mind he’d always found appealing, even when they’d been kids. But none of those attributes should have been enough to make a man his age with his experience feel so off-kilter.
He made himself eat his sandwich, washing it down with the cooling soup. Maybe hunger and a lack of sleep were behind his out-of-sorts feeling. It was already after ten, and he hadn’t had any sleep in over twenty-four hours. Since Ivy showed no sign of coming out of her bedroom anytime soon, he decided to find the linen closet himself and make up the fold-out bed without bothering her.
And then he’d do his damnedest to get a good night’s sleep, despite the proximity of Ivy Hawkins’s cotton-clad curves. Hell, he’d slept through firefights before.
He could sleep through an untimely case of lust.
* * *
“I’ M SORRY TO DISTURB you so late.” Ivy kept her voice low so that it wouldn’t carry outside her bedroom.
“I was working late,” the man on the other end of the line assured her. He had a deep voice, with a bit of a Southern drawl. He’d identified himself as Jesse Cooper, CEO of Cooper Security. Ivy had left a message for Cooper while she was waiting for Sutton to finish his statement to the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department. “You wanted information about Sutton Calhoun?”
Now that she’d finally reached the head of Cooper Security, she felt odd asking questions about Sutton. “Mr. Calhoun is peripherally involved in a murder investigation, and I wanted to confirm his account of his reason for being here in Bitterwood.”
“What has he told you?” Jesse Cooper sounded cautious.
“Why do I get the feeling you’d back up anything I told you Sutton had said?” Ivy sat on the edge of her bed and closed her eyes, her head aching. She needed food and sleep, in that order, and Jesse Cooper’s obvious reluctance to be open with her wasn’t helping.
“We have to maintain a certain amount of discretion for our clients.” Cooper sounded genuinely apologetic. “That means I have to trust my agents to share only what they feel they must about the cases they’re on.”
“Has he told you that he was the target of an ambush tonight?” Almost as soon as the words came out of her mouth, she felt like a tattletale. But she needed to know if Sutton had a price on his head. Not just for his sake but also for the sake of the townspeople she’d sworn to protect.
“Was he injured?”
“No, he’s fine,” she quickly assured him.
“Did you apprehend the suspect?”
“No,” she answered more reluctantly. “He was shooting from a distance and by the time the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department arrived to do a fugitive search, he’d apparently left the area.”
“And you’re
Why the hell couldn’t he get sex off his mind around her?
A faint trilling noise came from somewhere nearby. Ivy sighed and crossed to the table where she’d left her purse. Digging her cell phone from one of the inner pockets, she answered. “Hawkins.”
Another murder? Sutton edged forward in his chair, keeping his eye on Ivy’s face, trying to read her expression.
Her face remained carefully neutral. “Yes, thank you for calling me back tonight. Can you hold for a moment?” She put her hand over the phone speaker and looked at Sutton. “Excuse me. I have to take this call.” She walked into one of the rooms off the living room and closed the door.
He released a slow breath and looked down at his uneaten food, his gut in knots. He’d never let a woman derail him from anything he put his mind to, and he’d been involved with his share of smart, sexy women, in the service and out. So why was Ivy turning him inside out all of a sudden?
She was pretty. Curvy and physically fit. Gutsy to a fault. And she had a bright, inquisitive mind he’d always found appealing, even when they’d been kids. But none of those attributes should have been enough to make a man his age with his experience feel so off-kilter.
He made himself eat his sandwich, washing it down with the cooling soup. Maybe hunger and a lack of sleep were behind his out-of-sorts feeling. It was already after ten, and he hadn’t had any sleep in over twenty-four hours. Since Ivy showed no sign of coming out of her bedroom anytime soon, he decided to find the linen closet himself and make up the fold-out bed without bothering her.
And then he’d do his damnedest to get a good night’s sleep, despite the proximity of Ivy Hawkins’s cotton-clad curves. Hell, he’d slept through firefights before.
He could sleep through an untimely case of lust.
* * *
“I’ M SORRY TO DISTURB you so late.” Ivy kept her voice low so that it wouldn’t carry outside her bedroom.
“I was working late,” the man on the other end of the line assured her. He had a deep voice, with a bit of a Southern drawl. He’d identified himself as Jesse Cooper, CEO of Cooper Security. Ivy had left a message for Cooper while she was waiting for Sutton to finish his statement to the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department. “You wanted information about Sutton Calhoun?”
Now that she’d finally reached the head of Cooper Security, she felt odd asking questions about Sutton. “Mr. Calhoun is peripherally involved in a murder investigation, and I wanted to confirm his account of his reason for being here in Bitterwood.”
“What has he told you?” Jesse Cooper sounded cautious.
“Why do I get the feeling you’d back up anything I told you Sutton had said?” Ivy sat on the edge of her bed and closed her eyes, her head aching. She needed food and sleep, in that order, and Jesse Cooper’s obvious reluctance to be open with her wasn’t helping.
“We have to maintain a certain amount of discretion for our clients.” Cooper sounded genuinely apologetic. “That means I have to trust my agents to share only what they feel they must about the cases they’re on.”
“Has he told you that he was the target of an ambush tonight?” Almost as soon as the words came out of her mouth, she felt like a tattletale. But she needed to know if Sutton had a price on his head. Not just for his sake but also for the sake of the townspeople she’d sworn to protect.
“Was he injured?”
“No, he’s fine,” she quickly assured him.
“Did you apprehend the suspect?”
“No,” she answered more reluctantly. “He was shooting from a distance and by the time the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department arrived to do a fugitive search, he’d apparently left the area.”
“And you’re
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