Read Online The Seven-Day Target by Natalie Charles - Free Book Online Page B

pounding and her face was hot as a rush of anger pooled below the surface of her skin. How dare he come in here and order her around! And how dare he eye her like that: coolly, and with a hint of smug amusement as if she was trying to be funny. She was not being funny.
    “You don’t need to call me Prince Charming. Just ‘Dom’ is fine.” Then he said the damnedest thing. “How can I help you?”
    His voice was calm, his tone authoritative. Just like that, Cassie felt the beast raging within her flinch. She began to stammer a response but then just stared at him. Speechless.
    He took a step forward, moving his large body with a remarkable elegance. “I can watch the baby,” he continued. “Or I can help you to get things together. Just tell me what you need.”
    He was studying her with his dark almond-shaped eyes, peering at her from beneath thick black lashes, and Cassie’s heart skipped off-kilter for a beat. Damn him and his cavalier ways. She’d always gotten weak in the knees around a man in uniform. She took a breath. “Can I ask you a favor?”
    His brow creased. “Sure.”
    “Do you think you could turn on all of the lights in here? This house creaks sometimes and I don’t have an alarm system. I just want all of the lights on.”
    He smiled softly. “I can do that.”
    She waited while he walked around, patiently switching on the lights in each and every room. She could follow him by the creaking of the floorboards beneath him. She’d never noticed how noisy this old house could be. He returned after five minutes to announce, “Your house is well lit, señorita.”
    “You went in my closets. I heard you.” Her cheeks were hot. Those closets were filled with cobwebs and shame: wrinkled clothes on wire hangers and cardboard boxes stuffed with odds and ends. Old stuffed animals with missing eyes. Tattered concert posters she couldn’t bear to throw away. Years of junk, formidable evidence of the chaos that was her life. And he’d just seen it all.
    “I didn’t look, except to make sure they weren’t hiding anyone. I even checked under the bed. And the crib.”
    She bit her lip. What’s done was done, and she wasn’t sure why she cared so much in the first place. He was a hot cop...big deal. He’d escort her somewhere and then he’d be gone, and none of this would matter. “Okay. Whatever. Thanks.”
    He hesitated. “Do you want to go pack? I’ll wait here or go with you, whichever you prefer.”
    She wiped her palms on the front of her skirt, wondering how far she could push her luck. “Can you sit here? With Sammy? I’ll just be a few minutes.”
    He waved his hand to indicate that she should go ahead, and she headed into the bedroom. The urge to shove him out of the house had been replaced, leaving in its stead a swirl of butterflies in her stomach. After all, turning on the lights for her was kind of an apology, wasn’t it? And it was too nice to have a gentleman in her house to kick him out so soon.
    She opened a duffel bag, scooped up armfuls of clothes and dropped them inside. She chuckled as she thought about the way her father might react if he saw that. He’d stand there and watch her remove each and every article, refold it and return it neatly to the bag. He would not have allowed hot Sergeant Vasquez to escort her anywhere. Dad had made a career of law enforcement, but he’d never trusted the police.
    She grabbed another armful of clothing, shoved it tightly in the bag then tugged the stretching zipper closed. She tossed Sam’s clothes into a diaper bag, then remembered how many outfits he soiled in a day. She packed a second bag for him just to be safe. Cassie emerged from the bedrooms strung with bags filled to their limit with an array of clothing. Dom’s eyebrows rose. “Are you moving out?”
    “I don’t know how long I’m going to be gone, do I? And I’m going to be hiding out somewhere with a baby, which means multiple changes of clothing for both of us for