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“You’re playing with fire,” she whispered, but her tone carried more breathless excitement than warning.

She was right. Last time they got close, this heated friction ended in a scorched trail of wreckage. It might end that way again.

Right now, Nash didn’t care.

“I can stand the heat. How about you?” He watched her resolve waver as he closed the infinitesimal gap between their bodies and settled his mouth against the delicate shell of her ear. “Admit it. You’ve missed the friction between us.”

“No.”

“Liar.” He grazed the sensitive skin below her ear with his lips, watching a shiver wrack her and her eyes slide shut as she seemed to lose herself in sensation. “What are you afraid of?”

Nash wished like hell he knew the answer. For two years, he wondered what had driven her away. He’d combed through their final few nights together. Had she really been horrified by what they did in bed? She’d never given him any indication of that…until she’d ended things. Why hadn’t she just talked to him? Haisley had never been shy about speaking her mind.

“I’m not afraid of anything, especially you.” She placed a firm hand on his chest and shoved him back. “We’ve been back here too long, and people are going to talk. It’s my first day, so could you please not screw this job up for me with your caveman crap? Whatever you think this was, it’s over. We’re here to solve a case, not rekindle our old flame.”

“Is that what you really want, to walk away from this heat between us again? Without talking this out or seeing what could be? Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t feel this same desire to fuck your little rules and see what’s left.”

Haisley’s chest heaved. She opened her mouth, no doubt to issue another bullshit denial, but the words seemed to stick in her throat. They both knew she felt something for him. The exhilarating, forbidden pull glowed in her blue eyes.

What the fuck was holding her back?

The tension between them thickened. Nash could practically taste her inner turmoil. Would one more well-placed touch have her throwing caution to the wind—and herself into his arms? Or would it drive her away for good?

“It’s over, Nash.”

It wasn’t. Every part of her body—from her beseeching stare, to the way she licked her lips, and ending with her shallow breaths—told him that.

The only question was, what should he do about it?

Pushing her now wasn’t the answer. He couldn’t risk ruining whatever chance he had with her. Besides, they both had jobs to do, and like him, she took hers seriously. He had to find the willpower to resist stepping over the line and change tactics. Since he wanted to win her back, he needed to find his goddamn patience and play a long game.

“We’ll see.” He set his cup down and stepped away with a raised brow full of challenge. “For now, I’m going to confer with Ethan and start interviewing the existing security staff at the mall, look at their cameras and the rest of their tech setup, and see what I can find. You dig up the architectural plans for the structure and any outbuildings. I want permits, schematics—anything you can give me. I’ll let you know what I find.”

His chest constricting as he forced himself to leave her, Nash turned away—only to be stopped short when her fingers wrapped around his forearm in a desperate grip.

“Wait.”

The urgent note in her trembling voice stopped him. He turned back, his gaze locking onto her beautiful face as he fought the urge to take her in his arms and soothe her. “Yeah?”

“Be careful. These people are clearly dangerous. Depraved, even.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m hardly their usual target.”

“I’m serious. I…I don’t want anything to happen to you,” Haisley confessed in a hoarse whisper.

A wave of tenderness crashed through Nash. Despite her protestations and anger, she still cared. If he’d truly been too rough or kinky or whatever fill-in-the-blank excuse she’d had for breaking things off, she wouldn’t be staring at him like her whole world would fracture if these twisted monsters took him down.

Of their own accord, his feet carried him back to her. Nash nudged her into the cubby again, out of her coworkers’ sight. Cupping her face, he drank in every delicate angle and curve. He gently stroked the silken skin of her cheeks with his calloused thumbs as her worried eyes searched his.

“Don’t worry, baby,” he rasped in a voice thick with emotion. “You haven’t seen the last of me.”

CHAPTER NINE

The rest of the day passed in an emotion-filled haze.

Nash walking into her office to be her counterpart investigating these disappearances at the mall had knocked her world off its well-ordered axis. The trio of people in her group—the ones whose trust she needed to win—had all stared at her when she’d returned empty-handed after a full ten minutes in the refreshment cubby with Nash.

Angela lifted her pierced brow. “No coffee, huh? Were you back there getting something other than a steaming cup of java?”