Page 65 of His to Burn

Those truths didn’t make me want her any less.

Part of it was natural.

An intense battle wasn’t that different than a good fuck.

But it wasn’t just that.

It washer.

And when she smiled at me, her eyes alight with humor, the tilt of her lips practically begging me to kiss them…I couldn’t hold my tongue.

The shock on her face was the cherry on top.

More than anything, I wanted to trace her lips with my tongue.

Put all the emotion, the fear, the uncertainty, everything that had happened into that kiss.

Instead, I broke her gaze.

Tried to gather the last shreds of common sense I had left.

When I looked at her again, I still saw the surprise in her eyes, but I ignored it and refocused.

“What else do I need to know?” I asked as we walked down to the garage.

Asia shrugged, her expression falling into that unreadable attorney mask I’d seen in the courtroom.

There was no hint of what just happened between us.

“That’s a very broad question, Jackson. Can you narrow it down some for me?”

I didn’t answer immediately. Instead, I walked around the garage, studying the environment. It was a hell of a set up for a civilian.

“You said the judge had resources, but this is more than being prepared. Tell me about him.”

She shrugged. “I gave you all the high notes. He was eccentric, more so after his wife died. And he worried he had enemies. He had the time and resources to invest, so this became his hobby. But he was a good person.”

I scoffed. “What does that mean?"

She blinked, incredulity stamped on her expression. “What does ‘he was a good person’ mean? Well, he tried to do the right thing when he could. Actually paid attention to the law instead of pushing people through the system. Gave donations to orphans and widows. Loved his family. What else do you want to know?"

I huffed. “A good person with an arsenal likethis. Novel.”

“Maybe, but Judge Hanlon was,” she shot back. Then she looked at me with narrowed eyes. “So what are you really getting at here, Jackson? Are you revisiting your earlier question about the nature of our relationship?”

I refused to break her gaze this time. I needed to know what I was dealing with, including the exact nature of her relationship with the judge. I couldn’t let any feelings about him and his demise cause problems.

And besides, how could she blame me for making that assumption?

After all, I’d had more commanding officers than I could remember. I didn’t know the code to their garages, and I definitely didn’t keep a change of clothes in their house. It suggested an intimacy that Asia was too smart to pretend not to understand. Yet, when I stated what seemed obvious, she looked offended, even angry.

That got under my skin, the suspicion like an itch I couldn’t quite scratch.

It shouldn’t matter.

Sheshouldn’t matter.

But somehow, she did.