Page 76 of The Deputy's Secret Double

“Come in.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Price still had on his baseball shirt and jeans, but the look he was sporting now wasn’t at all what JJ would describe as carefree. She stepped back another step after he closed the door behind him. He locked it too.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, worried that she had somehow missed something and an attack was imminent.

Yet, the only target in his sights was her.

Price closed most of the distance between them in one clean stride. She noticed stubble along his jaw. She could smell some kind of spice from his skin. JJ had to tip her chin back a little just to look up into his eyes.

Why was he this close?

Did he think Winnie would overhear him and was trying for privacy?

She was at the other end of the hall with thick walls between her and them. Surely shutting the door had been enough.

Then again, maybe privacy wasn’t at all on his mind.

When he spoke, his words were loud and clear.

“What about us?”

The volume and delivery might have been decisive, but JJ was as confused as ever.

“What about us?” she repeated.

Price gave one nod and brought his index finger to her shoulder. The small amount of pressure he placed there was brief but it sure did radiate after he pulled it back. He tapped himself next.

“You’ve got all of these plans on what to do to find your brother, what to do with Lawson and his group, and you even said you know what you want after it’s all said and done, right?”

JJ nodded slowly.

“Yes. I don’t want anyone to know my connection to him, to my parents.”

“But you’ll stay here? In Seven Roads, right?”

She nodded again.

“I don’t think I could leave him after everything my parents went through.”

“So, Seven Roads is settled then. You—this house?—is where you’ll stay.”

JJ was following the words, but she couldn’t hang on to the feeling behind them. It felt…angry.

“That’s the plan. Why? What’s wrong?”

Price put his hands on his hips. It might have looked humorous had she understood what had inspired the now-obvious frustration.

“Winnie said something earlier and it got me thinking that…all these heavy things we’ve talked about, we never really hammered out the details of theafter. I mean the brother thing, not wanting to reveal yourself, I get that. Though, to be honest, I was already trying to think of ways to persuadeyouto maybe rethink that too. But, that aside, I started thinking about all of these conversations with you. Then I started remembering your looks and then things that aretherebut not really there for you.”

JJ knew her eyes had widened. He paused and searched her face. Then he ran a hand down his own and dropped the other from his hip. She watched him turn around, take a few steps away, blow out a breath and come right back to the same spot so close to her.

“You smile, you say the words, but there’s this—this space between them all,” he continued. “You have convinced yourself that youneedto keep up the life of the JJ Shaw who first came to Seven Roads to try and find her brother, but then I think you feel thewantof actually living a life of this JJ Shaw. Of the woman who can hack into websites, fight close combat in elevators, make my kid laugh and fit right into my everyday life without so much as lifting a finger to try.”

JJ didn’t dare move.

Not even a blush stirred.