Dangerous Tease (The Layton Family 3)

Light bounced off the glass and Josie ducked behind a snow-covered bush. The beam hadn't come from inside, but from a car rolling toward the house. As it neared, Josie picked out the Dry Creek County Sheriff's decal on the passenger door. The cruiser drove slowly down the block and past Sam's pin-neat yard. Even though she knew the evergreen shrub shielded her from exposure, the urge to skulk away didn't abate until the cruiser turned the corner.

She didn’t know where Sam had hidden the map, but she hoped like hell it was filed away in his office just waiting to be liberated.

After he dropped his bomb earlier in the car before dumping her at the cabin, she'd gone shopping. She now owned a heavy coat, gloves and some butt-ugly hiking boots that could withstand the snow while she hunted down Rebecca’s Bounty. Glancing down, she saw the ankle-deep snow surrounding her new boots but her toes were toasty warm inside. Grudgingly, she had to admit the boots felt much better than the shoes she'd brought with her from Vegas.

Enough procrastinating, Winarsky. Just climb in the window already.

Girding herself for her first breaking and entering, she pushed the window the rest of the way up, then grasped the shoulder-high ledge. It took a couple of tries, but she managed to haul her ass through the window, balance precariously for a few seconds with the ledge biting into her hips and then she oh-so-graciously slid face first onto the floor. She remained immobile for a few minutes, her right cheek on the cool hardwood floor, listening to see if her entry had been detected. Getting to catch her breath was icing on the cake.

After examining the world's smallest dust bunny under Sam's desk for a few minutes, Josie figured her career as a cat burglar had begun in earnest. Time to get off the floor.

She targeted the file cabinet first, stepping as softly as possible while wearing heavy hiking boots. Every whispered clomp on the wood floor made her blood pressure shoot higher.

Finally at her destination, she pulled the metal handle on the drawer marked Q—S. Flicking her fingers across the files, she discovered the fat file marked Rebecca's Bounty. She'd say one thing for Sam's intense organizational skills: he sure made B and E easy. Josie plucked the file from its spot and shuffled through the papers inside in search of the map or another clue that would help find the treasure. True, she didn't know exactly what she was looking for, but it had to be there.

“Nice boots.”

Josie jumped at the sound of the all-too-familiar voice that had called out her name the other night as he’d squeezed her ass and pounded his cock deep inside her.

The overhead light snapped on. Sam sat in a chair by the office door, wearing only a pair of navy pinstriped pajama pants and a crooked smile. “Looking for this?”

“Yes.” The man or the piece of paper rolled up in his hands? Fuck if she knew.

Deliciously tousled, he didn't look anything like an uptight history professor. Gone were the starched collars, replaced with rippled abs and an ornery glint in his tawny eyes. Josie had to avert her gaze before she drowned in a testosterone wave. How many times had she challenged him to stop hiding behind the ironed Chinos? What the hell had she been thinking? A shiver ran up her spine.

“And you were just going to take it and then hunt down Rebecca's Bounty on your own, huh?”

“Yes.” The short answer was all she could manage without drooling on herself as the memory of trailing her fingers through the springy hair dusting his pecs hardened her nipples. Her gaze followed his happy trail to where it disappeared beneath his string-tie waistband, the growing bulge a bit lower giving away that he wasn't unaffected, either. The realization sparked the synapses in her brain, pulling her out of the haze of lust.

Leaning forward until his elbows rested on his knees, Sam flashed a predatory smile her way. “That's not going to happen.”

Irked at his overblown confidence, Josie cocked out a hip and curled her lips into a sardonic smile. “Says who?”

“Reality.” He waved the sheet of paper at her. “Without this, you don't know where the starting point is. You're not familiar with the area. And I think I'm putting it mildly when I say you're not exactly the outdoorsy type.”

Right, right and right. She hated that. “I figured Uncle Harlan would probably be willing to help me look.”

Sam grinned. “If he was still in town, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to help. But one visit from Mom while he was in the ER and he hoofed it back to his home in Oklahoma.”

The urge to scream her frustration nearly overwhelmed her. Every nerve in her body pinched and pulled and heat washed over her skin like a tsunami of anger. Her life had gone completely out of her command. For all the shit she gave Sam about being an anal-retentive control freak, she was his Xerox copy in every way except color. Not something she wanted to clue him in on—ever.

“So that leaves you.”

“Yep.” His eyes crinkled at the corners in a way that made her stomach do a flip.

Damn her traitorous body and that supreme look of confidence on his handsome face. He thought he'd won, the little shit. Time to regain the upper hand, though how the hell she lost it still baffled her. “You're not getting rid of me. I'm going with you in the morning.”

“Well, looks like we'll be partnering up after all.” He leaned back in the chair, not even trying to conceal the look of superiority on his face. “Working with me will be a lot easier than clocking me over the head with a blunt object and trying to figure out the starting point on your own.”

She hefted up a thick book about the history of Dry Creek County. Just holding it in her hand made her wrist shake. “I don't know, you bring out the compulsion to chuck things in your direction.”

His deep laugh caressed her skin as he bolted up from the chair. In an instant, he stood beside her. Her skin vibrated at his nearness and yearning filled her like a fast-building summer storm.

One of his long fingers traced down the open V of her black T-shirt, stopping only when he reached the pointed end. There he lingered, not pulling her shirt lower but also not removing the digit. Her pulse raced.

“We already know we work well together in private.” His lips teased along her temple. “Why not see how we function in public?”

“Why the change of heart? I thought you were going all Lone Ranger on me?”