“Probably.” I watch as she tucks her hair behind her ear.
She stops and turns so we’re facing each other, and I look down at her beautiful freckled face with the wind blowing in her hair that’s shades of red and orange in the dusky light. “Calvin, you can take the call, and if you have to go, we can do this another time.” Fuck, I have never wanted to kiss a woman more than I want to kiss her. “Seriously, it’s not a big deal.” She smiles.
“Anna, shut up.” I drop my mouth to hers, cutting off her gasp of outrage, and tangle my fingers into the hair at the back of her head. She instantly falls into the kiss, moving her hands up my shoulders to hold on and opening her mouth.
The first flick of my tongue against hers drives the kiss deeper, wilder. I hold her closer, wrapping my arm around her back to keep her against me, and then trail my lips to her ear and down her jaw, and I nip her collarbone. Her whimper drives me close to the edge, but I fight against falling and drag my mouth away from her delicate skin. I tuck her face into my neck, willing my body back under control as we both try to catch our breath.
“Did you tell me to shut up?”
I dip my chin down to grin at her. “Babe, you talk a lot.”
“So you did tell me to shut up,” she mumbles. I chuckle, then curse under my breath when my phone starts to ring again. “Take the call.” She places her hands against my chest. “It could be important.”
I don’t want to, but she’s right. After letting her go with one hand to reach into my pocket for my phone, I glance at the screen and see Herb’s name, and then I swipe and put it to my ear. “This better be good,” I say to my partner.
“Sorry, Cal, I know you’re off duty—someone came in and said they have information about your murder case.”
“Who?”
“Sandy Burton.”
“Sandy.” I shake my head, figuring this is another dead end. I went to high school with Sandy. We didn’t hang with the same crowd, but she was always sweet, which hasn’t changed over the years. She works as a local beauty pageant coach and, as during our high school years, still tends to stick to herself. My murder victim was a young man with no ties to the area, and I doubt Sandy would have been near an area heavily populated with clubs, which is where the victim partied the night before his body was found. “All right, put her in the room and let her know I’ll be there within the hour.”
“I’ll tell her, and see you then.” He hangs up, and when I shove my cell back into my pocket, I notice Anna’s body has gone rigid against mine.
I look down and see that some of the pink has left her cheeks, and her eyes have gone blank. “I gotta go.”
“I heard. Was that . . .” She jerks her head from side to side. “I mean . . . are you investigating a murder?” she asks, and I’m honestly surprised she hasn’t heard about the murder in the media.
“I can’t talk about my work.” I rub my thumb across her smooth cheek, curious if she’s soft everywhere.
“Of course. I don’t know why I asked. I’ve watched enough television shows to know that you—”
I kiss her, cutting off her rambling, and then drag my mouth from hers. “I think I like that way of shutting you up.” Her eyes narrow, but before she can speak, I do. “Do you work tomorrow?”
“Maybe.”
I sigh, taking her hand. “I thought we were past that.”
“Then we’re even, ’cause I thought we were past you being a jerk,” she tells me, sounding put out, but something about her tone lets me know she’s joking.
“Kissing you makes me a jerk?” I say with a smile.
She looks at me out of the corner of her eye. “No, the ‘shutting up’ thing does.”
I stop and turn her toward me, then dip her back over my arm to touch my lips to hers.
When her eyes flutter open, I smile. “I don’t know. It seems to me that you don’t mind it much.”
“You’re annoying.” There’s no heat in her words.
“And you’re stunning.” I stand to my full height, bringing her with me, and then turn to search the beach for Bane. I call for him to come when I spot him wandering off down the beach with his nose pressed to the ground. He lifts his head to search for me, then runs at full speed, kicking up sand and making Anna laugh as he skids past us and stumbles over his four legs.
When we get back to her stairs, I bend down to put my shoes back on, then look up at her when she asks, “Do you want to rinse your feet off in the shower? I know it’s no fun walking around with sand in your shoes.”