Total pages in book: 125
Estimated words: 119152 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119152 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
I can’t deny his shop talk is super-hot. His knowledge and confidence are doing inexplicable things to my sex. If I didn’t want to add a car accident to my list of bad luck and injuries, I’d jump in his lap and hump the crap out of him. God, why does he make arson sound so hot?
“Thanks for getting back to me. I’ll look them over when I get in. Thanks, dude. Later.” Ben hangs up as he pulls into his apartment complex.
“Was that about my father’s house?” I ask, trying to unbuckle my seatbelt. Noticing I’m having difficulty, Ben leans over, his face too close to mine, and unclicks the belt. Have I ever mentioned the smell of his cologne alone arouses me?
He pulls back as I wipe the sexual hunger off my face. “Yeah, just giving me a rundown of what I already expected. Definitely arson.”
“What does that mean?” I make an attempt to pull at the door handle. Dammit!
“Sit tight. I got you.” He jumps out and jogs around, opening my door. “That it didn’t start accidentally with an electrical spark or bad wiring. Stuff like that. Arson is a deliberate fire caused by intentional human intervention.”
My stomach takes a nosedive. “So, something had to be set to ignite the fire. Like a gas knob accidentally being turned on?”
He gazes down at me. “Something like that.”
There has to be another reason. Jenny was honest about what happened. Right? If she was hiding something, she wouldn’t have come right out and told us that. “So, what happens now?”
“We keep digging for answers.”
“And what happens to Jenny? You heard her. She said it was an accident.”
The way he’s looking at me, I have a feeling he thinks otherwise. “That’s not for me to say. It’s the arson investigator’s job. I’m just repeating the facts. Those facts will determine the insurance outcome, so I want to make sure they do everything right.”
He helps me out of the Jeep, and I wince when my bad leg hits the concrete.
“Here, let me carry you—”
“No way.” That came out way too fast and more forceful than expected. But I’m no dummy. Touching leads to petting. Petting leads to—hot, steamy, sexy things that are not on the table. For at least the next forty-eight hours. I need to get my head out of the gutter when it comes to Ben. Minus this whole deal he has with Hannah, mixing business with pleasure never works out, and that’s exactly what this is. I need his expertise to help figure out what happened at the house more than I need him to scratch the itch he constantly creates.
“Then are you good to walk—”
“Forty-eight hours.” What? “I mean, of course. I’m an adult. Out of my way.” I push him and bite the inside of my cheek. Dammit, that hurt. I wait ’til he can’t see my facial expression, then wince at the stinging in my hands. I take a few steps but slow down. I have no idea where I’m going. The last time I showed up here, it was in the heat of the moment. I was on autopilot as I barged into his place, told him to pretty much die in front of his friends, and waited a whole whopping five seconds before I let him take my clothes off and bang me into another universe.
“You’re limping. I can carry you.”
“I’m not. Uneven ground. You never answered me. Nothing’s going to happen to Jenny, right? It was an accident.”
Ben catches up to me and thankfully leads the way. Things start to look familiar. Yep. I remember this place. I mean, how can I forget running outside before even slipping my shirt on? It got stuck over my head. I’m pretty sure a neighbor saw a boob before I was able to wrestle it down.
He presses the button for the elevator. “Arson isn’t an accident. Like I said, it’s deliberate and premeditated, where an accident is just that—unplanned and without malice. The question is, will your insurance ping you for it?”
I fall over my own two feet. He reaches out and catches me. “Whoa there.”
“Tell me I heard you wrong. Tell me there’s not a chance I’ll lose everything.”
“Hey, relax. I’m not going to let that happen. We’ll figure it out.”
“I have no idea what kind of insurance my father had, if he had any. If they claim arson, can I go to jail—?”
He cups my cheek. “I won’t let that happen. One step at a time, okay?” His reassuring gaze calms me. I lean into the warmth of his palm. “But, for starters, I’m gonna need you to stop looking at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I just offered you ice cream before dinner, and I’m the ice cream.”
I fight not to lick my lips. “I hate ice cream.”