Read Bad Bones (Claire Morgan) for Free Online

a wedding, period.”
    “And you’re going to get one, trust me. And something else you need to think about, Black. I deal with criminals all day long every day. What if one of the creeps I have to hassle notices this big expensive ring I’m wearing and decides to follow me home, mug me, maybe even kill me, and take the ring so he can retire. Ever think of that?”
    He hadn’t, judging by the concerned expression on his face. “I’ll tell you one thing, if anybody ever touches you or that ring, I’ll kill them.”
    “Aw, how sweet. Promise? Problem is I’d still be dead.”
    “All right, I get it. I see your point. I just like to see that ring on your finger, that’s all. Looks good there. Tells the world how it is.”
    “And you will. I do love it, and I do want to marry you, or you would have it back by now. So, we good now? No more talk about that damn ring?”
    “Yes. You just said what I wanted to hear. So, hurry it up. Your skin looks a little blue, almost Smurfette-ish, in fact. Good God, how many clothes do you have on?”
    Pulling down her thermal underwear bottoms, she kicked them off, too, and hopped her way to the tub, stripping off her heated socks and everything else along the way.
    “Enough not to keep me warm.” She stopped beside the big hot tub and laid her phone on the edge. She took her engagement ring off the chain and held it up for him to see. “Okay, see this. Watch closely now, I’m putting it on my finger right now, where it belongs. Happy?”
    His eyes slid down over her slightly blue and half-frozen body. “Oh, yeah, you bet I’m happy. Now get in here with me and show me how glad you are to see me. It’s been a very long week.”
    Down to naked skin now, rather goose-bumpy naked skin, to be sure, and shivering all over, she eased down into the warm and silky water and felt as if she’d submerged herself into a slice of heaven. Black watched, smiling at her long sigh of pleasure. Claire sat there across from him, relaxing and allowing her frigid limbs to slowly thaw out a bit, and vowed never to step foot outside the house again. “So, tell me, Black, how did your day go?”
    “I saw a couple of patients, swam some laps, worked out in the weight room, tried to get over my jet lag from the flight back from LA, all the while waiting for you to get home so we could enjoy several hours of slow, inventive lovemaking. So, I guess it was pretty uneventful. It’s looking up now, so come over here and let me say hello.”
    “All in good time. So everything’s cool and copacetic at your Los Angeles clinic? You did go to Los Angeles like you said you did, right? Do I need to call out there and verify your story? Sure you weren’t in New York partying it up with your buds at the Ritz-Carlton?”
    They’d had a bit of a tiff not so long ago when he had lied about where he’d been, but that was long over. He’d had a good reason at the time and had squared it with her satisfactorily. Still, it had rankled a little and made her wonder where he really was every time he flew off to distant locales.
    Black didn’t bite. He usually didn’t when she was baiting him. He was a crack psychiatrist, after all. He probably knew her better than she knew herself. In fact, she was pretty sure he did. “Everything’s fine in California, and when Harve’s cop friends showed up at the airport to pick him up, he was very glad to see them. And right now? I’m glad to be back home with you. So, one more time, why don’t you come over here and let me show you?”
    This time Claire decided to do his bidding, having missed him rather a lot, too, and they quickly entered into their usual slippery, sliding, slick and lovely, skin-to-warm-skin, mouth-to-mouth explorations. They did so love their nifty hot tub and therefore used it often and well.
    “You feel so damn good,” he muttered into her hair, his hand sliding up her bare back to grip the nape of her neck. “I love kissing you more than just