Read Captivated (Stranded) for Free Online

seeing the tables turned on her was…not gratifying, exactly. It actually made him feel closer to her. “No worries. I just dropped it off. Had to get back upstairs to buff the floors.” Sort of true.
    Yes, it was a blush, and now it had company: a sag of relief across her shoulders. So she had wondered all afternoon if he’d heard her.
    Had that thought excited her, even a little?
    “That’s the cleanest toaster oven I’ve ever seen.”
    He finished wiping down the glass door and swept the crumbs from the counter into a trash can. “That’s my job.”
    She scanned the office. “In fact,” she said, “this whole place is extremely clean. Like you’ve scared the dirt away.”
    “You sound like Magda,” he grumbled, uncomfortable being the focus of her attention, but craving it all the same. “She thinks it’s because I’m American.”
    “Well, that’s not true,” Laine said. “I mean, you are, but so am I, and my place was nowhere near this clean. You’re not a vampire are you?”
    He snorted. “Vampire?”
    “Word is they’re compulsive.”
    Great, he thought, let’s add that to the list of psychotic flaws. “Just a product of my dad and my sergeant.” He glanced up at her. “Your blood’s safe with me, Iowa.”
    She narrowed her eyes at him, her thumb tapping the strap of her bag. “I’m going to ignore the way you say Iowa, Ohio —”
    “Yeah, that’s a lot better—”
    “—and enlist you for a prank.”
    He straightened to face her. “Prank?”
    “Prank,” she confirmed. “I don’t think Magda and Risa should get off scot-free for this, do you?”
    Her lips curled into a smirk he wanted to map with his tongue. “And what do you propose?”
    She considered the office. “I don’t know. That’s why you’re so important to this mission, Ohio. What are their weaknesses?”
    A laugh burst out of him before he could stop it. “Weaknesses? I hope I’m never in your crosshairs.”
    “Oh, you’re easy,” she said, waving away his comment and walking toward Magda’s desk.
    “What? No. You can’t just drop something like that and walk away.”
    She turned back to him, then looked slyly at the kitchenette counter, where the coffee filters were stacked upside down. She peeled one off the top and, watching for his reaction, folded it off-center and set it back down in a random spot between the coffee maker and the sink. Then she stepped away.
    He looked at the filter, its awkward crease, its stupid, useless placement on the counter. When he dragged his eyes back to hers, he hoped he looked bored and not as if every inch of his skin itched. “So?”
    One eyebrow rose above her glasses. “All right. So you’re imperturbable. But surely the ladies have buttons we can push.”
    Eager to get off his own dumb shit and on to someone else’s, he stepped past her. “Magda likes chocolate. I’ve heard her snipe at Risa for sneaking bits from her stash.”
    “Where’s her stash?”
    He opened the deep side drawer of Magda’s desk. Laine leaned over to peer into it, exposing the soft, pale skin behind one ear. What would it feel like under his—
    “Not very well hidden.”
    He jerked his gaze back to the drawer. “It is her desk.”
    “Good point. But I have to admit, I might have swiped some of this chocolate myself.”
    “Iowa: corn and thieves.”
    Her lips fell open in invitation.
    Indignation. Fuck, he was getting his signals crossed.
    “A three-day weekend’s a long time to go without something sweet,” she said.
    If she looked at him like that for three more seconds, he was going to grab her. One…two…
    She turned away. Chose a couple of wrapped candies and closed the drawer. “What about Risa?”
    He pulled himself back, feeling drunk on her presence, and followed her gaze through the office window to the reception desk. What about Risa? “She likes soccer players.”
    “Soccer players,” Laine said under her breath. She crossed her arms. “We could doctor some