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sheer bulk.
    Ella busied herself hefting her briefcase, avoiding eye contact, hoping a quick answer would satisfy him. “We like to get involved if we think there’s a serial case.”
    Hank snorted. “Really? I thought there was some big, long process to get a profiler. He find a way to cut to the front of the line?”
    The innuendo in Hank’s tone made Ella glance up to his dark brown eyes. Yep, definite laughter there. Which was better than true suspicion about whether proper Bureau protocol had been followed, but not by much. Especially considering the way she’d plastered herself to Logan at his parents’ house last night.
    A flush started climbing Ella’s neck, so she put on her flat, all-business tone. “Once I have enough to provide a useful profile, I’ll be on to my next case.” She looked pointedly at where he leaned against the door. “If you don’t mind, I’m expected in the conference room.”
    Hank rolled his eyes, but got out of her way. As she passed, he muttered, “Guess it’s true. Feds have no sense of humor.”
    Ella didn’t slow her stride, just marched straight to the conference room at the back of the station that Logan had booked so they could go over Theresa’s case. It had been this or Logan’s house and after last night’s kiss, she’d immediately picked the station. Now she wondered if she’d made the wrong choice.
    If it got back to her boss at BAU that she’d agreed to give a profile on her own time, her vacation could be permanent.
    A lump the size of her gun formed in her throat. She tried to swallow it down, but it stuck. A pact with Maggie and Scott nearly ten years ago had made her apply to the FBI, but the job had become a huge part of her life. She’d weathered her family’s disapproval, the FBI Academy’s ruthless selection process, and four years of cutting her teeth on gang cases to get into the BAU.
    Her goal all along had been to get to this case. She needed to catch Maggie’s rapist, and the hook-shaped burn on the back of Theresa’s neck told her this could be her chance, but she really didn’t want to sabotage her own career to do it.
    “Something wrong?” Logan asked.
    Ella stumbled, catching herself on the door frame. She’d been so caught up in her thoughts she hadn’t realized she’d arrived at the conference room. “N-no, nothing.”
    She turned her back to him, pouring a cup of coffee as a cover for calming herself. She’d never crossed the line with a colleague before. Seeing Logan today was awkward and uncomfortable—despite knowing that after two weeks, she’d never see him again.
    That thought made the lump in her throat sink to her gut and settle there uncomfortably as if she’d drunk a pot of coffee on an empty stomach.
    You’ve known him for two days ,Ella reminded herself. You can’t be this attached to him already.
    But when she turned around, Logan was perched on the edge of the table, his perfectly groomed dark hair begging her to muss it up again, his green eyes studying her with concern, and she knew she was in trouble.
    “You sure you’re okay?”
    “Fine.” Ella set her coffee on the table, then pulled a legal pad and a pen out of her briefcase. “Let’s get to work.”
    Logan settled into the chair next to her, a respectable distance that somehow still felt too intimate.
    “You’re the expert,” he said, his tone normal, as if he hadn’t had his tongue in her mouth last night. “Where should we start?”
    She fiddled with her pen, then managed to look up at him. “Let’s just...” Ella glanced at the door, making sure it was closed, before she continued, “I just want to be clear that what happened yesterday was an anomaly.”
    “An anomaly ?” Laughter curved Logan’s lips, but it quickly faded, his tone immediately becoming stiff. “You were pretty clear yesterday that it was a mistake. I got it. It won’t happen again.”
    She nodded. “I know this case is important to you. I’m staying. But if it