Read His Wicked Ways for Free Online

sure as hell wouldn’t just wander off with a potentially dangerous man without some consideration to her own safety. Gena’s battle for her life had taught her better. “But before we go anywhere, I think a few basic precautions are in order.”
    Like no more simmering looks. And definitely no more touching. She didn’t like the idea of him knowing how much he fired her up.
    But she didn’t plan on sharing those particular safety measures with him.
    “You want to take separate cars and meet up somewhere?” His agreeable tone suggested he’d already thought of this.
    And while Vanessa appreciated his idea of caution, that’s not what she had in mind. For that matter, maybe she’d be better off not letting Alec Messina out of her sight. A man this eager to stay hidden wouldn’t resurface again for a long time.
    “Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of making sure you didn’t stash any weapons on your person when you disappeared into your office.” She hadn’t been able to keep her eye on him the whole time, and that worried her.
    He stared at her for a long moment before the barest trace of a smile kicked up one side of his mouth. A full, sensual mouth with as much character as every other inch of his face.
    Had she really thought she could keep a lock on the simmering looks they exchanged? A little more proof she was clueless when it came to men. And sex.
    “Are you saying you’d like to frisk me?” His low words carried a hint of suggestiveness, as if he were proposing a romp in the sheets instead of a preventive measure.
    “Don’t get too excited. I’m a professional at this.” At least she always had been in the past. The thought of frisking Alec and that way-too-masculine body of his suddenly made her hands itchy for a thorough feel. Not exactly the thoughts of a detached expert.
    Amazing, considering she hadn’t itched to touch a man for four long years.
    “I’m sure you have a very skilled touch.” He bent to set his bag on the ground at his feet, oblique muscles tensing against the fabric of his T-shirt as he moved. “By all means, Vanessa. Feel away.”
    His open invitation caught her off guard, rattling her when it should have relieved her. But the procedure that had seemed so clinical a few moments ago now took on whole new shades of meaning.
    Clearing her throat, she sought for some of the distance that had come so naturally to her for the past five years.
    “I prefer to think of it as a search rather than a feel.” Her words sounded just a little bit breathless to her own ears, a stranger’s voice in her head.
    His dark eyes, an even deeper brown than her own, fixed on her with searing intensity. “Call it whatever you like, but we need to get it over with before anyone else gets wind of me being here.”
    The step he took toward her touched a match to the last shreds of her cool reserve. Heat swamped her, confused her, blurred her pit-bull instincts. She didn’t stand a chance in hell of touching him with dispassionate hands, but how could she back down now after proposing the idea herself?
    To do so would show him a weakness she could barely admit to herself, let alone a stranger. And damn it, she wouldn’t bury her head in the sand and pretend that just because she felt some sort of bizarre attraction to Alec didn’t mean that he wouldn’t hurt her. She was a good cop because she knew better.
    Swallowing the lump of uncertainty in her throat, she snapped at him. “Well turn around, for crying out loud.” She made a spinning gesture with her finger. “I can’t very well frisk you when you’re glaring at me like that.”
    Sighing, he pivoted on the heel of his shoe, facing away from her. “Happy now?”

    T ENSING , A LEC JUST HOPED she didn’t find out exactly how happy he was feeling at the prospect of her hands all over him. Bad enough he had to entrust some small part of his problems to a cop who could easily betray him the moment she clocked into her next