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down the receiver.
    It was just as well. He had no business seeing her for dinner. It would remind him too much of other dinners they had shared, of other evenings spent together. Yet he’d heard the disappointment in her voice.
    He wouldn’t have deliberately hurt her for the world.
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    Brianna recognized his car as soon as she turned onto her street. What was Jake doing here? He’d made his feelings very clear on the phone earlier. Now what?
    Something about the investigation?
    Reluctantly she pulled into her driveway and stopped. What she really wanted to do was turn around and drive until she ran out of gas, but that was hardly a mature way to handle this. Taking a deep breath, she wondered if maturity was overrated.
    He'd left his car while she dithered and was at the door of hers before she knew it. Opening it, she shivered slightly in the cold air. The late-afternoon sun was but a memory; dusk was falling fast and with it the temperature. It would be another cold night.
    “Brianna.”
    “Hi, Jake. What an unexpected surprise. Was there something more on the investigation you needed? I thought Officer Winston was the one handling things. I assumed you filled him in on the situation at my office last week.” She couldn't get the words out fast enough.
    “Brie, shut up. You talk a lot when you’re nervous, did you know that?”
    She glared at him. Of course she knew it. But she didn’t like that he’d also recognized the fact. “Why would I be nervous?”
    “You tell me.”
    “If I was the tiniest bit nervous, it could only be because of all the problems recently. I mean, how often does a person have her house broken into and then her office. I was lucky to have my car with me or it probably would have—”
    He leaned over and kissed her.
    Her lips clung to his, all protestations forgotten. The cold faded and a delicious warmth pervaded. Slowly, as if in a trance, Brianna dropped her books and briefcase and purse. She slipped her hands up around his neck, pulling him closer.
    His arms encircled her and drew her snug against his long length. His mouth moved against hers until she opened to him, reveling in the taste so long denied. When his tongue skimmed her lower lip, she moaned softly in supplication. She wanted more. She was spinning out of control and didn’t care a whit. Her tongue danced with his.
    When he eased back a bit, Brianna realized her coat was open, as was his. They had pushed them apart to press closer. She had no desire to move an inch unless it was to close the gap he’d created.
    “Don’t be nervous around me.” Jake’s voice was low and seductive. His breath brushed across her damp lips, warming them in the rapidly cooling night air.
    “Jake, I’m not nervous. I was merely saying—”
    Again he cut her off with a kiss, deepening this one until Brianna forgot where she was, forgot what she should be doing. The only reality was Jake in a spinning universe that spiraled in wondrous delight. She strained to get closer, to offer him the same heady delights he provided. Her mouth moved against his, her tongue mating in a rhythm as old as time. Her hands threaded themselves through his thick pelt of hair, relishing the texture, testing the length.
    His heat scorched her, made her coat superfluous. Gone was the numbing cold of the winter; gone was the hard concrete beneath her feet. She floated on a warm, tropical cloud of blissful sensation. Shimmering waves of electricity sparked along her nerve endings, bringing remembered pleasure so long forfeit.
    “It was always hot between us,” Jake mumbled, lifting his hands up to cup her face, dropping little kisses against her lips, across her cheeks, tilting her face to trail kisses along her jaw, down her throat.
    “It was always wonderful,” she replied, eyes closed to better savor every stroke of his touch. She could go on forever. Could he?
    “I didn’t come for this,” he said, swooping back to capture