“He was an ass?”
She smiled at that, but she wished the lights were off now. “In retrospect, yes. He was an incredible ass. He liked that I was a virgin. Liked that I waited for him. He talked shit about other girls who put out, and it made me feel special. So I suppose I was an ass, too.”
“Well, that’s understandable. You wanted it to be special with him.”
“Exactly. It wasn’t until later that I started examining the mystery of why those girls before me were sluts and he was a good guy. It’s a mystery of millennia.”
“I wouldn’t know. I was always just pleased.”
She finally opened her eyes. He was smiling at her now, looking much more like a guy who’d just had great sex. “Are you pleased now?”
“You have no idea how much.” He kissed her.
A chaste kiss, really. A touch of their lips, but he was smiling and sweet, and something inside her tried to open up. She desperately shoved it closed again.
“So stop frowning,” she said.
He nodded. “I’m sorry. It’s just...I shouldn’t be here.”
“Oh.” She was feeling sorry now. She took his face between her hands and kissed him again. “You’re the boss. I get it. You probably don’t want to be caught screwing the crazy neighbor during an assignment. Whereas for me, it really bolsters my quirky artistic vibe.”
He shook his head, but she gave his chest a little shove. “Go on. Get out of here before one of your men checks in and finds you with your pants down. For God’s sake, you don’t even have your gun on, Marshal.”
“Safety first,” he said, but he got out of bed.
She watched as he looked for his pants. “I like your ass.”
He smiled. “Thanks.”
“You look really good for your age.”
“Hey! For my age? How old do you think I am?”
“Forty-two?”
“Shit,” he muttered. “Did you look at my license?”
“No. And I was only teasing. You look good for any age. You’ll have to let me touch you more later.”
He glanced over his shoulder as he pulled his pants on. “Later?”
“I mean, assuming you want to. But I was hoping for at least one more round. Not to reveal my hand, but you’re really good at that.”
“At what?” he asked, but she could see the edges of his pleased smile.
“At fucking.”
Now his cheek was practically creased from a grin. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. But if you want to hear more about it, you’ll have to come back again.”
He chuckled as he slipped on his wrinkled dress shirt. “I promise I won’t need luring.”
“You didn’t seem quite sure earlier.”
He seemed to be buttoning slowly, and when he turned to face her, he wasn’t smiling anymore. “I’m sorry, Isabelle. This isn’t how I’d want to do this. It’s...complicated.”
Her heart fell a little, but she nodded and told her heart to stay the hell out of it. “It’s just the job? You’d be honest if it were another commitment?” She wasn’t sure why she’d asked. Someone who would lie about a girlfriend would lie about the cover-up, but she wouldn’t be able to face herself later if she didn’t press him. She could at least go to the effort of making a liar lie.