She turned in his arms, considering him through narrowed eyes. “That’s a bit of a commitment, isn’t it?”
Her cocked eyebrow made him laugh. How could she be so damn cute and sexy at the same time?
“It is,” he conceded, “but if we want to convince everyone for the sake of your investigation.” Why couldn’t he admit he wanted her there with him?
“Of course.” She nodded, though her voice had turned cold. She wouldn’t be leaving anything at his place. She patted his chest like she would a small child and moved out of his arms.
He cursed under his breath and ran a hand through his unruly hair. “Gretchen, what’s wrong? Please.”
Leaning against the wall with her arms folded over her breasts, she watched him so closely he wanted to squirm. “How would Ronnie feel if my things were here?”
Ah, so that’s what had been bothering her all weekend?
“I couldn’t tell you,” he lied. Ronnie would hit the fucking roof when she heard about them, which was part of the reason he wanted Gretchen in his apartment where he could keep an eye on her.
She shook her head. “They say the two of you are pretty close. I assumed.”
“We’re not together. We’ve never beentogethertogether.”
“You mean you’ve never been exclusively a couple,” she corrected. “Because I’m pretty sure you’ve actually been seentogethertogether.”
~ ~ ~
Gretchen tried to block out the images conjured by the things Neil had told her other agents had reported seeing Finn and Ronnie do.
“You’re right.” He shrugged. “Is that a problem? I assumed you knew I wasn’t a virgin when we started sleeping together.”
Her gaze snapped to his then, his words a reminder of how he’d turned her away a decade ago. She swallowed down the lingering burn. “I’m well aware of how you feel about virginity.”
She turned away and made her way to his bedroom. She needed to gather her things so she could head back to her real life for the next few days.
“Gretchen.” He followed her into the bedroom, where she was already stuffing clothes into her bag. “What are you doing?”
“Getting my things.” She headed into the bathroom.
“I stand behind what I did ten years ago.” He blocked the doorway with his arms braced against the frame.
She forced herself to focus on his face and not the expanse of bare, sculpted muscles on display.
He shook his head. “I wasn’t the man you wanted to be with the first time.”
“You’re the only man I’ve ever wanted to be with,” she confessed.
They glared at each other until Gretchen thought she’d choke on the words neither of them said. Finn opened his mouth to speak. Before he could, she shook her head and ducked under his arm.
“Please don’t say anything,” she urged. “It’ll probably only get worse.”
He watched her from across the room. “There’s no reason for you to be jealous of Ronnie.”
She spun on him. “What did I say aboutnotsaying anything? I’mnotjealous. I just don’t understand how you could be with someone like her after your mother.”
“Why? Because my mom was a whore and so was Ronnie?” His temper flared to life.
Gretchen didn’t flinch. “No.” She pulled a deep breath in through her nose. “You were ready to kill Raymond Carlisle. You blamed him when your stepdad killed your mom. You thought Carlisle had forced her to sleep with other men, and you hated him.”
“I didn’t hate him,” he argued.
“Don’t.” She pushed a finger into his chest. “This is me. I saw you. I saw the look in your eyes.” A look that had haunted her for the past ten years reminding her of the broken boy he’d once been.