“That’s different.”
“Why?”
“You rarely come to the lab. Whenever I have my reports, I go to you.”
“True, so I came because I wanted to see you. Sue me.”
“I doubt I would win.”
He smiled and moved closer to her, looking down at the rope. “I don’t mind being a guinea pig if you need help.”
Kate had totally forgotten what she had been about to ask Eric to do.
“Could you turn around?”
He did as she asked, and she took a deep breath when her eyes fell to his broad shoulders. “Hands behind your back.”
He complied and she studied them—big, competent, and often gentle when they touched her. She slipped the rope around his wrist and duplicated the knots that had been around the victim’s wrist. She visualized each loop as she made it, finally convinced at the end of the experiment that the victim of possible suicide couldn’t have completed tying the ropes herself.
She turned to the phone and picked it up and dialed Sanders. “Tom. I’ve just completed my review of the knots for the Jody Christiansen case. I would say that she couldn’t have done it herself.”
“Murder?”
“Yes. I’ll have my report on your desk this afternoon.”
“Thanks, Kate.”
When she dropped the phone back in the cradle, Jericho was standing there with his hands tied behind his back. It was an intriguing position for him to be in and made her feel just a tad more in control.
“Are you going to untie me?”
“Of course,” she said as she spun him around and took off the rope. “Sorry about that. He rubbed his wrists. “I get carried away when I make a discovery like that. I don’t want Tom to waste a minute.”
“It’s good to see that you’re dedicated to your job, even when you leave your boss tied up.”
“Does that mean a good evaluation next time?”
“A-plus.” He grinned.
It was the first time that he’d ever done that. First time she’d noticed how sexy it was with those soft crinkles at the corners of his eyes. He’d laughed and he’d smiled, but he had never grinned at her. It transformed him and made him less intimidating.
His grin faded and his eyes traveled over her face and down her body. She fought the urge to adjust the hip-hugging black skirt, wondering at her bravado in paring it with the black georgette shirt that showed a lot more of her black bra than she would have ever thought to do. But Lana had been persuasive when she’d insisted that this attire was perfectly fine for daywear.
She’d been right. No one else had even batted an eyelash, and she’d gotten compliments on her clothing.
Kate dropped the rope out of her nerveless fingers at the soft gleam in his eyes. She bent to retrieve it and her heavy hair cascaded over her shoulders. Straightening, she placed the rope on the lab table behind her.
He reached out and snagged the loose strands. Threading the gleaming ends through his fingers, he asked, “When was the last time you cut your hair?”
“I can’t remember,” she replied, her breath damming in her lungs as she watched him rub her hair between his thumb and first two fingers.
“So silky.”
Just then the door banged open, and Eric entered. Jericho dropped her hair.
Eric stopped when he saw Jericho. “Jericho,” he said by way of greeting. Then he addressed her. “I’ve got a lot to do so I brought my lunch back here, thought you might need a hand with the fingerprint.”
“Lunch?” Jericho asked, turning back to her. “I’m sorry that I kept you from eating.”