Page 34 of Bachelor Cop Finally Caught? (Hot off the Press! 2)

“Yes. But you’ve put in more than your required hours today. Go home.”

“I’ll go home soon,” he answered distractedly, reaching for a file drawer in his desk at the same time. “I just want to…”

Lindsey put her hand over his and pushed the drawer closed again. “There are no answers in that drawer,” she told him firmly. “If there were, you’d have found them long ago. Go home. Get some rest.”

She kept her hand over his just to make sure he didn’t try to open the drawer again. It had been a purely friendly gesture, offered out of concern for his health. How many times had she touched him in the past couple of years? Dozens? Hundreds? Yet this time…

His hand was so warm. Big. Strong. Roughened by weather and hard work. She almost shivered, and that was just from the feel of his hand beneath hers. She couldn’t help wondering how she would react to having his hands all over her.

Scenes from too many uncomfortable dreams flashed through her mind, causing her cheeks to go warm and her pulse rate to accelerate. She snatched her hand away and held it behind her, her palm still tingling as if she’d touched a live wire. She raised her gaze to Dan’s face, finding him watching her with a somber expression she couldn’t begin to interpret.

He’d pushed his hand through his hair so many times it looked as if he’d combed it with an egg beater. A boyish lock fell over his forehead, and she simply couldn’t resist stepping closer and extending that still-tingling hand to brush it back.

“You look so tired,” she murmured, wishing she had the nerve to take his face in her hands and smooth away the weary lines. But she wasn’t quite brave enough for that.

How could she be so bold in her job and so timid when it came to Dan?

“Lindsey.”

She realized that she’d gone still, with her fingers still threaded in his hair. Maybe she had more courage than she had realized. “Mmm?”

“What are you doing?”

“I seem to be following my impulses.”

“You know that can lead you into trouble.”

She found it interesting that his voice sounded suddenly huskier. “Probably.”

Reaching up, he captured her hand in his, pulling it away from his hair. It surprised her when he didn’t immediately release her, but sat instead with her hand clasped in his. “Lindsey—”

She managed a weak smile when his voice trailed away. “Am I scaring you, Dan?”

He looked down at their linked hands. “To the toes.”

She thought about that for a moment, then smiled again. “Well…at least you’ve finally figured out that you’ve got something to be nervous about.”

She watched him swallow before he said, “I think we both need to get some rest.”

“Do you think exhaustion is affecting my thinking?”

Dan looked down at their entwined hands. “Maybe it’s affecting mine.”

“Then maybe I shouldn’t be nagging you to rest.”

He lifted his gaze to hers again. He looked as though he were about to speak, but then seemed to change his mind—perhaps because he didn’t know quite what to say. Instead, he gave her hand a light squeeze, released her and pushed his chair back so he could stand. “It’s getting late, and we both have to be at work early in the morning. You’ll let me know, of course, if you come across anything that might be relevant to my investigation.”

So he’d retreated into business again. She supposed that seemed safer to him. Maybe he was no longer denying, even to himself, that she was interested in more than a professional relationship with him, but he wasn’t ready to openly face that now. It was entirely possible he never would be.

But at least she could say she’d tried to let him know how she felt. She wouldn’t have to live her whole life wondering what might have happened if she’d only taken a few more chances.

Maybe she’d made a little progress this time, she thought as she watched him busily straighten his desk. She could still feel the warmth of his hand around hers, could still see the expression on his face when their eyes had met and held. He was definitely becoming aware of her. What she couldn’t predict was whether he would ever reciprocate the feelings she had for him—or even openly acknowledge them.

For the past few days she’d chastised herself for her cowardice when it came to her relationship with Dan. Now she was beginning to wonder which of them was really more afraid.

It should have been a beautiful night in Edstown—a full moon glowed in a starry sky, a hint of approaching sprin

g was in the crisp air. The townspeople should have been peacefully sleeping, safe and secure in their beds.

---