After Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page B

remained in place. “This cop, however, is more than willing to put business aside and make small talk with a good lookin’ Air Force colonel for a few hours.”
    That line probably worked magic with most of the females he approached. Jess wasn’t impressed. She flicked a look at the hand cradling his beer glass. He wasn’t wearing a ring, but that didn’t mean squat.
    “It also depends on whether there’s a Mrs. Sheriff Paxton waiting for you at home.”
    One sun-bleached brow cocked. “Do you always vet your dinner companions this carefully?”
    “I don’t like complications.”
    “Fair enough. There was a Mrs. Detective Paxton once. We were divorced a year or so before I moved down here from Atlanta.”
    Neither his expression nor his voice altered, but Jess sensed a definite withdrawal, as though the subject wasn’t one he wanted to talk about. Apparently Paxton’s divorce had left some scars. Like Sergeant Babcock’s.
    The loudspeaker blared the sheriff’s name again. Taking her silence for assent, he slipped a hand under her elbow to help her off the barstool. The intent might have been mere courtesy, but his touch ignited a series of small, electric shocks just under Jess’s skin.
    Slinging her military purse over her shoulder, she broke the contact and wove through the milling crowd to the hostess stand.
     
     
     
    When they finished their grilled amberjack and walked outside into the night, Steve had gleaned little more information about Lieutenant Colonel Jessica Blackwell than the bare facts he’d had in his possession going into Pampano Joe’s.
    Through casual conversation, he’d confirmed the basic details in the background report. She was thirty-three. Single. Born Jessica Yount in Bethany, Pennsylvania, and adopted at the age of ten by a step-father she evidently adored. Graduated from UCLA, then went on for a MBA from Stanford. Entered the air force right out of grad school. Other than that one curious incident as a child, she had no record of any brushes with the law, not even a citation for jaywalking.
    Which didn’t explain why Steve made her so nervous.
    He’d like to believe the jumpiness she almost succeeded in concealing was physical, a reaction to his raw, animal magnetism. Unfortunately, his raw animal days were a thing of the past. Maturity and his ex-wife had taken their toll. Although…
    Damned if all parts of him hadn’t sat straight up and taken notice when he’d cupped the colonel’s arm. She’d quickly shaken him off, but not before Steve had catalogued smooth, soft flesh and a heat just under the skin that shot right from his fingertips to his groin.
    The view of her backside as she crossed parking wasn’t bad, either. He liked the way she walked, hips rolling, long legs striking out as if she had places to go and important people to see. He also liked the way her dark blue uniform slacks shaped her bottom. He slowed his pace and enjoyed the view as he followed her to a snazzy little Mustang convertible.
    Tossing her purse onto the passenger seat, she reached for the door. Steve didn’t fail to note how she put it between them before she turned.
    “Good night, sheriff. Maybe I’ll see you around.”
    No thanks for the company. No polite pretensions that she’d enjoyed herself. Another man might have taken the hint. Steve wasn’t finished with Colonel Blackwell yet.
    “Oh, you will,” he promised casually. “I still haven’t pinned down why you were on Ron Clark’s mind just moments before he killed himself. I’ll let you know when I do.”
    She slid behind the wheel and keyed the ignition. “You can reach me any time through the 24-hour operations center at the 96th Supply Squadron.”
    He got the message. She wasn’t amenable to any more unannounced, late night visits to her home. Wondering if she really thought he intended to play by her rules, Steve dug in his pants pockets for a package of Dentyne. As he watched the Mustang nose into the east-bound