Friction (Red Hot Private Eye, Novella, Vol. 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

time when you don’t have to disentangle masses of wires and cords! It’s wasn’t brain surgery, just common sense!
    “I have zip ties if you want some,” Raiza said in the most neutral tone she could muster.
    “For what?” Mateo looked up, his brow furrowed.
    Raiza didn’t answer. She had no words. Was ignorance really bliss?
    How other people seemed to happily move through the world in disorder and chaos baffled her to no end. Glancing at his desk, taking in its current state, before returning her gaze to his bag she realized that Mateo might just be a lost cause.
    So , instead of wasting her time, energy, and breath she moved to her desk and sighed happily as she sat down to shut down George. He wasn’t a disorganized mess. He wasn’t a mountain of clutter. He was perfect.
    The hairs on the back of Raiza’s neck rose as she felt Mateo’s intense stare boring into her. She raised her head. Yep, she confirmed that he was indeed staring at her intensely so she asked, “What?”
    “For what?” he repeated, seemingly not out of curiosity but obviously making a point of the fact that she had not answered his question the first time.
    Through clenched teeth she responded as kindly as humanly possible, “For the loose wires and cords in your bag.”
    “Oh,” he shook his head before his face broke out in a mischievous smile, “Nah, there is a method to my madness.”
    “Is it called being sloppy?” she asked. Her tone was laced with patronizing pleasantness but she wasn’t even sure if he would catch that.
    “No.” He stood walking over to her. Placing his hands on the surface of her desk, he once again loomed over her.
    Raiza was momentarily rendered speechless as she took in the sheer size of Mateo’s impressive frame. A realization slammed into her like a Mack truck. Normally, since Mateo’s demeanor was so easy-going and non-threatening he seemed less overwhelming , er, um, dangerous. In fact she had always wondered about his abilities in the field when he was required to work security or undercover. But now as he stood before her, his intensity dialed up, she totally got why he was able to intimidate people when the situation called for it.
    It was…hot. She felt a rush of awareness sweep through her as she tried actively to ignore it and regain her bearings.
    “It’s not called being sloppy,” he said in a light tone which was in complete opposition to his severe (hot!) expression. “It’s called my bag, my business.”
    Annnd she was back.
    “I was just offering to help,” she said tightly.
    “By calling me sloppy?” he said. The corners of his lips twitched into a small smile and she knew that he wasn’t really offended by what she had said.
    “I just call 'em how I see 'em.” She turned back to George to finish powering him down. She and Mateo needed to get going, they didn’t have time to banter over semantics.
    “I’ll have to remember that.”
    Raiza heard more than a hint of cockiness in his voice as he returned to his desk. She was tempted to roll her eyes, but she had worked very hard to break that immature habit, and she quickly decided that Mateo was not worth a relapse.
    After taking a cleansing breath, she reset her mind. All she had to do was make it through the day. She looked down at the watch she wore on her left hand. She had a little over thirteen hours to go.
    Piece. Of. Cake.
    ---~---
    Mateo rolled his neck from side to side as he flexed his hands open and shut, gripping the steering wheel. He was sitting in the unmarked undercover van, two cars behind Raiza’s black Audi, stuck in traffic. They had left the Red Hot offices over forty-five minutes ago and were still only about halfway to the Omni. He would put money down on the fact that she was seething.
    Things that Raiza couldn’t control seemed to be hot buttons for her. She was definitely not a go-with-the-flow gal. That may scare some guys off. It had the exact opposite effect on Mateo. He sensed that