Hardwired For Ecstasy Read Online Free PDF

this?”
    “I
would. This is too important to my company.” That was all he could say without
giving her potential ammunition.
    She
glanced away and let out a puff of air that fluttered her hair. His gaze swept
down the length of it, to her shoulders, and down her left arm to her hand,
resting palm up in her lap. From there he eyed her legs again. She had very
pretty ones.
    He
realized she wasn’t talking yet and forced his gaze back to her face, where he
couldn’t help but notice she had been watching him check her out. Fuck. What the hell was wrong with him?
He knew better than that.
    A
man was never more vulnerable than when a woman realized he lusted after her.
Unless Leland Clough really had fooled this girl for three solid years, she was
no stranger to using sex to get what she wanted.
    “Well?”
he asked, his voice harder than it needed to be. “What’s your decision?”
    For
a split second, she looked so pissed off he thought she was going to leave,
just like that, but then her expression changed and she folded her hands in her
lap. “Fine. Here’s the whole, sordid story. I worked side by side with Leland
for four years before we became lovers. The entire time I listened to the
rumors about him. I also listened to him deny those rumors, and insist his wife
had left him and then dragged out the divorce to hurt him.”
    “So
you started seeing him three years ago?”
    “Yes.
A year after he said his divorce was finalized. He asked me out several times
before I finally agreed. We kept it as secret as possible because I didn’t want
him getting in trouble.”
    “Seems
to me if he was as worried about that as you were, he wouldn’t have signed your
performance reviews.”
    “I
agree with you. But as I already told you, he gave me what sounded like a
legitimate reason for signing them. Our performance reviews weren’t something
we all talked about with each other or I would have questioned why he was
signing mine but no one else’s.”
    “So
you never knew the sergeant still signed those of your coworkers?”
    “No,
I did not.”
    Atticus
nodded. So far, her story sounded believable, but he would carefully watch her
face and body language while she continued talking, just in case.
    “We
never stayed at my place. He said it was because he wanted our nights together
to be special. We stayed at lavish hotels with room service and all the bells
and whistles. When we went out dinner or to concerts, it was on the other side
of town, away from the station. He said he didn’t want anything to remind him
of work while we were out.”
    Atticus
didn’t like the way his gut clenched when images of her fucking Bonnie’s
husband danced through his head. What the hell? It’s not like he was dating
her. She had a right to have sex with anyone she wanted to. Keep your focus here.
    “Didn’t
you ask him why you couldn’t stay at his place?”
    “Sure,
and he gave me the same answer I just told you.”
    How
was it no one ever saw them out? Leland must have known the haunts and habits
of his wife, plus those of his friends and family quite well. Being a police
captain had its advantages when you decided to cheat with a hot young thing
like Emma.
    “This
went on for three years?”
    The
anger was back in her eyes, along with embarrassment. While he understood the
reaction, he still needed to find out what she knew.
    “Yes,
it did. Call me naïve. Call me stupid. Label this whatever you have to if that
makes you feel better.”
    Atticus
sighed and leaned forward. “Emma, I’m sorry this makes you so uncomfortable. It
sounds as if you were lied to.” Unless
she’s lying to you now, that is.
    “I was lied to. I believed him because I
wanted to believe him.”
    “I
understand that. When people we believe care about us lie, it destroys our
trust in everyone.”
    She
narrowed her eyes slightly, and he wondered whether he’d fallen on his fucking
head this morning and forgotten about it. This wasn’t about