Nautier and Wilder Read Online Free PDF

all set and ready to go. All she had to do was slip out with her bags and
     be waiting at the designated location when Amy’s sister, Gypsy, arrived.
    Blowing out a hard breath, Piper glanced at the patio doors, her heart beating hard
     and fast with the thought that Jed didn’t make idle threats. There was no doubt in
     her mind that he knew exactly how to pick the locks on her doors. There was no doubt
     he would pick them if he were in the right mood.
    She rather doubted he’d learned that trick in the construction business. Just as she
     doubted her sister’s fiancé, Brogan Campbell, was slipping into the upper story of
     the inn in the middle of the night because he missed anyone there.
    Hell, no. Those nights Piper had watched the shadowed figure easily pull himself to
     the second-floor balcony and slip through the glass doors that led to Tim’s office,
     she’d known exactly why he was there.
    Timothy liked to tell anyone and everyone who dared to ask that he was retired.
Learn the definition of the word
, he’d growled at the lawyer who’d shown up several weeks before in regard to the
     deaths of several suspected homeland terrorists the summer before.
    Piper had heard the words “Eve” . . . “kidnapping” . . . “boat,” and “Campbell” just
     before he dared to say, “Special Agent Cranston.”
    She bit back a smile at the thought of how quickly Tim had cut him down and informed
     him in no uncertain terms that retirement was a glorious thing.
    Retirement, her ass. Timothy, or Tim as she and her sisters often called him, was
     about as retired as Dawg and her cousins were. Just retired enough to be able to claim
     they weren’t involved in anything, but involved enough to ensure they all knew exactly
     what was going on in their little corner of the world.
    Closing the cases quickly, Piper moved to the closet and stored them out of sight,
     just in case Jed decided to make a midnight visit.
    If he saw her bags and realized they were packed, he would immediately demand to know
     where she was going. Once he knew . . . hell, she may as well take out an ad.
    There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that Jed would tell Dawg just as fast as he could
     make the call. Then Dawg and her cousins would arrive and insist on accompanying her.
    If she allowed it to happen.
    There wasn’t a chance in hell she would allow it, she thought wearily. The very thought
     of it was enough to send a shudder racing through her body.
    She closed the door and moved toward the bed, then came to a hard stop.
    Swinging around, Piper moved to the door that led to the sitting room of the suite
     and swung it open as her heart began pounding with enough force that she swore she
     could feel it in her throat.
    And there he stood.
    She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and leaned against the doorframe that connected
     the sitting room with the bedroom.
    “What the hell are you doing here?” It was all she could do to fight back her amusement
     as well as the surge of sexual intensity sweeping through her.
    He wasn’t wearing a shirt.
    The broad, muscled expanse of his chest was bare. A light covering of dark blond curls
     feathered over the dark flesh and arrowed into the snug band of his jeans. And he
     was aroused.
    Standing in the middle of her sitting room, bare chested and barefoot, he stared back
     at her with pure sensual intent burning in his dark, navy blue eyes.
    “You’re dressed,” he accused her, his voice rough as he paced closer to her. “I thought
     you were naked and playing with toys.”
    “No, you didn’t.” Piper could feel herself trembling from the force of the need racing
     through her. “That’s just an excuse, Jed.”
    “Yeah, it’s just an excuse,” he agreed as he stopped before her. “An excuse for this.”
    She hadn’t expected it to happen so fast—that his lips would be on hers, his fingers
     curving around the back of her neck, holding her in place as his lips took