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possibility that I didn’t kill her.”
    She shifted in the chair. “You didn’t answer my question.”
    “No, I didn’t.” He fell silent for long moments and she thought he might ignore her question altogether. Then he looked at her, his face devoid of expression. “My mother, bless her soul, taught me the art of discretion.”
    Akela refused to give up. “Long-term or short-term?”
    “Miss Claire and I became acquainted last night.”
    Acquainted. Now there was a new word for it.
    It had been obvious by the dead woman’s state of undress, and the appearance of the bed she’d been lying in, that she and Claude Lafitte had become very well acquainted indeed.
    He crossed over to stand in front of her, putting his bare torso mere inches away from her face. Akela suddenly had a difficult time breathing.
    “It’s not what you think, between me and Claire,” he said.
    She watched as he ran his hand through his hair.
    “Then again, maybe it is. I don’t know. All I know is that I didn’t bring her any harm.”
    This time, Akela looked away from the conviction on his handsome face.
    “You must be hot,” he said, helping her to her feet. “Let’s get you out of those clothes.”

4
    A KELA B ROOKS WAS WOUND UP tighter than a fishing line. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that her presence wasn’t exactly voluntary. But he’d never had a woman look at him in fear. And he hated that he’d ignited that in her.
    “I’m not going to ravish you, Agent Brooks. Just trying to help you cool off, that’s all,” he muttered, turning her around so that her bottom was facing him. And despite circumstances, he couldn’t help noticing what a fine bottom it was, too. As he cut the tape from her wrists and slid her suit jacket down her arms, he saw that Akela was finely shaped. He supposed her career demanded she be in prime physical condition. But he suspected that she didn’t realize how perfectly made her body was for the joys of sexual pleasure.
    Then again hadn’t sexual pleasure landed him in the middle of this mess?
    He methodically stripped her blouse off thenunbuttoned the back of her skirt, allowing it to drop to her feet, leaving her in a simple white slip that looked not at all simple on the stunningly attractive woman.
    Claude caught himself running the backs of his knuckles along the exposed nape of her neck and upper back. Goose bumps ran up her bare arms as she shivered.
    When he realized what he was doing, he stopped.
    “Come on,” he said, grasping the back of her arm and urging her toward the door to the house.
    He had to give her credit for not saying anything as he moved her toward the double bed in the corner of the one-room house. But her response to his actions was evidenced in the puckering of her nipples beneath her thin slip and bra and the thick way she swallowed. He supposed it wasn’t every day that a woman used to being in control had that same control stripped away from her.
    He motioned for her to sit on the bed and when she did, after a moment’s hesitation, he noticed the way she kept her thighs tightly pulled together and her back reed straight.
    Claude clamped a handcuff attached to the wrought-iron headboard to her right wrist.
    This did get a reaction as she snapped her faceup to stare at him. “Why am I not surprised you have cuffs already waiting?”
    “And who’s to say I didn’t attach them when I opened the house?”
    Her gaze skittered away and slight color spilled across her cheeks.
    Claude caught her chin in his hand, wondering at the contrast of his thick, calloused skin against her flawless, smooth face.
    “I didn’t bring you here to seduce you, cher ,” he said quietly.
    “Then why did you bring me here?”
    “To give me time to figure everything out.”
    He forced himself to turn away from the curiously probing look in her eyes and grabbed a towel. “I’ll be only a shout away.”
    “I have to go to the bathroom.”
    He stopped,