Daniel’s expression shifted as he put the pieces together. “Should have known he’d rat me out.”
“What did you expect?” Rose asked.
“A little slack wouldn’t have hurt,” he replied.
Rose ignored his response and unlocked the back door.
“Since I’m already here, can I put dinner in the refrigerator before it goes bad?” Daniel asked.
Rose waved at the refrigerator, slapped her cell phone down on the counter and headed out of the kitchen.
Lily followed her to the living room. “Brr. That’s one cold shoulder you’re sporting there.”
“You think I’m being harsh?”
Lily shrugged. “Not for me to say.”
Daniel joined them a moment later, his expression neutral. Rose couldn’t tell if he even gave a damn. “I think the food should be okay. Your sister can have my part.”
“Actually,” Lily said, “I’d better head home.”
Rose forced herself not to coax her sister to stay longer. Lily had better things to do than to play referee. She walked Lily to the front door. “Be careful driving home.”
“Lock your doors,” Daniel added gruffly.
Rose slanted a look at him. His expression was serious.
“I will,” Lily assured him. She squeezed Rose’s hand and headed down the porch steps to her car.
Rose watched her until she was on the road. As she stepped back to close the door, she came up flush against Daniel’s body.
“Do you have any idea what I thought when I got here and found you gone?” he rasped, his voice low and barely controlled. The smell of him-masculine, feral-filled her lungs as she took a shaky breath. “You want to punish me, find a different way.”
She whirled to face him. He was impossibly close, his stormy eyes blazing with emotions, most of them volatile and dark. “You think I was trying to punish you?”
His expression hardened. “Weren’t you?”
“I was following a lead of my own.”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re a detective now?”
She took a step back and ended up flattened against the door. “You expect me to sit home and play damsel in distress?”
“I expect you to do whatever’s necessary to stay alive.” He pushed forward, trapping her against the door. “A killer is sending you messages. You fit the profile of his victims.”
The memory of the faint death veil over her reflection set off a low tremor in her knees. “I know that.”
He caught her shoulders in his hands, his fingers digging into her flesh. “Then, act like it!”
She jerked her chin up. “If you wanted to know something about me and my sisters, why didn’t you just ask? Did you think I’d lie to you?”
His lips trembled apart with a shaky breath, his gaze flickering down to her mouth. Silence descended, heavy with unspoken words. A tight ache settled in the middle of Rose’s chest, trapping her breath.
He moved closer. The air heated between them, thick with tension. “Why didn’t you tell me about the true-love veils?”
She fought to breathe, surprised by how much it hurt to hear him speak of her lost gift in tones of such obvious skepticism. She licked her lips. “They’re gone now. What difference would it make?”
“Maybe they’d have helped me understand you better.”
She clenched her jaw. “And maybe knowing about Tina would have made me understand you a little better.”
He jerked back, his eyes narrowing to slits. “Tina?”
His reaction surprised her. “Your former fiancee?”
His chest rose and fell rapidly before he lifted his gaze to meet hers. “Who told you about Tina?”
“Detective Carter.”
Daniel’s mouth tightened to a thin line.
“He told me you were once engaged to his sister.” Rose dropped her gaze. “He said I look like her.”
Daniel wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her toward him. “He’s wrong,” he said, and slanted his mouth over hers.
Her head spinning from the unexpected assault on her senses, she dug her fingers into his shoulders just to stay upright as his tongue found hers, demanding a response. There was little gentleness in his touch, only hunger and fiery need.
“You’re nothing like her,” he murmured against her mouth, his hand sliding over her breast, blazing a trail of fire.
A twisting sensation curled through her chest. “Daniel-”
He nipped at her jaw. “Where’d you go this afternoon?”
She slid her hand under his jacket, plucking at his shirt. “Don’t change the subject.”
“No, tell me. What was so important that you couldn’t wait for me to return?” He ran his tongue over the curve of her collarbone, sparking little explosions in the base of her spine.
“I went to the security company where Jesse Phillips works.”
Daniel stepped back and gazed down at her. “What?”
She shook her head, not wanting him to stop. “Daniel, please-” She pulled his head down and kissed him.
For a moment, he returned the kiss, his lips pliant against hers. But too soon he put his hands on her shoulders and held her away. “Why, in hell, would you go there by yourself?”
Rose stepped away from him, needing distance if she was going to be able to hold up her end of what was obviously turning into an interrogation. She couldn’t think with him so close, the heat of his body swamping her with need.
She crossed to the archway into the living room, leaning against the wall. “I wasn’t by myself. I was with my sister.”
“Yeah, she’s got bodyguard written all over her.” He shook his head. “What if Phillips is the killer?”
“I think he is.” She told him about the visit to the security company, leaving out nothing.
His gaze darkened. “You saw a death veil on yourself?”
“On Lily, too.” The memory sent ice through her veins. “But they went away.”
He shook his head, retreating to the wall.
“They went away,” Rose repeated, taking a step toward him.
He looked at her, bleak humor in his eyes. “That would mean more if I believed in them.”
She caught his hand, surprised to find it shaking. “Daniel, what is it?”
“You want to know why I didn’t marry Tina?” His voice came out like sandpaper.
She nodded, her breath freezing in her chest.
He held her gaze, his eyes searching hers. “Three days before the wedding, I told her I didn’t want to get married.”
Rose released a soft hiss of breath, caught flat-footed by such a mundane answer. “I see.”
He shook his head. “No, you don’t. It was the night of my bachelor party. I had a lot to drink as it was, and there were some women at the bar…”
Rose shook her head, not wanting to hear any more. She took a couple of steps sideways, moving away.
Daniel caught her arm. “My friends thought I should sow my last oats. I told them I couldn’t. I was about to get married.” He exhaled, his shoulders beginning to slump. “They ragged on me. Said I was already henpecked.”
Men, Rose thought, not charitably.
“It made me angry. I felt…trapped.” His lips curved in a humorless smile. “Cold feet.”
“So you gave in to temptation?”
He shook his head. “No.”
“Because you loved Tina?”
He turned his gaze to her, his brow creasing as if nobody had thought to ask that question before. “I guess, I did, on some level, or I’d never have asked her to marry me. But I didn’t love her enough to make it last. That’s what I realized that night. So I went to talk to her.”
