“You are irresistible, Jolene, but I think I can manage to keep my hands...and everything else...to myself in your presence.”
Her cheeks flamed as she spun around. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
A grin spread across his handsome face. “I’m teasing you. I’d much rather share a bed with you than Chip, so I’m accepting your offer, strings and all, but I’m gonna need a shower first. I have sand in places that, well, you’re never gonna discover tonight.”
“I do, too. I’m like that cartoon character with a permanent cloud of dirt over my head.”
“You first. I have a few things to check on my phone.”
“Deal.” She escaped the uncomfortable conversation and hightailed it to the bedroom.
She stripped off her clothes in the bathroom, leaving a pile of sand on the tile floor. Keeping her hair in a ponytail, she soaped up and rinsed off, showering in record time.
She pulled on a pair of pajamas—tops and bottoms—and slipped between the sheets.
Sam tapped on the door. “Everyone decent?”
“C’mon in.”
He pushed open the door. “Everything’s locked up. I let Chip out once more, and I started the dishwasher.”
“Thanks, Sam. The bathroom’s all yours.” She yawned in an exaggerated manner. “I’m going to fall asleep in about two minutes.”
“I’ll keep it down.” He moved silently across the room to the bathroom and clicked the door closed.
Her ears tuned in to every rustle and scrape from the other room. When the water started, she squeezed her eyes closed, visions of water sluicing over Sam’s hard body making her mouth water.
She didn’t have to worry about Sam controlling himself. She had to watch herself. When had she ever been able to resist that man? Only at the end, when she knew he had to be there for his baby.
The water stopped, and she clenched her muscles, holding herself still. By the time he exited the bathroom on a rush of citrus-scented steam, she was wide-awake.
He flipped back one corner of the covers and crawled into bed behind her, his warm, slightly damp skin giving off some kind of magnetic wave to pull her in.
She held her breath as he settled in, managing to avoid all contact with her body. Then she cursed herself for holding her breath because she had to let it out.
She puckered her lips and blew it out. It sounded like a gale-force wind, but Sam didn’t move a muscle. As she lay there listening to his breathing, it deepened. Sam didn’t snore a lot or loudly, but a few snuffles and snorts indicated that he was off to dreamland. Wish she could say the same.
About an eternity later, Sam shifted and his knee wedged just beneath her bottom. When he didn’t move it, she knew he’d reached nirvana—sound asleep while she still tossed and turned, or at least tossed and turned in her mind because she was in the exact same spot she had been in when Sam joined her in bed.
They should’ve just made love—she’d be asleep by now—asleep and satisfied and no more confused that she was now.
JOLENE JERKED AWAKE the next morning and scrambled out of bed. Sam had gotten up before her again. He’d obviously gotten more sleep than she had.
His voice, sounding way too cheerful for morning, greeted her from the kitchen. “I found some pancake mix. You want some pancakes?”
She tossed her grungy ponytail over her shoulder. “You’ve turned into a regular Suzy Homemaker. I don’t remember you cooking one thing when...we were together.”
“I told you, Jess changed everything. Full disclosure—” he held up a spatula “—I do have a housekeeper who comes in once a week, and I drop Jess off at day care when I’m working.”
“Is it hard?” She tipped her head. “Is it hard being a single dad? Because that’s what you are. How much time does Jess spend with Aimee?”
“As little as I can possibly get away with.” His lips twisted and he flipped a pancake. “I made coffee, too.”
She lifted her nose and sniffed. “I smell it.”
“Sit down and eat.” He held out a plate stacked with pancakes. “Do you have syrup in the fridge?”
“I think so.” She took the plate with one hand and a coffee mug with the other. “Chip?”
“Fed him.”
Hearing his name, Chip thumped his tail twice, obviously too sated to even get up and greet her.
“You’re spoiling that dog.” Jolene pulled out a chair. “How’d you sleep?”
“Great. I was beat.” He pulled out the chair across from her and sat down with his own plate. “You?”
“I slept really well, too.” She could lie with the best of them. “Do you need to go into the station today? My boss heard about Melody and told me to take another few days off, and I figured we... I could go to Melody’s place this morning.”
“I can join you. I have to bring the truck back and make some excuses for its condition. I also want to pick up that map of Las Moscas tunnels.” Sam squeezed a puddle of syrup onto his pancakes.
“But that map didn’t show a tunnel on Yaqui land, right?”
“I’m sure the tunnel I suspect is on Yaqui land is not one of Las Moscas’—or it would have been on that map. It’s someone else. Someone who wants to maintain a covert presence, someone who doesn’t want to upset the cartels. In short, El Gringo.”
Jolene stirred some milk into her coffee. “The appearance of Pink Lady must’ve upset the cartels if it was that pure. It must’ve demanded a high price, higher than the regular meth coming across.”
“Oh, it did, but it showed up in small quantities. It wasn’t replacing the lower grade stuff by a long shot.”
“Is it still on the street in San Diego?”
“It is.” He cleared his throat before sawing into his pancakes. “They got to the mules after they crossed the border. The product had been taken off them before they were
