“Okay, so…I’m guessing that a spider didn’t respect your…agreement…and came inside?”
“That’s right.”
She said that as if his assessment of the situation made all the sense in the world. Unfortunately, he was still confused.
“So…that still doesn’t explain why you tried to kill the vacuum cleaner.”
She rolled her eyes again, and made another cute huff. “I tried to use the vacuum cleaner to kill the spider!” She shot a glare at the vacuum. “But, I could still see it moving in the dust canister!” She shivered as if the spider were crawling up her leg. “So I vacuumed up some of that powdered bathroom cleaner, thinking that would kill the stupid thing.”
“I’m guessing it didn’t?”
She did a little dance of frustration. “NO!”
Arik couldn’t help it. She just looked so adorable and so irritated and horrified and…well, adorable! He threw back his head, laughing so hard that his hat fell off. He grabbed it before it went into the dust, but kept laughing.
Sage glared at the man who had bothered her every single night, and a lot of the days, since she and her sister had moved to Wyoming several months ago. He was so darn tall and stupidly handsome. That black cowboy hat he always wore was just…he irritated her!
It wasn’t because he was a bad guy. Just the opposite, actually. But Sage wasn’t in the market to date anyone. Not now. Not ever! And Arik was the kind who could really get under her skin. She might…care for him…if she ever let him get closer.
Unfortunately, Detective Arik Dorrant wasn’t just her brother-in-law’s partner on the detective team. He was Simon’s best friend. That meant that she saw him whenever she went over to her sister’s house because Arik and Simon worked long hours, often working at Jade’s house. Simon was sweet, wanting to be with his wife as much as possible. So whenever they could, the two detectives worked out of the house, sifting through data and working on evidence for their various cases. Oh, they still needed to go into the police station. But most of the time, they worked at Jade’s house.
Finally, Sage had started to figure out those “police station” times so that she could use those moments to visit her sister. Ever since leaving New York City, Sage and Jade had grown closer. The longer they kept their vile, controlling father out of the picture, the stronger the sisters’ relationship became.
That meant that Arik was part of most holidays, every weekend get-together, and a lot of the mornings when he came by to pick Simon up so they could drive into the station together.
Jerk!
Okay, he wasn’t a jerk. All things considered, Detective Dorrant really was a good guy.
Unless he was laughing at her.
Sage huffed and inched closer, aiming a kick at the vacuum cleaner. “I don’t see it.”
That stopped his laughter. Well, it slowed his laughter down to a chuckle.
“Can’t see what?” He chuckled again, trying valiantly and unsuccessfully to smother his laughter.
“The spider!” she explained, trying for patience. He resettled his hat and knelt down beside the vacuum. Sage was pretty sure he was only patronizing her, but if he valiantly killed the spider, she didn’t care. “Do you see it?”
“No,” he replied and straightened up to his impressive height. “I don’t see the spider.” He looked behind her at the still-open door. “At the risk of asking a stupid question, why didn’t you just step on it?” He glanced down at her boots, praying she didn’t notice his body’s reaction. “You’re wearing shoes. It would have been easy to…”
“Because I would have had to get too close,” she said, as if that were obvious.
He nodded, but…still didn’t understand. “I see.” He sighed and tried hard not to burst out laughing again. “So, are you okay?”
She squinted up at him, the bright afternoon sunshine making her eyes sparkle. “I’m fine.”
Arik knew that she was lying. Perhaps it was that she’d answered too quickly. Or maybe it was the way she unconsciously backed up. But yeah, she was lying.
“Good. So, you don’t need me to look around for any other spiders?” he offered. “I could kill them for you.” He glanced down at the vacuum cleaner again. “Since your primary weapon is out of commission.”
She shifted on her feet and looked over her shoulder at the house, then down at the vacuum. “I hate to ask, but…” she bit her lower lip and he almost groaned at the pain of lust that shot through him. Her lips were full and soft, with just a touch of something to make them shiny.
“Go ahead and ask.”
“Would you mind,” she glanced down again, “just…opening that up and finding the damn thing? Maybe killing it for me?”
He laughed, but being the gentleman, and the heroic sort, he nodded his head and bent down to open the vacuum. “Sure. I can do that for you.”
Sage sighed with relief, but still backed up when he started pulling the dust collector off. Then the hose.
“Be careful. It was a big one.”
Arik smiled, and continued to disassemble the vacuum. When he didn’t see anything in the dust compartment, he pressed the button and…magically, the dust, fluff, and bits of lint fell out onto the rocks that were Sage’s front lawn.
“I don’t see…” Arik jerked backwards when a large beast crawled out of the dust. “Holy mother of god!” he hissed, jumping back. “Sage! That’s not a spider, honey!” He lunged forward and stomped on the scorpion, which really was much larger than normal. Wyoming had their share of scorpions, but they
