here was a good idea. Any information she could pull out of them would be on tape for review if needed.
Kylie hurried into her bedroom and over to her dresser. She pulled out some cash from her top drawer and then turned to head back to the ruckus still going on in her living room.
“Do you have enough money to feed the girls?” Perry asked quietly, standing in her bedroom doorway.
Kylie stopped, unable to leave the room with him standing there. “I can manage,” she said easily, and stepped forward, hoping he’d move.
He didn’t. “What questions are you going to ask them?”
She pointed past him. “My notebook is in the living room with all of my notes.”
“What university are you attending?”
She looked up into those deep green eyes. He studied her intently, his brooding expression impossible to read. “I’m working on my Ph.D. at KU. I thought you knew that already.”
When he reached for her, Kylie stepped back without giving it thought, immediately wary of his actions. He didn’t hesitate but cupped the side of her head and tangled his fingers in her hair, then held on tight. Pulling just hard enough that she felt a quick sting, he forced her head back and lowered his face to hers.
“You’ll keep your questions off any sexual topic,” he whispered. “You aren’t as good at hiding your personal desires as you might think. And if this is some game to determine how innocent my nieces may or may not be, you can find someone else’s kids to interrogate.”
“It’s not a game.” She hated how her voice suddenly sounded husky, and how her body reacted to his aggressive actions. Tingles rushed over her flesh while her insides tightened, a quickening swelling in her womb and traveling fast enough that she struggled to keep her breathing from growing ragged. “They’re going to wonder what you’re doing if you continue to stand in my doorway, trapping me in my bedroom.”
“No, they aren’t,” he said, his voice too damn calm. “They’ll know I’m making a move on you.”
Now she couldn’t breathe, let alone speak. Which she told herself played well into the woman she needed to portray to make her cover believable. But if he accused her of being more experienced than she wanted him to see, it should be a part of her he didn’t like. Especially since he had just demanded she not press his nieces about anything sexual.
Her sexual predator would be turned off by a worldly woman. He would crave beautiful girls who were sexy but had a clean slate, were easily manipulated and overpowered. Perry seemed even more aroused when she didn’t flinch as he damn near pounced on her.
“You aren’t, though, right?” she whispered, continuing to stare into his incredibly dominating gaze.
Perry let his fingers slide through her hair and let go of her, straightening and backing out of the doorway so she could pass. She let out a sigh and stepped past him. When she dropped her gaze, she noticed the bulge in his jeans. Her heart started pounding so hard that it was suddenly too damn hot in her hallway. Closing her eyes for a moment and forcing herself past him, she blew out an exasperated breath of air.
Fuck him anyway for getting a rise out of her like that. Even if it did affect him, Perry was messing with her head. He demanded she not discuss anything sexual with the girls, yet the only way she’d learn anything was if they touched on the subject of boys and dating. Although if he were her man that would explain him not wanting that topic brought up. She entered the living room, all eyes on her as she forced a pleasant smile on her face, knowing she wasn’t any closer to eliminating Perry as a suspect.
“Figure out where we’re ordering pizza?” Kylie asked, stuffing the bills she’d pulled out of her dresser into her purse that she’d left on the coffee table.
“A long time ago,” Dani said dryly. “What we’re trying to figure out now is what you two are doing back there.”
“You and me both,” Kylie grunted, and rolled her eyes at Dani, who continued giving her a hard stare. Dani might not mind talking to her, but apparently Kylie’s getting too close to Dani’s uncle was a different story, and one she wasn’t too sure she approved of. One look at the other girls told Kylie they all were of the same mind. “I think your uncle wants to make sure my intentions with you, Dani, and all of you,” she added, looking pointedly at each one of them, “are on the up-and-up.”
“He gets like that,” Dorine said, looking past Kylie toward Perry and narrowing her eyes. When she looked back at Kylie, she straightened and tucked loose brown hair that was pulled back into a long braid behind her ear. “What is it that you want to know?”
Kylie pointed at Dorine. “First one of you order the pizza, and then I want to know how old each of you are. You’re all sisters?”
“God, it’s that obvious,” Dani groaned.
“Yes, we’re all sisters.” Diane nodded at Dorine. “Order the pizza.”
Then, moving to the single overstuffed chair next to the couch, Diane pulled the youngest girl out of the chair, sat down, and then tugged her back down on her lap. “I’m Diane, eighteen, in college and moving out really soon.”
“Sounds exciting,” Kylie whispered.
Diane’s eyes were green like her uncle’s but more almond-shaped. She was definitely pretty, gorgeous in fact, with straight brown hair like her sisters, except hers fell just past her shoulders and wasn’t pinned back but fell straight.
“Danielle-,” Diane continued.
“Dani,” Dani snapped, correcting her sister.
“Who likes to go by ‘Dani,’ ” Diane added, “is sixteen. Dorine is fourteen, and Denise is twelve.”
“Eighteen, sixteen, fourteen, and twelve,” Kylie mused, and walked around the coffee table. She sat on her floor facing the two girls on the couch. Perry didn’t sit this time but instead walked toward the back of the living room that opened into her kitchen area. “Your mom must be a saint,” she mused.
“She’s the best in the world,” Denise agreed quickly.
“We’re really lucky,” the others chimed in.
Perry didn’t turn around but clasped his hands behind his back and stared out Kylie’s sliding glass doors at her backyard. Apparently he wouldn’t be part of this discussion, although it was clear he intended to hear every word said.
As the pizza was ordered, Kylie glanced at the notes she’d taken so far.
“I want to ask you something,” she said without looking up. “And any of you or all of you can answer. What’s the most common way you talk to your friends? On the phone? Text messaging? Instant messages?”
“All of those are the same,” Dorine said, laughing.
“She means instant messaging on the computer,” Diane offered. “Like AIM or Yahoo! And for me it’s probably mostly on my phone.”
“We don’t have a computer at home anymore,” Dani said. “But you can text-message or instant-message on the phone.”
Kylie nodded. “I actually knew that one,” she said, pulling her cell phone out of her purse and holding it up before dropping it back into the bag again. “So you think most kids between the ages of twelve and eighteen use their phones to talk to their friends? But do most of them talk on them? Or do they type on them?”
“I never thought about that.” Denise turned on Diane’s lap. “I think we text-message more than talk. And Diane can text-message without looking, even when she’s driving.”
“No. She can’t,” Perry growled from across the room, his back still to all of them.
Diane slapped her sister’s leg. “No, I can’t,” she stressed to Denise, who looked appropriately chastised.
“How many people do you talk to by texting on your phones?” Kylie asked, putting her notebook on her lap and writing:
“Dani talks to so many that Mom had to put unlimited messages on our phone plan. But Dorine never talks to anyone because she doesn’t have any friends.”
“Speak for yourself, brat,” Dorine snapped. “Not all of my friends have cell phones like Dani’s rich-bitch friends.”
“Watch your mouth, Dorine,” Diane snapped, and glanced over her shoulder at her uncle.
“Okay. Okay.” Kylie held her hand up in the air with her pen between her fingers. “I want to talk about online relationships. How many of you have met guys you’ve talked to online?”
The room got quiet and each girl glanced down at her hands. Perry turned around, watching them as well, a
