She ignored his threat, took a step closer. Her heart pounded, adrenaline rushed through her veins, need raged in her chest.
He grabbed her then, rough hands on her shoulders, and jerked her against him, crushed his mouth on hers. He tasted of anger, domination, and fear. He tasted of peppermints. Like Cameron. Max was sure she’d die. By his hands or in his bed, she didn’t know which.
The kiss was over so quickly, she never even had a chance to close her eyes. That didn’t stop her body from lubing up or her nipples from budding against her shirt.
Max put a hand to her mouth. One clear thought came through. Nick was as susceptible to Wendy’s persistent emotions as she was. He might not see her in Max’s flesh, but he sure as hell saw her shining out of Max’s eyes.
He looked down at her, mirrored glasses reflecting her stunned face.
“Yeah. Stay away from me, too. You really have no idea what I’m capable of.”
Chapter Sixteen
It was dark. It was late. The cool night air soothed her after the heat of the day. Max sat on a swing in a park three blocks from the Victorian where she rented her sparse room.
“You didn’t ask him if he drove a Dodge Ram.” Cameron was in top form tonight, riding her the moment she relaxed.
“The thought never even crossed my mind.”
“Liar. It crossed your prurient little brain at least twice. You were fantasizing about it on the drive home. Your fetish is beginning to border on the obsessive.”
“Don’t eavesdrop if you don’t like what you hear.”
She pushed herself back with her toe in the sand and stubbornly refused to discuss Nick Drake or the fact that her body still quaked from his touch. “I was reviewing suspects. Now you’ve ruined my concentration.” She held up her right forefinger. “Now. There’s Hal who thought Wendy was having an affair.”
“Use your skills, Max, not your logic. The answers are all right there if you just listen.”
“My skill is my logic.” Max held up another finger. “Then there’s Bud Traynor who used to beat Wendy.”
“He knows you went to see Lilah Bloom right before she died.”
“Bud Traynor?”
“Dammit, you know I’m talking about Nicholas Drake.”
“For your information, Nickie didn’t act like he knew Lilah was dead. But you want him on the list of suspects, fine. He’s there. Satisfied?”
Cameron was tellingly silent.
Max pushed off once more with her feet, sailed higher. “Now I’ll continue, if you don’t mind.”
“You haven’t got a clue who did it.”
The stars rushed by as the swing flew back, then forward. “That’s why I’m going over my list.” One more finger went up. “Then we have Carla Drake who knew her husband was having an affair with Wendy.”
“She had the kids.”
“She could have left them at her mother’s.”
“How would she have known Wendy was still in the parking lot? Your explanation doesn’t work.”
“She’s got motive—”
“You’d like it to be her, then he’d be free for you.”
“This isn’t about me. It’s about Wendy.”
“You’re overlooking all the logistical problems because you’re blinded by her emotions and her jealousies.”
It was so close to the truth that she ignored him and held up her pinkie. Her other hand curled tightly around the swing chain. “Next we have Remy. I just haven’t figured out his motive, yet.”
“Put your fingers down. You remind me of Hackett and his damn rules.”
Max straightened her feet out, watched them touch the sky, then she was on the down-swing again. “You’re acting like a baby. Why don’t we just clear the air? You’re jealous because Nick kissed me.”
She winced, realizing how much she sounded like Nicholas Drake. In denial.
Cameron’s voice followed her as she flew up, taunted her as she fell back to earth. “You weren’t in control. You lost your head. That isn’t like you. It could get you killed.”
She leaned all the way back until her short hair brushed the sand. “He’s not a killer.”
“You sound like him when he defended his ex-wife. Excuse me, his wife.” Damn Cameron for picking up on that telltale switch of Nick’s. “You’ve both got blinders.”
“I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“Is that why you didn’t tell Nick that Lilah Bloom had been murdered?”
She came down, slowed, skidded her feet across the sand. “So what?”
“You were afraid.”
A trickle of sweat ran down between her breasts. “I was testing him.”
“You were afraid he wouldn’t be surprised. Or that he’d act too surprised. Then you’d have to think he might have killed both women.”
She thrust herself from the swing, took three steps, sand sucking at her feet. “He had no motive for murdering Lilah.”
“Yet you suggested he’d go after Lilah because she might tell his wife about his affair.”
Cameron’s voice was all around her. She threw her arms out. “I didn’t believe it even when I said it to him. I just wanted to push. Carla was already divorcing him. It wouldn’t have mattered what Lilah told her.”