Dan’s sister. With our parents being gone and Dan being single, the job of cleaning out the house fell to me.”
“And your husband or boyfriend doesn’t mind you running over here?”
Sounded like fishing to her. She refused to take the bait. “Let’s stick to Dan.”
Cal stared at her for an extra beat before switching directions again. “Was the house in this condition when you got here?”
“Yeah.” She looked around the disheveled room. “This isn’t exactly my idea of decorating. Dan could be sloppy, but this is something else.”
“Why do I think you’re not telling me the whole story of how and why you’re here?”
Because she wasn’t. Not even half of it. “I don’t know what—”
A crack split through the quiet night and glass from the window shattered with a bang and showered the hardwood floor with small pellets.
“Get down!” Cal leaped across the room, dragging Cassie to the floor with him.
She landed on the wood with a thump and a hard slam. Her face hit the floor as his stomach covered her back. After a bounce, strong arms surrounded her, wedging her under his firm body. This time she didn’t struggle to get away from him. If one of them was going to get shot, she voted for him.
“What’s happening?” She started squirming to get a better view.
“Gunshot”
“Again?” she squeaked out.
“Again? You’re telling me this sort of thing happens often in your world?” Shock shook his deep voice.
“Just twice.” She bit her lip.
“Oh, that’s better.” He leaned up and whipped out a small gun from his waistband.
“Where did you get that?”
“My pants.”
She refused to think about what else he kept in his pants. “Since when did you—”
He motioned for her to stay quiet.
Which she ignored. “What are you planning to do with that thing?”
“I’m a second away from shooting you to keep you from talking.” He eased off of her and crouched down in a squat.
“Where are you going?”
“Do you not know what quiet means?” His whisper hit her with the force of a yell.
Cal balanced his athletic body on his elbows and muscled forearms. Gliding with the stealth of a predator, he traveled to the other side of the room, then sat up with his back to the wall, under the broken window. Seconds of silence ticked by, broken only by the sound of a slamming car door.
Cal jumped to his feet and peeked out into the dark night. “Damn.”
“What’s going on?”
“Other than you disobeying direct orders?”
She rolled her eyes even though she doubted he could see her. “I’m not in the military.”
“Which is a good thing.”
She sprinted across the floor, pressed the front of her body against his back, and peeked around his shoulder. As far as she could tell, in the bleak darkness of the night nothing moved. “I can’t see anything.”
“Because whoever it was is gone. The car took off.”
A wave of disappointment moved through her. Just as her blood started pumping, it now needed to cool. “That’s not good.”
He stared down at her. “Let’s talk about how this wasn’t your first shooting.”
An unexpected spark of electricity shot through the room at the sound of his deep voice. “We already did.”
“I’m thinking I need a bit more information.”
“Then you should have stopped the bad guys before they jumped in the car.”
“Uh-huh.” He turned around until little more than an inch separated their bodies. “Explain why people keep taking shots at you.”
“No idea.”
His inviting mouth loomed just inches above hers. “I knew you were going to be trouble.”
Chapter Four
Cassie’s head snapped back. “What are you doing?”
The woman asked a very good question. “Standing here.”
“You were going to kiss me.”
For a second there he toyed with the idea, yeah. “Think a lot of yourself, don’t you?”
“I know when a man wants to kiss me.”
She didn’t have to sound so appalled by the possibility. “So, that’s a ‘yes’ on the arrogance thing?”
“Come off it. I saw you.”
“Then you need glasses.” And a drink. Maybe that would help.
“You’re two inches away and swooping in.”
“Swooping?” Cal stepped back and well out of swooping range.
Mauling complete strangers was not his style. Neither was making a move on an estranged friend’s grieving sister. Make that grieving baby sister. She was somewhere around thirty and hot as hell. Dan probably hadn’t slept through the night since Cassie turned fourteen. No sane man who wanted to protect her would.
Cal chalked up the moment of stupidity to the long flight and the shocking news about Dan his brain still refused to compute. Just a heap of pent-up energy with nowhere to go. Yep. Nothing more than a near-miss brought on by low blood sugar…or something.
“Reaction.” One he insisted had more to do with the heat of the situation than the length of her legs.
“To what?” Those amber eyes narrowed.
“This,” he waved his hand back and forth. “Between us. That and the by-product of the gunfire. It’s not real.”
Her lips twisted into a look of disgust. “Did your head slam against the floor or something?”
Now she was ticking him off. “Give me a break. Are you trying to tell me this only goes one way?”
“Define this.” She mimicked his hand gesture by waving her hand back and forth between them.
“Interest.”
“In
