“Did she call the police?”
“No. Nothing else was taken that we could tell.”
“Shouldn’t the police have been notified?” Or the future guests warned?
“To tell you the truth, it wasn’t my place to do so. And Lariana said it was her own stupid fault. We’d left the front door open that day for a big spring cleaning. Edward freaks when we leave the front door unlocked. If he’d found out—”
“But the front door was unlocked when I got here,” Breanne said.
“Yeah.” Shelly flashed her a guilty look. “See, the house is so big, and we all have so many chores because Edward’s too cheap to hire a rotating staff. It’s just easier to leave it unlocked rather than miss a delivery or a guest.”
Breanne stared into the fire and remembered last night. The face hovering over her in bed. “But you make sure to lock the front door at night, right?”
“Always,” Shelly promised, then winced. “Or at least I think so.”
Terrific.
“It’s just that I used to leave after I cooked dinner, so I don’t know the late night habits.”#p#分页标题#e#
“But last night you slept here. In the servants’ quarters, right?”
“Yes.”
“How about Dante?”
Shelly’s smile congealed. “Him, too.”
“And Patrick and Lariana?”
“Are you trying to get our alibis?”
Well, yes, but now she felt like a jerk for doing so. “I’m just trying to make sure I’m not scared out of my mind again tonight. If I know where you are, I just might be joining you in a slumber party.”
Shelly laughed. “Dante slept on the floor next to me because I was scared and he’s a sweetie.”
“You mean before you got him in the closet today and showed him your feminine wiles.”
“Hey, no wiles were shown.” She moved to the door. “Sleep tight.”
“Is Dante going to be on your floor again?”
Shelly turned back at the door. “Next to me would be better, but we’re waiting until we get out of here.”
“Good luck with that, because there’s just something about this house that revs a person’s energy.”
“Maybe it’s the altitude?”
“I meant sexual energy.”
“Oh.” Shelly grinned. “Right. I knew that. You’re not the first guest to notice.”
“It’s not difficult when the staff goes around screwing each other at will.”
“Hey.”
“I meant Lariana.”
“I knew that, too.”
“Just be careful.”
“I should say the same to you. You’re the one that ended up sleeping with the cop.”
“Cooper. His name is Cooper.”
“I know.”
Oddly enough, Breanne felt a slight censure in her voice, which made no sense. Shelly didn’t seem the type of woman to judge another soul on anything.
And yet Shelly didn’t like Cooper, hadn’t ever since she’d found out he was a cop.
The others were the same. Not only odd, but unsettling, and when Breanne was alone, she locked the door, then scooted her chair closer to the fire. Hugging her legs in close, she set her chin to her knees, staring at the flickering flames.
Did she like him? Even after what he’d said to her? Yeah, she did, because she knew she’d overreacted, just as she knew she’d done so as a self-protective gesture.
She was still pondering the why of it when a knock came at her door.
Leaping up, she whirled around and stared at it. “Hello?”
“Hey.”
Just that, just Hey, but the unbearably familiar voice entered her system and jolted her out of her reverie and right into a high state of anticipation she didn’t welcome.
Nineteen
When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
—Breanne Mooreland’s journal entry
Breanne stared at the door, her pulse drumming away madly, along with her resistance.
Cooper knocked again, just one light rap.
She could feel him on the other side of the door, his heat, his strength, and her body reacted as if it already belonged to him. Well, damn it, she didn’t belong to anyone, especially a man.
“Let me in, Bree.”
That’d be like opening the door to the big, bad wolf and inviting him in to blow her life down. As said life had been built fragile brick by fragile brick, she didn’t dare.
“Please,” he said.
#p#分页标题#e#
Ah, hell. The magic word. Even knowing it was the mother of all bad decisions, she opened the door.
“About earlier,” he said.
Turning her back to him, she moved to the fire and plopped down into the recliner, nonchalantly lifting her hands to the flames. “You mean when you asked if I was putting my hands in your pants because I wanted . . . how did you put it . . . to get an in with the law?”