Legally Hot by Leigh, Lora (smart ebook reader TXT) 📗

No one had ever wanted just her love, and she couldn’t imagine Casey did either.

“Cooper has intel ready to come in,” he told her before she could argue his opinion of Casey. “He’ll be waiting on you in the office tonight at nine sharp. Don’t be early, Sheila, and don’t be late.”

She wanted to roll her eyes at the order. Her father was a stickler for punctuality.

“And what time should I be home, Daddy?” Unfolding herself from the top of the desk, she slid from the seat until she was standing beside his chair, looking down at where he pushed his glasses back atop his head.

“Getting back isn’t the problem,” he told her. “Cooper and his wife Sarah are leaving town tonight and want to get on the road early. Cooper knows how I am about chain of evidence.”

Anyone who worked with her father knew that. Cooper was always present if he wasn’t the one to turn over the flash drive.

“I’ll be there at nine sharp,” she promised as she turned to leave the office.

“By the way, Annie said you were at the house looking for me last night?”

Sheila composed her expression quickly before turning back to her father with a quick smile. “I was just bored.”

Or scared. One or the other.

Scared, she decided. “I’m heading home, Dad. If I’m going to be there at ten sharp, then I have some things to do before I leave.”

“Of course, dear. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He waved her away as he turned his attention to the files on his desk. “Afternoon if you don’t mind. I’ll be leaving in a few hours myself for Corpus Christi. A meeting with the other network commanders.”

“In the morning then,” she agreed, lifting her hand in a farewell wave as she left the office and headed for the front door.

If she was going to chance seeing Casey, then she was going to do what she did every night before picking up the flash drive. Shower. Choose just the right outfit. The right perfume. The right shoes.

Just in case she saw Casey.

  TEN

  Was it good luck or bad luck? Fate or karma? Whichever it was, when Sheila slipped into Ethan Cooper’s office, Casey was there as well, waiting.

His arms were crossed over his broad chest, his expression stoic, his gaze swirling with dark emotion. It seemed as though his emotions reached out to her, wrapped around her. Her chest tightened and the tears she had shed only in the darkest part of the night for the past week threatened to fill her eyes as their gazes met.

“Hey, Cooper, Sarah.” Shoving her hands into the pockets of the light blazer she wore over the sleeveless top, she glanced toward Casey again. Clearing her throat she said, “Hello, Casey.”

“Sheila.” His expression didn’t change, but something in his eyes did.

Dropping her gaze for a second, she turned back to Cooper and Sarah as they watched both her and Casey silently. She could see confusion in their expressions. And she understood why they felt it. After all, the last time she and Casey had been in the same room together, it was all they could do to keep their hands off each other.

They weren’t having that problem now, though.

Sheila couldn’t tear her eyes off his broad chest, covered by the short-sleeved denim shirt, or the powerful cut of his thighs encased in jeans and framing the hard, heavy length of his erection.

He was aroused, and the proof of it had her womb clenching, her pussy tightening, and her juices spilling to the silk of her panties.

Perhaps she shouldn’t have worn the skirt. It was short, gauzy, frilly, and intensely feminine. The camisole tank and light silk blazer she wore emphasized her feeling of femininity.

The four-inch heels only topped it off.

Sitting down in the chair next to her, Sheila slid the left shoe off, pressed the small indention at the side of the heel, and watched as the tiny spring-loaded opening slid to the side to reveal the compartment just big enough to hold the tiny flash drive.

Taking the black stick that held the information gathered the night before, she tucked it into the small recess before activating the mechanism once again, closing the small hollow.

Her gaze lifted to Casey once again. He had been the one who had come up with the idea for the hiding place. It had been a hell of a decision for her to make, to allow him to cut into several pairs of her favorite shoes.

His excuse for using more than one pair of old boots was that it would throw suspicion further away from her if she altered her dress often. Any electronics created to scan her purse or clothing would miss the tiny drive nestled just beneath her heel.

He was staring at her feet, his gaze narrowing as he lifted his eyes back to her.

She felt lost in his look.

Sarah was talking, and though Sheila heard her, answered her, nothing really existed for her except Casey. Except the pure hunger and latent anger that burned in his eyes.

“Okay, that’s it then,” Cooper announced as Sheila signed off on the acceptance of the small card.

She used the code name her father had assigned her, just as Cooper used his.

“Yeah, that’s it,” she repeated, her gaze sliding to Casey once more as she rose to her feet. “Good night, Cooper. Sarah.” Her lips trembled as she glanced back at Casey again. “Good night, Casey.”

He inclined his head slowly and Sheila felt as though her heart had been ripped in two.

Dragging in a hard breath, she turned and strode quickly to the door, desperate to get away from him now, to find the privacy she needed to release the tears building in her eyes.

She hadn’t known it would