“Thanks, I think so.” She grinned when he chuckled at her words. “So, what are you doing here?”
“I live here, remember?”
“Oh, right.”
Way to sound like a moron.
He gave her a wry grin. “My shift ended and I’m home for the night.”
Jules flicked her left wrist and checked her watch. Seven o’clock? A quick glance upward at the orange-streaked sky confirmed it. Dear Lord! How long had she been standing in that alley? Not wanting to think about it, she turned back to Seth. “I’m really sorry about bolting at lunch. I should have left a note but I needed to get back to work.”
He gave her an arch stare, then asked, “You sure that’s what happened?” Without giving her time to answer, he said, “Or were you worried about having to see the picture of a dead body right after we ate?”
Okay, that thought
did
make her queasy. “I wasn’t keen on it, if you want the truth.”
“Can you do it now?” Even as he asked the question, he pulled out his cell phone and scrolled to a photo, then handed it to her.
The face of the woman on the screen was bluish and pale. There were dark bruises on one side of her face, as if she’d been punched, and small oval bruises in the pattern of fingers across her neck.
Bile burned up Jules’s throat and she pressed her palm to her lips. She shook her head. “I can honestly say I’ve never seen that woman alive.”
As a ghost was another story.
“Okay, I’m sorry, precious.” Seth blackened the screen then plucked the phone from her trembling hand. Shoving it into his pocket with one hand, he ran his other up and down her arm reassuringly. “I should have remembered you’re new to this world. It’s not like you see dead people all the time.”
Actually . . .
“It-it’s okay.” But seeing ghosts was a lot easier than seeing dead bodies. They almost never bore the look of death. Granted, they usually appeared in what they’d died in, but their faces almost always had the healthy glow of life.
Jules gestured toward his pocket where he’d stashed his phone. “Do you know her name?”
“Not yet. I have a theory but until I know for certain, I can’t say anything.”
Jules nodded.
“Thanks for looking anyway,” he said, wrinkling his forehead and scratching his right eyebrow. Seth tossed a look toward the alley, then glanced back at her. “Jules, I’ve got to know. How
did
you know about Moira? She died three years ago. I’ve lived in our building for five years. I’ve never seen you before Friday night.”
“I honestly don’t know much more than her name.”
Seth grunted, one eyebrow arched imperiously.
“I had to say something to him, didn’t I? He seemed so sad. So alone. No one should live like that. He’s a human being and deserves to be treated with respect.”
“Yeah.” Seth sighed. “Sam changed after the death of his wife and daughter. Before that, he was someone anyone could count on. You did a good thing back there. I think you might be the first person to get him to talk in years. Lord knows I’ve tried, but he normally just hides when anyone goes near his alley.”
“Oh.” Jules swallowed. The images she’d seen of Samuel’s life made his current situation more heartwrenching. “What happened to them? His wife and daughter, I mean.”
“They were killed in an apartment fire.” Seth pointed to a parking lot about four blocks over. “There used to be three buildings there. Two of the apartment complexes were old and run-down. Vacant. Their owners had sold the properties to a local landowner. But the third was different. Despite being close to one hundred years old, it was well kept. Its owner was also a tenant in the building and the lone holdout. He hadn’t wanted to sell the home that had been in his family for generations. Rent rooms out of it, sure. But he couldn’t let it go.
“One day the tenants and the landlord had been fighting to keep their homes, and the next the place burned to the ground. The official finding was the building caught fire due to an electrical short.”
“You don’t believe that?” Jules shuddered at the implication that the deadly blaze hadn’t been accidental.
“
Officially
, I have no opinion.” Seth frowned again, his mouth flattening to a thin line.
“Unofficially?”
“I find it convenient that a building the city was on the verge of declaring an historical landmark, which could have saved the homes of eight families, went up in flames two days before the hearing.” He gazed at her, sincerity darkening his expression. “There’s no proof of arson, just my gut instinct.”
Jules’s breath caught at his words. What some people called “gut instinct,” others called a gift. Or in her case, a crift. Could he truly be special? The thought warmed her, even though it shouldn’t.
“A
gut
instinct
, huh?” she asked in a teasing tone despite the butterflies in her belly.
“Don’t laugh. It’s never been wrong.” He frowned before adding with a self-deprecating grin, “Too bad I didn’t always listen to it.”
A shiver of excitement raced up her spine. The way he talked, he might actually believe her if she told him about her ghostly visits. Not that she would. She doubted she’d share the secret of her crift with anyone ever again. However, the idea of opening up to this handsome man seemed less frightening than it probably should.
“We all possess some inner voice,” Seth continued, clasping his hands between his knees but leaning his upper body toward her. “Don’t you agree? A voice that warns us of danger. And if we’d just listen to it, we could avert a crisis.”
“I suppose so.” Jules’s body drifted closer to his until only a few inches separated them. She couldn’t deny the attraction at that moment was more than physical. His words drew her in, caressed her soul. Seduced her spirit.
“That’s gut instinct.” Seth nailed her with a piercing look as he asked, “Don’t you ever have that feeling like something is about to happen or something isn’t quite right? And you know if you just turn left instead of right, you’ll see what most people would walk past without ever noticing it was there?”
“Yeah.”
Like a ghost who hasn’t departed.
Seth nodded and grinned. His delicious sandalwood scent filled her nostrils as he shifted closer without seeming to move. Jules sat mesmerized, first by the laugh lines at the corners of his eyes, then by their twinkling chocolate-colored depths.
“I knew you were smart.” His warm breath feathered across her cheek as his voice deepened. “I bet you know all sorts of secrets because your gut tells you to listen when others would chatter on about nonsense. Don’t you? Know secrets?”
About my case.
Seth’s unspoken addendum floated through her mind and Jules nearly flinched. He hadn’t actually said it, but she had the distinct impression he’d thought it.
For a second, she had forgotten he was a police officer trying to learn the identity of a murderer. Only a fool—a desperate one at that—would continually lower her guard around a man like Seth. He had one reason for talking to her: to learn what she knew about his case. Frustrated and more disappointed than she wanted to admit, she slid away from him.
Confusion clouded his features and his grin faded. He straightened and placed his hands on his knees, gripping them like a lifeline. He exhaled a word that sounded remarkably like
Crap
.
With her purse in one hand, she tugged on her earlobe with the other and searched for something else to discuss. “Did you investigate it?” When he stared at her blankly, she added, “The fire. You said you didn’t believe it was an accident, but it seems to me that if you suspected something, you wouldn’t have let it go until you had an answer that satisfied you.”
And that thought terrified her.
While he may correctly believe she knew more about the dead woman than she’d admitted so far, her answers definitely would not satisfy him.
“No,” he exhaled on a sigh. “I work in the burglary division. Since there was no burglary, I couldn’t work the case.”
“But you wanted to,” Jules guessed, and smiled in satisfaction when he nodded. “What ever happened with the case?”
“Nothing.” He grunted and ran a hand through his hair, sending the curls into messy array. On most men it would have looked ridiculous. On him, the effect was annoyingly charming. “No one could do anything,” he said. “The fire inspector only found the faulty wiring in Sam’s unit and the case was closed. The building owner died in the fire along with Sam’s wife and daughter. The lot went up for auction and Hart Construction bought it.”
Jules blinked in surprise. “Hart Construction. You mean Mason’s father’s company?”
“You know Mason Hart?” Seth’s gaze sharpened.
“Yes, we went to college together.”
He faced her fully and cocked his head. Reaching into his pocket, he again reminded her of a warrior of ancient times. But instead of a sword, he withdrew a little black notebook and a pen. He started to scribble something. “How well do you know him? Were you two lovers?”
A startled laugh escaped her. “That’s quite a jump you made. You go around asking every woman if she was lovers with every man she’s ever met?”
Seth’s cheeks mottled and he shook his head. “No, I don’t. It’s just that you and Hart went to the same college and he has quite a reputation with the ladies. Something he had in school, from what my sources tell me.”
“Oh, well, that’s certainly true,” Jules agreed, but then shook her head. “I can honestly say I’ve never dated Mason. And I wouldn’t. Not in a million years. I’m not exactly his type.”
“Why not?” Seth stopped scribbling and looked her up and down.
Her cheeks warmed and she wished she wasn’t subjected to the redheaded curse. Normally, a man staring at her body would have Jules crossing her arms in chagrin, but something about the heat in his gaze held her in place. His mouth curled up on one side in an appreciative grin and Jules felt the ridiculous urge to preen.
While Billy, her ex, had been sweet, Seth was model-worthy hot. And she’d have to be crazy not to feel flattered by his open perusal, at least until he added, “You’re female with no visible scars and you’re under thirty. That seems to be his type.”
Her pride plopped into her belly. “Um . . .”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Seth backpedaled. “You must know you’re attractive. It’s just Mason isn’t known for being very choosy—”
Jules covered Seth’s lips with her fingers, silencing him. His eyes widened in surprise, then flared to obsidian.
A white-hot flash of desire zoomed from her fingers to her toes and back up to the ends of her hair. She wanted to replace her fingers with her lips and see if he’d taste of hazelnut coffee as he had in her dream.
Instead, she yanked her hand away. She hoped she hid the fact that she’d been as affected by their casual touch as he appeared.
“You seem Hart’s type to me,” he said. “You’re beautiful, sexy, and can stop a man’s heart when you climb through his bedroom window at three in the morning.” Despite his words ending on a chuckle, they seemed more heartfelt or at least lust-inspired than his previous comment.
Another bloom of awareness started in her midsection and quickly spread through her body. She found herself staring into his eyes. They were warm, sensual, and mesmerizing.
In the alley, his touch left her only feeling peace. Now it sent his desire ricocheting off her chest like arrows from Cupid. Tiny acrobats took up residence in her belly and started performing. She felt positively giddy at his assessment of her.
Oh, this has to stop.
She tore her gaze away from his and focused on his lips. Seth still spoke, but his words were muffled. Her attention centered on the way his mouth moved.
After a lifetime of concealing her crift, hiding who she was came naturally. At least, it did usually. Tonight, for some odd reason, she didn’t want to hide. She wanted to lose herself in his eyes, his lips, in him.
Jules flashed hot. A trickle of sweat slid between her breasts. The attraction was wrong, but fighting it didn’t seem like the right thing to do either. Her thoughts scattered as she stared at the five-o’clock shadow on his jaw. It added ruggedness to his sexual appeal.
Her mind had gone wonderfully fuzzy, like being drunk without all the nasty side-effects of being unable to shield herself from ghosts. But it did mean she had to work harder to concentrate. It came easier when he asked, “Have you seen him lately?”
“Who?”
“Mason Hart.” Seth nodded toward the little black notebook still in his hands.
“Oh.” She gave herself a mental shake. She might be turned on, but he was clearly still in cop mode.
What am I doing?
The sensible, careful persona she’d been trying to adopt since her return to Tidewater had disappeared the moment Seth touched her in the alley. In its place was the wild child Jules had always been. The one who married Billy after knowing him for six weeks, ignoring her family’s warnings. The one who foolishly trusted her secret to her cop husband, only to land in jail for her honesty.
Even her line of thinking didn’t protect her tonight. Just when she’d thought she’d escaped the tumultuous desire raging between them, Seth stopped speaking again.
He tilted his head to one side and stared at her mouth. His eyes darkened to black, and he unknowingly sent deliciously explicit images winging into her mind.
She leaned her head closer to his. His lips hovered over hers.
“Seth? Juliana? What are you two doing out here?” Big Jim stood poised to climb the steps of their building. Brown paper sacks filled with groceries were nestled in the crook of each arm.
Seth pushed to his feet. Only then did Jules notice his right hand was wrapped in a bandage.
He brushed off his charcoal-colored trousers with his uninjured hand and turned to Big Jim. “Evening, Ernie. Jules and I were just talking. Catching up. Our lunch was cut short, right, Jules?”
“Right,” she answered, grateful Seth hadn’t gone into more detail.
Big Jim lifted a brow but his eyes narrowed slightly at Seth. “Everything okay? You know Friday night was a mistake, right? Jules here is directionally challenged.”