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“Undress me, Jennie.”
“With pleasure.”
The two simple words rocked Nathan to the core: he could get off on her voice alone, he thought. The fire between them was daunting.
Somehow she managed to undo all the buttons on his shirt while he kissed her deeply, his hands everywhere. He couldn’t stay away from her as she peeled his clothes off and shed the rest of hers.
Within moments they were both completely bare. She was even lovelier than he’d imagined. Curved and full, she was beautifully formed, her skin a satin olive tone that bespoke her Italian heritage. Maria indeed. The dusky aureoles of her nipples accentuated perfectly rounded breasts with velvet brown tips that would be heaven to taste.
“You’re amazing,” Jennie said as she stepped forwards, pressing against his painfully hard shaft.
“I was just thinking the same about you,” he whispered. Emotion swamped him.
The mood had shifted, and she looked at him, open and vulnerable. Conflict suddenly twisted with passion in Nathan’s gut – how could he make love to the woman he was secretly investigating?
SAMANTHA HUNTER
lives in Syracuse, New York, where she enjoys the luxury of writing full-time. When she’s not writing, Sam likes to work in her garden, quilt, cook, read and spend time with her husband and their dogs.
Dear Reader,
Who doesn’t have a few secrets of their own, right? But most of us don’t have secrets like the ones Jennie Snow and Nathan Reilly are keeping. She’s a former Mafia princess turned cop; he’s investigating her on the sly, all the while fighting his attraction to her.
I knew when Jennie Snow popped up on the pages of my last HOTWIRES book, Flirtation, that she had to have her own story. Jennie needed a hero with a nature as passionate as hers, as well as someone brave enough to help her face her past and her future. Good thing Nathan Reilly showed up. This book explores some of my favourite themes – family, deception and dealing with the past. And, as Jennie discovers, we’re all fortunate when we find someone to stand by our side when we face difficult moments.
Stop by my website www.samanthahunter.com, or drop me a note to find out what’s coming next.
Happy reading,
Samantha Hunter
HIDE & SEEK
BY
SAMANTHA HUNTER
For Milene, Jane and Vivian.
“The bird a nest, the spider a web,
[wo]man friendship.”
—William Blake
1
JENNIE SNOW GRIMACED over the top of her laptop screen, trying to focus on the work in front of her but failing miserably. Nathan Reilly was to blame. He stood outside the windows of the climate-controlled HotWires offices, deep in conversation with a detective. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him.
Though it was uncomfortably cool in the office—the computer crime labs were kept at low temps to protect the machinery that populated the room—she became uncomfortably warm every time she glanced in Nathan’s direction. He was hard to ignore.
Nathan wasn’t overly tall or burly like so many of the men she’d grown up with—he had a nice, solid build and was just the right height to meet her eyes when they shared a level glance. If she were held against him, all of their important parts would mesh perfectly. And meshing with Nathan was becoming more of a possibility, though she’d been struggling hard to deny it.
He’d been seducing her for the past three months with his sexy glances and clever conversation. Not to mention the flowers he kept sending her. They were never the same type of flower. Nathan always managed to surprise her. However, the accompanying card always asked the same question: “When?”
She’d put him off for as many good reasons as she could think of. First off, he was five years younger than she was: twenty-eight to her thirty-three. Plus, he was relatively new to the job, having only been with HotWires for under a year, and he was busy building his career.
Lastly, Jennie never formed close romantic ties with any of the men she’d known, and there’d been a few over the years. She wasn’t a nun. Still, she couldn’t allow herself to become involved in anything more serious than a casual relationship. For a multitude of reasons. Though Nathan was getting more and more difficult to resist.
She pulled absently at the soft cashmere neckline of her sweater and heard a distinctly female chuckle come from the desk to the left of hers. The chuckle was sarcastic as hell, and Jennie knew she’d been caught in the act of lusting openly.
Sarah Jessup-Sullivan, one of the original members chosen to join the prestigious computer crime unit, followed Jennie’s gaze with a mischievous, knowing look, and laughed again.
“You’ve got it soooo bad for that man. He’s hot stuff. Admit it.”
“I’ll admit no such thing. You just go for Irish guys.”
Sarah sat back, crossing arms over her stomach, which was back to being washboard flat even though she’d just given birth not quite two months before.
“Only one, thank you very much. Actually, before Logan, I was much more attracted to the macho Latin type, Italians, Hispanics. I’d never dated an Irish guy, though there are plenty of them in the city. Logan was my first.”
“And the last. The only.”
“Yeah.”
Jennie smiled at the soft look that warmed Sarah’s face as she spoke of her husband and baby. Sarah wasn’t an overly sentimental woman by nature, but marriage, and then motherhood, had smoothed her rough edges without making her any less formidable. Sarah was one of the toughest cops Jennie had ever met, yet she somehow managed to preserve her hard-ass image in the department even when she showed up wheeling a stroller and carrying a diaper bag.
They were the only two female members of the unit. The HotWires—a nickname reflecting the group’s high-tech specialties—had been around for almost seven years. It had been started by Ian Chandler, who was still the head honcho of the group. He’d hired them all. Not only was the unit expanding locally, there was also growing demand for similar units across the country. Ian had his hands full, but stayed in the thick of it even as his job involved more and more administrative duties.
And while Jennie enjoyed close friendships with her male colleagues, it was nice to have a female friend around, even if Sarah was frequently gone on assignment. Jennie didn’t work out in the field very much; she’d had the training, but her expertise in mapping crime was more useful in the background of the action. If Sarah was Batgirl, Jennie was more like Alfred.
Having Sarah back was great. Jennie knew that while Sarah loved her baby, Caleb, she was thrilled to be back in the saddle again, too.
“It’s great that Logan has the time to spend with Caleb so you could come back to work so soon.”
“I know—his shop is doing well, and he loves being Mr. Mom.”
“He’s so devoted to you both, you’re lucky. Don’t you miss being home, though, just a little?”
Sarah appeared thoughtful for a moment, and shook her head resolutely. “I went crazy for the two months I was home. I love them both to bits, but I felt like I would crawl out of my skin if I couldn’t get out of the house. Logan is much more of a homebody.”
“It works then. And he’s not upset about the risks you have to take in this job?”
“Sure,