Cover Shot (A Headlines in High Heels Mystery Book 5) Read Online Free Page B

with that on top of the Moscato I’d had with Aaron. Turns out, they call it liquid courage for a reason. “What are we doing?”
    “Having a perfectly wonderful Tuesday night,” he murmured, nuzzling my neck.
    I sighed and tipped my head back as his lips explored my collarbone. “Is that all?”
    He paused at the hollow of my throat and raised his head. “That’s not enough?”
    I sat up straight and pushed his shoulders gently. “Not what I meant. I’m just wondering how this is supposed to go. I mean, what are we? Can you call someone a boyfriend when you’re almost thirty? And does that apply? Are we not seeing other people? Can this ever go anywhere, really?”
    The questions tripped out of my mouth so fast he furrowed his brow trying to keep up.
    “Sorry,” I said, grabbing the wineglasses and moving toward the fridge. “Maybe we should have another drink.”
    “No apology necessary.” He leaned back in the chair and loosened his tie. “I knew this was coming. I thought about broaching it last weekend, but my nerves got the better of me.”
    My hand froze in mid-pour. “What do you have to be nervous about?”
    “Are you seeing him? Miller?”
    His voice was so soft, I would’ve missed that if there’d been a car speeding down the next block over.
    “He won’t even return my calls when I have a stalker.” I laughed. “So I’m going with no.”
    “You have a what?” Joey’s expression flipped from tentative to annoyed in the space of a blink.
    I waved a hand. “That’s a dramatization. Somebody who wants an audience for their crazy, probably, but my lack of anything better to poke around in got me curious. I tried to call Kyle to ask his opinion. He didn’t answer or call back.” I heard a tinge of sorrow in the last words. Part of me would always love Kyle. But he wanted me to be in love with him, and I just wasn’t. Not now. Didn’t mean I wouldn’t miss having him around.
    Joey sat back in his chair. “What brand of crazy are they selling?”
    “Not sure. Someone has to pay for something, they say. Aaron’s working on it.” I pulled the other chair out and sat, crossing my legs at the knee and putting the glasses on the table.
    He nodded. “Nothing else interesting going on?”
    “Murder in some ritzy condos down on the river.”
    He smiled. “I guess that’s what you get for saying it’s been slow.”
    “Karma.” I paused, letting myself wonder for two seconds why Joey was in my kitchen when there was a wealthy, older man on the way to the local morgue.
    No. He wouldn’t. I didn’t even need to ask.
    While I knew just enough about Joey’s involvement with organized crime to know I didn’t want to know more, I also knew he wasn’t a bad guy. I have an infallible creep detector—close to a decade covering crime will do that to a person. Fifteen months after he’d shown up in my living room with a story tip and a sexy smile, I could safely say he might be a lot of things (good cook and better kisser among them) but he wasn’t a murderer.
    “Stay out of the middle of this one?” He pushed his chair back and stood, locking the door and pulling me to my feet. “Though if you must snoop, I make a decent bodyguard.”
    “I’m doing my best to stay in the safely-nosy zone. But maybe my body could use some guarding, anyway.”
    I spent the next hour completely unconcerned about mysterious victims or internet creeps.
    My only regret as I kissed him goodbye in the pink-purple predawn shadows the next morning was that I still didn’t know what was really going on between us.
    Save for the amazing sex—that one I was clear on.
    “Call me later?” I asked as he backed toward the front steps.
    “Count on it.” He turned for the car and I smiled as I watched him walk. Damn, he was gorgeous. And from the way he’d sounded the night before, there was a decent chance he was mine. I shushed the whisper that this was a rainbow-colored fantasy road to nowhere and shut the