Raw Desire Read Online Free Page A

him jump her? She slowly shook her head. “Uh-uh, missy.”
    She pretended to pet her imaginary cat and returned to sorting out the kitchen cupboards. Rob was too much of a temptation; she’d have to get a job and pay someone to do the heavy work instead.
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    â€œAlly’s back.”
    Rob braced himself for Jackson’s reaction, but his deputy kept eating his fries as if he hadn’t a care in the world. Spring Falls’s only sports bar was half empty this early in the afternoon. The regular patrons would turn up later to fill the place and give it some much-needed buzz.
    â€œDid you hear what I said?”
    â€œYeah.” Jackson stopped eating to stare at him. “Do you want to talk about it?”
    Rob recoiled. “What am I, a girl? What do you want me to say?”
    â€œI dunno, something, I guess.”
    â€œI knew she’d come back one day.”
    â€œYou did?”
    â€œYeah.” Rob drummed his fingers on the red and white checked tablecloth. Jackson wasn’t known as a chatterbox, and since his aborted army career, he’d clammed up even more. But he still had this disconcerting habit of expecting Rob to tell him stuff, embarrassing stuff Rob really didn’t want to share. “You’ll probably see her around town. She’s planning on fixing up her mom’s old house and selling it.”
    â€œYeah?”
    Rob set his jaw as Jackson went back to eating his fries. “Is that all you have to say?”
    Jackson sighed. “What are you worrying about?”
    â€œI’m not.”
    â€œI’m okay with it.” Jackson fixed Rob with a hard stare. “You’re the one who seems to have a problem.”
    â€œI don’t like it.”
    â€œAlly coming back?”
    â€œYeah, it stirs up stuff I thought I’d forgotten.” Rob took a gulp of his beer and refused to look at Jackson.
    â€œLike the fact that I fucked your girlfriend?”
    â€œI hadn’t forgotten that.”
    Jackson rubbed the side of his face. “Neither have I. You almost broke my fucking jaw.”
    â€œYou fucking deserved it.” Rob glared at Jackson for a long moment. “Sometimes I wish I could just sort it out like that with Ally. But you can’t have a knockdown fight with a girl.”
    â€œThat’s the truth,” Jackson agreed. “You’ll have to think of some other way of telling her what an asshole you were.”
    Rob decided not to answer that. “There’s other stuff that bothers me about that last night Ally was in town. Susan’s death and all that.”
    â€œWhy that?”
    â€œJesus, Jackson, don’t you think about Susan too? She was your fucking girlfriend.”
    Jackson glared at him, his dark eyes smoldering like coals. “Susan killed herself after she found me and Ally in bed together. Of course I think about her. I’m just not sure why Susan is the first thing you think about.”
    Rob leaned closer and lowered his voice. “Don’t you think it was weird the way Susan was seen at the Kendal house that night?”
    â€œNot really. She probably wanted to confront Ally. That’s what girls do.”
    â€œBut this was later, after Ally had supposedly gone.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œThere were reports that Susan left the Kendal house with someone that night. After the suicide verdict came in, the authorities had no legal means to search Ruth Kendal’s house, and she refused point-blank to help them. What if Susan didn’t throw herself off that bridge after all but was helped?”
    Jackson angled his chair back from the table. “And you care about this because . . . ?”
    â€œBecause I’m a cop and no case is ever completely closed, is it?”
    Jackson got to his feet and leaned over the table. “Fuck that, Rob. This is all bullshit. You want a reason to get into Ally’s house, into her pants, and back into her life.