The Ex File (Behind the Blue Line Series Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

exhaustion made the honest answer just fall past her lips between them.
    He flashed her a quick grin before pulling her close for a deep kiss which turned into a yawn. It sealed their fates, at least for that moment. After a little bit of shuffling, they were both comfortably under the covers and had resumed their previous positions as vine and trellis, respectively. Right before they both succumbed to exhaustion, he whispered in her ear, “What is this ‘maybe’ business?”

Chapter 2
     
    Sean wasn’t normally a light sleeper, and had been known to sleep through more than one natural disaster in his childhood. Still, he found he couldn’t quite drift off to sleep for fear he’d wake up and find this had all been a cocktail-fueled dream. An alcohol-soaked reverie which would only serve to break his heart again.
    He listened to her breathing, deep and untroubled, as she lay curled up on his shoulder, her soft black curls in a bramble tangle that fell over his arm and spread out against the shimmery silver of the pillow. The moon took her sweet time on her nightly sojourn, giving him ample time to study the wisps at her nape, the curve of her shoulder, the silken feel of her skin. He was in heaven.
    This was so far beyond what he’d expected when he’d spied her sidling up to the bar at the Hall. He couldn’t have excused himself fast enough from the conversation he’d been in with a buddy in organized crime, before making his way over to her. Admittedly, he almost didn’t recognize her with her riot of curls where her ultra-short pixie used to be. He liked how it accented her spunky personality, but, he mused as he pulled one ringlet almost straight and watched it spring back, this might be a more apt analogy.
    Sean couldn’t get enough of touching her, lightly trailing his finger from her shoulder and down her back, trying to absorb the softness. Ellie sighed and shivered in her sleep before settling down and snuggling against him, bringing a smile to his lips. She was perfect and everything he ever wanted, even before his ill-fated dalliance with Pia.
    Pia Mastriani. If he never heard that name again, it would be too soon. A part of him knew it had been a bad idea at the time, but infatuation, and an hourglass figure, could cloud even the sharpest mind. She was beautiful, funny, smart, it was the perfect relationship on paper. The paper just didn’t include the fine print like her pettiness, insecurity, intense need for attention, and a sense of entitlement that would weigh down even the most well-heeled trust fund baby.
    But Ellie had never said a word. Well, maybe she had in the beginning, but he’d written that off as her characteristic snarkiness. Ellie was more of a sexy tomboy: curly hair, dark eyes that glittered when she laughed, jeans that made her ass look like it was made for grabbing, and a rack, oh, how he loved her rack. But her brand of femininity was lifetimes away from Pia’s, which was more ‘appropriate shoes and matching handbags’. Sean had just felt like the luckiest bastard on Earth for garnering her attention.
    The marriage had been short. She’d known she was marrying blue collar, and her father had given them a house as a wedding present. It was more of a half million dollar prison, with all the latest appointments, than a home, but they’d been happy for the first few months. Then he got shot.
    So many things about that day still eluded his memory, and that was probably for the best, anyway. He had been on the job, wearing a vest, caught two in the chest and one off to the side just beyond the Kevlar’s reach. His mind went blank somewhere while being loaded into the ambulance, and then came back again about two days later when he fully regained consciousness. By then, Ellie was a figment, only available by memory, because her cell phone went unanswered. While he knew where she was, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that she did not want to be found, for reasons that