Without A Clue Read Online Free

prioritize. I loved the neighborhood.” They turned, facing each other in the classic first date stance. So awkward.
    “So,” Aden said. “I really enjoyed myself tonight.”
    “Me, too. Was this a date? Or was it business?” Somehow Amelia thought it was an important distinction.
    Aden stepped a few inches closer, sliding his hand behind her head and cupping his fingers under her bun. He tugged her up against his chest before bending head to press his lips to hers.
    The world shifted, everything in her universe falling into sharp focus. His mouth felt soft, his whiskers hard and scratchy. Aden tasted of tiramisu and coffee, with an underlying spiciness all his own.
    When he pulled back slowly, she blinked, her breath coming hard and fast.
    “This,” Aden said, “was a date. Goodnight, Amelia.”
    “Goodnight.” As long as it wasn’t goodbye, Amelia thought this might just be the best night of her life.
     
    Chapter Five
    Aden stood outside the library, feeling an unfamiliar need to run in his gut. He needed Amelia. More specifically, he needed her research skills, which were turning out to be nearly supernatural. She had a real knack for the kinds of situations Aden found himself in as PI, and he’d begun to think of her as his partner in crime, so to speak.
    Which was why Aden hadn’t come to Amelia right away with his latest case. A missing book. That seemed perfect for a librarian, right? Three antique book dealers had failed. Time to suck up his worry that he was falling hard for Amelia and ask for her help.
    “She’s at lunch,” the college aged girl working the desk told him. “Can I give her a message?”
    “Does she eat here?”
    “She’s down at the Map Room. The café,” she clarified. “Here’s a map.”
    “Thanks so much.”
    Aden told himself many things on the way down to the café. Keep it businesslike. Stop with the dating and the flirting. Get a frickin’ grip.
    All that good advice flew out the window when he saw Amelia seated at a table in the café, her blonde head bent over a book, no fewer than three long curls sliding out of the sides of her bun. Must be a page-turner.
    "Did the butler do it?” he asked.
    Amelia’s head snapped up, and she stared at him over the frames of her reading glasses. “No. Demented clown serial killer. What do you want, Aden?”
    Aden blinked. “You’re angry. I’m sorry. I’ve been running around like mad.”
    “Mmm.” She was starting to get that skeptical look in her eyes that so many of his exes wore when they saw him, and they’d never even had sex. “What’s missing this time?”
    “A book.” He slid into the seat across from her. “Rare. Old. Recently purchased from a private collector for a public display. Disappeared the day before it was supposed to go out in the case.”
    Her blue eyes narrowed, but thankfully she didn’t push harder on that. “Where have you tried?”
    “Rare book dealers. Auctions. eBay.” Aden winked on the last one.
    “I’ll need the title, the edition, and any distinguishing features so I know I found the correct copy.”
    “You got it.” He leaned his elbows on the table. “Are you mad that I kissed you?”
    “No, I’m angry that you’re so confusing.” Amelia blew out a breath, sending one curl flying. “Good thing you’re so cute and charming.”
    Aden laughed, delighted that she was relenting. “Yeah. Good thing.”
    ***
    The thrill of the hunt kept Amelia coming back for more, even when Aden ran colder than a Boston faucet in January.
    His cases were as much an addiction as he was.
    They sat together at Amelia’s favorite Indian restaurant, nibbling naan and discussing the book case as if they were really partners. Amelia loved the fantasy, but she wasn’t sure what else there might be to it.
    “My boss called in me to his office today,” Amelia said, dipping her bread into a tamarind chutney.
    “Yeah?” Aden crunched through a poppadum cracker. “Do tell.”“Yep. He said the