The Wharf

She checked out his shoulders and arms, visible in his 49ers muscle T, making him glad he’d just been pumping iron.

He ushered her into the elevator before him. “Floor?”

“Fourth.”

He got off on the fourth floor with her, and she raised her eyebrows. “Are you on this floor, too?”

“One more up, but I’m not leaving you alone.”

“I’m not going to faint, Brody.”

“You never know. You were sweating buckets.”

“That must’ve looked...attractive.” She shoved her key card into the door and a row of green lights flashed.

“That looked scary. You lost a lot of fluids in that sauna.”

She shoved her door open and then spun around, wedging her hands on either side of the doorjamb. “You can wait out here while I change. If you hear a big thump, you know I went down.”

The door slammed in his face, and he jumped back. A little hostile, but he could understand why she wouldn’t want a strange man lounging in her hotel room while she got dressed.

And they were strangers, despite their intimate beginnings on the pool deck.

When she’d first called him a few months before, he had recognized the name. Hell, he’d already read her book on Daniel Walker. Fascinating stuff—former college-football player, respected businessman, Pop Warner coach—went berserk and murdered his entire family.

When she’d proposed writing a book on his own family tragedy, it piqued his interest. Kacie Manning, like many others, believed in his father’s innocence, and she had the resources, research skills and platform to prove it.

In the end, he’d had to run it by his brothers, especially Sean and Eric, the two oldest. They’d known Dad the best and had been affected by the dark cloud over the Brody name more than he and his younger brother, Judd, had been.

He’d braced himself for their opposition, but they surprised him by agreeing, or at least not objecting. They’d even uncovered a few pieces of evidence about the old case that Ryan planned to hand over to Kacie.

A loud thud resounded from Kacie’s room, and he banged on her door. “You okay in there?”

The door eased open and she poked her head out. “I’m still upright, but my suitcase isn’t—fell off the stand.”

“Are you ready?” He nodded at the water bottle in her hand. “Keep hydrating.”

“I’m so hydrated I’m ready to float away.” She stepped out of her room, pulled her door shut and shoved her key card in her back pocket.

As he followed Kacie down the hallway, he scanned her fully clothed form. The addition of a faded pair of jeans and a baggy T-shirt did nothing to conceal her attractiveness. Damn. At the pool, he’d figured his male libido had just been reacting to the way she filled out that bikini.

But this new iteration of Kacie Manning heated his blood as much as the bikini-clad one. The soft denim of her jeans tightened in all the right places, accentuating her rounded derriere. She’d finger-combed her shoulder-length copper hair into tousled, damp waves that looked as if she’d just had a roll in the sheets.

He couldn’t help it. Her appearance tweaked all his male parts. He had a hard time reconciling this lush body with the mind that had written that unflinching portrayal of a killer and sociopath.

Of course, if he ever admitted that thought to his brother’s fiancée, Christina, she’d slap him upside the head.

Passing the elevator, she pointed down the hall. “Stairs.”

He reached the door before her and held it open. “After you.”

Walking closely behind her down the stairwell, he had a hard time concentrating on the steps and almost tripped on the last one.

“I thought I was the unsteady one.” She pushed through the fire door and strode into the deserted lobby. Her flip-flops slapped against her feet as she marched to the front desk.

The hotel clerk put down his coffee and met her eyes across the counter. “Good evening. My name is Michael. Can I help you?”

Kacie flattened her palms on the shiny wood and hunched forward. “Well, Michael, someone locked me in the sauna over an hour ago.”

The man’s eyes bulged from their sockets. “The sauna doesn’t lock from the outside.”

Pushing the waves from her face, Kacie shook her head. “I don’t mean locked. Someone used the handle of the pool net to wedge the doors closed.”

“That’s terrible! Are you okay? Do you need a doctor?”

“I’m fine...now.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “He was in the gym and noticed the net. He let me out.”

“It’s lucky you’re both night owls. Did you see who did it?”

“No. There were some teenage boys in the hot tub earlier, but I don’t have any proof that they did anything.”

Ryan rested his arm on the counter. “Do you have a camera out there?”

“Sorry. We don’t.” He grabbed the receiver of his phone and barked into it. “Wesley, we have a situation in the lobby.”

Kacie sighed and straightened up. “Then I don’t know what you can do about it. The pool area and gym were empty when I went into the sauna. I heard a noise at the door about five minutes after I went in there. That must’ve been when the idiot decided to play his dangerous joke.”

A security guard crossed the lobby, his rubber-soled shoes squeaking on the marble tiles. “What’s the problem?”

“Miss...?” Michael raised his brows at Kacie.

“Manning, Kacie Manning.”

His forehead furrowed. “Wesley, Ms. Manning was the victim of a rather dangerous practical joke. Someone wedged the sauna doors shut while she was in there.”

Wesley tipped back his hat and scratched his forehead. “You don’t say. That’s a pretty stupid thing to do, especially at this time of night. Did you see anyone?”

“Just a few teens earlier, but they’d left by the time I went into the sauna.”

“Yeah, I saw those boys. I had to kick them out of the business center tonight. They were dripping water all over the computers and accessing porn sites.” Wesley cleared his throat. “Sorry, ma’am.”

Kacie waved her hand. “Oh, I know all about pornographic sites and that teenage boys—and even grown men—are big fans of them.”

Ryan slid her a sideways glance. Was that for his benefit? He’d better get his mind out of the bedroom and keep his eyes off her assets.

He stood tall and squared his shoulders. “If the boys were still wet, it sounds like they came straight from the pool. Where’d they go after you kicked them out of the business center?”

“I watched them get into the elevator, and I didn’t see them again. I’m assuming they went back to their rooms, but they could’ve snuck back down to the pool.”