Questioning the Heiress

Mercy! She tried to step in front of him. For all the good it did. He merely stepped around her. Caroline maneuvered again. Not very well. She finally gave up the maneuvering and latched onto Egan with both hands.

It wasn’t a good idea.

The journal dropped to the floor, and her hands were suddenly filled with his left arm and right shoulder. But her attempts were useless, anyway. He saw her old secret.

“That’s a mint condition vintage 1952 Harley-Davidson Panhead Chopper,” he announced, studying the motorcycle. His mouth opened slightly, and she thought she saw the pulse in his neck rev up a little.

“So?” she challenged. “I bought it, as an investment. And it’s a 1951, not a ‘52.”

He didn’t react to the correction. “Not a dent, not one rust spot, not even a paint chip. So, you’ve obviously taken good care of it. You actually ride it?”

Caroline clutched her heart necklace. “Sometimes.” But only at night. When her parents were out of town. They considered anything with two wheels to be dangerous.

“When’s the last time you took it out?” he asked, still mesmerized by the motorcycle.

She cleared her throat. “A week ago.”

Egan shifted those scorching blue eyes in her direction, and the corner of his mouth hitched into a smile. “Now, owning that beauty makes you a wild child.”

For some reason, a stupid one, that sounded, well, hot coming from him. That smile helped. Heck, who was she kidding? That smile alone had no doubt seduced countless women because that smile created a too-familiar tug in her belly.

Something stirred between them.

It was followed by a long smoldering look. Oh, the things those eyes were conveying. The Chopper had obviously revved up more than just his pulse and his admiration for her wild-child label.

Thankfully, he must have remembered their too-close situation because the smile faded until all that was left was the surliness.

He stepped back.

She let go of him and stepped back, too.

“This is not going to be a problem between us,” Egan said like a general issuing an order to one of his lieutenants.

Caroline bypassed a clarification of this mainly because she didn’t want it spelled out. “It won’t be a problem. Because I’ll stay with my friend, Taylor, until you have this killer behind bars. We won’t have to be around each other, if at all.”