Good Girls Don't. Victoria Dahl

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СКАЧАТЬ took the bowl from her and popped the top to be sure the lemons were good. He was strangely perfectionist about some things, so she’d learned not to take offense and merely washed her hands and tipped her head toward the empty seating area. “It’s been slow. The warm weather has kept everyone outside, but I expect you’ll get a lot of thirsty people in soon. I’m running a special for half off the first pint tonight, so if anyone mentions Twitter, that’s the offer.”

      “Got it.”

      “The signage for the new golden wheat is almost ready. Eric tapped it this morning.”

      Tessa was drawing him a sample of the new brew when the front door opened. At first, all she saw past the sunlight was a jacket and a tie. Then she recognized the man wearing them. Detective Asher, he’d said. “Hi, Detective!” she called.

      “Good afternoon, Miss Donovan,” he said with a smile that disappeared as quickly as it flashed over his face.

      “Just Tessa,” she replied, feeling her smile widen. He was cute. Really cute, in a jaded, hard-jawed way. Like he’d stepped out of some noir detective novel, muttering about having seen too much life already.

      “Then call me Luke.”

      “Luke Asher …” She frowned and cocked her head, taking in his brown eyes and nearly black hair. She looked him up and down suspiciously. His eyebrows rose. “You’ve been to my house,” she said.

      “Pardon me?”

      “You were friends with Jamie in college.”

      “Oh, right.” His brown eyes crinkled. “I stopped by with him a couple of times. I’m sorry. I don’t remember meeting you.”

      Jamie snorted. “I doubt I introduced you to my teenage sister.”

      “Ah,” he said, and Tessa thought she saw his eyes flicker down.

      She let her gaze wander, too. Yeah, she remembered him now. He’d been a slim guy who’d waited quietly for Jamie the couple of times that her brother had stopped home to grab something from his room on his way out for fun. Tessa had watched him from the dining room table as she’d done homework. He’d been cute then, but now …

      Luke Asher seemed to have grown into his lanky frame. He was still about six-two, but now his body looked powerfully lean. His skin was tan, and creases around his eyes made it look like he often squinted thoughtfully into the distance while puzzling out an investigation.

      He was talking to Jamie about an old classmate when he glanced over and saw her staring. One eyebrow quirked in question.

      “Oh, um … Do you have any news about the investigation?”

      “Nothing yet. We’ve only found one print we can’t identify, but there are still a few employees we haven’t printed yet. I’m sure it belongs to one of your people. None of the robberies have turned up any useful prints.”

      “You’re sure it’s connected?” Jamie asked.

      “I’m not ruling anything out yet, but that’s what my gut says.”

      Oooh, gut instincts and fingerprints. And she could just make out the edge of his shoulder holster when he put his hands in his pockets.

      Despite all her worries, Tessa felt a sudden and startling jolt of attraction.

      Jamie interrupted her ogling. “Did you get anything from the security cameras?”

      “Nothing,” Luke said. “Your cameras are focused on the parking lot and loading dock. I’d recommend two more cameras pointing at the doors.”

      “Yeah. Got it. I’ll let Eric know.”

      Luke Asher’s eyes slid to her, and the hair on her arms stood on end. “Did you speak to your payroll company yet?”

      “I did. It’s all good news. The program on the PC is encrypted, and data protection is part of our plan. They’ve already started contacting the employees, even the old ones. They’ve also alerted the credit agencies. So far it looks good. As for the credit card information, that’s uploaded live with every transaction. Nothing stored in the computers.”

      “Great,” Luke said. “They might not bother trying to crack the encryption. It’ll probably be easier to just break into another place. And even if they crack the program, the credit alerts should help. Keep your fingers crossed.”

      “Oh, I will,” she said, sneaking another peek at his gun.

      Jamie cleared his throat, and Tessa shot him a look of wide-eyed innocence. It had never failed her before. “I’ll go update Eric,” she said cheerfully, leaving the flirting for later when her brothers weren’t around and things weren’t so chaotic.

      Hopefully this would all blow over soon, and then she’d give Detective Luke Asher a friendly citizen’s call.

      “WHAT THE HELL do you think you’re doing?”

      Luke blinked in surprise at the anger in Jamie’s voice. “Excuse me?”

      “I know you, man, and I saw the look you were giving my sister.”

      “I wasn’t looking at your sister at all.” He didn’t flush at the utter falsehood, because he knew he wasn’t going to date Tessa Donovan. It had only been a bit of harmless admiration. Her T-shirt had been tight in all the right places.

      “I know how you are with women,” Jamie growled.

      “I’m not any way with women, Jamie. Whatever I got up to in college, I left in college.”

      Jamie set down his rag and crossed his arms. His eyes narrowed. “I’m not just talking about college.”

      “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Luke snapped, earning a glare from Jamie.

      “I’ve got no problem with you, Luke, but I heard about your divorce. You’re not the kind of guy I want dating my younger sister.”

      Luke’s shoulders snapped so quickly into solid tension that pain shot down his spine. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

      “I may never have met your ex-wife, but she has lots of friends still in Boulder. People come to a bar to talk, and I’ve heard enough to warn you to steer clear of Tessa.”

      They glared at each other for a long moment. “Plus,” Jamie added, “there’s the little issue of your—” Voices from the back room alerted them that the other Donovans were about to join them.

      Luke cracked his neck. “She’s not my type. Let’s just leave it at that, all right?”

      “Good enough,” Jamie muttered.

      Luke wanted to defend himself. Hell, he wanted to go on the offensive and punch his old friend in the face, but he was too busy reeling, so he just turned and left.

      He’d been aware that people must have talked about his divorce, but he and his wife had been living in L.A. at the time. He’d hoped the worst parts СКАЧАТЬ