At least he knew what to do with them.

“Hey,” she greeted with a shaky smile. Eyes narrowing, Caleb saw the strain on her face. Her makeup was all smudged and drippy, as if she’d been crying.

Yeah, a strung-out dude pointing a loaded.45 at his face would definitely be easier.

But not as important, he admitted to himself, heaving a heavy sigh.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Do you mind if I come in?”

Yes.

He stepped aside anyway.

And tortured himself by breathing deep as she walked past, inhaling her spicy fragrance and wishing he could bury his face in the curve of her neck and see if she tasted as good as she smelled.

Stupid.

Totally freaking stupid.

Because he knew damn well she tasted delicious.

“Are you okay?” he asked after a few seconds of indulging himself by staring at her as she wandered the room. She shouldn’t be here. But he couldn’t kick her out. Whatever her part in this, even if it wasn’t purely innocent, he wanted-needed-this time with her.

“I’m…” She stopped by the window, giving him a pained look over her shoulder. “I had a blowup with my mother. Now I guess I’m confused.”

“Parents have that effect,” he observed. Finally giving in to the fact that running down the hall to avoid confronting her would be blatantly chickenshit, Caleb shut the door. He didn’t cross the room, though. Instead, he leaned his hip against the dresser and watched.

“I know you’re probably busy. You’re not expecting me. But, well, I thought about going by Kathy’s, but her family is in town and it’ll be really crowded and loud there. And I just wanted to see if, you know, maybe…”

She trailed off, offering a wincing sort of shrug as she wandered the room nervously.

What was he going to do? Kick her out? Grill her when she was already upset? Yes, he knew that both were perfectly solid methods to deal with a potential drug-dealing mastermind. But, dammit, this was Pandora. And she was upset.

So he’d stay and comfort her. After all, he could be a chickenshit here in his room, too.

“What happened?”

“Confrontations and ugly words and painful truths,” she confessed, trailing her fingers over the glossy knotty pine of one of the four posts of the large, quilt-covered bed.

“Sounds like a family reunion to me.” Although he and his father had skipped over that part of reunioning. Instead, the old man had watched with laser-sharp eyes as Caleb had stepped to the side of the window so as not to be seen while the drug deal went down. Tobias hadn’t said a word, though. He’d just arched one brow and given a jaunty salute when it was over and Caleb had said he had to go.

All that cordial silence had creeped him out.

“Not my family,” Pandora said with a stiff smile. “Usually my mother is dramatic, I’m quiet and we both pretend everything is peachy keen.”

She needed to talk. He could see it on her face, hear it in her tone. The previous night she’d needed sex, a little laughter and a chance to forget about everything else.

Caleb sighed, feeling the weight of the world pressing down on him all of a sudden. The sex was probably off-limits while she was a suspect, and the laughter was beyond him.

Dammit, that left talking.

He sucked at talking.

As Pandora poked a finger between the balcony curtains, closed against the night, he sighed again.

Fine.

“Want to have a seat?” he invited.

Her face brightening, she looked around. The choices were the bed or one of two club chairs next to the small table holding the laptop.

He really didn’t want her near, either.

“I would, thanks,” she said, taking a second to shrug off her thick white coat, laying it and her purse and scarf over one of the chairs. She hesitated, glancing at the bed, then back at his face. Then she squished into the chair alongside her coat.

Caleb walked over, picked up the laptop and moved it to the dresser, then sat across from her.

“So why’s it a big deal that you tossed a few truths at your mother?”

“Because she tossed a few right back at me,” she said with a wince.

He grinned for the first time in hours. “Don’t you hate it when that happens?”

“I do. I had no idea the truth could be so painful. I think it was easier when she blithely pretended to go along with my claims that I was happy with my life.”

“Pretending is never good.”

“Sure, that’s easy for you to say. You’re confident enough to say screw you to everyone who doesn’t accept you exactly as you are,” she said with a rueful sort of laugh.

Cringing, Caleb’s gaze shifted toward the door.

Was he? He didn’t even know who he was, so how could he expect anyone to accept him at face value? For his entire adult life, hell, most of his life as a whole, he’d played a part.

“I admire that,” she continued. She gave him a shy sort of smile and traced designs on her scarf with her finger. “I wish I were more like you. Only, not, you know. Because I really, really like being a girl with you.”

He wasn’t an expert on this talking thing, but he knew when someone was trying to sidestep to get out of delving into the deeper emotional stuff. And he shouldn’t let her get away with it. She was hurting, and she probably should get it all out, talk and vent and spew and whatever the hell else women did to heal.

Miserably uncomfortable now, Caleb wished he’d paid more attention to Maya when she’d done this kind of thing growing up. That girl had always been talking.

“I guess you have a pretty good handle on your life, hmm?” she said, still sidestepping, though now poking her toes into his business. “You and your dad made up, you’re free to come and go as you please. Or, you know, stay if you wanted.”

Hey, now. Sidestepping was one thing. Poking into his life? Totally not cool. This was about her problems. Not his.

He leaned forward to tell her just that.

“We didn’t make up,” he heard himself saying, instead.

“But you went to the party?”

“Yeah.”

“And didn’t you hang out at his shop earlier?”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed. Had she seen him while he was watching the drug deal go down? Was this a setup?

“He stopped by for lunch and mentioned what a great visit the two of you had,” she continued, now watching her fingers poke through the scarf’s fringe instead of meeting his eyes. “He was sweet. Teased me a little about the two of us, and said he liked me.”

A hint of color warming her cheeks, she finally glanced up and gave Caleb a tiny smile. The kind that made him think of shy little girls sitting on Santa’s lap, feeling like the most special princess in the world for those two minutes.

“He does like you,” Caleb said absently, trying to figure out what Tobias was doing. That the old man was up to something was a no-brainer. But why did it involve Pandora? An inkling, a tiny germ of a hint, started poking at the back of Caleb’s brain. He couldn’t see it clearly yet, but the same instincts that had saved him from multiple bullets told him it was there.

“He’s a good guy,” she said quietly. Then she wrinkled her nose and asked, “Am I not supposed to say that? I mean, if you guys didn’t make up, you probably don’t want to hear someone singing his praises, huh?”

“No,” Caleb realized. “I don’t mind. I mean, he’s easy to like.”

“He really is,” she agreed, reaching over to brush her hand over his. He turned his fingers to capture hers, making her smile. “So is my mother. If you can get past her larger-than-life perfection.”

“Is that a bad thing?” he asked, using a method straight out of Witness Grilling 101. Ask open-ended questions that kept the other person guessing as to what you wanted to hear. They were more likely to go with an unscripted gut response.

“Not totally bad. I mean, she’s fun and always makes people laugh. She’s got flare and talent and, well, she’s just so exuberant and alive. She walks in a room and everyone automatically gravitates to her.”

“So why are you so unhappy with her?”

She sighed, staring blankly across the room as she considered that question. He noticed that there was now an actual hole in the knitted scarf from her digging at the yarn.

“Because of all those same reasons.” Her smile was a little shaky. “I mean, that’s a lot to live up to, you know? She’s larger than life. People all around the world know who she is. Then they look at me with this puzzled stare, like they are trying to figure out where she went wrong.”

Caleb gave a shake of his head.

“What?” she asked.

“You just described me and my dad.”

Her laugh was more a puff of air than amusement. She shook her head. “What are we supposed to do about it?”

He threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know. I mean, they do a great job of being who they are.”

“I think you do a great job of being who you are, too. So why is not being like them a problem? I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being measured by my mother.”

Thin ice. Caleb hesitated before going with his gut. “But I think the only one measuring you by that is, well, you.”

There went the sweet look off her face. She pulled back, her eyes narrowed and her lips tight. She looked as if she was seriously considering smacking him with that scarf.

“Me?” she asked in a tone so arch it was worthy of a queen.

“I guess I have an outsider’s perspective,” he mused. “I see a town that likes you, one that’s actually a little defensive of you, if all the warnings I got not to hurt you are anything to go by. I see an intriguing, attractive woman trying her hand at something new and succeeding. A woman who loves cats, cooks like a dream and always has a smile and a warm word for people. Maybe you’re not flamboyant and wild, like your mother. But you’re just as interesting, and even more beautiful.”

Her smile was bright enough to light the room. Caleb shifted uncomfortably in his chair, wanting to duck out until she stopped beaming at him. This gallant thing was more Gabriel’s style than his. But he hadn’t been able to stand seeing that dejected look on her face.

“So, I didn’t bring any treats,” Pandora said out of the blue, nibbling on her lip in a way that made him want to beg for a taste.

“Treats?”

“Yeah. Cookies or chocolate sauce or, well, you know. Aphrodisiacs.” She shrugged again, knotting together the frayed pieces of yarn to repair her scarf. “I really didn’t intend to come over. I was upset when I left the store and instead of walking home, my feet brought me here. To room seventeen.”

Her words ended in a wistful tone he didn’t understand. What he did understand was the look in her eyes. Sexy and appreciative. Warm and sweet. God, she was incredible.

Unable to resist, Caleb leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers. She tasted so freaking good. His tongue traced the full pillow of her lower lip, then he nipped lightly.

Her gasp was followed by a low moan of approval. She skimmed the tips of her fingers over his jaw, whisper-soft and so gentle. It was all he could do not to grab her by the waist and carry her over to the bed.

Caleb pulled away and jumped to his feet. Pacing, he shoved one hand through his hair.

What was he doing? She was the prime suspect in an FBI drug case. He should at least settle a few questions before he settled himself between her thighs.

“I can go,” she said quietly, her hand dropping away from the buttons of her silk top.

It killed him to see that hurt on her face. To hear the self-protective distance in her tone.

It really all came down to faith.

He’d told Hunter he was sure his old man was innocent. But a part of him, the part that knew that there was a potential criminal in everyone, had wondered.

But Pandora? At the moment, all evidence pointed toward her. With what he’d seen, what he knew and what he’d heard, he’d have felt solid making an arrest.

But his instincts said otherwise. They said she was everything he’d ever wanted in a woman. Sweet and hot and adventurous. And, dammit, innocent.

So while he might be suffering from plenty of burnout and his instincts were raw nerves at this point, he had to listen to them. Because without that, he was nothing.

He’d just have to prove the evidence wrong.


PANDORA WOKE THE NEXT morning with a feeling of absolute contentment. Eyes still closed, she stretched on the lavender-scented sheets and gave a deep sigh of satisfaction.

Yum. What a delicious night.

Shifting to the pillow next to her, she smiled and slowly opened her eyes. Caleb stared back at her, his gold eyes intense and, if she read him right, concerned. Why?

“Hi,” she murmured, shifting back a little to get a better look at him. Stiff shoulders, jaw tight. He seemed distant, as if a part of him wasn’t even here in bed with her.