Mad, Bad and Blonde - Cathie Linz [42]
“Right. Of course not. I know that. Otherwise you’d burn out pretty fast.”
Faith spent the rest of the day trying to track down any hidden assets Haywood might have stashed. All the while, she reminded herself that information was power. That applied to Faith’s interactions with Caine as well. Dumping sparkling water on him didn’t solve the problem. Proving the case against his father was sound was the only way to get Caine out of her life.
Saturday morning, Faith stared at the pages spread over her living room floor—a low-tech technique she’d developed for doing library projects. She was a visual thinker. She couldn’t just read the information on her laptop. She needed to see what she was dealing with here. The file marked Hunter, Karl had plenty in it.
She’d read every page, but now she just needed to get the big picture somehow. She had a pile for each of the four people involved in the project: Karl and two other chemists along with a lab assistant. The person of most interest to her was the young lab assistant, Weldon Gronski.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Weldon didn’t want to be found. He’d quit his job and moved several times in the past two years. He didn’t appear to have any close friends, and none of his former coworkers had any idea where to find him. But she had an idea.
Weldon was a fan of vintage science fiction movies, and a Chicago-area theater was doing a showing of the 1951 classic The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Faith had a copy of Weldon’s various photo IDs. He didn’t change his appearance in any of them. He looked like what he was: a dorky science whiz with the taped glasses frames.
Later that afternoon, Faith watched the people entering the theater, searching for Weldon. Distracted as she was, she was startled when someone grabbed her by the elbow and hauled her around the corner into a quiet alley.
“Stop following me,” Caine growled.
“You’re the one following me.”
“Get over yourself. I’m investigating my father’s case.”
“So am I, and I have as much right to be here as you do,” Faith said.
“Beat it,” he growled, showing her his war face for the first time.
Faith had to admit his expression was very intimidating, but she wasn’t about to back down now.
Seeing that, Caine changed battle techniques, yanking Faith into his arms and kissing her.
Chapter Nine
The kiss was meant to warn Faith off. Instead, it drew Caine in, making him want her even more. She was like a land mine, hitting him when he least expected it.
Faith put her hands on his shoulders as if to shove him away. Good. She needed to end this, because Caine couldn’t. Damn, she tasted fine. Why wasn’t she pushing him away?
Faith gripped his shoulders harder. Now. Now she’d end it, right?
But no. Just when he thought she’d break things off, she parted her lips wider and pulled him even closer.
He was a goner.
So was she.
Their kiss became deeper, hotter. He raked his hands through her silky hair, only coming up for air long enough to change the angle of his mouth over hers before continuing the frantically intense lip-lock.
Things were rapidly spiraling out of control here. His hand was on her breast under her blouse, his thumb caressing her nipple through her sheer bra. She felt so damn good. His erection pressed tight against her.
She reached down to cup him through the placket of his jeans, her thumb grazing the bulge there.
He really should stop this. Soon. Before he exploded. But what a way to go.
His pagan elemental brain wanted to have sex. His warrior Marine brain knew this was a bad idea but wanted to have sex anyway.
Strict self-discipline was needed right now. Caine knew he should fight this. After all, he was a highly trained pro at fighting—from hand-to-hand combat to urban warfare. So why was he having such a hard time dealing with Faith?
Hanging on to his last thread of control, Caine broke off the kiss before he took her right there in the alley.
The sight of her swollen lips made his heart and other parts of his anatomy ache. Her hair was mussed from his hands, and her