More Than a Mission - Caridad Pineiro [28]
Kate shrugged. “Probably not directly. He was too young. But rumor has it he was a party animal. People like him are as responsible as the dealers who killed Lizzy’s parents.”
She finally looked down at the bottle in her hands. “Lizzy doesn’t wear any perfume. You’re better off buying her something she’ll use.”
She took the bottle with her as she walked away from the counter, placed the oil back on the shelf, paused by another table to pick up a small round jar and returned to where he stood. “Here. This is her favorite hand lotion. Slight hint of plumeria. Her hands get chapped.”
That she used something on her hands was good, he thought. It might have left a residue on something at the prince’s retreat that would help connect Lizzy—the Sparrow he forced himself to remember—to the murder.
“Thanks. Could you gift wrap it, please?” He dug into his jeans pocket for cash. While he was counting out the money for the lotion, he asked, “So who helps you create the formulas for everything?”
Kate punched up the sale on the antique register. With a loud clang and kachunk, the drawer opened and she finally responded to his question. “Most of them I do myself. Every now and then I ask Lizzy. She’s a whiz with plants.”
Elizabeth had been prepared to keep her cool around him, wanting to create some distance after what had happened on Friday night. Despite her desire to do so, she found herself surprisingly annoyed when it was Aidan who kept his distance.
He had shown up for work the next day, surprising her. She had been prepared for him to run.
He’d been courteous and respectful. No subtle mentions of Friday night’s make-out session. No hint that it had left any kind of impression on him or even that he was inclined for a repeat performance.
Color her annoyed. Saturday and Sunday night had come and gone without any kind of move on his part and as for her—she’d be damned if she’d throw herself at him. Lord knew he’d probably had his share of women doing that, what with those blond good looks and that amazing body. Not to mention that whole swagger thing.
Elizabeth paused in the midst of her workout on the boxing bag as she considered that she was just losing focus about Aidan Rawlings.
A light sweat covered her body from her workout. She grabbed hold of the bag, which was rocking a bit from her last blow, and steadied it, considering as she did so that she’d done just fine in her life without a man. She definitely didn’t need one to mess up her life right now.
Punch, punch. Jab followed by a drop kick.
The bag swung away again from the force of the blow and she timed its return arc, swung out with a roundhouse kick, imagining as she did so that it was Aidan’s head.
From behind her came the sound of someone approaching. In her peripheral vision, a man’s arm came into sight, reaching for her.
She grabbed the arm, high up close to the elbow, and with a shift of her hip, sent him flying over her shoulder and onto the mat face down. Once he was there, she twisted the arm she still held and placed her knee smack in the center of his back, pinning him forcefully to the mat.
Aidan, she thought from the familiar sight of his shoulders and that shaggy mane of sun-bleached hair. She was tempted to release him, but there was a bit of anger there, so she maintained her hold and warned, “Don’t sneak up on me.”
He turned his face to the side, the only movement he was capable of without dislocating a key body part. “Good mornin’, love. I thought I’d drop by and see if you wanted to have breakfast. I guess not.”
She released her hold a little. A mistake she quickly realized as he reversed their positions and nailed her to the ground. He had her wrists pinned to the mat in a tight grip. She was breathing a little roughly from her workout, and the motion seemed to drag his attention to her breasts.
Typical man, she thought as he loosened his hold much as she had earlier, giving her enough slack to roll and assume the upper position with Aidan now trapped below her. “We’re closed Mondays. I wasn’t expecting