CHAPTER 33

Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the hall and lingered in the shadows. And listened.

“What the hell do you want?” she heard Jack snap.

A rumbling laugh over the speakerphone in the cottage’s front room echoed down the hall.

“I’ll take three guesses as to why you’re so crabby. And I don’t need the last two.”

Deke. She recognized his teasing voice, could picture the crinkles of laughter around those dancing denim-blue eyes…so seemingly at odds with that tall, hard body.

“Did you call just to annoy me?”

“Hell, no. You know I never go for anything easy. Where’s the challenge in that?”

“So you called because…?”

“I need to talk to Morgan.”

Jack hesitated, his hands curling into fists. “Why?”

In that one syllable, he sounded somewhere between suspicious and downright pissed.

“Did that hard cock of yours make you forget all about the stalker trailing her sweet ass?”

“No, you SOB, I haven’t forgotten. And you get your mind off her ass.”

“It’s not as if I’ve perfected the ability to reach