Her Dangerous Promise - Part 2: (Romantic Suspense Serial) by Ashley Stryker

houseplant absorbing a cup of water. She smiled at that imagery, noticing how her dress soaked up the rainwater from his clothes. When he hugged her to him, Mary nearly moaned her content.
    Thom dropped a kiss on top of her head. “We’ll get through this,” he promised.
    “Why are you being so nice to me? I deceived you. I hindered your investigation. I put everyone at risk. You should put me in jail, not comfort me.”
    “Darling, I can’t stay mad at you. You have a good heart. You just made some bad decisions.”
    Mary relaxed against Thom. Everything outside the SUV was a mess but in this moment with Thom, she felt oddly reassured. He seemed to possess some kind of force field around him that made everything all right as long as she held close to him.
    Mary wasn’t sure where she expected Thom to live but the run down old shotgun house in the middle of the historical district pseudo-slum certainly hadn’t been it. Evidence of recent repair work, like the unfinished spindles staggered at intervals between their freshly sanded older counterparts on the porch railing and the new screen door that still bore the manufacture’s sticker, rescued the property from complete despondency. After they hurried through the rain to the front porch, Mary jokingly said, “Nice place you have here, Inspector.”
    Thom answered seriously, “It will be when I’m done with it.” He unlocked the door and then surveyed the property with a critical eye. “This is the fourth house I’ve bought in this neighborhood. I fix them up and rent them out. I’m a member of the historical society and we have plans to reclaim this grand old neighborhood and restore it to its former glory.”
    “Very ambitious.” She smiled up at him.
    “I’m an ambitious guy.” His eyes softened. The warmth of his gaze melted her insides and shifted her brain into “befuddled”. When she opened her mouth to utter anything to release the moment, his focus zeroed in on her lips. He leaned closer and her hands automatically rose to rest against his chest. He paused at the gesture, searching her expression for encouragement or rejection. She wasn’t exactly sure why she’d done that, whether to hold him off or pull him in, but now that her hands pressed against the firm wall of his chest she didn’t know how to withdraw them without making the moment more awkward. What she was all too sharply aware of was how solid, how real, Thom felt under her palms. His breath ceased as her fingers flexed to trace the bulge of his muscles. Unsure what to say, she stammered, “You’re wet.”
    Thom peeled the shirt off and tossed it over the porch railing.
    While he moved, Mary reclaimed her hands. She tucked them behind her back and sandwiched them between her body and the siding next to the front door, just to make sure they didn’t get any ideas and go wondering to Thom’s bare chest.
    “Is that better?”
    Biting her lower lip, she nodded. For some reason her mind couldn’t formulate a verbal response while it memorized the glistening movements of his muscled chest. Thom obviously worked out to get so cut and Mary leaned back harder to keep her hands from exploring what she couldn’t stop staring at. His badge glittered on his belt, drawing her gaze to his extraordinary physique hidden by his soaked, body-hugging slacks. The gun secured at his hip reminded her of Thom—confident and dangerous.
    Thom bent forward, pressing that perfect chest against her, pinning her arms for real. His hands, large but gentle, cupped her face. His eyes fixed on her mouth and he rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip so she would stop biting it. She managed one unsteady breath before Thom bent down and caught her lower lip between his teeth. As he eased back, he let it slip free. “It looked like you were having so much fun,” he purred. “I thought I’d try it.”
    “And?”
    He cocked his eyebrow thoughtfully. “Not bad. But let me try something else.”
    Thom kissed