She only had about a second of warning before Aaron pulled her to him and lowered his head to capture her lips under his. She stiffened and tried to fight him off, she honestly did, but in just a moment her body gave up the will to fight. She just wanted more.

More of his taste. More of his touch. She wanted more of him.

She felt herself melt into his embrace, her body seeking out the warmth of his. Her hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they slipped into his thick mop of hair drawing his mouth closer. Her eyelids fluttered closed, her mind transporting her to a peaceful place where all was perfect. Kissing him felt so right. How could it be wrong?

She drank from his lips like a drowning woman when suddenly, with a gut-wrenching groan, he tore his mouth from hers.

“Doesn’t do a thing for you, huh?” he growled.

Embarrassed, Marissa felt herself go pale, then burn with heat.

“Nothing,” she snorted, trying to disguise the fact that her knees were weakened by his kiss.

“Then let’s keep going.” He moved to kiss her again just as Marcus strode into the room.

“Hey, there you two are. I’ve been looking for you.”

Marissa jumped away from Aaron, making herself look guilty, damn it. Why couldn’t she act cool, calm, and collected, like Aaron?

“Hey, what’s up Marcus?”

“Chloe and I were talking about going over to the comedy club. Want to come?”

“It’s great by me. How about it, Marissa?

“No, I can’t. I’m going to work on the house and get ready for the open house tomorrow.” Her answer sounded abrupt even to her own ears.

Marcus shot her a curious gaze but made no comment. Thank goodness. She quickly turned on her heel and left the room. She gathered up her bowl and her dog, then said goodbye to the rest of the family. She loved being with them but not right now. She was too disturbed.

She escaped home and put on her work clothes and spent the evening painting the living room. She couldn’t concentrate on her work, though. She kept thinking about Aaron and how arrogant he was. Imagine telling her she was afraid of him. No way. She was just too smart to fall into the same trap again.

She got up the next morning and went for a run with Larry by her side. When she got back she took a shower, made breakfast, and got ready for the open house that afternoon. She dressed in a slim navy blue pencil skirt and a pale blue silk blouse, grabbed her briefcase, and headed out to the Phillips ’ house.

The Phillips were a middle-aged couple who were moving to Houston for his job. They owned a beautiful home on N. College Ave. and were anxious to sell and get on with the next phase of their lives. Marissa greeted them, talked over a few questions they had, and waved them off as they went out to dinner and a movie.

Marissa spent the next little while readying the house to show. She put on a pot of potpourri to simmer and opened all the curtains to let the bright May sunshine in. She split up the bunch of flowers she’d picked up and planted them around the house, making it feel as welcoming as possible. Smiling in satisfaction she went to lay her business cards and literature on the counter, ready to show the place off. It didn’t take much. The four bedroom, three bath house was already charming.

She heard a knock at the front door and immediately fell into realtor mode. She slapped a smile in place and headed to welcome her first guest. She was definitely disappointed when she opened the door and found her brother Marcus on the other side.

“Marcus. What are you doing here?”

“Marissa, I’m here on business.” He held his hand up as if to ward off her anger. “We’re covering most of the open houses going on today.”

“Okay, okay. Come on in. I suppose you just happened to choose my open house?”

As a matter of fact, I did. After all, who wants to sit around with a complete stranger all afternoon?”

“So , there’s an officer at every open house this afternoon?”

“I don’t blame them. I probably would have done the same if it weren’t for Lydia the Dragon Lady. She would die before she let any of us turn away business.”

“Apparently she’s not the only one who feels that way. There are 17 other open houses in the area, 9 of them hosted by women. We were able to cover 6 of them.”

“Just 6?”

“Personnel, honey. We’ve only got so much money to pay officers. Now, why don’t you tell me everything you can remember about Staci in the recent past?”

“Really, Marcus? Everything I remember? Well, I’ll tell you I do remember having an argument with her the last time I spoke to her.” Marissa hadn’t confessed this to anyone but the more she thought about the more she leaned towards telling someone. If it somehow came out later it could look bad.

“When was that, s S is?” Marcus pulled out a kitchen bar stool and sat down.

“About two weeks before she died. Oh, it wasn’t a real argument. Just a rather heated phone discussion about her trying to steal one of my clients.”

“What do you mean?”

“She laughed at me, Marcus. Told me it would be my word against hers and that she’d say I’d been pulling similar tricks on her for years. She made me so mad I called her a B and hung up on her. Damn, it feels good to get that off my chest. Does that make me a suspect?”

Marcus chuckled and shook his head. “Not unless you’re capable of sexual assault.”

“Of course not.”

“Then you don’t have anything to worry about.”

Marissa breathed a sigh of relief and moved to answer a knock on the door. The open house was officially underway.

The next couple hours went by swiftly with several couples dropping by to tour the home. A few of them brought along their children, some well-behaved, some not so much. By the time the hours for the open house had dwindled down to one, Marissa was running out of steam. Once again , she’d spent a sleepless night, Aaron Mathews stealing in to disturb her dreams over and over again. Damn his hide.

The doorbell rang once more and Marisa glanced at her watch. Forty-five minutes to go. Hopefully, this would be a serious buyer. She slapped on a smile and opened the door.

Her smile immediately fell away.

“Aaron.”