Wrong Bed, Right Girl

by Rebecca Brooks

  “You know his name?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t pushing this too far.

  Chelsea gave that grin again. “Well, aren’t we curious? Look, I can hook you up if you want a taste, see what you think. I know you. I trust you. We’ve been dancing together for how long?”

  “Years,” Talia said with a smile.

  “Yeah.” Chelsea smiled back. “Years. So if you want to come with me to meet him next time, then there’s no middleman. You’ll know I’m not screwing you.”

  Talia laughed, even as inside, her heart was racing faster than it had throughout all six hours of rehearsal. Business must have been slow without Stacey around. Looked like there was never a bad time to pick up some new recruits.

  “Of course I know you’d never screw me, Chels!” she said, the words saccharine on her tongue. “But yeah, that’d be awesome. I’d love to come with you. Maybe we can hang out after. I could use your experience to help calm me down with the stress of this role.”

  She saw Chelsea’s eyes light up. Bingo. She was in.

  “Awesome,” Chelsea said. “Text me when you’re free.”

  I have to tell Reed, her heart drummed over and over as Chelsea hugged her. They went back to rejoin the group, and Chelsea asked if she wanted to get something to eat. But Talia said she had to go. Maybe next time. She had to get home.

  She knew Reed’s place wasn’t home. She knew she shouldn’t feel this excited about seeing him, a prickle up her skin that made everything in her on edge.

  She knew it was dangerous—what she’d proposed to Chelsea, and how distracted she’d been all day. She shouldn’t be getting wrapped up in his touch.

  But she texted him anyway. When he didn’t respond, she checked the time and figured he was probably still at work. She googled his office. Better to go right to the source.

  And, okay, maybe she just wanted to see him, no matter what. But she told herself that was not her being too infatuated.

  It was just so she could tell him in person what she’d just learned.

  Right.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Hey, Bishop!”

  Reed and Aaron both looked up from their desks.

  “Some girl up front says she wants to see you.”

  Aaron pushed back his chair and reached for his suit jacket.

  “Not you,” the officer said to Aaron. He jutted his chin at Reed, who had a slew of gory pictures strewn across his desk. “Hulk over there.”

  That got Reed’s attention. And the attention of everyone in the office. He could see the expression on Aaron’s face, thinking there had to be a mistake.

  But Reed had a sinking feeling he knew which girl had tracked him down here. Especially a girl pretty enough to have the desk officer’s eyebrows waggling lewdly like that.

  Fuck.

  “Send her back,” he grumbled, sliding the pictures into their folder to make sure no stray limbs were showing.

  He felt Aaron’s gaze boring into him, asking what was up. But he studiously avoided looking over. This was one situation he didn’t want to have to explain.

  “Hey, you.”

  He’d been expecting it—who else could it possibly be? But it still made his stomach do some sort of acrobatic flip when he heard her voice.

  Talia was so out of place walking across his drab office. It couldn’t have been more obvious she didn’t belong. Not with the interrogation rooms, the guns in their holsters, the pictures, bloody and awful, tacked on the walls.

  She didn’t belong in his world. She was too beautiful for all the shit he inhabited.

  But she walked over like she didn’t notice everyone staring at her, or the horrors all around. Or maybe she just didn’t care. She went straight to him, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. Even as another part of him was roaring that she shouldn’t be here. This was too close to his life, and she had to get out.

  She didn’t have a streak of makeup on, and she looked radiant. Her cheeks were faintly red, her hair pulled back into what was probably once a tidy bun but by the end of the day had wisps of hair breaking free. She was wearing another pair of those fucking yoga pants that drove him wild, a gym bag slung over her shoulder. He could picture her at rehearsal, working for hours, exhausted, and then heading—

  Not home, he corrected himself quickly. That was the wrong word for it.

  Heading not to his place, but straight here. To see him. For reasons he couldn’t begin to understand.

  “So this is where the magic happens,” she said, looking around. “Somehow I imagined it a little less—”

  “Shitty?” Reed offered.

  “Like maybe it had been repainted since 1979. But what do I know?”

  “Talia,” he started, wishing she’d keep her voice down. Wishing everyone wasn’t sneaking glances like it was the news of the century that Reed knew and spoke with another human being not at the office.

  Let alone a female human being. Let alone one so strikingly attractive.

  But it was too late, because Talia’s eyes had moved from him to Aaron, and a huge grin spread across her face.

  “Oh my God,” she said. “It’s like looking at Reed, but with hair. And decent clothes. And no scowl.” She laughed.

  And fuck him, his traitorous brother laughed, too, and stuck out his hand.

  “You must be Aaron,” she said, reaching across Reed to accept the handshake.

  “Guilty,” Aaron said with the kind of warm, clear-eyed smile Reed could never quite manage. “And you are…?”

  Aaron was smiling at Talia, but Reed could see him shooting over a look. What the hell? it said. I’ll explain later, Reed’s look said back. Aaron’s raised eyebrow meant, You’d better. With a little bit of asshole thrown in for good measure.

  “I’m Talia,” Talia said, “since this one here’s so great with introductions.” She tilted her head toward Reed. “I’m his…” She bit her lip. “It’s complicated,” she finally decided.

  Reed almost snorted. Yeah, that was one word for it.

  “Listen,” Reed said, lowering his voice and turning his body so every single person didn’t have to be part of their conversation. “What are you doing here?”

  He wanted to say something more, like What the fuck were you thinking? as he tossed her over his shoulder, carried her to the street, stuck her in a cab, and sent her far away from here. To Brooklyn, maybe. To California was more like it.

  But he was pretty sure Aaron wouldn’t approve.

  “Your case,” Talia said.

  Reed didn’t know what he’d expected her to say, but it wasn’t that.

  She grinned at him. “I know how you can nab your guy.”

  Now he was just staring. That was definitely not supposed to come out of her mouth. Especially not with a smile like that. Like she was enjoying this. Like she actually wanted to be there.

  This time, he did grab her by the elbow. But he only marched her to one of the empty interrogation rooms—not to the next time zone like he wanted.

  “We need to talk somewhere more private,” he said, steering her through the door.

  Aaron picked up his papers and followed before Reed could stop him. “Don’t pretend you think I’m sitting this one out.”

  He could see the storm forming in front of him as the two fronts collided. His job and his personal life. The woman he was sleeping with and the place he never wanted her near.

  But he was powerless to stop it. As soon as the door closed, Talia turned toward him. He didn’t like that excited, glittery look in her eyes.

  “Spill it,” he said before Aaron could get a word in first. There were some things he didn’t want to explain.

  Like that he’d maybe found someone in Stacey’s apartment. And that the woman he’d found was maybe now staying with him.

  In his bed.

  Waking him up just that morning with the most toe-curling blowjob he’d ever received, before dragging him naked into the shower, where he’d fingered her to
not one, not two, but three orgasms so loud and intense he was afraid she was going to bang the whole shower wall down. Afraid in an impressed and wanted it to happen sort of way. In a this is a bad idea, but I can’t wait to do it again sort of way.

  But his brother didn’t need to know about that.

  “There are these girls in the dance company,” Talia started, and Reed’s adrenaline jacked up to ten.

  “No,” he said automatically.

  Talia folded her arms. “You don’t know what I’m about to say.”

  “I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no.”

  “Well I don’t know what you’re thinking,” Aaron interrupted. “So if someone wants to clue me in?”

  He stared daggers at Reed, like that was his fault.

  Which, okay, maybe he should have mentioned something about Talia being in the apartment. About crossing a few dozen lines and having her stay with him. But he hadn’t wanted his brother to go getting that look he had now, that surprise and intrigue and curiosity and wide-eyed tell me everything, stat.

  Not when it wasn’t anyone’s business. Not when it didn’t mean a thing.

  “I’m a dancer,” Talia said to Aaron. “I work with Stacey.” She paused, corrected herself. “Worked. Or something. I don’t know. It’s not like Reed will tell me anything.”

  Great, now they were both shooting him daggers. Maybe he should just leave and let them solve the case. Retire to Tahiti and do nothing but drink fancy cocktails out of coconuts with umbrellas in them. Stop his gut from basically turning into a snake pit, constantly writhing with all the things it was trying to say.

  “Stacey wasn’t the only one who knew Jonnie,” Talia went on. “I’m not giving you any names. I’m not a sellout. I have to work with these people—I don’t want them to drop me in the middle of a lift or take scissors to my costumes.”

  “But?” Aaron prodded, not hiding the eagerness on his face.

  Reed couldn’t believe his brother was even thinking about going where Talia was going with this. Maybe if Talia had been some random girl in off the street, he’d have been just as hopeful.

  But he knew Talia. Knew her way too well. And there was no damn way.

  She took a seat at the small table. It made Reed’s skin crawl. That seat was for perps. Or witnesses involved in a case. Talia was neither of those, and he intended to keep it that way.

  “I got an offer from one of the dancers to go with her to buy some stuff,” she said.

  “Stuff?” Aaron asked.

  “She said pills,” Talia said. “And they’ve got to be from the guy you’re looking for. Think about it. If I go with her and buy them—”

  “Goddammit, Talia.” Reed couldn’t keep the growl from ripping out of him.

  “If I buy them, then you can catch him doing the sale.” Talia talked over him like he hadn’t said anything.

  “Wait.” Aaron sat down across from her, leaning forward. “Are you telling me you know Jonnie West?”

  “Not yet. But I know people who do. And I got the chance for an introduction.”

  Reed paced around the small room. This wasn’t happening.

  “How do you know you’d be able to get to Jonnie and not just his lackeys?” Aaron asked. “We can get the small guys. It’s the bigger case we’re after.”

  “It doesn’t matter how, because the answer is no.” Reed’s voice was steel.

  “I can’t guarantee it,” Talia said to Aaron, like Reed wasn’t there. “But I think so. The girl who’d introduce me seems pretty tight with him. And she’d want to show off for me, you know? I made it clear I’d only want the best stuff, that I wasn’t going to buy from some kid on the corner.”

  “You did what?” Reed whirled on her, aghast. Since when did she think it was a good idea to talk about drug sales like that?

  “Jesus, Reed,” she snapped. “I didn’t go into some drug den where they might even—gasp—have sex and listen to rock and roll. I just asked about it. I left it open. I said I’d text and let her know.”

  Like she was some natural-born sleuth who went undercover with dealers all the time, no big deal. Reed’s armpits were starting to sweat.

  Christ, he was supposed to be cool. He was supposed to not care. But the thought of Talia sticking her neck out for him and walking into danger was just—

  No. The thought slammed down so hard in his head, he had to fight the urge to walk out then and there, just yank open the door and storm off like none of this was happening.

  Aaron tapped his pencil against the table. Reed paced, biceps flexing. His jaw clenched tighter as the fury in him grew.

  Talia sat back and looked at them, no idea what she was offering. No idea what she was getting into.

  “You’d have to wear a wire,” Aaron said. His voice was calm. Reasonable. Like he actually thought this was a fucking good idea.

  He saw Talia swallow nervously. But she nodded.

  “And we’d need to get Jonnie’s voice on there, making the sale,” Aaron went on. “But you can’t be obvious about it. You’re new, meeting him for the first time. He’d be right to be suspicious. We’ll have backup for you. If anything starts to feel off, you get out of there. If you can’t, we’ll give you a code word you can use and we’ll be in there in an instant. But better if it doesn’t get to that point.”

  “This conversation is over,” Reed said.

  “Reed—” Talia started.

  “It’s the best lead we have,” Aaron said.

  “I don’t care.” Reed pulled back Talia’s chair. “Let’s go.”

  “Just tell me you’ll think about it,” she said.

  “I’ll think about it,” he said automatically. “Now go.”

  “It’s after five,” she said. “End of the day. Happy hour. You know, for normal people who don’t work twenty-three hours a day. Come with me.”

  He risked a glance at Aaron, who looked even more interested in this part of the conversation than he had in Talia’s offer to nab the guy they’d been chasing for months.

  “I can’t,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Sure he can.” Aaron’s smile was huge. “You go ahead, I’ll wrap up here.”

  “Gee, thanks.” Any more sarcasm dripping out of him and he’d probably melt.

  “Where do you live, Talia?” Aaron asked as he held the door open for them to walk out.

  Talia glanced at Reed. He willed this to be the one time she could put a mask over her features and lie. Or say nothing. Brush it off. Pretend she didn’t hear. Leave without saying a word.

  Literally anything but what she did. What he knew she was going to do, because Talia didn’t hide what she was thinking, she didn’t lie, and she had no reason to cover his ass. She turned to Aaron and said, “With this guy, at the moment.”

  Aaron’s eyebrows shot up to the moon. “Really?”

  Reed took Talia by the arm and steered her away from the cluster of desks. “You go on ahead,” he told his brother through clenched teeth.

  He had to talk to Talia. Now.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Talia thought Reed was bringing her back into the interrogation room. But at the last second, he put his hand to the small of her back and kept her walking, his eyes down, turning away from two women in uniform flanking a red-eyed, greasy-looking guy in cuffs.

  “Keep moving,” Reed muttered. Talia snuck a quick glance over her shoulder as they passed, watching the guy get led into the room.

  The next thing she knew, he was steering her down the hall and into a stairwell. As soon as the door closed behind them, he whirled on her, eyes flashing. “You can’t do this,” he said.

  “You’re being shortsighted,” she said. “And silly.”

  “Silly?” he sputtered, stepping toward her so she was pressed back against the gritty concrete wall. “Excuse me for not wanting you to walk straight up to a known murderer and drug dealer and give him your name.”

  “It would help you,” she said. H
e had a point. But she did, too.

  “I can help myself.”

  “I know that, I just—”

  “And I don’t only mean that you can’t go undercover,” he snapped. “I mean you can’t talk to Aaron like that. You can’t go telling him things.”

  Talia couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. “I take it back. Silly is an understatement.”

  She tried to get around him so she could leave. There had to be an exit somewhere.

  But he reached out a hand, blocking her way. The touch of his arm made her whole stomach flutter. There was nowhere for her to go unless he moved.

  She saw him glance quickly behind him. Up the next flight of stairs, and below. No one was there.

  The next thing she knew, she was pressed against the wall. And he was pressed against her.

  “Aaron doesn’t need to know what we’re doing,” he said into her ear.

  She hooked a finger through his belt loop. “And what is it that we’re doing?”

  “Nothing,” he answered, his voice husky.

  Like him tracing his lips along the side of her neck was nothing. Like her pulling his hips into hers was nothing.

  “Yeah,” she said. “That’s exactly what this feels like.”

  She stroked the front of his jeans, focusing on what was definitely not nothing there. The outline of his hard-on was enough to make her knees weak. She could jump and spin and leap across the stage, but she couldn’t spend five minutes in this man’s presence without starting to tremble.

  “You’d better stop that,” he warned.

  “Since when do you think you can tell me what to do?”

  The next thing she knew, he had her pinned against the wall, his whole body covering hers. He thrust his hips against her, letting her feel every solid inch of him.

  “You forget that I’m the one with handcuffs,” he said, his voice a heady, urgent whisper in her ear.

  She put a hand to his chest, gripping his shirt. Somewhere between pushing him away and pulling him near. “What are you going to do, officer? Bend me over and punish me?”

  She meant it as a joke. But the feel of his cock through his jeans said he didn’t take it that way.