by Nancy Gideon
“I’m gonna take my hand upside your head, Junior. Besides, I don’t think you’re his type.”
A slow, close-lipped smile spread across Max’s face, warming his expression. Aware that every eye in the place, from glowering watch commander to beat cops passing through, was on her and her unlikely visitor, Charlotte moved casually toward her desk. But her gaze devoured him.
With hard, angular features and a long slant of cool green eyes, he wasn’t attractive so much as wickedly compelling. Danger always stirred behind his steady stare. He was the genuine article, as terrifying an individual as one could imagine. He’d killed for the first time when he was just a child, with an instinctual viciousness that earned him a place growing up behind one of the Crescent City’s most infamous mobsters, Jimmy Legere. After Jimmy’s violent death he’d gone from knee breaker to deal maker, taking over the vast criminal empire to become a powerful influence in his own right. And because he was more interested in her than he was in his mentor’s ill-gotten gains, most of those endeavors leaned toward legal now.
But that’s not all he was.
He wore her black tactical vest emblazoned NOPD, probably to keep himself from getting shot here in the station, over a white tee shirt and jeans. A red high-topped foot swung indolently. Sleek, dark, and controlled…and hers. She wanted to latch on to that smugly smiling mouth in the worst way, which made her tone testy.
“What are you doing here, Max?”
“Just thought I’d see if you wanted to have lunch. Since we missed a chance for breakfast.” His stare smoldered, intimating what he was hungry for.
“You should have called.”
“I was in the neighborhood.” He ran his fingertip across the framed photos on her desk. Her father. Charlotte and her best friend, Mary Kate Malone. “Why don’t you have a picture of me?”
“I suppose I could pick the most flattering from your mug shot collection to display. No new ones since I’ve been gone, are there?”
He continued to smile. “Muffuletta from the Central Grocery sound good? Or is there something else you’d rather sink your teeth into?”
“I’m busy, Savoie.”
“I’ve missed you, detective.” His hand skimmed the curve of her waist, and she brushed it away. “If you’re not hungry, we could go to an interrogation room and close the blinds. I think Two is open. That’s always been my favorite; such an intimate, coming-home feeling about it. Surely you can spare five minutes from your busy schedule. I managed to fit you into mine.” His voice lowered to a husky rumble. “And now I want to fit myself into you.”
Her gaze flew about to see who might have overheard, but everyone nearby was pretending to be occupied. Her face flamed. Her body grew hot and moist. “I’m at work here,” she growled.
“I love to watch you work, detective. I could sit here all day.”
Sighing, she jerked out her chair. “All right. Let me make a call first.” She lifted the receiver, then eyed him pointedly.
“I’ll just go over there and see if anyone I know is posted on the Most Wanted board.”
She watched him stroll through the room as if oblivious to the fact that every officer there was measuring his wrist size for handcuffs. A bold, aggravating man, a wolf stalking through the hen house as if he didn’t know he was going to cause feathers to fly.
“You make me hot, Savoie,” she whispered softly.
Across the room, he paused, she didn’t have to see his face to know he was grinning.
Standing by the wall with a relaxed posture, pretending not to feel a dozen barbed glares, Max waited for Cee Cee to finish up and join him. The sweat slicking his palms had nothing to do with the hostility bristling around him and everything to do with the woman he couldn’t wait to spend time with.
He’d taken a huge risk bracing her in her lair, and he knew it. Her professional world was offlimits. She’d invited him into every other aspect of her life but that one. He was too smart to push, but too honest to pretend the exclusion didn’t bother him.
“Savoie?”
He glanced up to see Alain Babineau with a lovely young woman at his side. He and Cee Cee’s cover-boy-pretty partner had a wary tolerance for one another. “Detective. So surprised? It’s not like you’ve never seen me here before.”
“Not without restraints. Waiting for your attorney?”
“Waiting to take Detective Caissie to lunch.”
He didn’t imagine the sudden pique of interest in the petite brunette’s eyes. She smiled at him rather shyly. “Are you a friend of Cee Cee’s?”
“I’m her boyfriend.” He grinned because Babineau had suddenly gone rigid. He put out his hand. “Max Savoie.”
She placed hers into it with a lack of hesitation that proved she had no idea who he was. “Tina Babineau.”
“Ah. I should apologize for keeping your husband away from home so much.” At her confusion, he lifted her hand to touch a light kiss to her knuckles. “I’ll let him explain.”
She blushed prettily, not drawing her hand away until he released it. “Alain and I were just stepping out for a bite. Would you two like to join us?”
It would almost have been worth saying yes, just to enjoy Babineau’s glare of irritation a bit longer. But the temptation of possibly getting very up close and personal with Charlotte was too great.
“Maybe another time, Mrs. Babineau. I appreciate the offer.” And he did, surprisingly enough.
“How about Saturday? We’re having a housewarming party. Cee Cee has the address.” She smiled with genuine pleasure at Charlotte, who had just arrived. “Cee Cee, I was just telling Max he was more than welcome to come with you on Saturday.”
“Really?” She exchanged a look with Alain. “To your house?”
Tina touched Max’s sleeve hopefully. “Say yes. We spouses and significant others rarely get a chance to mingle socially.”
There was a slight catch in her voice, an unexpected plea that touched him as delicately as her small hand, because he recognized it for what it was. Loneliness.
“I’d be happy to, if Charlotte doesn’t have any objection.”
He glanced at her, seeing objection aplenty in her narrowed eyes. “Sure. If you really want to.” Implying he’d be a fool if he did. When he continued to smile, she gripped his arm. “Let’s go. Nice to see you again, Tina.”
“I look forward to seeing you both on Saturday.”
Max sauntered leisurely at her side, letting her fume silently until they exited the building. She shrugged off the arm he tried to drape about her shoulders with a quarrelsome, “Not here.”
“Let me know when we leave the ‘Hands Off’ zone, detective.”
“Max, are you aware that everyone at that party will have either arrested you or wanted to kill you at one time or another?”
“So have you, darlin’—but I don’t let that stop me from wanting to suck that frown off your face.” She looked alarmed, as if he might attempt it right on the steps of the station. “Don’t worry, I’ll behave. It’ll make for an entertaining afternoon.”
Charlotte continued to scowl as they walked down the busy sidewalk, trying to hang on to her annoyance with him, because she was so aware of him next to her that her whole body was humming. Every seemingly innocent touch deepened that urgent vibration. The brush of his hand against hers. The nudge of his hip. The stroke of his fingertips on the small of her back when they stepped aside to let a tourist family pass. Calculated torture, after four very long days and lonely nights.
“So,” he began, “what exactly does one do at these events? Make shoptalk?”
“You’ll be terribly bored. And most likely, the topic of conversation.”
“How flattering. How could I find that boring?”
“Mostly there’s eating, drinking, and softball.”
“I know how to eat without using my fingers, so I won’t embarrass you there. I don’t drink, so I won’t make a fool out of myself. I’ve never played a team sport. I th
ink I might enjoy it.”
“We already have teams.”
Because her tone was stingy and uninviting, he merely smiled. “Then I’ll sit on the sidelines with the spouses and significant others to cheer you on and talk, what, knitting and child rearing?”
She almost smiled back, imagining him wedged in between the cop wives. “Like you know anything about those things.”
“I can learn. I’m very open-minded. Unlike you, detective.”
She glanced up at him in surprise. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
They walked in silence until Max stopped before one of the Quarter’s exclusive hotels in the heart of the old district. Pale rose-colored stucco and wrought-iron charm sat above a busy café. “What do you think?”
“About what? You want to eat here?”
He smiled. “We could order off the menu, or you could let me get lucky with some à la carte upstairs.”
A bolt of pure desire shot to her loins. “You got a room?”
The key dangled. “I’m an optimist, detective.” He stepped closer, the heat of his nearness burning like a thousand suns.
“Can I have a sandwich, too?” Her hands slipped under the vest, curving around to the back pockets of his jeans to tug him against her.
“You can have anything you want.”
“I want you, Savoie. Right now.”
He grinned. “We might want to step off the sidewalk first.”
Two
THEIR ROOM WAS on the second floor facing the courtyard, where jovial diners drank Hurricanes and listened to a wailing Doug Kershaw tune. The sound filtered up through the open balcony doors to mingle with cool shadows.
“This is nice.”
Max’s arms slipped about her waist. “It is nice. Dance with me.”
He didn’t have to coax her to lean into him. With her head on his shoulder and her eyes closed, Charlotte let herself be moved by the music and Max Savoie.
After a few minutes he tipped her chin up for a long, very thorough kiss while never missing a beat. Her heart was pounding by the time he eased back into soft, searching nibbles.
When she started to reach for him, he caught her wrists and held them down at her sides. “Hands off, detective,” he murmured against her mouth. “Just stand there and let me work.”
She closed her eyes, trusting him the way she could no other, wanting him the way she would no other.
His tongue slid across her parted lips, teasing lightly until she moaned. When he eased her shirt over her head she offered him the curve of her throat, shivering when his mouth moved down to the valley of her collarbone, chasing along those tempting contours with the sweep of his lips as his clever fingers worked the hooks of her bra. Then that barrier was gone, as well.
His touch was maddeningly light, skimming her ribs, tracing the underswell of her breasts, thumbs buffing her nipples until they were tight and achy. Her hands shook, fisting with the need to grab onto him.
“You’re all I could think about,” he confided softly. “The feel of you. The scent of you. The taste of you.”
She toed out of her boots and tore down her zipper. His hands covered hers, warm, effortlessly controlling.
“Let me do that, sha.”
He peeled down her jeans, kneeling to pull them free. His strong fingers massaged the tops of her feet, around her slender ankles, stroking up the sleek muscle of her calves, kneading the tight curve of her thighs. Working out the tension, building up the anticipation. His tongue joined in, licking up the silkiness of her skin and she bucked when he tasted her heat. Replacing it with his hand, he rose to assess her flushed features.
“How much did you miss me, cher?”
She struggled to hang onto control, breathing hard as he plunged his fingers inside her again and again. With a ragged cry, she held onto him as she came apart, her knees giving out. The scoop of his arm about her waist was the only thing keeping her on her feet.
When her mind finally cleared from its sensory daze, she sighed. “I missed you like air. Like light. Like sound.”
“Yeah?” He smoothed her hair back with a tender touch.
“You rock my world, Savoie.”
“And I’m about to do it again.”
THEY WERE STRETCHED out atop the crisp sheets, letting the sweat dry on their skin beneath the lazy loops of the ceiling fan.
Cee Cee gave his neck an affectionate nuzzle. “Do I still get my sandwich?”
“Absolutely.”
She chuckled softly. “I’m surprised I still have an appetite, after listening to Dovion go on about his latest mystery.”
Max trailed his fingertips up and down her back, feeling ridiculously relaxed and content. “What’s he got under the sheet now? Nothing quite as interesting as me, I presume.”
“You’re always interesting under the sheets.” She nipped his shoulder playfully, then settled her cheek against his chest. “Some floater with an exploded brain.”
Max’s expression froze. “’Cuse me?”
“Massive hemorrhage with no sign of medical cause or trauma. Like it just blew apart. How does something like that happen, I wonder?”
Max was very afraid he knew.
As he’d been taught so severely and well, he swallowed down the panic and pushed away the knowledge of his world possibly crashing down atop his head. He took a slow, deep breath and let it out. Until he knew for certain, there was no reason to alert the precious woman in his arms. Once he knew, he’d have to figure out when and what to tell her. Even as his insides trembled, his hand was steady as he drew her in for a soft kiss.
“I suppose I have to return you to work so they don’t think I’ve kidnapped you.”
She smiled at him. “Would you? I think I’d like you to abscond with me.”
As his fingertips traced the line of her jaw, she saw a sudden seriousness on his face. “I love you, Charlotte. You are being very, very careful, aren’t you?”
“As in crossing the street and checking the expiration dates on the milk?” she teased. When he didn’t smile, she took his hand in hers. “I’m a cop. I’m suspicious of everything and everyone. But I have to be out there doing my job. You know that, Max. You know that’s who I am, and what I do.”
His eyes darkened with something rare enough to alarm her. Fear. A fear so great he wasn’t able to hide it from her—he, the master of concealment. His voice rumbled with emotion. “I simply can’t go on without you. I can’t.”
Something was very, very wrong to have him so unexpectedly vulnerable. Instead of pushing for an answer he wasn’t ready to give, she heaved an aggravated sigh.
“Oh, dammit.”
“What?”
“I’m afraid I simply have to have you again.”
She slid her knee across his thighs, straddling him, moving against him with illicit intention as she murmured, “If you’re up for it.” A moment later, she chuckled huskily. “I guess that answers my question. And quite nicely, too.”
She eased back, taking him slowly, by delicious increments, until they were both tense with the effort of restraint. And when he filled her the way nothing else could, she whispered fiercely against his mouth, “You’re mine, Savoie. I will never give you up. Remember that.”
She was rough, demanding, excited by her control over this wild, dangerous creature who was so much more than just a man. Thrilled and just a bit terrified that she could humble him so completely with her kiss, with her touch, with the hoarse whisper of his name. More than a little afraid of how desperately she desired him, needed him, every moment. Like air. Like light. Like sound.
And when he rolled over her, claiming her with deep, forceful strokes, she answered with an equal abandon, urging their hot, sweaty mating to its shattering conclusion. Then she held him close, luxuriating in the heavy weight of him, in the harsh sound of his breathing, in the rapid beat of his heart.
“I’ll be careful if you’ll do the same,” she promised softly. “Be
cause I simply can’t go on without you, either.”
MAX INSISTED ON walking her inside the station, and perhaps because she was still a bit wobbly, she didn’t argue. Though he was well behaved, keeping an impersonal distance as he escorted her to her desk, she knew they fooled no one. He was swaggering and wearing a smug smile, and she was wearing the tac vest and carrying her untouched sandwich.
As she pulled back her chair, he said her name. She looked up and almost fell over the casters in her hurry to avoid the downward swoop of his mouth.
“Max,” she hissed, her gaze flying frantically toward her coworkers. “What are you doing?”
“Thanking you. Lunch was tasty and satisfying, as always.”
“Step back, Savoie. Thank me later, when we’re a little less conspicuous.”
An annoyed, arrogant light glittered beneath his heavy-lidded stare. “Afraid we’ll shock them senseless?” He looked around and asked loudly, “Is there anyone here who doesn’t know Detective Caissie and I are having sex?”
Silence. Everyone stared at them for a long moment, then they gradually all went back to work.
Max grinned at her horrified face. “Whoops. Guess the cat’s out of the bag. You can thank me now, Charlotte.” He tapped two fingers to the smirky curve of his mouth. When she continued to stare at him, aghast, furious, her body frozen in denial, his amusement fled.
“I shouldn’t have embarrassed you,” he said coolly. “I’m sorry. I won’t make that mistake again.”
He stepped back, then turned to stride rapidly toward the exit.
She watched him go. Taking a breath. Then another. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she muttered.
He’d almost reached the door when she called his name, making him look around. She was on him so hard and fast, he staggered as her mouth crushed his. She poured herself into the kiss, holding absolutely nothing back until they were both breathless and slightly dazed. Still clinging to his shoulders for balance, she saw the surprise melt into pleasure in his eyes. And that made the risk worth it.
