by Livia Quinn
“I’ll bet it didn’t hurt your martial arts technique either.”
“That’s right—here we are.”
The orchestra was playing a salsa and the dance floor was packed. Del said loudly, “I love the name. It fits.”
He held out his hand. “Let’s do it.”
She gave him a skeptical look but he pulled her onto the floor. For two hours he led her in other dances—the tango, rhumba. He loved how she threw herself into the cha-cha. Loved the way her hips moved in that slinky blue dress. And oh-la-lah! in the rhumba he got a preview of the intimate dance that was sure to happen between them. She hadn’t known the exact steps but she followed his lead like she was born to it.
On the final note of the rumba her eyes burned with desire.
“Time to go.” Luc heard the roughness in his voice, his anticipation growing as they walked through the front entrance to his car. The valet flipped the keys to him and Luc walked to the passenger side. In the shadows of the parking lot, he pressed her against the car urgently, bent his head and kissed her.
Her arm circled his neck and she kissed him back until the sound of someone gunning an engine nearby reminded him where they were.
“Delilah—”
She kissed him quickly. “Let’s get out of here.” He opened the door for her and went around to start the engine. Pulling out of the lot, he was struck by how right it felt to be with her. And now she was about to send him on his way with a Night, Luc, dinner was great. See you around. Should he tell her how much he wanted to see her again? Should he ask to come in for a “nightcap”. How cliché can you get, Larue?
He pulled into her space and went around to help her out. At the door, he paused, holding his breath. “D—”
“Do you want to come in?”
All of Luc’s Mr. T genes were saying, Yes! She smiled at his relief. “I’d like that,” said the ridiculously calm voice of his alter ego. Luc wasn’t calm at all. His nerves were practically twitching to get his hands on her and afraid it wasn’t going to happen.
She pushed the door open and took Luc’s hand, tugging him across the threshold. He shut the front door behind him, and turned toward their reflections in the floor-to-ceiling mirror of the foyer. The tall broad shouldered man in the black suit standing next to the shapely woman in blue. Was that her? Delilah Burke, police officer? No, but tonight Delilah Burke, siren, was just as real. And she wanted the man next to her, as she’d never desired anyone.
Luc moved behind her. Pushed her hair over one shoulder, “You’re beautiful, Delilah, and so hot, I’m about to go up in flames.” He kissed her neck, ran his hand over her skin and under the strap at her shoulder. “Your skin is smoother than silk. He sucked gently on the vein at her neck, making her inhale sharply as desire flooded her.
His hands cupped her breasts through the fabric but his eyes were on hers, on her tongue moistening lips gone dry from the burning heat of passion.
“Watch,” he instructed in her ear. Her dress slipped off her shoulders as air from the vent blew across her chest, revealing her breasts like the unveiling of a great masterpiece, the intake of breath causing them to rise as he reached around her to tweak one nipple and took the other in his mouth. His hair drifted across her chest as he suckled gently. Then his eyes met hers in the mirror, “You like that?”
Her eyes closed as he did it again, his right hand going to the fabric of her dress raising it slowly up her body until he could run his palm up the inside of her thigh, finding her center, pressing his finger inside. Her eyes closed.
“Yeah, you like it.”
He unzipped the dress in back at the waist and stood behind her. “Open your eyes, Delilah.” He said her name in a new sexier way, like a song.
She did and the image of the fully dressed man next to the naked woman, the cobalt gown sliding into a puddle at her feet, made her legs weak. Desire raced through her limbs and she held on to him for support as her knees threatened to give out.
“What’s this?” His voice was gruff, his eyes… stricken.
The imperfection on her skin had been exposed, a recently healed scar over one hip. Keep it light. “Bullet grazed me. It wasn’t serious.”
The muscles in his jaw worked.
“Luc, it’s what I do. You know that,” she said a bit harshly, attempting to get their moment back.
“I’m used to female warriors, remember. I know it doesn’t have to make you live your life in fear, but treasure each moment. I—” he clamped his mouth shut.
She reached a hand up to stroke his glorious dark jaw. “What?”
His eyes were intense green gems. “It’s just…I almost lost you before I ever met you.”
Her heart tripped at the sincerity in his words. He felt protective of her, and even though she didn’t need protecting, something stirred inside her. Something urged her to lighten the moment… “Well, I’m here now, Luc. Screw my brains out.”
His smile kicked up and letting her dress slide to the floor, he swooped her into his arms with seemingly no more effort than picking up Abby’s cat.
“Wow, I’ve always wanted someone to do that.” She pointed toward the hall.
He strode toward her bedroom.
*
“You’re muscled like a cop should be, and soft where a woman should be,” Luc said as he knelt between her legs and kissed her inner thigh.
“Ah, Luc,” she squirmed as he dragged his tongue toward her center.
“My cop is ticklish. How…” he waggled his eyebrows, “…useful. But I have the solution.” He moved over her, lowered his lips to hers and filled her with one strong slide. Holding inside her and feeling her pulse around him, he exhaled and nearly came. “Let’s slow down a second,” he said, pulling out but still touching her sensitive folds.
“Luc, I want you inside me. Her hands snuck around his perfect cheeks attempting to tug him back inside her. She should have known she wouldn’t be able to budge him until he was ready. She needed to make him ready. Rising up she took his mouth with hers, plunging her tongue into his mouth, showing him what she wanted. He groaned answering the kiss with mounting urgency. Then, breaking the kiss, he said, “I want this to last for you, sweetheart…”
“Next time. I want you inside me now, Luc.” Luc heard her determination, saw the passion in her gaze and with one thrust he filled her making her cry out, her fingernails digging into his skin. He lost it, driving into her as her body clenched around him, her ankles flexing on his hips.
“Faster,” she breathed, and he complied, not that he had a choice. She cried out as he plunged into her for the last time, thanking all the saints he was able to satisfy her because he’d wanted her in a really bad way. For days.
They lay exhausted afterward, her head resting on his chest as her finger trailed along the veins in his arm, then across his chest to the flat nipple.
“You’re going to get in trouble, officer,” Luc teased.
“I can handle it, big boy,” she flicked his nipple. Then, remembering, she propped herself up on his chest.
“Is Luc your real name, or a stage name?”
He snorted, “No, it’s real. My cousin and I were born two days apart and our mothers named us as if we were twins. It was kind of embarrassing until he became famous.”
“Ah, right. Duc Larue, the movie star. He hasn’t been home in a long time has he?”
“He stays really busy but last time I talked to him he promised to come home for our next family reunion.”
“I thought maybe you were named after your father,” Delilah said, twirling her finger around the nipple and down. “Your stomach is like a human roller coaster.” Her hand passed over the ridge of each ab on their way south.
“Ah,” he said as her hand went around him and stroked, just once. Her mouth kicked up in a mischievous smile. “Samantha—Jesus, woman.”
“You were saying,” Delilah said, flicking her tongue into his navel. “Such a sexy navel.”
“
Sam was named after my father.”
“Oh my God, you’re the only boy.”
He groaned as her hand squeezed him. “It is… what it is.”
“No wonder you have such a strong protective side.” Tender, too. She crawled up his body, sliding down onto him. She squeezed and his hips thrust upward. She stroked her hands through his hair. “Bet the women in the family love this hair, too.”
He laughed. “Not mama-bear. She liked the Marine cut.”
Another brick laid in the traditional man of honor’s cornerstone, Del thought. There was no sense questioning why she felt so comfortable with him so quickly. The man was perfect. She chuckled.
He squeezed her breast. “What so funny?”
“Do you have any faults?”
He flipped her over as if she were weightless and looked down at her. “Are you kidding? I eat kittens for breakfast. Where’s your cat? I’ll show you. And—”
She tugged him down and took him like a cop, ‘taking no prisoners’. It was noon before they rose to get breakfast and she made him promise, “no felines”.
CHAPTER 11
L uc strolled up the walkway to his townhouse. Eyeing the paper on his doorstep, he smiled remembering how he and Delilah had shared the paper in her bed over coffee. She had to have the Sports section first. It seemed she was a big football and tennis fan. He laughed, remembering her trying to talk him out of his Saints tie. If she hadn’t had to work they might have spent the rest of the day together tearing up her slinky silver sheets.
He stooped to pick up the paper, and a pair of women’s jogging shoes attached to a tanned pair of legs came into view. He raised his head to see Mercy Love standing in front of him. He hadn’t even heard her walk up.
“Why, Luc. I didn’t know you lived at Coralgate.”
His eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here, Mercy?”
Mercy placed one hand on her hip and shook her head. “Someone got out of the bed on the wrong side this beautiful Sunday morning, and it wasn’t me. I decided to go for a run and was across the street when I saw you drive up.”
Luc studied the woman in front of him. Either she was a marathon jogger who had to go many miles before she broke a sweat or she was lying. It was after noon and hot enough that her perfect makeup should have been glossy with perspiration. On top of that he didn’t know any bra-less joggers—not with her dimensions.
“You live around here?” Luc asked, swiping his hand through his damp hair. He sure hoped not.
“Oh, I just felt like trying a new route today. And it’s so serendipitous that I ran into you. This could have waited until tomorrow but since—” she looked down at his key. “I’m sorry, you were just coming home from a hot date, weren’t you? Would you like to go inside and we can talk?”
“I’m good.” He crossed his arms and asked, “What did you want to ask me?”
She waved her hand. “There’s a party next weekend over at Wexler Studios. I thought you might like to go as my escort. We might pick up some work by rubbing hips with that crowd.”
Thank God he already had plans for the weekend and didn’t have to come up with a lie that she could read on his face. “Sorry, I have plans next weekend.”
She ran one perfectly manicured, fire engine red nail over her exceptionally shiny lips. Seductive gesture that and it didn’t even register on his lust meter. Actually, it might have—below zero.
“Who with?” she asked rather proprietarily.
“Quite frankly, Mercy, it’s none of your business.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing, Luc. I’m a helluva lot more experienced at keeping a man satisfied than say, a certain bimbo cop.”
A frisson of unease shot down Luc’s spine but he hoped he hid it. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mercy. And I don’t really care. Now if that’s all, I’ll see you at work tomorrow.”
She stood eerily still for a few seconds and Luc wondered if she was waiting for him to blink. He didn’t. She sighed, “All right then. Guess I’ll just get back to my run. See you tomorrow. Be careful.”
She jogged off down the sidewalk, but Luc didn’t wait to see how long she could keep up the pace. He let himself inside the townhouse and turned both locks.
How did Mercy know about Del? Was it female intuition? He thought back to the afternoon Del came by KPI. They didn’t actually meet did they? He threw his keys in the tray by the door. No, she was shooting in the dark, messing with him as usual.
He grabbed an NA beer from the fridge and went through the glass doors of the dining room to his gym. He liked having it in his home where he could workout whenever it was convenient. Occasionally he hit the Knights gym when he was in the mood to socialize with the other cover models but today especially, he just wanted to savor the memory of last night with Delilah.
He’d had no idea when he met her, with her stiff posture and dressed in her street uniform, with the utility belt and gun on her hip that she would light his fire quite so quickly. He groaned. Reminiscing hadn’t been a good idea. He stripped down and stepped into the bathroom to take a cold shower. When he got back to the gym he’d think of something else, like that bitch, Mercy.
CHAPTER 12
“Damn,” Luc hissed at the sight of his SUV practically sitting on the asphalt. Dialing KPI he asked to speak to Ridge.
In ten seconds Ridge answered, “Luc, what’s up? Don’t you have a shoot at 8:00?”
Luc rubbed his eyes. “I’m sorry Ridge. I’m going to be late. I have four flat tires. I’ve got to call my insurance agent, call a cab and AAA.”
“Damn, who did you piss off?” Ridge asked, concern in his voice.
Luc could have answered that question but he shook his head. He had yet to discuss his problem with Mercy with his boss. Besides, this couldn’t have been her. “I read in the paper that it happened to one of my neighbors last week. Must be some kids performing a graduation hazing ritual or something.
Ridge said, “You make your calls and I’ll send my driver over for you. Then if someone has to be there while they fix the tires, he can meet them there. You can make your shoot, and I can keep my wifey happy.”
“Thanks, Ridge. Look—” He needed to think about the situation with Mercy before talking to Ridge about her and coming off like some kind of sissy?
“What?”
“Nothing. I’ll be ready when he gets here.”
Ridge’s driver waited on him to get his duffle and took him directly to the production door but he was still twenty-five minutes late. As he made his way to his dressing room, Mercy came swishing down the hall in her Regency costume. “Where have you been? You’ve run everyone late. And you call me a Prima-donna.” She glared at him.
Was she that good an actress or was he just wrong about her? The photographer walked up behind her. “I’d have been on time but someone—let the air out of my tires.”
“Oh, Luc. That’s terrible.” She tried to engulf him in one of her smelly hugs but he pushed into his dressing room. “I’ll just be a couple minutes, Roger.”
Her eyes had flared just a bit when he explained, like the news wasn’t that terrible or she thought he might have deserved it or…nah, forget it Larue. Be honest, you just don’t like her. Damn right he didn’t.
*
The rest of the day went without a hitch. Two shoots, one with Mercy, one with Taylor Evans, a slender actress who had just started doing some shoots to make ends meet between acting jobs. She was a friend of Buffy’s sister.
Luc planned on catching a cab home but when he walked out the back door, a navy blue police car sat in the first space, the cop leaning against it looking decidedly unhappy. He nodded. “Delilah?”
“Don’t Delilah me. Why didn’t you call me this morning when you found out your tires were slashed?”
Frowning, Luc said, “Why would I bother you with that?”
She walked up to him. “Maybe because it’s my job, Luc.” The door to the studio opened and Mercy a
nd Roger walked out.
Damn. Luc just nodded, hoping they’d keep going but Mercy stopped. “Everything okay, Luc?” She put her hand on his arm—as if he wanted her support—then glanced at Delilah. “Didn’t we meet the other day?” Mercy asked Del. “Is Luc in some kind of trouble, officer?”
Luc gritted his teeth. “I’ve got this, Mercy. Roger. Thanks for stopping, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Go away, Mercy.
Mercy lingered, but when Roger tugged on her arm she let him drag her away to his car.
Luc turned to Delilah. “Look Del, I didn’t even think about calling the police this morning. I thought kids had just let the air out until the tire center called to tell me they were slashed. Then I had to call my insurance agent, arrange for new tires. Besides, there’s been a string of incidents like that lately. I saw it in the paper.”
“All the more reason.” She nodded at KPI. “The receptionist here assumed you’d called the police. She asked me if I was here to take a police report. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have known that someone slashed all of your tires!” Realizing she’d raised her voice, Del looked at the sky, hands on her hips, trying to get her breathing under control.
Luc smiled. “Thanks for worrying about me, Del.” He looked the parking lot over to see if anyone lingered, especially his irritating coworker, but it was deserted. “Can I get a hug, sweetheart? You know the only reason I got sidelined by Mercy that day in the hallway was because I was thinking of you.” He reached for her.
“Don’t you—keep your hands to your self, sweetheart!” She leaned back against her hood and blew out a breath. “Ohhhh. Men.”
He eased over to her, placing his legs around hers. “I’m sorry. It didn’t occur to me that you would find out and be worried.” He kissed her briefly. “That’s sweet.”
A frustrated sigh escaped and she bounced her forehead against his rock hard chest then looked up at him. “Luc, this is probably not the work of kids. Slashing is a personal crime, a violent act meant to send some kind of message. Whoever did that is not happy with you.” She drew her head back to look into his eyes. “If you have any idea who that could be, please, let me do my job.”
