by Jill Shalvis
His gaze slid over her body and went a long way toward warming her up, but what went even further was when he pulled off his windbreaker and wrapped her up in it.
“Thanks,” she said, hugging it to herself, soaking in the body heat he’d left for her. Lucas pulled her around the back of the bingo hall and there in the shadows, as everyone else filtered out of the village for the night, she told him everything she’d learned from the ladies.
Lucas nodded. “It’s true that Santa’s brother comes by at the end of the evening to pick up the dough. I want to stick around and try to get eyes on him. How are you doing, you okay? You’ve been on your feet—”
“I’m good. How did you find out he’d be here tonight?”
He gave a small smile. “The elf who hired you. Louise. Brought her a laced hot chocolate and she got very talkative.”
“Nice,” Molly said. “And you didn’t even have to shake it all night.”
Lucas smiled. “I liked how you shook it.”
“How would you know? You were out charming Louise.”
“I kept an eye on you.”
“Because you thought I needed backup, or because you liked how I shook it?”
“Everyone needs backup, Molly. Including me.” He smiled. “But I love how you shake it. I’m going to the offices and watch for Santa and his brother. Would you like to wait in the car?”
“No.”
He nodded, not looking surprised. They went through the trees to stay out of sight. It was dark and not easy going for her. Lucas led the way, keeping a tight grip on her hand. The ground was uneven and a wind furled through the trees overhead, brushing over her with icy fingers. She couldn’t see a thing. The only thing she could hear was her own accelerated breathing and the occasional hum of an insect, which sure as hell better not be crawling on her. It was hard to believe that they were still smack in the middle of the city of San Francisco.
Then Lucas stopped and she nearly plowed into him. His hands reached out to steady her. “There’s still a light on in the office,” he murmured against her ear.
“Wait here,” she said. “I’ve got an idea.” She started to walk out from the trees, but Lucas caught her.
“No way,” he said.
“No, it’s okay, trust me. I’ll be right back.” She strode around to the front of the trailer/office so it wouldn’t look like she’d just come from the woods, and headed up the stairs, letting herself in.
Louise and Santa were heads together, going over a ledger. They both looked up when she entered. “Hi,” she said cheerfully with a wave.
Louise smiled.
Santa did not.
“I just wanted to say thanks for hiring me,” Molly said. “I had a great time tonight and just wanted to know what other nights you need me this week.”
Santa rolled his eyes and strode past her without a word. Louise brought up a schedule on her laptop. “I’m good until Friday night. So three nights from now.”
“I’ll be here,” Molly said. “Well, thanks again. Good night.” She hustled out the door fast as she dared, heading around the trailer, where she nearly collided with a brick wall. A warm, solid, familiar brick wall.
Lucas easily absorbed the impact, wrapping an arm around her without hesitation, leading her back into the trees.
“If you wanted to get me alone, all you had to do was say so,” she said breathlessly, and not all from their fast pace.
“Oh, I want to get you alone.” Lucas brushed his mouth up her jaw to speak in a husky low voice right in her ear. “But as previously mentioned, not in the woods—” He broke off when she pulled something from inside her elf costume. A man’s wallet.
“Santa’s,” she said.
He went brows up. “You found Santa’s wallet?”
“More like lifted it from his back pocket.”
Lucas just stared at her. “Without him knowing?”
“That’s sorta the definition of ‘lifting it from his back pocket.’”
He shook his head. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or . . .”
“—Horrified? I know.” She shrugged. “I get that reaction from men a lot.” She started to turn away but he caught her.
“—Or amazed,” he finished. “I don’t know whether to be impressed or amazed.”
“Impressed and amazed are the same thing,” she said, hoping he’d ignore the blush of pleasure she could feel creeping up her cheeks.
He flashed a smile that she felt all the way to her toes and everywhere in between. “You’re as good as Joe,” he said. “But I think I like working with you better.”
She squirmed under the high praise. Indeed, she’d learned B&E from way too young of an age, but she and Joe had done what they’d had to and their survival instincts were finely honed. She didn’t get to use her skills much anymore, but it was good to know they were still there. “I couldn’t get a good snoop on in there,” she said. “We’re going to have to wait for them to leave and then go back in.”
Again his mouth brushed the shell of her ear, giving her another of those full body shivers of the very best kind when he said, “You turn me on when you talk dirty like that.”
She snorted, but the feel-good glow was still lighting her up from the inside out. They waited a few minutes. Lights turned off in the trailer and Louise left.
“Was Santa with her?” she whispered.
“I don’t think so.”
“He had to be. The place is dark. We must’ve missed him. Let’s go.”
“No,” Lucas said as she ran up the stairs to the trailer door. “Molly, wait—”
Before he could finish the sentence, a car pulled up behind them.
At the same exact moment, the trailer door suddenly opened. Molly froze but Lucas pushed her up against the railing, and with one hand on the back of her neck, began kissing her with the same intensity as he had earlier in the car and then some. She was so shocked, she remained frozen.
Not Lucas. He had one arm low around her back, his other hand slowly fisting in her hair to hold her still for his passionate and demanding mouth, which admittedly left her more than a little weak in the knees. Apparently realizing that, he easily lifted her weight, setting her butt on the railing, pushing his way between her legs to deepen the kiss.
A tingle started at her toes, working its way to her center. From somewhere deep in the recesses of her mind, she knew this was a cover, that it wasn’t real, but it was hard to keep that thought. Because if this was the way he solved problems . . . well, she really liked the way he worked.
“Jesus,” Santa muttered as he passed through. “Take it to a room.”
Molly barely registered the guy clomping down the stairs toward the waiting car carrying his duffle bag bulging with the night’s gains before he got into the passenger seat and the car vanished into the night.
Lucas let go of her and turned to get a better look at the car as it drove off.
Both Santa and the driver turned to look at him, and for one heart-stopping beat everyone stared at each other.
Then the car sped up and was gone.
Lucas turned back to Molly, who was still balanced on the railing, dazed. “Did you just . . . put the elf on the shelf?” she asked.
He gave a disbelieving head shake.
She felt a little disbelieving herself. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel his arms wrapped tight around her, holding her safely onto the railing, his mouth sensual and erotic on hers. He’d taken her from chilled to overheated in a blink. In fact, she’d forgotten about the case, about the cold night, about trying to resist him and his insane sexiness for her own sanity. And much as she felt bowled over by their physical attraction, it went far deeper than just physical for her.
She thought she was the sneaky queen, but Lucas could teach her a few tricks, making her realize she had a lot to learn. He was badass and sneaky in his own right, and that was a ridiculous turn-on. Dammit.
“There was no license plate on that
car,” he said. “Did you see the driver?”
She hopped down from the railing. “He had a hat low over his eyes. Looked shady as hell. Also that was cash in that bulging duffle bag and it was full—also shady as hell.”
“Everything about this creepy place is shady as hell,” he said.
“I told you they’re making bank. Question is, where is it all really going?” She turned to the trailer, but Lucas stopped her.
“Not yet,” he said. “We’re going to the car to give this place another half hour to empty out.”
“Everyone’s gone.”
He slid her a look. “That’s what you thought last time. You’ve pushed your luck enough tonight.”
He was right. “Lucas—”
“Not here.”
They walked to the car in silence, where Lucas locked them in. “I asked you to wait before heading into the trailer,” he said. “Instead you almost got caught.”
“Yeah, but—”
“When I tell you to wait, you need to wait.”
She narrowed her eyes. She knew she was in the wrong here, but she couldn’t help herself. “Maybe you want to rephrase that.”
“I don’t.”
She crossed her arms, but he didn’t back down. “Are you saying that if I’d said ‘please wait,’ you would have?” he asked.
Good point. Dammit. She just looked at him.
He looked at her right back. She realized in the year she’d been working at Hunt, she’d never seen him really mad before, but he was close now. She’d missed the signs what with all the adrenaline and lust running through her veins instead of blood. “Okay,” she said slowly. “Let’s try this again. I’m sorry I didn’t wait when you said it. Annnddd . . . you’re sorry you barked at me like you’re my drill sergeant, right?”
“Look,” he said, “on the job, I can be . . . focused.”
“Wow.” She shook her head. “You’re really bad at apologies.”
“That wasn’t an apology. When I apologize you’ll know it.”
She narrowed her gaze. “Oh, is that right—”
Before she could finish that sentence, he hauled her up and over the console and then his mouth came down on hers in a long, slow, deep kiss. After a long, breathless moment, he pulled back a fraction, eyes dark, voice low. “I’m sorry I told instead of asking all pretty, but in the field things happen fast, and in the case of life and death, I’m always going to put your life ahead of mine. So keep that in mind next time you act without thinking.”
The magnitude of that, the meaning behind the words slowly sank in and she softened. “Lucas—”
He kissed her again, whispered “sorry” again, taking his time too, and he’d been right, she realized, when he did apologize, she most definitely knew it. And he went on to apologize quite thoroughly too, until she couldn’t even remember what he was sorry for.
Or her own name.
Chapter 12
#ShelfTheElf
Lucas had lost his damn mind. Molly wasn’t for him, and yet the memo had clearly not made it from his brain to his hands. Or his tongue.
Or to any other essential body parts . . .
He tried to shake off the sensual, erotic haze that always came over him when he was close to her like this, but realized the haze was actually real. They’d fogged up the windows. “Not smart,” he said. “Steaming up the windows on a stakeout.”
Her short, tight green elf dress had risen high on her creamy thighs, and far before he was done soaking up the sight, she attempted to smooth it down with shaking fingers. “It’s the oddest thing,” she whispered, straightening her elf cap.
“What?”
“I really don’t want to want you, but I do.” She stared at him contemplatively. “I mean what is that?”
He felt his lips curve. He could have said right back attcha, babe, but instead he said, “It’s because I’m irresistible.”
“Keep telling yourself that. And I’ll keep reminding myself that I’m not attracted to guys like you.”
“Guys like me?” he asked. “What does that mean?”
“Big. Badass. Doggedly aggressive . . .” She used her arm to swipe at the steamed-up passenger window. “Annoyingly high-sexualized chemistry,” she said to the glass.
He was glad she wasn’t looking at him right then because his triumphant smile would’ve made her mad. He really was trying not to be all in with her, and not just because of Joe and the job but because he hadn’t planned on being “all in” with anyone ever again. But she sat there looking so sexy and adorable at the same time in that costume, all pissy and grumpy because she wanted him. It would take a far better man than him to resist that.
“Very annoying,” she muttered to herself, crossing her arms over her chest.
“You didn’t feel all that annoyed a minute ago.”
“Hmph.”
Her bad ’tude and reluctance to accept their attraction amused him. Which spoke volumes on his mental maturity. But he had to find the humor in this to keep everything—including her—compartmentalized.
And it wasn’t as if she was going to go all in with him either. She kept herself closed off to him in most ways, but ever since she’d slept in his bed, their physical chemistry refused to be ignored.
“This is all your fault,” she said. “You shouldn’t have kissed me again.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “It was you nearly getting caught that led to that kiss. And while we’re on that, you’re welcome for saving your very sexy, impulsive ass.”
“So you’re telling me that kiss was simply a diversion tactic?” she asked. “All the tongue, the hand on my ass, all of it just for the job?”
Their gazes locked. “That’s not what you asked,” he said.
“I’m asking now.”
There was the simple answer, which was that’s what he wanted the kiss to have been. A diversion tactic, nothing more. But the more complicated answer was that the kiss had only started out that way and had quickly proven to him that nothing was simple between the two of them. Not a single thing, including the emotions she stirred up from deep inside him, emotions he’d long ago buried.
Emotions he couldn’t afford. “The kiss started out a diversion,” he admitted. “But ended up something else entirely.” And every single word of that sentence was 100 percent true. He looked over at her, and in the ambient lighting of the car’s interior, waited for a response.
But fascinatingly enough, it was her turn to do a tap dance around the truth. “I was doing fine,” she said.
“Sure you were,” he said. “You were doing fine at getting caught. You know, I thought your brother was the most stubborn person I’ve ever met, but he’s got nothing on you.”
She shrugged, clearly taking that as a compliment. “I could’ve handled myself.”
“I have no doubt,” he said. “But you’re not an ‘I.’ You’re a ‘we.’ If any of us at Hunt had pulled that stunt tonight, Archer would have had our ass in a sling.” He opened his car door. “Let’s go get the rest of this over with.”
The village was lights out, locked down. Molly nodded to the now locked gate. “How long would it take you to break in?”
They both knew B&E was Joe’s specialty, but Lucas was no slouch. “Two minutes. Ish.”
“Move,” she said, nudging him aside. “I can do it in one.”
And she did. And though it should have annoyed the shit out of him, it had the opposite effect. Watching her work the lock on that gate in the promised sixty seconds dressed as an elf turned him on even more than the costume.
They walked quietly and quickly through the dark village to the trailer office. Also locked.
Molly looked up at him with hope and excitement and he gestured for her to have at it.
Again, she got them inside in less than a minute. She beamed up at him, eyes shining with adrenaline and pride, and he had no idea what came over him. He slid his hand around the nape of her neck, pulled her to him, and kissed her
. It was unsatisfyingly short, but no less potent for it, and when he pulled away, he had a surge of male satisfaction at seeing her eyes now slightly dazed.
“What was that for?” she asked.
“I don’t know. You drive me crazy.”
She nodded. “I get that a lot.”
“I meant crazy in a really great way.”
She stared up at him, nibbling her bottom lip, appearing to be struck mute by this confession. She didn’t know what to make of him.
Which made two of them.
She turned from him and eyed the office. Typical rectangle shape, stuffed with a shabby couch, three seen-better-days desks, and a filing cabinet. “What do you think?” she asked.
What did he think? He wanted to sprawl the elf out on one of the desks and taste every inch of her. That’s what he thought.
She looked up, caught his expression, and paused. “Do I want to know?”
“If you knew, you’d be running for the hills.”
She paused, as if she was debating pushing him on the issue.
Do it, he thought.
But she shrugged it off and pulled open a drawer. “Oh boy.”
He moved to her side in time to see that every drawer she pulled out was empty, including the cabinet file.
“Think he cleans out every night?” Molly asked. “Or was that for our benefit?”
“I don’t know. But we’re going to find out.”
She nodded and did a slow circle, her eyes running over the entire place.
No paper trail. No computer.
Nothing.
“What now?” she asked softly.
“We come back,” Lucas said. “Your next shift. There’s got to be some point in the evening where this office is left unattended. Maybe during bingo. I’ll get in then.”
She looked over him. “Sounds dangerous.”
He shrugged. He’d been in far worse circumstances.
She just looked at him.
“What?” he asked.
“I don’t like the feeling that I’m putting you into a dangerous situation.”
He let out a low laugh. “You know the nature of some of the jobs we take on. This is nothing.”
“You’d better not get hurt. Not on my watch.”
