by Trish Wylie
He couldn’t seriously … She shouldn’t want … She lifted her chin an unconscious inch. But instead of kissing her, Daniel stilled and a devastatingly sexy smile formed on his mouth.
‘ ‘Night, babe,’ he said in that voice.
Jo blinked as he crossed the room and she heard the door close. Now he knew what he did to her, he would use it every opportunity he got. Reaching to her side for a throw cushion, she pressed it tight to her face and screamed in frustration.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘Much as I adore summer, I love the rich colours of the fall. Breathe deep right now and even in the city you can sense the approach of something spectacular.’
SHE started it. Hardly the most mature response, but, since he had spent every waking hour replaying the hottest kiss of his life over and over in his mind, Daniel didn’t care.
Even the fact she was who she was didn’t make a difference any more, particularly when he took into consideration how he’d reacted to the box that had greeted him directly at eye level as he opened her bathroom cabinet. It wasn’t that he didn’t think it was sensible to have them there. It wasn’t as if she’d been unfaithful to him or he’d been a saint since the day they met either. But for a split second it had been hard to resist the urge to bring the box back with him, toss it in her lap and demand she told him who she’d used them with.
As it was, he had slammed the cabinet shut and swore there was only one man she would be using them with in the not-too-distant future. She might have unwittingly caught his interest with a pair of red stilettos, but she knew exactly what she’d been doing on the train. Just as he knew exactly what would happen if she discovered he was attracted to her and used it against him.
Unfortunately, when he’d rolled out the heavy artillery, he’d discovered he was dealing with guerilla warfare. She’d hit him hard and fast, disappeared behind the woman who’d bugged him with very little effort, then hit him again when he attempted a temporary ceasefire by doing something nice.
Those boots had a lot to answer for.
He liked to think he’d launched an effective counterattack before he’d left her apartment. She was angry he had kissed her. Most likely wasn’t any happier she’d kissed him back. But she had made it obvious she was open to it happening again. The way Daniel saw it, considering there hadn’t been a whole heap of finesse involved in their first kiss, his next step was to right that wrong.
Taking a stealth approach, he entered the coffee shop by the door furthest from her table. While waiting for his order he did a little reconnaissance. She wouldn’t catch him out the same way twice. Starting with her hair—since it was as far as he could get from the danger zones—he discovered a sleek ponytail. His gaze moved lower to discover a white dress and what looked like a low scooped neckline—needed to be ready for that one, then. Lower still and he frowned as he wondered if there was a worldwide shortage of skirt material. When he remembered how soft her skin was at the back of her thighs he tore his gaze away. He wasn’t convinced he could handle what was on her feet. Not when his body was primed for a lot more than a kiss.
‘Figured it was too good to last,’ she muttered as he set a coffee cup beside her computer and sat down.
‘Miss me?’
‘How about you disappear for more than thirty-two hours and we’ll see if it helps any? A decade might do it.’
Easing the lid off his cup, Daniel stared at her and waited to see how long it would take for her to crack under pressure. To her credit she lasted longer than he expected. In the end it took a yawn she covered with the back of her hand to break the silence.
‘Did you go see Jack again last night?’ he asked. Since she didn’t reply, he took it to mean ‘yes’. ‘I thought we’d agreed you wouldn’t go there alone.’
‘Don’t remember agreeing to that.’
He reached out a hand. ‘Give me your cell phone.’
The demand lifted her gaze. ‘Am I grounded, too?’
‘No,’ he replied. ‘But you’re about five seconds away from a curfew. Phone.’
‘What do you want it for?’
‘I’m going to put my number in it. The next time you have to go there at night, you’ll call me.’
‘No, I won’t.’
Daniel rested his elbow on the table while he took a drink of coffee.
‘You can hold your hand there till you get cramp. I’m not giving you my cell phone.’ She focused on her screen again. ‘I don’t need a bodyguard and you work shifts. Not like you can drop everything and come running to my aid if you’re working at night, is it?’
‘If I’m on duty, Tyler will go with you.’
‘Again, don’t need a bodyguard—but if I did I have Tyler’s number on speed-dial.’
Daniel frowned when his mind decided to make a connection between his brother and the box in her bathroom cabinet. ‘I’m not kidding around here, Jo. Give me the damn cell phone.’
The sharp tone lifted her gaze again. Whatever it was she discovered when she searched his eyes softened her voice. ‘I can take care of myself.’
‘Humour me,’ he replied with more control.
‘Not something I’m usually prone to do …’
‘Make an exception this time.’ He used a beckoning motion with his fingers. ‘If it helps tell yourself just because the number is there doesn’t mean you’ll use it. We can argue that one later.’
Angling her chin, she pouted and thought it over. ‘I don’t suppose you’ll consider going away once the number is there?’
‘Not till I drink my coffee.’
She brightened. ‘Can you drink it faster?’
‘Any particular reason you’re uncomfortable with me being here?’ he enquired.
Avoiding his gaze, she shrugged. ‘No more than usual.’
Daniel smiled. Now he knew what to look for, she sucked at lying. ‘If you don’t give me your cell phone I can make this cup last all day.’ He purposefully lowered his voice. ‘There’s a lot to be said for taking things slowly …’
Frowning, she lifted a pile of papers, produced her cell phone and reached out to drop it in his hand. Wasn’t prepared to risk touching him, was she?
His smile grew. ‘See now, was that so difficult?’
‘Pushing your luck,’ she said as she looked at her screen and lifted her fingers to the keyboard.
Daniel entered his number, sending a text to his phone so he had hers. When he was done, he held his hand up, her phone dead centre in his palm.
She glanced at it. ‘You can put it on the table.’
‘You want it, come get it.’
‘With lines like that I can see how you’re the equivalent of catnip to the ladies …’
With a small sigh, she reached out. When her nails scraped against his skin, every muscle in his body jerked in response. His fingers closed around hers. Full lips parted, her breasts rising on a sharp inward breath as she looked into his eyes.
‘Tell me you’ll call me,’ he said.
‘You said we’d argue about that later.’
‘That was a couple of minutes ago.’ When she tugged on her hand he tightened his hold. ‘Say it.’
‘Daniel—’
‘Why did I follow you, Jo?’
She arched a brow. ‘You know if you keep reminding me what you did it’s not going to help me forgive you any quicker.’
‘Why do you think I did it?’
‘You told me why.’
‘That I wouldn’t have it on my conscience if anything happened to you—still true—but I told you that after I saw where you were.’ Relaxing his hold a little, he brushed his thumb over the soft skin on the back of her hand as he lowered his arm to the table. ‘Now ask yourself why I followed you in the first place.’
‘It’s what you do.’ Her gaze was drawn to the movement of his thumb.
‘Not with everyone. Not enough hours in the day …’
‘Not what I meant. You’re a cop and a Marine, your whole life is based
on a sense of duty towards others. You figured you had to get to the bottom of it because of my relationship with your family.’
Daniel nodded. ‘That’s what I told myself.’
She slipped her hand free and lifted her chin. ‘It’s not that I don’t appreciate your concern—’
‘Concern would be part of it,’ he allowed as he set her cell phone down. ‘Same kind of concern you felt for my safety when I unhooked my harness on the bridge that day.’
‘That wasn’t concern for your safety.’ She scowled. ‘It was incredulity at your stupidity and anger at your lack of consideration for the people who care about you.’
‘You’d have been fine if I fell.’
‘Wasn’t the fall that would have done the damage, it was hitting the water that would have got you killed.’
Daniel kept pushing. ‘You’d have been okay with that?’
‘Of course I wouldn’t have been okay with it. You know what it would have done to your family.’
‘But you’d have been fine.’
‘I’m not having this conversation any more.’ Grabbing her cell phone, she slammed it down on the pile of papers before flicking her ponytail over her shoulder and aiming the scowl at her screen. ‘Go away.’
Daniel took a breath. ‘We may have been arguing since the day we met, but we’ve known each other for almost six years. It’s difficult not to care about someone who’s been there that long. Something happens, you notice the gap left behind. Might take a decade for you to miss me, but I like to think you’d get round to it if you knew I wasn’t coming back.’
Fine-boned fingers stilled on the keyboard as her gaze focused on an invisible point in the air a couple of inches above the screen. During the following silence Daniel tried to figure out if he regretted what he’d said. He probably should, if for no other reason than the fact it explained her second appearance in his nightmare.
‘Why are you telling me this?’
The question was asked in so low a voice he almost missed it in the ambient noise of the coffee shop. While he reached for the lid of his cup, he considered the answer.
Getting them to the point where they both accepted the inevitable conclusion of their volatile attraction was one explanation. It was certainly the one at the forefront of his mind. But the fact he wasn’t firing on all six cylinders might have had something to do with it. If he hadn’t been driven by the need to pick up where they’d left off, he could have tried grabbing some sleep before he went looking for her.
Too late now …
It was bound to happen at some point. Focus was the first thing to go, swiftly followed by hand-to-eye coordination; the latter of which probably explained the reason he was having so much damn difficulty putting the lid back on his cup.
He frowned at it in annoyance.
Resisting the need to yawn when she yawned had been more than a natural reflex. It was a reminder his body could only run for so long on adrenalin alone. His work provided regular top-ups. As did spending time with Jo with the electricity of their attraction constantly crackling in the air between them. But strip those things away and Daniel was bone-tired, off his game and a shadow of his former self.
‘You asked if I ever got tired of this …’ It was as close as he could get to the heart of the problem without giving too much away. ‘Maybe you were right.’ When he managed to slot the lid into place, he stood up. ‘On that note, since I covered half of someone’s shift this morning and I’m back in at four, I better get some sleep.’
He was at the door when she stopped him.
‘Danny?’ She turned in her seat to look at him.
‘Yes?’
‘If I need help, I’ll call.’ The concession was followed by a lift of her brows to indicate it was his turn.
‘You won’t go there alone at night.’
She shook her head. ‘I can’t make that promise.’
‘You’ll change before you go and you’ll be careful.’
‘I’m always careful.’
‘Flat shoes, loose clothes.’ He waved a hand up and down. ‘The kind that cover you from head to toe …’
The smile in her eyes wavered on her lips. ‘Should I put a bag over my head?’
‘A ski-mask would probably help you blend in more easily in that neighbourhood.’ When she rolled her eyes, he fought a smile of his own. ‘First sign of trouble, you call.’ He nodded his head at her cell phone. ‘My number’s under H.’
‘I’ve said I …’ She blinked. ‘Why is it under H?’
Cutting the smile loose, he reached for the door. She was checking her phone as he passed the window, what looked like a burst of laughter leaving her lips before she shook her head.
He might have ended up saying more than he’d intended, but he was definitely gaining ground.
Of course she would notice if he were gone for ever. Did he really think she was so detached from her fellow human beings?
She would probably have got mad at him if he hadn’t caught her off guard. It was his voice to begin with—the words laced with sincerity. But what got to her was the slight tremor to his hand when he put the lid back on his cup. While he frowned at it, she studied him: the lines of tension at the corner of his eye, a slight hint of grey beneath his tan. Added to the secret she kept for him, they lent a deeper meaning to the question she’d asked the night he moved in. Jo would dare anyone not to stop and think about how they felt after that. Even if they weren’t convinced they wanted to know the answer.
Closer to the top of the well of memories she’d chosen to forget, she remembered how he looked the last time she saw him before he went overseas. It was one of the rare occasions he’d made an appearance at Sunday lunch and the last time he sat in his place opposite her at the table. She remembered how laid-back he’d been while an underlying note of tension in the room had said everything about his family’s concern for his safety.
Had she taken the time then to think about what it would be like if he hadn’t come home? If the chair opposite hers had remained empty for as long as his father’s before the family moved around the table? She would like to think she had. But she couldn’t remember worrying beyond keeping an eye on the news reports, wondering where he was if anything happened to a Marine. It was the same thing anyone would have done if they knew someone in a war zone. But when it came down to it she’d assumed how she would feel if something happened to him would be attached to his family. If they were hurting, she’d hurt for them. Grieving, she would feel grief for their loss. Part of the trouble was she’d never been able to remove his family from the equation.
She still didn’t.
But for the first time she thought about how she’d feel if it was just Danny and Jo and then Danny wasn’t there any more …
She would miss him. Who would she argue with the way she argued with him? But it couldn’t be anything more. Jo knew all about the gap a person could leave behind and what it did to people who loved them. She could never allow herself to care about someone so much she disappeared into that hole.
Not after she’d watched it happen to someone else.
Having spent a good portion of her time in the coffee shop staring into space, she returned to the apartment. An entire day at home during the week was a rare luxury when more often than not she was running all over Manhattan by mid-afternoon. So after checking in with the office to discuss images for her assignment and catch up on the gossip, she settled down with some freelance work. The first time she thought she’d heard something, her gaze lifted from the computer. Shaking her head when she found nothing but the usual city soundtrack running in the background, she went back to work.
There it was again.
Pushing back her chair, she walked to her bedroom door where it was muffled, but louder. When it stopped, she held her breath and waited, heart twisting the second it started again. It was no less torturous during daylight hours than it was at night. Did he ever sleep? She glanced across the room at the large clock
on the kitchen wall. It was almost three. Hadn’t he said he had to be in work at four? The dilemma made her waver on her feet. He would hate that she knew.
A text to her ‘Hot Neighbour’ wouldn’t be any better than turning up at his door. Either way there had to be a reason she knew he was there and might be late for his shift. She could say she hadn’t heard his door close but then he might think she was listening for his movements. Up until, well, a few hours ago, if she was honest, she’d rather have poked red-hot needles in her eyes than allow him to think that.
The second hand on the clock sounded a ‘Don’t. Let. Him. Be. Late.’ with each tick in the silence broken by an agonized cry from beyond the wall.
Okay, that was it. She was going over there.
When the door yanked open, the sight of a naked muscled chest made her breath catch—forcing her gaze sharply upwards. What she found didn’t have any less of an effect, albeit in a different, more worrisome way. His eyes were red, his jaw was tense and he frowned as he blinked her into focus.
It did something to her heart she had to ignore.
Lifting an arm, he rested a large hand on the edge of the door by his head. ‘What?’
‘You said you had to go to work at four.’ She held out a mug. ‘You’re going to be late.’
A brief glance at his wristwatch was swiftly followed by a low expletive before he lifted his gaze and his eyes narrowed. ‘How did you know I was still here?’
‘I didn’t,’ she lied with a shrug. ‘Thought I’d check …’
His frown darkened. ‘You shouldn’t do that when you’re not any good at it.’
When she didn’t say anything, his gaze searched the hall. Suddenly slicing through the air, it slammed into her, driving the air from her lungs.
‘Since the first night?’ he asked grimly.
Jo nodded.
A shadow crossed his eyes, revealing something she never expected to see. Coming back at him had always been easy when he was cocky and in control; tossing jibes the equivalent of bouncing pebbles off an armoured tank. He knew who he was, what he was capable of, was calm under pressure and unwavering when it came to what he wanted. She supposed there had always been something she found sexy about that, even when they argued.
