by Joanne Rock
IMPRISONED by a five-foot dominatrix—a hell of a way to start undercover police work.
Of course, this job was no longer undercover. All of New York’s fashion bigwigs would know him on sight after tonight.
Josh gnashed his teeth a few more times for good measure, knowing he’d blow a gasket if he didn’t get out of the jail cell soon. Who would have thought he’d be staring out from the wrong side of prison bars tonight?
No doubt it would probably help his chances of escape if he smiled at some of the coiffed and manicured socialites who peered into his cage, but he was too angry with himself to work up the energy.
He should have just told Lexi Mansfield he wished to remain anonymous, instead of whispering seductive suggestions in her ear to distract her from her purpose. He’d been the one who ended up preoccupied, while she had remained committed to her charitable cause. What had he been thinking of, to proposition her when he had work to do?
Josh wasn’t the type of guy who allowed himself to get distracted. The one time he’d lost focus on a job had resulted in a death he’d regret the rest of his days and a scandal that rocked the city. Josh knew better now.
He ran his life with rigid control. He made choices with careful deliberation. And he sure as hell didn’t spend his Saturday nights behind bars.
Damn.
Glaring out into the crowd, he searched for Lexi. She’d already brought four other “prisoners” to jail, all of whom had been released. Josh had inadvertently scared off all the women who’d been interested in ransoming him, probably because he’d been snarling in his frustration at blowing his objectives tonight.
The only person who didn’t seem intimidated by his scowl was Lexi. The feisty jail keeper made sure to send him a wink every time she delivered a new hostage to captivity, unruffled by Josh’s surly mien.
He caught sight of her sashaying his way again, this time with a guy big enough to be a linebacker in tow. The strobe lights flashed over the silver handcuffs between them, a winking reminder that Lexi had probably flirted her way into bondage with half the men in the bar tonight.
The thought made him gnash his teeth all over again. Why should he give a rip that Lexi liked playing love-slave games?
She reached the cell door and inserted an oversize key into the padlock. “Still here, Detective?” she called, quirking a brow in his direction. “You could have raised a small fortune for us with that sexy bod of yours if you hadn’t glowered at every woman who dared to look at you,” she chided. “Want me to send you over another whiskey to help loosen you up?”
She waved her new prisoner into the cell and removed the guy’s cuffs.
Josh fought the urge to throttle the big lug. Why did he have to stand half an inch from Lexi? “The whiskey isn’t what I need.”
The linebacker folded his arms over his chest and frowned down at their jailer. “I thought you told me you didn’t talk to the captives, Lex. How come you talk to this guy?”
That caught Josh’s attention. Did Lexi treat the other male captives differently than she’d treated him? Maybe he didn’t feel so throttle-happy, after all.
Lexi looked sheepish for all of an instant, casting a wary glance at Josh before she answered. “Your wife would call me out if I so much as breathed the same air as you, Alec, and you know it. New brides can be very protective.”
The linebacker grinned the goofy guy-in-love grin Josh had seen on his partner’s face too many times the past month. “Shoot, Lexi, Nina likes you just fine.”
Lexi twirled the handcuffs around her finger, watching the silver rings spin under the flashes of colored light. Did the woman ever sit still? She was a riot of nervous energy even when her feet stopped moving. Maybe that’s why Josh couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her and her sequins tonight.
Yeah, right.
On instinct, Josh reached out and snatched the handcuffs off her finger, halting her motion for a moment. Lexi’s startled gaze moved over him, her mouth forming a surprised “O” with her lips.
Josh had an image of her in his bed, her body still beneath him in the moment before a climax hit her. She would look just like this.
Too soon, she resumed her flurry of movement, yanking her handcuffs back and spinning on one high heel.
“I’ll thank you not to steal those, Mr. High-and-Mighty Detective.” She stuck her tongue out at him as she secured the lock on the cell door. “You’ll have to find your own handcuffs to play with.”
The sight of that small, pink tongue would torment him the rest of the night. “But where will I find my own captive?” Josh could hear Alec the linebacker chuckling in the background.
Lexi flipped her hands out, palms up, in an exaggerated shrug. “Since you blew your chances with all the ladies here tonight, it looks like you’re stuck being my prisoner.”
He crooked his finger at her, beckoning her closer.
She hesitated for a moment, then boldly stepped forward. Josh had the feeling this woman wouldn’t back down easily.
She waited just outside the cell bars, her black sequins close enough to touch. She tapped her foot on the dark commercial carpet, unable to stand still for a minute.
Josh reached one finger through the bars to trail down her bare arm. He watched, fascinated, as a path of chill bumps appeared in his wake.
“I don’t mind being your prisoner, honey, but couldn’t we play this out somewhere else? Like your place, maybe?” He kept his voice low enough that only she could hear. What did it matter if he let himself get a little distracted by Lexi now? He sure as hell wasn’t going to gain anything for his investigation from inside this cell.
Maybe she thought about it. She stilled for a moment and watched him with a predatory interest that made him want to rattle the damn cage.
Then she folded her arms over her chest and stepped back. “Sorry, I don’t fraternize with the inmates. Especially not the ones who refuse to play the game.”
“Lex, I’m ready to play whatever games you have in mind.”
He couldn’t be sure in the dim light, but he thought he actually made her blush.
“I don’t need you to play those kinds of games, wise guy. I needed you to turn that sexy charm on any one of the umpteen hot and bothered ladies who filed past your cell tonight. You couldn’t have done your part to help the homeless?”
Words escaped him. She looked seriously offended.
“Sorry, Lexi.” He couldn’t exactly explain to her his reasons. At least, not now. How had the dominatrix gone from turning him on, to making him feel like the world’s biggest heel in ten seconds flat? “Let me ransom myself to make up for it, and I’ll buy you a drink.”
She frowned. “Too many drinks made me cuff you in the first place. Why don’t you just cool your heels for a little longer and maybe I’ll ransom you, if you can remember not to snarl at anyone else.”
He smoothed his tie and straightened his lapels. “I’m working for time off with good behavior, honey, and I’ll pay you back for your trouble.”
A ghost of a smile played around her lips. Josh found himself eager to see that saucy grin again.
“I’ll be sure to collect, Winger.”
She sauntered off with a definite swing to her sequined hips.
Apparently he wasn’t the only one who noticed, because his cell mate emitted a long, low whistle.
Josh bristled. “The wiggle was meant for my eyes, Jack.”
The linebacker shook his head, grinning. “It’s Alec. And sorry, man, but I’m not blind.”
“Don’t you have a wife around here somewhere?” Josh wondered if he could keep his word about not snarling.
“Yep. She’s probably too busy dishing about Lexi to come bust me out of here, though.”
Josh frowned. “What do you mean?” Lexi might be a little flirtatious, but she didn’t exactly seem like the home-wrecking type.
“You know, all that garbage they said about Lex in her magazine today. The women can’t get enough of it
.” Alec shrugged his big shoulders and pulled a face.
Protective instincts roared to life. “A magazine article about Lexi?” Josh knew how it felt to have his personal life splashed all over the headlines—most of it untrue. Had Lexi been subjected to that?
“She’s not your girl?”
“Not yet.” The words sprang forth before Josh had the chance to consciously form them. He definitely wasn’t in the market for a relationship. Then again, he couldn’t picture not seeing Lexi again. “But we seem to have…hit it off.”
“You know that fashion magazine she reviews for?” Alec slumped against the cell bars.
Josh didn’t, but he nodded. He didn’t want to seem like some joker hitting on Lexi without knowing a damn thing about her.
“Well, the magazine ran a letter to the editor today that trashed Lexi’s column and suggested she’s out of date, out of style, whatever.” Alec shook his head. “A bunch of catfight-type stuff. The women are gossiping about it a mile a minute, all gunning for Lexi. It’s all I’ve heard all damn night.”
“Catfight stuff—but not anything serious, right?” The cop in him snapped to alert as Josh realized he might be in over his head in the fashion world. The waters were murky for him, and now that his partner and his socialite fiancée were taking off for a motorcycle trip this weekend, Josh would be losing his only insider information for a few days.
“Nah. The woman who wrote the letter isn’t even here tonight. Besides, this isn’t exactly the sort of crowd to take potshots in a dark alley. They do their mud-slinging right in the public eye.”
Before Josh could thank the man, Alec sprang to his feet and smoothed his hair back, his gaze focused outside the cage.
Josh turned to see a scowling blonde barreling toward them, her snappy walk at odds with her elegant white gown. No doubt, Nina had arrived.
Josh mulled over Alec’s words as the man’s wife ransomed him and the couple left together. As the crowd in the bar thinned out and the dance floor began to clear, Josh wondered if Lexi had attended the fund-raiser with anyone or was here by herself.
Like it or not, he wouldn’t allow her to leave the bar by herself. No matter what Alec said about the fashion world slinging their mud in public, Josh didn’t like the idea of Lexi being the target of mean-spirited comments. No telling when professional jealousy could get out of hand.
An image of Tonya Harding flashed through his mind, along with the Texas cheerleader’s mom. Lexi could be at risk, for all he knew.
He’d just make sure she got home okay, then he would leave.
Unless, of course, he could lure out the other side of Lexi—the sequined spitfire who had handcuffed him earlier.
Josh had the feeling that if he tangled with her again, he wouldn’t leave until they’d uncovered every erotic possibility of handcuffs.
3
SHE COULDN’T put it off any longer.
Last call had come and gone. Wendy sat at the bar, reviewing the final bill with the property manager. The house lights would probably switch on at any moment.
Lexi had to free her last captive.
Her gaze skittered over to the jail cell where Detective Winger sat on the cage’s lone bench. His jacket was draped over the seat beside him, his white shirt stretching over shoulders that delineated mouth-watering muscles. His elbows were propped on his knees, and his silver-gray tie fell forward, the knot loosened long ago.
Lexi didn’t need to see his eyes to know the tie matched their color. She’d caught his hungry stare enough times tonight to remember the precise shade.
Squeezing the key to the cell padlock in her fist, she debated her approach. She’d flirted outrageously with Josh all night. Did he expect to cash in on that flirtation? Or would he flag a cab and disappear?
Lexi wasn’t sure which idea bothered her more.
She desperately wanted to test her feminine wiles on this man—to assuage the fear that she was as outdated and boring as the scathing letter to her editor had claimed.
But if she went home with him, she needed to make it clear she was in charge. She didn’t need a man in her life to mess up the comfortable niche she had finally managed to carve for herself. Lexi had struggled for her independence, her self-reliance. As long as Josh understood that, as long as he let her take the lead, everything would be fine.
Lexi hitched up her sequined bodice, fluffed the few tendrils of hair around her face, and approached the jail cell.
Her steps faltered when Josh stood. He topped her by nearly a foot. The reminder of that height, those big shoulders, did funny things to her insides.
He scooped up his jacket and slid it on again. “Am I free to go?”
Lexi swallowed in a fruitless attempt to cure her suddenly dry mouth. “You’re getting your time off for good behavior.” She unlocked the cell door and stood back to allow him out. “I haven’t seen you snarl in at least an hour.”
He didn’t step past her, however. He stopped right in front of her and startled her with his direct gaze. “I can be well behaved if the situation calls for it.”
She felt the blush starting, and resisted the urge to fan herself. The man wreaked havoc on her internal cooling system.
And amazingly, rendered her speechless.
She wasn’t sure if she wanted Josh to be well behaved or not, but the idea that he would be “good” if she wanted him to, left her mute for an agonizing moment.
He reached for her. But instead of pulling him toward her for the kiss she sorely wanted, he gently tugged one of the fallen tendrils from her upswept hair. Slowly, he wound the long strand around his finger.
He studied her with restless gray eyes. “How are you getting home?”
The question jarred her out of her reverie. She didn’t know how to respond to his blunt question, especially since she’d rather hoped to go home with him. Still, she didn’t want to look too eager.
“I can walk from here.”
She lived just around the corner, but her place was off-limits. The two times she had worked up the courage to proposition a man—the only one-nighters she’d ever had—she’d made sure they went to his place.
Josh frowned. “You can’t walk.”
Lexi bristled. Josh might be gorgeous, but he was not in charge here. “Of course I can walk. I live nearby.”
He steered her forward with a gentle hand at her waist and looked as if he hadn’t heard her. “Where’s your coat? I’ll take you home.”
She stopped in her tracks. “I don’t think so.”
“I’d try to talk you into coming home with me, but my apartment is in the middle of being repainted. We can’t go there.”
Heat bothered her cheeks. “Of course not. I didn’t mean to suggest we would. I’ll be fine heading home on my own.”
His mouth set in a straight, hard line. For the first time, Lexi noticed a scar on his cheekbone, a thin white line that seemed more prominent when he scowled.
“Lexi, I’m a cop. You’re a half-dressed woman ready to roam the streets of New York at two in the morning. Sorry, but I’m pulling rank here.”
She felt her jaw slacken and promptly snapped it shut. “You, sir, are obviously blind. Don’t you dare suggest that wearing a Bill Blass original is anything less than being completely and flawlessly dressed.” She’d sooner crawl home than allow anyone to cast one more aspersion on her character today. She’d deflected jibes and gossip this evening like a damn mud flap.
Josh scrubbed a hand over his chest before sliding his palm down the length of his silk tie. “You took a lot of crap here tonight?”
She stilled. “What would you know about that?”
“Alec told me about the magazine piece.”
Great. Now the stud of her dreams felt sorry for her. “A letter to the editor by some disgruntled designer is not the end of the world.” Or so she told herself. Repeatedly.
He shrugged. “I don’t keep up with the fashion magazines, I guess. But I don’t like the idea of you t
aking off by yourself after being the target of so much slander here tonight.”
Slander. Yes, she rather liked the ring of that. She sniffed. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt if you walked me home.”
“Great.” He headed toward the cloakroom. “What does your coat look like?”
“Black pashmina.”
His brow furrowed, but he ducked into the room and out of sight.
Damn. Now she wouldn’t be able to seduce him. There would be no night in Josh’s arms to chase away the cold loneliness she’d felt all day because she would not let him in her apartment…would she?
Of course not. What would all her pets think? They wouldn’t want to share their mama with some strange man. And she’d always promised herself not to spoil the sanctuary of her home by allowing a man inside. It had been different to sleep in someone else’s bed. Impersonal. Easy to distance herself the next day.
But Josh would be a difficult man to walk away from, in the first place. She sure as heck couldn’t let him into the private world where the real Lexi lived.
“Is it a black blanket?” he called from the cloakroom. He stepped out with her pashmina in hand, a frustrated glower on his face.
“That’s me.” Laughing, she walked to the bar and tugged her purse from a shelf the bartender had allowed her to use.
Josh closed the distance between them in a flash. “Why didn’t you say so?”
His gruff manners soothed her as he wrapped the cashmere shawl around her and tugged the ends tightly shut.
“How the hell do you wear this thing?”
Smothering a giggle, she flung one end over her shoulder in demonstration.
Josh muttered an oath under his breath and tried to tuck the other end under her arm. Having secured every loose corner of the shawl, he nodded. “There. Don’t move.”
“How am I going to walk home?”
He grinned. “Guess I’ll have to carry you.”
Warmth pooled low in her belly at the thought of her body tucked up against his. Part of her longed to assume her flirtatious guise and maneuver more sexy talk with him. But some of her daring had faded along with the buzz from that last cosmopolitan. Even worse, she liked Josh more by the minute—a fact that rendered a one-night stand less appealing. A torrid night with Josh practically guaranteed she’d never see him again.
