In Hot Pursuit

by Joanne Rock

  Maybe the strangest aspect of it all was that she felt utterly comfortable with him here, even without hiding from him in the dark the way she had last night.

  Of course, comfortable probably wasn’t the right word for what she was feeling. Anytime she had a visual on this guy, Lexi experienced a wave of excitement; a sense of anticipation that was never far from the surface.

  Good thing she knew how to keep herself too distracted to think about that.

  “So? Was your weapon of choice a bottle, or not?”

  JOSH HAD HER NOW. He heard the curiosity in her voice, knew the journalist in her would want her questions answered.

  He spun on her and smiled. “Letters first, chitchat later.”

  She huffed a noisy sigh and plunked her mug on the coffee table. “Fine. But I wouldn’t push my luck much further if I were you, Winger.” She stormed off into another room, her walk quieter now that she’d ditched her heels.

  “Why’s that?” he called, listening to her rustling around the bedroom.

  “Because I’ve got a pack of wild dogs at my disposal in case I decide you’ve annoyed me too much.” Her voice grew louder as she walked back into the living room. “Snowball might look like a lady, but she’s a scrapper if you back her into a corner.”

  Snowball currently gazed up at him adoringly through a veil of fluffy white fur and a lopsided bow.

  “I’ll bet.” Josh filched the handful of papers in Lexi’s hands and settled on a stool painted to look like bright orange coral. He started shuffling through the pages, scattering the notes along the counter dividing the kitchen from the living room.

  “Well?” Lexi prodded.

  Josh studied the words on the paper and absorbed several superficial things. They’d been printed on an inkjet printer. The salutations never used Lexi’s first name, instead calling her “Ms. Mansfield.” The papers smelled like Lexi’s perfume, and she had meticulously stamped each of them with a “Date Received” mark as if it were business correspondence.

  “Well, what?”

  “Glass or no glass?”

  “I hit the glass out of the other guy’s hands with a stick, but then I gave him an old-fashioned beating with the most tried-and-true weapons of all.”

  “Your fists?”

  She sounded so worried that Josh spared a glance in her direction. She was hanging on every word of the ancient history of that stupid scar. Why couldn’t she be interested in spending tonight with him instead of concerning herself with a night long ago?

  Josh rubbed an absent finger along the marred line of skin on his cheek as he continued reading the threats to Lexi. “Yeah. But the broken beer bottle had been meant for Mary Alice Delaney after she broke up with this guy. So I thought the fists were sort of justified.”

  Damn, he didn’t like what he was reading.

  “I’m taking these into the station for analysis, Lex. But first, you’re going to have to give me some specifics on where and how you received all of them.”

  And then, after he’d secured all the information he needed to track down Lexi’s letter writer, Josh would get back to the real task at hand.

  Convincing Lexi to let him stay.

  10

  HALF AN HOUR LATER, after answering Josh’s every picky question about the hows and whys of each threatening letter, Lexi couldn’t concentrate on the interrogation anymore. Her gaze fixed on the scar creasing Josh’s rugged mug. She kept thinking about the story behind it, her heart touched by the notion of Josh defending his ideals and anyone weaker than him, even as a seventeen-year-old.

  They were seated on the coral stools pulled up to her kitchen counter, empty cappuccino mugs between them.

  “I hope Mary Alice Delaney realized how lucky she was to have you there to protect her.” She couldn’t help the emotion welling up in her voice.

  Josh closed his eyes. Sighed. “Actually, I think she was too busy calling the cops on us to pay much attention to my great heroic deed.”

  “You’re kidding. You didn’t get in trouble, did you?”

  He carefully scooped up all the letters in a pile and tucked them into a plastic bag he withdrew from a pocket inside his jacket. Safely stowed, he stuffed the small package back into his pocket.

  Lexi smiled to see a quick flash of his broad chest beneath the jacket, a tantalizing expanse of cotton T-shirt over mouth-watering muscle.

  “I spent the night in jail—” he talked right over her outraged gasp “—but it was a good experience. It made me realize I wanted to be a cop.” He shoved the stool away from the counter and stood. “Speaking of which, a good cop would make sure your home is secure in light of these threats, Lex.”

  “My home has always been my haven. I feel very safe here.”

  Ignoring her, he peered around her door, lifted silk moiré window treatments, and poked the call button on her intercom. He frowned, furrowed his brow—did all the things that made him look twice as scary as normal.

  “I’ll talk to the building superintendent about a few things before I leave you here alone, but overall it looks pretty good. Do you have any idea how to defend yourself, Lexi?”

  She spun off her stool and stood to face him. “I didn’t spend six weeks of my life sacrificing Tuesday nights at the Y for nothing, I assure you.”

  He edged closer, crowded her. “Is that right?”

  Desire for Josh—hunger she’d scarcely managed to suppress since they’d set foot in her apartment—roared back to life with a vengeance. His blatant disregard for her personal boundaries brought the physical chemistry issue between them into sudden, sharp focus.

  “That’s right.” Lexi fended him off with a trademark bad girl stance, hoping he wouldn’t see the slight wobble of her legs at such close range.

  Josh’s mouth curved around a predatory smile. He stepped so close, Lexi thought—hoped—for one crazy moment that he would embrace her.

  He leaned a fraction nearer to whisper, his words fanning soft and warm on her cheek. “Then, let’s see what you’ve got.”

  The request had barely registered before Josh turned from seductive fantasy man to role-playing attacker. He flipped her around and pulled her back up against him, one of his forearms pinning her at the waist, the other covering her mouth to prevent a scream.

  Her heart pounded with the sudden rush of adrenaline, not from fear, but from fierce, primal arousal. She knew without a doubt she could go slack against him and have her way with this delicious man inside of ten seconds.

  But she wasn’t just the pampered uptown girl he thought she was, and maybe it was about time Josh Winger realized as much. Besides, what if her letter writer really did accost her? Better to practice her skills now, on a safe target like Josh.

  Taking a deep breath, Lexi stepped backward in a single quick move, planting one foot between both of his. She dug her fingers into the arm around her waist and bent forward, hauling the massive police detective over her body to land him flat on his back in the middle of her living room.

  Muffin and Harry howled their approval, while Snowball sniffed nervously around Josh’s face. The little shih tzu cast an accusing bark at Lexi.

  Josh’s eyes were closed. Dear God, she hadn’t meant to hurt him.

  “Are you okay?” Lexi knelt beside the fallen giant.

  “I’m not sure.” As he pried open one gray eye, his hand snaked out to lightly graze the back of her thigh through her skirt. “Why don’t you come closer and we’ll find out.”

  Her skin tingled, tightened underneath his fingers. She wasn’t supposed to let this happen, but his touch felt so good, so right.

  “You told me you would behave unless I asked you not to, remember?”

  “I think all bets are off once you started man-handling me.” He rolled onto his side, still stretched out on the turquoise carpet in her living room, but his hand fell away from her leg. “Did you honestly learn that move at the Y?”

  Lexi mourned the loss of his touch, wondering why she both
ered to fight a man whose slightest proximity gave her goose bumps.

  “Yes. They offer lots of classes, and I’d heard self-defense was a good course to take for people with self-esteem issues.” She was already in too deep. She might as well put her cards on the table.

  “You? Self-esteem issues?” He plucked one of her curls from her shoulder and rubbed it between his fingers.

  “Who would think, right?” Lexi moved to stand, but Josh held her fast with one arm.

  Josh wanted to ask her more about the self-esteem thing. Lexi could tell by the probing look in his gray eyes. They stared at one another, locked in a momentary battle of wills that mirrored their physical match.

  She bit her lip, not wanting to tread on that particular territory tonight. Josh’s eyes darted to the gesture, and—oddly—seemed to relent.

  His voice growled over her. “Double or nothing, I bet you can’t pin me.”

  She mentally thanked him for letting her off the hook. “What is this, WrestleMania?”

  “I’ll give you a handicap of a three-second head start.” He let go of her wrist but edged closer, using his big body to nudge her into playing his game.

  “Are you really that concerned about my safety, Detective, or is this just an excuse to roll around the floor and tangle limbs?”

  He hoisted himself up to a sitting position. “You’re losing precious seconds here.” That predatory smile of his made a comeback. “Come on, Lexi, show me your moves.”

  Her heart thundered in her ears, pounded in her chest. He was giving her permission to jump him. She’d be a fool not to take him up on it.

  His thigh grazed hers as he moved over her, angling his body above hers in the most dominant of positions. “You’re gonna be at my mercy if you don’t act now, lady.”

  His whispered words called to mind erotic delights that made her shiver. Yet he still wasn’t touching her. A brush here, a slight skim there, no more.

  Was she moving away from his advancing pursuit, she wondered, or merely making herself comfortable on the floor for what she really wanted?

  “And once you’re at my mercy—” he walked his fingers up the outside of her thigh “—the first thing I’m doing is checking to see if those are really leopard-print panties you’re wearing.”

  Heat flooded her thighs, ignited a restless ache for him.

  “How did you know they were leopard-print?” Did that husky voice really belong to her?

  He cupped a hand around her hipbone, his fingers gently squeezing the soft flesh of her bottom. “I staked out a good angle when I helped you into the car. Your dresses are much too short, Lexi.”

  “Either that, or your eyes are much too well trained.”

  “Could be.” His body extended completely over hers, his weight held off her by one elbow.

  The heat, the hunger became much too much to bear.

  She thought about rolling Josh to his back and teasing him within an inch of losing his mind, but a sensual languor infused her limbs, made her whole body heavy with delicious anticipation.

  “Pin me,” she whispered.

  JOSH’S GROAN startled the little dog Harry into a quick yap from the mat by the front door, but Lexi’s other dogs stayed mercifully unaware as they lay near one another in the hallway.

  Good. He had enough fish smiling at him from the painted seascape along Lexi’s baseboards without adding any canine voyeurs to the mix.

  Lowering only a portion of his weight onto Lexi, Josh pinned her to the aqua carpet.

  Her sigh of satisfaction hissed along his neck. “Yessss.”

  “Better?”

  She arched her back to press herself more deeply into him. “Mmm.”

  “Are you okay here, on the floor?” He didn’t want her to think he had no control—that he couldn’t have made it as far as the bedroom. It would be painful to have to step away from her for even the ten seconds it would take to get back to the jungle headquarters and break through the mosquito netting, but for her, Josh would fight the battle.

  “Don’t you dare move anywhere except to take off these clothes.” The threat in her tone was unmistakable.

  He mentally blessed her impatience, then eased his hand under the hem of her dress. “These clothes?”

  Lexi tugged his shirttail out of his pants. “No, these clothes. This time, I want to see everything I missed out on in the dark.”

  Lifting off his shirt, Josh couldn’t help but smile. “Honey, you pretty much get the best of this guy in the dark.”

  Lexi licked her full lips, her gaze locked on his bare chest. Her eyes roved, lingered, practically killed him with their thorough inspection.

  “I beg to differ with you there.” She smoothed her fingers over the planes of his chest, circling the myriad scars forged in half a lifetime on the police force with the gentle rake of one manicured nail. “In my line of work, I see physical perfection so often it makes me ill.” She paused in her intense perusal to meet his gaze. “Did you know we are cultivating an era full of plastic dolls? I swear every chick on the runway this season has the exact same pixie nose, and the men are no better. Everyone popped out of the same flawless mold.”

  Her restless fingers followed his as he unzipped his pants.

  He couldn’t suppress a shudder of reaction when her nail flicked lightly over his hip. “You won’t find that problem here,” he said through clenched teeth as he shoved the rest of his clothes down his legs and off his feet.

  “You’re right. Your proportions are all off.” She wasted no time reversing their positions. Rolling on top of him, she pinned him to the floor with her slight weight. Her eyes shifted down his body and lingered.

  A smile broke out across her face as her hands slipped between them to curve around his erection. “Take this, for instance. Very impressive, Detective.”

  He didn’t stand a chance in hell of answering. She sat on top of him like Venus on the damn mountaintop, a Cheshire cat grin curling her lips.

  “Like that, Josh?”

  “You’ve got about ten seconds to get undressed before I’m hunting down the handcuffs, woman.”

  Undaunted, she moved her hand up and down the length of him, exquisite torture administered by a five-foot dominatrix. “Haven’t I taught you anything about playing nice? I thought all that time in the jail cell would have taught you not to snarl.”

  An explosion was imminent. He was going to lose it right now if he didn’t tip Venus off her throne and gain control again on top. Neither seemed like a good option, but then—bless the little siren—she reached for the hem of her dress and started to pull it up.

  Maybe he could hold on just one more minute….

  Leopard-print panties came into view just in time. He called upon new reserves of strength to stick around for this show. He hadn’t had the chance to see all of her body last night, but he’d spent all day imagining what she looked like. The fantasy hadn’t been nearly this good.

  Lexi’s golden skin blended right into the background color of the panties. Her belly was sleek and smooth, her hips small but gently flared.

  He held his breath as the dress kept moving up. Finally, a scrap of leopard-print silk announced the unveiling of her breasts. Insubstantial triangle patches of fabric stayed connected by skimpy straps. The whole contraption looked temptingly easy to unfasten, sort of like swiping away a spiderweb with one finger.

  As she tossed her dress aside, Josh lifted his hand to touch her.

  “Not so fast.” She dipped two of her fingers under one bra strap and tugged it partway down her shoulders. “I’m still in the driver’s seat here.”

  He plotted revenge in the form of multiple orgasms, and kept his eyes glued to those scraps of silk.

  “I’m prepared to reward good behavior,” she whispered, her breathy voice at its most sultry. “Do you know any sweet talk to make a girl feel good, tough guy?”

  He couldn’t have salivated more over a ten-course meal as he waited for that silk to move a f
raction of an inch. His throat rasped with hunger, thirst and desire. “You’re gorgeous.”

  “Mmm. That’ll do.” She tugged the strap the rest of the way down her shoulder, unveiling the first course.

  Josh couldn’t stop himself if he tried—he had to disrupt their positions, had to sit up to take a taste of what she offered.

  Lexi moaned, shifted, sighed. Her soft words of encouragement urged him on, assured him he wasn’t being totally selfish. She tasted so clean, so sweet. The scrap of silk beneath her breast caught on his stubbled cheek, teased his skin along with her silky flesh.

  “Josh, please.”

  Sweeter words were never spoken.

  Josh reached back to search out a condom from his pants pocket, juggling Lexi on his lap. Once he was sheathed, all he had to do was tug the little ties on the sides of her panties and watch them fall away from her slender hips. He vowed to buy her a whole drawer full of these clever contraptions.

  She was warm and naked against him, seated across his lap. All he had to do was lift her up…just a little farther.

  “Oh.” Lexi hammered on his shoulder with one lax fist as he slid his way inside her. “Yessss.”

  Her slick heat surrounded him, drove him closer to the brink he’d fought all night. She squeezed him closer with surprising strength, drawing his lips unerringly to her breast.

  Gladly, he unhooked the rest of her leopard-patterned undergarments. He took his time drawing tight circles around each nipple with his tongue, teasing and rewarding them in turn.

  He lifted her on top of him, sliding in and out of her body in slow, seductive rhythm.

  By the time he reached between them to seek out the source of her pleasure, Lexi was breathing hard, her body quivering.

  He drew a slow circle around that delicate nub with his thumb, perfectly mirroring the sweep of his tongue around her nipple. Her body tensed, arched. With only that one slow circle, Lexi flew apart around him.