Come Toy with Me

“Hopefully, he’ll find a more, shall we say, subtle hiding place.”

“Where’s your man stationed?”

“He’s already in her apartment building. I figured you and I could see she got inside safely. You think the danger is imminent?”

“I don’t think anything yet. I’m not even willing to believe she’s as innocent as her father says she is. I’m just playing it safe. Drugs, money and terrorists. There could be some pretty ruthless people involved in this.”

Cat and her father had risen from their table and were pulling on coats as they threaded their way to the door of the pub.

“So who’s your prime suspect at the CIA?”

“You’re going to love this. Jack Phillips, Cat’s uncle and McGuire’s brother-in-law by his first wife, is a career man at the CIA. He’s never risen up through the ranks because he has a reputation of being a bit of a rogue. He and McGuire aren’t on the best of terms, but I figure Phillips might be feeding information to McGuire to ensure his niece’s safety.”

When Cat and McGuire appeared at the mouth of the alleyway, Dino and Jase faded back behind the Dumpster.

“You know, little girl, you should never take this shortcut alone at night,” McGuire said as they passed.

“Daddy, this is a safe neighborhood. Everyone uses this alleyway.”

As the voices dwindled, Jase said, “You’re going to have your work cut out for you.”

In more ways than one, Dino thought. “Let’s go have that beer.”

CAT LET HERSELF INTO her apartment and flipped the switch that turned on the Tiffany-style lamp in her living room. The switch also turned on twinkling lights on the small Christmas tree on the narrow table behind her sofa.

Dropping her tote on the coffee table, she avoided the sofa. If she sat down, she might be tempted to close her eyes—and then it would be all over for tonight. Exhaustion had slammed into her the instant her father had seen her inside the building and turned to walk back across the courtyard.

She reached the window in time to see him stride out of the alleyway into the street. A rush of love overtook her. Would there come a day when he couldn’t talk her into whatever he wanted her to do?

A fake engagement was the last thing she needed on her plate right now. She had a delayed shipment of dolls, and an assistant buyer who couldn’t seem to find a way of contacting her. And twenty-four children might be disappointed for Christmas.

Just thinking about that had a band of pain tightening around her heart. Christmas should be a time of joy, especially for children.

Cat straightened her shoulders. Giving in to worries and anxiety attacks had never been her way. It had never been her mother’s way either. She focused her attention back on the courtyard. Magnolia, lilac, and dogwood trees that would bloom beautifully in the spring were now strung with tiny white lights that twinkled like stars.

Christmas was a time for miracles. She’d always believed in that. Those dolls were going to arrive. Tomorrow.

She shifted her focus back to the tall figure of her father still standing in front of the alleyway. She could see the Guinness sign blinking over one of the windows at Patty’s Pub. It was going to be tricky catching a taxi at nearly eleven in this section of town. She should have reminded him to call for one when they were having an Irish coffee.

Then a limo pulled up and Orlando, the Merceri family’s chauffeur, stepped out. Cat kept forgetting how much her father’s life had changed since he’d married Gianna Merceri. But she was so happy for him. She was well aware of how much he’d loved her mother and of how close they’d been. But he loved Gianna, too.

Her lips curved in a smile. Anyone who could find that kind of love even once was lucky, so she figured James McGuire was doubly so.

Hopefully, one day she’d share in that luck. But right now she had problems to solve: try Matt one more time, check the weather report on the storm that was forecast to slam into Manhattan, and read over the scenario she was supposed to enact starting tomorrow with her never-before-seen fiancé.

For just a second, she rested her head against the windowpane. Well, she’d make it through this. Eleven days wasn’t that long. And her father was right—she could use an extra pair of hands in the store.

She might even be able to talk her make-believe fiancé into donning a Santa Claus suit. Cheered by the idea, she was about to turn away from the window and reheat some morning coffee when her eye was drawn to the two men sitting in Patty’s Pub beneath the blinking Guinness sign.

Suddenly her senses went on full alert. No. Full alert was way too tame a description for the entire-body meltdown she was experiencing. That man—not the one with longish blond hair in a thick black sweater—but the one with hair the color of coal in the black bomber jacket. She’d seen him before.

Racing into her bedroom, she snatched her binoculars off the top shelf of her closet and dashed back to the window. Yes. Yes, it was him. She’d only had that brief glimpse of him, but she remembered that slash of cheekbone and that impression she’d had of warriorlike strength. He was definitely the same man she’d seen standing at the edge of the small crowd of customers she’d let into her shop that morning. The same man who’d liquefied her knees and sent her thoughts flying away.

Just looking at him through the binoculars had her heart skipping a beat and her throat going dry. And then the same fantasy that had been teasing at the edges of her mind all day suddenly flooded it. The two of them naked, their bodies locked together and rolling across the floor. A baffling need arose in her to get closer to him—to just go over to Patty’s Pub and…what? Jump him?

No. For a moment, she lowered the binoculars and closed her eyes. Then she made herself take deep breaths. She had to get a grip. This kind of reaction wasn’t like her at all. She was a rational, sane woman. So she was going to figure out a way to handle it.

Raising the glasses, she looked through them again. First, she was going to take a more objective look. He was leaning against the back of the booth, seemingly relaxed, yet she sensed a kind of leashed intensity in him.

The man with the lighter coloring was more animated. As Cat watched, he threw back his head and laughed. Friends, she thought. And both strangers to the neighborhood.

Her gaze returned to Mr. Tall, Dark, and Intense as he lifted a glass of Guinness and took a long swallow. She focused in on his hands—the wide palms, the long fingers—and her thoughts drifted to what they might feel like on her skin. Every nerve in her body began to throb, her heart skipped another beat, and the same irrational need arose in her to go to him. She’d never had this strong an attraction to a man before.