In Hot Pursuit

His jaw flexed and tightened.

Lexi suspected major teeth clenching took place to warrant such intricate muscle play. Even the diamond stud in his ear shifted in response.

She wondered what it would be like to smooth her fingers over the jaw, trail her tongue over the fiery white diamond.

“No.” His terse answer called her from her fantasies.

Irritation replaced a small fraction of the lust frazzling her nerves. “What do you mean, no? You bought a ticket to this event, mister, you can damn well participate in the charitable aspect of the party.”

Was Detective Winger one of those guys who never opened his wallet for anything but his own entertainment?

“That’s not it. I—”

Before he had a chance to finish his thought, a clipboard nudged between them, followed by a polo shirt decorated with a charity name tag. Event organizer Wendy Garret grinned up at Josh, eyes filled with feminine admiration, and inserted herself in their conversation. A thirty-something political activist with long ties to tonight’s charity, Wendy had begged Lexi to champion the event in her column.

“I see you’ve found your next jailbird, Lex. Good work.” The event coordinator’s eyes never left Josh.

Lexi managed a smile, struggling to shake off the peculiar feelings Josh had inspired. “Yes, I was just going to lock him up.”

Wendy handed Lexi an extra set of cuffs. “Give him to me, and you go find our next victim. We need to turn things over a little faster tonight if we want to meet our goals.”

Josh glared at them both. “Look, I’m no celebrity. No one is going to pay ransom for a guy like me.”

Lexi clicked off her end of Josh’s cuffs and handed them to Wendy. She had a feeling it wouldn’t be that simple to oust Josh from her thoughts, however. She’d be thinking about his offer for a long time to come.

“You sorely underestimate yourself,” Lexi muttered under her breath. Already, she was debating springing him from that cell herself so they could go back to the fascinating conversation they’d been having about the merits of being locked together.

In those moments with Josh, it hadn’t mattered what the rest of the world thought about her. She’d only been able to think about him.

Wendy was already steering Josh toward the stage, a pink blush on her scrubbed cheeks. “Celebrity status doesn’t matter. The women bid like crazy on the men. They’re much more competitive about this. It’s great for us.”

Lexi watched them go, telling herself she would not sympathize with a man who wouldn’t play his role to help charity. Still, she lingered there, staring at Josh’s squared shoulders as he stalked toward the jail cell.

Who was she kidding? She’d gladly chain herself to Josh Winger, Scrooge or not.

He’d made it clear he wanted her, something no other man had ever managed to articulate. Sure, she could tick off a couple of one-night stands she’d indulged in, just to experience sex for herself. But she’d been the aggressor then, and she’d run like an Olympic sprinter the morning after, to be sure those men never saw her again.

This man wanted her.

Too bad she’d only had to handcuff him to secure the admission.

Ignoring the ego-deflating realization, Lexi now found it easy to shut out the gossip-filled club.

She knew her sexy quarry would be long gone by the time she finished her stint as jailer tonight, and oddly, that knowledge stung more than the shredding of her reputation.

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.”