In Hot Pursuit

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 taking 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.

She shook loose his handiwork and rewrapped the shawl. “I don’t think that’s the best idea.”

He snorted. “Let’s look at who’s coming up with the good ideas here tonight. You think it’s a good idea to traipse around New York alone at 2:00 a.m. I think it’s a good idea for us to leave together. You think it’s a good idea to put me in jail. I think it’s a good idea for us to explore the possibilities of being—”

She hurried to cut him off. “I get the picture.” She definitely didn’t need reminders of his earlier provocative suggestion. Handcuffs had never seemed so appealing. But she needed to put some distance between her and Josh before he got the wrong idea. No matter how much her hormones argued the fact, she could not sleep with Josh in her apartment. “But I’m not conceding the point. I still think my ideas have been very sensible.”

Sensible. The word resounded in Josh’s mind, at odds with everything he thought about Lexi Mansfield. “Is that what you want, Lexi? Sensible?”

She deftly unfastened the diamond collar around her throat and slid it into a tiny purse she carried. “See that? Sensible. I may occasionally carry handcuffs and go manhunting on the posh New York club scene, Josh, but I’m not crazy enough to wear Harry Winston out in public.”

Josh stared at the long, smooth column of bare neck the diamonds had just vacated. She suddenly looked less like his five-foot dominatrix and more like a vulnerable woman.