Nice & Naughty

“You’re the librarian?” he asked slowly. His gaze took a slow stroll over her body, his expression making her tingle with both nerves and desire. Those dark eyes met hers again, the look in them hot and intense before he shuttered his gaze.

Jade shivered a little, missing the heat and wondering what’d turned it off. And what it would take to turn it back on. After all, he’d already seen all her underwear.

“I’m Detective Sandoval,” he said, that whisky-smooth voice official and just a little stiff. Like he’d just swallowed a rule book. “I’m investigating the Panty Thief burglaries.”

Jade’s gaze swept the room before she gestured with her chin to his little cop notebook. “No kidding?”

His lips twitched. But he didn’t drop the official routine. Jade arched a brow. A man both sexy and disciplined? The mind boggled at the possibilities that combination inspired on a fantasy level. Throw in endurance and attention to detail and he was a dream come true. Or at least inspiration to come.

“Ma’am?” he prompted, frowning as if he was trying to figure out where her mind had wandered. She’d be glad to tell him. “I’d like to ask you a few questions, if that’s okay.”

“Sure.” Even though she doubted any of those questions would involve dinner, dancing or a bottle of wine, her stomach still swirled in anticipation.

“Given the state of the rest of your home, I figure it’s safe to assume your room didn’t look like this when you left it. Can you tell me what time you left the house today and how much of this disorder is due to the break-in?”

“Since I had to be at the library at ten, I left around nine so I had time to stop at my mother’s, then at the bakery to get pastries for the ladies’ club. They hold their meetings at the library and we like to provide a snack for them.”

And while she’d been out doing those regular-life things, someone had invaded her home and wreaked havoc.

Jade finally looked, really looked, at her bedroom. Her sanctuary.

Unlike rumors of the other thefts, which were simple cases of an underwear drawer being dumped on the floor and a pair of panties taken, Jade’s room was trashed. Lingerie strewn about like confetti after a drunken bachelor party, her possessions knocked over, books not only thrown from the shelves but ripped in half.

Who the hell ripped up books? Forgetting that she shouldn’t touch anything, she knelt down to gingerly lift the ravaged pages she immediately recognized as Madame Bovary.

This was a complete and utter nightmare. Swallowing hard as the full impact hit her, she straightened and pressed one hand against her churning gut, trying to see through the swirling black fogging her vision.

“It’s not that bad,” he said. He didn’t sound distant anymore. Instead, his voice was soothing and mellow, almost friendly. She wished he’d stuck with the uptight tone.

“Compared to what?” she asked, furious at the tears clogging her throat. She didn’t cry. Tears were useless, stupid. Even angry tears.

“Compared to what my place would look like if someone did this,” he said, his words teasing. “Car magazines ripped apart, boxers dangling from the lamp. A Speedo hanging in the window for all to see.”

His mock shudder made her laugh.

“Speedo?” Her now-clear gaze skimmed his body, from the T-shirt tight over hard, flat abs down his narrow hips. For just a second, she let her eyes rest on his zipper, imagining what he looked like in a teeny-tiny piece of spandex. She grinned, somehow sure he could make the fashion faux pas sexy.

“Really?”

“A gag gift from the guys at the station house. These thieves have no respect for quality, low or high.”

Her eyes soft with appreciation for how easily he’d pulled her back from the edge of hysteria, Jade nodded. Well, well. Looked like Hottie Cop was more than just a gorgeous face and rock-hard body. Which qualified him as the hottest fantasy material she’d ever encountered.

An empowered woman would go for it, right?

Nerves danced the cha-cha in her stomach. She wanted hot sex. She wanted a fling. And she was empowered, dammit. But could she actually chase a perfect stranger with the intention of getting him naked?

It was as if Santa had heard her wish, decided she’d been such a good girl that she deserved a chance to try her hand at being really, really bad. But only if she was brave enough to play.

She wanted to be brave. She really did. But as she told the girls in her workshops, some things you had to work up to. Small, consistent steps. She swallowed hard, looking around the mess. Maybe she should clean up her underwear first. Then she could work on being brave.

DIEGO’D FIGURED that life’s little ironies were what kept things interesting. Or provided the best torture. It was always a toss-up which was which. Letting his gaze cruise over the woman in the doorway, he figured this was proof yet again. Without the intense four-inch studded boots, maybe five feet and four inches could be measured between her toes and the top of her pale blond head. Mussed and a little wild, her hair looked as if she’d shoved her hands through it a few times, letting the bangs flop down in a long sweep over her eye and down to her shoulders. Sharp, angled features, huge green eyes and lips made to give a man sweaty dreams rounded out the fairylike looks.

Her body was a series of slender lines and soft curves. Legs nice enough to make his mouth water were tucked into boots that had enough edge to assure him that, despite her sweet face, she and the plethora of seductive lingerie were, indeed, well suited.

“I know it’s difficult to tell, given the state of the room,” he said, trying to bring his focus back to the case instead of wondering how it’d feel to have her wrap those gorgeous legs of hers around his waist. Or better yet, over his shoulders. Diego closed his eyes for a second, trying to find control. Kinnison, he reminded himself, letting the name work like a cold shower. “But can you tell if anything’s missing?”

“Not without going through it all,” she said. She took a deep breath, her breasts pressing against the heavy weight of that purple sweater and making his palms itch. “Can I touch anything?”

A list of possibilities, all better fondled while naked, flashed through his mind. Diego blinked twice trying to clear the deliciously tempting images away.

“Yeah, sure. Just touch the fabric, though. I need to dust the hard surfaces for prints. But I’ll wait until you get your delicates picked up.”

Diego slid the black silk he’d picked up earlier between his fingers, luxuriating in the softness. He’d bet the blonde’s skin was even smoother, softer.

Suddenly the crappy assignment took on a tempting sort of appeal. The kind of appeal that was likely to get him in trouble. Because he was pretty sure charming a victim into bed was on the Don’t list in Kinnison’s rulebook.

Still …

“Nice panties,” Diego said with a smile as lethal as the weapon strapped to his side. “I’m impressed.”

“Yeah?” Kneeling on the floor to scoop up an armful, she gave him a teasing look from beneath lush lashes. “You’re impressed by my underwear?”

“The quantity is a little awe-inspiring,” he said, sidestepping the truth—and his interest—by keeping his words cool and distant.

A tiny frown creased her brow, as if she was disappointed he hadn’t taken the flirtation bait. Then she focused on her lingerie again. And growled. The sound was low and sexy. The kind of sound a woman might make during sex. Wild sex. Wild, mind-blowing, “do it two more times to see if it was really that good,” sex. Good thing this was a temp assignment and an easy case to wrap up. Because he was pretty sure this was a woman who could actually make him whimper.

“What kind of lowlife dirtbag treats silk this way?” the blonde muttered, cussing under her breath as she held a teeny-tiny pink leopard-print nightie. “What’s the deal? I thought this creep was all about stealing panties. Why would he mess with my nightgowns?”

Forcing his attention away from the curve of her ass as she bent over to scoop armfuls of cotton nighties and sleep shorts, Diego considered the question. It was a good one, the same he’d been wondering himself when she’d walked in.

“Were they in the same drawer?” Unless her drawer was the size of a closet, he already knew the answer was no.

“I keep my lingerie in the armoire, my nighties and pajamas are in the chest of drawers.”

Diego frowned, noting the two pieces of furniture she’d indicated were on separate walls. It’d be easy to assume the destruction was the result of frustration from not finding her panties right off. But it felt like more. This felt personal.

“We’re probably dealing with a kid or some perv with an underwear fetish,” he mused, rocking back on his heels. That’d been his—and the deputies’ who’d written the previous reports—assumption of the case. But he’d learned years ago to listen to his gut over assumptions, his or anyone else’s. “You don’t have much in common with the other victims, though.”

“You don’t think so?” Dumping her armload of delicates into a laundry basket at the foot of her bed, she gave him an amused look with those cat eyes. “I don’t know about that. We’re all female. We all live in the same town. We all wear underwear. Well, there is the rumor floating around this evening that Ben Zimmerman had his undies snatched, too. Now, Ben does have a habit of dressing up as Little Bo Peep for Halloween, and I avoid hoopskirts like the plague. But other than that, I’d say we all have quite a bit in common.”

Diego’d always had a hell of a time resisting a woman with a smart mouth. He eyed the white eyelet bedspread and collection of hardback books lining the shelves on either side of the curved iron bed. The shelf filled with family photos was untouched, other than a leopard-print bra dangling from one frame. Despite the abundance of sexy underwear, he hadn’t come across a single sex toy. And given the feel of the scene, if there’d been one to be found, the culprit would have tossed it in the mix.

Diego glanced back at the petite blonde, looking like an irate fairy as she plucked her lingerie from furniture, curtain rods and shelves where it hung like the fruits of temptation.

She was hot. No question about it.

And he’d seen the look in her eyes. Sexual speculation, mixed with a whole lot of lust. He figured it was close enough to an invitation to move on, even if she had snatched it back pretty damn quick.