The memory of the last time they’d seen one another washed over her. Heat spread up her neck and fanned into her cheeks. A glance at those long, capable fingers wrapped around her arms had her sex tingling. He’d held her this way last night, right before he’d proceeded to kiss her, stroke her and rock her world.
Moisture damped her panties. She opened her mouth to thank him for catching her, praying it would be enough to get his hands off her. Nothing came out. Nice. Either the crash had injured her vocal cords or she’d officially turned into an idiot.
“Nod if you’re okay,” Andrew suggested.
She did so quickly, sighing when he released her. A slight smile tugged at his mouth. “Well, that’s a relief. Your nose is so red, I was afraid I’d broken it.” She lifted a hand to rub her nose, and his smile turned to the sexy smile.
Sexy? Yeah, she’d admitted she wanted him, but to think the nerd was sexy? Okay, so that dimple was pretty damned hot in a way that made her tongue move over her teeth with the urge to lick the dimple.
“You sure you’re okay?” Jilly asked.
Tawny glanced at her friend’s concerned expression. Enough playing mute. She had a design to get out, and so long as she stood here having naughty thoughts of Andrew, she would never get the design wrapped up on time. “Fine,” she said as energetically as possible, while starting to turn toward the other end of the hallway. “Geez, girl, it was just a little crash. No biggie. Hey, thanks for rescuing me, Drew, but I seriously have to run. I have to get a job done by noon or Larry’s going to freak.”
“It was my pleasure.”
The response was formal; the look in his eyes anything but. Tawny’s breath caught at his wolfish expression. Did he realize how he was looking at her? Could Jilly see it?
“So, how’s it going, Andrew?” Jilly asked, acting like Tawny was already gone. “Great shirt, by the way.”
Needing to look away from his face before she questioned his expression aloud, Tawny focused on his shirt and once more found the breath lodging in her throat. She’d never expected him to start wearing his new clothes immediately, or to the office at all. The soft, greenish-brown cotton matched his eyes perfectly. And the way the material hugged his molded pecs…Her mouth watered while her pussy grew wetter.
Oh, man, he had better have been trying out the sense-of-humor thing again last night when he’d walked away from her as if she was nothing more than his teacher. If he showed up wearing that shirt to tonight’s lesson, she’d never be able to keep her hands to herself, whether he wanted her or not. She’d be the impulsive one this time. She’d have him pushed up against the door before he could say hello. Have her tongue in his mouth and her fingers wrapped around the rigid length of his cock.
“…you’re okay? Tawny?”
With a groan of displeasure, Tawny surfaced from the hedonistic vision filling her mind. Jilly stood next to her, alone. Tawny looked down the hallway and spotted Andrew walking away. Andrew, who’d not only worn a new shirt, but also new pants. The way the casual tan Dockers hugged his taut ass was pure perfection and incredibly unfair. She ached to let go a wolf whistle, but couldn’t see even brazen Tawny doing that while on the job.
“Something you forgot to mention?” Jilly questioned.
“What do you mean?” Tawny asked absently, unable to look away from Andrew’s retreating backside. He so did not look like a geek from this angle.
“That Andrew got a little more than a kiss.”
Her attention shot back to Jilly, and Tawny just managed to stifle her gasp. Talking about Andrew in the privacy of the bathroom was one thing. Out here, when her friend wasn’t even attempting to lower her voice, anyone could overhear. She whispered, “Why would you think something so ridiculous?”
Jilly’s gaze narrowed shrewdly. She grabbed hold of Tawny’s arm and pulled her back into the ladies’ room. When the door closed, she said, “The way he looked at you. Not to mention the way you couldn’t stop looking at his ass when he walked away. I have to admit it looks better than I ever would have believed possible in those Dockers, but good God, woman, I thought I was going to have to call 911 for the jaws of life to pull you free of your stupor.”
“I haven’t slept with him,” Tawny retorted defensively, and winced. The big mouth was at it again. An innocent person would never have made such a claim.
“But you want to, and he wants you just as badly.”
Then she’d seen the hot way he’d look at her? Tawny nearly laughed at the anticipation filling her. Whoever would have believed Andrew Korben could have her so tied up in lust knots? Hell, just two short days ago she’d been fighting off images of him wielding a flog while reciting statistics. Geek he might be, but from what she’d experienced so far, he was quite capable of keeping his nerdiness at bay long enough to get her hot and bothered and dripping with desire.
Tawny feigned a disgusted look. “You know, at moments like this, I seriously miss the Jilly in witch’s clothing.”
Jilly laughed. “Oh, come on. I know I haven’t been around as much as usual lately, but we’re best friends. If you can’t come clean with me about your Andrew obsession, who can you come clean with?”
“It’s not an obsession.” That would entail much more than the yearning to strip him naked and lick him from head to toe. Tawny shivered over the idea and the resulting twinge of longing it shot between her thighs. “It’s just…strange. We’re so different—night and day—and yet there’s something there.”
Jilly nodded understanding. “That makes you want him. If you remember, there was a time when I felt the same way about Brendan, like the two of us could never mesh beyond a few nights of sex, and the safest thing I could do was avoid him at all costs. I was wrong, and so might you be.”
“You’re suggesting that me and Andrew could work out in the long run?” Tawny asked incredulously. “Short-term maybe, but long-run, no way.” Even short-term was presuming that he wanted her as more than a teacher. She couldn’t guess at that. She shouldn’t. Okay, so there was that possibility, upped by the wolfish look he’d given her moments ago. Just in case there was a chance of the possibility becoming reality, she’d be sure to have on her best thong when he arrived for his nightly session.
The thought of the red and black number riding the crack of her ass merely because she’d sat down while wearing too-tight jeans brought tremors of distaste. The thought of Andrew tugging it between her butt cheeks and over the aroused lips of her sex had shudders of a whole other kind traveling through her.
He probably didn’t want her, but she couldn’t stop the trickle of liquid desire at the idea that maybe he did.
“This is going to be so up your alley.”
Andy glanced over at Tawny as he followed her directions into the heart of downtown Atlanta for some destination she’d yet to reveal. She sat looking out the passenger-side window of the economical sedan he’d rented as part of his nerd guise. She shifted in her seat as exuberantly as a kid at Christmas. “Sounds like it.”
“We’re almost there.”
The grin she sent him was full of excitement, and didn’t even come close to belonging to a criminal. It did, however, have the power to stir his cock. She was always a knockout, but when she was grinning over something that truly excited her, she was drop-dead, test his willpower to keep his hands to himself gorgeous. As if his willpower hadn’t been tested enough from the moment he’d picked her up.
Tonight she’d didn’t wear a tiny skirt, breast hugging top and do-me pumps. Tonight she wore sensible jeans, a sweatshirt and tennis shoes. Her vivid red ringlets were pulled back in a low ponytail. Even her cinnamon scent had been replaced with a sedate vanilla. She was nothing like the siren he’d come to know, and for some twisted reason it made him want to get her naked all that much more.
There would be no getting her naked. Just like there would be no more kisses or climaxes. He’d been reckless last night, egged on by the couple in the theater and his building lust to get
into Tawny’s panties. In his line of work, recklessness could get you killed. While he didn’t believe Tawny could harm him more than she could a fly, he wasn’t about to leave anything to chance. If that meant ending the evening home alone, giving himself a hand job to still the rampant want she inspired in him, that was the way it would have to be.
At Tawny’s command, Andy braked at a four-corner stop. Tawny’s hand shot out, grabbing his forearm and his attention. Her grin was so huge his shaft stood no chance of softening any time soon. “Ta da! Are you excited yet?”
Growing more so every time he looked her way. She focused back out the window, and he followed the direction of her gaze to the small corner shop on the other side of the street. All thoughts of sex died as alarm pummeled him in the gut. “A bookstore?” And not just any bookstore, but the one his younger sister managed.
He glanced at the dashboard clock. Eight thirty. Joyce typically left by six. He could only hope that today was a typical day. He and Rick had decided it best to keep Joyce in the dark about checking out her new friend’s potentially nefarious behavior. Now would be a hell of a time for her to find out, and reveal all to Tawny in the process.
“Yes and no,” Tawny said. “It gets better. Find a spot to park and I’ll show you.”
Andy parallel-parked a few shops up the street from the bookstore. Wariness ate at him as he got out of the car and came around to open Tawny’s door.
Remembering his disguise, he frowned. “That probably wasn’t the right thing to do. A bad boy would never open the door for a woman, right?”
She climbed out and hoisted the strap of a plain beige satchel over her shoulder. Right about now she looked innocent enough to be a schoolgirl. “We’re making you into a sex magnet, not a bad boy. Either way, opening the door is a great touch.”
“Why not a bad boy?”
She smiled sympathetically. “You’re doing great with the lessons and being impulsive and everything, but the bad-boy image is a little much to aim for.”
“What would it take to make you change your mind?” He happened to know he was the bad boy every bit as much as she was the bad girl. That she thought otherwise meant he was playing the nerd role far better than he’d guessed.
Tawny sent him a contemplative look as they started down the sidewalk for the bookstore. They’d nearly reached the front steps when she stopped and said, “It’s all about attitude. You don’t have the bad-boy attitude. I don’t think it’s something you can learn, either. Sorry. But, honestly, it doesn’t take away from your appeal.” She blinked as if she hadn’t meant to say those last words, and then looked toward the bookstore. “Here we are. Better hurry and get inside before things start.”
“Things?” It wasn’t what he wanted to ask. No, that would be exactly how appealing she found him, and if she was as painfully aroused after he’d left last night as he’d been. Only, those questions wouldn’t be asked. He was done having thoughts of her and sex, starting now.
Tawny grabbed his hand and tugged him up the steps to the door of the Book Shed. Bells jangled merrily overhead as they moved inside the store, but those bells had nothing on her smile as she turned back to say, “After dragging you shopping last night, I figured I owed you a night of being yourself. Tonight’s for you, Andrew. I guessed coming here would be the perfect way to start things out. After this, whatever we do is up to you, no matter how boring you think I might find it.”
Andy forced a smile of his own, while inside his gut felt like it was made of lead. Dirty, rotten lead. She’d dressed the way she had and brought him here, somewhere she obviously wouldn’t go on her own, to give him a night off from his sex lessons. He never would have guessed that such a kind action could make him feel like complete shit.
As she led him to the back of the store, guilt speared him for the lies he’d told her since the day he’d begun working at Neilson. Lying was a part of his job, and, until tonight, had never bothered him. Was it that no one in the past had ever done anything quite so selfless before? Why the guilt now, after years of working as a PI?
He didn’t have the answer. He only knew that he wanted to drag her into a deserted aisle and confess all, including that he didn’t have any wild sisters who dated even wilder men. He just had a meek sister he hoped to hell wouldn’t be getting the rough end of things once Andy had a chance to speak with his brother-in-law and tell him to try another source for his information leak, because Tawny wasn’t it.
“Andrew? What are you doing here?”
Dread hit Andy hard at the unmistakably soft sound of his sister’s voice. He looked up to find Joyce standing a few feet away in front of the store’s door. Voices came from inside. He realized in a flash where Tawny had been leading him. The book club meeting his sister held every Wednesday night. Damn, how could he have forgotten?
Tawny sent a surprised look from Joyce to Andy. “You know each other?
Joyce nodded. “Yes. He’s my—”
“Best customer,” Andy cut her off. “I’m always in here checking out the latest technical magazines.” Realizing that Tawny still held his hand, he shook it free and said to Tawny, “I just remembered I owe Joyce for a book she mailed me last month. Go on inside and I’ll join you as soon as I pay for it.”
Tawny frowned. “But the meeting’s going to start in a sec.”
“I hate being late on stuff.” Christ, he sounded whiny. Fighting off a grimace, Andy laid the whine on even thicker. “If I don’t pay it off now, I won’t be able to concentrate enough to enjoy the meeting. Besides, it can’t start without the coordinator.” He glanced at Joyce. “Wouldn’t that be your job as the store manager?”
Her blond eyebrows winged together in confusion—the action and shared eye color the only traits that marked the two as siblings. “Yes. It is. I can take care of the charge now.”
“Great.” He beamed at Tawny. “Get us a good seat. I’d hate to get stuck in the back after you picked out such an ideal place to start off my night.”
The frown still clung to Tawny’s lips, but she nodded. “All right. I’ll see you guys inside.”
The moment Tawny was out of sight, Joyce asked, “What was that about? And how do you know Tawny?”
Andy glanced around for eavesdroppers. Finding no one in listening distance, he looked back at his sister. “Is there somewhere we can talk?”
“The stockroom, I guess.” She hesitated. “I should get the meeting started, Andrew. I don’t want anyone being upset if there’s a delay.”
He cursed under his breath. That was his sister, always concerned about the rest of the world. When it came to herself, she didn’t put forth nearly enough effort. He couldn’t bring the confidence to her life in the next few minutes that twenty-six years hadn’t accomplished, so he focused on what he might be able to achieve in that time. “They can wait a minute. Please, Joyce, this is important.”
“All right.” She moved to the meeting-room door and ducked her head inside. “I’ll be just a couple minutes and we can get started. Help yourself to juice and cookies while you wait.”
Andy shook his head as she returned. “You’re too nice.”
She cast her attention to the carpet, but not before he caught her sheepish look. He wanted to grab hold of her hair and force her head up high. He couldn’t instill confidence in minutes, but the thought of her acting so subservient at home, around Rick, twisted his guts.
“The stockroom’s this way,” Joyce said softly. Several seconds later they stepped into a musty-smelling storage room overflowing with books and magazines. She shut the door and swiveled back, bringing her attention up from the floor. “So, are you and Tawny dating? She doesn’t seem like your type.”
“She’s exactly my type,” he said too briskly. He added in a sedate voice, “But, no, we aren’t.” They were just…not lovers. Last night they might have come close to that, but that was as far as things would ever get. He forced himself to concentrate on the matter at hand. “What I have to tell you
is confidential, Joyce. I need your promise that you won’t tell a soul; not even Rick.”
Her lips pressed together. She hesitated several seconds before nodding. “All right. Unless he asks. He doesn’t like my keeping secrets.”
The concern Andy had felt over his sister’s safety since hearing the threat in Rick’s voice two days ago escalated. He was tempted to ask if her husband had ever showed signs of violence, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Joyce was a delicate woman, but also one he trusted to come to him if the need was there. He hoped to God there was never a need.
“I’m undercover,” he said, opting for half truths over a complete lie. He had no choice but to show a false face to the suspects he came up against. He would do anything to avoid showing that face to family. Or to Tawny. Right—as if he had a choice. “Tawny’s a suspect in a case I’m working.”
Joyce’s eyes went wide. She brought a hand up to cover the gasp that slipped from her mouth. “Oh, my gracious! She seems so sweet. What did she do?”
“Nothing. She’s not guilty. I don’t think she’s guilty,” he amended, knowing that stating the words as truth was based more on hope than facts. The facts were there, as well—just not as strongly as the hope. “I can’t tell you anything else. I just need you to play along. I know she’s sort of your friend, but for now I need you to lie. No, not to lie, just to agree with me. Act like I’m a customer of yours. A nerdy one.”
The wide-eyed look faded. She laughed into her hands. Letting her arms fall at her sides, she looked at him through amused eyes. “You have her believing you’re a nerd?”
Andy chuckled at how ludicrous the idea had to seem. She’d met many of the women who’d come through his life, and knew about the rest. He could guess she didn’t approve of the casual way he treated relationships, but admitting to that was something Joyce would never do. In this instance, at least, he was glad for her timidity. “Apparently so. She said I could never be a bad boy; I don’t have the attitude.”
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