by Eve Langlais
“Hello, Selene.”
“It’s been a while. I need to talk to you.”
He made the shot. Stared as the ball hit the side of the nine ball and spun off, tapping the nine into the side pocket. “I’m pretty sure I’m not interested in talking, Selene.”
“You can talk to me—” Jerry butted in.
“Or me. You’re looking great, Selene. Hell, you can talk to any of us,” David chimed in. Tom stood up and glanced over at his goofy buddies. They were eating this up. Who could blame them, looking at Selene? He glanced at her again. Damn, she was as beautiful as when he’d seen her last. And just as dangerous.
“I need your help.” Selene’s eyes seemed to pin him down, to focus his attention and make time stand still. “I need you, Tom.”
He took a slow, deep breath. This was not good.
“Let me help you, honey.” David leaned in and offered her a beer. The guys knew about the way they used to date, but Tom had never revealed what had gone wrong or why they’d broken up. A year later, they were far too interested for comfort.
“Thanks, but no.” Selene gave him a smile, apparently to ease the brush-off.
David grinned at her, clearly no offense taken, as Tom watched him run his eyes over her curvy body. But Selene wouldn’t care if she offended David; she always went after whatever she wanted, full steam ahead. She had flirting down to an art form and could bring a man to his knees. He knew it from personal experience.
“Actually, I was just about to finish my game and order another beer. If you’ll excuse us, Selene, I’m about to beat this big oaf.” He turned away and ignored her, despite the fact that a traitorous part of him was pointed, as best it could within the confines of his pants, straight toward her. Thank god it was dark in the pool hall. His cock didn’t have a brain—if it had, it wouldn’t have tried to tell him how much it had missed her.
He took another shot, but his aim was off. Great. He straightened and David took a step toward the table, leaving him no choice but to stand back. He took a step to the wall, away from Selene and his buddies and grabbed his beer.
He turned around to watch the game, but she’d followed him and was standing way too close. A light flush of color appeared high on her cheeks, so light he could have pretended he hadn’t seen it in the dim lighting. But the slight downturn of her mouth was hard to ignore. It was damn sexy.
“Seriously, Tom, I need your help. The police are investigating my business. They’ve taken all the paperwork and messed up my office.”
“And this is supposed to be my problem now because…?” He left the question hanging. She had nothing on him; she was the one who had broken off their relationship a year ago. Getting involved again with her in any way would be so stupid. He hadn’t admitted it to anyone, but he’d fallen for Selene hard, even though he’d been warned she couldn’t make things stick. Not when it came to settling down with one man.
Just looking at her again made him want things he had no business thinking about.
“Because…because I don’t know what to do. This is out of my league.” For just an instant he thought he saw something vulnerable in her eyes.
Crap.
“Look, I’m sure if you go down to the precinct you can get someone to help you.”
“No, I can’t. I don’t know anyone else.” She waved her arms and knocked his cue to the ground, jumping as it clattered against a high bar stool on its way to the carpet.
Tom shook his head. His buddies were staring. All apparently thought of the game as secondary to the image of the bombshell begging for help. And who could blame them? She was beautiful, maybe even more than when he’d seen her last. He could admit it to himself—he hadn’t gotten over her. He didn’t understand what had happened, but even after everything went to hell, he couldn’t forget her. But caving in now would put her way too close.
“I’m sorry, Tom. I really do need your help.” She laid a hand on his arm and his traitorous cock stood up and took notice. It had definitely been too long since he’d had a date. “They’re accusing Alicia and me of importing illegal goods, and I have no idea why.”
Tom clenched his jaw. He seriously doubted she was in any real trouble—Selene might be a very naughty woman when it came to men, and she’d certainly stolen his heart, but she was no crook. Things would get sorted out without him. He needed to leave, to forget that this had happened. His life was boring now, but at least it didn’t make him crazy. Certainly not crazy enough that he’d actually go shopping for a wedding ring before he realized she wasn’t the staying type.
No way could he keep his sanity around Selene.
“I’m sure you can get some other guy on the force to look into this for you.”
* * *
This wasn’t working. Tom was clearly still pissed at her, not that she could blame him for it. If only she’d realized sooner that he was thinking about making things more serious between them. She hadn’t known how to handle it. Just thinking about anything permanent made her weak in the knees. Walking away was the only thing she’d been able to do. No wonder he didn’t want to hear about her problem. But she couldn’t wait. This had to be sorted out now, before anyone figured out how to reach Alicia and ruined her honeymoon with news of the investigation, or worse, shut them down and ruined their lives. But all she’d done so far was piss Tom off.
She really did need him. She’d never seen eye to eye with the police as a rule. Getting involved with Tom before had been a…surprise.
“Please.” There. She’d said it, a word she dreaded saying around a man or around anyone, beyond common good manners.
“I’m sorry, Selene. I think it’s my turn.”
He was grabbing the cue, getting ready to go back to his game. She couldn’t believe it; Tom was going to ignore her. He’d never once said no to her when they were dating. He’d changed. She clenched her teeth. Regrets aside, this called for desperate measures.
Quickly, she leaned hard against him and ran her hand over his back. Old habits died hard, and even though he was off duty, she was gratified to see she still remembered where he carried his gun and his cuffs. His badge would be in his jacket pocket and he’d have a trio of condoms in his wallet. He was still the Tom she knew. He had to be.
In a flash she had his cuffs out. She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then snap! she clicked one cuff in place on her wrist and snap! the other side on his right wrist.
“Selene, what the hell?” Tom’s deep chocolate eyes flashed at her, full of annoyed surprise. His brows drew down as he realized what she’d done.
Her heart pounded. Tom was a big guy—superhero big with wide shoulders and a thickly muscled chest. She’d forgotten just how physically intimidating he could be. Not that she’d ever for a moment felt unsafe in his arms. Just the opposite—she’d felt a safety with him that frightened her to death. It was one of those unexplainable emotions that sent her running for the door.
This was a very bad idea. But it was the only one she had.
She put on her best take-me-to-bed face. She had to get him to talk to her. That was never going to happen here. “Baby, I’m so glad you still want to play.”
His buddies hooted. Clinked their beers together and cheered her on. Tom narrowed his eyes at her as he stared at the exposed cuffs. For a second Selene thought he would drag her over to the boys, even if it was only to publicly humiliate her by displaying her cuffed state to his friends like she was a criminal. Or a sexual deviant. The ironic thought brought a smile to her lips. Tom, in bed, was like a super-sized vanilla sundae. Yummy, but no kinky surprises.
Tom tugged her to a corner of the room. He raised his hands toward his face, but her cuffed wrist came with his. He quickly dropped his hands and stared at her, his expression nonplussed. Her smile faded as a little bit of guilt nibbled away at her. He really didn’t seem happy; perhaps she’d just made things worse.
“I’m sorry, Tom. Really. Uncuff me and I’ll go away. I’ll do anyth
ing. Just please, you have to help me with this mess.” Her stomach twisted—she’d done it again, said please. This whole thing is driving me insane.
“You have to be kidding. Why should I help you?”
“I just really need your help, Tom. Seriously. I can’t let this all get back to Alicia. It will wreck her honeymoon.”
He glanced over at her, staring hard. She put everything she had into the look she shot back at him—regret, apology—whatever he needed she’d hand over, gladly.
“I’ve put everything I have into that company, Tom. And so have Alicia and Tess. I can’t let them down.”
“You’d do anything?”
A sexy, hard edge dropped his voice an octave. Her heart skidded and her mouth suddenly got dry. She loved men, but she usually did the chasing, leading her man where she wanted to go. Tom had played along nicely last time, but from the tone of his voice, this didn’t sound like the same game. She swallowed, and watched his eyes as they flickered to her throat. But what choice did she have?
“Anything.”
Chapter Two
“Come on.” Tom stood and pulled her along with him. He hadn’t bothered to undo the handcuffs and he wasn’t about to now. She was the one who had started this little game. So she deserved the strange looks from the people at the pool hall. She deserved a spanking, for that matter.
Selene Carter knew exactly how to get under any man’s skin. She knew how to get what she wanted, every time. She was overdue for a lesson in good behavior. He was probably going to regret it later, but he was going to make sure that she learned not to mess with people the way she had with him. He’d treated her like a princess on a pedestal the last time they were together, going out of his way to make sure she was always happy. Not this time.
He waved to the guys as he headed for the door. They responded with a cheer, raising their beers in the air. Annoyance and anger made him grit his teeth together as he pulled her along toward the door. She was hurrying to keep up, and he was temped, even now, to slow down, be a gentleman and take off the cuffs. To apologize. He’d done everything to make her happy, but she couldn’t have been, since she’d been the one to leave.
The idea of spanking her became even more appealing as he thought about it. Appealing enough that he had to take a deep breath and push aside the thought of her naked ass warming under his hands. He shouldered the glass door of the pool hall open and tugged her along with him out into the warm night air.
“Where are we going?” Her words came out in quick little pants.
He slowed down a little. His truck was only around the corner. Where was he taking her? The thought of taking her back to his place sent a weird discord through him. She still drew him, no question of that. If there were any more sparks between him and Selene, they’d set the street on fire. The only problem was, she’d hurt him last time. There was no way he was making that mistake this time. But he wanted her, and she needed him right now. A mutual exchange, if she agreed, and a way to burn the last feelings he had for her away with the hot flames of lust. And maybe he’d find out what he’d done wrong, why everything had gone to shit. He couldn’t fix that now, didn’t even want to try, but if he knew, maybe he wouldn’t mess up his next relationship. If he ever got around to having one.
“My place. We need to talk about this.”
They reached his truck and he thanked god he’d kept the bench seats over the buckets. He opened the driver side and nudged Selene up to the door. She scooted in and he followed. She had to sit close, pulling the middle seatbelt across herself awkwardly with one hand. The smell of her perfume reached him and it was all he could do to bite back a groan of appreciation at the light musky scent.
“I said I was sorry.” She tugged at the metal binding them together. “This was a terrible idea. Can’t you take these off?”
He started the engine and then looked at her. She looked a little nervous, worried perhaps that she’d finally taken one of her reckless actions a little too far. Too late now, honey. “You’re the one who came to see me. You interrupted my night, swiped my handcuffs. And you’re the one who needs my help, right?”
“Only because you’re the only cop I know.” She looked down at the handcuffs and the way their thighs touched. She swallowed, and he bit back a grin.
He let a moment of silence settle in. “You’re sure there isn’t anything going on?” She shook her head and he continued, “Then why not just let justice do its job, clear you through due course?”
“I told you. We haven’t done a thing wrong. My partner, Alicia, you remember her, got married last week and took off for Jamaica. I don’t want to disturb her. It wouldn’t be fair. She deserves her happiness.”
Tom considered what she was saying. Something tugged at him. So, Selene had a romantic streak after all. Just not with him.
“And Tess—if the business goes down she’ll lose very penny she has.”
Tom heard genuine regret in her voice. He’d been a detective long enough to know the truth when he heard it. Of course, she had fooled him before. She’d made him believe there was something there. They hadn’t discussed it, hadn’t said the words, but he’d never imagined she would walk away the first time he told her he loved her.
He cleared his throat. “Here’s the problem. I have had a crappy kind of month. I’m off for a week for some serious R and R and then you come along, wreck my first night off in weeks and want me to put in some unpaid overtime.”
She looked a little surprised at his tone. But it bloody well had been a hard month. He’d chased down a bad guy, been shot at, testified and been tormented by the paparazzi. Still, he knew he was acting a lot different from the ‘yes man’ she’d dated before. Her expression held that same hint of vulnerability that had nearly done him in at the pool hall. She looked up at him and he wondered if she could feel the heat where their bodies touched in the same acute way he could feel it.
Unable to resist, he leaned in, and felt the heat rise as she tilted her face in response. Her eyes fluttered closed, and he touched his lips to hers. She tasted sweet, like sugared cream. His groin tightened, and he fought to keep the kiss light, a test to see if she was still as interested in him as he was in her. But only on a sexual level this time. Keep it simple, stupid.
* * *
This was not the man she’d dated last year. Tom had been sexy before; this man was dangerously hot, maybe a little too hot, even for her. His kiss, as soft as melted butter and twice as delicious, made her want to forget why she’d come to him in the first place. She didn’t need him for sex. She could get that whenever she wanted. She needed help with her case.
It was still damn hard to pull away.
She blinked when he put the truck into drive and pulled away into traffic before she could say anything. Maybe the kiss hadn’t affected him like it had her. He was different, harder, than before. It looked good on him.
“I need this investigation dropped before it gets out in the public eye. The press would put their own spin on it, and my company would be down the drain. I’ll do anything, Tom. You’re the only person I know that can help. If you’re still mad about how we ended things…” She trailed off. For the first time she wasn’t sure what to say, how to act with him. When she left a man, she didn’t go back. They might come calling again, but never she. She glanced out the window at the moving lights of the city. This was harder than she’d imagined. More embarrassing. More exciting.
She licked her lips. The taste of his kiss lingered. He still wanted her. That was something she knew how to use, had since the first time she’d turned a man’s head. Even if she felt like a phony, doing this to Tom, what choice did she have? All she had was her ability to make men want her. She rested her free hand on his knee. “How about we spend a little time together? Make up for lost time. We can talk over the case and you can make up your mind about whether you can help or not.”
He glanced down at her. His brown eyes looked dark, nearly black in the shadowed ca
b of his pick-up.
“Are you trying to bribe a cop?”
She sucked in a breath. God, he was so different. A horrible thought occurred to her—he could use all of this to ruin her, payback for the way she’d slipped away one night without even a goodbye. The old Tom would never think of it, but this new man…her heart pounded.
“I’m not asking for you to do anything wrong. Just help out an old friend.”
He didn’t look at her, his eyes watching the road. They turned onto the same street as his precinct office and she bit the corner of her lip until he pulled past it and turned the corner again, heading for his apartment building.
He was taking her home, not to the cop shop. She had one last chance to sort this out, get him on board to help her clean up the red tape that was going to tie up her business for the next year if it went too far. She needed to get back her control, to push this encounter into a direction that she could manage. The handcuffs had been a bad mistake. Even if the naughty sexual implication—far different than their last night together, filled with romance and a sweetness that was more than she could handle—made her pussy cream enough to soak her panties. Even if she wanted to play bad girl to his cop.
She had to be the one in charge.
* * *
“Just so we understand things here, I’m the one in charge.” Tom’s voice vibrated against her ear as they stood in his elevator. He held her close to him, hiding the handcuffs with his body and his jacket, sheltering her from the prying eyes of the older couple in the elevator with them. It was a curious gesture, a blend of the courteous care with which he’d always treated her while they’d dated, and the actions of the rough, demanding man he’d suddenly become. She shivered in reaction to the feeling of his heated breath against her neck, the hard muscle of his arm against her back.
Before she could respond, the elevator doors slid open and he nudged her through and to the left, as though she would forget the direction of his apartment. She hadn’t forgotten a single thing. She licked her suddenly dry lips, grateful that he couldn’t see her while he took the few steps forward and keyed his lock. She’d never thought she’d come back here, or that he’d invite her.