by Addison Fox
And as she allowed the moments to swirl out like the finest threads of spun sugar, Lilah let loose on the tight reins of emotion she normally kept in check.
Here, in this moment, she was safe.
Chapter 9
Reed came awake to the hard, heavy pounding of his phone alarm. He reached for it automatically, nearly crying out at the pain that seemed to shimmy outward from his chest to his back before it ricocheted around to his ribs.
Awareness slammed into him even harder than the pain and he switched off his phone, then flopped onto the pillow.
The car. The cut brake lines. DeWinter.
And Lilah.
His jumbled thoughts over the accident cleared as the feel of her flooded him in a hard wave of sense memories. The light scent of her hair, a perpetual vanilla that was either her natural perfume or the result of her endless hours in the kitchen. The press of her lips, soft and solid at the same time. And under it all, a warm compassion and loyalty that was touching.
She wasn’t afraid to hold her own or toss out a sarcastic remark, but she was unfailingly loyal. And she’d been sweet and kind to his mother, asking questions and waiting for the answers with genuine interest.
She was a contradiction. A slim pixie and a lush, dynamic woman. A rich treat that teased the senses and made a man want more—want all—after one single taste.
And he’d woken up thinking about her.
Snagging his phone off the end table, he dialed the precinct. He knew he was a bit early to get his lieutenant, but he wanted to leave a message and get the ball rolling on the review of the car.
He dialed Jessie next and had to bear up under her grumbles at the early hour.
“C’mon, Jess, it’s seven.”
“Yes, it’s seven. And you kept me out last night until past eleven. Dave and I are an old married couple now.”
“I was up a hell of a lot later.” He quickly caught her up on the crash and his suspicions about her car.
Jessie’s sleepy tone and grouchy voice vanished. “Are you okay?”
“Bruised like I went several rounds in a ring, but I’m fine. We’re both fine.”
“I’m heading in now. I’ll start digging into the car and will meet you at nine at the impound lot. Do you need me to pick you up?”
“Lilah will drive me in.”
“Lilah?”
Reed heard the interest at roughly the same decibel level of a train whistle. “I’m at her place. I didn’t want her here alone last night.”
“Very sensible of you.”
“That’s me.”
“Reed Graystone. Exemplary model of the Dallas PD. His willingness to protect and serve is a 24/7 job.”
“I’ll see you at nine.”
He disconnected the call before Jessie could get any further licks in.
Despite the pain, he lifted himself out of bed and stood. He waited a moment, taking stock of his various aches. His ribs hurt less than they had the night before, but his shoulders screamed in tightness and he rolled them several times to work out the painful kinks.
Resigned, he knew there was nothing to be done for it except loads more aspirin and movement. As a first step, he slipped into his clothes from the night before. Everything was filthy, with the lingering talc from the air bag embedded in every fiber.
He made a mental note to trash the rest of the outfit when he got home and opened the bedroom door intent on snagging more aspirin and a cab home.
But when he opened the bedroom door, the distinct smell of pancakes and coffee wafted toward him. He padded toward the kitchen and waited, fascinated by the sight that greeted him.
Lilah stood at the counter, her hair piled on her head in a messy knot. She wore an old SMU T-shirt and a small pair of shorts. He gave himself a moment to let his gaze travel over that small, compact body and the trim legs before moving fully into the kitchen.
Pain aside, Reed had one lone thought as he reached for a coffee mug.
He was fairly sure he’d died and gone to heaven.
* * *
Steven DeWinter groaned into his Egyptian-cotton sheets as the phone screamed from his bedside. He’d inhaled half a bottle of whiskey when he got home, a persistent mix of irritation and frustration dogging him since Lilah and her damn date had left Portia.
And now his mouth was cotton, his ears were ringing and he still hadn’t worked off the irritation and frustration.
“What?”
“DeWinter.”
The Duke’s harsh tone echoed through the phone and Steven scrambled to a sitting position, pain swimming before his eyes. “Yes.”
“Are you aware of who was inside your restaurant last night?”
“What felt like half of Dallas, but I suspect you mean my ex-wife.”
“Your ex-wife and a cop.”
A cop?
He was tempted to ask the Duke where he’d gotten his information, but Steven held the question. The man had his finger on the pulse of everything and questioning how he’d come by his information was futile.
“There’s no way that guy was a cop. He was some besotted jerk who couldn’t stop staring at her and rubbing her hand.”
“Your belief or lack thereof doesn’t change the truth. They were there to question you.”
Steven rubbed the base of his neck, desperately wishing for an IV of Advil. “I barely saw them. They had a meal, we made small talk. That’s all.”
“Did that small talk involve Robert’s and Charlie’s recent deaths?”
Still, it’s a shame. Both passing and within a few days of each other.
Steven’s hand stilled, the memory of their discussion coming back to him.
Both murdered, as a matter of fact. I can’t believe you haven’t heard the news.
He had heard the news, of course. And still, he’d pretended he hadn’t. But if Lilah’s date was a cop, he’d likely garnered a second glance with the weak lie.
Damn woman.
“Well, then, I’ll take that as a yes on the small talk.”
“It was casual conversation.”
When the Duke spoke next, Steven knew his protests had fallen on deaf ears. “What’s done is done. I have a new project for you. A way to clean up your mess, as it were.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll meet you at our usual spot. Ten o’clock.”
The phone went dead and Steven rubbed at his neck once more. The early-morning light hit his eyes like ice picks, but he ignored it and headed for the shower.
Whatever pain he felt now would be a cakewalk compared to the Duke’s ire if he missed the meeting.
* * *
Lilah scooped her second helping of strawberries and blueberries out of a small bowl before setting it next to the empty serving plate. She and Reed had managed an entire batch of pancakes, and while she’d like to lay the majority of the blame on him, she’d held her own.
And was still a little hungry.
“Those were amazing.”
“Thanks.”
Reed took the last bite on his plate. “I’m serious. It’s like you’re the love child of Betty Crocker and the Pillsbury Doughboy.”
She couldn’t hold back the laugh, even as a thick morass of pancakes rumbled in her stomach. “Thanks. I think.”
The domesticity of the moment wasn’t lost on her, especially as she asked the next question. “Do you want me to run you home before I take you to the precinct?”
“That works and then you can just go on from there. I’ll catch a cab from home and have work set up a loaner car this morning.”
“I don’t mind taking you in.”
He reached for her plate, stacking it on his and then on the empty serving tray. “You’re only g
oing to add to the interest.”
“I’m dropping you off, not perching on the edge of your desk to sing show tunes.”
“And wouldn’t that be a sight?”
She knew it was small of her, but she couldn’t quite hold back the delight at his sudden awkwardness. For some reason, he was embarrassed and she found it completely adorable.
He flipped the water on in the sink and began rinsing the dishes.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“You cooked. It’s the least I can do.”
The offer was so sweet she decided not to argue and dug into her berries. As the cool, sweet fruit slid over her tongue, she contemplated her next move. “How would anyone at the precinct even know I was there? I presume there’s a parking lot for me to drop you off.”
“I spoke with Jessie this morning. I need to meet her at the impound lot at nine.”
Aha, Lilah thought as she scooped up her last blueberry. The plot thickens. “So she’ll see me.”
“Yes.”
“She’s the one who was positioned in the restaurant last night?”
“With her husband, Dave.”
“So she saw our little show, then.”
His voice was flat, his eyes on the dishes as he scrubbed the plates. “Yes.”
“The googly eyes. The hand-holding. The whispered giggles.”
“Yes.”
“So how’d we do?”
He did glance over at that. “How’d we do at what?”
“Convincing her we’re besotted.”
“She did suggest this morning that I’m a full-service officer. Eager to protect and serve 24/7.”
Lilah crossed the few steps from the table to the sink, dropping her bowl into his wet hands. Pleased he was distracted, she took a cue from his ministrations the previous evening. Moving up onto her tiptoes, she pressed her lips to his ear and blew a warm breath along the lobe. “Perhaps we need to keep up the show.”
“What if it’s not a show?”
Need whipped through her like a storm at the raw fire she saw flashing in his gaze. When had this gone past a game?
And when had they both begun to want each other so much?
She knew sexual attraction. Had enjoyed it a time or two in her life, even before Steven. And while her dating life hadn’t been all that much to write home about, she’d dated a few times since her divorce. Tentative steps toward normalcy that never fully panned out but weren’t a complete waste of time, either.
But this...this was different.
More intense. More needy. More dramatic.
It seemed like a silly word, yet as she tried it on, Lilah realized it fit.
They were in the middle of some serious drama and she knew that could heighten feelings of need or desire. Cassidy had worried about it with Tucker, wondering if the intensity of their circumstances had forced their feelings.
Cassidy now knew that wasn’t the case—and Lilah and Violet had known it from the start—but her friend had still worried.
And now in the light of her own attraction, Lilah was forced to wonder the same thing.
With Reed’s words still hovering between them, she gave him the only thing she had.
The truth.
“If it’s just a show, then when it’s over we’ll take our bows and go our separate ways.”
* * *
“So tell me about Jessie.”
At Lilah’s request, Reed navigated the drive to the impound lot. Between driving an unfamiliar car, the early-morning traffic and a fair amount of stiffness from the night before, his eyes were firmly on the road. Which meant he had plenty of opportunity to hear the question underneath the question.
“She’s one of my oldest friends.”
“And you both ended up on the force. Partners?”
“Sort of. My most recent partner retired about two months ago and I’m still trying different people on. Our lieutenant has paired us up on a few cases to see if our friendship can extend to a proper working relationship.”
“Is it hard to find the right person?”
“I wouldn’t call it hard, but it does take some getting used to. Different styles and ways of working. Different attitudes to the job. It’s just something you know when you know.”
“That’s how we felt about Gabby. When we started the business, we were interested in having some sort of catering offering. I can do limited catering with appetizers and the like, but not a full-on meal.”
“Let me guess. Your appetizers normally have layers and layers of puff pastry. The sort Baldwin eats until they come out his ears.”
He caught her smile from the corner of his eye. “You’d be correct. If I can wrap it in dough, I’m a happy gal. Beyond that, I’m relatively useless.”
“And a lot of couples want to feed their guests more than appetizers.”
“Oftentimes, yes.” Like a dog with a bone, Lilah returned directly to the matter at hand. “What’s it like working with a woman?”
“Not that much different from working with a man.”
“Really? Because I found working with men in the kitchen a vastly different experience than what I have now.”
“Your useless ex-husband doesn’t count.”
“Beyond Steven. Men bring a different energy and different thought process. I don’t mean it in a battle-of-the-sexes way, but it’s a different working relationship.”
Recognizing her point, Reed thought about the past two months and the jobs he and Jessie had partnered on. They knew each other so well it had been easy to fall back on the comfort of their friendship, but now that he gave it some thought, he had to admit she challenged him in different ways.
“She doesn’t let me skate on anything. She’s dogged as we pursue leads.”
“I can’t see you slacking.”
“No, but she does see things differently. Is quicker to pick up on motivations than I am.”
“How long have you been friends?”
Amused at her insistence, he thought about one of his oldest friends. “I told you about my dual life.”
“What? You’re Dallas’s version of the Dark Knight?”
“Not quite.” He wanted to smile at the joke, but their impending highway exit had a shot of adrenaline skittering down his spine. Although it wasn’t the same exit as the previous evening, it was humbling to know the memory wasn’t far from the surface.
Pleased to have something else to focus on as he cleared the ramp, he continued his story. “Jessie was the first friend I made at my new school after my mom married Tripp. Overnight I went from having friends in a shabbier part of town to being the new kid at a school full of the city’s wealthiest progeny.”
“That must have been a shock.”
“Kids are kids, so I knew a bit of what to expect, but yeah, it was a shock.”
“And Jessie?”
“She was a bit of a rebel. Always ready to defend the underdog. She’s terrifyingly brilliant and usually three steps ahead of everyone else. She pegged me for the class bully’s latest target if she didn’t step in and help, taking me under her wing.”
“I’m always amazed how perceptive some kids are. Did she succeed?”
“She did. I made friends pretty quickly and then once I got involved in sports, it became even easier. But she remained my friend. First and best, as I’ve always thought of her.” He took the last turn for the city’s impound lot and couldn’t resist finishing off the story. “She was right about the bully, too.”
“Oh? Did he threaten to meet you after the last bell to fight in the schoolyard.”
“Nope.”
“Toilet paper your house?”
Reed snagged a spot and put the car in Park. “Not that, either.”
“The bully ended up getting kicked out of our rather pristine private school for cheating a year later.”
“Teachers are pretty serious about that stuff.”
“Especially when the cheater’s the meanest girl in school who delights in creating misery as often as possible.”
He couldn’t hide his own smile when Lilah’s mouth dropped, her deep brown eyes widening in surprise. “Your class bully was a girl?”
“Yep. Piper Tremain. She never did get over her wicked ways, either.”
“Some people never learn. There are a few delinquents in my class that you hear about from time to time.”
“Well, Jessie arrested ours last year. Seemed that she was involved in a high-level embezzlement ring in one of the banks downtown.”
“Wow. You just never know.”
“You don’t.” Reed glanced out the window, the subject of his story stepping from her car. Her jaunty wave matched the speculative grin that spread quickly across her face. “Jessie’s the one who cracked the case.”
“How?”
“Remember how I mentioned she was three steps ahead of everyone else?”
“Sure.”
“The moment she heard Piper Tremain had gotten a job at the bank, our Jessie started keeping a tickler file of anything suspicious.”
“She knew.”
“She sure did.”
* * *
As preparation went, Reed figured his childhood story was a poor substitute for reality, but there really was no way to describe the whirling dervish that was Jessie Baxter Hurley. The woman moved ninety miles an hour and wasn’t happy unless her mouth was running at a speed to match.
“So you’re Lilah. I heard you had quite an evening last night.”
“You could say that.”
Jessie’s face turned serious and Reed recognized the anger that leaped into her gaze. He’d been on the receiving end of that look more times in his life than he could count and he knew it never boded well when her eyes narrowed into small slits. That light of battle had him abstractly wishing for the antacids sitting in his impounded car. “The Dallas PD doesn’t take that sort of thing lightly. We’ve already requested the security tapes from the restaurant and I’ve got several team members working any of the feeds from the local street cameras. We’re going to find out who did this.”