by Julie Miller
Sadie lurched in her grip, anxious to sniff their uninvited guest. While Shauna pulled her back and gave the command to sit, Austin somehow managed to work his way closer to the threshold.
“You said to call your office tomorrow and you’d check your calendar.” Austin chose now to get the details right? “Look, honey, this deal can’t wait. If I don’t pony up in the next forty-eight hours, the opportunity will be gone.”
If she wouldn’t have had to open the door a second time to let Sadie back inside, Shauna would have released the hound to drive Austin back with a tail-wagging welcome while she locked the storm door. If she’d been thinking straight, she wouldn’t have opened the outside door in the first place.
But after Seth’s earlier announcement, and with her ex’s connections to the gambling world, she’d thought Austin’s midnight knock and claim that this was an “emergency” meant something horrible had happened already. Maybe Austin had heard or done something which could jeopardize Seth’s cover. Though she’d long ago given up on the idea of loving Austin Cartwright, she’d never given up the belief that he wanted to be a good father. That he would come through if Seth or Sarah ever really needed him.
But, as usual, this visit was all about Austin.
“Number one,” she started, enunciating every word so he couldn’t misunderstand, “I am not your honey anymore. And number two, we agreed that unless it had something to do with Seth or Sarah, you and I were only going to speak through our lawyers. I’m not trying to be rude, but we have our own lives now. And mine includes getting a few hours sleep tonight.”
“Give me ten minutes.”
“It’s never just ten minutes with you. Goodnight.” Releasing her double-grip on Sadie’s collar, Shauna pulled at the storm-door handle.
But Austin clapped his big, boxer-like hand against the door and wedged himself into the opening. Shauna groaned as he tugged her off-balance. If Sadie hadn’t been there to block her fall, she would have run into his stocky chest instead.
“Austin!” The dog woofed to punctuate her mistress’s frustration.
Never a big fan of pets, even a friendly pooch like Sadie, Austin retreated back to the porch, though his grip kept her from slamming the door. His craggy face, an aged version of Seth’s, was wreathed with the boyish grin she’d once found so endearing. Now she understood it was meant to distract or placate. “This does affect the kids. I know I did wrong by them. I’ve been trying to regain their respect for years. This could do it. You front me the money and within a year—six months if I work my ass off, and I will—I promise to pay back everything I owe you. Everything.”
“I’m not giving you any money.”
“Who’s talking about giving? I’m asking for a loan. To cosign at the bank for me. Once the casino’s up and running, I’ll pay back what I took from the kids’ college fund. I’ll pay it straight to them. They can use it for their kids.”
Casino? Sincere as those blue eyes were, Shauna had learned the hard way not to put her faith in his best-laid plans. Austin’s heart might be in the right place, but his judgment and reliability had been altered by his addiction. Digging her fingers into the soft fur beneath Sadie’s collar, Shauna grounded herself. She’d given him too many second chances already. She wouldn’t be swayed by the hope in his eyes or her own wishful what-if’s. “When was the last time you went to a GA meeting?”
Austin’s smile evaporated. “This isn’t a gamble. It’s an investment. I just need a stake so I can get in on the ground floor.”
“A stake?” Sadie barked again, picking up on the rising tension. “Do you hear yourself?”
“Could you shut Fido up there? I’m trying to have a conversation.”
Sadie’s bark deepened at his terse impatience. Great. Shauna pulled her back. “She’ll wake the neighbors. You have to go.”
Since he wouldn’t let her close the storm door, she’d shut him out by locking the interior latch. But Austin’s foot and a ready apology were there, preventing escape without him following her into the house. “I’m sorry, honey. Bad choice of words. When I mentioned a new casino, I was talking about working the business end of it—not making a wager at the blackjack table.”
“You’re an architect, Austin. At least, you used to be. What do you know about running a business?”
“I’m not betting on a Chiefs game!” He pounded his fist against the door frame. Sadie woofed. A growl vibrated beneath Shauna’s fingers.
“Go now, Austin.”
“Damn dog.” Sweat had popped out on his top lip, even though the night was cool. “I’m talking about becoming a partner. About owning something again. This could turn into a real job for me. A new career.”
Like he needed to be working anywhere near temptation.
“I hope it works out for you. But—”
“Is there a problem, boss?” Eli’s deep voice came from the shadows at the bottom of the steps.
Hadn’t she sent him home? Didn’t anybody listen to her anymore? But instead of taking offense, Shauna trembled with a relief she didn’t know she needed to feel. “Detective Masterson.”
As Eli climbed the steps, Austin spun around, assuming a proprietary role she hadn’t asked him to. “You know this guy?”
Those dark gold eyes were unreadable as Eli moved into the circle of light cast by the porch lamp. “She knows me.”
His tie was gone, his collar unbuttoned. The plain white T-shirt exposed at the open neckline contrasted with the beard stubble that shaded the long column of his throat. A sensation that had nothing to do with relief flip-flopped in the pit of her stomach.
“He works for me.” She eked the explanation through suddenly parched lips.
Austin’s shoulders puffed up as he faced off against Eli’s superior height. “Office hours are over. It’s kind of late to be paying a visit, isn’t it, pal?”
“Funny. I was thinking the same thing.”
“I’m her husband. If she doesn’t have time for me, then she doesn’t have time for you. Now move along, pal, and let her get her sleep.”
Husband? A lifetime ago, Shauna would have given anything to have Austin looking out for her like this. But he wasn’t earning any points tonight. She’d done enough negotiating today—addressing every problem, defusing every tension and keeping everybody as happy as humanly possible. But she was done playing nice. Her sore body, fractured patience—and eager dog—helped her make a selfish decision.
“I’ll decide who I have time for,” Shauna announced.
Sadie’s tail thumped against her bare foot, transmitting her excitement. Shauna intended to make Eli feel just as welcome as Sadie wanted to.
She let go of the dog’s collar and Sadie charged outside, knocking Austin off balance. When he released the door, Shauna grabbed Eli’s arm and pulled him into the foyer with her. Sadie, who had already given her loyalty to her stick-throwing buddy, circled around and scurried after Eli. She loped down the hallway toward the kitchen and begged him to give chase.
With the storm door now locked between them, Shauna looked through the glass at Austin’s stunned expression. “You stopped being my husband about two years before we got divorced. If you want to talk business, you call me during business hours and make an appointment.”
“C’mon, honey, let me in. It’ll be the last favor I ever ask.”
“Stop with the honeys already. It’s too late.”
“Sadie, sit.” The noise behind her quieted at Eli’s command.
Austin was still working an angle. “Lunch tomorrow, then. My treat.”
“I mean it’s too late for us. For this kind of relationship. I can’t be your safety net anymore.”
“I’m doing it for the kids, Shauna. Help me become the father they deserve.”
“She’s done talking, pal.”
The air behind Shauna warmed an instant before Eli’s hands closed over her shoulders. His heat quickly seeped through silk and skin, and the subtle pressure of his fingers
massaged the coils of tension that had knotted there. She locked her knees to hold herself straight when all she wanted to do was lean back into that healing touch.
“So that’s how it is, huh?” Austin’s gaze darted from Eli’s possessive grip to the taboo emotions that must be written across her face. “You finally found a guy to put up with your hours? To put up with all your rules?” His eyes raked her from head to toe in a mixture of regret and contempt. “You give him what you stopped giving me?”
Her money? Her body? Her unfailing support?
Eli’s fingers tightened with almost painful intensity at the crude words. He dipped his mouth to her ear. “I can make him go away,” he whispered, curling a ribbon of moist heat along the side of her neck. “Your call.”
Yes, it was.
“Goodnight, Austin.” Shauna shut the door. She twisted the deadbolt into place, wishing she could set aside the pain and guilt just as easily. “Damn him.”
Though she knew it was the desperation of his failed life talking, the words still hurt. She’d given Austin all she had, until there was nothing left to give. Until walking away was the only way she and her children could survive. Knowing he could barge into her world and still make her feel as though she hadn’t been patient enough, hadn’t fought hard enough—hadn’t loved enough—rekindled old doubts she thought she’d laid to rest.
“Hey.” The pressure of Eli’s hands altered slightly, reminding Shauna that he still held her. She leaned against the door, but was too tired to shrug him off. His palms skidded over her shoulders and rubbed up and down her arms. “Your skin’s like ice,” he murmured against her nape, teasing her with the insane notion that she could turn around and immerse herself in the warmth of his body. “You’ve got a reputation for being pretty cool in a crisis. But this is ridiculous.”
She should have laughed. She should have ordered Eli to move away. She should have had the will to do it herself. But the friction he created between the silk and his hands released the minty essence of the bath oil that still clung to her skin. The soothing scent filled her nose and eased her fatigue. His soothing touch tended her battered ego.
“Shauna?”
Wrapped up in his surprisingly gentle care, Shauna could dig deep to find her own strength. There was more teasing than reprimand in her tone when she spoke. “I assume you’ve been parked outside somewhere, spying on my house?”
“Until you report those threats from Yours Truly, I—”
“Never mind.” Shauna shrugged off his massage and stopped the rhetoric.
Eli’s caring was an illusion. It had to be. He was just doing his job, trying to be the partner she’d asked him to be. He was a man of sarcasm and attitude and annoying persistence, not tenderness. And if he’d touched her again, right there, right then, she’d have ignored every last rule in the book and walked straight into his arms.
But he didn’t touch her. Instead, he moved to the sheer curtains at the narrow window to the right side of the door and peeked outside. “Your husband hasn’t left yet. You want me to go out and encourage him to be on his way?”
“It’s ex-husband. And no.”
Eli let the curtain slide back into place. “You invited me in. Am I supposed to be the boyfriend? Bodyguard?”
“Neither, Eli. Neither.” Shauna hugged her arms around her waist and joined him at the window. She glanced out at Austin, sitting in his car at the end of her driveway. “You think he can see us in here? Silhouetted against the light?”
“Probably. Why? Did you have some kind of charade in mind? I warn you, I’m a terrible actor.”
She wasn’t sure she could play a convincing femme fatale or damsel in distress herself. Shauna tipped her chin and looked up at the man beside her. His eyes were already studying her with curious interest. At this stage of her life, boyfriend was almost a foreign word to her. And a woman with her training and experience shouldn’t need a bodyguard, right?
But some company sure would be nice.
Even a surly detective who pushed the limits of her authority.
“No games,” she promised. Reaching up, Shauna brushed aside the strand of dark hair that fell across his forehead and let her fingertips linger near the bandage that marked the cut at his temple. “That needs to be changed.”
“I can take care of it myself.”
“Uh-huh. Just like I can do such a whiz-bang job of taking care of unwanted visitors at my door.” An engine started outside, and the sound of tires spinning against asphalt screeched over Shauna’s last nerve. She tucked her fingers into a fist and pulled away, cringing at Austin’s noisy, but welcome departure. “Thanks for butting in, by the way.”
Sadie pushed her way between them to prop her paws at the window and bark at the encroachment on her territory. Eli laughed and scruffed up the big Lab’s coat, much to the dog’s delight. “Yeah. Here’s who should have been guarding the place. A little late, aren’t you, girl?”
“She’s a lover, not a fighter, that’s for sure.” The sense that she was bending some kind of rule by inviting Eli into her home eased as Shauna watched the two of them play. Maybe she could keep him around as a dog-sitter without violating any departmental protocol. “How long were you out there, waiting to rescue me?”
“Long enough.” Probably since she’d dismissed him earlier.
“So you haven’t had any dinner?”
A hint of cynicism returned to his smile when he switched his focus to her instead of the dog. “The head honcho can cook?”
She tightened the sash at her waist into a double knot and prepped for the challenge. “Better than you think. I’ll fix you a sandwich.”
Shauna headed down the hallway toward the kitchen and Eli trailed after her. “Hey, Sadie. Guess I’m staying.”
The dog charged ahead to complete the parade.
“Just until I’m sure Austin doesn’t get the idea he can come back and harass me about something I have no intention of being a part of. Then you’re out of here, too. Understood?” She said it out loud for herself as much as for him. “After some food, you go home and sleep. Tomorrow, I need you fresh to run those interviews, not shadow me.”
“Right, boss lady.”
“And stop calling me that.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Eli…” It was hard to take offense at that irreverent baritone, though she knew she should call him on his cheeky idea of humor.
After pointing him to a seat at the table, Shauna returned to the front door to reactivate the alarm system and turn off the porch light. She was too busy thinking of an appropriate comeback to notice the man across the street in the shadows, watching her front-door drama with displeasure in his eyes.
ELI WASN’T SURE what he was still doing in Shauna’s kitchen an hour later, though the two messages Austin Cartwright had left on her answering machine, asking whether that buttinsky detective was gone and could they please have a private conversation now, might have something to do with it.
In the meantime, Eli had no objections to eating the second half of her meatloaf sandwich. He’d already eaten a full plate of the best home-cooked meal—hell, the only home-cooked meal—he’d had in a week. She’d already snuck a half dozen bites to the dog lying underneath the table. If Shauna wasn’t hungry, he didn’t mind polishing off the delicious late-night food.
He had no problem listening to her share family stories about the framed children’s artwork or cross-stitched tablecloth and napkins that adorned her kitchen. The funny misadventures and treasured hand-me-downs from another generation took him back to his own childhood—before the plane crash, before the drugs, before the disgrace of his partner’s corruption. Reminiscing took him back to a time when he still believed in people, when he’d been able to trust an instinct as well as a fact.
And he certainly wouldn’t complain about watching her work around the kitchen in those peach pajamas, either. Everything was covered nice and proper from neck to ankle, but even the faded gingham apron
she tied on couldn’t mask how the silky material draped and moved over her curves. The loose kimono sleeves reminded him of how toned the muscles of her arms and shoulders were—and how her responsive skin had heated beneath the touch of his hands.
She’d been wound up tighter than a cork about to pop. But stress wasn’t the only thing she’d let go at the backlit window of her foyer. Something elemental, something sexual, had passed between them—a forbidden yearning that charged the air around them just as surely as the danger she refused to face.
Shauna might have invited him in to distract the dog and keep the ex at bay. She might have offered him the meal as a thank-you to put an end to the night. She might be doing the whole happy-homemaker bit to show him he had nothing to worry about in the Yours Truly department. But Eli had a devil working inside him and was in no hurry to leave. He was drawn like a moth to the warmth of her bright kitchen, and to the surprising fire of the woman pouring two mugs of decaf at the counter across the room.
“Cream, right?”
Oops. When she turned around and caught him staring, he should have looked away, should have made a joke or apologized. Instead, he boldly took note of how a blush deepened the pale green of her eyes, and how a wry smile gave the soft lines beside her mouth and eyes a beautiful twist.
“You’d better be lusting after the coffee, Detective, or I’ll have to throw you out.”
Eli grinned. A woman who had the guts to call him on it when he got out of line would definitely keep him on his toes in a relationship. If he did relationships.
As steadfastly as he avoided them, he was quickly learning that Shauna Cartwright was all about relationships. With her children. Her home. Her dog. The men and women who worked for her. With Kansas City itself.
The chemistry might be there between them, but it would be a volatile mix with an unhappy ending. Unstable and dangerous to them both. Shauna had no interest in the type of affair he could offer her.
Besides, the woman could fire his ass.
So while he indulged his wayward thoughts, Eli wisely minded his manners. “Cream would be fine, if you have it. Unless you’ve got a slice of pie to go with it?”