"Need to borrow the alley for a moment," Joe said and slid him a twenty.
Eddie grinned, pocketed it, and saluted him. "Take as many minutes as you need, Soldier."
And then they were alone. Joe watched as Kylie went through her bag of tricks and pulled out the red wig.
"What's that for?" he asked as she put it on.
"It's my superhero cape," she said. "I'm a little brave, but Red's all the way brave. She can handle anything. If we're going to talk about what just happened, I really need my superhero cape. I mean, I'd rather have an invisibility cloak, but beggars can't be choosers."
She was crazy. In the very best way, and he let out a low, rough laugh.
"Are you laughing at me?" she asked.
"With you," he said. "Always with you."
"But I'm not laughing."
He did his best to dial the good humor back. "Kylie, given what I do for a living and my family life, how many times a day do you think I actually laugh?"
"I . . ." She sighed, dropped her ‘tude, and shook her head. "I don't know."
"Approximately never," he admitted. "Unless I'm with you." And that was the real admission. "So I'm not going to apologize for enjoying the hell out of your company."
"Even though I said you were pushy and arrogant? And don't forget bossy."
"Yes, but you also said I was hot and sexy."
"I did, but if you must know, it's really annoying," she said.
He laughed because she didn't look annoyed at all, and he stepped into her so that even a sheet of paper couldn't have fit between them, palming the back of her head to protect her from the brick. He couldn't stop himself from touching her. And now that he'd had her naked and writhing for him, he knew he wasn't going to be able to get her out of his head either.
Deep down he knew he shouldn't have done it, shouldn't have slept with her. He'd known this, but he'd wanted her so badly she'd become way too big a distraction to ignore. Stupidly he'd assumed that would end immediately after.
Nothing had ever backfired on him quite so spectacularly, because now he wanted her more than ever before. Even just standing here with her in that wig flashed memories of her he couldn't control. Her lips on his skin, her breath hot on his neck, her legs wrapped around him, her hardened nipples pressing tight against his chest as she arched up into him. And her gasp when he'd moved deep inside her . . . God. The low, sexy sounds she'd made as she'd come had been his complete undoing, and the memories combined with what she'd said about him in the pub had him turned on all over again.
"I thought we weren't going to do this," she murmured, her eyes her own twin pools of fathomless emotion. "Give in to any real feelings. Thought you couldn't."
He was an inch from saying screw that when someone spoke behind them.
"I know I was supposed to vanish," Old Man Eddie said apologetically, "but I went around to the other alley behind Reclaimed Woods and there was an envelope leaning up against the back door with Kylie's name on it. Thought she'd want it."
Kylie stared at the envelope without moving, maybe without breathing, so Joe took it from Eddie. "Did you see who left it?" he asked.
"Nope, and it's wet from the rain like maybe it's been there a while. I didn't want it to get ruined." Eddie's smile faded as he took in their expressions. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Joe said. "Thanks for thinking to bring it to her."
Eddie, not taking his gaze off Kylie, nodded. "You got it." He slid a look at Joe, brows up, silently asking if Joe was going to take care of their girl. Joe nodded and Eddie backed out of the alley.
"Open it," Kylie said.
He did and revealed a pic of her penguin on a workbench, with someone holding a lit Bic at the penguin's feet. On the back of the pic were a few scribbled words.
You're running out of time.
"I am," Kylie said. "Running out of time."
"We're going to get your penguin back," Joe said firmly. "Before the deadline."
She looked up at him with those melting eyes of hers and he found himself cupping her jaw, stroking her skin with his fingers. "We will," he said firmly, wanting her to believe.
Eyes still locked on his, she nodded.
He nodded too and then took her by the hand to walk her through the courtyard. Kylie slowed at the fountain and looked into the water.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
Instead of answering, she pulled a coin from a pocket and closed her eyes for a moment, about to toss the coin into the water.
Joe stopped her. "What are you doing?"
She looked at him. "Do you know about the fountain's myth?"
It wasn't a secret. The myth went that if one wished for true love with a true heart, they'd find it. Good thing Joe didn't have a true heart. Or a heart at all, at least not a working one.
"So you do know," she said, watching his expression carefully.
"Something about true love, blah blah blah," he said with a shrug. "Why?"
She let out a small smile, and this both brought a reluctant one of his own because she never failed to make him feel things, whether he wanted to or not. "What does the fountain have to do with your penguin?" he asked.
"I'm going to wish for its return."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that. It's about love."
"Well, I love that penguin," she said stubbornly and tossed the coin, which hit the water with a soft plop.
"So you wished for the penguin?" he asked cautiously. "Not for love for yourself?"
She went brows up and he knew he'd given himself away.
"Are you afraid of the myth?" she asked incredulously.
"Of course not." Actually, he was terrified. Because not one, not two, not three or even four, but five people he knew had been bitten by the love bug in the past two years and all were directly linked to wishes from this very fountain. He stared at the coin she'd tossed, shimmering beneath the water's surface, mocking him. "Just tell me that you really did wish for the penguin," he said, because out of everyone he knew, she had the truest heart of them all. So if she'd just wished for love, they were both screwed.
She smiled, and he had one thought. He was so screwed.
"You were taking me somewhere," she reminded him, stepping closer. "By the way you dragged me out of the pub, you were clearly in a big hurry, too."
He gazed down at her in that red wig, unable to keep his hands from going to her hips in order to hold her to him. "We had unfinished business," he said.
"So finish it," she dared him.
His heart skipped a full heartbeat as he tightened his grip on her hand to lead her up the stairs to the second floor, where he disarmed Hunt Investigations's alarm and let them into the dark offices before resetting the alarm.
His office was the first door on the right. He could've found it with no light at all, but there was some ambient glow coming in through the closed shades on his window. He shut and locked that door and then turned to Kylie.
She was unbuttoning her coat. After letting it fall to the floor, she hoisted herself up onto his desk. "Nice work space," she said casually, looking around, as if she hadn't just laid herself out like a buffet for a starving man.
He moved to stand between her legs and placed his hands flat on the desktop on each side of her hips. "If I'd known we might end up here," he said, "I'd have cleaned it up."
She smiled and wrapped her legs around him, locking her ankles at the small of his back. "Liar. You don't care what anyone thinks of you."
That was true. He'd never cared what anyone thought of him. But he found he did care what she thought. With one hand, he swept his things to the floor. The other moved to her ass to anchor her to him.
A sound escaped from deep in her throat. She'd enjoyed the Neanderthal move and that did something to him too. With her, he could be himself-good mood, bad mood, riled-up mood, whatever. He didn't have to control himself for her. Ever.
Yet another huge turn-on.
She tilted her face to his, but then, just as he leaned in to kiss her, she pulled back an inch.
"What?" he whispered, fascinated by her, all of her.
She gave a single shake of her head. "I was pretty determined not to like you. But I keep learning new things about you. Things I like."
He half smiled. "Even though I'm pushy and arrogant and . . . what else was it you said? Bossy?"
Her lips twitched. "Definitely bossy. Maybe you should repeat them out loud every day to work on them."
"Sure," he said easily. "If you say something out loud for me."
"What?"
"My name." He nipped her ear and whispered into it, "I'm going to make you scream it, Kylie."