Together Again(11)
“I didn’t plan on inviting them, sugar.” His smile almost melted the heels on her shoes.
“I didn’t mean that. It’s just that if either of them knew we were having dinner in your apartment we’d never … I’d never … hear the end of it.”
From the half-smile on his face, he was enjoying the conversation way too much. “As far as I can tell, the neighborhood grapevine doesn’t extend to this part of the city but I appreciate you trying to protect my reputation.”
She gave him what she hoped was a withering look. “It’s not you I’m worried about.”
With an expression still too amused for her comfort, he asked. “So, is that a yes or a no?”
“If you’re sure, I guess dinner at your place would be okay.” She realized how tentative that sounded and backtracked. “I mean, it sounds good. Should I give you my cell number? Or you can leave a message here for me if you have to make a change. I’m at the Convention Center all next week.”
“That’s where your conference is?”
“Yeah, I’m doing a presentation with some police captain on ‘Law and Order’ … ”
He laughed, then asked, “‘Law and Order: The Working Relationship Between the Police and the DA’s Office’? I won’t have to leave a message anywhere. I can hand it to you while we’re standing at the podium.”
“What’re you talking about?” she asked.
“We’re doing that presentation — you and me.”
“How come I didn’t know this?”
“No idea. About five days ago, the captain scheduled to be the speaker had to cancel. For reasons I have yet to be told, I got tagged. But I thought I was with a guy from the West Coast.”
“Jeff Wyatt, my boss, was supposed to do it. But his trial ran long so he asked me to pinch-hit for him. That’s how I ended up with ten days here. What do you plan to say, anyway?”
“Not sure yet. Maybe we should work on it together. How about we have lunch or something tomorrow and figure it out? About ten?”
“Ten sounds good. Don’t push yourself if you have a long night. I’m around all day.”
“Great.” He bracketed her face with his hands and brought his mouth to hers. His lips were soft and warm, the kiss the same. But when he circled her waist with his arms and she sank into his embrace, her muscles seemed to dissolve, out of her control, as she molded herself against him and he deepened the kiss. She didn’t resist when he brushed her mouth with the tip of his tongue, letting him explore the inside of her mouth at his leisure. Then he slowly drew back, until he was kissing her gently again. He ended with a kiss on the tip of her nose.
“See you tomorrow, counselor,” he said as he walked down the hall toward the steps.
Chapter 4
The sound was annoying. How could she stop it? She had to swim up through the music and leave the dance and …
Oh, hell. The bedside clock came into view as she woke. It was ten o’clock. She’d overslept. Again. And she didn’t have to guess who was at the other end of the ringing phone.
After she apologized to him and hung up, she grabbed her robe and drew it on as she ran to open the door where she found Tony putting a cell phone into the pocket of his jeans. From his damp hair, he wasn’t long out of the shower and the clean-guy smell of freshly laundered shirt, some kind of sandlewood-y soap and maybe his shaving gel was almost as sexy as last night’s cologne. A carrier holding two paper cups was on the floor.