It was him. “How’s the sexiest detective?” I murmured into the darkness.
“Were you sure it was me, or is that just how you greet everyone here?”
“Jealous?”
“Pissed, Shelly. I’m pissed. Why are you here?”
Neither pissed nor jealous accurately described what he felt. Something closer to despair. I knew it, the way I knew what every man wanted, their dirty desires marking me, degrading me whether they touched me or not. Allie had called me the man whisperer, but she thought I didn’t understand Luke. I did. Maybe not completely, but enough to know he was like the rest of them. He wanted my body, my mind; he wanted to consume me whole more than any other man.
But he didn’t. It fascinated me, or it had until I’d found out the reason—some old loyalty and Luke too steadfast to ever stray. Mystery solved.
“I had to see you,” I purred. “I couldn’t be apart from you one minute longer.”
“Save the BS for someone who’s paying you.”
I blinked. “Yeah, okay.” Deep breath. It’s not personal, just business. “I need you to come with me to a club Saturday night. That’s where Ella got taken.”
A beat passed. “I’ll go. Alone.”
“Where would the fun be in that? Besides, you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t quite trust you after that stint at your apartment.”
“I was caught off guard when I heard you had a warrant out. I had to improvise.”
“With my head on a platter? Nice play.”
“I’ve done everything to keep you safe. I can’t help you if you don’t trust me. Goddamn it, Shelly, you walked into the middle of a fucking snake nest. Sometimes I think you want to get yourself shot, for someone to do what you can’t do yourself.”
Shock numbed me, but slowly feeling crept back in. Of course, he wasn’t just a pretty face. Allie knew me better than anyone, but even she wouldn’t have called that one. This was a new side of him, more aggressive. I wasn’t sure I liked it. “What’s gotten into you? If I’m so annoying, you should hope I’m caught.”
A pause. “I didn’t mean to say that. I’ve taken a lot of shit around here since you came to my place.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
“Yes, you damn well should have. Should have come to me, should have trusted me. Do you really think I care what those fuckhead bureaucrats think? I went insane thinking you were caught, hurt, dead. Thinking the next Jane Doe in the morgue was going to be you. Checking in case it was. You want to know what’s gotten into me? You, goddamn it, you. Too goddamned selfish to let me know you’re okay, so fucking cavalier, walking right into headquarters. Jesus.”
Pride was a funny thing for a prostitute. We really shouldn’t have had any left, and yet haughtiness was practically the hallmark of a sex worker. The last time I was with Henri, he made me do every degrading thing in his repertoire, waiting for me to balk. It would have been his crowning moment. I’d come to him for help, and if I said no to anything, even once, the deal would have been off. Victorious, I’d made it through, physically broken, mentally numb, and when I held the money in my hand, this was how I’d felt. The same way I felt now, standing in front of Luke in the dark, his words like lashes tracing over the silvery scars on my back. He cared about me; he hated me, the most devastating part.
“Fuck.” His word rang out in the darkness, with apology, with frustration, and not a drop of hope.
“I don’t owe you anything,” I said.
“No, you’ve been very careful to ensure that.”
“So why’d you turn the light off?”
“You know why. For the same reason you came here.”
Arrogant man, but he wasn’t wrong. His air touched me first, the rush of movement against my body, his breath a caress on my lips. Then warmth to soothe me, his lips soft, body hard. His kiss tender, cock rigid against my belly. I allowed him inside, just barely, a taste of submission. I softened my hips, offered a gentle roll upward, a hint of arousal. For good measure, I slipped my hand behind his neck, stroking him, well practiced.
“Stop,” he muttered against my lips.
I pulled back. Every man was different, a unique sum of a thousand different variables, and my body nothing more than a machine designed to solve them.
When in doubt, return to what worked. I opened my mouth another degree, and he took full advantage, sweeping his tongue against mine. His hand touched the back of my neck in a mirror image of my gesture, except instead of a caress, he tilted my head back, deepened the kiss. He put me at a disadvantage. Yes, I want that too.