In Hot Pursuit. Joanne Rock

kept one of her hands in his and wrapped his other arm lightly around her waist.

      “I don’t think you need to—”

      Josh nodded at the doorman and hustled her inside her building. “I’ll feel better knowing you’re safe.”

      She pushed the elevator button and turned to stare up at him. “Who’s going to keep me safe from you?”

      “You want me to put the cuffs back on?”

      A blush stained her cheeks. She twisted one of her rings in a relentless circle around her finger. “Um. No. That’s okay.”

      The elevator slid open and Lexi stepped inside.

      Josh waited at the doors. “I mean it, Lex. You shouldn’t get into an elevator with a guy you don’t trust.” He pulled out his badge and flashed it at her. “You know, you never verified that I really am a cop.”

      With a nervous glance toward the doorman, Lexi reached out and pulled Josh forward by his tie. “I trust you,” she hissed.

      The door swished shut behind them.

      “I wouldn’t have let you walk me home if I thought you were the kind of guy to leave me for dead,” she assured him.

      “Well, that’s a hell of an endorsement.” It’s not like he was going to try to talk her into anything.

      But he sensed a kiss in their future, damn it, and he hadn’t wanted to indulge in that particular experience in full view of Sixty-second Street.

      Lexi heard the grumbling note in his voice and wondered if she’d offended him. She hadn’t meant to.

      Strangely, she did trust him. If he had meant to hurt her, he wouldn’t have knuckled under to her flirtatious handcuff job at the bar. He’d cooled his heels in her jail cell for hours, and still wanted to walk her home.

      It was herself she didn’t trust.

      Josh’s big, solid presence had her pulse racing and her fingers itching to touch him. When he’d taken her hands in his and breathed over her skin, she’d nearly shot right out of her shoes.

      Her mind had fast-forwarded to all sorts of scenarios that involved Josh’s breath on her flesh. She wanted to taste him, breathe him, explore every inch of that muscular body…but she wouldn’t.

      Not here. Not on her home turf.

      It would give the whole encounter way too much significance. She’d never be able to sleep in her bed again with the same sense of peace. She’d never be able to feel like the queen of her own palace again. There would be a man’s shadow cast over her kingdom, a fear that maybe the world she’d built for herself wasn’t enough.

      And she would not allow that to happen.

      When the elevator doors opened on the twelfth floor, Lexi stepped out, willing her heart to slow down a few notches.

      “I’m this way,” she said, digging her keys out of her purse. She wondered if her four-legged babies would hear her coming down the hall or if they were all fast asleep.

      She stopped at the door of her apartment, not hearing any telltale barks. Maybe she’d be able to visit with Josh for a minute, to at least smooth things over with him, as long as her pets seemed settled.

      “Thanks for the escort,” she said, her gaze bouncing all over the deserted hallway, lighting anywhere but on him.

      “My pleasure.”

      He stood close enough to remind her of his potent effect, but not so close that she felt crowded.

      She twirled one fringed end of her shawl and searched for a way to end things on a light note. “I mean, I’m not afraid to make the walk by myself, but I’ll admit it’s sort of cool to trek around the city with my own bodyguard.”

      His gray eyes narrowed. A silver light glittered in their depths. “Maybe you ought to put your body in my hands a little more often.”

      Lexi backed up a step, his soft words a deft blow to her defenses. She felt an answering simmer in her veins, a heat that bubbled just below the surface. “That might be a bit of a risk.”

      He edged closer, stealing her breath along with her thoughts. He placed one hand on either side of her, bracketing her against her apartment door. The dominant position made Lexi think about lying beneath him in her bed, his arms levering him above her body as he made love to her.

      “Honey, you just let me take all the risks. I’m here to take care of your body, remember?”

      She breathed his scent—smoke and scotch from the bar, but some sort of soapy scent, too—and fought for her balance. She hadn’t been this close to a man for nearly two years.

      And being close to this particular man was a test of self-discipline Lexi wasn’t sure she could pass.

      She’d picked him out at the bar because he had a reckless sort of look, a hint of danger that had appealed to her daring mood.

      Only she wasn’t feeling so daring now. And in spite of that badge, Josh Winger was proving every bit as dangerous as she’d imagined.

      “Josh?” All she had to do was tell him good-night. She steeled herself to send him away, to end the heat wave on the twelfth floor.

      Too bad she looked up to find his gaze focused on her mouth.

      “Hmm?” His answer sounded as distracted as she felt.

      She swallowed, battling the urge to just close her eyes. No words came.

      She licked her lips in a renewed effort to speak. Too late, she realized her mistake.

      The strangled noise he made in his throat wavered between a growl and a groan, a hungry sound that rumbled right through her in the moment before his mouth met hers.

      Her lips parted on a welcoming sigh, her little moan of delight sounding foreign to her ears.

      Hints of a five-o’clock shadow gone rogue scraped her chin and cheeks. His tongue teased over hers in a stroke of warm velvet. The fire she’d been playing with ever since she’d spotted him leapt out of control—inside her body and out.

      The whiskey taste of him drugged her until his hungry mouth went questing down her throat. She shivered at the wet heat of the kiss, and wriggled her way closer to the hard wall of his chest.

      Josh’s hands fell away from the door to hold her against him. He stroked his way down her spine, sealing her body to his with each new inch of sequined territory. His arousal nudged her belly and fed her imagination, making her want to drag him inside and indulge herself in him.

      She thought about dropping her purse and her keys so she could run her hands all over him, soak in the feel of him through her fingertips.

      Before she had a chance, he pried himself away.

      Lexi blinked, confused.

      “Honey, I need to know if this is what you want.”

      She didn’t have to ask what “this” was. “This” currently strained against her, sizzling her from the outside in.

      Somewhere in the passion fog of her brain, she heard a dog bark. For the first time in her life, she didn’t want to run inside to greet her pets.

      She wanted this man, this feeling, this renewed sense of daring to last all night long. She’d figure out how to handle the backlash tomorrow, when her hormones weren’t conspiring against her.

      Right now, all she could think of was finishing the game she’d started in the bar.

      Lexi wriggled against him shamelessly. “Don’t make me break out the handcuffs again, Detective. You’re not going anywhere tonight.”

      4

      HANDCUFFS and a sex goddess. The fates had granted Josh all