the sort of man that roamed the composite-floor hallways at Astrophysical Sciences Research Center.
Not that she was noticing, or anything. Defiantly she raised her chin.
“Say what you want to say. It’s a free country.” Then he sprawled into the tiny chair next to her, his legs comfortably apart. A pose designed to draw attention to his well-muscled thighs and his well-muscled other parts.
Not that she was noticing, or anything.
Mickey tore her gaze away from his parts. “I want to hire you.”
His reaction wasn’t quite what she wanted. His legs closed, his arms folded across his chest, and his eyes could’ve turned her to stone. “No.”
“You haven’t even asked what I want you to do.”
He stared up at the ceiling, doing a fine job of avoiding her eyes. “I don’t want to know.”
This was not good. “I could pay you,” she whispered. “Pay you well.” The dark eyes flickered back to earth.
“I don’t do anything illegal,” he said, slow and quiet, in a tone that implied that he did things illegal on a daily basis.
Mickey took a sip of coffee. “It’s not that illegal. I’ve got some property that needs returning.”
“To who?” he asked.
“Whom,” she corrected, now portraying the part of a bimbo grammarian. Focus, Mick. “To me.”
“You got the wrong city block for drug deals gone bad.”
“No drugs. It’s a tape.”
His dark eyebrows drew together at a perfect forty-five degree angle. “Who’s holding it?”
Mickey slid a piece of paper across the table. Slimeball Intern’s name and address were printed in twelve-point Arial type so that there were no mistakes. She’d seen that on Law & Order.
“How much are we talking here?”
“Two-hundred dollars.”
The eyes closed off again. “Sorry, lady.”
Quickly Mickey backtracked. The going rate for breaking and entering was not posted on CNN. “Two thousand.” It would kill her savings, but for a career-sustaining insurance policy, it was worth it. She needed muscle, and she was willing to pay for it.
Again she caught the flicker of interest in his face before it disappeared. “No.”
“Please,” she said. It was about the closest she’d ever come to begging in her entire life, but she needed help.
“How do you know there’s only one tape?”
Mickey closed her eyes. This was where things got tricky and moved into the realm of diplomatic finagling. “If there’s more than one tape, then work—of a more forceful nature—might be involved. You do any leg breaking? Whacking?” she asked, successfully imagining Slimeball Intern screaming in pain. She smiled.
“No,” he said, and the screams in her dreams drifted away.
“Oh,” she muttered softly, thinking it was probably a good thing that Slimeball Intern wouldn’t get hurt. Secretly she was still disappointed.
“So you’ll do it?” she asked, just as the door swung open. The bells on the top jangled, and a big man walked through. Big, beefy, with frown lines that were carved permanently into his face.
Mickey shot a quick glance in Beth’s direction to see if she’d been watching, but right now Beth was missing. And where was moral support when you needed it? Off refilling the Frappuccino mix.
Slowly the big guy lumbered over to where she was sitting.
“We’re done,” Dominic said to Mickey, as if she were nothing more than a nanofly.
Sensing the other man was a business associate, in the haziest definition of the word, Mickey stood. “You’ll do it?”
He didn’t reply, just grabbed her and dumped her in his lap.
Whoa.
“What—”
And he kissed her. Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God…
An electrical charge fired everywhere he touched, and somewhere in her nether regions condensation began to form. What had she been missing out on by not kissing wise guys before? That was the last thing she remembered before her brain began to spark and fizzle.
Her body melted, draping over his in a nicely accommodating fashion. Another two nanoseconds and she’d be ready for sex.
He stopped before she really embarrassed herself, which was a good thing. Then he patted her bum and whispered in her ear, “You need to get out of here really, really fast. Meet me here tomorrow at ten. I’ll help you, but don’t say anything right now.”
Like she was capable of speech. Ha.
For a long moment she stared at him, trying to read exactly what he was thinking. This time what she saw in his eyes surprised her. None of the “leg-breaking” coldness, nor the “Come to me, cara mia” heat, but instead there was just—curiosity. The kind that she saw everyday at Astrophysical Sciences Research Center.
She blinked, and whoosh—it was gone and the cold was back.
“See you later,” he said, in a husky tone that implied all sorts of carnal treats. He spoiled it all by giving her another pat on the rear.
She should have socked him, but that “later” part was still echoing in her head.
Then she glanced at the big Gonzo that cast a long shadow over the table. “Yeah, all right,” she said, then pulled down her glasses, just so he didn’t think he could boss her around. “Sweet cheeks.”
2
DOMINIC CORLUCCI HAD to work hard to keep the smile off his face. A woman like that? She could make a man forget a lot.
However, Dominic’s memories were too well ingrained to forget anything. Self-preservation was his number-one priority now. The only reason he had kissed her was to stave off unnecessary questions; his companion saw one use in a woman and one use only.
Maybe that was his only reason, or maybe she aroused his curiosity—among other things.
He watched her walk away, an exaggerated swing in her hips that didn’t look normal. He didn’t know who she was, but he did know that something reeked of a setup. That worried him.
“So I was telling Louise, ‘Louise,’ I said, ‘I’m not ready to settle down. If you’re looking for a man to play house with, then you need to be finding greener pastures.’”
Dom turned his attention away from the puzzle of the retreating female
