Joe’s gut twisted because he thought he knew what Detective Harvey was going to suggest.
A setup. A goat on a rope. With Mae being said goat.
“No.” The word shot from him without intervention from his brain or any rational part of him. It was the deep, elemental part of his mind that was beyond his control who spoke. The part of him that was deeply affected by Mae, the one that had caused him to break his rule, the rule he’d never broken before.
“I thought we had an understanding, Joe. You do what I tell you and I don’t have you arrested for interference. We’re going to set a trap and I want you to talk Ms. Monday into being the bait.”
Struggling mightily with the fact that he couldn’t reach through the phone and wrap his hands around the throat of the obnoxious prick, Joe closed his eyes and breathed. He took his time to gain control as he stood in the empty hallway outside the conference room. Harvey waited him out as two, three, then five seconds ticked by.
“Since when do you care so much about this case? I thought you were lukewarm on it when my client called in her complaint.”
“Since the slugs we pulled from the wall in her kitchen are a match to a stolen cache of weapons we’ve been trying to track down. Since the weapon that fired them is illegal to own even if it weren’t stolen. So don’t give me any shit, Temple. Do as I say.”
“You could use a double—a policewoman—to pose as Mae.”
“Fresh out of appropriate candidates. We need Ms. Monday loud and proud as herself to lock in the target.” He paused and it sounded like he took a puff on a cigarette before he continued. “Look, don’t treat me like a monster. She’ll be safe. She’ll be dressed in the latest body armor and we’ll have plenty of protection.”
“Ineed to be on close protection. The entire time or it’s a no-go and I don’t care if you throw me in jail for life.” Everything in Joe vibrated with determination. He wouldn’t let anyone get in between him and Mae, not Harvey and especially not Sal the Snake. There was silence on the other end of the line. As he waited for Harvey to come to the conclusion that Joe wasn’t bluffing—because he wasn’t—Joe stared at the closed blinds in the conference room’s glass wall that separated him from Mae.
He squelched his impulse to charge in and take Mae away, fly her back to Boston. A sickening roil seized his gut as he envisioned telling her the police wanted her to bait a trap. Harvey finally spoke again.
“Sure. You can pose as her boyfriend. Seems about right.”
Joe didn’t rise to the bait. He knew Harvey was accusing him of being unprofessional, of crossing the line with his client.
He happened to be right.
But Joe couldn’t dredge up any shame over it at this minute. Maybe never. He was too deep in and being controlled by his elemental brain—his cock. But it was something far more than his cock that had him bypassing his analytical thought process, his training, and even his professional pride.
“I’ll see you in an hour.” Joe clicked the phone off and shoved it into his pocket, wishing he could throw it out a window along with Detective Harvey and his damn plan.
The conference room door opened and Mae was the first one to file out. She headed straight for him as if they were connected by an invisible and irresistible magnetic string. God, he was gone on her.
Mae’s face beamed like he’d never seen before—scratch that—like he’d seen in bed while she was in the throes of orgasmic euphoria. That was how important this new show was to her. That was why he couldn’t ask her to run to Boston with him.
He wanted to catch Sal the Snake as much as Harvey did—no,morethan Harvey did. Only Joe didn’t care if the man ever went to trial or jail. He only knew that if Sal or his men touched a hair on her head, whoever did it wouldn’t live to be arrested.
“I’m so excited. You have no idea. We’ll need to come back for another meeting tomorrow with Paul Johnson. He never made it today. They gave me an office and studio to work out of here on the lot for the duration . . .” Mae trailed off as she reached him, but didn’t stop until her body touched his as if he were a wall she needed to scale.
He didn’t need to force his smile. Her enthusiasm spread to him like contagious germs and he was infected beyond saving. His arms encircled her, then hers went around him and instant later. They stood grinning at each other.
“I thought you were the bodyguard?” The lead actress, Willa, stood with her hands on her hips in mock censure but wearing a big smile. Mae twisted from Joe’s arms to see her, but didn’t separate much.
“A girl could get lucky,” Mae said.
It was about the most noncommittal thing he could imagine a woman saying. The sting in his gut told him he’d been expecting something different, something more. But he reminded himself that this was Hollywood and the relationship standards were different here, if the divorce rates were any indication. The fact that Mae was unmarried and unattached at thirty-six was another indication of her attitude toward commitment.
How could he be so blind and stupid?
He withdrew his arms and tamped down on the swirl of his emotions as well as the swell of his libido.
“I can’t say I blame you.” Willa eyed him with intentions loud and clear. The women around here were past the red zone on the boldness meter and he’d do well to remember that Mae was of the same ilk.They see something they like and take it. Play with it. Toss it away.
He couldn’t judge. Not really. He’d been more or less doing the same thing, hadn’t he? He hadn’t dated seriously in a very long time.
The difference was he’dcalledit dating, and he was a helluva lot more cautious. And more choosy about what was underneath the packaging.
“We need to go,” he said. “We have that . . . appointment.” Joe put a hand on Mae’s lower back and she waved to Willa as he escorted her down the hall toward the elevator.
He decided to let Detective Harvey explain his plan to Mae. Joe’s thoughts were too jumbled, his emotions still swirling and proving difficult to still. He was having a hard time quieting his memories of the last time he’d felt this way about a woman.