Page 34 of Guilty as Sin
No question. He needed that cool brunette.
He thought about cancelling, of course. But he didn’t. He and Lily were both clear that there was nothing between them, and she was the only one other than Sergeant Worthless who knew about his stalker. He might regret sharing that with her, but he’d done it. Which made her the perfect person to help him.
At six o’clock, he parked outside her shop, approached, and knocked twice. The lights were on, but the sign on the door was flipped toClosed,and the door was locked. And Lily was standing by the till with the bloke who’d been in the day before. The one she’d dismissed the same way she’d dismissed Jace.
It’s a free country,she’d said to him,and I haven’t bannedyou. Yet. But my answer will still be the same.
Her answerhadn’tbeen the same, though, because here the bastard was again, standing by the counter in his black trousers and his perfect hair, chatting Lily up.Afterhe’d taken her to the lake, because this had to be Brett Hunter.
Lily came to the door, turned the lock, and let Jace inside with a “Hi.” She looked pleased to see him, he’d swear. If she were one of those women who wanted men to fight over her, though, she’d have to look someplace else.
Then why are you here? And why are your arms folded?
Habit, that was all. “Evening,” he said to the suave bloke, who looked as amused as he had yesterday, like he loved playing games with blondes. Probably true.
“Brett Hunter,” the bloke said, extending his hand. “Good to meet you.”
“Jace Blackstone.” Jace measured the force of Hunter’s handshake. Not over the top, which unfortunately meant that Jace wasn’t allowed to crush his hand.
Hunter turned to Lily and said, “I’ll leave you with that. Thanks for giving me a chance to make my pitch. I’d be happy to discuss it again. Over dinner?”
“I’m busy tonight,” she said. “I’ll let you know. But if I say no—my no means no, and that’s it.”
Hunter lost not one bit of his good humor. “Of course it does. I can hardly force you, can I? But you can’t blame me for trying.” He glanced at Jace again and said, “Good to meet you.”
Jace could swear Hunter was contemplating putting his hands on Lily and kissing her cheek. If he did, he was going to get blocked. At a minimum. Before it could happen—any of it—Lily put out her hand, said, “Thank you,” shook Hunter’s once, dropped it, and said, “I’ll let you out.”
After she did, she turned from the door and asked Jace, “Ready to go?” And then she looked at him more closely and her expression changed. She still had one hand on the door handle, but now, she removed it, squared off to him, and said, “Whatever that’s about, I’m telling myself that unless you’re actually insane, you’d have killed me at my nice remote cabin in the woods instead of waiting until you’re in full view of Main Street. You had a dog this morning. I’ll bet you had a weapon, too.”
“What?” He stared at her, then started to smile. “Bloody hell, but you’re aggravating. I wasn’t going to kill you. I was just jealous of your new boyfriend. And of course I had a weapon. I always have a weapon.”
She took in his gym shorts, T-shirt, and trainers, then gave him a slow, sweet smile. After that, she put a hand on the skirt of her dress and pulled the hem up a bare inch, like that would excite him. A simpler dress today, a green thing printed with flowers, with a button front and a little flash of calf and knee at the bottom, which was pretty but not nearly as fantasy-worthy as the one you could see through.
He changed his mind in the next moment, because she shook her hair back, dropped her left hand casually onto the top button of her dress, and slowly unfastened it. The V-shaped neckline wasn’t all that high, and just like that, Jace was looking at pale cleavage.
“Threat assessment?” she asked sweetly.
“Uh… what?”
She popped another button, the dress gapped some more, and more cleavage came into view, along with some black lace. Somesheerblack lace. At the same time, her right hand began inching her skirt up higher.
Bloodyhell.She had her fingers on that third button, and he got a flash of her velvet-curtained dressing room and thought,Oh, hell, yeah. Right up against the wall.Her cheek resting on her raised forearm, her breath coming loud as he hauled her hips in from behind. That would do it. Her skirt was all the way up her thigh, and he was looking at more black lace. A black garter, in fact, all six inches wide of it.
He took a step toward her, and she pulled the skirt up another few inches and said, “How about now?”
He stopped. A strip of black lace running up her thigh, the kind of garter belt you dreamed about. She’d raised that skirt all the way up, and if she was wearing anything else under there, he couldn’t see it.
Unfortunately, there was a business-sized revolver stuck into that garter belt. Which was a thigh holster.
“I win,” she said, letting her skirt fall. “So you know.” Then she smiled at him again. “Want to go to the gym?”
Paige didn’t glance at the front of the store. She preferred not to think about the display she’d just put on for Sinful’s sparse evening foot traffic. She’d won, that was the important thing.
“Right,” Jace said, sounding a little hoarse. “I’m gobsmacked.”
She buttoned her dress up, one slow fastening at a time, and he watched. “I’m hoping that’s a good thing.”
“Stunned,” he said. “Surprised. And pretty bloody disappointed, too.” She laughed, and after a moment, a grin split his bearded face. “Yeah,” he said. “You could put it that way. Want to tell me why you’re carrying a concealed weapon?”
