Page 75 of A Very Un-Shakespeare Romance
His reluctant laugh brought a black lock of hair onto his forehead, making him look boyish. “Me too. Now…as we lie here together, it’s getting harder and harder for me to ignore that the handcuffs are as sweaty as the rest of me and that we still need to get them off.”
She worried her lip, already wincing with embarrassment at how much ragging Sheila was going to give her when she caught sight of her after this. “We’re also going to have to get dressed again. Somehow. Before I beg Sheila for the key.”
He cursed. “Right. I didn’t think that one through. I probably should have left my shirt on.”
“No way.” She ran a slow finger down the center of his chest. “I wanted all of you. I’ve had fantasies about this chest.”
He closed his eyes, a satisfied smile coasting over his face. “Good to know. We probably need to start thinking practically. In a minute or so. Before we face the music together.”
Liking that he was as reluctant to rejoin the real world as she was, she cuddled into him as best she could, arranging their handcuffed hands on his hard stomach. “Despite how much I wish it were otherwise, we should. How about we hop in the shower, wash each other’s backs, figure out our wardrobe, and then find our jailers?”
“Because you have your brilliant plan to unveil,” he said, kissing her sweetly on the mouth. “I’m all ears now, in case you didn’t know.”
She traced his face, savoring this final moment with him before they had to return to the job. “Good. Because it’s a bit unconventional.”
CHAPTERNINETEEN
Robbie ranhis hands through his wet hair, his mouth falling open.
“That’s your plan?”He studied Lily as she sat across from him on the couch, legs crossed, while Sheila beamed with pride. Tim didn’t move a muscle on the couch next to him, but he glanced surreptitiously at his brother and watched a canny grin break out over his face. His brother was having way too much fun. He’d chuckled heartily when he and Sheila had finally returned with the key, ten minutes after Robbie and Lily had showered and found something to cover her, and learned he needed to grab his brother a new shirt.
“It’s perfect.” Tim leaned forward to fist-bump first Lily and then Sheila.
“Right?” her partner bandied back. “Buck, our boss, wanted to go by the regular playbook, like Robbie feared, but Lily was like no way. We can’t use Tara like that. No sending her undercover with a wire. No putting her in the crosshairs of the Kellys where actual harm could come to her. She has two little girls we need to protect, she said. And you know they’ll be safe with your brothers and an agent in the FBI safe house. Now, before you get your shorts in a wad, Robbie, I’m going to be playing Tara after—”
“After you release social media footage of her playing around with her new boy toy.” He coughed on the word, earning him a backslap from Tim. “Which you plan to use the real Tara for.”
“Not only macking on him, but living it up large,” Lily added, her hands clenched in her lap as though she was nervous.
He turned to look at his baby brother, trying to keep an open mind, especially as Lily was sitting still as a rail, her green eyes practically imploring him to see things her way. Upstairs, they’d been so in sync, and he missed that. Now he was struggling to understand.
“How is it you see the brilliance of this, and I don’t?” he asked his brother. “Tim, you’ve lived in Southie your whole life. Why in the world do you think the Kellys are going to send some of their guys down to the Outer Banks because they think Tara is in a hot new relationship? I don’t get the whole boy toy, living it up part.”
Lily opened her mouth, but Tim held up a hand. “Let me. We know the Kellys want her, but what Lily is suggesting is downright Shakespearean.Hamlet. MacBeth—”
“Here we go again,” he ground out, tempted to put his hands over his ears.
“They’re going to think it’s a trap if we just put Tara out as bait.” Tim tapped the side of his nose. “But this way, we’re going to make it look like you have the girls while Tara is off doing what women do best in this instance—or so it’s broadly thought.”
“Keep going,” Robbie practically pleaded, shooting Lily a tight smile.
“Tara is going to look like she’s taking her revenge—on both the Kellys and Scotty. First, she’s going to have a new plaything—total vacation rebound. Second, she’s going to look like she’s spending the Kellys’ money like there’s no tomorrow.”
“That’s what worries me,” he said, pressing a hand to his belly.
“A total fuck you to both the Kellys and her ex will drive them both nuts,” Sheila informed him with a delighted wiggle on the couch. “We’re talking serious revenge.”
“Plus, Tara is going to look like she’s gone wild,” Tim put in. “Crazy. She’ll look uncontrollable. Even by you, the serious, don’t mess with me—”
“I get the picture.” What he was getting was a migraine. “So I’m supposed to tell my boss and the officer working the nail salon arson case that I took Tara’s girls so she could get away for a while and party? Jesus, I’m going to look like an idiot.”
“Exactly!” Sheila exclaimed. “We don’t want to feed anyone’s suspicions that you’re using Tara as bait, seeing as you’re a cop. It’s better for them to think she’s being reckless. And trust me, men don’t have a hard time believing that about women.”
“You’ll tell them you told her to get out of town and lay low,” Lily broke in, smoothing her palms on her thighs, which he had to force himself not to stare at. “But she’s not thinking logically. Just like a woman. She’s angry.”
“Pissed!” Tim cheerfully added, crossing his ankles. “And you know what they say about women and revenge?”
He’d been a cop for years and heard plenty of confessions, but he looked at his brother blankly. “No, Tim, what?”
