Strong And Sexy

Chapter 13

Dani got out of the cab and looked up at her second-floor apartment. At her front window. Was she scared to go in? Hell, yes. But she could do this. All she needed were panties. So she took the stairs.

She could have stuck around Shayne’s longer, maybe found those panties, but she hadn’t wanted him to look into her eyes and discover the truth.

One night hadn’t been enough for her.

She had quite a few conflicting feelings about that. On the one hand, she felt like a woman who’d just had the best sex of her life, and she had.

No fumbling, no clumsy, klutzy, nervous movements for Shayne. Nope, the man had the moves. Great moves.

But on the other hand, she also felt exactly as she’d known she would.

Like they weren’t finished.

Like maybe they couldn’t ever get finished.

And that was the problem, wasn’t it. Shrugging it off, she opened her apartment door. “Hello?” she called, staying in the doorway.

No one answered. Of course no one answered. She lived alone.

“Dani?”

Nearly exiting her own skin, Dani jumped and found Alan standing in his doorway, watching her.

“You okay?” he asked, a worried frown on his face.

She opened her mouth to answer. Of course she was okay, she always showed up at eight in the morning wearing no panties, looking like she’d just had wild sex all night.

But he was looking at her so sweetly, so I-really-want-to-date-you sweetly, that she just shut her mouth and nodded weakly.

His gaze locked in on her neck. “You sure?”

She nodded again, but he kept staring at her neck. “What?”

“Is that a…hickey?”

She slapped a hand to her neck. “What? No. Of course not.”

“Someone bit you.”

Yes. Yes, Shayne had bitten her, lightly, with such heat and suction and perfect use of his tongue that her eyes had rolled back in her head with pleasure. She remembered sliding her fingers into his hair and holding his head to her, encouraging him to keep on kissing her like that.

Perfect. “Maybe it’s a bug bite.”

He sucked his lips inward but didn’t voice the doubt that was all over his face. “Are you just getting home?”

“Yes.” Which looked bad. She’d turned him down for a date, saying she was too busy with her job, and that she was going through a tough time right now, and that a man would complicate things.

But not a single one of those reasons made sense of the fact that yes, she was just getting home, she’d been with a man. She wondered if telling him it’d been a complicated man would help.

Probably not.

Nor would the fact that she’d witnessed an invisible murder, been shot at by an invisible shooter.

Oh, and then there’d been all that wild sex on the floor of Shayne’s living room.

And in his shower…

And in his bed…

“Work’s been a little crazy,” she said weakly. She glanced inside her apartment. No sign of trouble. But still, she couldn’t bring herself to step over the threshold. “Alan?”

“Yeah?”

She looked at him. “Would you like to come in for coffee?”

“Is that just because you want to have coffee, or because you’re nervous about going in alone after the possible break-in?”

Damn it. He was adorably fumbling, yes. But not slow. Not by a long shot. “How do you know about the possible break-in?”

“I heard the police talking.”

Okaaaay. So he’d been eavesdropping last night. That was probably just normal curiosity, right? Because Alan wasn’t some kind of crazy stalker. But just in case, she shut her door and began walking back down the hallway toward the stairs.

Still extremely commando…

“Dani?”

“Going back to work,” she called over her shoulder. Please don’t follow me with a gun.

At the zoo, Dani let herself into her car and grabbed her cell phone, just as Reena drove up.

“Heard you had quite the night.”

“You heard?”

Reena nodded. “You okay?”

Dani sighed and filled her in.

Reena listened in awed silence to the events of the night before, interrupting a few times to either ask a question or to make Dani repeat a detail.

“Tell me about the sex,” she instructed.

Dani blinked. “I saw a murder, had someone break into my apartment, was shot at, and you want to talk about the sex? Are you kidding me?”

“Priorities,” Reena said, utterly unapologetic. “Because you’re okay.”

“Yes.”

“You’re absolutely sure, right?”

Actually, shockingly, after last night, she was more than okay. In fact, she was having some trouble controlling the urge to just grin for no reason. That’s what a few man-made orgasms did for her, apparently. “Yeah. I’m okay.”

“Then yes, I want to talk about the sex.”

“Reena.”

“Come on. Was he good?”

She failed at holding back the stupid grin. Most definitely good. Off-the-charts good. So good her body was revved up and aching for more just thinking about it. “Yes.”

“Nice way to celebrate your promotion.”

Some of Dani’s smile faded at that. “Reena, about that-”

“Look, I’m fine. I’ll get the next one, or someone’s going to have to die, but I’m fine. No biggie.”

“Uh.”

“Kidding,” Reena said. “Jeez, I’m kidding. Look, are you coming or what?”

“I’ll meet you in there.”

“Suit yourself.”

Dani looked at her cell phone, saw the missed call from Shayne, felt her heart squeeze, and put the phone in her pocket. She had work to get to.

Inside the zoo, Dani found no boogeymen, no dead bodies, nothing out of place. Just the elephants in their habitat, waiting patiently for her to observe them with their new addition-Bebo-the four-month-old baby fresh from the nursery.

So that’s what she did, she settled in to watch and record. As the hours passed, she decided that yesterday and all that had happened had been some really strange episode of The Twilight Zone. An episode she didn’t want to repeat. So when her cell rang again later, and then again, she ignored it, her gaze glued to the elephants, especially Bebo nuzzling her two-ton mama Ellie for milk.

So sweet, so simple. In the past, Ellie had pushed away the babies but today, when it was her baby, she nuzzled back in a show of unconditional love.

Dani watched, enraptured, awed. Touched.

All her life she’d been pushing people away instead of nuzzling, wanting, needing, to be independent. But now as she sat there, gaze glued to the beauty of mama and baby bonding, she couldn’t justify her actions. She’d hidden behind her independent excuse so long it no longer even made any sense.

But if a stubborn mammal like Ellie had changed, didn’t that mean she could as well?

Shayne flew his client to Santa Barbara, and while that client-a television producer-attempted to talk a reclusive actor into signing on a new sitcom, Shayne had a few hours to spare. Normally he’d have not wasted a single moment of that time, getting out on the waves ASAP, surfing as long as he could.

But instead he stood on the tarmac, the ocean pounding the shore in perfect five-footers, the wind rippling his hair, and tried calling Dani.

Again.

When he got no answer, he called Patrick, who also had absolutely no answer. “You’re a cop,” Shayne told him. “A detective. A big, badass detective. You’re supposed to know all.”

“Look, some things can’t be explained. Stop worrying about this, Shayne.”

“Stop worrying about this? The woman I was with last night was shot at!”

“Maybe you should give up the whole party-life thing, and this shit wouldn’t happen.”

Shayne grated his teeth. “I don’t do the whole party-life thing anymore.” Ah, hell. Who was he kidding? Patrick wasn’t going to believe him. “If anything comes up, call me.”

“I said I would.”

Shayne resisted the urge to pick a fight-see that, Mom, progress-and did end up surfing, hoping it’d clear his head, but his mind remained a hundred miles away, back in Los Angeles with Dani, wondering what the hell she was doing and if she was safe.

After he flew the producer back to Burbank, Shayne stood in Sky High’s lobby, getting a soda from the vending machine and once again calling Dani.

Still no answer.

He walked to the front counter, listening to Dani’s voice mail message for the tenth time as he flipped through the messages Maddie had left for him. “Damn it.”

“Flight go okay?” This from Noah, who waltzed in the front door with an easy grin on his face. The grin of a man who’d gotten lucky very recently.

Shayne had been wearing a grin like that earlier. Much earlier.

But the smile had faded in the light of day. He’d always wondered how in the hell Noah could settle down with one woman. In fact, just the thought of it boggled. But now he could admit there might be something to the notion. “You’re still smiling.”

“Am I?”

“I’d think you’d be tired of having sex with the same woman.”

Noah laughed and patted Shayne’s shoulder with mock sympathy. “Dude.”

“Seriously.”

“Seriously?” Noah laughed again. “Sleeping with the same woman is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. No more wondering if she likes me, if she’s going to go out with me, if she’s going out with someone else. No more waking alone on a Sunday and having no one around, just to hang with.”

“You had me.”

“Okay, no one to cuddle with.”

“You want to cuddle? I can cuddle.”

“Have you seen Bailey, by any chance?”

Yes, yes, Shayne had. She was a leggy, gorgeous blonde. A former model, in fact. Extremely cuddle-able.

“Trust me, it’s all good,” Noah assured him.

“There’s got to be a way to get all the good stuff without the ball and chain.”

“You mean the ring.”

“I mean the ring,” Shayne confirmed.

“It’s hard to explain, but the ring is like the icing on the cake.” Noah grinned. “It’s the best part.”

This was news to Shayne, who’d spent years cultivating his carefree playboy reputation. Dani had known this about him. She’d known there wouldn’t be icing on the cake. It’s why she’d held back, why she didn’t want to date him, and he respected that. He did. But suddenly he wanted icing on his damn cake, too.

Brody came down the hall, commandeered Shayne’s soda, and drank deeply.

“Hey.”

He slapped the now-empty soda can back to the counter. “What are you girls gossiping about?”

Shayne searched his pockets for more change, but came up empty. “Damn it, Brod.”

Noah put a hand on Shayne’s shoulder. “We’re discussing why the laid-back surfer dude is as uptight as a guy who hasn’t gotten off in a year.”

“He got laid last night.” Brody eyeballed Shayne. “So that means…huh.”

“What huh?” Noah asked curiously, eyeing Shayne like a bug on a slide.

“He must have gotten dumped. Again. Jesus, you’re on a roll, huh?”

“I did not get dumped again,” Shayne said, shoving free of Noah and glaring at Brody. “Go buy me a fucking soda.”

“Yeah, he got dumped again,” Noah said, nodding. “Was it the crazy chick?”

“She’s not crazy.”

“Yeah, it was the crazy chick,” Brody decided, watching Shayne carefully. “Go figure.”

Damn it. So he’d spent most of his life fighting off women and wasn’t used to having to talk a woman into wanting him. Whatever. He’d live.

Maddie came out of the storage room wearing a leather miniskirt and two lace tops layered over each other, looking sizzling hot. She moved around the counter to sit in her chair, pulling out her keyboard, her fingers typing away.

Sizzling and effective.

“Don’t you boys have work to do?” she asked without looking up from her work. “Planes to fly? Clients to kiss up to?”

When they didn’t answer, she did glance up.

“Don’t you ever dress like a secretary?” Brody asked.

Maddie arched a brow while Noah and Shayne inwardly winced. “No need, since I’m not a secretary,” she said with glaciers in her voice.

“Shayne got dumped,” Noah said, clearly trying to change the subject so Maddie didn’t kill Brody with her eyes.

“Can’t get dumped when you weren’t available in the first place,” Maddie noted, and when all three men blinked in confused unison, she sighed as if they were idiots. “Look, Shayne was never really available to her, right? He’s never been available to any woman.”

“And why is that?” Noah asked. “Seeing as you’re the resident female expert?”

Maddie smiled. She liked the title. “Because he’s the screwup.”

“Hey,” Shayne said.

“I mean that’s what you’ve been told all your life.” She stopped typing to squeeze his hand before going back to clicking the keyboard with dizzying speed. “You’re the black sheep, the youngest, the fuckup in a large family of overachievers. You were always told you were never going to amount to anything.” She shrugged. “So you decided to live up to that reputation, yadda yadda.”

“Which is why you got yourself kicked out of all those schools before you met us,” Noah said, ever so helpfully.

“And why you became a pilot instead of a brain surgeon or a big-shot attorney or detective,” Brody added, also ever so helpfully.

Shayne stared at them. “Thanks for the trip down memory lane.”

“Look, long story short,” Maddie went on. “You’re a commitment-phobe, hiding behind the free spirit, easygoing, laid-back bullshit persona.”

“Bullshit persona?”

Maddie smiled sweetly. “Don’t worry, boss. I have a bullshit persona too.” She gestured to her own magenta-tipped blond hair. To her eyebrow piercing. Then, turning her back, she peeled down her already extremely low-rise leather skirt to reveal the small tattoo of a Chinese symbol, high on a first-class ass cheek.

Shayne stared, and Brody slapped him upside the head. “Don’t look!”

“She said to look. And ow.”

Maddie straightened her skirt. “It means dream big. Be whoever you want.” She looked at Shayne. “Even when you’re told you can’t. Don’t let your shortsighted family dictate your life.”

“They aren’t.” But as he stared down at the cell phone in his hand, he shook his head. They were. Unbelievably, he was still letting what they thought of him matter enough to pretend it didn’t bother him.

“See,” Maddie said very gently. “The problem with being the black sheep just to spite them is that when the right woman does come along, you’re not going to be able to snag her up. Because you’ll be busy doing that whole no-commitment thing. You know, to prove that what your family thinks of you is true.”

Noah was nodding. “Exactly. That’s exactly what he’s doing.”

“You’re all fucked up, man,” Brody said.

“Bite me.”

Noah took Shayne’s cell phone and flipped it open.

“Hey!”

Brody leaned over Noah’s shoulder as they accessed his dialed calls. “Yeah, look at that. He’s tried calling her six times. Dude.”

Shayne snatched his phone back and shoved it in his pocket. “It’s nothing. This is nothing.”

“It’s definitely something,” Noah said. “It’s all over your face.”

Shayne grabbed the schedule. He needed a flight. Now. And perfect, Brody had a flight to San Luis Obispo. It would get him out of here for four hours minimum. “I’m taking your flight.”

“No, you’re not.”

“So maybe she’ll call back while you’re gone,” Noah said.

“No. She’s…working. She’s busy.”

Noah, Brody and Maddie exchanged a look of pity.

“Goddamnit, she is.” Shayne tossed the schedule back to the desk. “That, or…” Hell. “Or she’s in trouble.”

“Trouble, as in…” Brody mimed the action of hanging a noose around his neck and jerking on the end, complete with tongue and eyes bulging out.

Maddie smacked him upside the head. “Don’t you make fun of mental illness.”

Shayne pivoted on a heel and walked away. It was that or kill Noah and Brody, and their investors might balk at that. On the way to the Learjet, he made one more attempt to reach Dani, but couldn’t. “Fuck it,” he said, and whipped around, heading back inside-

Only to plow into Brody.

“You want me to take my flight back,” Brody guessed.

“I’m not taking the easy way out on this one.”

“I can see that.”

“She’s in danger, Brody. And she’s not calling back. That could just be because I’m a stupid prick, but it could also be more.”

“So you’re going to go find her because she might be in danger.”

“No, I’m going because this is the new me. The new me who sticks.”

Brody sighed again. “Go then. Go stick.”

“I will.” But it didn’t escape him that for the first time in his life, he was choosing a woman over a flight.

Dani recorded elephant behavior all day, and afterward, ran into Reena in the employee locker room.

“Saw you’re getting Saturdays off now,” Reena said, changing back to her street clothes. “Doesn’t suck to be head keeper, does it?”

“I could probably get you a few Saturdays off too.”

Reena shut her locker and shook her head. “I don’t want any favors.”

“But-”

“Seriously. Don’t.”

Dani began to change, hating the unaccustomed distance between them. “I have the new Depp DVD. Do you want to-”

“Can’t. Some of us are going for sushi, but you can come with us if you’d like.”

Dani hadn’t slept in two days-except for that hour in Shayne’s arms. “I really can’t. I’m-”

“-Management now. Gotcha.” Reena grabbed her backpack and headed to the door.

“Reena.”

The door shut just a little harder than necessary.

“Damn it.” Dani changed, then walked out to her car, alone. She told herself her skin was not prickling, but she braced herself for the sound of gunfire anyway.

Nothing.

Of course it was nothing. She’d gotten a message from Shayne’s brother, saying they believed it could have been some kids playing target practice with the tall lampposts.

She wanted to believe that. With all her heart, she wanted to believe that.

Reena was just getting into her car. Dani called out to her. “Are you sure about the movie? I have double fudge ice cream to go with.”

Reena smiled, but shook her head.

“I’m sorry about the damn promotion.”

“No, it has nothing to do with that. Really.” But her smile seemed just a little forced.

“Reena.”

“Look, I’m meeting a date later. Okay? That’s all it is.”

Dani had to accept that. She drove home, stared at her front door with some hesitation before unlocking it. She shoved it open to prove her bravery, but once again just peered in from the doorway.

Safety first.

It looked fine. Everything was in its place. No sign of anyone having been inside while she’d been gone. She stepped inside but didn’t shut the door all the way to allow for her hasty getaway if her quick inspection didn’t turn out okay.

But all seemed normal. She distracted herself with the mail, and then the Visa bill, and then with a phone call from her dentist reminding her of a cleaning in two days.

Then she changed into her most comfy sweats-a pair of men’s bottoms left over from a past boyfriend, three sizes too big but perfect for ice cream consumption-and a camisole top.

And while she was in her bedroom, she slopped on a facial mask. It was green and smelled like avocado, which would conflict with the ice cream, but it made her skin feel like a baby’s butt and would go a long way toward lifting her morale.

This was not a pity party, she reminded herself.

Well, not officially, anyway.

She put the movie into the DVD player and plopped on the couch with a big wooden spoon and the ice cream. The only thing that would have improved on the evening would have been a big bag of popcorn, but she’d forgotten to restock from her last pity party.

Not a pity party.

Ah, hell. It was a pity party. But she could do this without the popcorn. The opening credits of her movie were just rolling when someone knocked on the door, making it creak open an inch or two.

Unbelievable. She’d never gone back to shut the damn door. So much for safety first. Heart in her throat, she looked around for her bat.

“Dani?”

Oh, good God. All her air escaped her and she sagged back into the couch. The man calling her name wasn’t her invisible murderer.

Or her equally invisible mystery sniper.

But someone just as dangerous-Shayne.