Ava looked down at herself and raised one long leg in the air, pointing her toes. “I could wear a tux.”
Dominic laughed, but his mouth was dry as ash. He’d never considered himself a leg man, but everything about Ava defied what he’d considered his norm. “It’s tempting just to see what you would look like.” He wanted to say something dirty and inappropriate, but they needed to have a conversation about work. They needed to get up, shower, get in the damn rental car and drive back to their real lives. “You don’t have to attend.” He touched her cheek. “It’ll be boring as hell, and my family will take your presence as my date way out of proportion. But as much as they annoy me, I don’t want them worrying about me or knowing a killer targeted me—so I will want you to keep that secret even though the threat is probably over.”
She held his gaze, and he was struck again by all the faceted colors in her eyes. “We don’t know for sure that it’s over.”
He shrugged. “If the president is attending, security will be tight. I’ll be safe enough.”
“Would you want me there?” she asked. “If we weren’t working together?”
He could tell she regretted the question as soon as she said it because she tried to roll away. He stopped her. She’d made herself vulnerable, and he refused to be any less courageous.
“Yes.” Honesty was scary, and his heart revved with fear.
Slowly, she smiled up at him. “Can we stop at Walmart somewhere on the way?”
“Walmart?”
“For a party dress.”
He laughed. While he didn’t care if she came in jeans and a t-shirt, the society crowd were going to tear her apart. He eyed her carefully, which wasn’t a hardship. His sister was too short. He had a sudden thought and went through to the other room, grabbing his cell, turning it back on. He had dozens of missed calls. Shit. He dialed one number. “Agent Rooney?”
“I’ve been trying to get hold of you, SSA Sheridan.”
Ava tried to sit up, but he put his thigh over hers. He wasn’t done with her yet.
“I turned my phone off to try to get some sleep last night. Before you tell me why you were calling me, would it be weird if I asked if you had a formal gown I could borrow for tonight?” He figured she was a similar height to Ava and when she wasn’t pregnant, they’d be a similar size. He could drive to Quantico to pick up the dress and then head back to the lion’s den of DC.
Rooney laughed. “I do, but you’ll need to talk to Alex about heels.”
He chuckled and saw the uncertainty lingering in Ava’s eyes. “What dress and shoe size are you?” he mouthed to Ava.
She told him using her fingers.
“Anything in a dress size six and a shoe size seven will work. Agent Kanas is accompanying me to my father’s engagement party tonight and is in need of something to wear.” He didn’t qualify that she’d be his bodyguard. He wanted her there as his date.
“I’ll need something where I can access my gun,” Ava added.
Dominic repeated that to Rooney, and she promised to deliver something to his apartment that night because she was planning to be in DC anyway. He gave her his address. “So, what’s the bad news?” he asked. Because he doubted Rooney would be calling in the middle of the night with anything good.
“Someone trashed the windows at the back of your house.”
“Anyone get hurt?”
“No. And by the time the local cops arrived the vandal was gone.”
“You think it was the UNSUB.”
“Yes.”
He dragged his hand down his face. “I thought it was over.” He wanted it to be all over. For Sandy and Fernando to be safe, for him to get back to living a normal life. The unsettling thought of Ava not being in it swirled confusingly in his brain. They still had tonight. It wasn’t over yet.
“Any update on DNA or lab work or Robin Elgin’s cell phone data?”
“Frazer plans to go lean on the lab today until they give him answers.”
Dominic winced. He wouldn’t want Frazer hounding him, but damn, they needed results.
He realized it was really early and she probably wasn’t even at work yet. “I’ll call my cleaning company to come do clean up and get a glazier in there ASAP to board up until they can fit new glass. Call me if there’s any news and thanks for everything. I owe you.”
He hung up and tossed the cell behind him. There were so many things he should be doing. Returning all those missed calls. Talking to Sandy to check on Ben, talking to Gross about what the FBI had dug up at the cabin. Needling Lincoln Frazer about any other developments and checking in at CNU. Instead he ran his finger over Ava’s eyebrows, lingering on the scar on her forehead, then down her nose and across her petal-soft lips.
Down the graceful length of her neck, over her winged collarbones which he found unreasonably attractive. Her breasts were full and pert. Begging for a little attention which he willingly administered. Allowing the hunger to grow, fanning the flames, but carrying on with his exploration all the way down to her toes, which he kissed one at a time.
She watched him, eyes bright as glass. And when he finally started to make his way back up her body, she turned the tables on him before he could sample the tasty bits. She flipped him on his back.
He told himself he could take her if he had to, but from the firm grip she had on him and the fact she knew how to fight dirty, he wasn’t sure he was being honest. There were a lot of things Dominic was pretty sure he wasn’t being honest with himself about in regards to Ava Kanas and as her lips closed over him and he lost his mind for the third time that night, he was starting to wonder what would be so bad about having a proper relationship with this woman?
As long as his heart wasn’t involved, as long as he kept the most vital part of himself separate, so that if and when she left him, he wouldn’t be completely destroyed. Maybe, just maybe, they could make this work.
Chapter Twenty-Eight