“Give Bogart a bit of credit.”
“Of course.” Shay reached up and scratched Bogart between his damp ears. “You two are just like Batman and Robin.”
“Maybe Cisco and Pancho.” James tried to be offhand about what had just occurred, but he was high on their victory, too.
They would never know exactly how Mariah had been squirted out of her car seat on impact, soared through an opening in the mangled wreckage, and landed in a soft pile of wet leaves twenty feet from the vehicle. All, apparently, without serious injury. He was just happy that chance had been on her side.
“It’s why we do the job. Understand now?”
She nodded. “I wish I did something that made a difference like that.”
For the first time since they’d met, Shay was looking at him with the soft eyes of a woman fascinated by the man in front of her.
He recognized that look. She was responding to the successful good-news part of his job. Outsiders never wanted to see the failures, the mistakes, the wrong turns, the grind, the loneliness, the boring shit-filled hours of dealing with the sick, sad, desperate and/or depraved members of the human race that were most often the reason law enforcement was required. But everyone loved a hero.
The hero-worship thing bothered him. No one could live up to it on a daily basis.
After a quick glance in the rearview mirror, he pulled over on the shoulder and brought the cruiser to a stop.
“Something wrong?”
“Maybe.” He wiped a hand across his face, clearing it of the trickle of rainwater that had run down from his still-damp hair. He needed to get this right.
“A few days ago, you were completely sure you didn’t like me at all. Remember? I’m the guy who burst in on you at gunpoint, called you a liar and a thief. I’m the guy who took your dog away from you. You need to remember that part about me, too.”
He saw her straighten up in her seat. “What are you saying? You don’t want me to like you?”
“We both have baggage, that’s all. My failings run more along the lines of shooting my mouth off before I think. Especially with pretty women. That’s who I am sometimes, too, the awkward dumb guy.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “You don’t need to worry about your failings. I’m sure women hang all over your gorgeous self all the time.”
He angled his body toward her and laid his right arm along the back of her seat, letting his fingers rest lightly on her shoulder. “Gorgeous is not a character trait.”
She met his grin with a snarky look. “Pity. It’s your best quality.”
He brushed the back of his fingers ever so gently along her jawline. “All storm and thunder. That’s more like my Shay.”
Grinning, he turned back to the wheel and sped off.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Yeah, it’s a dump.”
James offered her a teasing smile as he surveyed the sparsely furnished yet immaculately neat living area of Shay’s small apartment. She had been making excuses for her place since he pulled up. None of them held up under his scrutiny. In fact, he thought it looked like a minimalist’s dream.
“Ha, ha, very funny.” Shay looked around, trying to see her home through a stranger’s eyes. It gave precious little away, not that anyone came by to see it. Eric had not liked her cramped cell, as he called her one-bedroom apartment. They went to hotels or, occasionally, his place.
She dropped her belongings on the small round pedestal table in the dining area off a tiny kitchen and turned to James.
He toed off his shoes, not wanting to track water in, and then removed his gun to set it out of reach on a nearby shelf. She’d invited him in but he wasn’t sure what that involved. She still had time to change her mind before he lost his completely. He unhooked Bogart’s leash and turned toward her.
She didn’t have many filters. It was all there on her face. Desire, nervousness, indecision, and a flicker of hope that he would take the decision away from her.
He smiled a warm intimate male smile that made her flush. “I hope it’s okay to bring Bogart in.”
“Of course.” She bent down to pat her furry friend on the head. “I forgot to get back the pet deposit I had to put down when I adopted him.”
He watched her shoulders rise and fall on a deep breath. And then she was turning back to him. He saw a decision forming in her mind. Her eyes were shining beneath her glossy bangs, drawing in all the light in the room. Her mouth was soft. Yet her words, as always, were meant to deflect any vulnerability.
“We live in different places. So this.” She waved a hand around as if to include her apartment and Bogart. “This is just a hookup, like last time.”
James heard the question she wasn’t asking. It was in the way she’d dipped her chin, looking at him from beneath a thick fan of dark lashes. She wanted confirmation to keep her emotions locked up. He wished he could give it to her.
“Last time, maybe. But I came back.”