Читать книгу Holding Out For A Hero - HelenKay Dimon - Страница 12

Josh managed to hold his temper until they reached the elevator bank. But just barely. He wanted to unleash. To let out all of the frustration he experienced since figuring out Deana was following him around Hawaii.

She took away his choice. She walked into his life and forced him to do the one thing he vowed not to do—rescue someone. And now he had to wrestle with the visual image of Eric and Deana being in bed together, thoughts that only infuriated him further.

Josh waited until the two lawyers standing in the quiet hallway disappeared back into their offices. “What the hell was that about?”

She hit the DOWN button. “You tell me. You’re the one who dragged us out of there before we could find out anything helpful on Ryan.”

“I did that to keep you from insulting the one guy I need to communicate with me during this investigation.”

“Eric? You mean the same guy who basically told you to go away so he could get to a more important meeting on his schedule?” She stopped tapping the button and stared up at him.

“Actually, yes.”

“In case you’re wondering, there wasn’t another meeting. That was fake. Eric wanted to get rid of you.”

Josh snorted. As if he hadn’t picked up on Eric’s lie. Hell, Josh knew Eric blew him off. Josh also knew Eric’s unhelpful reaction had to do with Deana’s presence and nothing else.

“He’s my best contact in that office,” Josh explained.

She shook her head. “If Eric is Ryan’s only chance, we may as well give up now.”

Josh refused to argue. She wanted to see Eric as the enemy. Fine. Let her make this impossible. He didn’t care. He could let it go.

That theory lasted all of two seconds…. “Eric is a good guy, you know,” Josh said, because he couldn’t help himself.

“You two are real close, are you?”

Josh had made a decision about Eric’s character a long time ago. They weren’t friends. Didn’t hang out or even talk all that often. Still, Josh had worked with the man on a few drug cases and knew Eric valued justice as much as he craved the big corner office with his name engraved on the door.

“Is that a real question or are you just being insufferable to annoy me?” Josh asked even though the real question was why he kept killing himself defending Eric to her…and why he cared about any of this.

Even though Josh now knew the source of the Eric–Deana tension was a dating relationship, he wanted to know more. Everything about Deana intrigued him. She was an odd mix of inconsistencies and predictabilities. Hot and cold at the same time. What really pissed him off is that he hadn’t seen the Eric angle coming. Whatever the two of them had, they kept it quiet. Or, at least the sordid details never reached Josh in Kauai.

“We can agree to disagree on the issue of Eric,” she said.

She didn’t move. Didn’t even blink, but Josh could feel her turn up the chilliness factor. If Josh guessed right, the only thing keeping her from bolting for that emergency staircase to her left was a heap of pride and a refusal to be seen as weak.

He appreciated the self-preservation aspects of her position, so he tried to explain. “Eric controls most of the evidence.”

She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter because he won’t help you.”

From the choppiness of her voice Josh wondered if they had strayed off topic and were talking about something other than Ryan’s case. “We need to come to an understanding.”

“We already did.”

“I thought so, but apparently not.” He glanced around for the perfect spot. Before she could balk, he took her hand and with the other palm pushed the door to the men’s bathroom open.

She leaned back, putting most of her weight behind going in the opposite direction. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Talking to you.” Since the element of surprise was on his side, and because he outweighed her by a good sixty or more pounds, he got her into the white-tiled room with only a few tugs.

“This is ridiculous.”

“Don’t move.” After a quick check of the two stalls to make sure they were alone, he clicked the lock on the door and faced her down.

“We’re going to talk in here?” Her squeal bounced off the metal stalls.

It was the most emotion he had heard from her all day. Even during a scene with a man who clearly once meant something to her, she had managed to keep her cool, to sound distant and uninterested.

That was over. Josh needed answers. Needed her to understand who was in charge and how exactly this bizarre business relationship of theirs was going to work. Getting her cooperation was key. She had backed her body into a corner, seemingly careful not to touch the wall or anything else in the small area.

Red stained her cheeks. “You can’t just—”

“Yes I can.”

“It smells in here.”

He inhaled the antiseptic scent of bleach and urinal cakes. “I’ve been around worse.”

“Lucky you.” Her chest rose and fell.

Even under the high-buttoned blouse, he could see her fight for breath. He assumed that had more to do with the close quarters and her lack of control over the situation than her concerns about the crap on the bathroom floor.

“This is a public restroom,” she said as if that would have some impact on his decision to talk to her.

“Your choices were the lobby, the elevator, or here. This is more private and more convenient.”

She glanced around, making a face at the stray toilet paper rolled across the floor. “And the most disgusting.”

“Sorry, your highness. Next time I’ll rent out the penthouse for you.”

Her hands dropped to her sides as her fidgeting stopped. “Don’t do that.”

“What?”

“Judge me based on my bank account.”

“If the diamond tiara fits…”

Anger sparked in her eyes. “Dragging around that attitude of yours must get pretty damn exhausting. Good thing you don’t need money like the rest of us.”

“We can talk about me later.” He stepped in front of her. “Right now we’re discussing you and Eric.”

“No, we’re not.”

“Look, lady.” Josh slapped his hand on the tiles behind her head, crowding her against the wall until her attention focused solely on him. “Your love life is screwing up my case.”

For some reason the fact she even had one ticked him off. He pictured her as hiding in her house and coming out now and then. As asexual despite that tempting long hair and beautiful face. Realizing under all that stuffiness and bossiness sat a real person made him less comfortable. Sort of itchy. Made him think of her as a woman instead of a case or a wallet, and that was not okay.

“You’re out of the loop,” he said.

“What?”

“It’s just me from here on out. That was the plan to begin with, but you insisted on coming today. No more. This isn’t a group effort. Can’t be.”

She lifted her chin. “I had to follow you in my own car because you refused to let me ride with you.”

“Most people would take that as a hint.”

“I just assumed it was part of your usual rudeness.”

“I knew I should have tried a few wrong turns and lost you.” He bent his elbow and dipped in closer. “Won’t make that mistake again.”

“You’re not funny.”

“We’re starting over. Under the new rules you’re out of the day-to-day stuff.”

She held her hands together right under her breasts and close to his chest but not quite touching him. “Absolutely not.”

“You’ll stay at home and wait for me to report to you. No more looking around and seeing you waiting nearby.”

“You make me sound like your employee.” She screwed up her mouth as if she tasted something sour. “Or a dog.”

“The former description works for me.”

Deana shoved against Josh’s chest with the heel of her hand. “That’s very evolved of you, but my answer is the same. No.”

“You aren’t calling the shots here.” And he vowed she was not going to make him move, either. He didn’t intend to pull back or go away until they had this problem worked out. The fact she smelled good, like some sort of exotic flower, didn’t exactly make being this close a hardship.

From this angle he could also see the gold flecks in her green eyes. Pretty.

“We are partners in this,” she said. Even nodded her head as if doing that sort of thing made the comment true.

“You are dead wrong.”

“Don’t make me—”

His mouth hovered a few inches from hers. “Are you going to threaten me with money again?”

She shifted her head to put a tiny bit of space between them. “Of course not. You make me sound like a—”

“Ice queen?”

“How original.” She put her hands against his chest and pushed. “Can you back up, please?”

Despite dress shirt and suit jacket, Josh felt the touch right down to his bare skin.

“No.”

Like that, the atmosphere in the room changed. He smelled her. Saw her. And for the first time, wanted to open that shirt and see what she hid underneath.

“You should…” Her breathy voice barely registered over the whirl of the room’s automatic fan.

“What?”

She swallowed. Hard. “We should go.”

The woman talked sense. A smart man would turn around and walk right out of the room. An even smarter man would hand back the check and the file and get on a plane to Kauai. Only a dumb man would give in to the urge to kiss her, but he was going to do it anyway. This was less about desire than about satisfying his need to know.

Just as he leaned in with his mouth close enough to feel the soft puffs of air from between her lips, she dodged to the side. Her hands shot to the very top of her shirt and that highest button right under her chin as she walked to the sink. With shaking hands she turned on the water and slipped her hands under the stream.

Fury slammed through him. Looked like being that close to the hired help was beneath her. “You suddenly feel the need for a bath?”

“Germs.”

Damn her. “What did you just say?”

“I touched the wall.”

Her lies made the situation even worse. “No, you didn’t.”

“It’s time to go.” She grabbed for a paper towel and yanked hard enough to pull the roll out of the container. “Damn!”

The brown paper rolled across the floor, crisscrossing the previously laid toilet paper trail. He watched her crouch down and try to clean up the mess. Saw the woman who was so terrified of kissing him be okay about running her fingers over the filthy floor.

An old rage overtook him. He had stopped letting people treat him like crap decades ago. He no longer just took it because that’s what he needed to do to stay in an apartment or get food. That kid grew up, got a badge, and refused to give anyone the power to make him feel unworthy again. Then along came Deana and he morphed back into that stupid poor kid again. The sensation shook him.

She glanced up. “You could help me.”

“No thanks.” He unlocked the door. “Don’t want to get my hands dirty.”

That was the second time Josh exited a room and left her staring at a closed door. The guy knew how to get the most drama from a situation.

Deana’s bigger concern centered on how in just a few seconds he had managed to make her insides puddle. When he had moved in close and she inhaled that masculine mix of sunshine and musk that clung to his skin, her resistance shattered into a million pieces. Even now her hands trembled and refused to stop. She clenched and unclenched her fingers, trying to gain control over her muscles.

In that moment of closeness she wanted him to kiss her. And like every mindless woman she had read about in that file on his past, she wanted him to want her back. She had mentally classified the others as silly and gullible. Stupid, even.

Then what the hell did that make her?