Wilde at Heart (Wilde Security, #3)(2)

That shouldn’t be sexy.

Goddamn, but it was.

“Are you sure you don’t want to join us, Shel?” Stephanie was saying. “It’s going to be the party of the year!”

“No, my sister would kill me.” Shelby’s voice carried a permanent sensual rasp, the kind of voice that brought to mind twisted sheets and writhing bodies, and it worked on him like a drug, making him jones to hear her speak again.

Jane-slash-Jenna finally noticed him standing there and skidded to a halt. “Sorry, we’re closed. You’ll have to come back after the holiday.”

Shelby glanced over at him, at first uninterested, but then she did a double take and grinned. “It’s okay, Jana. Hey, Suit and Tie.”

Jana. Right. That was her name.

The older woman scowled. “You know him?”

“Yeah, and if I had to guess, he’s my babysitter for the night.” Shelby sighed and met his gaze. “Did Eva send you?”

Fuck, no. Eva would castrate him—slowly—if she knew he was here, but he wasn’t about to lay it all out on the line in front of an audience. “She thought someone should give you a ride.”

Shelby lifted a brow and he realized a half second too late how sexual that had sounded. He added, “Home. A ride home.”

“Of course she did.”

Stephanie made a face. “I don’t know why you let your sister boss you around like this. You’re a grown-ass woman.”

“I owe it to her,” was all Shelby said in reply, then shooed the two women toward the door. “Go on. I’ll see you girls in a few days. Happy New Year.”

“Same to you,” Jana said and left, still scowling at Reece as she passed.

“Happy New Year,” Stephanie chirped, but then paused halfway out the door. “Don’t forget I start student teaching on the fourth, so my availability’s going to change.”

“I’ve already left a note about it in the office so I’ll remember when I start the next schedule.”

“Thanks. You’re the best.” With a flirty wave at Reece, she followed Jana out. Shelby crossed to the door and waved as she clicked the lock into place then flipped the sign from OPEN to CLOSED.

“So,” Reece said, searching for a way to break the awkward silence. “They made you a supervisor?”

“Don’t sound so surprised.” She moved from window to window, drawing down blinds over the glass. As soon as the last window was covered, she whirled to face him, hands on her hips. “Are you stalking me, Rolo?”

He made a concerted effort to relax his jaw before he broke his teeth. “My name is Reece.”

“It’s all candy to me.” She lifted a shoulder and breezed past him. “Do you honestly think I haven’t noticed all the drive-bys? And, c’mon, you used to be a one-coffee-a-day guy. Now you’re here at least three times a day.”

“Maybe I need the extra caffeine.”

Her nose crinkled. “You do look exhausted all the time, but I doubt caffeine will help with that. You should go on a vacation.”

“I don’t take vacations.”

“Humph. You really should. You need to pull that stick out of your ass before it does permanent internal damage.”

He closed the distance between them. “You have no f*cking clue what I need.”

She paused on her way back to the register and glanced over one shoulder, eyebrow raised. Her piercing glinted in the overhead light with the movement. “Wow. That sounded like a threat. Or…was it a promise?”

Dial it back, he told himself. He stopped, still a good five feet away from her, and released a pent-up breath. “I’m only here to give you a lift home.”

“Uh-huh.” She opened the register with a key and took out the cash-filled tray. “Well, I have some things to do first, so make yourself comfortable.”

She took the tray and credit card receipts into the back room. He waited a handful of moments and debated his own intelligence before he finally followed. Of course he was going to follow. He couldn’t seem to not follow this woman. As if he were a dog and she were his mistress in control of his leash.

And, okay, that thought should not have lit him up like a damn light bulb.

Jesus, he was a sick f*ck.

He found her at a desk in the office behind the kitchen area, counting out the day’s bank deposit. Her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth in concentration, and the sight of the pink tip peeking from between her purple-painted lips was somehow both adorable and insanely erotic. For a second, he could only stand there and fantasize about all the things that tongue could do to him, and the room grew uncomfortably warm. He loosened his tie, tried to find a train of thought that was less…explosive.

“Uh, you seem to have settled into the life of a responsible adult.”

She held up a finger in a classic hang on gesture and finished counting, then wrote down the amount and stuffed the bills into a plastic deposit bag. She dragged her tongue over the flap and sealed it closed, then smirked up at him. “Word of advice, Hershey. Insulting me is not the best way to get into my skirt.”

“It’s Reece. And what makes you think I want into your skirt?”

Her gaze dropped pointedly to the front of his trousers. “That boner you’ve been rocking since you walked in wasn’t enough of a clue? Unless you’re just really turned on by coffee. In that case, weird. But to each his own.”