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“Either, but…” What could she say? That the thought of taking money in exchange for an evening in his company seemed wrong?
She glanced at Kane. He’d charmed her despite his initial pretense. Not only did she like him but she could use an evening out to enjoy herself. With the all-business attitude she’d had lately, she’d barely had time for fun. When was the last time she’d been out with a nice guy? The last time she’d let herself be charmed for once? Kane was most definitely good at that. She bit down on her lower lip and met his gaze, which had darkened to an unreadable, darker blue.
He flipped open his wallet. “I can pay cash if you’d prefer.”
“No.” She couldn’t take money in exchange for a date. No matter how he couched the word, that’s what it was. She treated him to a genuine smile. “Why don’t we see how things go and we can discuss it? Later.”
“Okay.” He snapped closed the billfold. “I’m staying at the Summit Hotel and I’ll be in touch, Miss…Kayla.” With a grin, he walked out the door, leaving her to wonder…
Could she really be that…lucky?
CHAPTER TWO
“YOU LOOK SHARP, McDermott.” Whistles and catcalls followed his walk through the station house. Kane ignored the harassment and parked himself in an open chair, kicking his legs out in front of him. He exhaled deep and easy, keeping up a steady beat. Relaxation came, but it was hard-won and destined not to last.
He’d taken one look at that angel-like face and known the geek cover wouldn’t work. He’d given it a shot anyway…because it would have been a hell of a lot easier to keep his distance from the woman if he wasn’t acting like himself. He was a professional. Attraction was never supposed to come into play.
Kane let out a groan. But he’d never seen eyes so wide-set and green and he’d damn sure never seen curves like hers anywhere but on a magazine centerfold. Desire hadn’t hit him so hard or fast since he’d been a teenager.
“Well? Did the McDermott charm do her in?”
At the sound of the commanding voice, Kane lifted his gaze. Since he’d been pulled into the assignment last minute, he hadn’t had a chance to go over his cover with Reid. Kane was grateful. He’d never live it down if the captain thought he’d gone in acting like a pencil-pushing geek. “She didn’t say no, if that’s what you’re asking. You get the tickets?”
Reid ran a hand over his balding head. “You’re a pain in the ass, McDermott. Yeah, I called my brother-in-law and told him my best detective was into bribery now.”
Kane shrugged. “Like I had a choice? Besides you’re the one who insisted I take some R&R.”
Reid’s face grew somber. “Don’t try to con me, McDermott. I’ve known you since you were a wise guy in the academy. You watch a kid get killed and you tell me you don’t need R&R?” Reid snorted. “I haven’t seen you so shaken since your first shot actually hit its target.”
Kane didn’t reply. The captain was right. When he was a rookie, Kane had fatally wounded a suspect when he’d closed a drug bust. The captain had picked Kane up and taken him home afterward, and, since then, the Reids had become the family Kane insisted he didn’t need.
The captain knew him well. More importantly, he had accepted him. Despite Kane’s surly attitude and attempts to remain aloof, Reid pushed anyway, including him on holidays and family gatherings. After a while, the older man’s persistence had paid off. Kane couldn’t bring himself to insult Reid or his wife by turning them down, though he squelched the small part of him that wanted to enjoy the sense of family they provided. Kane limited the occasions, but he still knew the Reid clan better than he knew anyone else.
“At least these tickets will work to our advantage,” Reid said in his raspy voice.
“You really ought to lay off the smokes, Captain.”
Reid scowled at him. “Worried I won’t be around to bug you?” He laughed. “I’m too tough to die.”
“You got that right,” Kane muttered, refusing to admit he cared too much about his boss.
“Thanks to the predicted drop in temperature, the lady should be more than eager to share body heat,” he said, ignoring Kane as usual. “She seem interested?”
Kane folded his arms behind his head and leaned back to ponder the question. The old chair and springs creaked beneath his weight in a familiar song. Had Kayla Luck been interested?
“More after I told her I knew Fredericks.” Their tip regarding Charmed! had come from a reliable source—an up-and-coming politician who’d gotten caught with his pants down. He’d been more than willing to talk in exchange for keeping his escapade out of the headlines.
Reid had gotten a list of Charmed!’s legitimate clientele over the past year. Fredericks seemed squeaky-clean and nervous to have his name tainted by scandal. Kane hadn’t trusted the guy to keep quiet should Kayla contact him about his salesman friend, Kane McDermott, so he’d concocted the story about Fredericks being transferred overseas. Fredericks had been jumpy but sincere and he’d sung Kayla Luck’s charms, including her honesty.
“At least you picked a winner out of the hat.”
Kane nodded in agreement. If Kayla had reacted badly to the name, the plan would have been shot to hell. “I’m good at what I do. Think she’ll take the bait?”
Kane recalled the sultry smile, the soft pout of her lips and the coyly phrased question. Why don’t we see how things go? “Yes…and no.” She’d been interested, all right. The thought caused a steady, pulsing rhythm in his veins. But he could deal with a sexual attraction. Lust and desire were two sensations he could easily handle.
The lady’s other qualities were another story. A naive innocence lurked beneath the seductive body. She lacked the hard edge he’d expected, the tough facade he’d been prepared to face. Instead she’d been uncertain and unsure. She might have grown up on the wrong side of the tracks, but life hadn’t visibly hardened her, at least not yet.
Lush curves on the outside and a gentleness on the inside. It was the softness that beckoned to him and that shook him up.
“Either the lady’s running more than a charm school or she isn’t,” the Captain said.
Kane shrugged, recalling her uneasiness at dealing with compliments and her unwillingness to accept his initial invitation. An act? A game designed to bait a man, to entice him until they fell into a sweaty tangle between the sheets? Or the ultimate rarity on this planet, an honest soul with nothing to hide? Kane had no idea.
“We’ll see.”
Captain Reid smacked his hand on the metal desk. “No, you’ll see, McDermott. Just make sure you pay more attention to the lady than you do to the game.”
Kane didn’t take offense. The old man’s gruff ways had kept Kane going too many times, when he’d watched neighborhood friends overdose or go down on a bust. The older man had faith in a young kid even when no one else cared enough to bother. He knew Kane’s sense of duty was strong.
“After this one I don’t want to see your sorry butt in here until the middle of next week.”
“A good weekend to you, too. Say hi to Marge.”
“Do it yourself,” Reid grumbled. “She says you don’t come by often enough.” He turned and strode back into his office.
Kane got his mind back on the case. He let the captain’s words about Kayla sink in. Doling out attention to Ms. Luck wouldn’t be a hardship. In her silk top and pearl earrings she was a sexy woman who any guy would be lucky to claim as his own.
Except a cop whose job it was to take down a prostitution ring…if it existed. Her place could be a front as his informant claimed. Maybe the sister knew more than Kayla, but according to his files, Catherine Luck had signed over ownership and was more concerned with her education than the school that paid for it.
He swiveled back and forth in his seat. He had a hard time believing the innocence in that green-eyed gaze wasn’t real but an act for the customer’s benefit. His hands clenched into fists at the thought of Miss Kayla Luck.
Chemistry flared between them hot and strong. Unmistakable. Verbal seduction wouldn’t be a problem tonight, but keeping his hands to himself just might be. He shook his head, trying to dislodge any thoughts caused more by emotion than common sense. Cash in exchange for sex, he reminded himself. Money up-front. Stick to the plan and the answers would follow.
And Kane always stuck to the plan. As a punk kid, he’d followed a different code of conduct than the one he lived by now, but respecting the law on the street had kept him alive. As a cop, he walked on the other side. The rules were different but the reasoning the same. If he followed the rules, he kept his edge honed. Anything less and he didn’t deserve his badge.
Kane closed his eyes and a vision of Kayla danced before them. Between a body made for a man’s touch and a heart-shaped face that would test a saint, he had the distinct notion he needed that edge more than ever before.
“IT’S A BASEBALL GAME, not a formal banquet.”
“It’s a date, not order-in Chinese food with your sister,” Catherine countered. She threw a disgusted glance at Kayla’s old sweatshirt and blue jeans. “Are you trying to turn the man off before he gets to know how disgustingly smart you are?”
Kayla thought back to his references about her classes and how smart women turned him on. He couldn’t possibly know that much about her after such a brief meeting. It had to be a lucky guess. “I don’t want to look too eager,” she said.
“More like you don’t want to look too easy.” Her sister grabbed Kayla’s hand. Head held high, Catherine led the way to her bedroom, a short distance down the hall from Kayla’s own. With dramatic flair so opposite to Kayla’s more subdued actions, Catherine flung open the closet door and began riffling through the clothes inside.
“They won’t fit,” Kayla muttered.
“Maybe we don’t share the same bra size, but don’t tell me you don’t steal my clothes every once in a while.”
“Borrow.”
“What’s the difference?” Catherine held up a yellow blouse, made a face and hung it back on the rack. “I know I swipe yours.” She came out of the small walk-in with a white turtleneck and a pale blue satin jacket. “Here. Leave the jeans and try this. The jacket’s quilted, by the way. It’s supposed to be chilly tonight.”
Kayla glanced at the outfit, more casual than her usual Brooks-Brothers type look. Still, when she tried on the clothes, she had to admit she looked okay. Catherine made a show of walking around her twice, hands on her hips in a judgmental pose. “Perfect. Better than all those trousers and silk blouses you wear. So stuffy—even Mama wouldn’t have left the house like that.”
“Mama liked to dress her own way,” Kayla said, thinking of the woman who had raised her girls alone. A woman with a heart of gold, but tarnished luck.
They hadn’t had much money, but their mother had always made sure she looked her best before leaving the house. Unfortunately her best too often fell short. She looked like what she was: the checkout girl at the local supermarket, an aging woman still attempting to look younger than her years. Until Catherine had taken over clothes shopping, the Luck sisters had usually gone to school looking like miniclones of their beautiful, but flamboyant mother.
“Men definitely took notice,” Catherine said.
“Too bad she never looked at them. Maybe things would have been different.”
“Maybe Mama wouldn’t have died of overwork and a broken heart?” Catherine shook her head. “She chose her life.”
“She liked pining for Daddy, that’s for sure. You ever wonder if Daddy pined back?” Kayla asked.
Her sister shook her head. “I think one kid scared him to death, two made him worse than a coward.”
“Do you really have to sound so…full of hate?” Kayla muttered.
“I don’t hate him. Actually I don’t feel much about him at all. But truth is truth.” Catherine pinned her with her steady gaze. “I don’t think all men are like him if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Not in the love ’em and leave ’em department,” Kayla agreed. “But in the can’t keep their hands to themselves department, men are all the same.” After all, her parents had had Kayla and Catherine within one year of each other. If that wasn’t a prime example of too much lovin’, as her mother liked to call it, then she didn’t know what was.
Catherine lowered herself onto her frilly white bedspread. “You know, a guy not keeping his hands to himself can be nice.”
For someone with Catherine’s confidence, maybe. Kayla joined her, staring at her fingers spread over her jean-clad legs. “Are you going out tonight?” Kayla asked.
“You bet. Dancing at Shooters.” She snapped her hands in the air. “With Nick.”
Nick had been Catherine’s best friend for years. Kayla suspected he’d once been in love with her beautiful sister, too. But Cat wasn’t interested and Nick had moved on, apparently content as Cat’s best friend. And Catherine was alone.
Kayla narrowed her eyes and took in her sister’s miniskirt and tights, her stretch top that showed off delicate curves. Catherine didn’t have Kayla’s lush figure, but she attracted her own share of attention. Kayla admired her sister but she also knew she had her own share of insecurities. Cat covered them well but the truth was obvious. Both Luck sisters had been scarred by their childhood experiences.
Each Luck sister had reacted in a different way. Instead of becoming a social butterfly, Kayla had learned to push men away. Although she had a lingering desire for hearth, home and a white picket fence, she knew better than to believe she’d find it or the perfect man to share her life with.
Catherine placed a sisterly hand over hers. “Maybe you’ve never found the right guy. The one who will put you first.”
“You think he exists?” Kayla asked but Kane immediately came to mind. He was the one man she didn’t want to push away physically or turn off emotionally. He was the first guy who made her feel special, who made her want to take chances.
Catherine shrugged. “I don’t know. But if the light in your eyes is any indication, you do. And I’d hate to see you lose that special someone out of fear.”
She grinned. “He was different and sexy and…”
“And?”
“He listened,” she said, somewhat embarrassed. “He was interested, if I’m not mistaken, but I’ve been out of the game too long to know for sure.”
Catherine shook her head. “You don’t need experience to know if he makes you feel special. This guy could be it.”
Kayla had the sense that Kane was most definitely it. “I don’t really know him,” Kayla reminded her sister.
“But you want to.” Catherine read her mind as she had so many times in the past. “And just wait until he gets a look at you tonight.” Walking back to the closet, Catherine reached inside and tossed something across the room.
Kayla stood before the full-length mirror behind the door. She spun around once more, shocked at the woman whose reflection she saw there. “I don’t even recognize myself,” she said, as she added the finishing touch, a wide headband that would provide both warmth and style for the night ahead.
“That’s because you’ve been so busy hiding behind conservative clothes and a job that involves geeks not hunks. You’ve just forgotten there’s a woman inside.”
Was Catherine right? Of course she was. Between her old accounting job and now running her aunt’s business, Kayla had stifled her sense of self. Add to that her self-imposed lack of a love life and things seemed pretty pathetic about now.
Her sister placed her hands on Kayla’s shoulders. “At least this guy has brought my sexy sister out of her shell.” Catherine grinned.
“He’s a customer,” Kayla said. As if that meant anything. As he’d said, the customer thing was an excuse to let her say yes to a date without thinking too much. It was eerie how well Kane McDermott had understood her.
“Since when do you date a customer?”
She met Catherine’s gaze in the mirror. “I don’t,” she admitted.
“I know. And that’s why I think you should go out and feel for once. Take things from there.” Catherine plucked at the headband, straightening it to look suitably stylish. “The clothes are just the trappings of freedom. The rest is up to you.”
Catherine turned her toward the door to the bedroom and steered her into the hall. “I’ll drop you off at the restaurant. It’s on my way and, besides, I want to get a look at this guy firsthand.”
“Checking him out, Mom?”
Catherine shrugged. “We’ve always looked out for each other. No sense stopping now.” She glanced at Kayla. “You think about what I said. You might live to regret it if you don’t.”
Kayla took her sister’s advice, all the way to the outside of the restaurant. He’d given her directions to it during their brief phone conversation and Catherine had given her a lift. Kane waited on the top step, his elbow resting on the brass railing. Irresistible in a black leather jacket, he could show her his charms anywhere, anyplace, anytime, she decided.
Catherine’s whistle brought Kayla back down to earth.
“I take it you approve?”
Catherine answered with a grin. Kayla finger-combed her hair and stepped out of the car. Kane was by her side in an instant. During the brief introductions and small chitchat between Kane and Catherine, Kayla could barely concentrate.
Was her sister right? Was this man, this date, a not-to-be-missed opportunity? Could he be someone in her future? Kayla wasn’t sure, but she was about to find out. And who deserved an honest chance more than Kane McDermott, the first man to excite her and impress her?
The first man to look past her appearance and who genuinely seemed to like the woman within.
WITH HIS HAND ON her back, Kane steered Kayla out of Fenway Park and into the dimly lit Boston streets. The Sox had won in extra innings and the woman beside him hadn’t uttered a single complaint about sitting through the long game or the continuing drop in temperature. Under ordinary circumstances, he’d call the date a hit, but Kayla was no ordinary woman, any more than she was his real date, a fact he had to keep reminding himself of time and again.
“Did I tell you I loved that restaurant?” she asked.
Only about ten times, he thought, wondering why the hell the notion pleased him so much. “The meal or the atmosphere?” he asked.
She laughed, the sound doing more to warm him than his heavy leather jacket. “Both. Wall-to-wall books…” She spread her arms wide, knocking into the people emptying out of the stadium along with them. “Oops.”
Her laughter was contagious, her love of something as simple as books, refreshing.
