I clasp Lety’s hand and lead her onto the dance floor. The band starts playing a current tune, totally killing the song, but I don’t care so much now.

We’re halfway through the dance floor when Brody brings Tess forward, his arm appearing to only lightly touch her back. “You like to spin?” he yells over his shoulder when he sees us.

“What?” she asks.

Instead of explaining, Brody takes her by the hand and spins her hard my way. I do the same to Lety, who laughs and keeps going, right into Brody’s arms. Tess stumbles, barely keeping her feet, only to freeze when she sees Brody lift Lety for one hell of a kiss.

He places her down and leads her away, winking in Tess’s direction. Tess remains frozen, confused by his actions. At the moment, I can’t blame her. My girl doesn’t know what the hell is going on.

Lety waves. “ ’Bye, Curran,” she calls through her laughter.

Tess’s spine straightens as she slowly turns to find me standing there. I wrap my arm around her waist and take her hand, dancing with her as I lead her further away from her date.

“Hi,” I tell her when we’re a good distance away. “I know I probably shouldn’t be in here, but yeah, hi.”

Okay, not the smoothest thing I’ll ever say, but I hadn’t given much thought to what I’d tell her.

“Hi,” she says, smiling softly. I lean forward when her arms circle my neck and she melts against me. It’s then I know that coming in here was the right thing to do. She needs me.

And maybe I need to know that.

My arms pull her closer in time for a slow dance. Neither of us says anything for the longest time. “You look beautiful,” I finally tell her, because she does, even in this old-lady getup.

“Thank you,” she says. “But God, I really hate this dress.”

I laugh and whisper close in her ear. “It’s kind of hot. You got support hose on beneath all that paisley?”

Her voice gathers a husky edge. “Do you want to find out?”

My hold on her tightens. “Yeah. I do.”

“What time is your shift over?”

I glance up at the clock. “I got another forty minutes.”

“Enough time to return to my apartment.” She leans back so I can see her face. The heat in her eyes stops me dead where I stand. “What say we head back so you can help me out of this dress?”

Chapter 15

Tess

I don’t say goodbye to Spencer and never bother to find my father, even though I know he’s here. Instead I hold tight to Curran’s hand as he leads me out of the ballroom, both of us laughing as we cross the street and reach his truck.

He opens the door for me and helps me inside. I can’t stop smiling, especially when he slides into the driver’s seat and gives me a quick kiss. “Thank you,” I whisper against his mouth.

Curran returns my grin, stroking the side of my face. “You’re welcome, angel face,” he tells me.

I lean against his shoulder. This awful evening is now behind me, thanks to this man I can’t stop thinking about. But our night together? Well, that’s only just begun.

“Is Lu on watch tonight?” I ask.

Curran laughs, but it lacks some of its humor. “Yup. She’s on.”

He cranks the engine and pulls out of the lot. I place my hand on his leg. “I don’t want to get you in trouble,” I tell him truthfully.

He rolls to a stop at the first light. “And I don’t want to pretend like there’s nothing between us when there obviously is.”

“There’s something between us?” I muse.

He shrugs. “Considering we’ve been miserable apart, I’m guessing there might be.”

“Oh, hell,” I say, trying my best to imitate him. “We’re not going to have the ‘are you my boyfriend’ talk, are we?” I lift my arms and drop them like they weigh a ton. “Oh, we are, aren’t we?”

He throws back his head, laughing as he steps on the gas, but then his good nature fades. “That Spencer guy, your date.”

The name alone erases my grin. “What about him?”

“I didn’t like you with him.”

“I don’t like him with me, either,” I mutter.

“Good,” he says, sounding satisfied. He taps the screen to his Bluetooth. “Hey, Lu,” he says when she answers.

“I’ll be at the hotel in thirty,” she says by way of a greeting.

“Don’t. Tess is headed back to her place.”

There’s a pause before she says, “I take it you’re headed back with her?”

Curran doesn’t hesitate. “Yup.”

“You sweeping her apartment?”

“Right again, Lu. She’s safe. We’ve got no tails. If anything changes I’ll call you back. Otherwise, I’ll meet you in the parking lot of her building.”

She mumbles a few curses, most of which I’ve never said. “This is your damn signoff. Isn’t it, O’Brien?”

Curran steals a glance my way. “Right again, Lu.”

“Christ,” she mutters, and disconnects.

We don’t say much once his “cop” face returns and he resumes his vigilant guard, checking for anyone who might be following us. Thirty minutes later, he pulls into the lot of my building, his eyes sweeping the area for any unfamiliar cars or potential threats.

He backs into a spot beside Lu. “Wait till I come for you,” he says.

He hops out and marches to Lu’s vehicle. She lowers her window and says something to which he immediately responds. Whatever he tells her earns him a stiff middle finger.

I clasp my hand over my mouth, laughing. Curran opens my door and helps me out, grinning when he sees me. “Come on, angel face.”

I smile at Lu and lean into Curran when he puts his arm around me, my way of assuring her that I want him with me. The last thing I want is Curran getting into trouble with his superiors, especially knowing I’m already in trouble myself.

Yet I don’t think about my father now. He’s not here. Curran is. And he’s all that matters.

Curran keeps his cop persona until he emerges from my bedroom, following a thorough sweep of my apartment. In the time he took to conduct his search, I removed my coat and placed two glasses of water on the coffee table.

He walks to me slowly, taking each of my hands, one at a time, his light blue eyes sizzling with desire. “You still want me to help you out of that dress?” he asks.

I move in closer, barely managing a nod when he hauls me to him.

Curran doesn’t help me out of my dress.

He tears it off me.

I fumble with the buttons of his dress shirt, and then the zipper of his pants.

My hands reach for his erection in time for him to pull off my panties and drag me to the floor. He angles our bodies, shoving my hips down to his face and granting me the perfect view of what I long to taste. My head dips down, my lips eager and my throat already moaning from the motions of Curran’s tongue.

It’s not a race. We have all night, but the speed with which we’re working each other up tells a different tale, as does the way my hips rock against his suckling lips. I break my seal when Curran’s fingers join the frantic efforts of his tongue.

“I want you,” I whimper. “God, I want you so much.”

My words mark the start of a long night. Curran rolls me on my back, reaching for something near his abandoned jacket. I grip his shoulder, yanking him in for a long kiss while my hand continues to rile him. Something I do lures a particularly hard groan. So I do it again, and again, and again.

“Fuck,” he says, using his teeth to rip open the small foil package. He lifts off me, breathing hard as he takes in my face. “Are you ready for me?”