Careless (9 page)

She wanted to tell him that she would understand
if he wanted to abandon her case, but she couldn’t. If there was one person she
trusted with her life, it was Mike. “The tattoo is below my bikini line. You
can’t see it when I wear a swimsuit.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So there’s no
question this guy has seen you in the buff.” He shifted through the letters,
obviously looking for some mention of her tattoo.

Tori panicked, trying to remember whether
her stalker had ever been specific about the tattoo, what it was, or more
specially, what it said. “Um, what are you doin’?”

“I’m just tryin’ to get a handle on where
this guy’s head’s at. I mean, he obviously thinks he’s in love with you, but…”

Tori shuddered involuntarily when she
thought about what that lunatic planned to do in the name of love. She wrapped
her arms around her mid-section. “What do you think he hopes to gain by doin’
this?”

“He wants your attention. He hates you were
able to cast him aside like he didn’t mean anything to you.” Mike looked her in
the eye, and she got the impression they weren’t talking about the man tailing
her anymore. “He wants to remind you of what you two had, whether you want to
remember it or not.” 

Deciding to play along she said, “Sometimes
it’s best to leave the past in the past. There are times when sex is just sex,
nothin’ more.”

“And there are times when it could evolve
into a whole hell of a lot more, if you’re not afraid to let it.”

Why did he have to say things like that,
giving her false hope and trying to make her believe she was more than just a
long-forgotten one-night stand he’d referred to as a mistake? Angry, hurt, and
determined to lash out, she grabbed the notepad and pen from his hand. “You
want names, I’ll give you names.” She scribbled the names of the three men
she’d slept with in the past two years on a blank piece of paper. “Happy now?”

“Three? Only three?”

The question stung like the slap across the
face she’d taken in the eighth grade when her best friend’s boyfriend invited
her to the school dance. “Nice to see you still think so highly of me.” She
started heading down the hall toward her bedroom when he crossed the room and
grabbed her arm.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,” he
whispered, looking down at her as though he truly was remorseful for speaking
his mind.

“Don’t be sorry. You said what you were
thinkin’. You always do.” That’s what she loved and hated about him. He knew
exactly who he was, stood behind his judgements, right or wrong, and didn’t
fold in the face of popular opinion.

“Sometimes I don’t think before I open my
big mouth.” His full mouth tilted up at the corners. “This was one of those
times. Just like that night at my place. I was actin’ like a jealous jerk ’cause
I thought you had somethin’ goin’ with my brother.”

“Me and Jay?” She frowned, trying to decide
whether he was serious. “Why would you think that?”

“You said y’all had gone out—”

“Yeah, as friends. I love Jay, but there’s
never been anything between us.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

His fingers were biting into her skin and
she tried to break free of his grip, but he slipped his arms around her waist.
It felt like a chain she couldn’t break free of… drawing her toward him against
her will. She made the mistake of gripping his biceps, trying to push him away,
but that just reminded her of how incredible it felt when he was unleashing all
of that unrestrained power on her.  

“I need to go to bed,” she whispered,
barely able to look at him. She’d never felt so weak, so powerless. The force
drawing them together seemed too formidable to resist. “I have to get up early
in the morning.” She knew she should offer to show him to the guest bedroom,
but his hands were gliding lower, sneaking into dangerous territory. 

“So do I.” His eyes landed on her lips and
he groaned when her tongue darted out to lick them. “You don’t know what you’re
doin’ to me, darlin’.”

“Mike…” She pressed her palms into his
chest. It felt like he was stealing the breath from her lungs along with her
objections.

“There are a million reasons why I
shouldn’t even be thinkin’ about makin’ love to you right now.”

His honesty tore down the last weak barrier
that remained between them. “What are we doin’… this is crazy. I don’t even
like you, so why the hell can’t I keep my hands off you whenever we’re alone
together?”

Instead of being affronted, he chuckled at
her honest assessment of the situation. “I’ll be damned if I know. I hate the
fact you’re sassy…” He bent his head to swipe his tongue across her sealed
lips. “Opinionated…” Another leisurely stroke of the tongue, this time deeper.
“Insolent…” He grabbed the back of her head and delved in to her mouth like a
man who’d been without a woman’s touch in years. Desperate, hungry… “But no
one, and I mean no one, has ever turned me on the way you do.”

Tori whimpered, trying to grip his
impossibly wide shoulders for support. She shouldn’t be getting aroused. He was
insulting her, not whispering sweet words of worship in her ear, but she
couldn’t deny she felt the same way about him. 

“This is the reason I didn’t want you on
this case.” Even as she warred with herself about the mistake she was about to
make, yet again, her hands were reaching for the hem of his shirt. “I knew this
was gonna happen.”

“It was inevitable,” he muttered, lifting
her hair so he would have better access to that secret spot on her neck. “I
can’t keep my hands off you.”

She tilted her head back, past the point of
caring whether this was right or wrong. It felt too good for her to even think
about stopping him now. She didn’t even hear the sound of her zipper sliding
down her back; she was too busy trying to stop the room from spinning.

“You don’t know how many times I’ve thought
about this, baby.” He eased the dress down, pushing it past her hips. “You fit
me like a glove, like you were made for me.”

The protests and fear swirling around in
Tori’s head started slipping away as her intense need for this man made
everything else seem insignificant. She knew what it felt like to get loaded on
liquid poison, but she had no idea a man’s touch could make her feel as
reckless, as though nothing mattered beyond getting her next shot of him.

He hooked his thumbs inside of her thong
and tugged them down. “Damn,” he whispered, standing back to admire the outcome
of her drunken episode.    

Tori felt the heat rising up her chest, her
neck, infusing her cheeks with color.
Oh hell, no, he’s seen the tattoo.

Mike felt like he’d just won the lottery.
The sexiest woman he’d ever laid eyes on had his name inked on her luscious
flesh. She couldn’t deny he was the inspiration behind the tattoo even if she
wanted to. The badge with handcuffs and a gun were sweet enough, but seeing his
name in the center of that shield was enough to make him want to drop to his
knees and pay homage to the artist responsible for the masterpiece… and the
woman who’d endured the pain in his honor.

“I love it.”

She closed her eyes. “I never intended for
you to see it.”

He tipped her chin. “Open your eyes.” He
kissed her lips tenderly. “I said I love it. It’s incredible. You’re
incredible.”

Tori covered her hands with her face. “I’ve
never been so embarrassed in my life. You must think I’m pathetic.”

“I think you’re gorgeous… sexy… and I can’t
even tell you how much that turns me on, baby.”

She looked up, peeking through the gaps in
her fingers. “Really? You don’t think I’m a total loser?”

“No way.” He smiled. “But I’ve gotta know,
why’d you do it?”

“Like I said, we’d all had way too much to
drink that night, and we got to talkin’ about the guys we’d been with. My
friend, Roxie, said we should get tattoos in honor of the best lovers we’ve
ever had… you know, to remind us that we shouldn’t be willin’ to settle for
less.”

Mike tried to quash the disappointment. He represented
the promise of great sex to her, nothing more. “I guess I should be flattered
you chose me, huh?” But he didn’t feel privileged, he felt insulted.

“Hey, what’s wrong? I thought you’d be
baskin’ in the glow of your triumph, not sulkin’ like a two-year-old.”

“You didn’t get that tattoo because I meant
something to you…” He tried to push past her before he said something he
wouldn’t be able to take back, but she was on his heels by the time he made his
way into the kitchen.

“Why does it matter why I got it? The point
is I did.”

He rolled his eyes. “Most people get
someone’s name tattooed on their body because…”
They’re in love.
God, he
couldn’t say that. She’d think he was no better than her obsessive stalker.
“Forget it, it’s not important. Let’s just forget it.”

“Like I can.” She repositioned her dress.
“I’ve had to look at it every day for the past two years. It’s been torture.”

“Why?” He grabbed the letters off the
counter, intending to retire to his room and study them until he had a handle
on this guy’s motives. “You were hopin’ you’d be able to forget you ever met
me?”

“Yes.”

He didn’t know why he was surprised by her
brutal honesty. It was her trademark. “Yeah, well, I’m glad you haven’t been
able to forget, ’cause I don’t think I ever will.” He headed down the long hallway
toward the bedrooms.

“Mike.”

He didn’t trust himself to turn around, so
he stopped in his tracks instead. “Yeah?”

“You were more than an incredible lover. I
felt something for you that night, something I’d never felt before.”

She was constantly catching him off guard.
When he assumed she would be sweet and vulnerable, she was a little tyrant, but
when he expected her to have her back up, like now, she stunned him by letting
her guard down. If she was willing to put herself out there, he decided he should
have the courage to do the same. “I felt the same way.”

“Really?”

He turned to face her and immediately
wished he hadn’t. There was no way he could fight his attraction to this woman.
She was everything he’d always hated: loud, obnoxious, opinionated, reckless,
and totally self-sufficient. He hated that most of all. Most of the women he’d
dated were sweet, shy, and content to let him take the lead in the
relationship, but he knew this little vixen would make him fight for every inch
of ground he gained with her.

“Really.”

Tori linked her hands behind her back as
she looked up at him under the veil of her long lashes. “So, where do we go
from here?”

“I want you more than I’ve ever wanted
anyone, but I felt that way once before, and givin’ in to that temptation
caused us both a lot of grief. I don’t want to make that mistake again.” He
winced when he saw the flash of hurt cross her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean
it like that. I just—

She held her hand up. “It’s okay. You don’t
owe me any explanations or apologies. We both knew the score. It was supposed
to be about sex, nothin’ more. If either one of us got our hopes up, then that
was the mistake.”

Mistake.
He hated that word. If he never heard it again in his
life, it would be too soon. “You weren’t a mistake, sweetheart.” It was time
for him to lay it all on the line. “In fact, that night I spent with you was
just about the best damn night of my life.”

Tori looked like she wanted to believe him,
but their past relationship had taught her to be skeptical of his random acts
of kindness. He didn’t blame her. He’d never treated another woman as
abhorrently as he’d treated her, and he had to face facts. The road to
forgiveness was bound to be gutted with potholes.

“I don’t—”

Mike held his hand up. Not that he wasn’t
curious to hear her response to his revelation, but he knew anything she said
to him now would be impulsive. He wanted to give her time to think about what
he’d said before she reacted. “We’re gonna be livin’ under the same roof, at
least for a while, and chances are we’ll be hittin’ the road together for a
stretch.”

“What’s your point?”

He smiled. It was nice to see the sassy
little pain in his neck reappearing. “I’d like us to try bein’ friends.”

“Friends?” She crossed her arms. “Seriously?
The only time we’ve been able to stand bein’ in the same room together for more
than five minutes was…” It was obvious they were both thinking about that night
when their eyes locked and she licked her lips. “This is crazy. If we’re not
fightin’, we’re thinkin’ about tearin’ each other’s clothes off. How do you
suggest we pull this friends thing off?”

She was right, but they couldn’t forge a
bond on the basis of sex or rage, and he was beginning to realize he’d been
seeking a connection with her for years, he just didn’t realize it until she’d
walked back into his life tonight. “I’m willing to try, if you are.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, Tori. I don’t wanna go on
resentin’ each other. We see each other all the time. We can’t avoid it, so why
not figure out how to deal with it?” He’d never had so much riding on a
friendship. His gut told him she could be
the one
. He had no idea how
they could make this work, but he was willing to go to any lengths to try.