Too Charming (15 page)

Chapter Sixteen

While Scott had been going through his case with Nancy, Megan had been spending the evening with her daughter, cuddling her until she fell asleep in her arms. Now she was standing in the kitchen, going through the process of making a cup of tea that she didn’t actually want to drink.

‘What’s on your mind, Meg?’ Her mother drew up alongside her. ‘And don’t tell me it’s the case, because I think there’s more to your frown than work.’

Megan gave her a half-smile. ‘Scott offered to cook for me tonight. I snapped his head off.’ At her mother’s questioning look, Megan sighed. ‘Bad timing.’

‘Well, the night is still young. Time enough to make amends, if that’s what you want to do.’

Silence hung in the kitchen. Megan could hear the swish of the trees against the window as the wind picked up. ‘I think I do,’ she replied at length, afraid of quite how strongly she did want that. ‘God knows, I wish I didn’t. I really don’t think we’re going anywhere, but …’ she trailed off, chewing on her bottom lip.

‘You want to find out, just the same?’

She nodded. ‘Yes. I do.’

Her mother turned to study her. ‘What was he offering to make?’

Megan glanced back at her, starting to smile. ‘Steak.’

Chuckling, her mother put an arm around her waist and hugged her. ‘Well, decision made. There’s only macaroni cheese on offer here tonight.’

Half an hour later, Megan was hovering outside Scott’s house, second thoughts crashing through her mind. The hand that clutched a bottle of wine was beginning to sweat. Shifting the bottle to her other hand, she swore to herself. Then, for good measure, she swore at Scott. This was his fault. The moment he’d thrown the words
you know where to find me
at her, he’d very cleverly kicked the ball firmly into her court. Up till then he’d done all the chasing. Now, if she wanted to see him again, it was up to her. It frightened her more than she cared to admit that she did want that. So much so that she was now standing on his doorstep and ringing his damn bell. Totally uncertain of the greeting she’d receive. Or even if he’d be in.

He opened the door.

‘Detective.’ For a brief moment his eyes lit up with pleasure. Then he carefully set his expression to neutral. ‘What brings you here?’

Slowly she withdrew the bottle from behind her back. ‘I was wondering if the offer of steak was still on?’

It was as Scott opened the door wider to let her in that Megan noticed Nancy. The woman was sitting at the kitchen table, an empty wine glass in front of her, a look of surprise on her face. No doubt it equalled the one on Megan’s. In the seconds it took for her to absorb the cosy scene, Megan’s heart stuttered. How could she have been so stupid? A man like Scott didn’t just sit around and wait for a woman to come to her senses. He went out and found someone else willing to spend the evening with him instead. Angrily she shoved the wine bottle at him, turned on her heel and started back down the steps.

‘What the—’ Scott swore. ‘Where are you going now?’

‘I can see you already have company,’ she replied stiffly. ‘Please, accept the bottle as a gift. Consider it thanks for services rendered the other evening.’

She’d reached as far as the bottom step when he lunged at her. ‘What the hell are you talking about?’ he demanded fiercely, for once not the smooth, controlled operator. Anger shot out of his usually cool eyes like darts. 

‘I would have thought that was obvious,’ she retorted, glancing back at Nancy who was still sitting at the table, watching them argue with great interest.

Again he swore. ‘Nancy is here because we’re working on a case together. As I found myself with a free evening, I invited her to work here rather than in the chambers.’ Thrusting a hand through his hair, he let out a bitter laugh. ‘Is this how it’s going to be between us, Megan? You expecting me to let you down at every turn?’

‘I …’ She didn’t know what to say. Her eyes blurred with tears and, though she bit her lip, she found she couldn’t help it. She burst out crying. Great wracking sobs that she had no hope of controlling.

Instantly, she was wrapped into a pair of strong arms. ‘Hey,
shh,’ he soothed, gently propelling her up the steps and back into the house.

The next thing Megan knew, she was sitting on his battered leather sofa and a glass of wine was being thrust into her hands.

‘Here, have a drink. You brought it and you look like you need it.’

She looked around. ‘Where’s Nancy?’

He let out a wry smile. ‘Funnily enough, she took one look at you and fled.’

Megan clutched at the wine glass and swallowed a big mouthful. ‘I’m sorry if I ruined your evening.’

He exhaled in frustration. ‘For God’s sake, Megan. There was no evening. You put an end to that, if I remember correctly. So I decided to work instead. End of.’

She’d cocked up, well and truly, Megan thought numbly to herself. Firstly, she’d bluntly turned down his offer of dinner. Then, having come round to
apologise, she’d accused him of being about to take another woman to bed. She couldn’t blame him for being angry at her. She was pretty angry at herself, too. ‘Are the steaks still on?’

He perched on the arm of the chair, studying her. ‘Yelling at me makes you hungry, huh?’

The hint of a smile began to play around his lips and the grey eyes turned from angry to amused. It was at that moment that Megan realised how wrong she’d been to turn down his original offer. This man, strong, virile, dangerously attractive, was exactly what she needed after a day like today. He reminded her that she was alive. That, while there was an awful lot wrong with the world, there was also an awful lot to be thankful for. ‘I guess it does.’

Taking her hand he pulled her to her feet.
‘Right then. I’ll go and put the steaks under the grill while you talk me through what the hell happened to you today.’

They ate and talked. Although she couldn’t discuss the full details of the case, she found it surprisingly easy to share what she could with him. Maybe it was because she’d been through it once already, with her parents. Or maybe it was because he was a good listener. One who worked in the same circles as she did but looked at things from a different perspective. Tonight they weren’t on opposite sides. He simply contributed his own thoughts, helping her piece together the parts of the puzzle. It was useful. As helpful, in its own way, as talking to her parents had been.

As she pushed her empty plate aside and took a final sip of wine, Megan sat back and smiled. ‘You make a fine steak.’

‘One of my many talents.’

A few weeks ago such a boast would have irritated her. Now she laughed. ‘I didn’t expect to be ending the day like this.’

Quietly he cleared away the plates and then, taking her hand, drew her up against him. ‘I’m glad you came round.’

‘So am I.’ She sighed and flung her arms around his waist, hugging him. ‘I’m sorry about earlier today. I was so wrapped up in the case—’

He interrupted her. ‘I understand. But you have to know that you can talk to me. We don’t always have to be on opposite sides.’

For a few minutes they simply stood with their arms around each other, holding. ‘And I’m sorry about assuming you and Nancy, you know.’

He drew away and looked at her. ‘Megan, I know you don’t think much of my morals, but I never have, and never will, sleep with more than one woman at a time. When I’m with a woman, I’m committed.’

And she should be, Megan thought to herself as she burrowed back into him. She should be committed to some sort of institution for the mentally insane, allowing
herself to develop these sorts of feelings towards him. But God, when he held her like this, warm, comforting, strong, she wanted to believe that they really had a chance. That the man who was holding her was for real and not another Luke. A feckless playboy who would play with her heart and then drop it.

‘Isn’t this the part where you promise me you won’t go out with other men while you’re going out with me?’

His teasing question cut into her dark thoughts. ‘What, none of them?’ she asked innocently.

With his mouth he gave her a gentle nip. ‘I mean it, Megan.’

As if he really had to worry about the legions of men anxious to take her to bed. ‘I promise, if I get a better offer, I’ll talk to you first before I sneak into their bed.’

‘That wasn’t exactly the way I’d hoped you’d express it, but I guess I’ll have to settle.’ Then suddenly he was scooping her up and into his arms.

‘Hey, what are you doing?’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ he growled, climbing up the stairs. ‘I need to make sure you know there won’t be any better offers than mine.’

The last time, he had made love to her. This time, Megan was determined to have her say. So when he unceremoniously dumped her on his bed and started to undo her clothes, she used her
self-defence training and quickly turned the tables, ending up astride him.

He looked surprised, but not displeased.

‘I want to undress you, this time,’ she told him as she started to peel away at his shirt. God, the man had an amazing body. Of course she knew that. She’d seen glimpses of it two nights ago. But tonight was the first time she’d been able to study it properly. Once she’d stripped away his shirt and had a satisfying ogle of his chest, she ran her tongue over the well-defined muscles, lingering over his dark brown nipples.

‘Christ, Megan,’ he groaned, arching his hips automatically towards her.

It was immensely satisfying to watch how much her touch affected him. It made her realise that perhaps he was enjoying this as much as she was. So after completing her assessment of his upper chest, she moved from the taut pectoral muscles down to his impressive six pack.

‘You’re starting to drive me crazy,’ he rasped, taking hold of her head and trying to bring it towards him.

‘Good,’ she replied, moving away from his hands, not ready to relinquish control just yet. She licked at his belly button and smiled as his taut muscles quivered and his groan became even louder. Then she started to undo the buttons on his jeans, a task made all the more difficult by the rigid bulge straining underneath.

When at last he was free, she pushed the jeans and boxers off with her feet while she feasted her eyes on the naked body she’d revealed. The ripped chest, dusted with sexy dark hair.
The taut abdominal muscles, firm thighs, impressively large arousal. Gently she rubbed her body all the way down his, delighting in the way his chest hairs tickled at her sensitive nipples.

‘Megan, you’re killing me.’

She smiled at the thickness of his voice, at the pleading in his eyes and was about to lower herself on to him when he suddenly reared up. Taking her into his arms, he swiftly reversed their positions. ‘This has to end, now,’ he muttered as he thrust into her.

The
speed with which he took back control, and the furious pace of his thrusting hips, was her undoing. It wasn’t long before she was exploding around him, a huge orgasm ripping through her body. He was right behind her.

‘Jesus, Megan.’ He collapsed on top of her before rolling over on
to his back, taking her with him so that she ended up snuggled up against his chest.

‘Pretty good, eh?’

Scott didn’t think he had the energy left to even look down at her. He knew if he did, he’d see a smug look on that gorgeous face of hers. ‘That’s an understatement,’ he answered dryly, remembering how she’d made him lose control. When was the last time a woman had done that to him? Hell, he’d torn into her like some sort of savage. The idea of it made him wince. ‘I didn’t hurt you, did I?’

Leaning on his chest she put her face close to his and looked into his eyes. ‘No, you didn’t.’ Smiling, she kissed him. ‘That was exactly what I needed after today.’

He’d dealt with enough murders to understand what she meant. It sickened him to think of what she’d seen today. Made him realise once again how tough she was. ‘Any time you want to use sex to release some of that inner anger, you know where I am.’

She grinned and planted soft, sexy kisses all over his chest. It was enough to cause his body to twitch once more. Unbelievable.

‘Scott, I’ve been thinking.’

Whoa. Immediately he tensed. In his experience, nothing good ever came out of a woman’s mouth after the words
I’ve been thinking
. ‘What?’

‘I’m pretty certain who killed that girl. All we have to do is find him. It shouldn’t take long. But when we do, and it comes to court—’

He covered his mouth with hers, silencing her. He knew exactly what was on her mind and, thanks to the Cab-rank rule, he was powerless to prevent it. If he were given the case, he’d have to take it, unless he had a damn good reason why not. And he didn’t. Besides, why wouldn’t he want it?
Every
man was entitled to a defence, was innocent until proven guilty, even those who were suspected of murdering a child. He nibbled at her bottom lip, distracted by the soft fullness of it. Tonight wasn’t the night for another discussion over justice. It was a topic they were always going to clash over. ‘Let’s just wait and see what happens, shall we,’ he murmured in between kisses, trying to pull her mind back to pleasanter thoughts. ‘Can you stay the night?’