Sera was about to start climbing the damn walls. The more she thought about it, the less she knew what happened last night. You made out with Dylan. What had that been about? One moment they were fighting, the next his mouth had been on hers and his hands on her breasts teasing the nipples into tight points. And then, well…his fingers.

The man had the power to light her up from the inside. Too bad every time he talked, or made his judgmental face, she wanted to smack him.

But he can make you make your skin flame with barely a touch. It didn't take much to imagine what he could do with his mouth or his… She blinked hard to dislodge that image. It wouldn't help her. Especially since that was never happening again. Ever. Final answer.

After she'd stumbled to her room last night, she'd pretty much passed out and hadn’t given a single thought to her scary moment that afternoon…

And in the morning, it hadn't been any more or less awkward than usual. He'd still cleaned up after her. They'd left for work in the same stony silence they'd been using all week. As if the beginnings of the best sex of her life had never happened. It was easy enough to think maybe it hadn’t. She'd been so knocked out last night, she hadn't had time to tell him about that day at the Westhorpe.

This morning, as they walked the remainder of the way to her office hand in hand, she tried to figure out how to tell him. Would he think she was crazy? Because she felt crazy. In her mind, she knew Tommy Cochran was in jail. Then how do you explain that guy…or how he knew your name?

"You know this works better if you actually smile and look like you're having fun. Not like a kid being marched off to go apologize to the local store for shoplifting." His tone was light, teasing. "Or do you need one more last time to put a smile on your face?"

Before she could stop it, her mouth was running away from her. "Why are you such an asshole? What is your problem?"

He lowered his voice. "Would you relax? I'm teasing you."

She slid her gaze around. "As if it's not bad enough that we…you know. You don't have to rub it in my face."

Rolling his shoulders, he sighed. "Fine. I won't bring it up anymore. But can you answer one thing for me?"

"What?"

"Why haven't you called your mother? You wanted me gone. After what happened yesterday, I expected a couple of two-hundred-pound goons ready to boot my ass from your place this morning, but nothing. Why?"

She stopped in front of Strip Club Restaurant. "Look, last night…happened, but I didn't get you booted because something freaked me out yesterday. I meant to tell you about it, but then, well, we got…distracted."

Frowning, he turned her to face him. "What happened?"

Sera tugged her hand from his. "I know you're going to think I'm crazy. And it's the same reason I didn't call my mother. But when I was reviewing the Westhorpe Hotel yesterday, this guy knocked me down. I thought it was an accident. When I turned around, I only got a profile, but I would swear it was Tommy Cochran." She couldn't meet his gaze. "I know. I know. He's in prison. He's going to stand trial, but I know what I saw. I'm not crazy. I'm not. He knew my name, too. Called me Sera." Her gaze flickered up to his. "You think I'm crazy." She waited for the look her mother always gave her. The one that said she was crazy. But it didn't come.

She wasn't sure what she expected. Laughter, maybe. The wide-eyed blinking expression people used with little kids telling an outrageous story. Something to indicate disbelief. But he didn't do that. And she hated him a little bit less.

"Where were you, exactly?" His voice was icy, quiet, firm.

She gave him the rundown and he listened intently. "Okay. I'll have a look at the security footage from the Westhorpe."

Sera frowned. "You don't think I'm crazy?"

Dylan shook his head. "No. Cochran is in jail. But I wouldn’t put it past someone to try to fuck with you. So we'll take a look. But you're not crazy."

Somehow that small bit of faith in her meant everything. "Okay." Unsure of what else to say, she muttered, "Thank you."

He nodded slowly before wrapping his hand around hers again. "So maybe we should talk about yesterday instead of snapping at each other."

Sera shook her head. "Nope. Not gonna talk. We're just going to go back to two days ago and pretend it never happened."

"You can do that?"

No. But she could sure try. "Obviously we don't exactly like each other, so there's nothing to discuss. Separate corners."

"If that's the way you want it."

"It is." She stopped again. "Oh yeah, tonight is my night to volunteer, so how do you want to work pick-up and drop-off?"

He stared at her. "You tried to slip out on me once and managed it yesterday. Then you just told me someone freaked you out. I'm not letting you out of my sight. Where you go, I go."

It may be a valid point, but she valued the relationships with those kids. She didn't want them spooked by the badge. "Look, some of those kids are twitchy. I don't want you freaking them out."

"You're serious about this?"

"I am."

"Fine, whatever. But you're going to limit the time there. I don't entirely trust you."

Sera rolled her eyes. "You give a guy the slip twice and suddenly you're not trustworthy."

"Once, you gave me the slip once. I knew where you were the first time." He shook his head. "Seriously, do you have to do this tonight? I'd like to get a handle on what freaked you out yesterday."

"It has to be tonight. I keep my word to those girls." At his confused frown, Sera added, “It’s time for you to realize that not everything about me is in that damn report of yours."

* * *

All damn day Dylan had been trying to figure out what to do with what Sera told him. He'd combed the Westhorpe Hotel surveillance thanks to a friend in the private sector, but there hadn't been able to get a clear picture of the guy. But he knew in his gut it was probably the same person he’d seen outside the restaurant.

Every instinct told him it was time to pull Sera into protective custody. He'd called in to the senator twice, but she hadn’t called him back. This game mother and daughter were playing, it was dangerous, and he was caught in the fucking middle. Sera needed to be told. If he didn't hear back from the senator he was going to break protocol and tell her daughter, mental health be damned.

Sera was right, the girl he'd read about in the file didn't resemble the woman who was currently leading him around by his dick.

Dylan followed her down Tenth Avenue and then made a left on Market and then another right on Thirteenth Street. "Any chance you'll stay out here?" she asked.

"If you think you're going in there without me, you're wrong," Dylan ground out. Even though the downtown area of San Diego had been revitalized, there were still pockets that showed the impoverished side of the flip coin. And the East Village was where those two sides met.

"I'm not out of your sight. I'm sure you have some NSA spyware to track me tightly enough to know when I so much as pee, so what's the problem?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong here, but someone freaked you out yesterday, right? You think a shelter is somewhere you want to hang out for kicks, considering?"

"I made a commitment, so deal."

For more than a moment, he considered tossing her over his shoulder again, but A) that would likely attract unwanted attention and B) she’d certainly get a clue that there was more going on here than she knew, so he kept his mouth shut. "You have one hour."

She cocked her head and smiled sweetly at him. "I will have as long as I need."

Right now he didn’t have any arguments that would work. Or rather that he could tell her, so clamped his mouth shut. "Let's just get this over with."

Before she even entered the shelter, several teenagers greeted her with smiles and hellos. It was clear she was well liked. Did she spend much time in shelters? Hardly fit the profile of a beauty and makeup lifestyle brand manager. There would be no lip gloss in here. Or maybe she was one of those girls his sisters had told him about that turned garbage into hot fashion and she was looking for inspiration or whatever. But these kids clearly had so little. That would make her a parasite. And she might be frivolous, but she wasn't the type to use other people's misfortune.

One of the teenagers on a skateboard scowled at him. "Yo, Sera, what's with the Five-O?"

Sera threw him a glance over her shoulder that should not have turned him on. Nope, not at all. The problem was he'd already been on a razor's edge with this girl and pretty much everything she did turned him on. Even that little pursed lip and narrow-eyed glare she had going at the moment.

"Oh, this is my—boyfriend, Dylan."

She practically spat out the word. Yeah, well, you can choke on it for all I care, Sera, I'm not going anywhere. Especially not now. He nodded at the kid. "How's it going?"

The kid sized him up. "Yo, Sera. You know I can lay it down better than he can, right? This one looks all uptight and shit."

Dylan had to remind the more primal part of his psyche that the kid couldn't have been more than fifteen and probably had no idea what it meant to “lay it down.” But he still gave the poor kid the full benefit of his don't fuck with me or her glare. It did the trick, because the boy backed off.

When they were inside, she muttered to him, "You didn't have to do that. Jamie is harmless. He's new to the shelter and has to try to talk big so the others don't pick on him."

The twinge of guilt in his gut was a unfamiliar sensation he didn't relish. New to the shelter? "Just how long have you been coming here?"

"Once a week since sophomore year. My sorority did a canned food drive here. I met some of the girls and I wanted to help out in any way that I could." She laughed as she made her way into the back of the cavernous warehouse where the offices were, he followed closely behind. "It's funny because I didn't even want to join the sorority. It was just another way for my mother to try to control me. But it paid off in spades with this place."

"What do you do here, exactly?"

Sighing she turned around. "Could you maybe not seem so stiff? A lot of these girls have had a rough go of it with fathers and boyfriends. They don't need some alpha-hole staring them down."

He wasn't leaving her. "Where you go, I go."

"Fine, whatever. Can you at least lose the jacket and holster? And roll up your sleeves or something. Mess up the hair a little?" When he didn't immediately respond, she rolled her eyes and dropped her gigantic bag on the floor. And then she touched him.

Maybe if he'd been mentally prepared for it, he wouldn't have responded the same way. Or he could have steeled himself, but she caught him completely unaware. The current of electricity from her hands on his shoulders zapped his synapses and he couldn't move. Couldn't think.

She removed his jacket for him, then dropped it onto her back. Next, she rolled his sleeves up. With her so close, the scent of her light floral shampoo tickled his nose. The honeysuckle scent of her skin had him involuntarily swaying into her.

But it was her hands in his hair that had his body on full alert. Heart thundering, lungs working overtime. Cock pulsing with need. There was no running from her. And right now, he couldn't think of a single reason why he should. Fuck. Maybe there was a reason, but it hardly seemed important right now with her hands running through his hair.

She stepped back to admire her handiwork. "That's better. I trust you can adjust your holster yourself?"

He nodded mutely because, well...reasons. And it took him several seconds to snap out of it and take his jacket back. Why was he getting so rattled over this girl? She was all wrong. Chaos personified. Not to mention, he worked for her mother…and was lying to her. Stay away, D2. But she felt like heaven in his arms. He cleared his throat. "Thanks."

"And try to keep your mouth shut so you don't scare any of them or stun them into silence."

"Why would I stun them?"

That earned him another eye roll. "You know the thing you do with your voice. It makes women stupid around you. Don't use it."

What was she talking about? But he didn't get to ask her, because she was already letting herself into one of the offices. "Hi girls, sorry I'm late. I had to work on something."

Five girls surrounded her, chatting excitedly. They didn't seem to notice him at first. But then one broke off and stared. "Who. Is. That?" a pixie-like girl with big blue eyes asked.

Sera smirked. "That's my boyfriend, Dylan. He wanted to see the kind of work I do here. You guys don't mind if he hangs out, do you? He promises to stay out of the way."

They all shook their heads and he found a chair in the corner of the room and eased himself into it. For the next hour, he watched as Sera talked to them and really seemed to pay attention to what they said. In the meantime, she emptied the massive bag and he finally got a look at what she'd been carrying in that bag. Makeup and some accessories.

Sera helped them with makeup and hair and what to wear with what for an interview. It was like some kind of mentorship and they hung on her every word. Every single girl here wanted to go to college. From what he gleaned, they earned points through the week through a mentorship program and those with the best grades and the best behavior at the local schools got to have some time with Sera or someone like her.

When the hour was up, she gave each of the girls some makeup and accessories to keep. When they filed out, they each gave her a tight squeeze goodbye.

His chest tightened again and he breathed through the well of emotion. It was starting to become clear that everything he'd been told about Serafina Justice was a lie.

"I'll be done in a second, I just need to pack up."

He cleared his throat. "Take your time."

"What? You're not in a hurry anymore?"

Dylan shook his head. "No. You, uh, you were good with them."

She shrugged off his compliment. "Maybe. I was them once. I mean, I was never homeless, but I was lost. I didn't have anyone to talk to or to help shove me onto the right path and I did some stupid shit to try to get that attention. So I understand them in a small way and I do what I can." She shoved the last makeup palette into her bag. "I'm ready to go."

For the second time in the last several hours, Dylan was hit with another twinge of guilt and another feeling he wasn't quite ready for. Respect.

* * *

Sera might not want to talk about last night, but the guilt was worming its way under Dylan's skin. He'd completely lost control and he never lost control. Ever. But less than a week with Sera and he'd nearly screwed her up against the wall.

His cock twitched with the memory of last night. They way her eyes had gone wide and wild. The stubborn lilt of her head when he’d pulled back from the kiss.

That sexy mewling sound she made at the back of her throat when she wanted him to keep doing something. He could almost still feel the way her hot center rode over his cock as she rocked her hips. Shit. It was no wonder he hadn’t been able to sleep a wink.

Then today she'd hit him with that double whammy. Having been in such a big hurry to get the assignment over with, he hadn’t asked the Senator enough questions about her daughter.

You know better. The Senator had derailed his career with a simple phone call. Saying sorry wasn't exactly his strong suit. He was pretty shit at it, actually. Maybe this was the reason he'd only had one long-term relationship. Sera was pissed all right. If her posture during the mile-long walk to the ferry said anything. As they passed the boutiques and the restaurants lining the Gaslamp district and crossed the street over to the convention center, she didn't say a word.

By the time they arrived home he was more than ready for a tension reliever. She mumbled something about going to take a shower and where the take-out menus were.

Then he remembered his mother always saying, Cook for a woman and she'll be yours forever. Well, he didn't want all that, but he did want to call a truce of sorts.

After he tossed his laptop in the guest room he headed for the kitchen and pulled out the groceries they'd picked up yesterday. He still had no damn information on whom they were dealing with. And he still had an asset who was completely unaware of what was going on. He had to tell her something. If anything, she could be more careful.

He made a mental note to call the senator in the morning with the latest developments. All the while he put together his mother's garlic and ginger chicken with roasted potatoes and a salad. Simple, but it would do the trick and they'd be eating in an hour.

In about thirty minutes she came out of the shower smelling clean and fresh and he swallowed hard against the wave of lust. "Is the take-out here already? What did you order? It smells awesome."

He shook his head as he opened the oven and checked on the chicken. She had electric appliances, so he was keeping a very close eye on everything. "I didn't order. I cooked. I figured you finally had food in your fridge, so we might as well make use of it. There's wine too if you want. I already opened it to breathe a little."

He felt her gaze on his back as he straightened. "I didn't know you cooked."

He shrugged. "A necessity. If I didn't want Derek and me to starve, I had to learn. When Dad married Sarah, Mom, I learned from her. She's a great cook. It's a wonder none of us are bigger than we are; we lived in that kitchen."

"You say Sarah, I assume she's your stepmother?"

The good news, she was talking to him again; the bad news, she smelled like heaven and he wanted to bury himself in her scent. Dylan cleared his throat. He never really talked about himself, but if that's what it took to keep his mind off of getting her naked, then so be it. "Yeah, but honestly, I call her Mom. Have ever since I was ten. She’s the only mother figure I really had."

Sera didn't ask about his birth mother and he didn't volunteer anything. After a long moment, she changed the subject. "So what's for dinner?"

"Nothing fancy, just chicken and potatoes. You any good with a salad?"

"I'm hopeless, but I'm willing to take one for the team." She shrugged. "I figure I can't mess it up, right?"

He eyed her, then handed her the bowl he'd started and a cucumber. "Here you go."

When she looked down at the cucumber her face split into a huge grin. The laugh came next. It took him a few seconds to get why she was laughing.

"Sweetheart, I just like to set your expectations."

She laughed even harder. "I don't think a guy has given me anything this big, ever."

He chuckled softly. "Then you're hanging out with the wrong guys." He licked his lips. "I've been a prick. Trying to get a rise out of you. Cleaning your place and stuff. I'm not so good with change. Apologies either, but, I—I'm sorry."

For a long moment, Sera thought maybe she'd heard wrong. But then she saw the truth in his eyes. She sighed and the tension seemingly rolled off her shoulders. "Accepted. Something about you just rubs me the wrong way, too. I suppose I could have made your job a little easier. It's not like you wanted to be here any more than I want you here, so…"

"Not even a little," he muttered under his breath.

She rolled her eyes as she held up her hands. "Truce. Thank you for dinner."

"You're welcome." Now all he had to do was make it through the next few weeks without touching her again. Easy as pie.