I was still chuckling when I drove away. Though calls like this were usually answered by patrol officers, not detectives, I was glad I’d stopped by. The brunette had made my evening, standing there in her short dress, showing off her perky little body and asking me if I’d arrest them. I should have suggested that she install an alarm. Statistically, renovation sites were a magnet for burglars.

I headed straight to the restaurant where my sister Lori’s wedding would be taking place in a few weeks. She’d invited me to the menu tasting. I arrived at the same time as my younger brother, Jace. Lori and her fiancé, Graham, sat at a table.

“Hey! Long time no see,” I joked. We’d seen each other last Friday at dinner, as we did every week. “Just the four of us?”

“Val will be a few minutes late,” Lori explained, referring to our oldest sister. I knew our two other siblings, Landon and Hailey, couldn’t make it, but I was surprised that Lori’s eight-year-old son was missing.

“Where is Milo?” I asked Lori.

“Declared that he’d rather spend the evening with his friend Jilly.”

Val arrived shortly afterward, and during the tasting, she and Lori were deep in wedding talk.

Midway through the main course, Val turned her attention to Jace and me.

“So, you two are going to bring dates after all?”

Jace whistled, handing me a five-dollar bill. “You win.”

“Always do.” I pocketed the bill, grinning at Val’s inquisitive look. I might have been thirty-three, but I still loved a good bet.

“What was the bet about?”

“How long it’d take until you or Lori asked that. Jace thought you’d hold back until dessert. I gave you until the main course.”

Val laughed. “Bringing a date is purely a defensive mechanism. We can’t save you from Pippa.”

She wasn’t wrong. Weddings were an occasion for well-meaning members of our extended family to meddle, and my cousin Pippa loved to play matchmaker. She was good at it too... when it came to her own siblings. My Bennett cousins—all nine of them—had married within a couple of years of each other. Pippa liked to brag about having a hand in a few of those couples finding each other. Jace and I had barely escaped her plans during Landon’s wedding. I didn’t think lightning struck twice, but I was going alone. I dated plenty, but for months I’d been on a string of first dates, none of which led to a second one. I wasn’t interested in taking just anyone to my sister’s wedding.

Jace had other problems. “I can’t take anyone to the wedding, because it’ll be in all the papers. People might get the wrong impression.”

Val tapped her fingers, smiling sweetly. “You mean they might think that the soccer world’s sexiest player was off the market?”

Our brother had been awarded that title by GQ this year, and he was reaping the benefits. 

“Exactly.”

“Now that would be a tragedy, wouldn’t it?” Lori asked with a grin.

“Girls, stop hazing your brothers,” Graham said. I liked him, though it was still strange to think about Lori, Milo, and Graham as one unit. For years, it had just been Lori and Milo, because his jackass biological father had taken off before he was born. I had tried to be not just an uncle to the boy but also a father figure, trying to pass on things I’d learned from my late dad. Now that Graham was in the picture, there was less need for me to play that role. I missed it, but I couldn’t deny it: being just the fun uncle had its perks.

“No can do,” Val answered. “They flex their overprotective brother muscles, we haze them. It’s a two-way street.”

Jace shook his head mockingly. “Thanks for trying, Graham.” 

I enjoyed our family time immensely.

“Will, is your Lake Tahoe rental free the week after the wedding?” Lori asked. “We still haven’t decided where to go for our honeymoon, but I do love the lake and your cabin.”

“Let me check.” I pulled out my phone, looking over the spreadsheet I kept. While I was in college, I built a network of rentals in California, and the caretakers for each one filled the spreadsheet as the bookings came in.

“It’s free. I’ll tell my administrator not to take any bookings until you decide.”

Lori looked up at Graham, batting her eyelashes. He laughed and kissed her forehead, then informed me, “We’ll take it.”

We left the restaurant well after midnight. The route home took me by Paige’s inn. I figured if the lights were still on, I could talk to her about the alarm. With a property this large, she needed one of the more expensive options, with motion detectors on at least the windows on the ground floor.

When I arrived at the inn, all lights were off. I was surprised at how disappointed I was. Judging by their excitement, I figured they’d planned to party the whole night. My body reacted instantly to the memory of her curves. She was small enough that I could scoop her up with one arm. I bet those legs would feel amazing wrapped around me.

I laughed, shaking off the image. Damn, I hadn’t even asked for her phone number. But I planned to rectify that.

***

The next afternoon, I had a pleasant surprise. While I was discussing a case with my superior in his office, a familiar voice filtered in through the open door. Was I imagining it because Paige had been on my mind the whole night? Because I’d planned to stop by the inn today to ask for her number? I turned to look, and there she was. What was she doing here? Had something happened to her? She was half turned, talking to one of the officers. I couldn’t see any signs that she’d been in an accident or attacked.

“Will?”

“I apologize, sir. An... acquaintance just walked in. Can we table this conversation so I can check out the situation?”

I was out of my chair before he even nodded. I strode past the desks, straight to Paige. I got a better look at her as I came closer. She didn’t seem hurt or scared. She was talking to one of our youngest officers, Stan. He was eager to help. Too eager. He stood too close and smiled like an idiot. 

“Paige, what are you doing here?”

She stopped midconversation, turning to face me. Those lips were even prettier than I remembered. Her hair was down, obscuring her neck, but the bit of skin that was showing looked kissable as fuck.

“Hi, Will. I looked through the inn like you suggested. Didn’t find any vandalism inside, but someone stole the side mirrors of my car, which was parked in the backyard for a long time. I have pictures and I’d like to file a complaint. I need it for my insurance.”

“I’ll take it from here,” I declared.

“But this is in my job description,” Stan protested, clearly wanting to spend more time with Paige. My jaw ticked.

“I said I’ll take it from here.”

Stan knew better than to challenge a superior, even if he was right. I wasn’t about to let over-helpful Stan take this.

“I meant to call first to see if you were here, but I lost your card,” she said. “I googled the address of the station.”

I ushered Paige to my desk, walking one step behind her. Her hips swayed on every step, and I had the sudden urge to check if the skin on her thighs was as smooth as that on her upper arm. Every inch of this woman was lickable.

When we reached my desk, I brought a chair for her from one of the vacant desks, and we both sat down. I searched for the form we needed in the database. Paige crossed her legs, and I couldn’t help looking. They were toned and strong, like a runner’s or a swimmer’s. They’d look gorgeous wrapped around my waist as I held her against a wall, getting my fill of her. Well, hell. I’d thought my reaction to her the other night was because she’d looked so... rumpled in that short dress, with her hair piled on top of her head. But now she was dressed in business attire, and I was still itching to find out how those legs would feel wrapped around me.

I focused on the form as we filled it in together. After I pulled up Paige’s license number in the database, I scrolled to some of the archived information.

“Paige... you have a dozen speeding tickets.”

I turned to her. She was blushing, but not looking away.

“I got those before I left for Paris. I paid them all.”

“How exactly did you manage to rack up twelve speeding tickets in two weeks?”

She shrugged a shoulder, and the strap of her dress shifted an inch, revealing a string of freckles.

“I couldn’t take my car to Paris, and that baby runs so smooth that I wanted to say goodbye properly.”

I sat back in my chair, barking a laugh. I’d been in a shitty mood this morning. A case I was working on was proving to be difficult, which always ate at me. But Paige had changed my mood as if she’d flipped a switch. 

“Most people don’t own up to that.”

“I tried to talk my way out of them, but my sweet-talking had no effect.”

Something about the way she said sweet-talking made me sit up straighter. 

“You tried to flirt with an officer of the law?”

“Is that an offense?” Her tone turned challenging as she jutted her chin forward. I wanted to kiss that sassy mouth.

“No.”

If I’d been the one pulling Paige over and she’d flirted with me, I definitely would have turned a blind eye.

“Clearly it didn’t work anyway.” 

“This day just got so much more interesting. You come in to file a complaint and I discover you’re a law breaker.”

Her eyes were snapping fire. And in that moment, I didn’t just want to kiss her. I wanted to pin her against the desk, holding those wrists captive above her head, and ravish her right here, right now, with half the station watching. Jesus, I didn’t even know the woman.

She uncrossed her legs, then crossed them again. I looked straight at her until she broke eye contact, licking her lower lip. I wanted to lick that lip too, even bite it a little.

“Don’t get any more tickets,” I said eventually.

Paige mimicked an army salute. “Yes, sir.”

“And you should upgrade the inn’s alarm system.”

“Why?”

“Renovation sites are a magnet for burglars.”

“I’ll look into it. The last thing I need is for someone to break into the inn.” There was affection in her voice.

“You’re fond of that place.”

“Yes. It belonged to my grandmother. My whole family loves it, but selling is the best option. We’ll probably throw it a proper goodbye party right before we hand over the keys.”

I liked the warmth in her voice when she spoke about her family.

“I’ll look on Amazon for an alarm, see if they can ship something quickly.”

“It’s easier and quicker if you go to a specialty store.” I pulled a Post-it from the stack next to my computer, intending to write down the address, and then I had a better idea.

“I’ll go to a store with you. There’s one a few blocks away from here.”

“You don’t have to do that, but I’ll take you up on the offer, otherwise I’ll procrastinate and never get around to doing it.”

“Do you have time to go now?” It was six o’clock. The store was open until eight. I could take her to dinner after.

“No, I have dinner plans.”

I nodded tightly. Were those plans with a guy? The thought annoyed me more than I wanted to admit.

“Tomorrow?” I pressed. 

Paige laughed. “You think I need protection that badly?”

“Judging by your speeding tickets, the city needs protection from you.” 

“Touché, as the French like to say. Tomorrow works. Six?”

“I’ll meet you out front.” I wrote down the address of the shop on a Post-it, then handed it to her together with another business card. “Don’t lose this one.”

Paige opened her bag and retrieved her wallet. “See? I’m putting it here for safekeeping. I had the other one in my pocket, and it must have fallen out.”

“You have me at a disadvantage. I don’t have your number,” I said as we both stood up.

“Oh, of course. You should have it in case something comes up and you can’t make it.”

Yeah, that isn’t going to happen, I thought as she jotted down her number. She hunched over the desk, giving me a direct view of her cleavage. Christ, she was magnificent. My mouth was almost watering at the thought of tasting the skin between her breasts, stroking my tongue against her nipples.

I shook her hand afterward and kept my gaze on her until she was out of the room. Judging by her easygoing nature, I could tell she wasn’t taking the need for the alarm seriously. But that was why people like me existed: to protect people like her.