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“That was a lifetime ago,” Teddy cut in with ice in her voice, probably tired of the men talking about her like she wasn’t there. She glared up at me and I smiled. “Detective, I wish I could give you some names but my life is boring. I hang out with my best friend who works from home, I keep my customers happy and I don’t really date.”

“Really?” He meant no disrespect, but a woman as beautiful as Teddy was expected to date nonstop, to use her beauty to land a rich and successful husband.

“Yes, really. And the guys I shoot down have no clue where I live.”

“But they could find out. Anyone stick out as not being able to take no for answer?”

She let out a bitter laugh. “You know men, they all think ‘no’ is a starting off point in negotiations. If I’m not interested, I say so. If they don’t get it, I say it clearer, so yeah, I’ve pissed off a few guys but I’m sure they found someone more willing to take home that night.”

Shit. Was that what she dealt with when she went out? I couldn’t even imagine having to deal with that and it pissed me off that she had to deal with it. “That’s fucked up.”

She laughed again. “That’s called being a woman.”

“Any angry girlfriends?”

“I don’t fuck other people’s men, detective.”

Haynes held his hands up. “I meant no disrespect, Ms. Quinton.”

She shook her head to brush off his apology. “If I did it was unknowingly, and it would’ve only been for a night, maybe two. And certainly not at my home.”

His green eyes flashed but he quickly got it. “Thank you. I’ll let you know what’s going on, but you’re free to go.”

She nodded and turned to me as I wrapped my arm around her slender shoulders. “Thank you,” she mumbled and I led her away.

“Come on Cover Girl, let’s get you out of here.” I planned to take her home and get her mind off this mess, at least until morning.

***

“I can’t believe you chose tonight to work out the details of the engagement party.” Shaking my head in disbelief at all the shit she’d laid out on the dining room table.

Teddy laughed. “Oh, come on, it wasn’t that bad. Besides I needed a non-naked distraction for at least a few hours,” she said but those blue eyes burned white hot as they landed on my mouth. Teddy had been insatiable over the past couple days, reaching out to me in her sleep, in the middle of a movie, or hell, even in the middle of dinner.

I knew what it was, too. Every time she got that faraway look and she wanted to banish it, she turned to me. And I didn’t mind, not one damn bit, that a beautiful woman wanted me to make her forget some pretty awful shit. She did the same for me.

“It wasn’t bad, just surprising. Whatever works, right?”

“Exactly. But now that we’ve got everything settled with the engagement party, maybe you can be what works?”

Her gaze darkened and she licked her lips, carefully setting aside lists, both handwritten and digital, and leaning her elbows on the table.

I nodded. “So you want to use me for my body?”

She nodded. “And your skills, but the good news is you can use me for my body.”

And if that wasn’t the kind of offer a man waited his whole life to hear, no one passed the message along to my cock because he was already twitching, hardening beneath the table. “And what a mighty fine body it is.” Especially the way she looked right now, no makeup and her hair pulled into a sloppy ponytail. Fresh-faced and sexy as fuck.

“Bringing out the charm?” she asked as she stood and slowly walked around the table to straddle my lap. “I appreciat

e it. Besides,” she licked up my neck and nibbled my ear, “you look really hot when you’re charming.”

I didn’t know what to say but she didn’t give me a chance, capturing my mouth in a scorching kiss that had me clawing at her back, squeezing her ass to get as much friction as we both wanted.

She drove me mad as she kissed me with a wild fever unlike any kiss we’ve shared, down my throat as her hands grabbed the hem of my t-shirt and pulled it up and off. Again, she licked her lips as she took in my body, even harder and more sculpted from six years of nonstop weight training.

“Like what you see, Cover Girl?”

She nodded, gaze darkening to damn near black. “Damn straight.” Before I knew it, she was off my lap and on the floor between my thighs, tugging down my zipper to set my cock free. “This,” she said with a breathless hunger that made my cock twitch. My hips lifted on their own and she pulled my pants down to my ankles, biting the tip of her tongue in anticipation before she licked my cock, over the head and up, down and all around my shaft.