Page 35 of Detective for the Debutante (SAFE Haven Security #3)

MURPHY

L eigh’s initial reaction to my coming tonight was an equal mix of resistance and excitement.

She didn’t want me to babysit her.

This wasn’t for her; it was for my own peace of mind when it came to her.

She was excited to see me in my tux. But this wasn’t an event we were attending together. She was attending with Vanderweel and I was attending solo.

But I still had several stipulations. First, Vanderweel didn’t need to know where she lived and I didn’t need tonight to feel any more like a date than it already did. She could meet him at the venue. I would be the one picking her up. I would be the one bringing her home.

Because Leigh Whittaker isn’t Vanderweel’s.

She is mine.

If she had a problem with it, she didn’t say anything. And something tells me she isn’t shy about sharing her opinion.

Fidgeting with the too-tight necktie of the tux, I stand on Leigh’s front porch, more than ready to see her in her dress. Her bridesmaid’s dress had been temptation wrapped in pink silk. I’d had to resist then. Or, at least, I told myself I had to at the time.

I no longer have that problem.

Which is going to create its own version of hell tonight.

I reach forward, pressing the doorbell, and wait for her to open the door, nearly swallowing my tongue at the vision she creates in front of me.

To say she looks amazing is an understatement.

Stunning would be a better word. Ethereal also comes to mind.

But if she’s angelic, her halo is a bit tilted by the way the black dress hugs her curves like every manner of sin I want to commit.

The swells of her breasts tip over the edge, the long slit playing peekaboo with her toned leg and tan thigh.

Her blonde hair is pulled up, loose tendrils floating in the breeze, teasing the jasmine and lemon scent of her perfume that pulls me to her like a siren’s call.

She returns my kiss, stepping back when I’m ready to back her into the room and forget all about the reason we got so dressed up in the first place.

“Mmm,” she hums, rubbing her lips together, her lip color still in place despite the less-than-chaste kiss we just shared.

“Agreed. Are you sure we have to go tonight?” I ask.

If she’s willing to play hooky, I will too. Damn the consequences.

She nods, her impish smile transforming her face.

“We do. But if you’re a good boy while we’re out, you get a treat when we get home.”

Her eyes widen, the deep blue showing her shock at the slip-up.

Home.

With her.

There are worse things I can think of.

I drop my lips to the tip of her nose in reassurance.

“I’m going to hold you to that,” I murmur.

Her pupils dilate, eclipsing the blue, and I very much want to forget all about everything else and drag her inside.

So I do the only sane thing I can and step back.

She locks the door and I walk her to the passenger seat, loving the way her breath catches when I hold her waist a heartbeat longer than necessary to help her into the higher car.

Her blue eyes catch mine as she settles into the seat.

“I could have gotten in okay myself. This dress has some room.” She sticks her leg out of the slit as if to prove her point.

I glide my hand up the backside of her leg, brushing my fingers behind her knee.

“Maybe I like my hands on you, Stóirín,” I whisper to her and slide my fingers along the inside of her thigh.

She gasps, her fingers wrapping around my wrist. Not to stop me, but to hold me in place when I try to pull away.

“Maybe my body likes your hands on it too,” she tells me.

I groan.

“If we don’t go, sweetheart, I’m going to yank you out of this car and carry you back into the house.”

“Promises, promises,” she teases, but releases my hand.

I muster the little self-control still intact and close the door, taking several deep breaths at the back to cool my libido before getting into the driver’s seat that now smells like jasmine and lemon.

“You have learned what they say about playing with fire, right, sweetheart?” I ask her, backing down her driveway.

“I’m well aware. And looking forward to it.” Her hand lands on my thigh, her fingers brushing my hardening cock until I have to weave my fingers with hers to focus on the road.

“You look beautiful,” I tell her, keeping my attention on the road but lifting her hand and pressing a kiss to the back of it.

“Thank you. You look nice as well. That tux looks like you were made to wear it.”

“Reverse it and you have it right. For a while, so many friends were getting married I thought it would be better to have something custom done versus continuing to rent. At least this way, it doesn’t have any weird quirks.”

She laughs.

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“What about you? You just happen to bring a dress like that to Nashville?”

“No way. I don’t own anything like this. All my deb dresses and sorority formals are hidden in my closet at my parents’ house. This is one of Hannah Grace’s from when she was Miss Tennessee. It’s a good thing she and I are close to the same size. It’s a little tight, but not bad.”

I glance at her, and the way her dress is stretched tight across her chest has me almost regretting the decision. I want to groan as the image sears itself in my brain.

“Not bad at all,” I growl out, squeezing her hand.

“Have you been to the place where we’re going before? The Bell Tower?”

I nod.

“Yeah. For a friend’s wedding. It’s in downtown Nashville and is an old, converted church that’s an upscale wedding spot.”

“A church? Dammit, I wish I had my camera. I bet it photographs beautifully.”

She’s shown me a lot of her pictures of Nashville and has a few prints hung around her house. She’s really fucking good and I’ve told her so.

“I’ll bring you back another time. Just to take pictures,” I promise her.

But my stomach rolls. Because when?

The rest of the ride is spent in silence, but she holds back when we’re both at the back of my car.

“I…I should probably head up separately. Because, you know…”

Only I’m not ready to let her go. Not just yet.

“How about this?” I ask, reeling her into my arms. “I’ll give you the goodbye kiss now and promise not to touch you between now and later, but I want to walk near you when we go in.”

“I’ll be fine,” she promises.

“I know you will be. You told me you packed your pepper spray in your bag and?—”

“And I do know self-defense,” she adds.

“Humor me.” There’s something in my gut telling me this is wrong. I’m not meant to let her walk away.

It’s served me well since I was sixteen. When I’d had to start relying on it more than my dad. Everything about her in my arms feels right. Like this is where she is meant to be.

We stay locked together for several heartbeats, the heat building and stretching between us before she nods.

“Okay.”

The word is still on her lips when I claim them, laying siege to them as I plunder and find her tongue. Fuck, each time is better. Hotter. Not enough.

But it has to be.

For now.

I capture her moan between us before I slowly gentle the kiss, taking my time to let us both come back to the real world where I have to let her go for the time being.

“That was quite the good night kiss,” she says, her expression dazed, lips swollen from my kiss.

“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet,” I tell her, squeezing her to me for another heartbeat before I have to let go.

Stepping back, I wait for her to walk away but she doesn’t. Instead she stands there, studying me, and my breath backs up in my lungs.

“Are you okay?” I ask her.

“I…I am.” Only she doesn’t sound like it.

She opens her mouth to say something else, but her phone buzzes in her purse.

Spell broken, she pulls the phone from her small evening bag and reads the screen.

“It’s Charlie. We’re meeting at the front,” she tells me.

“You should probably go then. Meet me at the front to leave at ten?” I ask her.

She nods and closes the distance, pressing a quick kiss against my lips.

“I’ll see you in there,” she says and runs her thumb along my lips, no doubt wiping evidence of our kiss away.

“Not if I see you first.”

She smiles like I intended, and I watch her walk away and turn the corner before I take a deep breath and drop my head back to stare at the sky.

Fuck. Why is this so hard?

But if I thought watching her walk away was hard, it’s nothing compared to watching her inside the event. In a room of glittering jewels and expensive fabric, she stands out, capturing not only my attention but the gazes of several other men as well.

She is everything centered in this room right now. And Charlie Vanderweel gets to enjoy her laugh and her smiles while I’m stuck sweeping the room and playing politics with other captains and prominent citizens the Vanderweels have invited.

It’s as if she was made for this world though. The way she glides from group to group and the way she interacts with Vanderweel Senior and his cronies. The only one I see her shy away from is Kenneth, and after she speaks to Charlie, he steers them clear.

Good.

Means I don’t have to go deck the doll look-alike for salivating over Leigh’s breasts.

Charlie’s taking care of her.

That’s my fucking job.

Only it’s not. Not tonight.

Like hell .

It’s still my job. But one I’m doing at a distance.

A glance at my watch reflects time has slowed to a glacial setting. Either that or my watch is broken.

It’s five minutes later than the last time you looked .

So it’s not broken then. Fine.

But suddenly, waiting for the event to end feels like it’s going to take forever. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t wait for the end. I’d make my rounds and look for the quickest exit. But not tonight. Not until I watch Leigh leave and meet her at the entrance.

“Detective, are you enjoying your evening?” Charles Vanderweel Senior walks up, hand outstretched as he greets me.

We’ve met a time or two at these types of events, but it still surprises me he knows who I am.

“Yes, sir,” I say. The polite smile I ordinarily struggle to paste on comes easier than normal.