Nice & Naughty (6 page)

“I’ll be talking with Mayor Applebaum this afternoon.”

Even though he’d told her to do just that, Jade cringed at her mother’s words. Diego smiled, though, and gave a satisfied nod. Then his gaze flicked toward Jade. “I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have after your discussion. In the meantime, I need a few minutes with your daughter. I have some follow-up questions pertaining to last night’s burglary.”

“Take her home,” Opal directed, waving her hand toward the door. “I’ve been trying to talk her into going, but she doesn’t listen to me. You’re an officer of the law, so you can force her to listen to you.”

“Mom!” Jade exclaimed.

“It would actually be a lot more convenient if I could take another look at the crime scene.”

Take him back to her bedroom?

Images of the two of them, naked and covered in honey, slid through her mind. She tucked them into the corner, knowing she couldn’t enjoy them or their yummy effect while in the same room as her mother.

“I’ll be back after lunch,” Jade muttered, grabbing her purse from the cubby beneath the counter and slinging the long leopard-print strap across her chest. Diego followed her up the steps. She reached for the door, but before she could pull it open, his large hand covered hers. Warm, callused, intense, his touch sent shivers of desire spiraling through her body. Her legs tensed, heat pooling between her thighs.

Oh, please, let it be a honey-drenched lunch, she wished as the cool morning enveloped them.

* * *

D
IEGO
GRATEFULLY
SLID
his sunglasses onto the bridge of his nose. Not in defense against the winter sun’s weak rays. But because he needed something between him and the pretty little pixie. Her mouth was as clever as her looks were sweet.

He hadn’t been able to get her—or those stretching moves she’d unknowingly tortured him with the previous night—out of his mind. A first for a noncriminal.

“So how does a detective go about solving a case like this?” she asked, pulling him from his thoughts. “Visit each house in town and inspect their underwear drawers?”

Although he’d ridden his Harley to the library, he didn’t mention it as they walked past, toward the sidewalk. Walking was better. More exercise, a safe distance between their bodies. And, he noted as a set of curtains twitched when they passed a quaint A-frame, lots of witnesses. On the Harley, she’d have her arms wrapped around his body, her chest pressed to his back, and he’d likely drive right out of town to the nearest motel where he could beg her to switch positions.

Behind the pseudo safety of his dark glasses, he let his eyes eat her up. Her hair was just as tousled today as it’d been the day before, spiked ends thick around her shoulders and the bangs a sweeping tousle across one eye. Green earrings, a perfect match for her eyes, dangled to her jaw. Under the weathered leather jacket, she wore a black cotton shirt, the collar flipped up to frame her throat. Red lace peeked through the unbuttoned front of the shirt.

The black shirt was huge, hanging halfway down her denim-clad thighs. She’d wrapped a skinny red belt twice around her waist, so despite its size, the fabric followed her curves instead of hiding them. But it was the boots that held his attention. The woman had a way with boots. Black, again, these were flat-heeled and the suede over-the-knee style.

Sexy bohemian, was all he could think.

Very, very sexy bohemian.

His gaze met hers again.

“What’re you doing here?” he wondered aloud.

Both her brows arched as she gave him, then the holiday-festooned neighborhood, a questioning look.

“I mean, you don’t seem like a small-town type of woman.”

Her eyes dimmed. Lashes fluttering, she slid her gaze toward the ground as if she was afraid the sidewalk was going to buckle at any moment. After a second or two, she gave a one-shouldered shrug.

“This is my home. I was born here, grew up here. My family is here.”

Wondering why any of that would tempt someone to stay in a place that clearly didn’t suit them, he looked around. Old houses, old people, no nightlife, more twitching curtains. Nothing worth sticking around that he could see.

“So that’s it?” he clarified. “Roots and family ties?”

He almost wanted to hand her his sunglasses so she could hide the stricken look that swam in her bright gaze. Not so much for her sake, but for his. Seeing it made him want to slay dragons, kick asses and offer hugs. Clearly he was going crazy.

Then she puffed out a breath as if she was blowing away the urge to run, and shrugged. “It is what it is. The why doesn’t matter.”

A sentiment he usually lived by.

So why did it bother him so much to hear it from her?

Then she gave him a big smile.

“But hey, the upside is I know everyone in town. And I know everything about everyone in town,” she said, her words rising with excitement. “You know what that means, right?”

“That privacy is a myth in Diablo Glen?”

Her laugh was like a bell, bright and cheery.

“Well, yeah, but that’s a good thing because it means I can really help you out,” she offered, placing an enthusiastic hand on his arm. “I’ll introduce you around, lay the groundwork so people will talk to you, let you know if you’re getting the facts or works of fiction. It’ll be great.”

Great?

He glanced at her hand, so small and slender on his arm. He couldn’t feel her warmth through the leather of his sleeve, but he swore tiny sparks of electric heat shot from her fingers through his body, setting fire to all his erogenous zones.

Was she trying to kill him? First she made him think he was a superhero, making the first promise of his life. Then the almost-naked stretch session the night before that’d given him more aches than the too-uncomfortable-to-be-believed Speed Racer bed. Now this? As much time with her as he wanted, all in the name of solving a case?

“Thanks, but I work alone.”

“Well, sure. But this is a special circumstance, right? I have something you need, and I’m happy to share it.” Her smile teetered somewhere between sexual temptation and friendly encouragement.

“I appreciate the offer, but I’ll be fine without help.”

With a look somewhere between exasperated and amused, Jade shrugged. “Okay. But if you want easier entry, a smoother experience and quicker satisfaction, you just give me a yell.”

His body hardened as heat flashed, forbidden and sweet.

Yep. She was trying to kill him.

6

D
IEGO
HAD
NEVER
ACTIVELY
, desperately craved a woman the way he craved Jade at that moment. Had never needed to bury his face in the tender curve of her throat and breathe in her essence to see if it was as sweet as he thought. Resisting her when they were alone in her house would put all his cop training to the test.

“Holy crap,” she breathed, stopping so fast he was surprised she didn’t slam face-first into the sidewalk. Had he thought that out loud? He watched her eyes round in slow, horrified increments.

“What?”

Jade sprinted down the sidewalk so fast, Diego didn’t know if she even heard him. As he stepped forward, the huge tree no longer blocked his view of her front yard.

He winced. “Holy crap, indeed.”

Her house looked as if it was waving its sexy flag. The front lawn, porch and a few bushes were all sporting lingerie. Panties here, bras there. A single black stocking dangled from a wind chime.

Another hit? Diego didn’t change his pace. No point since the apparent culprits were still in the front yard, both gathering lacies before the chilly wind could grab them away.

Jade didn’t seem too worried about her lingerie blowing in the wind, though. She stormed right past the pretty little blonde trying to pluck a bra down from a naked tree branch.

“What the hell are you doing?” she snapped at the guy on her porch, one tennis-shoe-clad foot propping the screen open while he quickly tossed handfuls of undies inside. The guy straightened so fast his shaggy brown hair hit him in the eyes.

“We’re sorry,” the blonde said before Shaggy could defend himself. “I felt horrible when I heard what happened to your lingerie. I knew you’d be totally ooked out, so I came over this morning to take it to Mom’s to wash. I was bringing it back and had my hands full.”

Mom’s? Reaching the front yard, Diego studied the other woman. Twenty at the most, she was as blonde and tiny as Jade, but softer. Girlie curls tumbled around a face rounder, but no less striking, than her sister’s. A pale blue skirt floated around her feet, matching the cloud-soft-looking sweater peeking out from her long, white wool coat. There was a third Carson sister, wasn’t there? Diego scratched his chin, wondering if the gene fairy had been just as generous with that one, too.

“I tripped going up the steps, though,” the pretty blonde said, almost in tears as she rose to her feet and angled one leg to show the dirty rip at the hem of her skirt. “The basket flew out of my hands and your unmentionables went everywhere. Oh, Jade, I’m so sorry.”

“I’m not worried about the underwear, Beryl. I want to know where my cat is,” Jade snapped, not looking pacified at all. Diego was impressed. He considered himself hardened and tough, but he’d have had trouble resisting the pleading sweetness in the younger woman’s look. Must be some kind of sibling immunity.

“I thought I was helping,” Shaggy excused sullenly from the porch. Ignoring Diego, he crossed his arms over his expensive ski jacket and gave Jade a look just as pouty as his girlfriend’s. Diego couldn’t help grinning. The pair of them looked like the last two sad puppies in a pet-store window on Christmas Eve.

“Helping? I’m under strict orders by the mayor, and by Mom, to keep Persephone inside for a reason,” Jade scolded as she swept her hand toward the house next door. Diego followed the gesture, then winced. The cute wooden gingerbread house was lying on its side, tinsel shredded around a mangled foam candy cane.

“Neal didn’t mean to let her out,” the other woman explained quietly as she drew herself up. She gave Diego a curious look, but kept her focus on pacifying her sister. Tilting her chin so the curls slid over her shoulder, she waved her hand in a move worthy of any prom princess. “Neal was carrying some gift boxes that I wanted to hide here so Mom couldn’t find them. Suddenly Persephone got all crazy. Growling at him and hissing and stuff. Then I tripped and when he came out to help me, she just sort of took off. You know how she is this time of year.”

Was the cat really that bad? He cast a quick, suspicious glance around the bushes, glad to be wearing thick leather motorcycle boots. Just in case.

“She’s supposed to stay inside,” Jade said stiffly, as if she was having to filter her words through her teeth to keep the cussing at the back of her tongue.

Diego knew the feeling.

“We’ll catch her,” the princess offered. “I promise, we’ll haul her back before she does any damage.”

“She headed for the park. She’ll probably go straight for the gazebo. I’ll get her before she can haul any decorations off. Don’t worry, I’ll fix it,” Neal said, his words conciliatory, despite the flash of anger in his eyes. He brushed a quick kiss on the princess’s cheek, then sprinted down the steps and across the street without glancing left or right. Arrogance? Or that small-town lack of basic caution necessary to survive in the city?

“I’m so sorry,” Jade’s sister said again. “I wanted to have this done before you got home. I knew you were upset after the break-in. I didn’t mean to make it worse.”

“I know, sweetie,” Jade said with a sigh, shoving her hand through her hair so the ends danced every which way. “I appreciate you trying to help. Especially since laundry’s your least favorite chore. But you know how unreasonable everyone gets about Persephone this time of year. I’m going to be hearing complaints for days now.”

“People overreact,” the princess dismissed. “Just because she rearranges a few displays, they get all bent out of shape.”

Diego arched a brow at the mangled tinsel and broken gingerbread display. Rearranges?

“She’s only bad in December,” Jade excused with a worried look at the park. Then she glanced at Diego and winced. “I’m so sorry. Detective, this is my sister Beryl. Berry, this is Detective Sandoval. He’s the panty cop.”

“Nice,” Diego said with a grin. He glanced at the black silk panties caught on a bush and quit smiling. His body tightened as he considered how many ways he’d like to conduct an in-depth investigation of Jade’s underwear.

Oblivious, the younger woman gave Diego a quick smile, then cast a nervous look toward the park where her boyfriend had disappeared. She bit her lip, before giving her sister a beseeching look. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go help him. I’m afraid Persephone might be hard to catch. She doesn’t like Neal very much for some reason.”

With that and another quick hug for Jade, she rushed toward the park. As if her sister’s departure had let the air out of her, Jade seemed to deflate. Her smile dropped, her shoulders sank and her sigh was pure stress.

“Your cat isn’t the friendly sort?” he asked, not because he cared but because he hated seeing that look of distress in her eyes again.

“Actually she is, usually. There’s something about this time of year, though,” Jade explained. “She was a feral I rescued when she was three months old. In January it’ll be four years. I don’t know what she went through over Christmas, but it seems to have made a lasting impression and she’s been trying to dish out paybacks ever since.”

Diego laughed.

“You wanted to ask me some questions, though, not to hear about my crazy cat,” she remembered with a wince. “Let’s go inside and I’ll make you some hot cocoa and you can do whatever you need to do. I’ll deal with this when we’re finished.”

Diego shook his head. “You go ahead and deal with this. It’s probably better that you clean it up as quick as you can. I’ll catch up with you later.”

She glanced at the stocking waving in the chilly air and grimaced. “You’re probably right. But I want to help you, too.”

“I’ll catch up with you later,” Diego repeated, leaving before he could change his mind.

Later, when and where there were plenty of other people around. Diego didn’t believe in fate or luck, but he wasn’t going to spit in the face of a chance to sidestep disaster.

And the pretty blonde with the sexy underwear?

She had disaster written all over her. At least, disaster for his peace of mind, possibly his career, and definitely the fit of his jeans.

* * *

F
OUR
HOURS
LATER
, Diego’s head pounded with tension. He poked at his temple with a stiff finger. His hands ached. In part from the cold weather—apparently a visiting cop in a small town was a suspicious character who had to stand on the porch for interviews. In part from spending the last four hours clenching his fists to keep from lashing out.

Standing outside the café, he debated getting a cup of coffee, then figured he needed to walk off the frustration instead of fueling it with caffeine.

He’d been stonewalled. No two ways about it.

And it was frustrating the hell out of him. You’d think he’d be used to it. He figured people slamming doors in his face, shooting at him and, on one memorable occasion, trying to run him over were all part of the job description. But this was different. These weren’t criminals, they were nice, run-of-the-mill citizens. Who wouldn’t talk to him.

Diego shoved his fists in the pockets of his jacket as two more of those nice, run-of-the-mill citizens crossed to the other side of the street when he passed. Like, what? He had out-of-towner cooties? Or maybe they thought he’d shoot them. Typical small-town close-mindedness, he sneered. The same kind he’d seen over and over as a kid.

And just like when he’d been a kid, he was stuck here until some official deemed him good enough to move on.

Diego gritted his teeth so hard, he hoped this Podunk town had a dentist. He was gonna need one before the end of the week.

How the hell was he supposed to get information if he had to wear kid gloves? He wasn’t a kid-glove kind of cop, dammit. He felt both blindfolded and hamstrung. There was no way he was going to make progress playing nice.

He kicked a rock out of his path. A woman on the opposite sidewalk gathered her kid close, as if he’d kick it next.

He was seriously starting to hate this town.

Except for the sexy pixie. For her, he had some solid nonhate feelings brewing. But like his tried-and-true methods of solving a case, she was off-limits. Because she didn’t just play nice, she was nice.

He wondered how deep that layer of nice went. Was it a surface thing? Or was she nice through and through? He had a feeling—mostly brought on by his body’s intense reaction to her—that there was something naughty going on beneath the surface.

The question was...how naughty?

“Naked before the third date” naughty?

Or “whipped-cream bikini” naughty?

He thought about the pair of tiny black silk panties he’d fondled twice now. His body stirred, hardening in salute to the memory. A woman who wore black silk with tiny red roses? She might be convinced to try on some whipped cream.

Grinning at the prospect, Diego was a heartbeat away from convincing himself that pursuing the sexy pixie wouldn’t have any effect on his ability to solve this case. Or more important, to solve it by Kinnison’s stupid rules.

“Detective.”

Glancing over his shoulder at the greeting, Diego slowed his pace to a halt. Then, with a barely discernible sigh, he came to attention.

“Sir,” Diego greeted when the older man reached his side. “I’d planned to find you this afternoon to discuss the case.”

“Great minds, and all that,” Mayor Applebaum said, gesturing for Diego to continue his walk. The older man took control of the direction, though, heading for the park. And, Diego noted as they passed a few more wary citizens, some semblance of privacy.

“So, how is your investigation going?” the mayor asked as they reached the grassy area.

Diego debated. Then, with his usual tact, he stated, “It’s sucking. Sir.”

Applebaum’s lips twitched as he gave a slow, contemplative nod. He looked around as if the bench choices were of prime importance before settling himself on the one in the sunshine.

And waited.

Diego sighed. Realizing he had no choice, he dropped to the bench, too.

“I’ve had a few phone calls this morning, Detective.”

Shit. He’d been on his best behavior. He hadn’t intimidated a single person. So why were they whining?

“Sir?”

“People are a little put out that I’d bring an investigator in for what most see as a joke.”

“Yep.” Diego nodded. “I can understand their position.” Applebaum didn’t bother to hold back the grin this time.

“Still, it’s my decision to make. I want this solved. The prank element doesn’t bother me. But there is a meanness involved here, son. Oh, sure, a lot of folks think it’s innocent enough. But for the ones with their unmentionables hanging in the diner window...? They aren’t so dismissive.”

Diego thought about Jade’s face when she’d seen the mess made of her bedroom. Prank or not, the mayor was right. Mean—and malicious.

“The problem is,” the mayor continued, pulling out a pipe and tapping it against his knee but not lighting it, “you’re an outsider. Whether embarrassed or dismissive, it’s hard for people to talk to an outsider.”

“You knew you’d be bringing in an outsider when you called Kinnison.”

“Yep. I did.”

The older man looked toward the center of the park, with its big white gazebo and prettily decorated Christmas tree. Then he gave Diego a big, friendly smile.

Diego felt as if he was looking down the barrel of a gun, not sure if it was loaded or not.

“So here’s what I’m thinking. You want to get this case solved, go on home before the holidays and get on with your life.”

All right, except for the holidays part.

“With the break-in and destruction at Jade’s, the situation is escalating. So the sooner this case is solved, the better for my town.”

And...?

“To accomplish that, I’ve come to the conclusion that you need a little help.”

A little help. Diego shook his head. Apparently the good mayor didn’t believe in pointing a weapon unless it was loaded.

“Not someone telling you how to do your job,” Applebaum assured him. “Not someone like me who everyone will be on their best behavior with. That’s not likely to help you much.”

Diego narrowed his eyes. The old guy was smarter than he looked.