Scandalous (16 page)

“First of all,” she began as she propelled herself out of his arms, “I wasn’t upset about that. In fact, I really don’t even know
what
I feel about it. Secondly, even if I was...you don’t go giving up a partnership that you
know
you want because I’m butt hurt about it. If you’re going to be my partner, you had better seriously snap out of whatever you’ve been going through these last few days.

“I need Dominic...the
real
Dominic...if we’re gonna do this,” She stood with her hands crossed in front of her chest as it heaved, giving him an ample view of her cleavage.

“I like it when you get all mad and stand like that,” He grinned, looking down at her chest.

She looked down and surprised him once again by smiling, “Thank you. And
that
is the Dominic I know and love.”

His heart pounded a little faster. He knew it was just a saying, but he liked hearing those words coming from her mouth, even if it was only idiomatically.

“So if it wasn’t the meeting with Red that was upsetting you, why did you look like someone ran over your dog when I came in?” He leaned against the counter to listen to what she had to say.

She shook her head a little and returned to packing up her food. He waited. He was a patient man.

After several minutes she turned, “I guess I just felt...sad...leaving. I mean, it’s only been a week, but...I kind of got used to having you around,” she stared in his eyes and he saw equal parts vulnerability and bravery in them. He knew what it must have meant to her to admit that.

He didn’t want to scare her off by grabbing her and jumping up and down, or taking this opportunity to declare his undying devotion. He didn’t think she would appreciate it if he had a Tom-Cruise-Jumps-On-Oprah’s-Couch moment. But that’s certainly what he felt like doing.

Instead, he just nodded, “I was feeling the exact same thing.”

They were both quiet, possibly waiting for the other to make a move. Dominic had no problem making the first move, he just didn’t want to scare her off with what he was thinking - which was that she was his home. She was his forever.

“Look,” he finally suggested, trying to make his voice sound as casual as possible, “why don’t you come over tonight, and we’ll just see how it goes.”

Her eyes widened, and then narrowed, “Are you asking me to move in with you?”

What he wanted to say was, no, woman - I’m asking you to
marry
me...but somehow he didn’t think she would be open to that quite yet. And he was a patient man.

“I’m asking you to come stay with me tonight, and then tomorrow we’ll revisit the terms.”

“One night?” she asked.

“One night, with the option to renew,” he answered.

“So, what you’re saying is that you want to take this one day at a time?” she clarified.

He pushed off of the counter and narrowed the distance that separated them with two easy strides. She backed up against the counter and he leaned in so that their mouths were mere centimeters apart. Her breathing was labored, and a flush was rising in her cheeks.

“What I’m saying is that I want to take you. I want to take you home, I want to take off all of your clothes, and I want to take you in every room of the house,” he brushed his lips against hers and he felt her shiver against him, “And I want to take my time doing it.”

“Oh,” She breathed as she looked at him with a hooded gaze.

“I think you’re the one who's saying you want to take this one day at a time,” he said as he brushed another kiss across her lips, “Is that right?”

“Yes,” she answered, still breathless.

“I can work with that,” He said with a small grin.

She smiled and crushed her mouth to his.

He knew that this was the only way she could handle what he was proposing, and he was OK with that. She would grow to trust him, to know that he would never hurt her, to know that he would always be there for her. She just needed time. And he just needed her.

RED HOT PRIVATE EYE SERIES

Novella

Chapter One

You are focused. You are capable. You are in control. No one can hurt you. You can handle anything.

It’s going to be a great day!

Raiza sat in her Prius, looking into the small square mirror that was built into her sun visor as she applied a coat of lip gloss to her full, naturally red lips. She finished her fourth round of daily affirmations at exactly the same moment she finished applying the gloss. She loved that! Synchronicity.

After her last check in the mirror, she flipped up her visor and replaced the tube of liquid shine in its designated slot in her make-up bag, then replaced the bag inside the left compartment in her purse.

She smiled.

Every time she looked inside her purse it made her happy. There was nothing out of order. Anytime she needed to add a new item to carry she would immediately find a home for it to live in, and every time she would use said item she would always immediately return it to its rightful place.

Order + Structure = Sanity.

That was the equation she lived her life by, and it had served her well. Her life as a child had been anything but predictable. As an adult, when her life was in her own hands and not subject to the whims of others, Raiza had made sure that her life was just that - predictable.

Predictability had its advantages, one of which was a sense of security. That was a feeling she had longed for as a youth. Of course, everything in life is a trade-off, so it also had its drawbacks. One of those was complete and utter boredom, which was something that she definitely did
not
crave.

This tightly structured world that she had built for herself ensured that there were never any surprises. Which was great except for the fact that...well...there were never any surprises!

A loud knock on her driver’s side window ended her short jaunt to the island of self-reflection and yanked her abruptly back into reality. She looked up to see who had interrupted her rather pleasant reverie and found that there was a rather tall and lanky police officer standing beside her car waiting for her attention.

She opened the door and he stepped back to allow her to exit.

“Can I help you with something?”’ She asked as she swung her legs out of the car gracefully, setting her black Jimmy Choos on the pavement and smoothly rising to stand next to her car.

He looked momentarily stunned as she stood. She patiently waited. She was used to men, and even sometimes women, needing a moment after they saw her. It took them a minute to collect themselves, before they could remember what they had been about to say...and where they were, what year it was, etc.

Her Aunt Margie used to tell her that she was the living, breathing definition of a stunner. Well, being from New Jersey, she had actually said ‘stunna.’ But Aunt Margie’s point had been that when people saw Raiza, nine times out of ten they had a very strong reaction to her.

Which was fine with Raiza. The attention was fine. Certainly, if she had been forced to choose, she would definitely prefer to be attractive rather than not, she always thought. But, still,
sometimes it was a little isolating. People usually didn’t really
see
her, or listen to her. They almost always had preconceived notions about her, theories about everything from her intelligence to her level of promiscuity. And, of course, these assumptions were wrong ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, as assumptions generally tend to be.

This was one of the reasons that she loved her job, and loved the people she worked for and with so much. They saw her – really
saw
her.

Most days it was just her and George in her office. She loved George. George didn't care what she looked like, he didn't judge her by the size of her cleavage. He was responsive to her every request. He was the perfect man, basically. She sighed to herself. If only George wasn't her computer!

But, she reflected, most of that could also be said for her co-workers. They saw her for who she was - brains, wit, creativity and all.

She did
not
believe the same could be said for the police officer standing in front of her right now. She didn't think he had the ability to see anything beyond what was right in front of his nose, and he was having trouble processing what he did see. She shook her head. She needed to move this along if she was going to be on time for the Monday morning meeting.

She cleared her throat to get his attention. “Can I help you with something?” she repeated slowly.

The officer looked into her eyes, finally, and furrowed his brow as he said, “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

Oh, you’ve
got
to be kidding me, Raiza thought to herself. At least he had the good sense not to look self-satisfied at what he must think was a very clever line. “Oh, is that what you were working up to?” she asked sardonically.

Her tone must have been a little too sarcastic for Mr. Law and Order’s liking because his posture and demeanor did an immediate one-eighty. His voice lowered an octave, and he planted his feet and puffed out his chest in what must've been an attempt to seem authoritative. It didn’t work. “Ma’am, I am going to need to see some ID,” he said gruffly.

Raiza was not about to give this man anything until she knew he was on the up-and-up.

She smiled a slinky smile and said, “Show me yours and I’ll show you mine, officer”

He raised an eyebrow to her, seemingly unimpressed by her charms, and tapped on the badge pinned to the upper left side of his uniform.

“That’s a very nice badge, but I'd like to see your identification card,” Raiza said, politely but firmly. Uniforms and badges were very easy to fake, Raiza knew this all too well. The same could not be said for identification cards.

He looked more than a little put out at her request, not to mention suspicious, but he did supply the card. Raiza examined it closely, taking her sweet time just because she thought it was funny to get his goat. The card was legit. She pulled out her driver’s license and passed it over to him. As soon as he saw her name, his tune changed yet again.

Dude, she thought, bi-polar much?

“Oh Ms. Diaz, yes,” he said checking her name against a list on the clipboard he carried, “umm...you are cleared for entry. Come this way.”

‘Cleared for entry' to her own office? Ooookaaaaay.

What the hell was going on?

Before she had a chance to ask those questions, she rounded the corner of the building where Red Hot was located and saw at least a half dozen uniformed officers and four detectives in plain clothes in the suite next door to the Red Hot agency.

They were all gathered in the offices of Thrive Therapy. Hmmm...Raiza knew that several therapists who each had their own specialty shared that office suite. She knew them all in passing, enough to smile good morning, but not more than that.

She tried to step around Officer NO INFO so she could get into Red Hot and find out what was happening, but the officer held out his arm to block her path just as two paramedics passed in front of them, pushing a stretcher that held a zipped up body bag.

OK, Raiza thought uneasily, that’s not something you see every day. A very unsettled feeling welled inside of her, like a storm brewing in her psyche. Not good. This was not order and it was not structure, in fact, it was the opposite of both of those things. Therefore, she felt her sanity threatened just the tiniest bit.

Raiza did
not
like being around dead bodies, no siree, not at all, not one little bit. Didn’t like it at all. Probably stuff left over from her childhood, she knew - she had been the one who had discovered her grandma’s body after Grandma Ida had died in her sleep. Raiza shuddered. She remembered how cold the old woman's skin had felt when Raiza had tried to shake her awake. She could still feel the clammy, freezing skin under her fingertips when she recalled that fateful morning.

She shook her head to try and clear all reminders of that day. Yeah. It wasn’t working.

Raiza needed to get into her office, sit at her desk - see her things all in order, everything in their place. She needed to re-center herself among order and structure. She needed to boot up George, to hear the soft swishing sound of him coming to life. She needed to feel the keys under her fingers as she worked.