Sarah Mayberry – Hot for Him (страница 10)

She nodded her head. “Yes. It’s called the police station,” she said. Then her lips curled into a triumphant little smile as she stepped away from him.

Her gaze dropped to his crotch, and she raised an eyebrow.

“You might want to wait a few minutes before you walk into the station,” she said.

Then she opened her car door and slid behind the wheel of her expensive SUV.

He spread his hands wide as she lowered the driver’s window.

“Come on, Claudia—tit for tat? Aren’t we a little too old for these kind of games?” he said.

“Don’t be too long,” she said, giving him a cheeky finger wave goodbye.

He was still standing there looking—and feeling—like a dick when she pulled away from the curb and out into the traffic.

Running a hand through his hair, he let out a pent-up sigh of frustration and glanced down at the significant bulge in his jeans.

She was a minx, a conniving seductress, a master tactician.

And now he wanted her more than ever. Competitor be damned. Wife hunt be damned.

Grinning, he turned toward the street where his car was parked. He’d always enjoyed the thrill of the chase.

3

CLAUDIA HAD BEEN waiting at the police station for a full ten minutes before Leandro strolled in. In a perfect world, she would have been well and truly ensconced with detectives from the Major Crimes Unit by the time he’d arrived, but a woman couldn’t have everything. Leaving him with a giant boner on the Strip had just about made up for any embarrassment she’d felt after he’d left her floundering like a landed fish at the awards ceremony last night. Just about.

If only her own pulse wasn’t still pounding in her ears. Closing her eyes, she smoothed her palm down her thigh as she remembered how big and hard he’d felt beneath her hand. It definitely hadn’t been easy to walk away from all that throbbing masculinity. But it had been worth it, even if her own frustration levels were at an all-time high. He needed to be taught a lesson, cut down to size. And since no one else was volunteering for the job, it looked like the task had fallen to her.

When she opened her eyes again, Leandro was walking through the automatic doors into the foyer of the West Hollywood police station. She was powerless to control the kick in her belly as she caught sight of his tall, strong body. She wasn’t the kind of woman who lied to herself about what she wanted, and it was becoming pretty damned obvious that, sensible or not, she wanted Leandro Mandalor.

She liked the way he challenged her. And she’d have to be dead from the waist down not to want to go to bed with him. He had an amazing body, and she’d just had a sneak preview of the highlight, albeit through the fabric of his jeans. She couldn’t stop her gaze from dropping to his crotch as he walked toward her now. What if she’d taken him up on his offer and gone to that motel up the road…?

“What’s happening?” he asked as he dropped into the seat beside her.

As usual, he was too broad for the space allocated for ordinary mortals, and she felt the warm press of his body against hers.

It should have been annoying, but it wasn’t.

“They’re calling in two detectives from the Major Crimes Unit. They were on a dinner break,” she said.

Leandro raised an eyebrow and looked at his watch. “Nice life. Maybe being a producer isn’t so bad after all,” he said.

She stared at him. “Being a producer is the best job in the world,” she said.

He looked amused. “Maybe you ought to meet my boss. And my cast. And my writing team, for that matter. Bet they’d change your mind in a pinch.”

She frowned. Was he serious? Sometimes she couldn’t tell with him. Okay—most of the time she couldn’t tell with him. It was one of his most intriguing and annoying aspects.

“You hate your job. Are you serious?” she asked.

He shrugged. “I’ve been doing it for five years now, so obviously I don’t hate it. Let’s just say the challenge has faded. Until recently.”

He gave her a significant look. She sat up a little straighter.

“I get it,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “You were bored—until we started giving you a run for your money.”

He shrugged. “I love a challenge, what can I say?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Glad to be of service. When you’re consistently running second in the ratings, you’ll feel even more challenged, no doubt,” she said.

“You’re not going to steal our viewers, Claudia. Just like we’re not going to win over yours. Our core fans are loyal, obsessive even. But I’m going to fight you for the floaters, tooth and nail.”

She realized she was grinning. “Give it your best shot, big boy.”

“Big boy? I’m going to take that as a compliment,” he said, matching her grin.

“Size isn’t everything,” she said archly.

“You’ll have to let me know.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me.”

She glared at him. “That’s it—you are officially the most arrogant man I know.”

“Yeah? I’m going to take that as a compliment, too,” he said.

“It wasn’t meant as one,” she said repressively.

He leaned close so that only she could hear him.

“If we can get this hot with just words, imagine what it’ll be like once we’re both naked,” he said.

She ought to feel outraged at his absolute self-assurance, the way he was taking it for granted that they’d sleep with each other. She ought to ice him down and send him home with a flea in his ear.

But she didn’t. She didn’t do anything except lock eyes with him. She saw a million sensual promises in his dark gaze. Her breathing increased, almost became a pant. She leaned toward him, completely forgetting where they were.

“Ms. Dostis?”

She started in her chair and jerked away from Leandro as though she’d been busted with her hand in the cookie jar.

A middle-aged man in faded jeans and a nondescript T-shirt was standing in front of her. He held out his hand.

“Detective Arnold. This is my partner, Detective Wilkes,” he said, indicating a tall woman in her mid-thirties standing beyond his shoulder.

Right. They were at the police station. Here to report the very serious extortion attempt by Rat Man.

She felt a dull flush warm her chest and face as she clued into how unprofessional she was being. She never mixed business and pleasure. She always put work first. But somehow, whenever she was with Leandro, other things seemed to get in the way.

“Pleased to meet you. This is Leandro Mandalor, producer of Heartlands,” she said. At least her voice sounded relatively normal, even if her body was still burning with embarrassment.

“Hey, I love that show,” Detective Wilkes said, smiling broadly and stepping forward to shake Leandro’s hand. Claudia frowned as the other woman tossed her long red hair over her shoulder and smiled in a distinctly friendly way.

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