Perfect Fit (11 page)

He pulled open the door, holding it for her to step ahead of him. Inside, the place was small and dark, with low lighting and what appeared to be wooden booths lining the walls, but there was a warmth to the overall look.

“Mikey!” A booming voice greeted them, taking Cara off guard. She’d have thought their contact would be someone quieter, maybe sitting back in a booth somewhere waiting to talk. Instead a large man with salt-and-pepper hair and a large paunch strode up to Mike, a big grin on his face.

“Bill Carlson, you old son of a bitch. How have you been?” Mike slapped the big burly man on the shoulder, but Bill apparently wasn’t satisfied because he pulled Mike into a brotherly hug.

“I’m good,” the man said. “Damn good.”

Mike stepped back and looked the man over. “Owning this place agrees with you. I think you’re eating too much of your own food.”

The other man, who had to be a good two decades older than Mike, merely grinned. “It’s not just the bar, it’s the
woman. I married Lucy, and she makes sure there’s a home-cooked meal for me whenever I walk in the door.” He patted his round stomach.

Mike’s eyes opened wide. “You tied the knot? I thought you said, and I quote, ‘No damned woman will shackle me in this lifetime.’”

The big man shook his head and laughed. “Live and learn, buddy. Live and learn. So who’s this pretty lady?”

Cara blushed at the description, but she was equally curious to know how Mike knew the man, since he seemed so happy to see him.

“Cara Hartley, meet Bill Carlson. Bill was a detective before he got soft and retired,” Mike said, with a teasing glint in his eye.

Cara noticed he’d opted not to give Bill a description of who Cara was to him, and she tried not to let it bother her. Better no description than one she wouldn’t want to hear.

“Soft happens to all of us, buddy,” Bill said before turning his attention back to Cara. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Hartley.”

She shook his extended hand. “Call me Cara,” she said. “And it’s nice to meet you too.”

Bill glanced at Mike and cocked his head to the side. “I didn’t know you were bringing company,” Bill said quietly, but not so softly that Cara couldn’t hear.

Mike shrugged. “Didn’t seem important.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Bill stepped back, his gaze sweeping over them. “Last booth on the right. It’s big enough for three. I’ll be in the back if you need me.” He paused and glanced at Cara. “Pleasure to meet you,” he said, before turning and heading back through the double doors leading to the kitchen.

Cara drew a deep breath. “Do you want me to wait here?” She wasn’t oblivious to the fact that his contact wasn’t expecting her and probably wouldn’t be happy Mike had brought her along.

“No.” Without another word of explanation, Mike started for the back, and Cara followed.

They reached the back booth where Mike’s contact was sitting, and
she
was stunning. A knockout from her long, brown hair accented with beautiful blond highlights, tanned skin, and perfect features, to the way she didn’t just wear her leather jacket and purple scarf—she owned it.

Cara’s mouth went dry as Bill’s words suddenly made sense. And Cara was suddenly aware that her dark green, puffy down jacket made her look like the Michelin man in comparison.

“Mike!” the woman said, gliding out of the booth and plastering herself against him like so much more than an old friend.

Cara gritted her teeth and promised herself she wouldn’t give in to insecurity. Petty jealousy? Yeah, she’d allow herself that. What she wouldn’t allow? For Mike to see how this affected her. She wondered if he and this woman had been lovers. Or did this woman just wish they were?

To Mike’s credit, he grasped the other woman’s forearms and pried her off him. “Always good to see you too. We have some questions for you.”

“We?” She flipped her hair over her shoulders as she became aware of Cara’s presence for the first time.

“Cara Hartley is a police officer in Serendipity. We’re working on a case, and we need your brand of expertise,” Mike said, gesturing to the booth, obviously ready to sit. “Cara, this is Lauren Nannariello.”

“When you said you needed to see me, I didn’t realize this was business.” Lauren raised her chin a notch and slid back into the booth. “But then you’ve mixed business with pleasure before,” she said in a deeper voice, and patted the seat next to her.

So they
had
been lovers. No more wondering there, Cara thought, a sick feeling in her stomach. Well, he’d made it clear a few nights ago he was with Cara now. And Cara
wasn’t the type of girl who let another woman hit on her man. How Mike responded to this would be interesting, but hey. He was the one who’d brought her here without giving her a heads-up on the situation.

“Mike?” Cara asked in her nicest but strongest voice.

He turned.

She slid into the bench opposite Lauren, looked Mike in the eye, and patted the seat beside
her
.

He shot her a look filled with regret and slid into the seat next to his contact.

The rational, cop part of Cara understood he needed to do whatever would get the information. The female part of her resented the fact that he’d brought her here to deal with this, and she’d make him pay for that bit of insensitivity later.

Six

Snow came down hard as Mike walked beside Cara
down the city street. Her silence gave him time to think, and he wanted to kick himself in the ass. Just because he hadn’t thought about Lauren as more than a
contact
hadn’t meant she would feel the same way. The minute she’d greeted him, he knew he was in trouble.

Somehow he managed to get through the awkward conversation and come out on top. He’d explained to Lauren what he needed and asked her to do some digging into the FBN’s computers to find out why the cash hadn’t been picked up from the evidence locker back in 1983. Miraculously he was also successful at fending off Lauren’s wandering hands beneath the table.

After Lauren agreed to help, Cara excused herself and went to the ladies’ room, leaving him alone with the other woman, at which point Lauren demanded an explanation for his disinterest. Apparently hooking up on occasion meant more to her than to him. Mike hadn’t managed her expectations well, and he was sure he’d done the same to Cara.
Though Lauren was pissed, she was still willing to help him—for old times’ sake.

He and Cara left the restaurant and walked into heavy snow. Instead of taking her out for dinner, he decided they needed time alone first and headed to his place—another surprise he’d sprung on her. He’d seen the shock in her eyes when he told her his place was around the corner. And she hadn’t said a word since. Clearly he was batting one thousand today, and he braced himself for her anger when they got inside.

He lived in a decent neighborhood in a one bedroom rent-stabilized apartment that he sublet for a great price. They walked through the lobby and the old battered mailboxes with some names hanging off, and up one flight of stairs.

He opened the door and let Cara step in ahead of him before locking up behind them. Without asking, she slipped off her shoes, and he did the same.

“Home sweet home,” he said, tossing his keys onto the shelf in the small entryway.

Cara glanced at him quickly before walking inside and looking around. “Very nice,” she murmured.

“I can’t take the credit. My mother and sister insisted on helping.” With them taking over and helping him buy furniture, everything had a warm, homey feel, with a primarily brown and beige color scheme and navy accents. Pictures of his family were scattered around the main living room, also courtesy of the women in his life. The ones who mattered, anyway.

Cara turned to him, an unexpected smile on her face. “They have good taste.” She unzipped her jacket and he stepped forward to take it, still waiting for the fallout of his earlier stupidity.

“I didn’t realize you had an apartment here, though I guess I should have. New York is your home, after all.”

The tightness in his throat that he usually associated with
visiting his parents’ house suddenly rose here. “Right now Serendipity is home. It just didn’t make sense to give up a low rental when—”

“You plan on returning as soon as you can. I know.” She looked away and headed for the windows to check out the view.

He came up behind her, standing close as she looked at the high-rise across the street. “Can we just get it over with?” he asked tightly, wanting to know what she was thinking.

“Get what over with?”

She spun around to face him, and he braced his hands on her hips…just because he wanted to touch her.

“Lauren,” he said.

“Your contact?” Cara asked innocently.

Too innocently, and he narrowed his gaze. “You’re mad I didn’t tell you about her?”

“That you didn’t tell me Lauren was a woman? It might have been nice to be prepared.” She tilted her head to one side, her blue eyes bright.

But he couldn’t read her. Damn that cop training.

“Or do you think I’m upset that you’re obviously involved with her and didn’t think to mention it? Yeah, that would have been good to know too.” She held herself tight but didn’t step out of his grasp.

No anger. Yet. Mike’s heart beat harder in his chest. Lauren had come close to slapping him when he told her he was involved with Cara and had shown up with her without giving his ex-lover a heads-up.

Mike glanced at Cara, whose level of anger he still couldn’t gauge. Perhaps he ought to put his hand over his groin. Just in case.

“Or maybe it was the fact that she was drop-dead gorgeous that I’d have liked to know?”

Mike winced, knowing that Lauren looked nothing like the computer geek she actually was. “I didn’t think about it ahead of time because we’re not currently involved.”

Cara raised an eyebrow. He was certain many suspects had shriveled under that steely gaze.

“Come on. Her greeting left no doubt. And I’m not that stupid.”

He couldn’t help but grin at that. “No, but I am. We had an understanding. That’s all it was. She scratched an itch.”

Cara shook her head and tried unsuccessfully not to groan. “You are such a man.”

“And yet you aren’t yelling, screaming, or pitching a fit. Why is that?” The woman confounded him.

And wasn’t that why he liked her so much?

“Because turnabout is fair play and while we’re together, you’re mine,” she said, repeating his words back to him.

He burst out laughing, but it wasn’t funny. She was one in a million and he wasn’t ready to let her go.

Apparently she agreed because she
finally
wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him flush against her. Those lush curves were a perfect cushion for the harder planes of his body and the even harder ridge of his aching erection.

“Do we have an understanding?” she asked.

“Seems only fair.”

She blinked, looking into his eyes. “Did you and Lauren have that understanding?” she asked.

As he threaded his fingers through her hair, he could honestly say, “No. Lauren and I were an occasional, when-it-was-convenient thing.”

“And what about me? Am I just…scratching an itch?”

God, he was an ass.

“No, you are most definitely not just scratching an itch.” He shifted his hips, and a soft moan escaped her lips.

“Now that we’ve got that settled, can we get on with our night?” He’d more than satisfied her curiosity, and she liked his answers.

She smiled. “I’d like that. Very much.”

Cara’s body hummed with sexual need as Mike held out
his hand. One last glance out the big window overlooking the city showed her that the light flurries the weatherman had predicted had turned into more of a full-blown storm, and they might not get back to Serendipity tonight. She wondered if she cared.

She should. So many red flags had been waved in her face today, she knew she ought to heed them. From the day Mike left Serendipity when everyone knew he couldn’t get away from Tiffany’s expectations fast enough, to the present, the warning signs were clear. He had affairs with no emotional connection. He’d failed to warn her she’d be meeting a woman he’d slept with. He kept the lease on his apartment, though he had no idea how long he’d be in Serendipity. All were signs that he was a restless man who moved through life without thought to how his actions affected the people who cared about him. She knew better than to think he didn’t care in return. He just didn’t know how to deal with relationships.

If he’d said Lauren meant something to him or that Cara was just a quick fling, she’d have been gone in an instant. But in her gut, the same gut she trusted to keep her alive on the job, she knew he wasn’t feeding her a line to get her into bed.

Cara got it. She knew who he was and desired him anyway. Which meant she had to accept him. As is.

So here she was in his bedroom. In her jeans and long-sleeved T-shirt, she was nothing like the glamorous woman he could have had. Yet he devoured her with an expression that told her he wanted to pounce.

“Changing your mind?” Mike asked, bringing her out of her thoughts. He still held out a hand, waiting.

A grin tipped the edges of her mouth. “Not a chance.”

In an instant the energy around her changed. First she’d anticipated. Now she was awash in sensation. Mike met and held her gaze, every step he took deliberate and calculated.

“Clothes off.”
His eyes gleamed with desire aimed solely at her, and every fiber of her being tingled.

“Yours too.” She wasn’t letting him call the shots like he had the first time. She wanted to be an equal participant in this, someone he’d never forget.

He pulled off his shirt.

Never breaking eye contact, she did the same. While she couldn’t tear her gaze from his muscled body, he stared at her chest and the lace bra, which was a lot sexier than her clothing choice had been. Thank God. His pants followed and he took his boxer briefs off with them, exposing his thick erection for her viewing pleasure.

She licked her lips and was happy with the low growl she received in response. She wriggled out of her jeans, removing her panties along with them until only her bra remained. And when she stood to face him, she found he’d stepped closer, his body heat tempting her to crawl into his skin.