Lori Foster (31 page)

“Rowdy!” She kept her face tucked in close, hiding.

He grinned as he carried her into his bathroom and sat her on the side of the tub. He rinsed out a washcloth in cold water, handed it to her and then splashed his own face.

His hands were shaking.

“You really love me?”

Such a small, uncertain voice. “Yeah.” He dried his face and sat on the tub beside her. She’d missed much of the mess, so he took the cloth from her and tried to help remove some of her ruined makeup. “I really love you.”

She inhaled.

“Will you marry me, Avery?”

Her lips started to tremble again, so he kissed them. Just a soft kiss at first, but this was Avery and soon he had a hand in her hair, holding her close while he reaffirmed that she was safe, and that she was his.

Logan tapped at the door, then pushed it open. “You’re both okay?”

“He loves me,” Avery said. “We’re going to get married.”

Logan half smiled. “Congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

Her formality was as unique as everything else. Rowdy couldn’t stop touching her, and he knew he’d never stop loving her.

“I hate to do this right now, but we need to talk to each of you. Alone.” Logan held on to the doorknob, his gaze sympathetic. “And Avery, as next of kin, we need to let your mother know that Meyer is gone.”

She nodded.

Rowdy said, “We can do it together.”

Avery straightened her shoulders. “May I wash my face first?”

Logan said, “Sure. No problem.” He stepped back out of the room.

Rowdy stood with her. “We’ll take the day off. Cannon can handle things tonight. Tomorrow—”

“Tomorrow,” Avery interrupted, “I’ll return to my job as your full-time bartender.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Rowdy told her. “We can talk about it more later, but I’d like you to be a co-owner in the bar.” He held up a hand to stop her protests. “As a co-owner, you can continue to bartend if that’s what you want. But you already help in every decision there is.”

“I don’t have any money to buy in.”

His mouth quirked. “You give a lot of your time, and you give great input. Together, we’ll go over finances.”

“Together.” She let out a happy sigh. “Okay, yes.”

Rowdy kissed her red nose, her stubborn chin and her soft mouth. “God, I love you, babe.”

“This started out as such a bad day.”

He had to laugh. “Your face is bruised, there’s a dead man in my apartment and another who, with any luck, will not only be ruined, but will do some serious jail time.”

“But you love me,” she said. “And that makes it a very good day.”

* * *

M
ARCUS
HUGGED
R
OWDY
’
S
knees, then ran out to the yard with Cash racing behind him. They were due to get snow at the end of the week, but today the sun was bright enough to warm the coldest heart.

Rowdy stood in the doorway, watching the kid climb into the tire swing. Avery’s mother, bundled up in a hooded white sweatshirt, gave the tire a push to get Marcus started, then laughed when Cash ran back and forth in excitement. Avery hugged her mother’s arm.

Hard to believe how things had rolled out. Thanks to Sonya’s insistence, Meyer had written Avery into his will. He shook his head. He didn’t want Meyer’s money, but Sonya insisted. It meant a lot to her, a way to alleviate some of her guilt over how gullible she’d been, how she’d so unfairly misjudged Avery.

And so they’d agreed to take the money—which they would invest into a community project Cannon had started for at-risk kids.

It felt good. Hell, his whole life felt blessed now that Avery was in it.

Nothing seemed impossible anymore.

Behind him, Pepper said, “He’s pretty darned cute, isn’t he?”

“Marcus?” Rowdy drew her into his side and kissed the top of her head. “Yeah, he is.” A month with Alice and Reese had already made a difference. Marcus wore clothes that fit, and while he was still a skinny little dude, he looked healthier, happier. A lot more secure. He had nightmares, and he still distrusted his good fortune, but things were getting better, little by little. “He’s really coming around.”

“Love will do that to a person.”

Amen. “You and Logan ever think about having kids?” He kind of liked the idea of being an uncle.

Pepper floored him when she said, “Yeah, we’ve talked about it.”

“No shit?” He looked down at the kid sister he’d spent a lifetime protecting. She was the one person he’d thought would always be the center of his world. He still loved her like crazy, and he’d still die for her.

But the love he felt was no longer so...desperate.

“No shit,” she replied with a grin. “Can you see me all round with a baby?”

“Yeah, I can.” She’d be beautiful, no matter what. “You’d make a great mother, kiddo.” Fiercely protective, nurturing and she’d raise the kid to be strong, like her.

“We want to wait another year or two,” Pepper told him, then snuggled in to his side again. “But after that...we’ll see.”

When Avery started toward the house, her long red hair teased by the breeze, Pepper said, “She’s really something. I can see why you love her.”

“Yeah.” Every day he found more and more reasons.

Grinning, Pepper hugged him tight. “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes.”

“Thanks.” He opened the patio doors to greet his soon-to-be wife. “How’s your mom?”

“Doing better.” She turned her face up for his kiss.

Rowdy was happy to oblige. He touched his mouth to hers, then whispered, “I love you.” The words that once felt so impossible to say were now impossible to keep to himself.

“I love you, too.” She settled beside him with a sigh. “Marcus and my mother get along really well. She wants to spoil him.” Avery winced. “I hope Reese and Alice won’t mind too much.”

“We’ll talk to them, see what they say. But I think it’s good for Sonya to have a different focus now that Meyer is out of her life.”

“She wants to throw us a big wedding.”

Rowdy blanched, but only for a second. “Is that what you want?” Because if a big society wedding would make her happy, he’d throw on a monkey suit and play along.

“No.” She grinned up to see him. “I want our family and friends there, and I want the pretty white dress, but most of all I want you.” She ran a hand over his abs, something she often did. “If you want to wear your jeans, I’m okay with it.”

Rowdy had to laugh. “How did I get so lucky?”

“You hired the right bartender to run Getting Rowdy. That’s how.” She hugged him tight.

“I’ve been thinking about the name of the place.”

“It’s already established, so you can’t change it,” she warned him.

“It’s already changed. I had the sign painted.”

“Without talking to me?”

Her umbrage amused him. “It’s still Getting Rowdy, but at the bottom, in smaller print, it now says, With Avery. Because honest to God, honey, the bar wouldn’t be the same—I wouldn’t be the same—without you.”

Her smile came slowly. “Well, since I’m now officially the only woman getting rowdy with you, it fits.”

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from BARE IT ALL by Lori Foster.

If you loved
Getting Rowdy
, don’t
miss these other great titles in Lori Foster’s
New York
Times
bestselling Love Undercover series:

Bare It All

Run the Risk

Be sure to also catch Lori’s Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor
titles!

When You Dare
Trace of
Fever
Savor the Danger
A Perfect Storm
“What Chris
Wants” (digital novella)

These, and other Lori Foster titles, are now available in ebook
format. Be sure to download all of them today!
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CHAPTER ONE

A
S
SHE
CAME
TOWARD
HIM
,
Alice’s baby-soft hair hung loose, silky tendrils
drifting over her shoulders. Her big brown eyes, so innocent and yet so aware,
watched him intently, the way she always watched him. She smiled, and that smile
did remarkable things to him. Made him ravenous, when he’d never quite
experienced anything like that before. Lust, sure. But such a powerful need? No,
never.

Only with Alice.

Very close now, so close the warmth of her touched all over
him, she brushed her nose against his jaw, his neck, his ear.

He groaned. Out loud. He heard it but could barely credit that
the sound came from him.

From a gentle nuzzle.

Against his
ear.

It was insane, but it took very little from her to get him
painfully aroused.

“Reese?”

He wanted her mouth on him. He turned his face toward her, and
he felt her breath. Hot. Then her tongue.
Wet.

“Oh...um, Reese?”

She sounded so tentative that he smiled as he reached for her
and opened his eyes. His hand encountered dense fur, and the expressive brown
eyes staring back at him weren’t Alice’s.

They weren’t even human.

His dog, Cash, panted at the sign of life. Delighted to have
him awake, he barked, turned a quick circle and...licked Reese’s face.

Again.

“Shit.” Reese dodged the dog’s sloppy fondness while trying to
get his bearings. The dream had felt so incredibly real. And so welcome. He
shifted—and found himself cramped from head to toes...on a sofa.

Alice’s sofa.

Lifting his head, he looked down at himself. He wore only
boxers, and as was usually the case when he first awakened, they were tented.
Hmm...

Where had the sheet gone? Ah, over the side of the couch to the
floor.

Levering up to one arm, Reese attempted to orient himself—and
there stood Alice at the foot of the couch, fully dressed in summer slacks and a
sleeveless blouse, her hands locked together in front of her and, yes, her soft
brown hair hanging loose.

But now, with him wide awake, her hair looked tidy, like Alice,
not sexily rumpled as it had been in his dream.

She watched him, but those soul-sucking brown eyes weren’t on
his face.

They stared with absorbing attention at his morning wood.

Great. Playing kissy-face with his dog was bad enough.
Scrambling for the sheet now would only make him look more foolish. He wasn’t
used to finding himself in tricky, uncomfortable situations. At least, not with
women.

As a police detective, sure, he’d often found himself
discomfited by perps, though not in boxers while sporting mahogany.

Alice was many things—a neighbor, an enigma, an irritant and a
subtle bombshell.

And obviously, based on that ramped-up dream, she was also the
current focus of his fantasies.

He cleared his throat. “Up here, Alice.” Her curious gaze rose
to his face. “Thank you. Now if you don’t mind, you could turn around a moment.
My modesty is beyond compromised, so it doesn’t really matter to me, but with
your face already going pink, I’m not sure—”

“Of course.” Turning, she gave him her back. Posture stiff. Air
uncertain.

That lovely fawn-colored hair fell just beyond her
shoulders.

“Sorry about that.” She strode, fast and unsteady, to the patio
doors that led to her small deck. She’d left the door open, allowing in a muggy,
late-August breeze that teased her beautiful hair.

Given the heat of his interest, air-conditioning would have
been nice, but since this was Alice’s apartment, and she’d been generous enough
to let him crash on her couch, he wouldn’t complain. Much.

“What time is it, anyway?” Sitting up, Reese reached for the
sheet, but Cash sat on it. The dog watched Reese, his furry ears perked up, his
expression hopeful. Reese grinned. After tugging out the sheet and covering
himself, he patted the couch beside his thigh. “C’mere, boy.”

The dog bounded up with over-the-moon enthusiasm. Because of
the undercover sting they’d just wrapped up, he’d spent as much time away from
Cash as with him—and still he and the dog had bonded.

“It’s a little after one o’clock.”

And she hadn’t awakened him? How long had she been sneaking
around the apartment?

How long had he lain there without even a sheet?

He was generally a light sleeper, so either he’d been really
out of it, or she was...stealthy.

That thought bothered him and meshed with other concerns he had
about Alice. Her keen observance of everything around her, combined with her
cautious air, planted awful background possibilities into his head.

Then there was the way she’d come onto the scene yesterday, a
big,
loaded
gun in her hand....

“Cash hasn’t been out for a few hours. I was trying to lead him
through without waking you, but he saw you there on the couch, and then you
made...a sound.”

“A sound, huh?” Given the erotic dream, he could just
imagine.

“Cash sidetracked to you and—”

“I thought he was you.” When her shoulders stiffened more,
Reese felt devilish enough to say, “And I was having this rather sexual
dream.”

Wide-eyed with something akin to astonishment, she faced him,
stole a peek at his lap and, when she saw he’d bunched the sheet there, she met
his gaze. “What do you mean?”

“You and me.” He gestured between them. “And damn, but the
dream felt real.” Reese scratched under Cash’s furry chin. “You were near me.
Breathing on me.”

Indignation brought her brows together. “Breathing on you?”

Wondering when she’d catch on, he gave a sage, serious nod.
“You nuzzled my ear, and I felt your hot tongue—”

Backing up fast, she bumped into the screen on the patio door
and almost fell through it. After an accusatory scowl at Reese for making her
stumble, she checked the screen, saw that it remained in the track and cleared
her throat. “I would never—” She searched for a word and came up empty.

“Lick me?”

To his surprise, she kept quiet, but her mouth—and her
expression—softened.

“No? What a shame.” He gave the dog a few pats, which
encouraged him to shower Reese with more affection. “But apparently Cash
would.”

Realization dawned. “Oh.” A smile twitched. “You felt Cash
trying to wake you, and you thought...?”

“Yeah. Helluva way to start my day. I mean, I’m fond of him,
but...” Reese looked her over. “Not that fond.”

“He’s adorable!”

“Sure he is.” Reese had only recently gotten the dog, and while
he’d never considered himself a pet-lover, he and Cash were getting
acclimated—with Alice’s help. “I just don’t want you mistaking my...” He nodded
at his lap. “Reaction.”

Though she covered her mouth, a short laugh escaped,
anyway.

That laugh was as mesmerizing as her smile, and his
sheet-covered boner twitched. “Keep it up, and I’ll never get it under
control.”

Rather than backing up or blushing again, she chastised him.
“Really, Reese. It’s not something to talk about.”

“Not something to be embarrassed over either.” But he sort of
was, anyway. What was it about Alice that affected him so profoundly—and so
physically? “Not to minimize your appeal, but it happens to most guys in the
morning.”

“When they awaken, you mean?”

“Yeah. It’s called morning wood, or in this case, afternoon
wood, I guess.”

“I see.” She tipped her head to study him. “But when you
knocked on my door this morning, you were wide awake, fully dressed and had just
finished working.”

He’d also been aroused over the possibility of spending more
intimate time with her. Knowing he shouldn’t tell her that—yet—he scrubbed a
hand over his tired eyes.

“Yet even then,” she continued, her tone mischievous and
teasing, “you had a...um...”

Having her talk about it wasn’t helping. Reese trapped her gaze
with his own. “An erection.”

“Yes.” A little too matter-of-factly, she nodded. “You had one
then, also.” Though the color in her fair skin intensified, she didn’t look
away. “You told me not to worry about it.”

“I know what I said.” God, he wanted to kiss her. If she’d been
any other woman, he would have.

But he hadn’t known Alice that long, and what he did know of
her kept him from pushing things. Already, thanks to the fiasco the day before,
she’d seen the hazards of his job.

Wasn’t every day that murderers and hoods, the very criminals
he investigated, showed up on his doorstep. It was even more uncommon for those
offenders to get the drop on him. Usually he was great at his job. But
yesterday...yeah, he’d suffered a first-class cluster fuck—and Alice had managed
to get right in the middle of it.

Maybe that’s why he’d been dreaming of her. She’d been helping
out by watching his dog while he and his partner closed in on their quarry, and
then when shit went sideways yesterday, she’d recognized the deadly situation
and sent in reinforcements.

He eyed her understated, prim facade that hid so much
intuition, bravery and cunning. “You will never have reason to worry about
anything with me.”

“Okay.”

She was the most curious woman, and that, too, could explain
his unaccountable reaction to her. “Just like that, huh?”

“I know you’re honorable.”

Sensible Alice. Of course she was right—he
was
honorable, most especially where women were concerned. But in
the short time they’d known each other, how could she possibly be that confident
about his intentions?

She couldn’t.

So he’d taken in a stray dog—a dog she now adored. So what? He
was polite, mannerly, dressed well and had his own proper persona. It meant
nothing, and she should realize that.

Yet from what he’d seen so far she had great instincts.

The type of instincts usually honed in the field.

When she’d agreed to let him sleep on her couch, he’d thought
to use the time alone with her in her apartment to do some in-depth talking. His
curiosity about her was extreme, almost as sharp as his attraction.

But once she’d made up the couch for him, he’d sat down and
exhaustion had all but pulled him under. Their talk had stalled.

Then.

Now he had all the time in the world. Or at least for the rest
of the day. “Alice—”

“I should take Cash out.
Again.
”
She smiled at the dog with consuming love. “We both know he’ll only hold it for
so long.”

She had the prettiest, sweetest smile—when she smiled. Not that
she seemed to know it. Hell, if it wasn’t for his dog, or the carnage in his
apartment...

Remembering the carnage, the very reason for being on Alice’s
too-small couch instead of his own spacious bed, Reese groaned.

Alice paused in her attentions to Cash. “Are you okay?” She
inched closer. “Did you get hurt yesterday?”

“I’m fine.” But frustrated. Yesterday, in the culmination of a
lengthy investigation, a damn parade had trooped through his apartment. Friends,
suspects and heinous thugs.
Murderous
thugs. Thugs
so ugly, their souls were surely black and decrepit.

Rowdy Yates, a “witness”—what a joke that had turned out to
be—who should have been in protective custody, instead had gone to Reese’s
apartment to snoop. Alice had recognized that Rowdy was up to no good and had
called Reese. He’d gotten to his apartment only minutes before his lieutenant
also showed up.

They’d all been taken unawares by the lowlifes, and while a gun
stayed on Rowdy, Reese and the lieutenant had been handcuffed to the headboard
of his bed. That he and the female lieutenant butted heads more often than not
made it an especially unpropitious situation. Lieutenant Peterson hadn’t taken
it well, and his efforts to shield her had been met with much resistance.

Instead of getting the protection afforded all witnesses, Rowdy
had ended up a target for death. He had abilities, which included breaking into
Reese’s apartment to snoop, but against two gunmen set on executing him? The
odds had not been with him. If they’d killed Rowdy, they would have next turned
those guns on Reese and the lieutenant.

Without Alice’s help, there would have been several dead bodies
in his apartment, instead of just one.

And hell, one was bad enough. It wasn’t easy to get
death
out of the carpet, curtains and off the
walls.

Fortunately, sensible Alice had assessed the situation and sent
in Reese’s good friend Detective Logan Riske as backup. Because Logan possessed
a lethal skill set unique to only a select few, he’d gotten the upper hand—but
not before taking a bullet to the arm.

Chaos had reigned for a couple of minutes, all but destroying
Reese’s bedroom. In the end, they’d apprehended one gunman and another man who’d
played lookout at the front of the apartment building.

The worst villain Reese had ever known had died from a broken
neck. Never again would he threaten anyone.

Reese eyed Alice with renewed interest. At the tail end of the
bloody melee, not long after Reese had been freed from the cuffs, Alice had
shown up in his apartment with a big gun held in her slender, delicate hand.

She was a good judge of character, but then, so was he. And in
his gut, Reese knew his straitlaced, often silent, skittish, timid and
sexy-as-hell neighbor would have used that gun with fatal precision.

It made his blood run cold and ramped up his interest in her
and her past. So many unanswered questions. He knew Alice was good with his dog
and that he liked her. He definitely knew he wanted to get her under him.

But so far their relationship had been so odd, he didn’t even
know her last name yet. Alice...something or other.