Tempt Me Tonight (11 page)

“Guess I’ve been doing the same thing,” he told the dog absently, adding, “sort of. But your girl probably likes you better than mine likes me.”

Scanning the backyard, Joe narrowed in on the shed, moving closer. Sure enough, Sunshine lay stretched out on her side with four kittens busily nursing, so tiny their eyes weren’t yet open. Two were the same yellowy-orange as their mother, one solid black, and the last fluffy and gray. “Looks like you did good, girl.”

After watching them for a minute, he pulled the drooping limbs of a gangly forsythia bush next to the shed over one side of the hollow spot—just to provide a little protection. “But looks like I need to find some more Brownies,” he muttered as he headed in the back door.

No sooner had he shut it behind him than the doorbell rang—and his first thought was Trish. Had she come to apologize? Or at least explain? Despite himself, his heart beat a little faster as he strode through the house to answer.

He opened the door to find—damn, just Jana. Not that he minded seeing his sister. But, as usual lately, she looked…too made-up, especially for a Sunday afternoon. She wore a sparkly halter top and black miniskirt that seemed more suitable for a big city dance club—high-heeled shoes with lots of straps on them, too. Her tanned skin contrasted with lips of neon pink.

“Hey!” she said, throwing her arms around his neck, and he couldn’t help the ironic thought that this was the second time in twenty-four hours a scantily clad woman had shown up on his doorstep. If old Mrs. Crowley—who owned the only other house in sight on the country road—was paying attention, she probably thought things were getting pretty wild down here at the Ramsey house. And after last night, she wouldn’t exactly be wrong.

“What’s up?” He probably didn’t sound overly glad to see Jana, which should maybe make him feel bad but didn’t. He’d been pissed ever since she’d gone running off to Ohio with some older guy he’d never met. All he knew was that the guy owned the bar where she worked and his name was Vinnie Balducci. She’d been wearing sparkly tops ever since.

“I brought your car back.” She hiked a thumb over her shoulder and he glanced out to see the old Trans Am—the same he’d driven in high school. It was far past its prime, but he kept it as a spare, and since Jana had needed a car when she moved, he’d let her use it. Behind it in the driveway sat a shiny black Lincoln Town Car with tinted windows. He wondered if his sister had joined the mob.

“Your boyfriend in that?”

She nodded, then pushed past him into the house, obviously trying to draw his attention elsewhere.

Joe spoke pointedly. “Why doesn’t he come in? I want to meet him.”

She shrugged. “He needs to make some calls while you and I visit. Business stuff.”

Ordering hits, Joe guessed. He flashed a look that let her know exactly what he thought of Vinnie. “The guy couldn’t even come in?”

“He’s
really
busy, Joe. Running the club is, like,
more
than a full-time job.”

He narrowed his gaze on her. “And what kind of club is it again exactly?”

She blinked. “You know. A club. Where people drink.”

He eyed her with suspicion. “Is there dancing?”

She hesitated for only a second. “Yeah.”

Mmm-hmm. I just bet there is.
His jaw tightened. But self-preservation prevented him from taking the thought further, so for his own sanity, he changed the subject. “You don’t need the car anymore, huh?”

She shook her platinum blond head and he found himself missing the old
brunette
her. Some women looked great as blondes—Trish, for instance—but on his sister it looked fake. “Vinnie leased me an Infiniti.”

Huh.
So the guy had plenty of money. Joe guessed the mob paid well. “Nice,” he said dryly, then decided to change the subject
again.
“Want a kitten?”

Jana’s eyes went girlishly wide. “A kitten? We have kittens?”

“Four of ’em, under the shed. I need to get rid of ’em.”

“God, I’d love a kitty. But…” A slight grimace reshaped her normally pretty face. “I don’t know. We’re not home a lot. And I don’t know if Vinnie would want a pet in the condo.”

Yeah, and the whole fucking world revolves around Vinnie.
“Figures,” he muttered under his breath.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing.” He raised his gaze, tried to push his irritation aside. But he didn’t like the idea of some guy he didn’t know controlling his sister’s life. He let out a sigh and knew he still sounded gruff when he said, “Want to at least see ’em?”

She nodded enthusiastically and they both started toward the back door, his sister’s heels making little clicks across the floor—until she pulled up short. “But first…uh, Joe?”

He stopped and glanced back at her. “Yeah?”

“There’s a purple bra hanging on your lampshade.”

She pointed across the room and Joe turned to see. He hadn’t bothered taking it down yet. “You don’t think it looks good there?” he asked almost without missing a beat.

She laughed, and he found himself glad to ease the tension between them, glad the bra was bringing
somebody
some laughter. “What I don’t get,” she said, “is how did it take me this long to notice it?”

Despite himself, he quirked a small grin in her direction. “You probably missed the collection in the kitchen, too. They’re chained together over the window as curtains.”

She laughed again, then met his gaze, her look earnest—more like the Jana he used to know before she’d moved away six months ago. “So, this bra, does it belong to anyone special? Or just a one-night fling?”

Joe practically snorted at the irony—the answer to both questions was yes. “It’s Trish’s,” he said simply.

His sister’s jaw dropped nearly to the floor as shock reshaped her expression. Jana had only been a kid when he’d dated Trish, but Trish had spent a lot of time at their house and Jana knew how important she’d been to him. “Oh my God, Joe—tell me everything.”

“Nothing to tell.” He wasn’t going into the details of his sex life with his little sister, no matter how grown up she suddenly wanted to be.

She rolled her eyes. “Come on.”

But he just shrugged. “She’s in town for a week. We spent a little time together. End of story. Now do you want to see the damn cats or not?”

Jana grimaced at his tone but walked toward the door.

Ten minutes later, it was clear to Joe from all the oohing and ahhing his glittery sister had done that she’d fallen for “the twins,” as she kept calling the two yellow newborns.

“Tell you what,” he said as they strolled around the corner of the house to the driveway. “I’ll walk you to the car and you can ask Vinnie about the cats. And I can finally meet the guy.” He tried to keep the rancor from his voice.

But Jana looked uncomfortable at the very suggestion. “I told you, he’s making business calls. If I interrupt him, he’ll be ticked.”

“Sounds like a great guy you’ve got there, sis,” he said through slightly clenched teeth. No hiding the rancor this time—he didn’t even try. He glanced again at the big black ride in his driveway, still peeved by the tinted windows.

“He
is
a great guy, Joe, I promise.”

“Then why the hell haven’t I met him? Why can’t I even meet him when he’s sitting in my fucking driveway?”

She snapped her gaze to him, since his anger was coming through loud and clear now and he no longer cared if Jana or Mr. Tinted Windows knew it. “What’s your problem, Joe? I just wanted to bring your car back, not get the third degree.”

Joe took a deep breath and reminded himself she was an adult who could do what she wanted. But she was also the only family he really had left, and he was the same to her. He lowered his voice. “Maybe I worry about you, okay? Maybe I don’t think it’s too much to ask that I meet the guy you’re living with.”

She looked guilty—not his goal exactly, but if it got him introduced to Vinnie Balducci, possible mob boss, okay. “I’m sorry Vinnie’s not…all that social. He’s just…kind of shy sometimes.”

But he runs a bar?
He kept his doubt to himself and instead said, “I don’t bite.”

She lowered her chin. “From the look on your face right now, I’d guess otherwise.”

Another deep, calming breath was required at this point to keep Joe from stalking to the car and yanking Vinnie out of it.

“Listen,” Jana said, reaching to touch his arm, “I promise you’ll meet him soon. Really. He’s just not in the greatest mood today.” When he gave her a scolding look, she quickly added, “You’ve been known to get in a bad mood or two yourself sometimes, so give him a break. We all get in bad moods. I’m pretty sure
you’re
in one right now. But soon, Joe, I swear. And you’ll like him—really.”

A minute later, Joe was hugging his sparkly sister good-bye while, unbeknownst to her, over her shoulder, he snarled slightly toward the Lincoln’s tinted windshield.

After watching them drive away, he calmed down and immersed himself in normal Sunday stuff. He mowed the lawn, paid some bills and wrote Beverly a check for the stuff Carissa needed, then did a load of work clothes and another of towels. He tried his damnedest not to think about Trish—about her hot seduction, about how amazing it had been when their bodies had finally connected, about the sharp sting of waking up alone afterward. And it worked. Mostly.

Before he knew it, the sun was dipping low, ending the day and bringing on another hot summer night in Eden. The weekend had sufficiently worn him out—he felt ready to veg in front of the TV and mentally prepare for the work week ahead. Tomorrow was Monday, and he had a Lamborghini that needed a tune-up, which was going to take all his attention. He decided he should go to bed early and get a good, restful night’s sleep.

But when he exited the shower, stepping into underwear and a pair of jeans, he found himself glancing across the living room at his lampshade…and knew a restful night would be impossible. Because like it or not, he
was
still thinking about Trish—all the good parts…and the bad.

And he still had a purple bra to deal with.

Trish sat on the bed in her motel room, laptop humming on the flowered bedspread before her. Tomorrow she would call Lois Faulkner and hopefully get the diner contract’s issues hammered out, taking her one big step closer to heading home and away from Joe Ramsey. But in the meantime, she needed to keep up with her real life, so she was going through her e-mail.

Skimming the inbox, she stopped on one from Kent Delacorte, associate, partner in her firm, and potential romantic interest.
Potential
because nothing had happened yet, but Kent had just broken up with a long-time girlfriend two months ago. Trish and Kent had always gotten along well, seen eye to eye on most things, and been frequent lunch partners, but lately, she’d sensed new bits of flirtation in their relationship. And she’d liked it—since Kent was pretty much everything she could want in a man.

Okay, so there was no snake tattoo.

Or searing blue eyes.

But before a couple of days ago, she never would have missed such things, so she couldn’t let them be part of the equation. And now that she’d
had
the snake tattoo and blue eyes, it was time to focus on guys who were actually
suitable
for her, actual
possibilities
in her life. She’d had sex with Joe—and now it was over.

It still felt surreal to know she’d truly gone to his house and seduced him. It was her first one-night stand ever. She tried to ignore the irony that it had happened with the only guy she’d ever wanted to marry.

Kent’s message was mostly social, jovial, full of inside jokes.

You should have seen Stinson’s tie the other day. He’s going to start scaring clients away with those things. He forced me to go to Burrito Bob’s on Wednesday, by the way. I couldn’t get out of it because he knew my usual Wednesday lunch date—that’s you—was out. Bob’s wasn’t as bad as you and I suspected, so my treat when you get back.

She smiled softly. Now, having sex with
Kent
would make sense. She tried to envision it—then sighed. Because when she imagined being naked with Kent, he had a snake on his arm. And broader, more muscular shoulders. And, actually, an entirely different face. Which belonged to Joe.

Okay, so this was apparently not the right moment to visualize sex with Kent. No problem—there’d be plenty of time to get to that later. After she got Joe out of her system. She tried not to remember that
having sex
with Joe had been intended to get him out of her system. Now she had to get the sex part out of her system, too, she supposed.

The next e-mail was from her associate Elaine, second chair on a big case going to trial soon—the Richie Melbourne rape case. Trish scanned the message to learn that her favorite
DNA
expert was currently examining evidence, including some plastic cups found at the scene of the crime, as well as the victim’s underwear.

Given everything she’d learned so far, she knew a girl had indeed been raped leaving a college party after having ingested the date-rape drug—but for Trish’s money, all fingers
should
be pointing to Dane Eldridge, a hulking Purdue jock who’d been accused of rape before, yet had gotten off, because of his parents’ money and political connections. Another young woman had recently taken out a restraining order against him, too.

Trish’s client, Richie, also played sports at Purdue, and while she doubted he was an angel, she believed in his innocence. She’d interviewed him extensively, and he’d struck her as an upstanding kid with a bright future. She’d liked him immensely, and God knew it helped to defend someone you truly thought free of wrongdoing. On the other hand, it also added pressure—pressure to make sure an innocent client didn’t go to jail. But Trish considered it a
welcome
pressure, one that fueled her enthusiasm for the case.

According to Richie, both guys had been flirting with the girl—Jessica—hanging with her at a party just off campus. Richie had asked Jessica out and she’d turned him down, but it had remained a friendly exchange. The three had happened to leave the party at the same time, but Dane had offered to walk Jessica to her car, so Richie had headed in the opposite direction toward his dorm. The next day, he’d found himself charged with rape.