“And since then?”
Dante brought his hand up to stroke the slope of her nose. “Are you worried about me?”
“No.” She kissed the tip of his finger when it touched her lip. “I have my folks and my brother and his family. Who brings you birthday gifts and that kind of stuff?”
“Aren’t we family now?”
His words were meant to be a joke, but deep down inside Harley couldn’t help the nagging feeling she’d failed at something. Why? She had no idea. They’d known each other a span of twenty-four hours. “Temporarily.”
“Aw, you still want to divorce me?”
“Sorry, but I like my privacy. I know how you FBI guys are chained to the desk and to the home.”
Playfully Dante reached for her wrists and held them over her head. “Chained to the desk? Sounds kinky. Ever been?” He offered one of his lopsided grins. He let her go with a frown. “Forget I asked.”
“Don’t act like there haven’t been other women before me,” she teased, pulling his arm around the curve of her waist. Fingers splayed across her backside. She squirmed under the ticklish touch, enjoying the sensation he sent over her body. Her nipples hardened, begging to be touched as well. He may have looked like a wolf man, but right now he had the potential to be as cuddly as a teddy bear.
“There may have been men before me,” Dante said huskily, “but I mean to be the last.”
“We just met.”
“You deny what’s between us.” To further prove his point, Dante tipped her chin upwards to kiss her lips. “I’ve never scaled a boat to be with a woman before.”
“For sex.”
“You’re in my system, Harley.”
Harley pulled away leaving his body an arm’s length away from him. “I can’t deny you being in my system either. Physically we’re drawn to each other. We’ve had some awesome sex but we’re strangers. You, other than you work for the FBI and you have some climbing skills. You’ve been to my house yet where do you live?”
A part of her willed him to tell her the truth about himself. Now would be a good time for her to tell the truth, too. Didn’t this make her a hypocrite since she was aware of his career? If she waited any longer, things could blow up in her face.
Dante reached for her hand, their fingers splayed against each other. His dwarfed hers. “I have a place in Washington Heights in New York. I was raised in Bensonhurst with my sister, mom and my pops. Got into the military to get away from my pops and I learned a trade to fix things. Oh and I can’t cook but I love to eat, my friends tease me.”
“And the FBI?”
His shoulders shrugged lazily. “It sort of happened. I guess you could say like how you ended up on the police force with an affinity for weaponry.”
Harley took her turn shrugging her shoulders, “What can I say? I am a single woman living alone and I capture brutal through a camera.”
“A Sig Sauer?”
“What?”
“It’s a pretty powerful gun.”
Harley squeezed her fingers around his. “I am a pretty powerful woman.”
“Damn straight!” His lips spread to a slow smile.
“I also to carry a .22 for safe keeping in case I can’t get to my real gun.”
His chest rose with a deep breath. “I like a woman who comes prepared. I also admire the lengths you’ll go to be around your niece, even if it means putting up with a crappy paying job with a boss who, if he’s not hitting on you, insults you.”
The muscle over her left eye shot up in question. “What are you talking about?”
“I had Lundy pegged the minute he tried to mark his territory when he saw us together. A dumb ass cop like him can sense our chemistry.”
“He’s a detective.”