Privilege (Special Tactical Units Division 2)

It had been a long day, and one she knew she would not forget.

• • •

Three wide brick steps led to the building’s front door—a door that opened without a key.

Chay frowned. This wasn’t a city in which doors should open without keys. Come to think of it, there wasn’t a city in the world where that should happen.

Would the rest of Bianca’s living arrangements be as unsafe?

Almost, he thought grimly as she led him through a small vestibule to another door. This one, at least, was locked, but the lock was pretty much a joke, and besides, anyone could walk straight through that front door and be waiting right here for an unwary tenant.

For Bianca.

A staircase loomed ahead.

“I’m four flights up,” she said.

It was an apology as much as a warning.

Yeah, well, he was going to owe her an apology too.

Her plan to get rid of him after a pot of coffee and a handful of dry towels just wasn’t going to happen.

He had every intention of sticking around for a while. What had happened at Cuppa Joe’s had shaken her, but it worried the crap out of him. Sure, he’d scared the nut job, but enough to make a lasting impression? That was the thing about crazies. You could never be sure of how they were going to behave even five minutes later.

Besides, he thought as he followed her up the stairs, he didn’t want to leave. Not yet. He knew it sounded weird, but he felt as if he was just getting to know her. Yes, they’d had sex, but he’d never had a real look at the woman who lived inside that prickly exterior.

He had tonight.

And he liked what he saw.

He’d never thought much about liking a woman before, which made this kind of interesting.

Not that his thoughts were entirely Snow White pure.

He could still remember having sex with her, in lush detail. And, yeah, something new in the way of a memory of those moments would be nice.

If nothing else, he liked looking at her. She was beautiful. Natural. What you saw was what you got.

Right now, he was getting was a great view of what was an extremely nice ass. Part of it, anyway, the part not covered by his denim jacket.

Only a dead man wouldn’t notice, and even though he hadn’t been deployed for weeks, he was far from being dead.

An extremely nice ass. And long legs. And great hip action.

And, thank God, they’d finally reached the fourth-floor landing.

Bianca paused just long enough that he wondered what she’d do if he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back against him so she could feel what going up the stairs behind her had accomplished.

Slap his face, maybe, he thought, and he choked back a laugh.

“What?” she said.

Chay turned the laugh into a cough. “Must be coming down with a cold,” he said, “from being out in the rain so long.”

She clucked her tongue as she marched to the end of the hall.

“One does not acquire a cold from being out in the rain.”