One Hot Mess by Lois Greiman

Author:Lois Greiman [Greiman, Lois]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780440338291
Publisher: Dell
Published: 2009-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

19

When blondes have more fun, do they know it?

—Brainy Laney Butterfield,

who happens to be blond

ILENCE THRUMMED AROUND US, and suddenly it felt as if everyone else in the world had been sucked into oblivion. Rivera took a step toward me, and I, like a fly drawn to sticky paper, took a step toward him.

Feelings bubbled like boiling tar through me. Memories buzzed along my tittering nerve endings. And each of them featured Rivera. In some of them he was wearing clothes. In all of them he was touching me, burning me with his hands, branding me with his eyes.

“Jack,” someone said, but the voice seemed to come from a long way away. “Jack,” she said again, louder now and whinier. He halted on a teetering step.

I stopped.

“Jack honey.” We turned our heads in unison. The woman who tugged at his sleeve was blond, petite, and cute enough to be in a pet-store window.

“Our tables ready.” She had a voice vaguely reminiscent of a certain cartoon mouse. “We have to go.”

The world stood frozen, waiting, and then Officer Tavis spoke. “You must be Lieutenant Rivera.”

We stared at my undate in unbreathing tandem.

He was smiling tentatively and extending his broad hand. Rivera did neither. Instead, he turned back toward me, eyes as sharp as a cobras. But the searing passion was gone, replaced by a thousand watts of frustration and contempt and another dozen emotions I could neither read nor catalog. “Making up for lost time, McMullen?” he rumbled.

My heart was pounding like a runaway broomtail. “Rivera,” I breathed. My voice sounded funny, like something from a crackly old movie, too melodramatic to be taken seriously.

Still, he almost moved toward me. I could sense it in the tightness of his jaw, in the snap of his eyes, but finally he fisted a hand and exhaled.

“Feeding him first to keep up his strength?” he asked. His eyes were flat now, his tone the same.

Minnie Mouse had linked her arm through his. She looked proprietary and cocky and bleached to the bone. Inexplicable anger coursed through me like lava in a lamp. “Rent A Blonde still open?” I asked.

He scoured Tavis's long form. “Least I didn't have to pay by the inch.”

“Officer Tavis happens to be a respected—”

“Officer!” he snorted, and threw back his head and laughed.

I'm not sure what happened next. One moment I was standing there like a relatively sane human being and then I was torpedoing forward without any kind of lucid plan in my head. But in that instant Tavis grabbed me around the waist and snagged me back to his side.

I think I heard him swear.

“Let me go.” My voice sounded a little rabid.

Tavis's sounded like he was speaking to something that slavered. “Not 'til you calm down.” His lips were very close to my ear.

Rivera stared at me for another heart-pounding second, then turned and walked away, Minnie on his arm.

“Chrissy?”

“I'm calm,” I rasped.

“And I'm the king of Albania. Come on,” Tavis ordered, and prodded me toward the door.

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