was the more professional way to think of him.
Lilah knew it bothered him she’d hung on to the ruby. His frustration had been on display multiple times since she and her business partners had found the gems buried in the concrete floor of their wedding business, yet he always maintained a professional demeanor and a polite attitude.
Which only made her want to muss him up.
She didn’t trust men who projected absolute control, yet she couldn’t deny the appeal of the stoic cop. Nor could she fully deny he was spot on with the rubies, one of which was still warm from her body heat.
A situation she knew she needed to fix, even as she couldn’t quite deny the need to keep the ruby in her possession. Yes, the stone fascinated her, the good detective wasn’t wrong about that. But it was something more.
She’d lived without any control—or a single bargaining chip—for too long. The idea of placing that control in a safe-deposit box nagged at her.
So while she battled the rational versus the instinctual, she kept the ruby buried in her shoe.
And despite their danger, she couldn’t deny how the stones had brought a sense of closure to her best friend, Cassidy.
Even more important, they’d brought with them the love of Cassidy’s life, Tucker Buchanan.
Another delicious shiver pulled her from the thoughts of Cassidy and Tucker as her gaze caught Reed’s. The man was an interesting one, she mused. Physically impressive, with a broad chest and narrow waist, he wore authority in every muscle and sinew of his body. But it was more than the physical.
Quiet, calm and decidedly by the book, he’d been assigned their case after the first break-in the week before. He’d been professional, and she, Cassidy and Violet had also seen how much he cared about his job.
Reed Graystone was a good cop.
It wove around his shoulders like a mantle, telegraphing his desire to protect and defend.
But none of it changed the ornery need to poke at him. Lilah knew it was no use to pick a fight but the tension of the past week had begun to fray everyone’s edges. So she stood her ground and allowed her eyebrows to take a decided lift north. “Cupcake? Is this the sort of sexist nickname you use with all the women in your life? Or is it some derogatory reference to my profession?”
Another cookie disappeared between his lips, followed by a wicked grin a few short moments later. “I’d never insult a woman who spins sugar into gold.”
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Tucker’s partner, Max Baldwin, with an empty plate in hand. He was as large as Reed—larger, actually, his figure thicker and boxy—and their impressive forms seemed to fill up her kitchen, making the vast space appear small. Max’s bright blue eyes narrowed as they roved over Reed. “Are there any more of these bacon cheese puffs, Lilah?”
She didn’t miss Reed’s raised eyebrows but the detective said nothing as she reached for a fresh tray of Max’s favorite appetizers she’d kept warming on top of the stove. “Of course I have more.” Barely. Lilah made a mental note to bake in greater quantities when Tucker and Max came over for lunch. When a second note quickly followed the first—make more madeleines for surprise visits from the detective—she swiftly pushed away cozy images of Reed Graystone regularly sitting in her industrial kitchen.
She scooped several more bacon-and-cheese-wrapped puff pastries onto the plate and passed them over to Max.
Although the casual talk of appetizers seemed silly relative to the problem they were still dealing with, Lilah knew the food helped provide a subtle sense of normalcy. Tucker and Max had spent several days with them after the destructive break-in to help fix the ruined display areas while also providing the simple reassurance of their presence. They’d also managed to subtly redesign those areas and Cassidy had been like a kid with candy as she rearranged several of her creations on a series of raised platforms.
A few treats were the least she could do.
Since the showdown a few days prior with Cassidy’s ex-fiancé, Robert Barrington, life had begun to return to normal. The need to look over shoulders or keep an eye on the large display windows that fronted their shop had begun to recede. So had the hard bundle of nerves that had settled deep in her stomach.
What they’d not yet decided was what to do about the rubies. Hence today’s visit from the good detective.
Reed’s eyebrows rose. “Jeez, Baldwin. Hungry?”
Max’s gaze drifted toward the depleted cookie plate and the smatter of crumbs on Reed’s black T-shirt. “Pot. Meet kettle.”
Cassidy’s new fiancé, Tucker, walked in. She might have half the building to herself, but Lilah didn’t think this room had seen this many men in one place since it was under construction.
“Did you seriously eat them all, Baldwin?” Tucker asked, looking at the empty plate on the counter.
Tucker’s tall form and sweet smile brought about her own grin. Cassidy had chosen well. Tucker Buchanan was a gentleman, in every sense of the word. He’d also protected Cassidy when the threat around the jewels had hit its worst, and Lilah knew they were crazy about each other.
She turned back to the stove and let her new reality settle over her once more.
There were men inside her business. In her kitchen, in fact. Large men who had seen violence and were equally capable of committing it.
That fact should have bothered her, yet they’d all made her feel safe.
Secure.
Max and Tucker were former military, part of the Army Corps of Engineers. She didn’t know all the details, but Cassidy had shared a bit of Tucker’s background and she knew his skills in architectural design were only rivaled by his ability to destroy architectural marvels.
As for Reed...
She hadn’t pegged his personality yet and she was usually very good when it came to reading others.
Usually.
Lilah shook off the old memories and focused on the matter at hand. She’d made a valiant attempt to read the detective over the past week and while she didn’t have all the answers, she couldn’t deny that he also made her feel safe.
His devotion to justice certainly went a long way toward cementing that feeling, but it was something more. Something hovering just out of reach. A sense, really, that Reed Graystone was more than the sum of his parts.
And there she had it. Where her business used to be full of estrogen and wedding talk, it had devolved into discussions centered on danger, decades-long deception and men who gave her moon eyes over her gooey, pork-infused pastries.
She wasn’t a fanciful woman—she’d lost that skill long ago—but even she wasn’t immune to that juxtaposition.
“Come on. Back in the main office so we can discuss finally getting back to normal.” She didn’t miss the matched looks of longing across all three men’s faces at the small scattering of appetizers on the warmed plate. “After, of course, I throw another batch in the oven.”
* * *
Reed snatched the last puff pastry—more to piss Max Baldwin off than any real hunger—and watched the byplay between the three women who had descended into his life like Dorothy in the middle of Oz.
While he didn’t quite feel as if he had a house on his head, he was increasingly concerned how his world had exploded in vivid Technicolor.
Speaking of color...
Lilah returned, now with a plate of desserts that drew a worshipful expression from Max, and set them down on an oversize coffee table in the main area of what Reed supposed was a bridal salon. A long wall of mirrors and elaborate-looking dressing rooms stood on the far wall and he had positioned himself in a very large velour chair in a shade of red that screamed