face he recognized.
He had to get her out of there.
Setting the bottle down on the nearest table, he looked at the dance floor and frowned when he discovered she wasn’t there. Gripping the brass railing in front of him, he played a short game of Where’s Waldo? before locating her on her way to the bar with her friend. After checking the nearest exit point, he headed straight for her.
He was two steps away when the music stopped and voices yelled out, ‘NYPD. Everyone stay where you are!’
With her focus on what was happening on the other side of the room, she jumped in surprise as he grabbed her hand. Her eyes widened when she looked up at him. ‘What—?’
‘This way.’
She tugged against his hold as he dragged her towards the exit. ‘Let me go!’
‘You want to get arrested?’
‘No, but—’
‘Then follow my lead.’
Hauling open the door, he stepped them into a dimly lit hallway and looked from side to side. A lightning-fast inventory revealed restrooms, a payphone, steps to what Tyler assumed was a basement on their left and enough banging from the right to indicate they were about to have company. The basement was the most viable option if it had a loading bay that opened onto the sidewalk, but before he could check he heard a crash. Out of time and in need of a distraction, he backed her into the wall and smashed his lips against hers.
Big mistake.
The fuse she’d lit from the dance floor set off the equivalent of an explosive charge. Plumes of fire engulfed him, incinerating rational thought as the invitation of her parted lips was met with the instinctual thrust of his tongue. Need pulsed through his body as an appreciative moan vibrated in her throat. His hand gripped her hip and slid lower. In response she lifted her leg off the ground and hooked it around the back of his knee, allowing him to cradle a silky thigh and lift it higher.
It didn’t matter if they were seconds away from being discovered in a highly compromised position. If anything it immediately turned his thoughts to the position his body desperately wanted to be in—his imagination adding fuel to the fire with the suggestion her underwear was as sexy as her dress. Or, better still, non-existent.
‘You seeing this?’ a voice asked.
‘Hey! Break it up over there,’ another voice demanded.
Wrenching his mouth free, Tyler hauled in much needed air before squinting at the beams of light aimed their way. Allowing the leg he was holding to lower to the floor he took a step forwards to block her body with his.
‘Stay right where you are, buddy,’ the first voice said in warning.
Recognizing who it was, Tyler raised his arms at his sides, palms forwards, and waited for the penny to drop with the heavily armed cop. Since silently willing the younger man not to do anything stupid was pointless when saying the words out loud had never had any effect, he added an almost imperceptible shake of his head. When the torch nodded a little he assumed the point had been made and lowered his arms. But when it moved in an attempt to see who was behind him Tyler frowned. ‘Problem, Officer?’
‘You know there’s a raid going on next door?’
‘Can’t say I’d noticed...’
‘We can guess why.’ The cop cleared his throat before asking, ‘Do we need to search you two for narcotics?’
Funny guy. ‘What we’re high on doesn’t have anything to do with drugs.’ Tyler smirked.
A fine-boned hand snaked around his arm and flattened on his chest. ‘Can we get arrested for not being able to keep our hands off each other?’ the woman behind him asked in a passable, not to mention sultry Southern accent.
Tyler made a note of the fact it obviously wasn’t the first time she’d acted her way out of a tricky situation. ‘If we can I’m willing to do the time.’ He glanced over his shoulder. ‘How about you?’
‘Are there co-ed jails in the state of New York?’ She chuckled throatily, the sound strumming across the taut strings of his libido. ‘Just think how much fun we could have sharing a room.’
When she gently caught his ear lobe between her teeth and touched it with the wet tip of her tongue, he felt the impact of the contact all the way to his toes.
‘Getting a room somewhere sounds like a plan to me,’ the officer in front of them said before he lowered his torch. ‘Get outta here