Mace closed his eyes. Thank God she told him to stop. Much more and he’d have her jeans down and his cock jammed into her right in front of all of New York. He needed to get her back to her house. Or a hotel. Or an alley. He needed to fuck this woman and he needed it soon. Hell, he’d even brought a condom along…ya know…just in case.

He heard gasps around him. Mace looked up in time to watch Sissy Mae put her brother in a headlock and slam him face-first into a gate.

“How much longer can they keep that up?”

“Hours.”

“That can’t be good. Oh shit. Security.” Dez started to stand up again but he pulled her back down.

“I’d really wish you wouldn’t move right now.”

“But I—” She stopped when he pulled her closer to his bursting erection. “Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.”

“Well, what about Sissy and Smitty?”

“They can take care of themselves.”

“Honestly, Mace, can’t you control that thing?”

“Not around you apparently.” He rubbed the back of her neck with his hand. “Let’s get out of here, Dez.”

She looked at him over her shoulder. He saw the lust in her eyes. A lust as strong as his. She opened her mouth to answer but stopped when her cell phone went off.

“Goddamnit,” she angrily snapped as she answered her phone. “MacDermot.” She nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Okay.” She glanced at her watch. “Yeah. Okay. Yeah.” She closed the phone.

“I’ve gotta meet Bukowski at a bar.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. He wants to talk to me about the Petrov case.”

“He can’t do that over the phone?” He really had to stop growling things at her when annoyed and jealous. It did nothing but piss her off.

“Yeah. He can. But he probably wants to apologize too and he won’t do that over the phone.” She didn’t seem pissed at Mace’s tone, though. Instead, she acted like she expected the other shoe to drop—or for it to be thrown at her head. There was something going on and he had no idea what.

Dez rubbed the back of her neck. “You know, I’ll understand if you want to—”

“Want to what?”

“Well, if you got stuff to do or somethin’. I don’t expect you to wait for me while I take care of this.” Why the hell wouldn’t he wait for her? She wasn’t running off to one of those bullshit charities his sister chaired or going off to Milan to watch polo like his mother used to—although she really only scared those poor horses. No. Dez had a murder case with her name attached to it. He still marveled at the fact she hadn’t run screaming from him once she knew the truth. She hadn’t gone straight toher C.O., given him the whole story, and had Mace thrown into the local zoo. Instead, she’d let him fuck her until they both could barely stand and then she fucked him back.

“Dez, the only thing I want to do at the moment is you.”

She turned away from him. “Oh.”

“Do you want to meet me back at…at your house?” He winced. He almost said “our house.”

“No. You’ll scare my poor dogs to death. I’m not sure they can handle much more.”

Smitty and his sister stood in front of them. “Can you believe they asked us to leave?” Sissy demanded.

“All right you two. Get those skates off.” Dez stood up, her hand digging into Mace’s hair. An unconscious act, and that made Mace love her even more. “We’re going to a real cop bar now.”

“Like in NYPD Blue?” Sissy actually clapped her hands together.

Dez rolled her eyes at Mace as her hand stroked through his hair. “If that brings you joy, Sissy.”

They both cringed when Sissy actually squealed.

Dez grabbed the door of McCormick’s Bar; stopped; and looked at Sissy, Smitty, and Mace. “All right, you three. I have to work with these people. No fistfights. No growling. No purring. No threatening of body parts.” She looked directly at Mace. “No grabbing of body parts. No embarrassing me. No pissing me off. Are we clear?”

The trio stared at her. With a sigh, she pulled the door open and walked in. Packed with cops from two local precincts, all trying to get in some downtime before going home to their families.

“I’ll be back.” She tugged the sleeve of Mace’s jacket. “And you be nice.”

“I’m not sure I like what you’re implying.”

Dez wound her way through the crowd, greeting friends and acquaintances. She loved this bar. Loved being around other cops.

She spotted Bukowski with Crush and headed straight toward them.

“I’m taking the Pack out clubbin’ tomorrow night. Y’all should come. You know, if you can pry Dez’s thighs off your face long enough, that is.”

Remembering Dez’s order of no fistfights, Mace instead pointed to Sissy Mae. “What exactly is your sister up to?”

Smitty turned to see his baby sister happily surrounded by four SWAT team members.

“Sissy Mae Smith!”

Mace watched Smitty storm off to rescue the four men.

“Didn’t we almost arrest you a couple of nights ago?” Mace turned to find two women staring at him.

“No.” He motioned to Smitty. “You almost arrested him.”

“That’s who I saw. Patrick Doogan. I busted him about seven years ago. My last year in uniform.”