Sissy Mae tsk-tsk’d him. “Honestly, you cats have no sense of what’s proper. Mauling a nice girl like that.”

“You’re kidding, right, Lassie?”

“Why you rude, son of a—”

“Now, Sissy Mae,” her brother warned as he dragged his big, long body into one of the leather chairs. “Don’t go gettin’ all angry at Mace. You know the boy has never been in love before.” Smitty looked right at his friend with challenge in his dark brown eyes. “Now have ya, hoss?”

He would kill him. Slam him down and rip him open from bowel to throat. Yeah. He loved Dez, but he didn’t want to tell Dez that yet. Not when she physically flinched every time he got near the subject.

Damn, you call a man’s sister Lassie and they get all defensive.

He looked at Dez. Yup. There it was. In those beautiful gray eyes. Panic. The only time the woman panicked. Anytime it involved him and his feelings for her.

Sissy Mae pushed him off Dez. He rolled away from her, his legs stretched out, his upper body raised on his elbows. Sissy helped Dez to her feet.

“Come on, darlin’. Let’s order breakfast.”

“Don’t you mean lunch, little sister?” Smitty asked as he stretched and yawned.

Mace waited until the women went back to Sissy’s room, then he glared at his friend. “Well, thank you very much!”

“Don’t roar at me, boy. You called my baby sister Lassie. Only I can get away with that. Besides…you do love her. You fuckin’ reek of it.”

Mace dropped back to the floor. “I know,” he moaned.

“Jesus, Mace. My momma was right. You are more wolf than cat. Attaching yourself to one person and all.”

“Cats attach themselves to one person.” He raised his head to glare at Smitty. “We just don’t let them know.”

Smitty chuckled. “Guess I blew that, huh?”

“God, Sissy Mae. What the fuck am I going to do?”

“You New Yorkers sure do cuss a lot.”

“I didn’t used to, but Mace keeps bringing out the angry Bronx girl in me.”

“You know what you’re going to do, Dez? You’re going to love him and go about your day.” Sissy Mae gently unwrapped Dez’s sprained wrist.

“This was supposed to be a fling—wasn’t it?”

“Well, if you were a barhook on one of the bases that would be possible. But you’re the great Desiree MacDermot. Mace’s true ladylove. If you ask me—”

“And I didn’t.”

“But if you did, I’d say that boy’s been waitin’ on you his whole life.”

“You’re kind of a romantic, aren’t ya?”

Sissy Mae smiled. “I’mnot romantic at all, darlin’. I’m a realist. And a good one. I know what I see when it’s right in front of me. And your entire body vibrates around that man.”

Mace had no idea what went down between Sissy Mae and Dez but suddenly Dez wouldn’t look at him. They ate brunch and Dez talked to Sissy Mae the entire time. They watched A Christmas Story, and Dez leaned up against his side but still wouldn’t look at him.

Eventually he couldn’t take it anymore. He slid his hand down the back of her pants.

Dez made a little squeak sound and began to rub her eyes with her knuckles.

“Everything all right, darlin’?” Sissy asked with all the subtlety of…well, a dog. “Need anything?”

“No. I’m fine.” Except that Dez’s voice went up an octave. Which sounded strange with the gravelly rasp she usually came out with.

When Sissy went back to watching television, Dez slammed her elbow in Mace’s gut, but he did no more than grunt.

She leaned against his ear. “Get your hand out of my pants.”

Mace shook his head and gently rubbed one of her cheeks with his unsheathed claw. She jammed her elbow in his gut again. “Cut it out.”

“Make me.”

The couple ducked as the wolves began chucking paper goods at them.

Sissy smiled at her friends. “You two better go. Before it turns into a catfight.”

Good. Exactly what Mace wanted. He pulled his hand out of Dez’s pants and yanked the woman to her feet. He barely gave her enough time to grab her jacket before he snatched her out of the hotel room toward the elevators. Sissy Mae yelling something about after-Christmas shopping, the last thing he heard before the doors closed.

Dez watched Mace pull his big, undamaged body out of the taxi. Her breath caught, her breasts tightened, and visions of things the nuns definitely would never approve of ran through her head. She turned away and began walking toward the house while Mace paid the taxi driver. Maybe for once she would have a good holiday. At least she’d actually get some holiday nooky for a change. The way Mace stared at her in the cab—she was damn positive she’d get some holiday nooky. Maybe they could have some more fun on her stairs.

Dez walked up her porch and unlocked the security door. She went to open the front door when Mace came up behind her. He kissed her neck, his arm wrapping tight around her waist, pulling her close into his warm body.

When he purred in her ear, she thought she might pass out.

“We’re supposed to see your family at five o’clock.”

“It’s already four-thirty. My parents live in Queens. We’ll call ’em and tell ’em I had to work or something. We’ll just lie our asses off.”