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  “What are you thinking?” He looked worried.

  “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” She leaned over him again. “Just getting the phone.”

  “You’re scaring me here. You aren’t going to do anything to the crown jewels are you?”

  She rolled her eyes as she grabbed hold of the phone. Slowly, she slid the phone out of his pocket as she looked him in the eye. She felt more courageous than she had in her life. No, she felt brazen.

  There was a moment where electricity zapped between them like lightning. Davina found it hard to breath.

  “Andy Harper.” Jack’s eyes seemed to have her transfixed. “Don’t call the home number, call the department number.”

  Davina tore her gaze away. She flicked open the phone, scrolled through the contact list and dialled.

  “Brighton Police, how can I direct your call?” a voice said.

  “Andy Harper, please.”

  There was a pause. She could see Jack’s pulse beat along his jaw line. Davina had an overwhelming urge to lick the skin where it beat.

  “Detective Harper here,” the voice in her ear said.

  “Hello, this is Davina Davenport. A man tried to break into my home and he says he’s a friend of yours.”

  “Give me that phone,” Jack ordered.

  “He also said that he owns the house,” Davina said. “Is this true?”

  “What is that idiot doing now?” Andy said. “Are you in Millie’s old place?”

  “Yep,” Davina said, as her heart sank.

  “Did he just try and barge in? I told him that was a mistake. Let me talk to Jack.”

  “Okay,” Davina said slowly, her eyes on Jack. “But there are a couple of things I need to tell you first. I thought he was breaking in so I knocked him out and tied him up and now I don’t want to free him without a witness.”

  There was a moment’s silence.

  “He looks pretty mad,” she said.

  The laughter was so loud she had to move the phone away from her ear. Once it had quietened down she listened again.

  “Put the idiot on the phone,” Andy said, sounding really cheery.

  Davina held the phone to Jack’s head while he grunted a couple of times. There was more laughter from his friend Andy. She took the phone back.

  “I’ll be there in half an hour,” Andy told her.

  She clicked the phone shut.

  They stared at each other.

  “Isn’t this the part where you apologise?” Jack said as he lay there looking up at her.

  “Am I going to get charged with assault?”

  “I’m thinking about it.”

  “Well in that case you should know that I’m sorry.” She shuffled towards him. “Very, very sorry.”

  He looked slightly panicked.

  “What are you doing, Davina?” he said evenly. “Davy?” His voice had a hint of panic.

  Davina ignored the fact he’d shortened her name. Her mind was elsewhere. Her brain had been stolen by aliens. Horny aliens. She tried to look wide-eyed and innocent, which was a breeze, because she was after all an actress. She ran a hand up the front of his old Smiths T-shirt, bringing it to rest in the centre of his chest.

  “I’ve never tied a man up before,” she said.

  Don’t do it. You don’t know this man. This is stupid.

  She waved a hand in front of herself to clear away the pesky thoughts.

  “You said it yourself.” She inched towards him. “I have the power.”

  She looked him in the eye.

  “That sort of thing can make a girl crazy.”

  “So I see,” he said quietly.

  “Do you have a wife? A girlfriend?”

  “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “Do you?”

  He sighed heavily.

  “No, crazy lady, I don’t.”

  She grinned. It was one thing behaving badly, another hurting someone. Davy stood up, straddled Jack and slowly sat back down. Her tight knit skirt bunched up around her thighs as she sat in place. In his lap.

  “Davina?” He voice sounded strained and confused. “Davy?”

  “We’ve got half an hour before you’re freed. I might never be in this position again. I want to experiment.”

  He gulped.

  “On me?”

  Her eyes roamed from his deep set eyes, to his wide jaw to his even wider shoulders. A low guttural sigh escaped her.

  “Yes, please,” she said, before leaning in to kiss him.

  As soon as her lips touched his, she was certain that this was the craziest, and the sexiest, thing she had ever done.

  The top blew off Jack’s head. Literally. He knew because he couldn’t feel the throbbing pain in it anymore. There was no way he should let his crazy tenant kiss him, but then there was no way he could stop her.

  His gut twisted inside as her lips hit his. She smelled of cinnamon and lemon. She tasted of vanilla and chocolate cake. It was like falling, head first, into a bakery. His senses were in overdrive. And that body of hers! She wriggled against him, driving him crazy, making him strain against the scarves, desperate to get his hands on her. Frustration made his blood boil over, so he concentrated all of his efforts on the kiss.

  She slipped away from his mouth to whisper in his ear.

  “I know this is stupid,” she said before she bit his earlobe. “But you’re like a Christmas present, waiting to be unwrapped.”

  This was a scene from a movie. A really, really good movie. One you get on pay-per-view.

  Her tongue worked slowly round his ear. From the sound of her breathing she was as far gone as he was.

  “I like feeling powerful. What do you think, Jack? Do you like it?”

  She bit him again, he groaned. He felt her grin against his cheek.

  “Are you wondering what I’m going to do? How far I’ll go?” She kissed his neck under his ear. “Is it driving you crazy?”

  She bit the muscle in his shoulder, and he clenched his teeth as his jeans became painfully tight. He arched up towards her and was unreasonably proud when he heard her gasp.

  “I’ve never done anything like this before,” she said as she sat up.

  “I believe you,” he said solemnly, because he didn’t know what he was supposed to say. That seemed to appease her.

  She slipped her hands under the hem of his T-shirt and ran them up his chest. Her fingers wide, curving over his muscles. He couldn’t see the colour of her eyes now, they were black with wanting him.

  “Hairy,” she murmured.

  “Manly,” he corrected.

  “I like.” She smiled slightly as she leaned in towards him.

  Her kiss was deeper, more urgent than the last one. She gripped his chest, her long nails digging into him as she shifted in his lap to get closer. He wanted to roar. He needed to break free of his bonds. In his mind he’d ripped the ties off, flipped her onto her back and was ten seconds away from getting that dress off her.

  “This is seriously sexy, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah,” he mumbled against her lips.

  Although the rational part of his brain also told him that it was off the charts insane.

  “If I was really courageous, I would do a lot more than kiss you,” she said.

  “Go ahead.” Please, go ahead.

  “Your friend is coming.”

  “I’m hoping he isn’t the only one.”

  That made her smile against his mouth. Then she started the kisses all over again.

  “I can see that I shouldn’t have bothered rushing over to rescue you.” Andy’s voice jerked the two of them apart.

  Davina flushed deep red, jumped up and pulled her dress down around her calves, covering those killer legs.

  “Come back in an hour,” Jack ordered.

  There was absolutely no point in pretending this wasn’t happening. Truth be told, he would rather the rescue was postponed.

  “Hi.” Davina went into polite mode and stu
ck out her hand. “I’m Davina.”

  Andy was highly amused. Davina waved in Jack’s direction.

  “I don’t usually do this sort of thing.” Jack wished she would stop saying that. It didn’t help his mood any.

  “Tie someone up?” Andy said, still grinning like an idiot.

  “No, jump them when they’re helpless.”

  Andy’s shoulders started to shake as he struggled to contain his laughter. Jack glared at him. Davina looked between the two of them.

  “I mean, I don’t tie people up either,” she said helpfully.

  “Is anyone going to cut me loose?” Jack was fed up being helpless and wanted to be freed before Andy remembered that there was a camera on his phone.

  “I’ll do it,” Davina said helpfully.

  She unpicked the knots in the scarves.

  “Just cut it,” Jack told her in frustration.

  “I will not. I like these scarves.”

  He gritted his teeth as Andy sat on the stairs beside him.

  “Aren’t you going to help?” Jack asked him.

  “Uh uh, this is the most entertainment I’ve had since you left the force.”

  “Glad to be of service.”

  “Seems I’m not the only one you’re servicing.”

  That sent his friend off into hysterical laughter again. At last Davina removed all of his ties. Jack struggled to his feet, rubbing the blood back into his wrists. She took a few steps away from him, to make sure that Andy was between them. That grated. She was the one who’d attacked him, not the other way around.

  “Sorry about all that.” Davina pointed to the spot where he’d been held.

  He wasn’t quite sure what ‘all that’ she was talking about. The assault, the bondage or the make out session.

  “Um, you won’t let it affect our relationship?” she said as she shuffled on the spot. “You know, the tenancy.”

  His eyes narrowed. He’d forgotten about the house.

  “I came to inspect the place,” he told her.

  That made her move. She practically ran to stand in front of the door.

  “I need two weeks’ notice in writing,” she said.

  If her cheeks weren’t still flushed he would have wondered if the past half hour had been a hallucination.

  “Notice?” He took a step towards her. “It’s my damn house and I want to inspect it.”

  “She’s right,” Andy said. “It’s the law. If you hadn’t had your head stuck in drug crimes for years you’d know a thing or two about other stuff.”

  “Two weeks, Mr Miller,” Davina said.

  “So now we’re formal?” He leaned towards her and whispered so only she could hear. “We weren’t so formal when you had your tongue down my throat and were wriggling against Mr Big.”

  Her eyes popped.

  “You have a name for your...” She looked down at him.

  “That’s not the point. The point is, this is my house now. I want to inspect it and I don’t want a tenant.”

  She puffed up her ample chest making him lose focus for a second.

  “You can’t kick me out, I have a tenancy agreement.”

  “I can if there is any problem with the inspection.”

  “Well in two weeks’ time, when you inspect the place, you can decide then. But not before two weeks. I want notice. In writing.”

  He grunted before thrusting his hand into his jacket pocket. He found an old supermarket receipt and a pen. He wrote – inspection, two weeks today, Jack Miller, landlord – on the back of it and thrust it at her.

  Davina took it with trembling fingers. Everything within Jack stilled. He knew this feeling. She was hiding something. In his house.

  “Is there something you want to tell me, Davy?” He thought he sounded reasonable.

  She seemed to hold her breath.

  “Are you hiding something?”

  She blinked as her cheeks paled.

  “Yes,” she said at last. “There are ten dead bodies in the lounge and the bedroom is full of stolen treasure.”

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Andy grabbed his arm before he could reply. “Time to go. It was nice meeting you, Davina. We’ll see you in two weeks.”

  Jack gave her a look that said he was onto her.

  She stood guard in front of the door while Jack and Andy walked to their respective cars.

  “She’s up to something,” Jack told Andy.

  “And you got that while she was writhing on top of you?”

  “I’m telling you, there is something dodgy going on here. I know it.”

  “Your instincts are a bit rusty, Jackie boy.”

  Jack shook his head grimly. He’d made one mistake at work and now no one believed him. Not even Andy. That hurt.

  “I’ll run a check on her,” Andy said with resignation. “Will that help?”

  “Yeah.” Jack felt unreasonably grateful.

  “In the meantime, how about you keep up your court-mandated appointments with the head-shrinker?”

  Jack glared at his friend. Brighton, the town was too small. Everybody knew his business. He should have seen a counsellor in London, that way no one would know when he missed a session. Or two.

  “I don’t need to go,” he told his friend. “I was burnt out from work. I don’t work anymore. Ergo, no burn out.”

  “Yeah.” Andy cocked his head towards Davina. “I can see how together you are.”

  “That wasn’t me,” Jack protested as he opened his car door. “That was her. She’s insane.”

  Andy grinned.

  “Yeah, and I kiss all the insane women I meet too.”

  “I didn’t kiss her willingly. I had no choice.”

  Andy was still laughing when he drove away. Jack gave Davina one last look.

  “I’ll be back,” he shouted.

  Before he climbed into his car he saw her slap her forehead and mumble something.

  Nuts. She was freaking nuts.

  He glanced at her as he drove away.

  Seriously sexy, but totally off her trolley.

  CHAPTER TWO

  14 DAYS TO MAKE A MOVIE...

  “YOU DID WHAT?” MARIANNE’S voice was shrill.

  “I know.” Davina kicked the oven door shut. “I lost my mind for a minute.”

  “A minute?” Marianne moved the cooling trays into position on the counter.

  “Maybe an hour,” Davina conceded. “But seriously Mar, you should see this man. He’s solid testosterone. Muscle. Bad attitude.” She shivered at the thought. “He even has scars. And he was just sitting there, helpless, waiting for someone to come along and eat him up.”

  She grinned at her best friend. Marianne folded her arms over her prim grey suit.

  “What were you thinking? The man is a stranger. He could be dangerous.”

  Davina closed her eyes. She hadn’t been thinking. Not at all.

  “I know, I know. But I did think about that part. I knew he wasn’t dangerous. He’s an ex-policeman.”

  “Exactly.” Marianne placed yet another tray of brownies on the cooling rack. “The last thing you need is to have police of any sort snooping around. Need I remind you that you have a basement full of stolen equipment?”

  “Borrowed,” Davina corrected automatically as she counted brownies. “It’s going back as soon as the movie is finished.”

  “You’ve been saying that for six months.”

  Davina unwrapped her 1950’s style apron from around her waist and sighed. Marianne meant well. She always meant well, but unlike Davina she didn’t understand the necessity of colouring outside the lines once in a while. Marianne would die before she went over the lines.

  “Well now I have a deadline,” she told her worrisome friend. “The equipment has to be out of the house before the inspection. So I have two weeks to finish the movie. Unless the Terminator figures out some way to get into the house before that.”

  “Terminator?”

  “That’s exactly who he reminded me
of, Arnie in Terminator 2.”

  Davina passed a warm brownie to Marianne.

  “You know, you could keep the equipment in your basement for a few days, just until the inspection is over. That way I wouldn’t need to rush to finish the movie.”

  Marianne took the offered brownie.

  “Thanks for the bribe, but that isn’t going to happen. I’m not hiding stolen goods. I watch Law and Order; it’s aiding and abetting or something like that. I could do serious jail time.”

  Davina cocked an eyebrow.

  “Jail time? Really? When you’ve never even had a parking ticket, let alone committed a real offence.”

  Marianne’s pale skin flushed, making her strawberry blond hair seem pink.

  “I don’t want any trouble with the law,” she said.

  “Will you please stop talking in dialogue from a bad western movie?” Davina pulled an old stool out from under the counter and plonked down on it. “Fine, if you won’t help me then I’ll just have to make sure the movie is finished before the inspection.” She gnawed at her lip. “Easier said than done when your whole crew consists of three teenage boys and an accountant.”

  “Chartered accountant,” Marianna reminded her.

  Davina reached for more brownies, handing one to her friend and taking the other.

  “Sorry, how could I forget, a chartered accountant is so much better at handling a camera than a bog standard, run of the mill accountant.”

  “And don’t you forget it.”

  They ate in silence. The triple chocolate fudge delight melted in her mouth. For one blissful second her problems melted away along with the brownie.

  “I need more people,” she said at last.

  “Or a different career. You should try to get more catering jobs.”

  Davina shook her head. They’d been over this many times.

  “I can’t cook, Mar, only bake.”

  “Yep, but it’s great baking.”

  “Thanks, but back to the problem in hand. If we’re to finish this movie in two weeks we need help.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. What about asking one of the camera guys at work to help out?”

  “Most of them live up London way or are tied up with family commitments. That really only leaves...” She looked at her friend.