“Not going to cook naked?” she teased.

“Even vampires are vulnerable to accidents at the stove. I’d rather protect my parts, thank you very much.”

“You do that. I like your parts just the way they are.”

“I know the feeling,” he said, his eyes sweeping over her from head to toe in a way that built renewed warmth beneath her skin. “I’ll be right back.”

Rafe left her behind and went into the kitchen.

Chapter 18

They made love twice more after dinner before finally falling into a very deep sleep. Renee was awakened by the sound of music playing over and over again.

She sat up, disoriented for a moment, pushing the wild curls of her hair out of her face. Sunlight was streaming into the bedroom, cascading over a gorgeous sleeping man whose chest she had just abandoned. She slipped out of the covers and grabbed his robe, hurrying into it as she padded barefoot toward the familiar music.

It was her phone playing the theme from Sherlock. Emily had programmed it in one night after a few glasses of wine. It was the least offensive choice, the other being “Baby Got Back.” Renee had put her foot down saying it wasn’t professional. Could she imagine that song playing as she was informing a family their loved one was dead? Absolutely not.

She scrambled around her discarded clothing until she found her jeans and pulled the phone from her pocket.

“Hello?”

“Hey. We’ve got another one,” Jimmy said.

“Another what?” she asked.

“Another body. What else? And the deets sound very familiar. You coming?”

She hesitated. She didn’t have to go. It was her day off. In fact she had the entire weekend off. So did Jimmy. But Jimmy was like her. He never shut off the job completely. He always showed up to work even when he wasn’t called in.

“I’m coming,” she said at last. “But I have a very busy weekend planned. We’ll have to hand this off to someone else until Monday.”

“I just figured you’d want to be there while the scene is fresh.”

“I do. I want to be there. What’s the address?”

“Ready for it?” Jimmy relayed the address and Renee typed it into her phone.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” she told him, trying to calculate how long it would take her to shower, dress, and travel the few blocks to Fifth Avenue. She would have to work fast and even then she was pretty sure her time frame was unachievable. But she would do her best.

She hung up with Jimmy and fetched her overnight bag from where she had dropped it the night before. She snuck past a still-sleeping vampire and hustled into and out of the shower. She dressed in clean jeans and a sweater.

She then hunted for a piece of paper and a pen. He was sleeping so soundly she didn’t want to wake him just to say goodbye. The only thing she found was a whiteboard on the refrigerator, so she quickly jotted a message. Then she texted him just to be sure he got the message. She stuffed her phone and her wallet into her purse and clipped her gun and badge to her belt. She had gone to bed without securing her weapon last night, very much unlike her. She made a mental note to not be so careless in the future. She didn’t even remember taking her weapon off. It had just been discarded as frantically as the rest of her clothes.

There was time for self-recriminations later. Right now she had a crime scene to get to. She then stopped in the center of the room.

Damn it. Rafe had used a keycard to use the elevator last night. Was the card required for going down as well as up? Should she just take the card from his pocket and bring it back later? Hell, depending on how long he slept, she might make it back before he even woke up. Maybe he had a second card somewhere so he wouldn’t be trapped. It made sense that he would have one. There were security guards at the entrance to the building. He could always call one of them to come get him. But would he be embarrassed about that?

She sighed. She hustled into the bedroom after finding his card and knelt by his side of the bed. She touched his shoulder and gently shook him awake. He opened his eyes slowly and she waved the card in front of his face.

“I have to go. Can I take this?”

He blinked then sat up slowly.

“You’re dressed,” he noticed.

“And late,” she added. “Can I take this?” She waved the card again.

“Yes, but…let me come with you.”

“I don’t have time to wait for you,” she said impatiently. “And it’s not like I can bring you to a crime scene.”

“You’re going to a crime scene? I thought you said you had the day off. The weekend off. You cannot go anywhere alone. We’ve already established this.”

She huffed out a sigh of frustration.

“I’ll be fine! The streets are way crowded this time of day.”

“I’m coming with you,” he said, getting out of bed. He was all deliciously naked and for a minute she was thoroughly distracted.

“You can’t,” she insisted. “Aren’t you listening to me?”

“I’ll stay on the sidelines. In the crowd of onlookers. I’m watching out for you whether you like it or not.”

He went into a drawer and pulled out a pair of jeans. He pulled them on, going commando, and was in the next drawer a moment later. He withdrew a cable-knit sweater and had it on before she could blink. Honestly, she was pretty impressed with his speed. He ran a hand through his hair to settle it and then brushed that same hand over the stubble on his jaw along the edges that were not a part of his goatee. But he didn’t even ask if he could shave; he simply took the keycard from her and went in search of his socks and boots and wallet and phone.

She realized he was just as comfortable in casual clothes as he was in a suit. He wore them both very well and she couldn’t decide which she liked better—the sharply dressed businessman or the casually dressed weekend man. She decided she didn’t have to choose, she could clearly have both, so she was content to enjoy him either way.

He made a quick trip to the bathroom and she was tapping her foot impatiently by the time he emerged. He took her hand and guided her into the front room. He took their coats from the closet and she slid hers on quickly. She realized then that he had been very quiet this entire time. As he led her out into the hallway she remarked on it.