Page 84 of Edge of Danger

She smiled reluctantly at him. And then to his vague surprise, she downed the double shot of vodka in a single toss of the wrist. She coughed, and he pounded her back until she caught her breath. He steadied her as she righted herself, his hands resting on her shoulders.

Don’t be stupid, McCloud. Not only was this woman his partner, but he didn’t even know if he could trust her or not.

Although it wasn’t like he’d trusted her the first time he’d fallen into the sack with her, either. Apparently, he liked an edge of danger in his serious relationships with women. Which made him officially an idiot. Or drunk. Or both.

“Thanks for coming to my defense against the peroxide super villain back in the bar,” he murmured.

“And thank you for taking on Mount Marine in my behalf. He’d have killed you if it had come down to a fight.”

“T-Bone? Nah. I’ve taken him before.”

She blinked up at him, surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah. And last time I wasn’t motivated to defend my woman from the bastard.”

“Your—“ she breathed, breaking off abruptly, as if the notion shocked the hell out of her.

God knew, it shocked him. Was that how he thought of her? His woman? In spite of everything she’d failed to share with him before? Sonofabitch.

“Whew. That vodka’s going straight to my head,” she muttered, swaying just a little.

“Didn’t your daddy ever tell you not to mix beer and hard liquor? It’ll knock you on your ass.”

She giggled a little. “My daddy thinks anything stronger than milk is the devil’s drink. Whiskey’s only for cleaning wounds in his world.”

“Boring bastard. How’d he ever manage to land a woman and have two kids?”

“My mom was hot. I look like her—but not as sexy as she was. That’s why my father hates me. I remind him of her.”

She might not be officially drunk, but apparently the vodka was making her a little more brutally honest than usual. Or maybe it was her promise to be honest to him kicking in.

Letting down his guard around her was a mistake. His rational self knew it as surely as he was standing here. She could still be lying to him. Could still be trying ti distract him from thinking about her family and what they were preparing to do.

But he was contemplating stripping her down and crawling into the sack with her as surely as he was standing here.Dumb idea, McCloud.

Damn. Maybe he’d had more to drink than he realized. Or maybe the stress of the past few months had finally caught up with him. Either way, he felt an irresistible urge to cut loose and make love with her.

Sleep. They both needed to sleep off the booze they’d imbibed. His head would be clearer in the morning.

“Bedtime for Piper.” He lifted her plain white t-shirt over her head. “If it came to a choice between me and your father in a firefight, which one of us would you save?”

“Duh. You.” Her voice was muffled by the cotton and he gave a quick yank. Her face, partially covered by mussed hair, popped into sight.

“Seriously? You’d choose me over your family?”

“Love is thicker than blood.” She punctuated the statement by poking him in the chest with her index finger.

“Love, huh? You drunk, Roth?”

“Not nearly drunk enough. Where’d you get those little bottles of vodka from?”

“I have a better idea.” He swept his arm around her waist and pulled her up against his chest. “Let’s get drunk on each other.”

What the hell was he doing? This was madness. The last thing he needed to do was further complicate an already complicated relationship by sleeping with her again. Crap. How drunkwashe?

She laughed and looped her arms around his neck. “I’m always a little drunk on you. As soon as you touch me, boom. There goes my brain.”

He totally knew the sensation. She did the exact same thing to his brain. He grinned down at her. “Good to know. Any other classified information about yourself you’d like to divulge to me, seeing as how I won’t remember it in the morning?”

---