Page 16 of The Reluctant Siren
“What do you want, Niall?” The question came out a bitbreathless.
He gave her a smile. “A chance to show you exactly how goodI can be for you, Harlow Dawson.”
The way she was looking at him damn near sent him to hisknees. And then it changed, that gorgeous face frowning. “Wait. How did youknow I was going to ask you a question?”
He had an answer prepared because he decided to chuck Gabeunder the bus the minute he told on Harlow. Oh, he knew the guy was trying towatch over his kingdom and shit and he liked him. The ladies deserved theirprivacy, however, no matter what King Gabe thought was true. Niall wasn’t lyingto her about anything he didn’t absolutely have to. “Gabe has a whole spynetwork going. He told me when I came in this evening.”
Her jaw dropped. “That asshole. I thought it was the spykids. I should have known they didn’t care about anything but the betting bookand national secrets. When did you get here?”
“Around nine-thirty.” He saw her car in the lot when heparked. He always checked on her. If she asked her question tonight, it wouldbe far easier to do it since he could stop by her work and bring her coffee orstop by her place to see if she needed anything.
Or wake up in her bed.
She huffed. “I only made this damn decision around nine andfucking Gabe Lodge already knows about it and goes straight to you?Unbelievable. I’m going to kick his ass. I think we’re going to have a fightclub tonight.”
Oh, that wasn’t happening. He wasn’t worried about hertaking care of herself. She was solid, but he didn’t want to waste time. Hereached for her arm, pulling her back. “Slow down, my Valkyrie.”
A brow rose over her eyes. “Valkyrie?”
“I have a thing for warrior women,” he admitted. He thoughtof her as one of the Viking warrior women because her fierce nature was alwaysevident. She didn’t simper and pretend to be less strong than she was so shecould get some man to do something for her. Not his Harlow.
God, he hoped she was his Harlow.
She frowned. “Well, you’re in the right place, but I wouldthink you would want a Taggart.”
He shook his head. The Taggart women were lovely and heenjoyed their company, but there had only been one woman for him. “Nah. Iwalked in and knew exactly who I wanted.”
“I don’t think I’m a warrior woman, Niall. I’m a PI. Ididn’t even go into the military like so many people here.”
She was playing around with semantics. “What would you callyourself? Let’s see, you are absolutely an expert at self-defense.”
“Only because Big Tag tried to kill me a couple hundredtimes. Well, he sent people to. I had some weird training classes.”
He’d heard. “You take on dangerous cases for not a ton ofmoney.”
“I can fund us for a while,” she admitted. “You’re rightabout the trust fund baby status.”
“Didn’t call you that. Just said you had one. Stopinterrupting me when I’m trying to explain how fucking amazing you are in myeyes.” She stared up at him and he felt comfortable continuing. “You take careof everyone around you. To the point of putting yourself in harm’s way.” Heglanced down at the scar on her chest. It was slightly above her right breast,and there was no way to pretend it wasn’t a bullet wound. “I would love to meetthe person who did this to you. You got it on a case, right?”
“Sort of.” Her hand came up, absently rubbing the scar. “Iwas protecting a friend. I didn’t do a great job.”
“Is she alive? Did she get shot?” He knew the story but hewanted her to say it so she remembered how amazing she was.
“No, she got away,” Harlow whispered. “And she’s engaged andhappy now.”
He leaned over and kissed her forehead. Not what he wantedto kiss, but it still felt sweet to connect with her. “Warrior princess. Askme. I’m going to say yes, Harlow. I’ve been waiting to say yes to you for along time.”
Her eyes closed briefly, and when she opened them againthere was a wealth of wariness there. “You’re going to break my heart.”
“Not if I can help it.” He didn’t mean to. He meant to healit, to open it up so she could take everything they had to give her.
“Will you help me on my case, Niall?” she asked.
He felt a smile cross his face. “I will. But I think youshould play with me. Tonight.”
“Are we negotiating?” Harlow asked, clear challenge in hervoice.
“About the play? Absolutely. About me helping you? No. Thereare no conditions to my help. I’ll go wherever you need me to, do whatever youneed me to do, but I thought we should probably talk about how you like toplay. If you want to play with me, that is. But you know how this goes. Icommand and you decide because you’re always in control.”
