“Thanks, but no thanks. I have a boyfriend.” Sort of. For lack of a better word.
Even if she didn’t get to see that much of him the last few days because of this case. Even if they still had never spoken one word about what they actuallywere,and she had moved in with Claire as planned. Her entire life was one bigwhat-if- maybe-someday,so why did it matter if she and Knight avoided the L word like meat sold off the back of a truck?
“You do? I bet you take good care of him.”
Reese suspected that was a joke, given that she had become notorious at Delco for doing her job begrudgingly.
“Yeah, you know me. I’m Martha Stewart without the illegal activity.”
Right now she was Martha with a numb butt, given that she’d been in this seat for three hours. At least the private jet was equipped with large, plush leather chairs and a minibar. She’d sucked down two packs of peanut M&M’s, even if the flight was long and the company as stale as the snack foods.
Jenkins laughed at her joke, his voice heavy with amusement and sarcasm. “Yeah, because none of us at Delco would ever do anything illegal.”
Derek triedto bend his knee to stretch it and was stopped by his bag in front of him. Kicking his carry-on under the seat, he tried to move his leg again and was stopped by the bump for the wheel under the seat in front of him.
Christ. Economy class on a long flight sucked. On any flight it sucked.
Maddock was sitting next to him, headphones on, singing in an off-pitch obnoxiously loud voice. Derek leaned against the plastic window screen and sighed.
He should be thrilled. He should be riding high. They were inches away from sending this case to the prosecutors, secure in knowing they had done their job. Nordstrom would be pleased, and maybe would take a week or two breather from riding his back.
Yet he was edgy. Nothing was settled, nothing was firm, this case wasn’t closed.
And Reese was driving him nuts.
They spent all their time together joking and having great sex.
Which you wouldn’t think would be a problem, and normally wouldn’t be, except they were avoiding discussing anything that smacked of commitment or the future, and he was tired of it. He didn’t even know if she was going to be in Chicago from one day to the next, or if she was going to head back to New York without warning and nothing but a cheery wave.
He sucked at timing, it seemed. Dawn had wanted nothing but commitment—marriage, a house, big cars, kids, more money, more time with him, and he hadn’t been able to give her more than half of those. Now he was ready to settle down and get married again and have kids at some point, and he’d fallen for a woman who suffered from Fear Of Commitment.
Maddock hit a high note and Derek winced. Leaning over he pulled one of the earpieces away from Maddock and said, “Shut the hell up. You sound like a dying goat.”
Maddock blinked at his unusually surly tone and dropped the headphones around his neck. “You’re a little tense. Worried about Chatterton wanting to join the mile high club with Reese?”
Great. Now he had another reason to be pissed off.
“Oh, thank you. I never even thought of that.” He fought the urge to groan. “Man.”
Maddock turned off his music. “She’s got you, hasn’t she? You’re just a shell of the man I once knew.”
Maddock was joking, but Derek could tell he was serious as well, trying to show a little buddy-to-buddy concern. Derek appreciated the gesture. “Pretty pathetic, I know. You think I would have learned, but…damn. The minute I saw those legs I think I was gone.”
Then she had tried to Mace him and smashed his toe with her high heel. God, he loved her.
“Can’t blame you. She’s something else.”
“She really is. She’s…incredible. Brave, intelligent, quick-witted. And caring.” Damn. He was head over ass for her.
“Good for you, Knight. Lock that shit up.”
“What about you, Wyatt? You ever been in love?” Derek tossed the little cylindrical ice cubes around in his plastic airline cup and pulled his tray back down, playing with the catch on it.
“Nah. Had a serious girlfriend, you know, where you just care about each other and keep going on until something better comes along, but it wasn’t really love.”
“So what happened?”
“I guess something better came along. She went on a cruise with her girlfriends three years ago, and came back engaged to a guy she met on the day trip to Cozumel.”