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What would all her pets think? They wouldn’t want to share their mama with some strange man. And she’d always promised herself not to spoil the sanctuary of her home by allowing a man inside. It had been different to sleep in someone else’s bed. Impersonal. Easy to distance herself the next day.
    But Josh would be a difficult man to walk away from, in the first place. She sure as heck couldn’t let him into the private world where the real Lexi lived.
    â€œIs it a black blanket?” he called from the cloakroom. He stepped out with her pashmina in hand, a frustrated glower on his face.
    â€œThat’s me.” Laughing, she walked to the bar and tugged her purse from a shelf the bartender had allowed her to use.
    Josh closed the distance between them in a flash. “Why didn’t you say so?”
    His gruff manners soothed her as he wrapped the cashmere shawl around her and tugged the ends tightly shut.
    â€œHow the hell do you wear this thing?”
    Smothering a giggle, she flung one end over her shoulder in demonstration.
    Josh muttered an oath under his breath and tried to tuck the other end under her arm. Having secured every loose corner of the shawl, he nodded. “There. Don’t move.”
    â€œHow am I going to walk home?”
    He grinned. “Guess I’ll have to carry you.”
    Warmth pooled low in her belly at the thought of her body tucked up against his. Part of her longed to assume her flirtatious guise and maneuver more sexy talk with him. But some of her daring had faded along with the buzz from that last cosmopolitan. Even worse, she liked Josh more by the minute—a fact that rendered a one-night stand less appealing. A torrid night with Josh practically guaranteed she’d never see him again.
    She shook loose his handiwork and rewrapped the shawl. “I don’t think that’s the best idea.”
    He snorted. “Let’s look at who’s coming up with the good ideas here tonight. You think it’s a good idea to traipse around New York alone at 2:00 a.m. I think it’s a good idea for us to leave together. You think it’s a good idea to put me in jail. I think it’s a good idea for us to explore the possibilities of being—”
    She hurried to cut him off. “I get the picture.” She definitely didn’t need reminders of his earlier provocative suggestion. Handcuffs had never seemed so appealing. But she needed to put some distance between her and Josh before he got the wrong idea. No matter how much her hormones argued the fact, she couldnot sleep with Josh in her apartment. “But I’m not conceding the point. I still think my ideas have been very sensible.”
    Sensible. The word resounded in Josh’s mind, at odds with everything he thought about Lexi Mansfield. “Is that what you want, Lexi? Sensible?”
    She deftly unfastened the diamond collar around her throat and slid it into a tiny purse she carried. “See that? Sensible. I may occasionally carry handcuffs and go manhunting on the posh New York club scene, Josh, but I’m not crazy enough to wear Harry Winston out in public.”
    Josh stared at the long, smooth column of bare neck the diamonds had just vacated. She suddenly looked less like his five-foot dominatrix and more like a vulnerable woman.
    â€œI never suggested you were crazy.” Josh curled his arm around her back and ushered her toward the door. Lexi flung good-nights and smiles at the few remaining people they passed on their way out. He hoped the high color in her cheeks had something to do with his touch.
    As he held the door for her, she looked up at him and paused. “Are you sure?”
    â€œA little wild maybe, but definitely not crazy.”
    She nodded as if satisfied and walked out onto Columbus Circle, the black blanket fluttering in her wake.
    Josh followed close behind, surveying the activity on the street. They were near Lincoln Center