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lips. Mirroring her actions of a moment before, he huffed a slow, heated breath over her cool skin.
    â€œI can manage myself,” Lexi said, her voice halting just a little. She didn’t pull away. “I mean, a lot of those people at the party were designers or else they work with a design house. Because I critique their work, I’m sure at one point or another over the past few years I’ve offended almost everyone.”
    Her eyes were huge in the dim light from a street lamp. Josh wanted nothing so much as to wrap hercashmere blanket around both of them and pull her to him. He could envision every nuance of her sequined curves and he longed to test the knowledge of his eyes with his hands. Would she feel as good as she looked?
    â€œThat doesn’t make it okay for them to gang up on you tonight. It had to be awkward for you.” He settled for curving one hand along her jaw and brushing the soft silk of her cheek with his thumb.
    â€œA little.” She half sighed the words, giving Josh the impression her thoughts lay elsewhere. Lexi’s eyes closed for a moment, then flew open again.
    Josh wanted to shout over that small victory.
    She took a small step away, her hands still tangled with one of his. “I’d better get going.”
    â€œLet me just walk you to your door.” He kept one of her hands in his and wrapped his other arm lightly around her waist.
    â€œI don’t think you need to—”
    Josh nodded at the doorman and hustled her inside her building. “I’ll feel better knowing you’re safe.”
    She pushed the elevator button and turned to stare up at him. “Who’s going to keep me safe from you?”
    â€œYou want me to put the cuffs back on?”
    A blush stained her cheeks. She twisted one of her rings in a relentless circle around her finger. “Um. No. That’s okay.”
    The elevator slid open and Lexi stepped inside.
    Josh waited at the doors. “I mean it, Lex. You shouldn’t get into an elevator with a guy you don’t trust.” He pulled out his badge and flashed it at her.“You know, you never verified that I really am a cop.”
    With a nervous glance toward the doorman, Lexi reached out and pulled Josh forward by his tie. “I trust you,” she hissed.
    The door swished shut behind them.
    â€œI wouldn’t have let you walk me home if I thought you were the kind of guy to leave me for dead,” she assured him.
    â€œWell, that’s a hell of an endorsement.” It’s not like he was going to try to talk her into anything.
    But he sensed a kiss in their future, damn it, and he hadn’t wanted to indulge in that particular experience in full view of Sixty-second Street.
    Lexi heard the grumbling note in his voice and wondered if she’d offended him. She hadn’t meant to.
    Strangely, she did trust him. If he had meant to hurt her, he wouldn’t have knuckled under to her flirtatious handcuff job at the bar. He’d cooled his heels in her jail cell for hours, and still wanted to walk her home.
    It was herself she didn’t trust.
    Josh’s big, solid presence had her pulse racing and her fingers itching to touch him. When he’d taken her hands in his and breathed over her skin, she’d nearly shot right out of her shoes.
    Her mind had fast-forwarded to all sorts of scenarios that involved Josh’s breath on her flesh. She wanted to taste him, breathe him, explore every inch of that muscular body…but she wouldn’t.
    Not here. Not on her home turf.
    It would give the whole encounter way too muchsignificance. She’d never be able to sleep in her bed again with the same sense of peace. She’d never be able to feel like the queen of her own palace again. There would be a man’s shadow cast over her kingdom, a fear that maybe the world she’d built for herself wasn’t enough.
    And she would not allow that to happen.
    When the