“There won’t be anything to remember.” Liam bent and scooped her into his arms. She rested her head on his shoulder as he carried her into her bedroom.

He set her gently on the bed. Ellie sighed softly, then curled into a little ball, her face pressed into his jacket. “You smell good,” she said.

Liam tugged his jacket from beneath her head and slipped it on. He then pulled her shoes off and drew the blanket up around her. As he smoothed a strand of hair from her face, he bent closer and brushed a kiss across her wine-stained lips. “Good night, princess. I’ll be watching out for you.” With that, Liam turned and walked to the door.

The street was dark and empty when he reached the sidewalk. He glanced both ways before crossing to his home away from home. Spending the night in Ellie’s bed would have been far more comfortable…and convenient. But Liam never seduced a woman who didn’t want to be seduced. And, right now, Ellie was in no condition to know what she really wanted.

Though he hadn’t gotten the answers he’d been looking for, he’d gotten more. He’d learned enough to know that Ellie Thorpe was incapable of deception or cunning or greed. She was a sweet, beautiful woman, a romantic with a silly streak, a sexy temptress with a little-girl laugh. And Liam knew that the kiss he’d given her wouldn’t be the last.

He took the steps up to the attic two at a time, pushed the door open and squinted into the dark, waiting for his eyes to adjust.

“I know where you’ve been.”

Liam jumped at the sound of the voice coming out of the darkness. He spun around to find Sean sitting on the old sofa, his legs stretched out in front of him, his hands locked behind his head.

“Jeez, you scared me!” Liam cried.

His brother pushed to his feet and strolled across the room to the window. He peered through the lens of Liam’s camera. “You weren’t here. I figured I’d do some surveillance. I saw a man in Eleanor Thorpe’s apartment and I thought Pettibone had arrived.”

Liam bit back a curse. “Did you snap some pictures?” he asked matter-of-factly.

“I did. But the guy in the apartment was you.”

Liam waited for Sean to rip him a new one, but the expected rant didn’t come. “All right, I made a mistake. But I was just taking advantage of an opportunity. This is mostly your fault.”

“My fault?”

“I’m not a P.I.,” Liam said. He grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler and twisted it open. “You can’t expect me to know all the rules. A few nights ago some guy broke into her apartment while I was watching her.”

“Did you get his photo?”

“No! I ran over to her place and caught the guy before he got to her. She thought I was the intruder and she hit me over the head, tied me up and called the police.”

“The police know about this?” This time Sean strung together a colorful variety of curse words.

“They don’t know about the stakeout,” Liam told him. “Conor smoothed things over. By the way, he wanted me to remind you about the baptism for Riley.”

“Don’t change the subject. This doesn’t explain what you were doing in her apartment tonight.”

“This morning, I stopped by the coffee shop a few blocks over and I ran into her. I guess the police gave her the whole story about how I saved her and how I’m a really good guy, so she asked me out to dinner and I had to accept.”

Sean raked his fingers through his hair impatiently. “What the hell were you thinking? You could have said no.” He shook his head. “Wait, you’re Liam Quinn. You don’t say no to women.”

“I was thinking it would be a helluva lot easier to watch her from inside her apartment, where there’s heat, I might add, than from up here. It’s freezing up here and there’s nothing to do. I’ve watched her apartment for three days now and nothing has happened.”

“A guy broke in.”

“Yeah, but maybe that was just a random crime.”

“Maybe it was Pettibone paying a midnight visit. Maybe she was expecting him, did you ever think of that? He won’t come back with you there.”

Liam held up his hand. “Maybe you should just take over here. I’ll get out of the way and you can do whatever it is you do.”

Sean thought about the option for a long moment, then shook his head. “Now that your cover is blown, you should keep seeing her.”

“You want me to date her?”

“See her. If that means a date, then fine, date her. The first chance you get, search her apartment.”

Liam frowned. “Isn’t that against the law?”

“Not exactly. If she invites you in and you open a few drawers, there’s nothing wrong with that. You’re not acting as an agent of the police.”

“Conor warned me to stay away from her. He kind of figured I was working on a case for you.”

“Good.”

“So what is it? Do you want me to continue seeing her or do you want me to stop?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, let me know when you do.” Liam walked back to the cooler and grabbed a ham sandwich. He’d spent so much time dragging Ellie into dinner conversation that he hadn’t had much to eat. He took a bite of the sandwich, then moved to the window. “There was one other contact. When I came out of the coffee shop she was talking to a guy. It seemed like they were arguing, but she denied it. When I asked her who he was, she just brushed me off. I didn’t want to push the point.”

“Was it Pettibone?”

Liam reached for the photo of Ronald Pettibone and stared at it for a long time. “No…I don’t know. Maybe. If it was, then he doesn’t look anything like this photo. But then Ellie doesn’t look anything like her photo.”

“If it’s him, he’ll be back,” Sean said, joining him at the window.

“She leaves her curtains open when she undresses,” Liam murmured, his gaze fixed on the apartment across the street.

“Oh, yeah?”

Liam pulled the curtains closed. “Don’t be a pervert.”

“You haven’t been looking?”

“Yes. But it was strictly professional.”

“And what did you think?”

“She’s got a nice body,” Liam commented. “A great body. And whoever took that bank photo of her ought to have his shutter finger amputated. It’s those kinds of photographers that make us all look like hacks.”

“What else did you find out?”

Liam shrugged. “I don’t think she’s a criminal.”

“She’s a woman,” Sean said, his expression tight. “A beautiful woman. And you’re blinded by her beauty.”

“I just met her,” Liam said. “I don’t get blinded until the fourth or fifth date.”

“What did you talk about?”

“Life. Romance. Work. Nothing in particular.”

“Introduce her to me. I’ll date her. I’d get answers.”

“Oh, right. You’ll charm her with your rapier wit and your bubbling conversation,” he said sarcastically. “Besides, we’re not dating. I had dinner with her, that’s all.”

“What’s her name?”

Liam frowned. “You know what her name is. Ellie. Eleanor Thorpe.”

“You’re falling for her. The way you say her name. You smile when you say it. I’ve seen that before. It always means the same thing.”

“I’m getting the hell out of here,” Liam said. “You’ve got your case back now-you can watch her.”

“I can’t. I’ve got to follow up on the case from Atlantic City. Husband’s heading off on a business trip to Syracuse and I’ve got to trail him there.”

“No way. I’m not spending another day in this attic.”

“Then spend as much time as you can with her. You have my permission. Whatever you get, you get.” Sean walked to the door, but at the last minute he turned around. He reached into his pocket, withdrew a wad of cash, then tossed it to Liam. “Three thousand,” he murmured. “That’s half of the retainer they gave me. It’s yours. Just don’t screw this up.”

The door closed behind Sean, but Liam didn’t move. Instead he stared down at the wad of cash in his hand. Three thousand dollars. He would have spent time with Ellie for free. But now, with the money in his hands, Liam realized that he wasn’t just playing at private investigator for his brother. Sean expected him to come through and ultimately that meant putting Ellie Thorpe in jail.

Liam shoved the cash into his pocket. Until this moment the women in his life had been conquests and challenges and, sometimes, lovers. Charming them had been part of his nature. But now, Ellie Thorpe was something else. Charming her was a job-a job he’d been paid to do. And if he was to succeed, he’d have to ignore the urge to romance her.

Liam had never done that before. “I guess there’s always a first time,” he murmured.

ELLIE STARED at the keypad mounted next to her apartment door. “I thought you were going to buy me a new lock.”

Liam smiled and casually draped his arm over her shoulder. “You remember that conversation?”

She felt a blush warm her cheeks at the memory of their dinner. And the blush was intensified by the blood pounding through her veins at his touch. Ellie knew it was simply a friendly gesture, but the warmth of his arm against her nape made her knees a little weak and her brain a little fuzzy.

She couldn’t deny her attraction to him. What woman wouldn’t be attracted? That dark hair that never seemed to see a comb. And those eyes, always with a devilish twinkle that made him seem all the more dangerous. Ellie knew she couldn’t let herself surrender to that kind of charm, but sometimes she couldn’t help herself. “I remember most of what happened,” Ellie murmured. “Especially the headache I had the next morning.”

Though she’d been more than a little tipsy, the wine hadn’t affected her memory, just her inhibitions. The things she’d said to him, the things she’d done, still brought a flood of embarrassment. She remembered throwing her arms around his neck and begging him to dance. She also remembered being scooped up into his arms and carried to the bedroom. And she remembered how much she’d wanted him to kiss her. But after that her memory got very fuzzy.