Free Tease Me by Donna Kauffman

life, but he
     was no closer now thanwhen he’d sold his business to figuring out exactly what it was he did want, much
     less how to go about getting it.
    His mind made a straight line from that thought to Lainey Cooper. There was no denying
     that both his encounters with her had exhilarated him in a strange internal way he
     couldn’t recall ever feeling before. She challenged him on a level he’d never approached
     before. “Repressed hormones,” he murmured under his breath.
    He shook his head—in disgust or denial, he couldn’t say—and again resolutely shoved
     Lainey Cooper out of his mind. He also shoved aside the thought that in very little
     time she seemed to have carved out quite a big spot inside his brain. What little
     he had left, he thought, reviewing his current circumstances.
    Sighing in resignation, he leaned a little closer to the swinging doors, figuring
     he had time to move to a safe, innocent-looking distance if he heard the ladies heading
     back.
    “Moonlighting as a short-order cook?” came a dry voice from behind him.
    Lainey. Tucker swung around, holding the pot away from his body as coffee sloshed
     over the rim. He swore as the hot liquid scalded his fingers, and he quickly moved
     to put the pot on the counter. “Do you have some paper towels back here for spills?”
     he asked in lieu of answering her. Maybe if he took long enough to clean up this mess,
     he’d think of some way to explain himself. He had no idea how long she’d been standing
     behind him, but it had probably been long enough to cancel out his coffee-refill excuse.
    “Under the counter, on the shelf below the cake dome.”
    “Thanks.” He’d been so wrapped up in his thoughtsabout her, he hadn’t heard the bells on the door. Getting caught red-handed—literally—did
     not speak well of his burgeoning career as a detective; a fact that, except for his
     affection and concern for Lillian, did not disturb him.
    He mopped the floor until he could see his reflection in it and was still no closer
     to a believable explanation. So he’d wing it. It had been his brilliant strategy to
     date. He stood up and wasted another two seconds pitching the wad of wet paper towels
     into the trash.
    “Is your hand okay?”
    He turned to find Lainey seated on the stool he’d foolishly vacated earlier. He glanced
     down and stared absently at the angry red mark marring his thumb and the back of his
     hand. In his mind’s eye all he saw was Lainey. In cuffed white shorts and a red-and-white-striped
     sleeveless blouse—one that she’d knotted at the waist so that she could torment him
     with the peekaboo skin above her navel—she easily replaced Barbara Eden at the top
     of his lifelong list of women whose belly buttons he’d kill to see.
    Considering he’d already seen her in a good deal less, his response was surprising.
     Or should be. He was quickly realizing that where Lainey Cooper was concerned, life
     was one unexpected emotional twist after another.
    “Just a minor burn,” he said.
    She slid off the stool and took his hand in hers. After a quick examination that left
     other body parts of his far more inflamed, she let him go. “I have just the thing
     for it.”
    “Really, that’s not—” He stopped himself. She was giving him time he’d be wise to
     take. “Thanks, I’d appreciate it.”
    She opened the latch, then moved into the suddenly very narrow space behind the counter.
     He watchedmutely as she reached for one of the small metal condiment containers lined up on
     the narrow preparation table that fronted the wall separating the café area from the
     kitchen. She drained the juice from it into a bowl and turned to him. “Here.”
    “I thought you meant aloe or a burn ointment.”
    “This is better.”
    He didn’t have to sniff the contents, he’d seen what the container had held before
     she drained it. Skeptically, he eyed the light green liquid, then her. “Pickle juice?”
    She smiled