“I think she’s fine,” he said to Katie, then smiled to reassure his friend. That smile was very, very appealing, too.
Stop it! She didn’t want to find more things to like about this man, because she was far too attracted to him already. Yet here she was, finding him funny and sweet and totally sexy, while he thought she was a liar and a thief. Okay, a liar and a thief he’d do the dirty with, but not one he respected. Or believed.
Again, leave it to her to get all moony about a man who didn’t respect her in the least. Hmm, that was another pattern in her life, though, wasn’t it?
“I really think she’d just passed out,” he said after a minute. The vinyl of the turquoise pants creaked as he stood.
Katie straddled Zelda, her back to the prone woman’s face. She bent forward and grabbed both of Zelda’s ankles and yanked them upward. At the same time, Stella tugged the leggings up the unconscious woman’s legs toward her hips.
“Well, we’ll take her to the hospital anyway,” Stella said, then grunted slightly as she tried to get the pants the rest of the way under Zelda’s butt. “Better safe than sorry.”
Then she paused her pulling and added, “So why don’t you let us handle this, and maybe you two can start trying to figure out what happened to all of us.”
Stella raised an eyebrow at Drake when he didn’t react right away.
“Right,” Drake said, seeming to get the unspoken hint. He looked at Josie Lynn. “We do have some leads we need to follow.”
Josie Lynn waited for Drake to elaborate, to finally tell these women that he’d already figured out that she was involved in last night’s disaster. But instead he walked over to Josie Lynn.
“Are you ready to go see what we can find out?”
She nodded, wondering why he hadn’t shared what he’d seen last night.
He looked her up and down, his expression unreadable, and her stomach sank. Now he was going to announce her suspected involvement.
“You definitely pull off that shirt a lot better than I did.”
Josie Lynn stared at him, almost sagging with relief. “Th—thanks.”
“It looks cute,” Katie said. “That belt really works.”
“Yes, you can definitely pull off ‘pirate chic,’” Drake said with a slight smile. “But then you are already a pro at pillaging and plundering.”
Josie Lynn’s relieved expression disappeared. She shot an awkward glance toward the two women, who both looked curious about his comment. Josie Lynn waited with them for his explanation. The explanation that would definitely make her look guilty.
“Because she’s already stolen my heart,” he said pressing his hand to his chest in an overly dramatic way.
Josie Lynn felt her cheeks burning. He hadn’t told them about the fact that she’d taken money to let strangers in to the wedding reception. But he had made the comment to let her know he still thought she was guilty. And then the second comment was obviously to mock her.
And she’d just been thinking how likeable this guy seemed to be. Again, that was just another sign of her colossally bad judgment.
“Aww,” Katie said, clearly missing any of Drake’s sarcastic undertone. Stella didn’t seem to notice either, although from the roll of her eyes, she clearly thought his vow was corny.
But Josie Lynn knew it wasn’t meant to be corny, it was designed to make sure she knew she had to clear herself tonight. Or she would be in trouble with him and all of the wedding guests.
And she was going to clear herself.
“Let’s get going,” she said, her tone cool. She needed to keep her emotions in check, and the best way to do that was to stay as removed from Drake’s charms as possible. He didn’t believe her. He wasn’t going on this search with her to see if she was telling the truth. He was going with her to make sure she didn’t get away and that she paid. That was it.
She had to prove herself, and protect herself. Period.
DRAKE FOLLOWED JOSIE Lynn, who didn’t wait to see if he was going to join her. He was a little baffled by her sudden shift in mood. Probably he shouldn’t have flirted with her so blatantly in front of Stella and Katie. That had made her uncomfortable, which wasn’t his intention, but he should have known that would be her reaction. He had seen a lighter, more open side of her and thought he could get away with a little flirting. Obviously not.
He found her attractive when she was guarded and serious. But damn, he’d found her outright stunning when she let her guard down and laughed and smiled. She was gorgeous. He really did want to get to know her. She fascinated him. But that openness was gone. He didn’t like that she was all shut down again.
They stepped back into the hallway where Waldo sat looking decidedly uncomfortable in his makeshift muzzle.
“I bet you’d like to wrap a bungee cord around my mouth, too,” he said as they skirted the big animal and headed to the door at the end of the hall.
“Or neck,” she muttered, and Drake actually found himself amused.
“So vicious,” he said.
She spun toward him just as they would have reached to door. “And let me guess, you are now going to add potentially violent to liar and thief.”
Drake frowned. “No, I don’t get any real violence vibe from you, Cupcake. But I am going to keep you in my sight until we sort out exactly what happened last night. I’m quite sure you’d do that same thing in my shoes.”
She stared at him, and he could see some of the defensiveness fade from her bright blue eyes.
“Yes,” she finally admitted. “Yes, I would.”
“So why don’t we call a truce for now.”
She considered him, then nodded. “Truce.”
He nodded, too, and pushed open the door to the main rooms of Zelda’s house. Even though Drake had never been here before, since he liked to avoid the whole domme thing, it wasn’t hard to find the front door.
When they stepped out onto the street, Josie Lynn paused, looking around as if she was trying to get her bearings.
“Don’t worry, I know where we are.”
She shook her head, still looking around. “It’s not that. It’s just—I didn’t expect it to be nighttime.”
“Of course, it’s nighttime,” he said automatically, then realized that wouldn’t make sense to her. She had the luxury of being awake either night or day, unlike him.
She turned her quizzical gaze toward him. “Why ‘of course’?”
“Well, I just figured we had to have been out for a long time, you know, since we were drugged.”
She seemed to accept his explanation. She started down the sidewalk, and he fell into step beside her.
“So where should we go first?” he asked. “Is your place nearby? Do you want to change?”
“I don’t live walking distance from here,” she said, then looked down at herself. “I think this looks all right.”
Drake nodded. His shirt as a dress was more than all right. She’d rolled back the sleeves so the ruffles at the wrist were less noticeable. She’d also undone a couple of buttons to give glimpses of her pale neck and chest, while only hinting at her full breasts under the cascade of linen and lace that was cinched at the waist with a wide belt. The hem fell a few inches above her knees, far longer than Zelda’s wedding dress, and on her feet, she somehow still had the black utility-style boots that had been a part of her work uniform.
Josie Lynn looked cute and sexy and kind of hip. Even the boots worked with the outfit.
But he’d already learned where saying anything flirty would get him: standing outside the walls she put around herself. So he simply nodded. “It looks fine.”
She inspected it once more, tugging down the hem a little, then said, “I’d like to go back to Gautreaux’s. I want to see if my stuff is still there, and maybe if it is, we could test the punch bowl or glasses for traces of whatever drug was used.”