“Good going, slick.” Still chuckling, Mel gave Sebastian a friendly bop on the shoulder. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”

He merely lifted a brow. “There are a great many things you might be surprised I have in me.”

“Yeah, right.” She twisted her head to watch Haverman climb in his car. “The lieutenant’s not such a bad guy. He just figures PIs belong in the pages of a book, and women belong one step away from the oven.” Because the sun was warm and the deed had been done well, she was content to sit on the car for few minutes and enjoy the small triumph. “You did good … Harry.”

“Thanks, Crystal,” he said, and tried not to let his lips twitch into a smile. “Now, I’d appreciate it if next time you filled me in on the entire plan before we start.”

“Oh, I don’t think there’s a next time coming soon. But this was fun.”

“Fun.” He said the word slowly, understanding that that was precisely what she meant. “You really enjoyed it. Dressing up like a tart, making a scene, having that muscle-bound throwback drool on you.”

She offered a bland smile. “I’m entitled to some on-the-job benefits, aren’t I?”

“And it was fun, I suppose, to nearly have your head cracked open?”

“Nearly’s the key.” Feeling more kindly toward him, she patted his arm. “Come on, Donovan, loosen up. I said you did good.”

“That, I take it, is your way of thanking me for saving your thick skull.”

“Hey, I could’ve handled Bobby fine, but I appreciate the backup. Okay?”

“No.” He slapped his hands down on the hood on either side of her hips. “It is not okay. If this is a taste of how you do business, you and I are going to set some rules.”

“I’ve got rules. My rules.” His eyes were the color of smoke now, she thought. Not the kind that had hung listlessly at the ceiling of the bar, but the sort that plumes up into the night from a crackling good bonfire. “Now back off, Donovan.”

Make me. He hated—no, detested—the fact that the childish, taunting phrase was the first thing to pop into his head. He wasn’t a child. And neither was she—sitting there, daring him with that insolent lift to her chin and that half smirk on her beautiful mouth.

His right hand listed. It was tempting to give her one good pop on that damnably arrogant chin. But her mouth seemed a better notion. And he had a much more satisfying idea about what could be done with it.