HARVEY greeted Nick at the door with an impressive growl, teeth bared. Maggie smiled at Nick’s surprise even though she had warned him.

“I told you I have my own bodyguard. Down, Harvey.” She petted the dog’s head, and his entire hind end started wagging. “Harvey, this is Nick. He’s one of the good guys.”

Nick extended an apprehensive hand for the dog to sniff. In seconds, Harvey decided he deserved the royal treatment, and stuck his snout in Nick’s crotch. Nick seemed more amused than embarrassed.

“I see you have him checking out other things for you as well.”

His comment caught her off guard. She led Harvey into the living room, hoping Nick didn’t notice.

“I just moved in last week. I don’t have a lot of furniture yet.”

“It’s an incredible house,” he said, looking out at the backyard. “Pretty secluded. How safe is it?”

She looked up from the alarm. “About as safe as I would be anywhere. Cunningham has me under twenty-four-hour surveillance. He says it’s so we can catch Stucky, but I know he thinks it’ll protect me.”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

She opened her jacket to show him her revolver.

“This is the only thing that I find convincing these days.”

He smiled. “Geez, I get so turned on when you show me your gun.”

She found herself blushing from his innocent flirting. Had it been a mistake to invite him here? Maybe she should have sent him back home to Boston with Will.

“I’m going to check if dinner is possible. I only have the very basics.” She retreated to the kitchen, wondering what she would do if he went beyond flirting. “Would you mind taking Harvey out in the backyard?”

“No, not at all.”

“His leash is by the back door. Press the green button on the security system.”

“It’s like living in a fort.”

“I don’t have much choice, do I? It’s part of the job. After a while you get used to having an unpublished phone number and making certain your address isn’t listed in any directory. It’s all part of my life, the part Greg didn’t want to deal with. Maybe he shouldn’t have had to.”

“Well, Greg was a fool,” he said as he snapped the leash on to Harvey’s collar. “But then, I sorta see Greg’s loss as my gain.” He smiled at her, then let Harvey pull him into the backyard.

Maggie watched them, wondering what it was about this man and that lean body and those charming dimples that could so easily stir up feeling she hadn’t accessed in years. Was it just a physical attraction? Nothing more?

It didn’t matter. She didn’t have the energy to entertain such thoughts. She needed to start listening to her head and her gut, not her heart. And, more importantly, she didn’t want to care about someone who Stucky could take away from her in a split second.

What Gwen had said last night about Stucky stayed with Maggie, gnawing at her. They all believed he had chosen women who were mere acquaintances of hers, in order to make it impossible to predict who his next target might be. But the fact of the matter was, Maggie had few people she allowed into her life. Gwen believed that Maggie purposely made herself off-limits, emotionally. What Maggie called professional distancing, Gwen called fear of intimacy.

“If you don’t let people in, they can’t hurt you,” Gwen had lectured in her motherly tone. “But if you don’t let people in, they can’t love you either.”

Nick was coming back, Harvey carrying the bone Maggie had bought him. She thought he had taken it out and buried it because he didn’t want it. Instead, the hole was merely for safe storage. She certainly had a lot to learn about her new roommate.

As soon as Nick unleashed Harvey, he bounded up the stairs.

“He looks like a guy with a mission.” Nick watched.

“He’ll plop down in the corner of my bedroom and gnaw on that thing for hours.”

“You seem to be getting attached to each other.”

“No way. The smelly brute goes home as soon as they find his mom.” Or at least, that was what she kept telling herself. Fact was, she would feel horribly betrayed when Rachel Endicott showed up and Harvey ran to her without so much as a glance in Maggie’s direction.

The point was, Gwen was full of crap. Letting anyone in, including a dog, usually ended up hurting like hell. So she protected herself. It was one of the few things in her twisted life she could have control over.

“Maggie, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she answered, and his smile told her she had hesitated too long.

“You know what?” he said, his eyes holding hers. “Why don’t you let me take care of you for one evening?”

His fingertips stroked her cheek. She knew exactly what he meant by saying he wanted to take care of her.

“Nick, I can’t.”

His lips didn’t pay attention to her words as they traced where his fingers had been. Her breathing was already uneven by the time his lips brushed hers. But instead of kissing her, he moved to her other cheek. His lips moved over her eyelids and nose and forehead and hair.

“Nick,” she tried again, only she wondered if the word was audible. Her own heart beat so noisily in her ears, she couldn’t hear herself think.

Finally, Nick stopped, his face still so close. God, she could easily get lost in his eyes, the warm blue oceans. His hands caressed her shoulders. His fingers strayed inside her collar to gently touch her throat.

“I just want to make you feel good, Maggie.”

“Nick, I really can’t do this,” she heard herself say while the flutter in her stomach disagreed with her words, screaming at her to take them back.

“I know,” he said, almost as if her response had been a foregone conclusion. “I know you’re not ready. It’s too soon after Greg.”

It was great that he understood, because Maggie wasn’t sure she did. How could she explain it to him?

“With Greg, it was so comfortable. With you, it’s…” His fingers were distracting her, still exploring. Was he trying to change her mind? “With you,” she tried to continue, “it’s so intense, it scares me.”

“And it scares you because you might lose control.”

“God, you know me well, Morrelli.”

“Tell you what. When you’re ready, and I’m emphasizing when. No ifs,” he said, his fingers still touching her. “I’ll let you have all the control you want. But tonight, Maggie, I just want to make you feel good.”

The flutter reawakened, immediately kicking into overdrive.

“Nick—”

“Actually, I was thinking maybe I could fix you dinner.”

Her shoulders relaxed. “I didn’t realize you knew how to cook.”

“There are a lot of things I know how to do that I haven’t shown you…yet.” And this time, he smiled.