This admission of vulnerability didn’t have quite the impact he hoped for. She started to pace, hands on hips, fire in every step. “Let me get this straight, Counselor Jerkface. You wanted to date me, so you asked me to fake date you for a publicity stunt, because you didn’t think I’d say yes to a genuine request for a date. And your means of persuasion was to threaten to sue me?”

“Protect you from a threatened lawsuit.”

“Which you invented.” An uncanny awareness came over her face. “Have we . . . have we actually been dating this entire time? For real?”

“Would that bother you?”

“Yes! Usually both parties are in on the dating decision, Eli.”

“You’ve probably figured out by now that I usually get my way. Sometimes, it requires me to detour to X, Y, and Z on my travels from A to B, but the end point is inevitable. You weren’t going to make it easy, it’s just not in you. There’s never been a moment I haven’t wanted you. I thought as mayor I couldn’t date you but I was wrong, and if I’d done my research I’d have figured out that I could have had you sooner.”

That set her off again. “Could have had me? Your arrogance, Cooper. You’ve got it all worked out, haven’t you? That smooth patter, the legalese, the assurance that you’re always right, and hey, no one really got hurt because there was no actual threat. I’m hearing everything but the one thing I need.” She marched to the door, muttering what sounded like “pus for brains,” “scrotum cheese,” and other FCC-fineable nuggets.

Shit. Full-fledged panic flapped in his chest. In two long strides, he had sandwiched her against the door, his chest against her back, his mouth in her hair. “Honey, please.”

Breathing heavily, with fists clenched, she spoke to the wood rather than address him directly. “I thought my family was going to be ruined. I’ve been worried, you asshole!”

“It was never going to come to that.”

“Because this lawsuit never existed. But the problem is only one person had this crucial piece of information. Like only one person knew that we were dating.”

“That wasn’t cool. I get that,” he said against her ear. “I made a mistake, dug a deep, dark hole, and suddenly my dreams are coming true and I can’t believe how lucky I am to be spending time with this gorgeous woman. Now why the hell would I go against my self-interest and crush my dreams, honey?”

She tapped the door with her balled fists. “Stop. Oh, God. Please stop talking. I hate you so much right now.”

“That’s okay, because I’m crazy enough about you for both of us. But you’re right. I’ve hurt you and I’m sorry.”

Twisting to face him, she placed her hands on his chest, her fingertips digging in as if she might pluck out his heart at any moment. He was shocked to realize that he might be okay with that. It was hers to love or destroy.

“I’m furious with you.”

“You’ve every right to be. I’ve lied and cheated to make you mine, but I never promised to play fair. How I feel about you isn’t noble or pure, it just is. In this crazy, fucked-up life I lead, you are my one constant. And I need you, Alexandra. So fucking bad.”

“God, you . . .” Fury fired her beautiful features, stealing her speech, and the moment balanced on a razor-sharp edge. Losing her now after they’d come so far would be unbearable. He loved her so damn much.

Holy fuck. He loved this incredible woman.

Seconds ticked by, as long as hours, the only sounds the beat of their thunderous hearts, the shallow intake of her breaths, and his dumb brain praying that he hadn’t messed up this one perfect thing in his miserable life.

Then he heard a new sound, one that sent hope soaring in his chest: the click of the door she’d just locked.

“I despise you right now, Cooper.”

“Coming through loud and clear.”

She pushed him back to the desk, poking his chest. “I may punch you, bite you, crush your nuts between my thighs. It’s going to be the best hate sex I’ve ever had. And your survival is not my first concern.”

Jesus. All those months he’d wasted thinking they could never be together. What a fucking tragedy.

Her hands pulled at his belt, undid the buckle. He flipped their positions, lifted her on the desk, tore her parka off, and ripped her sweater over her head. It was frenzied and hot and life-affirming.

Thankfully there was nothing sharp or heavy in her grasp radius.

She jerked him forward by his tie. “Is there anything else I should know?”

The chance at redemption sat up between them. He could tell her everything. How his mayoral win four years ago was predicated on the lies of his father, on his own lies as he traded on Weston Cooper’s sterling reputation as a man of the people who was cut down for waging a war on organized crime. He could blurt the truth and watch her love for him wither and die. Feel his blood turn to ice in his veins. His heart shriveling to a husk.

None of those options appealed. He refused to give her up.

Instead he kissed her with his dirty, lying lips. “You know everything.”

“Lie. Better.” His woman was no fool, but she seemed prepared to overlook the rest. For the moment, anyway. She pulled his pants and boxers down and palmed his erection roughly. And he’d take it like her man because he deserved it. “Cubs or White Sox?”

“Taking that one to the grave, honey.”

On a sexy growl, she kissed him with a sharp nip of his lower lip. “No blow jobs for a while, Eli. You do not want my mouth near your cock right now.”

“Wait . . . on the desk?”

Disapproval pinched Kinsey’s mouth, which Alex found particularly amusing considering no one had so much as blinked about Eli lying his ass off over Sam Cochrane’s “lawsuit.” A guy could be a deceiving toe rag as long as it came from “a good place,” according to Darcy. But God forbid anyone get some action on an antique mahogany desk in the mayor’s office.

She had been so mad at him, she still was—which made for amazing sex—but on reflection, she knew he was right about her likely reaction if he’d asked her on a date. She had convinced herself that she was dating him to save her financial hide from that lawsuit. For her family’s well-being. But deep down, she knew that she had wanted him all along, and that the supposed threat from Cochrane gave her permission to indulge the taboo of becoming Eli Cooper’s woman.

It disturbed her that he knew that before she knew it herself.

From their corner table near the jukebox in Dempsey’s bar, Alex knocked back her Goose Island Winter Ale and skittered a look over the busy crowd of cops, firefighters, and badge bunnies. Lowering her voice, she said, “We did it with the greats of Chicago watching from the hallowed walls. Ditka, Jordan, both Daleys, and”—she gave a shifty look—“the 2005 World Series winning White Sox.”

Darcy did the dutiful fake spit move on the hardwood floor at the mention of the Great Enemy. Kinsey just arched an eyebrow. It was a Chicago thing, and Cali girl hadn’t completely acclimatized to their ways.

“I used to have meetings in that office.” She shuddered. “I might have even sat on that desk.”

Beck took a seat, set his beer down, and threw an arm around Darcy. “What’d I miss, princesa?”

Darcy smiled sweetly at her fiancé. “Your sister playing doctor with the mayor on his desk at city hall.”

Beck shot to a stand and grabbed his bottle. “Time to poke darts in my eyeballs.”

“Aw, Becky, don’t go,” Alex called after her brother with the girly nickname they had tortured him with as a kid. “I haven’t even told you about my fantasy to do the mayor in a fire truck!”

“I can’t hear you,” he sang back.

Ignoring the judgy expressions of the bar’s patrons, Alex sighed and turned back to the girls, who were laughing their heads off. “I used to make him buy me tampons at the drugstore even when I didn’t need them. Poor guy was seventeen years old before he found out a woman’s cycle wasn’t every two weeks.”