“I only know one. But we were just friends until recently.”
“You’d mentioned that.” Tapping his temple, he gave a sage nod. “But I logged the information as a curiosity.”
“If you’re so curious, you should join us. Mindy’s heard about you too.”
He shook his head. “Call me crazy, but I’d rather not interfere with your swing. Mini golf, or anything else.” I rolled my eyes as he cleared his throat before venturing on. “But I would like to meet her, since sooner or later you’re going to need my relationship advice.”
I blinked, startled by the word. And I was rarely startled. “It’s not a relationship.”
But saying that was painful. I hadn’t thought beyond making a move while I had the chance. I knew she’d made her decision to move, so I hadn’t let myself even think the word “relationship.”
“She’s leaving town in just over a week.”
“Hmm. So, sooner instead of later, then.”
He was joking, but not really. I was going to have to deal with these feelings—and I did have feelings for her, all kinds of feelings. I wasn’t sure about taking his advice, but it would be nice if I wasn’t alone while I grappled with this.
“Don’t give up hope, John. You don’t give up on a work challenge or a physical challenge. You don’t have to give up on an emotional one.”
Why did he have to use the words “give up,” dammit?
Because he knew me that well, of course.
I scrubbed my face with my hands, scratchy with dried sweat. “All else aside, I’d really love for you to meet her. I’ll text you the details of the bar.” I’d offered the invitation impulsively, but it was deliberate this time. If there was a hope in hell of making something work here, I was going to need advice.
He must have sensed it, because he agreed.
“And then John peppered the cop with question after question.” David had joined us for a round of drinks after Mindy and I enjoyed a round of mini-golf. With her encouragement, he was recounting the greatest hits from our childhood—in this case, when a police officer had visited our fifth-grade classroom for Career Day.
“The rest of us just wanted to get outside for recess, and he wouldn’t let up. But not even the risk of being pummeled behind the jungle gym would deter him.”
Mindy laughed. “And did he stare lovingly at the guy’s badge too?”
“Like he’d discovered buried treasure,” David said, then took a drink of his beer. “All of the gear—you’d think he got to handle Batman’s utility belt. Especially the handcuffs. Eventually, he got a pair and practiced picking the lock while they were off, while they were on . . . I never doubted he’d eventually become a cop.”
“That’s ‘Detective’ to you, sir,” I added, deadpan. “Show a little respect.”
David rolled his eyes. “When you earn it, I will.”
I leaned back in my chair where I could see them both, Mindy and my best friend, teaming up against me. I was damned glad they’d met, and I hadn’t realized how much I needed to see that look on her face tonight—happy and in the moment, grinning like it made her cheeks hurt.
I needed to store up this snapshot for later, when she was gone and there weren’t any more. We hadn’t discussed whether she’d come back to visit, and that had been purposeful. Sure, we’d mentioned the possibility of a visit here or there, but we hadn’t had the talk. Maybe because I wasn’t sure what to say, or what I could truly offer her. Whether I could offer her what she deserved.
Eventually, we said good night to David, Mindy bending to give him a hug as if they were longtime friends. Over her shoulder, where only I could see it, David mouthed, Sooner or later.
He was right. Ignoring my feelings didn’t make me immune to them. My life and my job would be a lot easier if I could pick and choose what to feel. But I couldn’t.
Mindy and I walked slowly to my car. I didn’t like to leave until David had gotten situated behind the controls of his van—I was always impressed by how he folded his wheelchair and lifted it in after himself—but I tried not to loiter too obviously. Once he’d left and we were in my car, she arched a playful brow. “So, can I see your badge, Detective?”
Her fingers traced an outline over the place on my shirt where a badge would go if I were in uniform. I caught her hand and held it against my chest. “Ms. Gamble, are you trying to get under my utility belt?”
“What if I am, Officer?”
I let her go and turned the key in the ignition. “Then I’d say it’s not my badge you need to see. How about the cuffs instead?”
“Deal.” Her light-speed answer made me laugh, and made the drive to my place seem way too long.
Because the way we were together—the way I wanted her, no matter what happened when she left – wasn’t meant for sooner or later.
It was meant for now.
13
Mindy
He slammed the door shut, and there it was—the dark look in his eye. The side of this man no one else got to see.
The cool, calm detective—unruffled, laconic, self-possessed—was a different man after dark.
Intense, commanding, and . . . voracious.
I was the object of his desire, and that thrilled me.
He turned me around and pressed my cheek to the door, lingering at my back and whispering into my neck, “You have the right to be fucked hard.”
“I’d like to exercise that right, please, Detective,” I said in a throaty purr that left no doubt I was down for this as long as he didn’t stop touching me.
He undressed me completely, then yanked my wrists together, slapped on the cuffs, and marched me to his bedroom.
Hottest perp walk ever.
We reached the bed, and he gave me a little push so I landed softly on my stomach. With one knee on the bed beside me, he undid the cuff on one wrist, took both my hands, and lifted them above my head. The click was so loud as he fastened the cuffs around the headboard and closed it around my other wrist again.
“Lift your ass for me,” he said.
And I did, offering myself on all fours.
I was bound to his bed, unable to move my arms, naked and with my ass in the air. I must have been out of my mind.
But when he moved behind me and licked a path up one leg, lingering decadently on my thigh, the sound he made suggested he was the one barely holding on to his wits.
He was the one who needed control, I suspected, as he cupped each cheek with one hand, spread me open, and then dipped his face between my legs, licking my wetness. He pulled me along with him to madness, because I was out of my mind with desire too.
The sounds I made were criminal.
The noises he made were obscene.
There were no words, just grunts and growls from him, and moans and sighs from me.
This man I was falling for devoured me, and my mind went hazy. My world narrowed to only this—the sheer bliss of him consuming me with that wicked tongue until I was shouting, crying, and coming so damn hard.
He didn’t uncuff me.
He left me bound to the headboard, and I craned my neck to watch him strip. To watch him take off his shirt, undo his jeans, sheath himself with a condom, and then cover me with his strong body, finally sliding inside.