Hating to Love You (Houston's Finest #1)

by Erin Rylie

  Sophie’s brow furrowed. “My boss talked to your captain today. I’m supposed to report to the station at five tomorrow evening for your shift.”

  Hell no. The last thing he needed was a reporter digging into his past. He didn’t need that shit broadcasted, and he sure as hell didn’t want to be the subject of multiple articles. He and the captain were about to have a serious discussion.

  Rafe’s discussion with the captain did not go well. He was more or less told that he would take Sophie on two weeks’ worth of ride-alongs and be happy about it, or he could shove his police cruiser somewhere anatomically impossible. He stomped into the locker room, shucking off his civilian clothes and throwing them roughly into his locker. As he tugged on his uniform, his partner, Ramirez, sauntered in, all smiles and swagger. Did the guy ever stop smiling? He was a walking advertisement for fucking Prozac.

  “So I hear that sexy-ass reporter will be riding around with us for the next couple weeks.” Carlos grinned, opening his own locker and pulling on his uniform.

  Rafe grunted, not in the mood to deal with his overenthusiastic, flirt-with-anything-that-moves partner.

  “I don’t know what you’re so upset about. We finally get to ride in one of the big boy cars! No more police cruiser for us. Bring on the Ford Explorer, baby.”

  “Do you even know how much of a pain in the ass this is going to be? We won’t get any interesting calls for two fucking weeks. It’s going to be all traffic stops and fucking parking tickets. And if we do need to arrest someone? We have to call out a damn patrol unit because we won’t have a cage in the back.”

  “Pretty boy, I think you’re forgetting the upside to all of this. We get to ride in a new SUV, one that doesn’t smell like piss, with a girl I know you want to sleep with. You should be absolutely giddy.”

  “I don’t want to sleep with her,” Rafe grumbled, feeling downright petulant.

  Carlos guffawed, slapping Rafe on the back and leaving him in the locker room.

  Chapter Seven

  Sophie was both dreading and anticipating tonight. Starting work at 5 p.m. definitely had its perks. Kelsey and James staying with her was amazing, but Sophie was used to having the house to herself, not waking up at 5 a.m. to a screaming two-year-old. Her godson was damn lucky he was cute, because the kid could wail. As it turned out, there was not enough coffee in the world to make waking up at 5 a.m. acceptable. So, while Kelsey had taken James to the children’s museum, Sophie had taken a deliciously long afternoon nap.

  She was fully refreshed and still not at all prepared to deal with Rafe for the next eight hours. She had already used her vibrator six times since purchasing it, and without fail, every time she was about to orgasm, that smug, grinning face popped into her head. Sophie shook the memory of those orgasms off and got out of her car, straightening her sleeveless button-down over her dark-wash jeans. She had dressed down for the ride-along, but was unwilling to give up her heels. She already had to look up to Rafe; she was not going to make it worse by wearing flats.

  The moment she walked into the station, a boisterous voice excitedly yelled her name. She looked up to see Carlos’s broad-shouldered form making its way over to her. He slung his arm around her shoulder like they were already best friends.

  “Hiya, shortcake! Get it? Because you’re so short? You’re like my very own Strawberry Shortcake!”

  “Thanks, I hadn’t noticed. But now that you’ve pointed it out, I do feel shorter than average,” she replied drolly.

  Before Carlos could come up with some smart-assed reply, Rafe strolled over, that charming swagger present in his walk. His gaze slowly worked its way down her body, one eyebrow arching when it landed on the stilettos she was wearing. He looked back up at her and winked, the bastard.

  “So you wore heels for me, huh?” He grinned, leaning lazily against the reception counter.

  Carlos’s arm dropped from around Sophie’s shoulder as he looked between the two of them.

  “Whoaaaa, hold up, motherfucker. You’re not supposed to be the charming one. You’re the Eeyore to my Tigger. Knock it the hell off.”

  Rafe scowled and stood up straight, a dour expression falling over his features. “I’m perfectly charming, you asshole. Can we go now?” Rafe asked, walking away from the pair of them.

  Carlos leaned down and stage-whispered, “He’s a little grumpy today, didn’t get to have his Wheaties this morning.” Sophie laughed and followed Carlos outside to join Rafe. At least she would like one person on this ride-along.

  They were walking out to the SUV, Carlos chattering excitedly about the “big boy car” they’d be riding in, when he stopped suddenly, tugging on her arm and pulling her toward an older gentleman getting into his own car.

  “Cap! Hey Cap, did you meet our resident reporter? She’s gonna tell all of Houston how irresistibly charming I am, aren’t ya, shortcake?”

  Sophie stuck her hand out. “Sophie Klein from the Houston Reporter. Nice to meet you.”

  “Ah, you’re the one doing a story on our illustrious Officer Pierce. Best of luck with that one. I have a feeling he’ll be tough to crack. Ramirez, don’t fuck around on this ride-along. Wouldn’t want you getting killed because you couldn’t stop staring at the pretty lady long enough to do your job.”

  Carlos scoffed. “You should be more worried about her staring at me. I mean, come on, the girl is practically eye-fucking me as we speak, Cap. I’ll be pregnant in no time if she keeps this up.”

  The captain ignored Carlos’s rambling, turning to get into his car. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Klein. Oh, and Ramirez, before I forget, change of schedule this week. You and Pierce take tomorrow off. You’ll be working twelves Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to cover the music festival.”

  “Awww, Cap, I had a date this weekend,” Carlos groaned. The captain got in his car and closed the door, pretending not to hear the complaint.

  They had been on patrol for seven hours now and nothing had happened. Absolutely fucking nothing. Sophie had to wonder how many hours of footage they had to tape to get even one hour of action for the show Cops. So far, they had pulled over three people—one for speeding and two for running red lights. Aside from the boredom, the only constants in the car were Carlos’s rambling and Rafe’s shitty attitude. He had yet to answer a single one of her questions with more than one syllable. The majority of his responses came in the form of noncommittal grunts. The conversation would go something like this:

  “Officer Pierce, did you grow up in the Houston area?”

  Grunt that semi-resembled a yes in response.

  “Have you always known you wanted to be on the force?”

  Shrug of shoulders and noncommittal grunt.

  “Officer Pierce, should I jump out of the moving vehicle and leave you the fuck alone?”

  Brief head nod, shrug of shoulders, grunt.

  At one point in the “interview” Carlos had taken pity on Sophie and just started answering questions as if they were being asked of him. Sophie didn’t know jack shit about Rafe, but she knew Carlos’s entire life story, down to his first kiss in what he claimed was high school. Sophie theorized that it was more likely in college.

  With thirty minutes remaining in the ride-along, Rafe pulled the patrol vehicle into the precinct parking lot. He had removed the keys from the ignition and was getting out of the SUV before Sophie found her voice.

  “Wait, we still have a half hour. Why are we getting out?”

  Rafe glanced over his shoulder and graced her with the most words she’d heard from him in the last seven hours: “Slow night, you can leave now.”

  Sophie wasn’t sure if it was the grunts and shrugs he’d thrown her way all night or the disregard with which he treated her interview, but she lost it.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? You have been less than helpful all night. I have nothing for my interview and now we’re ending the shift early? I don’t know about you, but I have a goddamn job to do.”

  Carlos looked
rapidly between the two of them, his eyes widening as he slowly unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door to the SUV. He shut the door and backed away with his hands in the air, keeping up the charade until he reached the door of the station.

  Sophie followed his lead and got out of the car, circling the vehicle so that she could stand toe to toe with Rafe.

  “You know, I think I preferred it when you were a womanizing asshole. At least then you answered my fucking questions,” she said, poking him in the chest.

  “Sorry I didn’t meet your expectations tonight, sweetheart. Maybe you should find some other fluff piece to write. This is me—I come to work, get shit done, and go home. I don’t know what salacious gossip you were looking for, but I’ve got nothing for you.”

  “Salacious gossip? I’m an actual reporter. I write real news.”

  Rafe laughed. “Oh yeah I saw that piece you did earlier this year about the Easter Egg hunt in Eleanor Tinsley Park. Real hard-hitting stuff; you must’ve worked so hard to write that one. I imagine your investigative skills were really put to use trying to figure out how many eggs they hid.”

  Sophie raised her arm to slap him, her hand almost reaching his face, when he caught her wrist. That stupid fucking smirk was firmly back in place when he spat, “Are you sure you want to assault a police officer on government property?”

  Sophie would’ve loved to say she’d come up with some witty retort, but what came out of her mouth was simply, “Fuck you, Rafe.” Without even throwing a second glance over her shoulder, she stormed to her car. He was still standing by the SUV when she pulled out of the parking lot, Sophie fighting the very strong urge to run him the hell over.

  Chapter Eight

  A screaming child woke Sophie the next morning at promptly 5:17 a.m. In her sleep-deprived state, she swatted at her alarm clock in the hopes it would silence the awful noise. When the baby continued to cry, Sophie pulled the pillow out from under her and shoved it over her face, trying this time to muffle the wails.

  Twenty minutes later, Sophie surrendered, allowing James to win this round. She stumbled into the kitchen where Kelsey was feeding James Cheerios with one hand (Cheerios, which he proceeded to throw across her kitchen) and mainlining coffee with the other. Not even bothering to get her own mug, Sophie swiped the coffee straight from Kelsey’s hand and drained the cup in one gulp.

  “Chum! What the hell?” Kelsey said, referencing an all-time favorite book series of theirs. “Get me a new cup of coffee before I feed you to a goddamn lanima.”

  “Your Illuminae references have no bearing on this conversation. It is five a.m. and I hate you so, so, so much right now. I didn’t get home from the ride-along from hell until after two. And now, your demon-spawn has woken me up before the sun is even up.”

  “Calm your tits, it’s almost six. Wait, why was the ride-along so awful?”

  “Well first of all, Rafe has this annoying-ass partner. Every time I asked Rafe a question, Carlos had to jump in and answer it himself. Not exactly helpful. But I don’t even know if I can fault the guy; Rafe’s answers were all monosyllabic. I can’t even imagine how painful it would’ve been to witness.”

  Kelsey laughed. “Sounds like this Carlos guy is just trying to help you out.”

  “This coffee isn’t strong enough, Kels. Do you think it’s too early for wine?”

  “Hmmm, if you hadn’t gone to sleep yet, you could just call it a bender and drink all day. But you just woke up, so maybe you should wait a few more hours. If you can make it for twelve hours, we can go to happy hour with Becky. Kyle asked to take James tonight, something about a family dinner.”

  “Sounds like a plan. Now do me a favor and shut my adorable godson up so I can get some fucking sleep.”

  Twelve hours, three sushi platters, and four sake bombs later, Sophie was in a much better mood. After dinner, they had decided to go to their favorite dive bar in the Montrose area for craft beer. This particular bar had over fifty beers on draft and a gorgeous patio complete with hammocks. On weekends, they would use a projector to play old movies on the side of the building, but on a regular Thursday night, it was packed. After their second round of drinks, Kelsey and Sophie were sharing a hammock and not so silently judging the drunks, while Becky had wandered off to join some random hottie in a hammock of their own.

  Sophie had almost forgotten about her disastrous interview, when one drunk idiot in particular caught her attention. Carlos had a giant dopey grin on his face as he walked toward her and Kelsey.

  “Shortcake,” he exclaimed cheerfully. “Hurry up and introduce me to your friend with the killer legs.”

  Sophie sighed and rolled her eyes, but before she could get to the introduction, Kelsey got out of the hammock and stuck her hand out. “Based entirely on that conversation alone, I’m guessing you must be Carlos.”

  Shock flitted across Carlos’s face before it broke into a gleeful smile. “Talking me up already, huh? Watch out, Rafe will get jealous if he hears you singing my praises.”

  At Rafe’s name, Sophie immediately felt herself stiffen.

  Please don’t let him be here, please don’t let him be here.

  “He’s over at the bar if you want to try slapping him again. He isn’t in uniform this time so it wouldn’t be as big of a crime.”

  The sentence was barely out of his mouth before Sophie started moving. Storming toward the bar, she belatedly felt a little bad for leaving Kelsey alone to deal with Carlos.

  Rafe was, of course, easy to spot. The man looked like an out-of-place Hemsworth brother with a stick up his ass. Seriously, who sat up that straight at a bar? Apparently not even hard liquor was capable of loosening his posture.

  In a moment she would later look back on as not her finest, Sophie tapped him on the shoulder. She barely let the shock of seeing her register on his face before she slapped him, hard enough to stop all conversation at the bar top.

  A shocked guffaw burst out of his mouth, quickly turning into outright laughter. Sophie realized that she had yet to see him genuinely laugh. His eyes crinkled and his head was thrown back as his shoulders heaved. When he finally managed to contain himself long enough to take her in, she saw something wholly unexpected in his eyes. Heat. Rafe was looking at her like he wanted to absolutely devour her, and though she knew she should be pissed at him, she felt her body responding. Her breasts suddenly felt heavy in the strapless summer dress she was wearing, and her nipples hardened to points.

  Rafe’s eyes dipped to her chest and he licked his lips as he took in the sight. Maybe tonight hadn’t been the best night to go braless. Without saying a word, Rafe finished his drink, placed the empty glass on the bar top, and grabbed her hand. A mix of desire and shock had her following him across the bar in the direction of the restrooms. She was about to protest, when he pulled open a door she hadn’t noticed and pushed her into what appeared to be a storage closet. The door hadn’t even completely closed before his mouth was on hers.

  He kissed her like a starving man, like he needed the air in her lungs to breathe. One hand pushed through her hair, grasping the back of her neck, while the other slid down her body. Everywhere he touched sparked at the contact. His hand moved slowly down her side, caressing the side of her breast, her waist, and then her hip before sliding around to grab her ass. He cupped her firmly in one palm and tugged her forward, pressing his chest against hers.

  All the while, he continued kissing her, first in teasing nips and then deeper, sliding his tongue into her mouth, exploring it before twining it with her own. He slowly walked her backwards until her back met the wall of the small closet. Sophie’s body was on fire, her nerves tingling, her panties soaked. He released his hold on the back of her neck, and used both hands to wrap her legs around his waist, supporting her with one hand under her ass. He began grinding into her, his hard cock hitting just the right spot, making Sophie moan.

  Rafe released her mouth and trailed kisses down her throat, using his free hand to pull down t
he top of her dress. She tunneled her hands into his hair as his mouth dipped lower, taking one nipple into his mouth. Sophie cried out as he lightly bit down, soothing the sting with a swipe of his tongue. He moved to the other breast and was laving her nipple with broad strokes of his tongue when she felt his hand slip under her dress and into her thong.

  He pushed the fabric aside, running one finger up her slit to find her clit. “Fuck, Sophie. You’re so wet,” he growled. He slid one finger into her, while his thumb teased the bundle of nerves. She was gasping for breath now, moaning loudly enough that she was sure anyone walking by the closet could hear her.

  “I can’t wait anymore,” Rafe murmured. His hand left her and she heard his zipper, followed by the crinkling of a condom wrapper.

  “Rafe, yes…” she moaned, too lost in the moment to care about the fact that she hated him. She needed him inside her now.

  Before she had even finished the thought, he thrust into her, burying his face in her neck. He stayed still for a moment, giving her time to get used to his sudden intrusion before he started moving. God, did he move. Rafe pinned her to the wall with both hands on her hips and fucked her like a man unhinged. There was no doubt in Sophie’s mind, no disillusionment—this was raw, animal lust. As he pounded into her, his thumb returned to her clit, stroking it in small circles.

  He silenced her moans with a hard kiss, to which she responded with a bite. There was no finesse in their kissing now. They were ravenous for each other, the ferocity of their kissing matching the fast pace Rafe set as he drove into her.

  “Fuck, you feel so good. Come for me, Sophie. Fucking come for me,” Rafe rasped, his breath catching. Sophie could tell he was close; she was too. He nipped her earlobe and whispered one more time, “Come for me, now.”

  That was all it took. Sophie’s orgasm hit her like a lightning strike, racing through her body. She felt Rafe shudder as she came, and he moaned her name as he followed her.