Chicago Heat
Jordyn Tracey
Copyright © April 2010, Jordyn Tracey
Cover art designed by Anastasia Rabiyah © April 2010
ISBN 978-1-936110-65-0
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this novel are fictitious or used fictitiously. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
Sugar and Spice Press
North Carolina, USA
www.sugarnspicepress.com
Chapter One
Fawn held up a manicured nail, her mouth dropping open in surprise. “Hold up. You think I’m a what and I did what?” She shook her head in disbelief at what this cop was saying to her. Sure, he was fine as hell with a body she’d pay good money to lick, but damn if he thought she was a prostitute. He could kiss her black—
“Ma’am, if you’ll calm down and explain to me what you’re doing out here”—his gaze dropped to her exposed cleavage and mini so short she was in danger of breaking the law—“dressed like that if you’re not offering the goods for sale?”
She rolled her eyes, planting a hand on her hip. “So it’s a crime now to look good? And don’t call me ma’am, damn it. My name is Fawn Hill as you can see right there on my driver’s license.”
He tapped the small rectangular card in the palm of one hand as he studied it and looked back up at her. His expression alone told her he had doubts as to its validity. When he commanded she wait there while he returned to his vehicle and reached inside for his CB, she groaned. All this mess because she had been on the rebound looking for a new man, but at the same time trying to make Mackie jealous. She was an idiot. He’d been jealous all right. And she’d gotten more attention than she wanted. Never mind the fact that her stupid car had broken down, and she had to walk to find a phone because bad luck didn’t come one thing at time. It came in multiples. She had missed paying her cell phone bill, and the mobile company had disconnected it.
She hated this night, hated her life, and hated the sexy ass cop watching her like she was listed on America’s Most Wanted. She crossed her arms and began pacing back and forth over the sidewalk. The man thought she was selling herself! What a trip. Okay, so she’d gotten desperate and flagged his unmarked car down for a ride. It obviously wasn’t her smartest move, but everyone made mistakes. He should be the one investigated because he sure didn’t discourage her flirting when she realized how hot he was.
Irritated, she turned to examine him again, hoping she’d overlooked his flaws, like a receding hairline or bulging belly. That would serve his arrogant behind right, but she had no such luck. The cop was every woman’s dream being at least six-five with a full head of dark curls, a firm jaw line, and a hard body that must have come from a life in the gym. On top of his looks, he had the cop thing going for him. No woman could resist a man in authority. Well, except her, she thought with bitterness. She raised her chin, and rolled her eyes at him.
After a few minutes of talking with the dispatcher and reading her information off her license to the person, he came back and gave it to her. “Turns out your name is Fawn Hill. No record. I think I’ll let you off with a warning. Listen, you need to be careful out here, dressed like that.”
“That’s not your business.” She turned to go. Her feet hurt in the spiky heels she’d worn, but she tried not to let it show. She made it a couple steps away from him before he called out her name. A shiver ran over her hearing it.
“Fawn.”
She hesitated and turned around. His eyes were green, she noted with him facing the street light. “Let me give you a ride home. My shift ended twenty minutes ago.”
“No thanks.” She turned to go, but he caught her arm.
“Don’t be stubborn because you’re mad. Like I said, it’s dangerous in this part of the city.” His fingers on her arm sent shockwaves of desire running through her. This was silly. She’d just been obsessed over Mackie walking out on her. A man like this cop would never be good for her. He raised his eyebrows in question and then let her arm go to hold out his hand. “If it helps, I’m Detective John Harris of the CPD.”
Fawn held out another thirty seconds and then put her hand in his. The temperature was dropping, and she had no idea if public phones even existed anymore, let alone where one was. She should be thankful it was John who stopped and not some rapist. Talk about stupid choices she’d made in her life.
“Fine,” she said at last. “Thank you.” She gave him her address as he saw her into the car. To Fawn’s embarrassment, when she sat down in the passenger seat, her skirt rose to the point that half her ass was visible. It looked like she didn’t have any panties on.
“Fuck!” John grumbled and turned over the engine of his car. When he peeled out of his parking place and sped off down the street, Fawn figured she knew why. In no way was she vain about her looks, but she’d heard enough times “baby, you could be a model” to know even the law man was getting turned on. Of course, it didn’t take much with her exposing it all.
She tugged on her skirt, but the thing wasn’t budging. All she could do was grip the seat on the side of her and hope he didn’t wrap them around a tree because he was hard. Daring to look over at him, she noted his strong hands curled over the steering wheel. Long fingers. A man with long fingers…No, she wasn’t even going there. He wore no wedding ring, but as good as he looked, he had to have a woman at home or somewhere, a woman who knew what she had.
“Do you always dress that way?” he asked as he zipped from lane to lane passing slower traffic.
“What?” She’d been busy speculating on what kind of woman the cop preferred. Stiff, prissy, white, she surmised. “Oh, um, no.” Her embarrassment increased now that she had a chance to calm down. She grew angry quickly, but when it was over, she found more than once, she’d either overreacted or put her foot in her mouth. “I was trying to make Mackie my boyfriend jealous…ex-boyfriend,” she hurried to say.
The cop smirked at her and then turned his attention back to the road.
“I thought I loved him, would have bent over backward for him.” She sighed, feeling tears coming on, but she hadn’t cried in a long time. She wasn’t going to start with Mackie. “He dumped me for someone else. I couldn’t accept that, so I went down to where he likes to hang out and shook my thing for anybody who wanted to look.”
“And was he there to witness you shaking your thing?”
She laughed. Now that she wasn’t under suspicion, she could forgive him for his attitude. “You don’t have to sound so condescending. Yes, he was there, and yes, he was jealous. Acted a fool in front of the girl until they got in an argument, and then some other guys got into it.”
“But?”
Fawn crossed her arms and stared out the window as the scenery seemed to zip by. “But I came to my senses realizing that he isn’t all that. He isn’t worth my time if he could dump me one day and try to get back with me the next. I can do better, and while I know how to dress sexy, it’s always with class. This is not class.”
She waited for him to agree, to again remind her of what a fool she was for going out dressed like she was, but he didn’t comment on it. “You’re a beautiful woman. You know that. You can get any man you want.”
Fawn shrugged, making her breasts rise and fall. John’s gaze flicked over them before he forced his eyes to focus on the road. Fawn suddenly felt like teasing, to get him back for his mistake. She smiled and leaned over toward him to rest a hand on his thigh. The muscles beneath her fingers contracted. “Could I get you?”
She thought she had him until he reached down and moved her hand. “Sorry, I don’t know you, and well, this isn’t the best first impression, is it? You say you’re not like yo
u appear to be. You’re hurt over the loss of your boyfriend, but then here you are coming on to me the day after it happened.”
Her mouth dropped open for the second time that night. She snapped to attention, sitting straight up. “Are you serious? You arrogant son of a bi—”
“Fawn.”
“Let me out right here,” she shouted. “I said stop the car!”
He pulled to the side of the road, and Fawn flung the door open before jumping out and slamming it behind her. She cursed him all the way down the street, and it wasn’t until she drew up in front of her apartment building that she saw how close they had been. He’d let her out only a block away, and since she had grown up in the area, knew everybody and his mama, she wasn’t worried about being attacked.
When she jerked the door to her building open, she heard tires turning and looked around to see that he had followed her all the way home. His taillights flickered once, and then he was gone. “Hope I never see him again,” she grumbled as she headed inside to her apartment.
Chapter Two
Feeling much more like herself, Fawn stepped up to her mirror while buttoning her long sleeved blouse. Today would be a good day, she determined. The library would be quiet with no drama. Well, maybe until school let out and all the high school kids came in, but still she could handle that. Her boring grey skirt may hug her curves a little more than her boss liked, but it did hang to just above her knees, so he couldn’t fault her. Besides, the man had dropped subtle hints that he wouldn’t mind them getting together for drinks after hours. She had pretended not to get what he meant. He liked the view, so she wouldn’t get into trouble.
However, the small time library that always seemed ready to close if they didn’t get more funding was not where she wanted to stay the rest of her life. She had to land a better position. Something in research at a university would be awesome and would utilize her degree. She grinned at her reflection. “Let that stupid cop look down on that. I’m not the ignorant skank he thinks I am.”
At last satisfied with her appearance, she strolled across the room and slipped into her shoes before passing into the living room and scooping up her purse. She’d called her cousin to go pick up her car, hoping it hadn’t already been towed and that whatever was wrong with it wouldn’t break her tiny savings—again. She needed to stop trying to live beyond her means and just catch the L which ran right near her place, but public transportation made her crazy. That was just asking for her to lose it and go upside somebody’s head.
With no car, by the time she made it to work, she was a half hour late. Her boss eyed her as she came in, and she cast him an apologetic look. “Sorry, Mr. Peterson. I had car trouble, and even though I left home early enough to get here on time, there’s just no accounting for the unexpected.” She laid a hand on his sleeve. “You know what I mean?”
Confusion clouded his eyes, and he blinked at her for a few seconds. “Yes, of course. I told you to call me Les, Fawn. I want you to feel we can be friends, close friends.”
But calling you by your last name keeps you at a distance. She smiled but didn’t acknowledge his words. “Well, I’d better get right to work and make up for lost time. Thanks for being so understanding, Mr. Peterson.”
She spun away and hurried to the back room to store her things before heading to the cart of books that needed to be re-shelved. At close to one o’clock, she stood behind the information desk, idling on the computer. Soon she would get her lunch break, and she couldn’t wait since the two slices of buttered toast she’d eaten this morning had digested long ago.
Holding her head with a hand, she didn’t immediately look up when a patron walked to the counter. “May I help you?” she asked.
The deep voice that responded sounded familiar. “Yes, we need to know where your books on dinosaurs are. So far, we’ve only located fictional books. We need nonfiction.”
Fawn gasped. “You! What are you doing here?” In front of her, dressed in a black collared shirt and black jeans, freshly shaven, was the cop from last night. “Detective Jake, right?”
She remembered his name just fine but wanted to dig at him for making her mad. How could she ever forget how good he looked, and how he had rejected her like she was trash he wouldn’t be caught dead with.
His dark brows crashed low over his eyes, but he didn’t seem angry. More amused like he knew what she was up to. “It’s John. This is a public library. Why wouldn’t I utilize it? I could ask the same. What are you doing here?”
Without thinking about it, Fawn put a hand on her hip, but then she shifted her gaze to Mr. Peterson passing nearby. She had to maintain professionalism at work. “I’m working.”
He smirked and leaned on the counter, bringing them too close for her comfort in these surroundings. “Hm, now that is interesting. Temptress by night, respectable librarian by day.”
“Get your mind off your fantasies, detective. I’m not that type of woman. I told you that last night, but you didn’t believe me.” When he laughed, she couldn’t help staring at how his lips curved and his eyes crinkled at the corners. She put him at thirty-five or so. After some moments, she remembered he had said “we” when he first walked up, and she noticed the child beside him. Her eyes rounded. “Your son?”
“My nephew.” He rested a palm on the boy’s head with affection. “We’re on our way to a dentist appointment, and Kevin reminded me he needs a book for a project that’s due in a couple of weeks. I think it’s a delay tactic, but no choice.” He shrugged.
All of a sudden, Fawn saw him in a different light. He gave off the good father vibe while still looking tough enough to take down a bad guy. John was every woman’s fantasy man, at least from what she could see. With much self-control, she resisted sighing like a happy kitten. What John Harris of the Chicago Police Department was had nothing to do with her.
She clicked a few keys on the computer to search out where the nonfiction books on dinosaurs were although she had a good idea, and then moved around the counter to direct them. As she walked ahead of John and his nephew, she told herself it was not that she was attracted to him that she didn’t stay where she was and tell them the aisle they were looking for.
“Here they are,” she announced and pointed out a good row and a half on the shelf for Kevin to peruse. While she waited a second to see if Kevin was satisfied, John moved up behind her. He was so close she felt the heat of his body through her blouse. The muscles in her back tightened, and goose bumps broke out on her arms. She pretended he had no affect on her whatsoever.
“So, this is how you dress at work. Still nice. I am surprised you haven’t been called in to the boss’ office by how tight that skirt is.”
She frowned and looked over her shoulder at him. He was closer than she thought. Their lips were within inches of each other, and seeing it she parted hers without thinking. His deep blue gaze dropped to her mouth. The desire she glimpsed made her quiver with need.
“Uncle John, I think these would be good.” Kevin broke the spell.
Fawn cleared her throat and stepped away from John. “That’s good. My coworker can check you out at the front.”
The boy glanced between John and herself, and then turned back to him. “Can I get something fun to read too?”
“Sure, buddy. Go ahead.” John ruffled his hair, and Kevin ran off.
Fawn and John stood there in silence for a few minutes. She decided to make herself busy by straightening the shelf that Kevin had left askew. “You’re a good uncle and brother, taking your nephew to his doctor appointments for your brother or sister.”
He didn’t respond, and she glanced over at him. He studied her face with an unreadable expression on his.
“What?” she asked.
He shrugged. “His being here raises my worth in your eyes.”
She put her hands on her hips. “What’s that supposed to mean? You think I’m looking for husband material?” Eying him up and down, she stepped closer. “Let me tell you so
mething, Mr. High-and-Mighty, you’re not all that, and I wouldn’t go out with you if you were the last man on earth.”
Amusement made his eyes twinkle. She wanted to slap him but didn’t. “I was kidding. You have a short fuse, don’t you?” Rather than let her answer, he continued. “I’m raising Kevin, actually. His father—my brother—was also a policeman. He was killed two years ago in a routine roadside check. Having no other family and no idea where his mother is, I took him.”
She put a hand up to her lips. “I’m so sorry. How horrible, especially for him being so young.”
He nodded. “Thanks. Threw me for a loop having an eight year old to raise, a confirmed bachelor like myself. I’d seen my brother’s horrible marriage and wanted no parts of it. So, even though Kevin has changed my life a lot, having him has not changed that view.”
“The view that all women are dogs?”
His expression said he agreed. She rolled her eyes and walked past him. He caught her arm and ran his fingers down her skin, a gentle touch that made her shiver. When his tips reached her palm, she knew he better stop soon or she would need a clean pair of panties.
“That doesn’t mean I don’t date,” he added.
Fawn scanned the area to be sure no one she worked with was watching them. She turned and strolled back between the high shelves of books. “So what are you saying, detective? You want to go out with me?”
She crossed her arms over her breasts, and rather than follow her movements, he kept his eyes on her face for a change. She never minded men looking at her. Most of them wanted one thing, and hell, since she wanted that too, what did she care. Like every other woman, at some point, she wanted to get married and have kids, but at twenty-seven, she hadn’t met the right man. These days women were having kids still at forty, so she wasn’t one of the ones spouting off about a biological clock ticking away.
Fawn might like having as much fun in a weekend as she could and looked toward furthering her career in the day. She enjoyed the excitement of dating and having sex. But she liked being in love as well, being surprised with flowers just because. That kind of man had never been drawn to her. No, the men she attracted were all about the sex, and if they had to play nice with flowers and candy the first few dates, that’s what they did. Fawn was just silly enough to fall for the assholes to be hurt later.
Chicago Heat Page 1
