by D. D. Ayres
She picked up her water, thirstier than before. She missed her mouth and spilled an icy trickle into her lap. She ignored it. Tilting the bottle again, she swallowed and concentrated on the sharp cold of the water as it traveled all the way down into her stomach. It was like jumping into an autumn lake, only from the inside. After her conversation with Eric, she wanted to shower.
She should get up and leave right now, and never come back. Perry would be furious. Probably fire her. So then she’d move out of Raleigh altogether. There wasn’t anything or anyone holding her here.
That thought was as depressing as it was supposed to be inspirational. Anger came in to take up the slack.
Don’t let the rat bastard run you off.
When she opened her eyes she saw a flashing light indicating a call. She reached for her headphones. Might as well finish the day. She needed the paycheck.
* * *
Shay glanced at the clock. It was ten minutes before closing. After fielding half a dozen calls from customers freaking out about their Friday paychecks not showing in their bank accounts, Shay picked up the next call with the numbing hope it was someone who’d forgotten their password.
“I’m lookin’ for Shay Appleton.”
Shay frowned. She was never asked for by name. “Yes? How can I help you?”
“You can keep your fucking mouth shut to the cops!”
“What?”
“Keep your fuckin’ mouth shut, cunt!”
He hung up.
The panic attack came on too fast for her to process, let alone prevent. A sensation like swarming ants ran all over her body. A hard shiver rocked her. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get her diaphragm to draw in a breath. Sensations of being too hot and then too cold hit her, one after the other.
Unable to move, Shay allowed her gaze to sweep frantically back and forth across the main floor of the bank, looking for any sign of who might have made the call. The tellers were all busy. The bank officers with cubicles on this floor were with customers.
Eric. Where was he?
He was emerging from an elevator, in conversation with two men in business suits. They crossed quickly to the main doors and left.
Shay shot to her feet, her head getting yanked by the cord of her headphones. She jerked them off, ignoring the flashing lights of two new calls. She grabbed her purse and shoved a palm against her mouth as she skirted her desk and headed out across the main bank lobby. Her heels made loud clacking sounds as she hurried across the marble floor.
She straight-armed the restroom door open. Thankfully no one else was there. She ran to the first sink, bending low over it. She pushed for the water to come on with one hand, splashing her face with the other.
After a moment, she lifted her head and, eyes closed, drew in a long slow breath.
Breathe. Slowly. In. Out. In. Out.
She curled her hands into fists, digging her nails into her palms until they hurt. Control! She needed to get control! The panic attack would subside with control.
It was only a phone call. I’m not in immediate danger.
She opened her eyes to grab paper towels and dry her face.
She had worked IT in many different companies during the past three years. Dealt with the bug-eyed angry, dithering idiots, the socially inept, and even the occasional prankster or pervert. No one had ever called her that word before … except Eric, their final night together.
She stared at her reflection in the mirror. The image staring back looked bloodless, with too big eyes and wet spikes of bangs dripping into her eyes.
Who was the caller? Not Eric. The voice sounded uneducated, husky, burred by too many cigarettes or alcohol, or both.
Had Eric gotten someone else to do his dirty work? Was he expecting her to run to him for protection? Or, was he just trying to mess with her head?
One thing was certain. She’d had enough of Halifax Bank. She was going home. Now. Eric had won this round.
Rage welled up through Shay’s anxiety as she reached for the restroom door, shouting, “Bastard!”
Two startled faces met her as she emerged. She ignored them and swept past.
* * *
James almost didn’t recognize Shay when she burst through the doors of the bank as if someone were chasing her, and headed in the opposite direction. Dressed in a navy blue suit with a hemline his mother would call matronly, she looked middle-aged. “Shay?”
When she swung around he saw that the bangs were the same, as were the changeable tortoiseshell eyes that widened with his approach.
Bogart ran ahead, barking in delight at the sight of the friend who’d emerged from the bank. James gave him enough leash to reach his goal.
A pretty smile lit up Shay’s face as Bogart bounded forward, certain of his welcome.
James rubbed a hand over a back pocket of his jeans as he followed. Damn. He was sweating! He would have considered any other man making this miserable move a loser.
Shay bent down to greet Bogart and got a lick in the face with a very wet tongue in response. “What are you doing here, fella?”
“Don’t I deserve a welcome, too?”
Her gaze ranged away from the dog to find James standing over her. Her smile faltered. “Officer Cannon.”
“The bad penny,” he agreed with a small smile.
As their gazes locked, James tried to remember what he’d been telling himself on the drive over to Raleigh. All he could remember now that he was gazing at her was that every time he thought about her his johnson stirred.
The bank doors opened behind them, spilling out several other employees. Two women paused to gaze openly at Shay and the dog she was petting. The youngest woman smiled at James. “That’s a really nice dog you got there.”
James nodded, gathering up the slack in his leash. “I share him with Shay these days.”
Two of the women exchanged glances. “You and Ms. Appleton are acquainted then?” A leading question if there ever was one.
He gave her his best smile. “Oh, we’re more than that. Bogart and Shay are in love. Have a nice evening, ladies.”
As they moved on Shay came slowly to her feet. James looked good, better than her memories of him. Tall and solid, he was devastatingly virile in ways that models often aren’t. Still, he was the very last person she expected to see.
She tried not to sound breathless as she asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Bogart and I have been sent over to a place east of Raleigh to get some training next week. Seems all your spoiling has ruined him for police work.”
He was surprised to see the look of stark dismay that came into her expression. “Joke, maybe?”
“Oh.” She smiled but it didn’t have much energy. It pained him to think she had been so battered by life that she couldn’t take a joke.
Still, James wasn’t about to apologize. There’d been too damn much of that already in this relationship.
He handed her Bogart’s leash. “I need a burger. You coming?” He turned on his heel and started walking back down the street to where he’d parked his cruiser.
It was a daring move, but he didn’t know how else to engage her without starting an argument on a public street.
He was halfway to the corner before Bogart came bounding to his side. A second later Shay was there, too, looking straight ahead. He glanced sideways at her and smiled. So far, so-so.
They paused when the light changed.
“How did you find me?” Shay tried to keep the strain of the last minutes of her day out of her voice but it vibrated there anyway.
First I ran a background check on you and came up empty so I put a professional on it. That didn’t sound like the way to start the evening.
He settled for a version of the truth. “I looked you up. Found out you work for Logital Solutions. So I went by there this afternoon.”
“I see.” Shay ran a mental list of who might have told him what. “You spoke with my boss?”
“No. Aft
er I was politely told by your company’s HR person that they don’t give out information about their employees, a lady named Angie came over and put a note in my hand. It was this bank’s address. I hope you don’t mind.”
Shay shrugged.
“She added her cell number, and said if things didn’t work out to give her a call.”
That forced a laugh from Shay. That was so Angie.
Conversation met a lull as they waited for the light to change. But it was a strangely comfortable silence.
Shay had almost convinced herself that she had overreacted to the crank call. More than likely the stupid jerk was someone who had been in the bank this week, noticed her nameplate, and was unhappy with his service. Disgruntled customers often chose anonymous ways to get back at institutions. He must have decided he’d get a live person to dump on if he called IT customer service.
That was a comforting theory, except for one thing. He threatened her very specifically. Keep your fucking mouth shut around the cops. Did he mean James?
Out on the street now at twilight, she couldn’t shake the feeling of being exposed and vulnerable. That thought chilled her more than the nip of the cold front filtering through the evening air.
When the light changed, she reached out and took James’s arm, needing to feel the solid assurance of his presence. He didn’t say a word. She was grateful.
“Oh wait.”
James turned as Shay dragged him to a halt.
“My car.” She pointed in the direction opposite the one they were walking.
James thought about it only a second and then he said. “Right. I’ll follow you and you can drop it off at your place before you come with us.”
“I’d rather drive myself.” Shay held her breath, waiting for his disapproval.
His expression didn’t change. “Okay. But first.” He caught her about the waist, lifted her chin with his finger and kissed her.
It was such a quick kiss she didn’t have time to prepare or respond before he released her.
She stared him. “Why did you do that?”
He stared back. “Seriously?”
She nodded and turned around, not wanting him to see her smile.
She wasn’t going to drag James into her problems. But if she went to dinner with him then, for a few hours, she would have protection. Her decision to be with him had nothing to do with the kiss. Absolutely nothing. Except, it had everything to do with it.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“I know.” Shay mouthed the words and smiled at the pedestrian who had tapped on her passenger-side window while she waited for the traffic light to change. He was pointing behind her with eyes wide.
She glanced in her rearview mirror, no longer startled every time she saw James’s cruiser filling up the view. It must appear to other drivers and pedestrians that she was being tailed because he made every turn and pause she did.
James didn’t know Raleigh so he suggested she choose where they went. She decided on a place over on Morgan Street. By the time they’d made their way through rush-hour traffic, street parking was taken for blocks in all directions. They ended up in a multitier parking garage several blocks away.
When James came around his cruiser toward her with an easy smile, it reminded her she’d spent the entire drive trying not to think about the fact that he had kissed her. Which led to thinking about their night together. That made her body melt yet tighten with the reminder of what it was like to be under him, over him, with him inside.
Don’t go there.
She looked past him. “Aren’t you bringing Bogart?”
“No. It’s standard procedure to leave K-9s in their crates unless being called upon to work. K-9 vehicles are equipped with a special engine-driven, temperature-controlled environment.”
Shay looked in the rear window where Bogart stared back through the glass, ears pricked forward and head slightly to one side. “You be good and we’ll bring you a treat.”
He answered with a bright bark, as if he understood her.
James took her by the elbow and turned her toward the exit. “Why don’t you think about you for a change? It’s Friday night. You’re out with a pretty decent guy who drove two hours to take you out to dinner.”
When put like that, Shay could only nod. Actually, that sounded like heaven.
When he slipped his hand down her arm to take her hand as they walked, she had to resist the temptation to lean in against his arm. This time her reaction had nothing to do with anxiety and everything to do with the most female part of her reacting to the male essence of him.
“Cold?”
He was looking down at her. That’s when she realized she was shivering. But it wasn’t cold sending little shock waves through her. These were pure sexual vibrations.
She shook her head, afraid if she spoke lust would coat her words with too much meaning.
When he put his arm around her anyway and pulled her in against him, a hurricane couldn’t have forced her to move even one inch away from his muscular warmth.
Pushing through the door of the restaurant, they were met by the lights, noise, and crowded warmth of Raleigh TGIFers in full happy-hour mode. Surprisingly, a waitress with menus in hand waved them right in. She led them through the long, narrow establishment with a bar running the full length of the right wall and tables and booths filling the left. The aisle was clogged with patrons who, having spent the day at desks or in cubicles, preferred standing at the bar to sitting, while a thumping bassline filled the air with a heartbeat rhythm. The back room was less crowded only because the bar didn’t reach that far.
“What’ll it be, folks?”
Shay pointed to the beer menu for James’s benefit. “This place carries beer from practically every brewery in North Carolina. Should be something there you’ll like.”
He shook his head. “Sorry, I’m driving a government vehicle. But you go ahead.”
Shay looked up at the waitress. “Two O’Doul’s, please.” She didn’t glance at James for fear of what she might see in his expression, perhaps gratitude she’d chosen to share a nonbeer with him. She wasn’t certain she could handle any more positive vibes from him without embarrassing them both in public.
Her phone rang. It was Angie.
“Did he find you?”
“Hi. Yeah. Thanks.”
“You sneak. He’s gorgeous! Is he really a policeman?”
“That’s right.” Shay didn’t look James’s way because she didn’t want him to know she was talking about him.
“Where are you? I hear music. And people. Is he taking you out?”
“I’m grabbing a burger.”
“Is that safe, taking him out in public? Half the single female population of Raleigh will be on the prowl tonight. You are dressed to impress, right?”
Shay frowned. “Let me call you later.”
“I hope you can’t call back until tomorrow. And I’ll want details.”
Shay hung up and glanced around the room. Angie was right. The crowd was young, and hip, and dressed to mate. By comparison she looked, well, dull.
She stood up. “If you’ll excuse me a minute.”
James reached for her wrist as she popped up out of her chair. “You are coming back?”
She smiled. “I haven’t eaten all day. Order me a burger?”
He let her go with a grin.
Shay pushed into the ladies’ room. When she caught a good look at herself in a mirror, she groaned out loud. She looked like a repressed librarian. But it was exactly because she hadn’t wanted to attract attention at work, in case Eric did show up, that she’d been dressing down. The only not-ugly thing about her outfit was the sexy camisole she wore underneath her suit to make her feel better about herself.
She took off her jacket and rolled up the waistband of her skirt until four full inches of her legs were visible above the knee. The floating hem of her camisole hung loose, hiding the extra material at her waist. Nothing she could do about her sensible
heels. No, wait! She kept a pair of cute flats in her bag. She fished out a pair of silver ballet flats. Okay, where was her makeup?
“Here, try this.” The young woman next to her had opened a full bag of makeup. Dressed in frayed denim short shorts, a Mickey Mouse muscle shirt, and western booties, she held out a teal mascara wand. “It goes with everything, trust me.”
“Thanks but I found mine.” Shay pulled out her old reliable black and began touching up her lashes.
The woman persisted. “I saw your date when you came in. He’s hot.”
Shay smiled. “Yeah. He is.” She reached into her bag for lipstick.
“You so need this.” She offered Shay an eyeliner pencil. “I mean that in a good way. You’ve got amazing eyes but your mascara needs a little help. Here let me show you.”
Shay didn’t know why she was letting a stranger line her eyes but it was sort of fun to have someone fussing over her. She checked herself in the mirror. “Thanks.”
The woman grinned. “Anything to help a girl with a hunk in hand. I’m Carly.”
“Shay.”
“He’s not from around here. I know all the local guys. I’d surely remember him.”
“He’s from Charlotte.” Shay wondered why she was giving away information to this stranger. Except that she’d been really friendly and helpful.
“Known him long?” When Shay hesitated, Carly grinned and laid a hand on her arm. “I know, I’m being nosy but you make such a cute couple. Good luck.”
“Thanks.”
Shay returned to her reflection. Okay, her hair needed work. She unclipped her bun and pulled a comb through the heavy fall of dark hair, then smoothed out her bangs.
James’s eyes widened in interest as Shay came toward him. In place of her business jacket she wore a skimpy little green tank top with a plunging neckline edged in some sort of sparkly beads. And her skirt was definitely shorter, revealing long curvy legs. She’d let down her hair and it fell over her shoulders like a dark shiny waterfall. Her lips were pink, but not shellacked with that gooey kind of gloss that made him feel like his lips were going to slide off a woman’s face when he tried to kiss her.
Best of all, a shy little smile tugged her mouth. She wanted him to be pleased. So he wasn’t about to admit that, nice as she looked, he preferred her makeupless and in a ponytail, jeans, and scuffed boots. Or, better yet, nothing.
