Rush let out a long-suffering breath. “All right, fine. You can tell me about your little hunch or whatever the fuck it is. I won’t even time you.”
She studied him a long moment, frowning, and for some reason that too made him uncomfortable, though he couldn’t for the life of him think why. “Okay,” she said finally. “But not here. There are too many distractions.”
Speaking of which…He glanced over at the stage, to where Candy was finishing up her dance. Her gaze dropped to the cuffs and she pouted.
He gave her a penitent look and mouthed, “Tomorrow?”
She lifted one shoulder in a shrug, tossed her hair, and sashayed over toward the suits again, bending over to give them a proper show.
Okay, so clearly she was pissed, which meant he could say goodbye to the evening he’d had planned with her and Chantelle. Shit. As if he needed another reason to stay away from Ava fucking St. George.
Even more annoyed, he said, “The VIP rooms are perfect.”
“Oh really? I thought you didn’t like that idea.”
He didn’t, but now he was irritated enough at having his evening ruined not to care. “Yeah, well, I’ve changed my mind. If you’re going to invade my space and arrest me for not doing anything, the least you can do is give me a lap dance.”
Again the comment just slid right off her. “If you want a lap dance, there are plenty of strippers here who’ll do it for you.” She tightened her fingers around his upper arm. “Come on, let’s go.”
Christ, if he couldn’t offend her in some way, shape, or form, what kind of prick was he? Looked like he had his work cut out for him.
Ignoring the stares of the thin crowd as Ava began to steer him in the direction of the strip club’s offices, he grinned as they ran into Rhys coming back from the bar, two beers in his hands.
“Save it for me, huh?” Rush said, not slowing. “I’ll be back in five minutes.”
“Doesn’t look like it,” Rhys muttered as they went past.
Rush twisted one hand in the cuffs and gave him the finger, still grinning.
Five minutes. Max.
He was going to scare the fuck out of the little cop in front of him or his name wasn’t Rush Redmond, rude bastard and all-around asshole.
The VIP rooms were on the upper floor, and after a quick conversation with the club owner, which involved Ava flashing her badge and politely ordering the guy to make one of the rooms free this instant if they didn’t want the cops in here doing a search, she dragged him up the stairs and down the dim hallway to the designated room.
It was one of the bigger ones, the padded walls lined with black velvet couches and lit with blue wall lights. There was a low table in the middle of it for drinks and for strippers to dance on when they weren’t dancing in the laps of the clients.
Ava held the door open for him and he went in, sauntering over to one of the couches and sitting down. He’d been in this one before, with Candy. Good times.
His little cop—not that she was actually that little, come to think of it—was looking around, her nose wrinkling in distaste as she closed the door behind them, shutting out the music from downstairs.
“Always wondered what these places looked like,” she murmured. “Sleazy.”
“It’s a strip club. What do you expect?” He leaned back against the wall and stretched his legs out in front of him, relaxed and casual, as if he wasn’t in handcuffs. “Come on, baby. Lap dance first, then I’ll listen to what you have to say.”
Ava’s brows twitched. She didn’t sit down, electing to stand in front of him instead, looking down at him with her arms folded. Perhaps she was trying to intimidate him? If so, it didn’t work. He’d been in prison with some of the meanest motherfuckers in the state; one girl cop had nothing on them, no matter how stern she was.
“I’ll get that stripper to come up later,” Ava said matter-of-factly. “All I want is access to your contact list.”
Rush let out a breath. Jesus, he’d forgotten how relentless she was. He’d get no satisfaction out of her until he’d listened to whatever it was about this hunch thing she had to say.
Except he didn’t want to give her that. She’d waited two months before coming to see him, and now that she was here, it was all Hey, Rush, I’ve got a problem I need help with. As if he’d still been the good guy who’d kept a little girl company and not the bad motherfucker who’d been in prison.
Well, if she wanted the good guy, she was shit out of luck. Good guys didn’t last long in jail—he’d learned that the hard way—so he’d become someone else. Someone no one fucked with. Someone a sweet thing like Ava definitely shouldn’t be coming to for help, let alone trusting.
Perhaps she needed a lesson in who he was now.
He adjusted his knees so they were spread arrogantly wide and settled himself more firmly against the back of the couch. “I don’t want that stripper,” he said flatly. “And if you want that information, you’re going to have to pay for it. I don’t give it away for free these days.”
This time her brows didn’t just twitch, they descended into a full-on frown. “Look, is this about me not coming to see you? Because I was trying to apologize for that earlier.”
Yeah, and he wasn’t interested. Apologies were fuck-all use to him. “No, it’s about me not wanting to give away intel to a fucking cop.”
“You really want to take a trip down to the precinct?”
“Sure, why not? But if you do that, I’m not going to tell you anything.”
She huffed out a breath, white teeth appearing and pressing on her full lower lip. “There’s no reason to be so difficult, Rush. I’m not asking you for anything but the details of a couple of people. What’s the big deal?”
There were a couple of reasons why it was a big deal, not the least being that his contact list was not for her to cast her pretty eyes over. It contained a lot of big names attached to a lot of big secrets, none of which were for public consumption. But he wasn’t going to tell her that.
He tilted his head against the back of the couch. “The big deal is you coming in here, ruining my fucking evening and demanding shit from me without even a please. And then, on top of that, you arrest me. Now, ask me again what the big deal is.”
She said nothing for a second, staring at him while she chewed on her lip, and damn him if he couldn’t seem to drag his gaze from her mouth. It was full and very red, and the color had to be natural, because he swore she wasn’t wearing lipstick.
“This is important,” she said finally. “Too important for game playing.”
“Well, that’s too bad for you, honey, ’cause I like to play games.” He wasn’t moving on this. If she was going to treat him like a fucking criminal, then he was going to act like one.
Ava let out another impatient-sounding breath. “Fine, we’ll do it your way.” Her arms dropped and she put her hands on her hips, eyeing him. “So, what do you want me to do?”
He’d been hoping for a bit more pushback than this, but hell, if she wanted to get the ball rolling, then he was into it. He grinned at her. “You can start with a lap dance.”
You’re seriously asking the sheriff’s little girl to give you a damn lap dance? You’re going straight to hell.
Oh yeah, he already knew that.
There was no distaste in Ava’s expression, only an impatient look that reminded him oddly of when his older brother, Quinn, had been forced by their mother to play with Rush when he didn’t want to.
Not exactly the kind of reminder you wanted from a girl who was just about to give you a lap dance.
“I don’t know how to do that,” Ava said.
Of course she wouldn’t.
“No problem.” He nodded to his lap. “Just climb aboard and I’ll tell you what to do.”
Ava glanced toward the door, then back at him. “Are you sure you don’t want me to call someone who knows what they’re doing? I mean, how long do you need? Five minutes?”
God, give him s
trength. “Like I said, I don’t want anyone else. I want you. Now get in my lap, there’s a good girl.”
“You do know I’m not actually a girl anymore?”
“Well, obviously I do,” he muttered, not liking the reminder of the past, since it made him aware that the guy he’d once been would never in a million years have treated Ava the way he was treating her right now. “I’m not a fucking pervert.”
But she had that sympathetic look on her face again, the one that made something in his chest curl up tight. “I know you’re not. That’s not what I meant.”
“I don’t care what you meant,” he growled, not liking where this conversation was going one bit. “And I’m not getting any closer to my fucking lap dance. So get in my lap and let’s get this show on the road.”
She narrowed her gaze, the flare of copper-gold noticeable even in the blue light of the room. “You used to be more polite than that, Rush. Where’s the please?”
Please? She was seriously asking him to say please?
Well, you used to.
Yeah, and now he didn’t. Now all he wanted to say was, Get on your knees, pull down my zipper, and you’ll find your please right there.
But he found himself biting down on that, because it appeared he still had at least a vestige of conscience remaining when it came to Ava. It had been a long time since she’d been a kid, yet he still remembered. She’d been the one person who’d given a shit about him, and he couldn’t forget that, no matter how much he wanted to.
So he rolled his eyes instead and played nice. “Please, Ava.”
She gave him another long look, then shrugged a shoulder. “Okay then. But only because it’s you.”
And before he’d had time to fully process that, she took a couple of steps forward till she was right in front of him. Then she climbed up onto his lap.
—
Actually sitting in Rush Redmond’s lap was a whole lot different than talking about it, Ava had to admit.
You should have known that it would be.
Okay, she really should have. But given that the last male lap she’d sat in had been her father’s and she’d been eight years old, perhaps she could be forgiven for not understanding that there would be a difference.
And there was a hell of a difference.
She hadn’t been expecting Rush’s body would be quite so hot and how that heat would seep through her uniform, making her feel as if she was sitting right next to a roaring fire. She hadn’t expected him to feel so hard, all firm muscle and raw male power. She hadn’t expected the scent of him to hit her like a sucker punch with its warm familiarity, like freshly washed sheets dried on the line in the midsummer sun.
And she definitely hadn’t expected him to look at her from beneath half closed, golden brown lashes, his eyes full of something she didn’t recognize.
Maybe you shouldn’t have done this.
It was true no self-respecting cop would have gotten into his lap like she had. Anyone else would have read him his rights and dragged him down to the precinct, no matter what he said.
But this concerned her mother, and right now, nothing was more important than getting the details of Jimmy Troy and his associates. And she would do what she had to do in order to get them.
Are you sure it’s just about getting those details? Not you getting peeved that he didn’t fire back with something blatantly sexual when you said you weren’t a little girl anymore?
Well, okay, that had irritated her. And maybe once she would have wanted to do something in return to surprise him, maybe shock him. Show him she wasn’t the poor attention-starved kid he’d once befriended. But giving in to those rebellious impulses was something she’d overcome during her time at the police academy in her quest to be the best. After all, her father had always said that part of being a good cop was remaining in control in all situations, so this wasn’t about shocking him. This was about taking control of the situation.
Except right now, she didn’t much feel like she was in control, because something was sweeping over her, a prickling heat that made her breath catch and her heart beat fast. Something that made her want to leap off him like a scalded cat.
And obviously he noticed. “What?” he drawled softly. “Losing your nerve?”
Ava’s jaw firmed. Her desperate crush on him had been years ago, and she so wasn’t going there again. She was an adult now, a damn cop. She didn’t have time for men and their shenanigans, which meant she certainly didn’t have time for Rush Redmond, period.
“Not at all,” she replied, not knowing what to do with her hands and putting them awkwardly on her hips. “So come on. Let’s get this ridiculousness over with. What do I do now?”
He gave a minute shift of his hips, sending an odd shiver through her. “Well, if I had my hands free, I’d show you. But…” His shoulders flexed, and she couldn’t help staring at the tightening of all that hard muscle and the way his T-shirt pulled over it. “My hands are tied.”
“Those cuffs are staying on.” No way she was taking them off, not now. “Perhaps you’d better tell me what to do instead.”
His mouth kicked up in that maddening grin. “You could call Candy up here. Get her to give you a demo first.”
“I did give you the option, but you said no. So you’re just going to have to put up with me instead.”
“Not a problem.” His eyes had gotten sleepy-looking, his gaze drifting down over her front and settling on the curve of her breasts. “Believe me, not a problem at all.”
The prickling heat seemed to intensify, her skin feeling suddenly sensitive. She was acutely aware of his body under hers, the strength in it, the sheer power…
Don’t, you idiot. Remember how bad you had it last time? And how much it hurt?
Like she could ever forget. Her crush on him had been major and completely unrequited since all he saw when he looked at her was the sheriff’s daughter, the kid he used to babysit sometimes. Not an actual woman he might want.
But that was okay, she’d gotten over it. She’d moved on. She had other things in her sights now, and those things did not involve getting hung up on Rush Redmond.
Especially not Rush Redmond when he was being a dick in order to get rid of her.
“Okay,” Rush murmured, spreading his knees wider, which meant she had to spread hers too in order to keep her balance. “It’s easy. Just move your hips back and forward, like you’re riding a horse.”
Easy for him, maybe. “I’ve never ridden a horse.”
“Huh. And you never shot a gun before too, remember?”
She blinked, not expecting the reminder. Because yes, she did remember. The time she’d complained to him about how it wasn’t fair that her father wouldn’t let her be a cop, and so he’d turned up at her house the next day, telling her father he was taking her out for ice cream. Instead they’d gone out into the countryside and he’d taught her how to shoot. Because if she was going to get into law enforcement, she needed to know how to handle a gun.
“Yes,” she said, the memory making something inside her tighten. “I remember.”
His mouth quirked. “This is easier, believe me. So, I’m sure you’ve seen people riding, right? It’s just like that.” His gaze shifted to her hands where they sat on her hips. “And you might want to hold on to something else.”
“Hold on to what?”
That blue-green gaze flicked up to meet hers, his grin becoming wicked. “Me.”
Okay, then. It wasn’t as if this was going to be hard. She’d done far more difficult physical things in basic training. All it would be was a quick five-minute grind, and then she’d get the contact details she wanted, and he could go back to…whatever thing he’d been doing before she’d arrived.
Watching that stripper.
Another disturbing feeling shifted inside her, but she definitely wasn’t going there either, so she ignored it.
Instead she lifted her hands to those powerful shoulders of his and held on as she mov
ed her hips experimentally, bobbing up and down the way she’d seen people move on a trotting horse.
Rush blinked. “Seriously?”
“What?” She stared back, refusing to be embarrassed. “I’m just doing what you told me to do.”
“You know I’m not actually a horse, don’t you?”
This time, no matter how hard she refused, a wave of heated embarrassment washed over her. Which made no sense at all since the goal of this wasn’t to make him like it. The goal was to get it over and done with so he’d give her what she wanted.
Ignoring the heat in her cheeks, Ava gave him a stern look. “I’m a cop, not a stripper. What did you expect?”
“With a lap dance?” His gaze was uncomfortably direct. “What I expect is to get hard.”
The embarrassment deepened, her cheeks feeling as if they were on fire. Unfortunate, as blushing didn’t go with red hair.
But no, she couldn’t let him get to her. He was obviously still pissed and baiting her, trying to shock and embarrass her. Which meant the only conceivable response was to show him who was really in control here—i.e., not him.
“Well,” she said, as if that was a very reasonable request, “that seems fair.”
His eyes widened, a flash of surprise going through them. Good. Then his lashes descended again and he settled against the back of the seat. “Well, then, Officer McHottie. Maybe you’d better get on that?”
Officer McHottie? Dear God. What had happened to him in prison? The few letters he’d written her had been very vague, but she wasn’t stupid. Prison was tough.
But no, best not to think about that. She had to get this ridiculous, pointless lap dance over and done with so she could get the details about Jimmy Troy that she needed. Then she’d do some investigation into the anonymous tipster’s claims. And if the guy was right, if Jimmy Troy had been the one to order her mother’s death…well, Jimmy Troy would be going down.
Tightening her grip on him, Ava undulated her hips, a rocking motion instead of bobbing up and down. “That more acceptable?”
Rush’s gaze had drifted to her front again. “Keep doing it and I’ll let you know.”
Ass. He was staring at her breasts to unsettle her, no doubt about it. Annoyance shot through her, and she rocked again, determined not to be the one unsettled.
Take Me Harder Page 3
