Emily’s memory was thrown back to the night of the art showing when Mike scheduled the rematch with her. Although he hadn’t ever really ignored his date, he had followed her and Ollie around all night. Every time she and Ollie had gone to a section of the exhibit, she’d turn around and Mike would be standing there with the porno queen herself. At one point, when Emily had gone to the restroom, he happened to be standing near the door when she’d come out. Porno queen was off someplace in the exhibit and he was casually leaning against the wall as if waiting for her.
When she’d had to walk by him, he’d said, “You planning on buying anything tonight for your apartment?” It was a harmless question and she’d already hinted among the friends that she was going to purchase something.
“I’ve seen a ton of stuff, I just haven’t narrowed it down yet.” She’d looked around him. “Where’s your date?” She’d emphasized the word ‘date’.
“Where’s yours?” was his response. His eyes had stared into hers.
“Getting some food, I imagine.” She’d paused for effect. “Maybe you should keep better track of her,” she’d said moving the subject matter back to Candy Lane. “She doesn’t strike me as a woman you’d wanna lose track of if she was your date.” She’d felt a moment of guilt at the catty comment. “I’m sorry, that was beneath me. Did I say that out loud?”
He’d smiled. “You did indeed, Counselor. And you’re right. If I was interested in her, I probably would keep better track of her.” He’d stayed where he was and continued looking at her.
“If you’re not interested in her then what the hell did you bring her for?”
Emily remembered after asking that question that the thought had hit her he’d probably brought her for the sex and the sex alone. She’d needed to mind her own business. “Never mind,” she’d muttered. “I need to go find my own date.” She’d moved to leave and he’d moved away from the wall to stand in her path.
“Is he the kind of man you shouldn’t lose track of? Because if he is, you should find some other schmoe to date, Counselor,” he’d said.
“That’s none of your business, Detective. And you should talk, flirting with every woman on the planet. You would be the kind of man a woman needs to keep track of.” She’d crossed her arms and glared at him.
He’d paused then smiled. “Any time you wanna keep track of me, Counselor, you just let me know.”
“I will,” she’d said, reaching up and patting his cheek. “Don’t wait on that.”
He’d grabbed her hand, but she’d moved it away quickly. He’d chuckled, “Have a good rest of the night with your date. You know, when you find him.” He’d winked, put out his arm to let her pass and that was that. “And I’m looking forward to our rematch,” he’d yelled after her.
“There’s an attraction there.” Tiffany’s voice broke through Emily’s rumination of the evening so many weeks earlier.
Emily snorted.
“You don’t think so?” Tiffany asked.
“I think he wants to get laid.”
“Well, yeah. There’s that. What guy doesn’t, but if he wanted to get laid he could just pull out his little black book,” she chuckled.
“Don’t even tell me he has one of those things,” Emily turned to Tiffany in disgust.
Tiffany laughed and Emily rolled her eyes.
“Em, I’ve known him practically my whole life. All I’m saying is that he looks at you with a lot more interest than any other woman I know. He’s always been flirty with women; that’s just his way, but he’s never had a serious girlfriend to my knowledge. And with you he seems to wanna, I don’t know, hear you. Ya know what I mean? Like he wants to know what you’re thinking, wants to hear what you have to say. I can tell he enjoys you. But what do I know? I can’t string two words together around the doctor. I’m just sayin’,” she shrugged.
Emily let out a huge sigh. Tiffany’s words settled around her and into her bones. He did seem to show an interest which indicated that he may want more than just sex. What guy flat out asks a girl’s relative in front of his own parents how to get the girl to respond to him? Would he make himself available to lectures and advice then open himself up to getting yelled at later when the girl was hurt by him if he just wanted to get laid? It seemed like he wouldn’t invest that much of himself into it if that’s all it was about.
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” Tiffany said quietly. “You’re such a strong woman, Em. I get the impression that you don’t share your struggles and insecurities with many people.” She let out a light laugh. “If you even have any.”
Emily looked over in shock. “Of course I have struggles and insecurities. Who doesn’t?”
Tiffany looked at her with surprise. “You just come across as someone who always keeps it all together. Like you never fall apart.”
Emily listened to Tiffany’s words and felt chilled.
Fucking you was like sticking my dick into a glass of cold water. Did she really come across as a heartless machine?
Emily shook her head, clearing the oft remembered words spoken by her ex. “No, Tiff. I don’t always keep it all together,” she murmured.
“Well, that makes me feel a little better at least,” Tiffany said, playfully pushing at Emily.
“Glad I can help,” Emily responded in an equally dry tone. “So, we’re not out here to talk about me. Tell me about this idea you have.”
Tiffany spent the next ten minutes laying out her thoughts about the foundation she was thinking of starting. She was vacillating between it being a charity to benefit emotionally abused women or a charity to raise money for underprivileged kids in need of plastic surgery. She was still in the beginning stages of thinking it all through, but with her business background along with the connections she had through her family and friends, she was on her way to having a pretty good base of donors. She wanted to start making contacts in the hospitals.
“I had,” Tiffany hesitated then continued, “I had some experiences when I was with my ex. His ‘suggestions’ on how I could improve myself were so strongly stated that I felt like he would love me better if I did what he wanted. I didn’t wanna disappoint him. It’s so stupid now that I think about it.”
“It’s not stupid if you were hearing him say things that cut you down for so long,” she said, thinking of her own experiences with Scott. “Can you elaborate a little more? If you feel comfortable.”
“Yeah.” Tiffany thought a moment. “I just wonder how many other women there are in those situations who either get plastic surgery for their husbands or partners, or change themselves because they’re so afraid the guy will leave. You begin to feel like unless you conform to what he wants, you’re nothing. There’s a fine line between doing something out of love for your spouse because you want to make him happy, and doing something out of fear because you’re afraid they’ll stop loving you if you don’t.”
“So you’re thinking you want to help women who’ve…?”
“Maybe not just women but kids more specifically who are in need of plastic surgery as a result of an accident or a birth defect. Or maybe they’ve lost a ton of weight and need their extra skin removed. I don’t know. I haven’t thought it all through yet. But I know I’ve been lucky to have the parents I’ve had where I’ve never wanted for anything. Think of all of the people out there who may actually need plastic surgery but don’t have the insurance or money to do it. It would give me a perverse pleasure to use his money to help people who actually need the surgery, rather than those who are coerced or manipulated into getting it.”
“Did you have work done for him?” Emily asked quietly.
“No. He was just weird. He didn’t want me to get a boob job or anything like that. But I still feel like I mutilated myself for him,” Tiff hesitated again. “I got my nipples pierced, among other places,” she muttered. “I didn’t want to, but he did and I thought – shit, I don’t know what I thought. That he’d think I was sex
ier? That it would stop him from fucking younger women? I don’t know. It’s certainly not that big of a deal given that so many people get piercings. I just didn’t want to and he was such a manipulative asshole about it, making me feel like if I didn’t it would be such a shame, that somehow it would make our relationship richer. And it hurt like hell. He didn’t even care that I didn’t want to or that it was going to be painful.” She shrugged. “I was an idiot. If I didn’t want it then I should’ve just said no to him.” Then she chuckled. “Maybe I should be doing a mentoring program for girls to teach them how not to be manipulated by assholes. It could be your sister program,” Tiffany said with a sad smile.
Emily sighed. “I’m sorry, honey.” Then Emily took a moment to think. “You know, that’s actually not a bad idea. The girls’ mentoring program, I mean.” Her mind was already spinning with possibilities.
Tiffany took a second then nodded. “Anyway, I obviously still need to flesh it all out, but once I do, would you be interested in handling the setting up of whatever the foundation looks like?”
“Of course. And you know, I hate to say this, but if you really want to get involved in local hospitals, you know who would be great to talk to about this, right?”
Tiffany winced. “Don’t say it. I might throw up,” she said wrapping her arms around her stomach.
Emily chuckled. “He’s a doctor. He would be a great sounding board.”
A yell from the sidewalk drew her attention away from the conversation when she noticed a woman who was alone struggling with a young man grabbing at her purse. It looked like a scene from a poorly scripted cop show. Did idiots still steal women’s purses on the street?
The closest people other than her and Tiffany were further down the block so no one was around to help. Without hesitation Emily jumped up and hopped down the stairs to the altercation.
“Hey,” Emily said to the man as she got closer. “Let go of the purse.”
The twenty something man looked at her and snickered, “Shut the fuck up and mind your own business.”
With that, he pushed the woman down finally prying the purse from the woman’s hands. When he turned to run, Emily had just reached him and threw out her leg, tripping him.
She could hear the woman and Tiffany screaming in the background. The kid scrambled to get up and looked at Emily as if he couldn’t believe she’d just tripped him. He turned to run but Emily kicked him in the back and knocked him down again.
“Fucking bitch!” He got up and lunged toward her, but she was ready, backing out of the way so he missed, then moving him up the sidewalk with an arm jab to the jaw and a kick to the stomach. He leaned over to groan then lunged again. She heard voices in the background but was too focused on what she was doing to hear full sentences.
“…No. Watch…”
“…Dude…”
“…she’s got it…magnificent, isn’t she?”
Emily was able to knock him in the head with her elbow then ended him with a nicely placed kick to the family jewels. By this time, she had the kid on his back completely winded and gulping for air, with her nearly breaking a sweat. She looked down at the kid who was groaning and holding his nuts then turned to see the crowd beginning to form.
She sighed and leaned down to fix the ankle tie on her espadrilles that had loosened when she’d kicked him. Then she waited for the inevitable fallout.
Chapter 6
Emily turned back to the brownstone to see Mike leaning against the railing, his arms crossed over his chest with a satisfied grin splitting his face. Behind him was Drew, a look of incredulity on his face. Some of the others were starting to pour out of the front door while Tiffany was talking to the woman whose purse was taken. Drew moved toward them to make sure the victim was okay.
Emily watched as Mike pushed away from the railing and slowly walked over to her, his thumbs hooked in his belt loops, never moving his eyes from hers. She was brushing off her pants and hands as he approached.
“Take your time, Detective,” she grumbled.
“I was enjoying the entertainment,” he said licking his lips. Then he looked down at the young man still moaning. “Trust me, I know,” he said in commiseration and wincing on the kid’s behalf while he writhed in pain on the sidewalk. “Come on,” he said pulling the kid up. Mike reached into his back pocket to retrieve his cuffs. “That’ll teach ya to mess with her again, huh?”
The kid groaned in response and leaned over still in a world of hurt.
“You always carry cuffs with you?”
“You never know when they might come in handy,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows. Somehow she knew he hadn’t been thinking of criminals when he’d put them in his pocket that morning.
The next hour was spent calling in the attempted theft to the 4th Precinct, getting statements from those involved and Emily becoming the brunt of the jokes with the cops who came to take care of the perp.
“Cag, is this the one that Lacey told me about?” the cop said. His nametag said Officer Rudy.
When Emily looked at him in question, Mike said, “Our precincts work together sometimes.” Then he turned back to the officer. “When did you talk to Lacey?” his brow furrowed in confusion.
“I bumped into him last night when my wife and I went out to dinner. He mentioned a girl ninja warrior. Is this her?”
“This is the one,” Mike beamed at her. Then he lowered his voice in a stage whisper. “And she took him down while wearing those heels,” he said directing his gaze to her feet. “Isn’t that fuckin’ hot?” Mike looked back at her with a grin. “Counselor, this is Joe Rudy. Joe, this is Emily White.”
“Nice to meet you, Officer,” Emily said shaking his hand and holding back her exasperation.
“It’s even nicer to meet you.” He gave Mike a knowing smirk then turned back to the police car. “Alright, let me get this kid back to Jersey City where he belongs. See ya around, Cag. Bye, Emily. I’d say ‘take care’, but I have a feeling you take care of yourself just fine.”
She smiled and gave a slight eye roll. “See ya around.”
Once everyone was back inside, Ayanna broke out her chocolate caramel cupcakes and the party continued with a dramatic retelling of events by Tiffany, with Emily sitting quietly off to the side. Mike stood across the room leaning against the wall, staring at her.
Once Tiffany was done with her recounting, Drew jumped in. “I ran out with Mike when we heard Tiffany yelling and I couldn’t believe he actually stopped me from going over,” Drew said, shaking his head in exasperation.
Mike shrugged with a half-smile. “She didn’t need any help. Besides, it was a lot more fun to watch.”
Everyone laughed and Emily could feel herself getting flushed.
“But could you imagine if the kid had a knife or a gun?” April asked. “Dear Lord, Emmie, please be careful.”
“Sorry,” she muttered. “It was just instinct.”
“But seriously. What if he’d had a weapon?” April continued. “Can you imagine if we’d had to make that phone call to your parents?”
Ethan put his arm around his wife and nuzzled her temple. “She would have disarmed him, honey. You’ve seen her in action.”
“Ma, don’t worry. She really can handle it,” Jonathan said. “We watched her take down Mike a few weeks back and he’s twice her size. Trust me. She’s fine.”
“I’m always careful, Aunt April. I promise.” She felt like she needed to say something. Her aunt’s face had gone pale during the retelling of the incident.
“You have my word that if things got out of hand, I would’ve jumped in to help.” Mike stared holes into Emily then smiled. “But you should’ve seen her, April. She was incredible.”
Emily ignored him, already feeling arousal so close to the surface that she was afraid if she looked at him any longer she wouldn’t hold herself responsible for what she might do to him. There were only so many compliments and sexually infused comments she could take from him in on
e night before she started to implode from the pressure.
“Yes, I believe the word you used was magnificent,” Drew said with a hint of a smile.
“She is,” Mike murmured still focusing on her.
People started to get up and clean, while a smattering still continued conversations around the room. Emily felt like she needed to run to the bathroom to splash water onto her face, but instead she went to her aunt and hugged her.
“I know you can handle yourself, baby. I guess after having my own mortality thrown in my face with the heart attack I’m feeling overprotective of you kids.”
“I love you, Aunt April. Everything’s okay.”
“And you did it in those shoes?” April shook her head. “No wonder the detective’s a goner,” she said dryly. “I hope you don’t make him work too hard, Em. You’d have a lot of fun with him,” she said, smiling mischievously.
“What, is he paying you now?”
“He doesn’t have to. Emmie, you need to live past the pain and fear, and just feel. Have a good time.”
“I need to use the bathroom,” she muttered, giving her aunt a look.
“Yes, your face is a little flushed. I’ll shut up now.”
“As if that would ever happen,” Emily laughed.
“Careful, girl. I could still take you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Emily said, still laughing, and kissed her on the cheek before walking away. She took a second in the downstairs bathroom to splash water on her face then looked at her reflection thinking the unthinkable.
She was actually thinking about having an affair with the detective.
You can do this, Em. Just talk to him. Maybe negotiate a deal.
Fuck negotiating. Just have at him already. Maybe you won’t be as cold as you think.
She shook her head at herself. The devil and angel were at it again. She continued looking at herself during the pep talk, then took a fortifying breath and opened the door.
Janie and Luke were in the back hall by Jeremy’s wood shop in what looked like a heated conversation. She tried not to smile. Both of their dates were sitting together in the living room. What an interesting day it had turned out to be.
Revelation: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series) Page 10
