He thought about earlier that morning when she’d showed up for work and he’d laid into her. It wasn’t her he was mad at. The night before he had lain awake all night recalling the moment he’d gotten the call she had been shot. In that single moment the air left his chest and his heart stopped beating. For an instant, until he was told she was okay, he believed he might have lost her. It was the very worst feeling he’d experienced in his life, except for the day Dex had died in his arms.
Benching her and putting her on desk duty wasn’t for her own good like he tried to convince himself. It definitely wasn’t for the good of the department. They needed more man power, not less. In a moment of reflection earlier that day, he’d admitted only to himself that he’d done it out of selfishness. When that bullet hit her yesterday, it could have been so much worse. What if she’d been standing at a different angle? What if the shooter had better aim? What if the bullet was a higher caliber? What if she wasn’t okay? What if she had died?
The thought sliced right through his heart. When he yelled at her that morning, it was because he wasn’t able to scream at the person he truly hated. The one who shot at her. The one who’d almost taken her away from him.
He was mad at the world, angry that they lived in a time and place where she could just be shot at without a second thought by some stupid kid who didn’t realize the consequence of his actions. It was this type of situation which was exactly why he fought her so hard when she’d wanted to enlist in the Marines. Her parents didn’t want her going either, but his actions had been purely selfish then also.
The best trained soldiers in the world were no match for IEDs, RPGs or sniper bullets. Being a spotter for Dex, he knew that better than anyone. War wasn’t pretty. People die. Dex died. She could die. He fought with her for weeks to keep her from enlisting so she would be safe. He didn’t want her half a world away fighting in a war in the sandbox. He didn’t want her away period. He wanted her here. With him.
So instead he hired her to keep her within arm’s reach and within months of her becoming a cop she gets shot. The first shooting any of their officers had in years and it’s her.
Talk about tilting the ironic meter way off the charts.
When he’d called her parents yesterday and told Penny the news her daughter was shot, it was all he could do to not hang up the phone to kick his own ass for putting her in this situation. He just wanted her safe. Why was it so hard for her to find a nice, non-dangerous job? She was as tenacious as she was beautiful, though. It was one of her many infuriating qualities.
He glanced at the pile of work he still had to do on his desk and sighed. The responsible thing to do would be to make another pot of coffee and get through another hour or two of paperwork before heading home to catch a few hours of rack time. As chief of police with a growing crime rate and limited resources, that was definitely what he should do.
Fuck it.
Grabbing his keys, he got up, and locked his office door behind him. He was just going to pop in to see how she was. She really had looked upset about something earlier that day. Wasn’t it his duty as her superior to check up on her and make sure everything was all right? She had been shot the day before after all. This was probably proper procedure, written down in a book somewhere in his office. He was just doing his job, he told himself.
He got in his Tahoe and dialed the number to Tony’s Pizza. After placing an order for their usual with extra mushrooms, Leah’s favorite, he hung up and walked into the corner liquor store. He picked up a six-pack of dark ale brewed by a local company. It always surprised him how she could drink beer unlike any other woman he’d known. While most ladies preferred a light beer, Leah was a connoisseur of anything with barley and hops in it.
Fifteen minutes later he was on his way with the pizza and drinks. It was ten o’clock now. Kind of late for a visit, but it was something they used to do all the time. She had the next three days off, so it wasn’t like she needed to go to bed early. Lord knew she didn’t need the beauty rest.
When he pulled up to her house he saw her living-room light was still on. At least he wouldn’t be waking her. He made quick time of her porch steps and knocked on the door. He had a key to her place, but it was for emergencies. While he missed spending time with her, that didn’t quite qualify as an emergency.
She opened the door wearing a white tank top and shorts with tiny hearts on them. He resisted the urge to smile at the contradiction. Her tough girl attitude didn’t hold up to the feminine pajamas she wore. She gave him an annoyed look. Her disappointment to see him punched him square in the gut.
Enough of this crap. He wanted to know what the hell was going on, and he wasn’t leaving until he had answers. Not waiting for an invitation, he walked past her with the pizza and beer and made a beeline for the kitchen.
“Why sure you can come in. Make yourself at home, Chief,” she said.
He was reaching for plates out of the cupboard and ignored her remark. After opening the box, he placed a slice of pizza on her plate and held it out to her. Not even bothering to look at her as his arm extended out, anticipating for her to take it, he waited. Time seemed to stand still while neither one of them moved from position.
Finally she took the plate form his hands. “You gonna offer me a beer, too? Or are those all for you?”
Once again, he said nothing. He held one out to her and waited for her to grab it. After she did, he still didn’t move. He could hear her move to the living room, and he stood there trying to regain his composure. The past weeks of her constantly fighting with him, always doing everything in her power to push his buttons, was taking its toll on him. Now, to see her open the door and actually be sorry it was him on the other side? What the hell was he even supposed to do with that?
Ignoring the hurt, he grabbed a couple slices for himself along with a beer and went into the living room. He sat down beside her on the couch. Neither one of them spoke. There was a hockey game on TV in overtime, and he kept his eyes glued to it the entire time he ate. She got up, went to the kitchen, and returned with the rest of the beers and pizza, setting them down on the coffee table.
For twenty minutes they sat there in silence, both of them chewing and swallowing, chewing and swallowing. The only sound in the room came from the announcer and fans at the game. This wasn’t what he’d come here for. This wasn’t even close to what he wanted. Where was the Leah who had been such a big part of his life? Where the hell had she gone? He wanted her back, damn it.
He fucking missed her.
He was about to say something, to break the silence which was eating away at him, but instead she spoke first. “I put in for a transfer earlier today to one of the neighboring cities.”
If she’d coldcocked him with her gun, it would have had less impact than her sudden announcement just had. A transfer? Just why in the fuck would she do that? What in the hell was he missing?
“I’m sorry? Did you just say you put in for a transfer? Without even talking to me about it?” he asked plainly, refusing to show her his emotions which were just barely staying hidden beneath the surface.
“I’m sorry, Chief. I just don’t think I fit in there. Maybe I would be better off at a department where there were more female officers.”
He listened to her words. What she said made sense, but her eyes betrayed her. He knew Leah like he knew himself. She wouldn’t look directly at him. She averted her stare, avoiding direct eye contact, and her voice had just a hint of shakiness to it. If he didn’t know better, he’d almost think he saw fear.
A painful thought entered his mind. He had heard stories of women being attacked or raped in law enforcement. It happened in the military as well. Her sudden decision to transfer, her mood swings lately, the constant belligerent attitude, and her refusal to call him by his name, instead referring to him as Chief, were all were signs of someone who was hiding something that was too hard for them to face.
Dear God, had she been assaulted?
> “Leah, I need you to trust me. You do trust me, don’t you?”
She looked at him, confused. “Yes, of course I do.”
He set down his plate and turned sideways on the couch to face her. Reaching for her hands, she quickly pulled away from him. He hung his head. She blamed him for whatever she had gone through, and he couldn’t blame her. Where the hell was he when this had happened? What the fuck was he doing that was so important he wasn’t taking care of her, the one person in the world who meant the most to him?
“I don’t need details, Leah. Just please tell me who hurt you.”
Clearly surprised by his question, she answered, “What? No one hurt me. What are you talking about?”
“Shh…it’s not your fault. And I’m not here to judge. I just want to make sure that whoever hurt you can’t hurt anyone else and especially you ever again.” He brushed her cheek with his thumb, and she got up from the couch and put distance between them.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about, but I would like you to leave now. Please.”
His knowledge of her told him she wasn’t lying. He must be really off base, because she did look genuinely perplexed by what he was saying. His earlier question still remained. Why was she leaving the department? Why the hell didn’t she want him around her, and why on earth did she pull away every time he touched her?
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what the hell is going on with you. You barely talk to me and avoid me at all costs. When we do talk, you’re constantly doing everything in your power to antagonize me into an argument and now you put in for a transfer? What the fuck, Leah?”
“I’m twenty-three years old, Chief. I never agreed to work for you forever, and I am allowed to have a life away from you.”
She was doing it again, giving him that snotty tone and trying to bait him into an argument.
“Oh, really? A life away from me, huh? And just what, pray tell, is your life, Leah? What exactly do you do? You don’t have any friends you go out and do things with. I can’t even remember the last time you were on a date. I mean, what the fuck is going on? And so help me God, if you call me Chief one more Goddamn time, I’ll...”
“You’ll what? What will you do, Chief?”
Fuck. Shit. Damn.
Shaking his head, he ground down on his teeth, tightly shutting his mouth to avoid saying anything more. He had no damn idea what he was going to say. She just got him so damn mad. Why was it so hard for her to use his name? He’d give anything to hear her say his name right now and be his Leah again.
His Leah.
The unconscious phrase that played into his thoughts shook him to the core. He had caught himself a few other times having similar thoughts, where he thought of her as his. Thoughts that he always stopped himself from finishing for fear of what he may find hidden in his mind’s eye.
“Well? Are you going to say anything?” Her voice teetered between strong and defiant and downright scared. He watched her in disbelief, completely lost and confused over what was going on between them. Whatever he’d done wrong, whatever caused the shift in their relationship, he would gladly go back in time and undo it. That was if he had a fucking clue what it was. He just wanted her back.
He shook his head. “I can’t do this anymore, Leah. I don’t know why you hate me so much, but I cannot fight with you anymore. It’s too hard.”
She met his stare, their eyes locked on one another’s. He knew no more what she was feeling than he was himself. His feelings churned and were completely foreign to him. The ache in his chest was unrelenting. He felt like at any moment he would cease to live. Whatever happened, he couldn’t be more sorry. That’s all he knew. He was so damn sorry for whatever caused her to want to be away from him.
He rose from the couch and walked toward her. She backed up several feet until her body met with the wall. He didn’t care that she was trying so hard to distance herself from him. He advanced until he stood right in front of her.
He looked down and tried to find the words for what he wanted to say. Nothing came out. They were both just standing there, inches from one another, silent. Her eyes started to shimmer, and despite her best efforts to hide it, her lower lip quivered as she fought the urge to cry.
“Leah, please tell me what I did wrong. I miss you so much.” Even he was surprised he had spoken so candidly with her.
“I just want to you go. Please go,” she said, a tear trailing down the side of her cheek.
No. God, he didn’t want to go. He didn’t know what he wanted, but he didn’t want to leave her. Her silent cry was breaking his already-crumbling heart. All this distance between them had been building up inside him for weeks. He wanted to find out whatever was broken and fix it.
“Leah, what is it? Why are you crying? Do you hate me or something? Am I that awful?” It was a question he hadn’t even realized he needed the answer to until it came out.
“Hate you?” She shook her head. “How could you even think that? No, I don’t hate you. I love you.”
The ache in his heart subsided, if only a little when she said those three words. He had heard her say it a thousand times before. Never did it mean as much to him as it did right then, as he stood before her afraid he was losing her.
“I love you, too.”
“No.” She pushed him away and went to the other side of the room. “You don’t understand. Please, please leave.”
The shadows from the kitchen light cast a silhouette against her tank top as she stood there, begging him to leave. He tried to look away. Desperately, he fought his body’s urge to react to the erect nubs he saw poking at the cotton fabric. She hadn’t looked like that when he had arrived. That, he would have noticed. Not a snowballs chance in hell would he have missed that.
A lump caught in his throat, and he mustered up as much willpower as he could and looked away, bringing his gaze back up to her eyes. Her normally pretty, brown eyes looked different reflecting back at him. There was something there, something he had never seen in her before. It was something he wanted to see more of, explore, and find the cause that made them look so alluring.
“Please go.” Her voice shook.
Everything told him to do as she said, to turn away from her and walk toward the door, get in his Tahoe, and drive fast and far away from her. His mind screamed it at him, telling him it was the right thing to do. It was what she was asking him to do.
There he stood in her living room, confusion plaguing him as she asked him once again to leave. The right thing to do would be to leave and respect her wishes.
So why in the fuck was he standing there, defiantly ignoring his better judgment as his body was telling him to do something much different than leave?
“Cole?”
She said his name. He closed his eyes and played the sound back over in his head, wanting it to stick in his memory so he would never be able to forget how sweet it sounded rolling off of her tongue.
He opened his eyes and he looked at her. After knowing her for the past thirteen years, he felt he was finally seeing her for the very first time. She wasn’t that little girl in pigtails anymore. The teenager who’d cried in his arms at her brother’s funeral was gone. She was a woman. Somehow in the past several years she had grown up, and he’d missed it.
“Cole, I need you to leave. Please.”
Shaking his head as he walked toward her, he answered her plea. “Not a chance.”
He grabbed her face in his hands and crushed his lips to hers. Surprise made her gasp, and he took advantage of her open mouth and slid his tongue inside, exploring and taunting hers, prodding it to meet him. For several seconds he soaked in the taste of her kiss until her tongue started to stroke against his. His pulse raced, and his blood sped through his body at an unbelievable rate. Then her hands went around his waist, and she pressed her body into his.
Sweet Jesus.
Her nipples pressed against his chest, and his dick shot to attention. Confusion fough
t its way into his mind, and he wondered if this was right. This was Dex’s kid sister. He had known her for more than half her life. Everything told him to stop what he was doing.
Quickly he kicked the thought aside, ignoring his conscience which was trying to reason with him. He couldn’t stop kissing her if he wanted to.
He had missed her so much.
His Leah.
Subconsciously he had thought it so many times, and it never made sense to him. Until now. Was this what he really wanted? Was the ache he’d been feeling because deep down he didn’t just miss her, he wanted her?
Chapter 4
Leah had been on the verge of breaking under the tension when Cole had come to her and consumed her with his kiss. She had waited so long, stayed up so many nights dreaming about a moment like this, certain it would never happen, that she was stunned when it finally did. Only seconds passed before she pressed into him, slid her tongue in his mouth, and met his exploration.
Her already-aching body was suddenly on fire. She brought their bodies closer, needing to feel contact against her tingling nipples. Heat soared through her body when he hardened against her. Hot trickles of desire coated her panties, but she kept her hands firmly at his waist, afraid if she moved them she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from rubbing his cock through the fabric which kept it hidden.
Every part of her body screamed for her to take charge and show him the woman she was while she grabbed hold of what she had been craving these past months. Fear of rejection still plagued her despite his actions telling her he wanted her just as bad.
He let out a growl and ground his hardness against her. Her pussy throbbed. The discomfort was nearly unbearable. How many nights had she lain awake in bed, touching herself, fingering her clit as she imagined him hovering over her and thrusting inside until they both came?
When Promise Meets Passion Page 4
