Tempted: A Bad Boy Next Door Romance

by Willow Winters

  “No, you’re not a good little girl at all, are you?” His smile widens as he takes a step back. “You’re such a bad girl.” He’s mocking me. Fucking prick. I bite my tongue and watch as he turns away. My ego takes a huge fucking hit.

  I turn my back on him and take a left into an alley between a convenience store and a barber shop. I know my car is parked somewhere on the next street over, parallel to this one. I don’t pay attention to the men at the corner when I turn, but I sure as fuck hear them walking behind me.

  Fuck!

  I shouldn’t have gotten so damn emotional. What the hell was I thinking? I listen to the crunch of the gravel beneath their shoes as I pass a large dumpster. I’m certain there are three. Maybe four. I’m halfway through the alley when I hear their steps pick up.

  My hand drops to my gun. I’m ready for this shit. I didn’t graduate at the top of my class for nothing. This is the first time I’ve been faced with a real-life situation like this, though. The realization makes my confidence slip as I take three large strides and turn on my heels. My gun flies out in front of me as I face three men. Two are in black hoodies, and the other one is wearing a bright green t-shirt and black jeans. I take it all in. Their heights, their weights, every bit of information I can. It's second nature at this point from all of my training.

  I can feel my face heating and my body needing to tremble with fear, but I ignore it. Adrenaline flows through my blood, and the only thing I can hear is the sound of my heart beating chaotically in my chest. I swear I can feel it trying to climb up my throat.

  They smile at me, like they think it’s cute that I’ve got a gun. Like they expected me to turn around with it aimed at them. It sends a bolt of fear through me. I don’t like that they knew this was coming. It means they don’t care and they decided it was worth the risk. Shit, maybe that’s why they followed me down here. Maybe it’s obvious I’m a cop because of the way I talked to Thomas. I bet they were watching. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  I rock hesitantly on my heels, not liking the situation. I’m outnumbered, and they’re looking for a fight.

  One takes a step toward me and moves his hand toward his waistband. My heart slams to a stop and a cold sweat takes over every inch of my body.

  “Hands up!” He continues to approach me, and I yell out again to make sure he hears me clearly. At the same time, I lift up my shirt with my left hand so he can see my badge. “Hands up!” I’m surprised I’m so composed, but I have been trained for this. I’ve prepared myself for this situation. “I am a police officer and I will fire. Put your hands where I can see them.”

  My left hand steadies on the butt of the gun and I watch as they show no signs of letting up. They don’t give a fuck that I’m a cop, or that I’ve got a gun. As I prepare to shoot this prick in his hand as he reaches for his gun, I see a movement in the back of the alley.

  I can’t get distracted, not now. I focus, and I shoot that fucker as he grips his gun.

  Tommy

  I almost flinch as her gun goes off. I’ve been around God knows how many guns going off, so I never flinch. It never bothers me. But I didn’t see it coming. I guess it’s just something about a cute little thing like her, I don’t know what, but I underestimated her. The lowlife clutches at his hand, blood flowing freely from the wound, and he actually drops to the ground. Like a little bitch. She turns to face the other thug, but he’s quick enough to close the distance between them and grab her arm.

  I don’t fucking like it. My blood heats, and I stride quickly to get there before shit gets out of hand. Adrenaline pumps through my veins as I grab the third guy by the nape of his neck and slam his head into the wall. I hear a loud thud and a partial scream as I take a swing and hit him square on the nose. I know it’s broken. His eyes roll back in his head, and his body goes limp. I wait a second, watching to make sure his chest rises and that he’s still breathing.

  It does. The fucker’s just knocked out, not dead. Blood leaks out of his nostrils and pools above his lip before dripping down his face and onto the pavement. He’s gonna have a busted up nose and two black eyes, but he’ll fucking live.

  My heart beats loud in my ears as her gun goes off, hitting nothing but the brick wall and then falling to the ground with a loud bang. My surroundings go quiet and everything seems to happen in slow-motion as I take in the scene.

  She's struggling with the second asshole. The first is crawling toward his gun that dropped a few feet in front of him. What a fucking pussy. The bullet passed right through his hand. I yank him backward and lift him up so I can stare that fucker in the eyes. They widen with recognition, and then fear.

  He should know who I am. Everyone here knows who we are. And they know not to piss us off, either.

  “Get the fuck out of here.” I toss him backward like he's nothing and watch as he scrambles off. He's still clutching his hand like it’s gonna fall off if he lets go. He tries to go to his friend, but that’s not going to fly. I want them all separated. I want them to feel alone and scared, so they think twice about ganging up on someone else on my turf.

  “Leave him.” He looks back at me for a split second before taking off. Fucking prick.

  I turn back to watch as Tonya knees her perp in the gut and then smashes an elbow into his jaw, blood flying from his mouth. Damn. It looks like it fucking hurt.

  I walk slowly toward them, not sure if I want to interfere or not. I admire her strength. And honestly, I'm getting pretty fucking turned on watching her beat the shit out of him. The guy scoots on his butt away from her and she crawls to her gun, picking it up and pointing it at him. She's leaning back slightly and her legs are parted. She looks hot as fuck with her hair a little messed up, and her cheeks flushed.

  I can tell she’s out of breath because of the the heaving movements of her chest. But she’s calm on the surface. I stand back and wait to see what she’s going to do. She’s got this shit. She kicked his ass.

  “Don’t move, or I’ll shoot.” The fucker looks up at her with daggers in his eyes and a bloody nose; he's clearly pissed that she got the best of him. She reaches into her pocket for her phone, and I have to put an end to it. I can’t let her call for backup. I look at her and shake my head no.

  “Give me your wallet.” I walk closer and motion for her to put her phone away. She looks hesitantly at me, but she listens and slips it back into her pocket.

  I have to admit that earns her a little brownie point from me. I like her obeying me. She’s a cop, she has power, she can obviously kick some ass. But she obeyed me. I fucking love that. My dick loves it too and I have to work hard not to palm my growing erection.

  I watch as she slowly gets up off the ground and brushes the dirt off her ass. She doesn't look shaken up at all. She looks pissed.

  The dumbfuck looks at me like he’s not sure who I’m talking to. I reach down and grab him by the shirt. I pull him up and speak through clenched teeth. “Don’t make me ask again.”

  I toss him backward and he lands hard on his ass. He doesn’t waste a second as he pulls out his wallet, holding it up for me to take.

  “I don’t have any cash. I got nothing on me.” I open up his wallet and take out my phone to take a picture of his driver’s license.

  “This your current address?” I ask. Fear flashes in his eyes, and the blood drains from his face.

  “Answer me!” I yell louder than I should, but it doesn’t make Tonya flinch.

  “Y--yes,” he stutters out.

  “What were you planning to get out of this,” I look the fucker's license and chuckle, “Earl?” I crouch down so I can look this fucker in his eyes. “What were you hoping to get from messing with her?”

  “Nothin'!” He's quick to deny everything and I just tilt my head and get ready to beat this fucker to a bloody pulp. I don't have a problem getting people to talk.

  I smash my fist against his jaw so fucking quick he didn't see it coming. I hear Tonya take a step back and I look at her from the corner of my
eyes. She looks back at me with no fear. She's watching me. I need to keep that in mind. I straighten my back as the little prick wipes the blood from his mouth and tries to figure out whether or not he should be looking at me. The coward doesn't even try to look me in the eyes. I have to tame the animal in me that wants to rip him to shreds. I should, he earned it, but I can't, knowing a cop is watching my every move. Even if it is for her. I’m not sure I trust this broad. My jaw ticks. I shouldn’t fucking trust this broad. Ever.

  “I like this broad, and I don’t like that you fucked with her. You understand what I’m saying?”

  “It w--won’t happen again.” He stutters again, and I swear to God I smell piss.

  “Damn right it won’t.” I toss his wallet back to him. “Get the fuck out of here.”

  As he walks away, nearly stumbling over his own two feet, Tonya walks closer to me and says, “I could’ve handled it myself.”

  I look at her with a bit of disbelief. My eyes roam her body. She’s a bit scuffed up. She takes the hair tie out of her hair and pulls it back up, casually tying it into a ponytail. Like messing up her hair is the worst thing that happened.

  When she looks back at me, I see her true emotions in her eyes. She's pushing down the fear and anxiety I know she's feeling. I know it well, because I do that shit, too. I walk over and stand close to her, wanting to hold her, but knowing I shouldn’t.

  I shouldn’t have even come down here. I’d ended it. But I saw those pricks and the way they looked at her. I wasn’t letting that shit happen.

  I don’t care what Vince has to say about it.

  “You could have, but you didn’t have to.” Her eyes flash with surprise and then sadness. I try to lighten the mood by saying, “I couldn’t let you have all the fun.”

  I put my hand on the small of her back and lead her out of the alley, onto the sidewalk. There’s no one out this late. I doubt anyone around here called the cops either. I take out my phone and text Nicky about the prick we left behind. He’ll clean it up. The fuckers will live, but they’ll know never to do stupid shit like that in our territory again.

  As soon as I hit send, she seems to come to her senses and tries to turn back.

  “I have to call for backup,” she says as she turns to look back down the alley. Fuck that. She’s not calling anyone. I spin her around in my arms and look her right in her eyes.

  “It didn’t happen. Nothing happened.” A moment passes between us, like she's weighing her options. Finally, she nods her head slightly with understanding, but I know she doesn’t like it.

  She looks past me at the passed out fucker in the alley.

  “Don’t worry about him,” I tell her as I grab her by the arm. “He’ll live.”

  She doesn’t put up much of a fight. She just looks at me with curiosity on her face. It’s not good that she’s curious, but at least she’s smart enough not to ask questions. I’m surprised how she lets me lead her out onto the street. She doesn’t care that I’m practically manhandling her.

  That’s another thing I like. She obeys me, and she likes my hands on her. Fuck, I can’t help how much that turns me on. My dick is begging to get inside her. Damn it. I really was going to listen. I have to fucking listen. I try to will away my erection, but it’s not doing anything but getting harder for her.

  As we get to the end of the sidewalk, her eyes steady on a parking lot across the street. I recognize her car and let her lead a bit so she doesn’t realize I know that’s where we’re going.

  I push my luck a little further and wrap my arm around her waist. She doesn’t lean in, but she doesn’t pull away. I’m fine with that. I like feeling her body up against me. I know being out with her like this is a risk. If Vince sees it, he’s not going to believe I’m not trying to get into her pants.

  Shit, I can’t even believe I’m not trying to get into her pants. I have enough willpower to say no though. I’m just taking a little more than I should. After seeing her take care of that asshole, though, fuck it was sexy as fuck. How could I not put my hands on her? I wanna teach her a lesson though. She shouldn’t have gone down that alley.

  If she was mine, I’d have her ass red by now.

  I always thought I wanted a good girl, but this woman is a bad, bad girl in need. I look down at her and watch as her eyes dart around the parking lot as we near her car. It’s the same shit she always does at night. I don’t like it.

  “You alright?” I ask.

  “Fine,” she says simply, and pulls away as she takes her keys from her back pocket. I let her go as she unlocks her car and turns her body toward me. I have to remind myself she's a cop, and that's not okay.

  She looks up at me and I can’t help but feel like a dick for holding that against her. Besides, it’s fucking hot. I wanna test her, I wanna push and see what I can get away with. After all, she left that prick in the alley for my men to clean up. I wonder how far she’d let me go before she did anything.

  I put my hand on her hip and push her ass against the car.

  Her eyes widen as she gasps, and I swear her thighs clench. She bites down on her bottom lip, looking up at me with a hint of fear, but mostly lust. Fuck me, but I fucking want her. I lean down and take in her sweet smell, then dip my head into the crook of her neck. I want her so fucking bad, but I can’t.

  I pull back and look down at her again. I get a glimpse of her badge, and suddenly she’s not the hot bad girl who needs a lesson. She’s the woman who sat in the interrogation room. This is a woman who may be setting me up, but all I can see is a woman who needs my touch.

  Her eyes close and she tilts her head just a bit. Enough that it makes me want to cup her chin in my hand and start out nice and slow. That’s how I’d do it. I’d be sweet and gentle, let her lips mold to mine. I’d make sure she was relaxed after that shit that happened. I’d make sure it was completely out of her mind. And then I’d take her wrists in my hand, pin them to the car and push this raging erection that won’t let up into her thigh so she’d know how much I want her. I can see it all playing out before my eyes.

  But I can’t have it.

  I have direct orders to stay away. And usually that doesn’t mean shit, but Vince is right. This broad could be playing me. I don’t think she is, but she could be. All this tension I feel between us could be her doing, just so she can find something to pin against me.

  My dick jumps in my jeans thinking about pinning her against her car and slipping those jeans down so I can feel if she wants me as much as I want her. My eyes roam her body in appreciation and when I look back up, her eyes are open.

  She looks vulnerable and I take the chance to give her a little smirk and a pat on the ass. She may be using me and until I’m sure she’s not, I’m not giving her anything. Even if my body is fucking begging me to indulge.

  She pouts and then narrows her eyes. But I saw that little pout. Sexiest fucking look a woman’s ever given me. Then she swings her door open and nearly punches me right in the dick. She smirks back with a tilt of her head before climbing in.

  I grab the door before she can shut it and that smirk on her gorgeous face fucking vanishes. I wanna say something smart, something that an asshole would say to push her away, but there's a look in her eyes that's telling me it’d really fucking hurt her. And that's something I don't want to do. I should push her away. I know I should. But she just had three fuckers come after her and she’s not showing any signs of giving a fuck when I know she is.

  It’s hard for me to understand. I’m not used to women taking shit like that. Not in our family. They stay out of familia business. It’s an unspoken rule. Women are off-limits. Yet she chose a career that puts her in harm’s way every fucking day.

  My grip tightens on the edge of the door. I have no right not to like it. It’s her decision and she’s not mine, but I’ll be damned if I say I’m okay with what happened.

  I ask her again, making sure the concern comes through, “You sure you’re okay?”

  She
blinks a few times as if gauging whether I really do give a shit before she answers. She nods her head and replies, “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  She puts her hand on the door to close it, but before she does, she looks up and asks, “Is he dead?”

  She keeps asking the same question and I don’t like it. Cops ask questions. And answering that particular one could mean trouble for me. The concern is wiped off my face like it was never fucking there.

  “You have a nice night, Officer Kelly,” I say as I turn my back on her and walk away. I get a few feet from her when I hear the car door shut and her engine roar to life.

  As she drives away, the anger and disappointment settle in. What the fuck was I thinking? She could’ve handled herself; I could’ve stayed back and made sure she was fine after the fact. Instead I got shit on my hands that she could arrest me for.

  But she didn’t. I’m not sure I trust it though. I sure as fuck don’t trust her. As I walk away with more resolve to keep my distance and listen to the orders Vince gave me, my phone goes off. It’s a text from Vince.

  Why the fuck did you need Nicky?

  Fuck.

  This is exactly why I need to stay the fuck away from her.

  Tonya

  I still don’t understand what happened. I park my car under the light and look up at my steps. I sit there for a moment. It’s a moment too long. I should get inside. I’m quick like I always am, and I walk straight upstairs. It’s not till the keys fall into the glass bowl on the end table that I realize my hand is shaking.

  I take a deep breath and try to calm myself. It happens a lot. I thought it would stop eventually. It’s a reaction from the adrenaline and endorphins wearing off. It’s not shock, but it’s not okay, either. I see it as a weakness and I hate it.

  I sink into the sofa and try to calm myself down. I can do this. I have to do this. Other women are strong enough. Fuck, if a man can do it, so can I. Men use brute strength, while women use leverage, and brains. I truly believe that. But damn, this is fucking hard. It’s so goddamned hard. I thought police academy was rough. And it was. But real-life situations are scary as fuck.