Playing Dirty: San Diego Social Scene Book 3

by Tess Summers

  “I think my parents were hoping I’d look more like my mom.”

  “Ah,” he replied. He couldn’t help but notice her tits. They were big and perky and brazenly on display. Unquestionably, they’d be fun to slide his dick between and fuck.

  She must have noticed his gaze because she leaned forward to give him a better view, one hand now rubbing the top of his thigh and the other gesturing to the empty chair next to him.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  “Actually, I do. I’m meeting someone.”

  That didn’t cause her to back away from him in the slightest. If anything, she moved her hand to his inner thigh toward his dick and squeezed.

  “It’s a shame she isn’t here.” The way she rubbed against him suggested her words were insincere.

  He gave her a wink. “She will be.”

  She reached into the top of her dress and produced a card with her name and phone number. “Well, if she doesn’t show up, you know how to reach me.” Her hand trailed down his inner thigh.

  He took her card and slid it under his phone. “You’ll be the first person I call.”

  Something on the other side of the table caught his eye, and he looked to find Cassie standing there observing them, her expression unreadable. She was in black, stiletto high heels and the black dress she must have worn to the banquet. It was sexy, in a conservative way, but a stark contrast to the red one Amber had painted on. Strangely, when it came to Cassie, he preferred that. There was no question she was stunning enough to turn heads, but she wasn’t on display, begging to be noticed. Only he got to see what was under her dress.

  He liked the idea of that, so without hesitation, he stood and handed Amber her card back.

  “Looks like she made it.”

  He took the three steps to where Cassie was watching them. Normally, he towered over her, but in her four-inch heels, there wasn’t as much of a height difference. With her face in his hands, he looked into her eyes then leaned down and kissed her thoroughly. It might have been a little obnoxious, considering they were out in public, but he wanted to leave her with no doubt he was glad to see her and had no interest in that woman talking to him. He pulled away, and she staggered a step, so he slipped his arm around her waist to steady her.

  “Hi,” he said with a knowing grin.

  “Hi yourself,” she said, placing her hand on his chest with her eyebrows raised. “That was quite the greeting.”

  “You’re quite the girl,” he replied unapologetically.

  Amber had made herself scarce, and he pulled Cassie to the empty chairs at the high-top table.

  “You look beautiful.”

  She eyed him suspiciously, like she didn’t believe him, but simply said, “Thank you.”

  He gestured to the waitress, and asked Cassie, “What would you like?” when the woman appeared.

  She ordered wine, and he ordered a beer, then asked her about her night. Somewhere in the middle of their conversation, he noticed he couldn’t keep his hands to himself—she was like a magnet, pulling him to her. Whether it was to stroke her arm, or move her hair from her face, or hold her hand—he couldn’t keep from touching her. The contact with her was both a way to make sure every man in the bar knew she was with him but also provided a sense of comfort that soothed his soul. He hadn’t even realized he was doing it until she withdrew her hand from his to wipe some wine that had splashed when the server placed it on the table in front of her. He immediately felt the loss of her skin against his and wanted to remedy it as quickly as he could.

  She looked down when he grabbed her hand again and ran his thumb over her knuckles but didn’t say anything. Instead, she took a sip of her drink using her other hand.

  “You know,” she smiled, “we’re supposed to be taking these ten dates to get to know each other, but here we are on Date Number Four, and I feel like the only thing I know about you is you like Italian food, dogs, baseball, and beer, and are an amazing kisser.”

  He smiled and leaned over for a lingering peck on her lips. He really liked the way she kissed, too.

  “Well, we still have six dates, how should we rectify that?”

  She sat up straighter and shifted in her seat. Obviously, she’d been giving this some thought.

  “We should each come up with eleven questions to ask each other on every date.”

  He smirked and wrinkled his brows together in confusion. “Why eleven?”

  She smiled slyly. “Because on our eleventh date, there are no more rules.”

  He liked the way she thought. “Okay, so tomorrow night, we’ll each have to come up with eleven different questions. Do we have to answer the ones we ask too?”

  “Hmm, I hadn’t really thought about that? It would probably depend on the question.”

  He couldn’t come up with an example of a question only one of them could answer, but he didn’t want to dampen her spirits. Besides, she hadn’t disagreed about their next date being tomorrow, so he didn’t want to press his luck.

  “I can still ask questions tonight, though, right?”

  “Of course,” she giggled. “I didn’t mean we can only ask eleven questions of each other. I just thought it would be good to have specific ones with the purpose of getting to know each other.”

  “Isn’t that the purpose of all questions?”

  “I don’t know. I think there’s a difference between asking how your day went versus asking if you always wanted to be a cop.”

  He smirked. “Sounds like you already know what you want to ask.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe a few, but I really haven’t given it a lot of thought, other than the actual idea of it.”

  He wasn’t sure if he believed her, but he’d let it go for now. “So, how was the banquet? Are we going Corvette shopping this weekend?”

  She smiled, picked up her black clutch from the table, and slipped her fingers inside it to pull out an envelope, handing it to him.

  “No, but I might be a little more serious about my house hunting.”

  He peeked inside the envelope and his jaw dropped. “That’s your bonus?” He’d only been teasing about the Corvette, but he might have been closer to the truth than he realized.

  How much money did she actually make? He did alright, but she might be out of his league.

  She shrugged as if trying to be nonchalant. “Selling drugs is profitable, what can I say?”

  He handed her back the envelope. “Better not let anybody see that.”

  She slid it back in her purse, grinning. “I’ll be careful.”

  “Make sure you let me walk you to your car.”

  Cassie tilted her head and smirked, “Were you worried I wasn’t going to?”

  He ignored the question and drew his brows in mock suspicion.

  “Ya know, that’s an awfully big check. I’m afraid I might have to frisk you in the parking lot to make sure the drugs you’re selling are of the legal variety.”

  She pressed her tits against his chest when she whispered in his ear, “Will you use the handcuffs?”

  Now she was speaking his language.

  Six more dates.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Cassie

  It’d been hard to say goodnight to Luke in the parking lot. She almost asked him to come back to Brenna’s, you know, appealing to his sense of duty. It was dark out after all. Wouldn’t he feel better, making sure she got home safely?

  She couldn’t do it though. Cassie couldn’t be the damsel in distress. Her pride wouldn’t let her. But man, she wanted to be a damsel for Luke. Every cell in her body was screaming for it, and that surprised the hell out of her.

  She walked into Brenna’s kitchen, tossed her keys on the dark granite counter, and dropped her purse on a bar stool. She couldn’t stop thinking about how sexy he looked tonight in his grey Henley that showed off his defined arms and chest, not to mention his ass in those faded Levi’s.

  Cassie’s first instinct when she saw him talking to the slut
in the red dress was to turn around and leave with her player fears confirmed. Instead, she decided to see what he did once the woman offered him her card. He didn’t pocket it, and he didn’t give the skank his number in return. Instead, he politely laid it on the table. So, Cassie waited for what would happen next.

  His reaction when he noticed her warmed her insides. She loved how he made her feel like she was the only woman in the room who mattered. Although she was one of the most competitive people she knew, years of watching her sister compete with cleat chasers for her deceased husband’s attention made Cassie refuse to vie for a man’s time and affection. Either he wanted to be with her or he didn’t.

  She couldn’t help the corners of her mouth from turning up when she thought about how obvious Luke had wanted to be with her.

  When she snapped back to reality, she realized she was standing in front of the refrigerator with the door open, staring into space.

  “Oh my God, Cassandra. Get a damn grip.”

  Next thing she knew, she was going to be saying, “No, you hang up first,” when they were on the phone. Good thing they mostly communicated over text.

  Lying in bed provided no respite from her thoughts. If anything, it made it worse. She could almost feel his arms around her again. The warmth of his body, the smell of his skin, and his cock against her ass. She wondered if he was lying in bed thinking about her too.

  Really? I wonder if he’s thinking about me, too? What am I? Sixteen? Why don’t I listen to some angsty love songs while I’m at it?

  This was getting ridiculous.

  She rolled onto her side and punched her pillow before plunking down forcefully. It was time for sleep; she didn’t have time to worry about what Luke was doing or who he was thinking about. He probably hadn’t thought twice about her since they left O’Malley’s.

  The ding of a text message quickly quashed that thought, and she eagerly grabbed her phone from the nightstand to see who it was from, letting out a giggle when Luke’s picture appeared on her screen.

  Sgt Studly: Goodnight doll.

  With a broad smile, she laid the phone back on the nightstand without replying. She was afraid it would end up with no, you stop texting goodnight first. She was a thirty-four-year-old woman, there would be none of that.

  Damn, that text made her giddy though.

  “Who are you?!” she blurted out loud.

  She sighed. She was Cassandra Jo Sullivan, and she really, really liked a guy for the first time ever. And she was going to own that shit.

  ****

  Luke

  He checked his work cell first thing when he woke up like he always did. Followed by a quick glance at his personal phone, which was a not-so-common thing for him to do first thing in the morning.

  Luke hadn’t expected to hear back from Cassie last night, but he thought he’d look again this morning, in case he’d missed her text. There was nothing from her, and he wasn’t surprised. That wasn’t her style.

  Was he smothering her? That was the last thing he wanted. The idea of coming off as clingy or needy repulsed him. That was how desperate men acted, and he was far from desperate.

  Except he really wanted to hear from her and couldn’t wait to see her again.

  It doesn’t mean I’m desperate.

  He shook his head in defeat as he tied his running shoes. Ben was right—he was so screwed. Hopefully, a run on the beach would help him see things more clearly. He leashed Rex, and they headed out the door and down the path to the ocean. The rhythmic pounding of his footsteps in time with the jingle of Rex’s tags allowed him to contemplate what he knew.

  One—he and Cassie obviously liked each other and had great chemistry.

  Two—both of them said they didn’t want anything more than a casual relationship.

  Three—they seemed to be like-minded professionally. She would understand if he had to work a lot because she did the same thing.

  Four—she was sexy as hell, and he couldn’t wait to fuck her senseless.

  Five—he was going to be open-minded and see what happened between them.

  Oh, and six—he was still legally married to Adriana.

  That damn number six.

  He didn’t think it was necessary to bring it up with Cassie at this point. He hadn’t heard from his wife in over three years, after she took off with no warning, leaving him almost bankrupt and heartbroken over a child that never even existed.

  Once he found out where Adriana was, and they didn’t actually have a baby together, he tried serving her with divorce papers, but she refused to sign the acknowledgment forms she’d received them. Or the process server was trying to shake him down for more money he refused to pay. Either way, he was still married.

  He thought about going to see her himself, but the cartel’s control of the area she was from made traveling there too dangerous. Being a police officer came with an automatic bounty on his head if he were to cross the border, and he preferred to keep his head attached to his neck, thank you very much.

  Since he’d filed paperwork to at least keep his accounts and mortgage from no longer being considered community property and she couldn’t access his money or credit cards, getting divorced was no longer a priority for him. His attorney had said something about after she was gone for seven years, he could file without her acknowledgment or agreement. At this point, he was just planning on waiting it out, there’d really not been any reason to do anything else.

  Until maybe now.

  Not that Luke was planning on getting serious with Cassie, but he knew she might have a problem with him technically being married. He’d tell her when the time was right, but he was confident she’d understand.

  He’d also made up his mind he wasn’t going to ask to see her tonight or maybe even until the weekend. Although the idea of not spending time with her for three more nights was less than appealing, he needed to slow things down.

  He could do it. He had willpower.

  Hopefully, he’d get called out a lot for work, otherwise, he’d have to find ways to occupy his time other than being with Cassie. That might take some effort since the ways he usually kept busy involved women and alcohol. Maybe Luke would finally take Ben up on playing a pickup game after work with him and the guys from his shops. If all else failed, the garage could always stand to be cleaned out.

  His Fitbit said he’d run two miles, a half mile farther from where he and Rex usually turned around on the beach to head home. The whole return trip back, he argued with himself about why not seeing Cassie until the weekend might be unnecessary and drastic. What was he hoping to accomplish by doing that?

  He reached his doorstep drenched in sweat and Rex’s tongue dragging with no more clarity about what he was going to do then when he’d started his run. Maybe he’d find the answers in the shower.

  The water cascaded over his head while he contemplated his next move. The vision of her pretty face and pouty lips popped into his mind, followed by her hot, tight body. He smiled at the thought of her soft, round globes peaking over the top of her dress last night, and his fingers involuntarily flexed as he envisioned cupping them in his hands. Her tits were going to be his undoing. He couldn’t wait to suck on them again and looked forward to running his cock into the valley between her peaks.

  The image of that caused his dick to rise, and he started to stroke himself slowly as the hot water rained down on him. He wanted nothing more than her on her knees while she sucked him off.

  Luke groaned out loud at the thought of her lips wrapped around his cock and started tugging his shaft faster. Leaning against the wall of the shower, he imagined her begging for him to come all over her face—it was his fantasy, after all—and envisioned pushing her head down on his dick while he furiously fucked her throat before his release. In his head, he heard her moans of desire as he pulled from her mouth and spurted all over her pretty, little heart-shaped face.

  With a satisfied grunt, he came all over the tile floor, the image of
Cassie’s cheeks and chin glazed with his cum in his mind as rope after rope of semen spouted from his cock.

  God, he fucking wanted that woman. The fact he liked her with her clothes on was a bonus. It could also be his undoing.

  Sighing, he rested his head against the white, ceramic wall. He didn’t know what he was going to do about seeing Cassie this week. The best he could come up with was he’d decide once he heard back from her.

  He really wanted to get to Date Number Eleven, but he was willing to admit the anticipation was part of the fun. A small part of him also knew once they had sex, their relationship was going to go to a whole new level. Casual was going to be off the table.

  He looked forward to that with both anticipation and trepidation. Cassandra Sullivan had the potential to knock him on his ass, in a way he hadn’t thought possible. He needed to be smart about this, and trying to get too serious, too soon was a sure-fire way to fuck things up, not to mention spook her.

  The sound of a message on his work phone prompted him to finish his shower. Getting out, he saw his team was needed to serve a search warrant and dried off quickly. He was dressed, his gear bag over his shoulder, jumping in the Jeep in less than ten minutes. Having to concentrate on the task before him was exactly what he needed right now to keep his mind off that sexy blonde.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Cassie

  Her morning was booked solid with appointments, and she was up early to take Zona for an extra-long walk on the beach before she left for the day. The black lab mix spun in excited circles as she waited for Cassie to open the back-patio door that led to the beach. She wondered if Luke and Rex were out this early too and thought back to the other morning when he had stayed over. Their whole routine had felt so natural and right, she wouldn’t mind doing that again soon.

  She hadn’t responded to Luke’s text from last night yet but planned on reaching out before she left for work. Just thinking about hearing from him again made her heart happy.

  Brenna and Ron were returning home that afternoon, so Cassie planned on coming back to the beach house after work to pack her things, catch up with her sister and new brother-in-law, and hear all about their honeymoon. They had driven the Pacific Coast Highway in the Corvette convertible Brenna bought Ron as an engagement/promotion present, eventually ending up in Napa Valley. Not Cassie’s idea of a great time, but she also knew they weren’t exactly staying in roadside motels along the way.