Possessive Christmas Cop: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 87)

by Flora Ferrari

  “For your shift to finish so I could give you a lift home.”

  “Oh. Thank you.”

  “And so we could talk.”

  “About?”

  “Us.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Jaxon

  “You’re not a little girl anymore, Jade,” I say, the words sound damn wrong coming off my tongue. “You’re a woman now. A young woman, but a woman still.”

  “I know,” she says. “I’m eighteen so I’m responsible for my own decisions.”

  “Have you made any decisions about your future?” I ask her. If she tells me about some boy then she won’t even be able to finish her sentence before I tell her to break those plans.

  Any guys in her life now, if they even exist, are finished.

  She needs a man, the only man for her, and that’s me.

  There are no if’s, and’s, or but’s about it. This has already been decided, by me.

  She needs to be onboard with it, but when she sees how obsessed I am with her, how I’m going to protect her and support her in all parts of her life, she’ll know that no one can compare, just like nothing can compare to the way I feel about her.

  “I was thinking about being a prosecutor, like my dad. I want to go after the bad people who wrong good people.”

  I nod. “Good. I like that idea.”

  “I’m going to enroll in community college first, so I don’t have to leave town. I can get my associate’s degree in criminal justice, which sounds like an oxymoron of sorts, and then transfer to a four-year university and get my bachelor’s.”

  I growl at the thought of her leaving town. I need her here, where I can watch out for her and be with her, not off in some far off location where anything could happen to her. Just the thought of someone bothering her like today, let alone harming her, has me brining my other hand to the wheel and gripping it tight.

  I leave my hand there, realizing that it’s snowing and she’s in the car. I never even realized I drive one handed until just now. Not anymore, not when she’s in the car. I need to be at my best, alert, prepared, in case we slide or anything happens. It may sound melodramatic, but when she’s in my car her life is in my hands, and I’m going to honor that by making sure she’s always safe.

  Her muscles tense and then release quickly. Maybe she doesn’t feel safe though. She looks nervous. “Everything okay?” I ask.

  “Yeah, just a…winter chill I guess.”

  I’m not buying it, but I’m not calling her out on it either.

  She unzips her jacket and I can see her nipples poking all the way through that bra and her transparent shirt. Cold, huh? I still don’t think there’s any truth to it.

  She’s just as turned on as I am as I maneuver in my seat trying to release some of the pressure on my cock, but it’s useless.

  I want to drive straight out of town and pull over in some secluded area so I can rip that blouse off with my teeth and taste those nipples for myself.

  Fuck, my hunger for her is intense and unrelenting.

  “What does your dad think about you being a prosecutor one day?” I ask.

  “I haven’t told him yet. I figure he’ll be proud that I’m following in his footsteps, but he still doesn’t know. You’re the only one I’ve confided in.”

  “Good,” I say.

  “And you don’t have any silly boyfriend that you’re staying in town for? No one who’s asking you to go to the same school so you can be together.”

  “I’ve never had a boyfriend, and I don’t want one.”

  “Because you’re too focused on your future?”

  “I am focused on that, but that’s not the reason. I’m not interested in boys. Why settle for a boy when I can have a man, the man, that I’ve been wanting since the first moment I saw him?”

  The car slows in front of her house. I put it in park and look over at her, my eyes wandering from hers then across her cheeks and to her soft, supple lips.

  I watch as her two front teeth gently come down on her lower lip and I feel my two balls pull up.

  Damn, I could come right now just looking at her. That’s how hard I’ve fallen for this girl.

  But now’s not the time to look at her with the hungry looks I know I’m communicating, because my eye catchers her dad who’s standing in the window, his breath fogging up the glass as he stares at the two of us sitting in the car. Surely he can see the tension, and I don’t need that right now…not until I have a chance to show her exactly what I think about her.

  “You best head inside,” I say motioning with my head towards her house. “Your dad’s looking out the window waiting on you.”

  The corners of her mouth turn down and her eyes narrow at my words.

  “But don’t worry. I’m going to pick you up after your shift tomorrow and when I do…I’m not taking you home.”

  Her frown flattens out and her eyes open as her whole face relaxes and then she smiles big.

  “Good,” she says, just before she slides out of the passenger seat and steps out into the snow.

  She bends down and looks at me one last time before she the door shuts.

  I watch her juicy ass move as she walks up towards the front steps.

  Yeah, I should probably go in and say hi to Jeff. He’ll find out soon enough that my shift just ended when he asks her why I was at the mall and why I gave her a ride home.

  Her answers will be easy and simple, unlike the ones I would have to admit to.

  I was at the mall because I’m watching your daughter like a hawk. Your daughter, but my woman.

  Because once I decided she was mine that was it. She’s mine.

  Now it’s only a matter of time.

  First to show her, and then to prove to her dad this is real.

  And as a man with the toughest reputation when it comes to negotiating with all kinds of people, that’s not going to be easy.

  But I don’t care. I’ll do whatever it takes to have her, even if it comes with the risk of losing my best friend.

  She’s worth it. She’s worth more than anything.

  CHAPTER 6

  Jade

  I check the time on my phone for what must be the two hundredth time today.

  One more minute until I can clock out.

  It’s been a busy day, but I definitely saw Jaxon pass by the store a few times. Each and every time I was helping a customer, but even out of the corner of my eye I could see that Jaxon had a look like he wanted to help himself…to me.

  “Your guy didn’t come in today?” I hear and turn around.

  My co-worker Melissa is standing over my shoulder looking out into the mall hallway that leads from the entrance of the store, just like I am.

  “No, no young boys to cause trouble today.”

  “Trouble they were, but cute too. But wow, that man that was talking to you. It looked like the two of you had a serious connection going on.”

  “You saw?”

  “Who didn’t? The way you two were staring each other down. He looked like he wanted to put you on a plate and sop you up with a biscuit.”

  I laugh a bit and quickly catch myself.

  “I’m not joking,” Melissa says.

  “He’s just…a family friend,” I say.

  “He’s not your man? Well then tomorrow you’re going to introduce him to me. Shoot.”

  “I’m not introducing him to anybody,” I say, my voice raising. “Sorry,” I say.

  “Not your man, huh? Okay,” Melissa says, my response giving me away. “Maybe not yet, but it’s only a matter of time if you two keep gazing into each other’s eyes like that. And by a matter of time I mean like five minutes, tops.”

  My phone vibrates in my pocket, signaling that it’s quitting time.

  “Nice talking to you, Melissa,” I say, quickly making my way to the break room.

  I clock out and hurry toward the mall exit.

  There he is, same spot as yesterday.

  He pulls around and picks me
up.

  “Hey,” I say.

  “Hey yourself,” he says as he gives me a long, lusty look.

  I watch his big, thick fingers take the car out of park and we take off.

  “I thought this might interest you?” he says, handing me a manila folder.

  “What’s this,” I say, lightly tossing it in my hands a few times, admiring its weight.

  “Some information about the criminal justice program here in town, and a list of the best universities you can transfer to.”

  “Thank you,” I say. “It’s nice to know you care about my future.”

  “Our future,” he says. “And I only want the best for you, and that’s the information that should help you make the best decision which fits your needs.”

  “What if I want to go far away,” I say.

  I hear him exhale, but it’s not long and drawn out.

  “Does that thought annoy you?”

  “No. Just the thought of you being away makes me angry, but there’s no need for that. I can transfer if I have to.”

  “You’d transfer to be with me?”

  “I’ll do whatever it takes for us to be together.”

  “But what about everything you’ve built here? You wouldn’t just throw that all away would you?”

  “Life is a stage and we’re all performers. I’m not putting on a show or anything. You know I’m a straight shooter, but what I mean is I’ve been performing my job at a very high level for a very long time. That was my audition for the biggest moment, although I didn’t know it until I saw you.”

  He pauses, and his hand comes off the steering wheel and finds my knee.

  My thigh flexes and I feel an electricity shoot through me. I look down at his gigantic hand on my knee. I’m small, but the size of his hand and the way it just engulfs the entirety of my knee makes me feel even smaller, more feminine.

  “I could transfer. It might even be a good thing. I like living here but when life throws you challenges the real men rise up to not only meet them, but exceed them.”

  He takes a breath and looks at me and then back towards the road.

  “I rarely spend money. There’s no need. The things I like, like being outdoors, cost practically nothing. I get all the coffee I can drink at the station and we often get a big lunch. It’s allowed me to put away a good chunk of change and at this point it’s more than enough to buy a nice place somewhere. But it wouldn’t just be a place or a house that I buy. It would be a home that I build, and by build I don’t mean with nails and a hammer. I mean by filling it full of children.

  “I was always happy being a bachelor, a single man. I was focused on work and had time for nothing else. I use the word bachelor, but I didn’t even date, let alone have random hookups, or any kind of hookups for that matter. I don’t believe in living like that. It takes away from something special. Yeah, I’m a big burly cop and you’re probably surprised to hear me talk this way, but it’s true.

  “If you took alcohol and drugs away from people eighty percent of my calls would disappear. Why? Because they lead to bad decisions. And one of the best decisions I ever made was to value the connection between two people, even when I never had that. And now that I finally do? It’s only that much stronger, that much more intense, and that much more…everything.”

  He’s right. I didn’t expect to hear that coming from him. I know he’s a man of honor and respect, but come on…in the day of Tinder and random sex seemingly happening the to modus operandi of my generation it’s shocking to see someone who refrains. And a man no less!

  Boys my age are addicted to “Netflix and chill.” It’s their slang way of asking a girl out on a “date,” if you consider dating going right over to a guy’s house, having cheap, unemotional, uncommitted, no-connection sex, and then watching some TV series.

  Hells to the no.

  And here’s this man, who’s a dozen years older than me, that’s not exactly my dad’s generation, but not mine either. He’s somewhere in-between, but he’s right on the money when it comes to everything it means to be a man.

  “Surely you had chances though,” I say.

  “Maybe, but I don’t pay attention to that stuff.”

  “When women were throwing themselves at you you didn’t notice?”

  “I don't remember anyone throwing themselves at me, but even if they did I would have been in uniform, which only reinforces my point. They would have just been after the cop, and not even trying to make an attempt to get to know me. I’m not some emotional wuss, but still, I’m just like everyone else in that I don’t want to be used. Plus I work a lot. I don’t have time to get involved in meaningless short-term thinking.”

  “Not ever?”

  “Never.”

  “And that’s how you met my dad, right?”

  “Exactly. Literally bumped into him at the courthouse one day. He was prosecuting a case I worked on. I showed up expecting a plea bargain would be arranged, and damn do those things ever bother me, and I was surprised when he offered the defendant nothing.”

  “Doesn’t that cost the city more money in tax dollars?”

  “Can you put a price on putting a child molester back on the street? What’s the cost of that?”

  “I didn’t know.”

  “I know. Sorry, I shouldn’t have jumped on you like that,” he says. The air inside the car becomes thick and he rolls down the window.

  A mental picture of him literally jumping on me enters my mind and I find myself getting moist already.

  “The bigger picture is that your dad is damn good at what he does, and so am I. And if the bad guys know we’re not budging on anything we think they’re a lot less likely to do things they might think about doing. Our reputation precedes us and we probably stop a lot of crime just because of that. And the ones that are foolish enough to try? I catch them and we make examples out of them. So the extra few days it takes for our cases to go to trial, and yes they barely last that long once your dad gets in front of a jury, are worth the few tax dollars that everyone has to pay. If anything we feel like we’re over-delivering and people actually know, and see where, their money is going. I don’t mind paying a bit more if I know it’s getting results.”

  And they say it’s hard to find a good guy these days.

  Actually it is. I’m just lucky I found him, or he found me more accurately.

  “And that’s why I was excited to pull that information for you. Anybody that’s on the side of justice is on my side…and your dad’s.”

  “And my dad is literally your best friend?”

  “One hundred percent.”

  “Even though he’s forty-two and you’re thirty?”

  “It’s not as far apart as it sounds. I don’t understand why people have to be best friends based on age, or skin color or all these other random variables. I’d much rather be friends with people that think the way I think, and those kinds of guys are hard to find.”

  I laugh just a little bit and then bring my hand to my face trying to cover it.

  “What’s so funny?” he says, shaking my knee before releasing it as we approach the light.

  “You’re right. Good guys are hard to find.”

  “Well you can stop looking right now, because you’re mine.”

  CHAPTER 7

  Jade

  Thirty minutes later we’re lacing up our skates at an outdoor rink I didn’t even know existed.

  The person running the quaint, little wooden booth where they rent out skates stepped out for about two minutes while Jaxon changed from his uniform to his street clothes.

  It was pretty funny watching a big man duck inside the little booth, but what wasn’t funny were the stares from the other women when they caught sight of this giant man in a cop’s uniform.

  I felt myself wanting to tell them to back off and to grab him possessively, but I managed to stay ladylike. I’m not sure if the jealousy I’m feeling is a good thing or a bad thing. I’ve never been jealous over
anything in my life and I should just feel happy that I don’t need to. He is here with me after all.

  After Jaxon got changed into some dark denim, boots, a jacket, and a white T-shirt that was snug enough to show the outline of his muscles, but not so tight it looked like he was stuffed inside of it, we got our skates and started putting them on.