Chapter Three #2
“I understand why you’re mad. Trust me, up until the moment I got off the phone with you, my intention was to come straight here, tell you what was going on and do whatever I had to do to get you to forgive me and give me a chance to prove I really care about you.
I haven’t earned that yet and I know it.
But please, don’t let my job be the reason you don’t let me prove how much you mean to me.
I want this, Seneca. What we’re building… it’s important.”
She furrowed her brow and a sadness he’d never seen her possess crept over her. “You still think we have a chance? How can we? I’m an ex-con. It couldn’t possibly be good for your career to be carrying on with someone like me.”
He clicked his jaw shut, trying to fight the anger her pain caused him. How many people had she come across who made her feel like this?
“You did your time and you’ve got a year left on parole.
There is nothing to be ashamed of. You’re rebuilding your life and I want, no”—he shook his head—“I need to be a part of that. And my superiors are aware. They don’t have a problem with it.
” He shrugged his shoulders as he continued.
“And even if they did, I wouldn’t give a good goddamn. You’re who I want.”
She pressed her cheek into his palm and moaned, the sound emanating through her skin, into his palm, vibrating throughout the rest of his body. He needed this over, needed to be close to her without the barrier of his damn job coming between them.
“You told your bosses about me?”
He nodded. “Yes. I’m a ‘by the rules’ kind of guy, Seneca. I didn’t want there to be any surprises with my job later. So, I let my boss know tonight.” He shrugged, hoping she would see this as a sign he was serious about taking their interest to the next level.
“This really had to be that much of a secret? You really couldn’t tell me anything?”
He ran his fingers through his hair and gave his scalp a rough scratch. “Like I said, the odds weren’t in our favor. We also had to make sure we didn’t raise Hastings’s suspicion.”
“Sheriff Hastings.” Her brown eyes widened, and she trembled at the mention of Hastings’s name.
Considering she was a parolee, it made sense the name of the sheriff would make her nervous.
It was a rational response. But reason be damned, it pissed him off something terrible to see her living in fear of anyone.
“What does Hastings have to do with anything?” she asked.
“He’s the local sheriff and we didn’t want him or his deputies getting in the way of our investigation.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I guess I shouldn’t be so tough on the useless bastard.”
“Why not?” she asked.
“His lazy and negligent work ethic was the thing that brought us out here in the first place. But if he hadn’t been such an asshole to Aja, you and Brooklyn, I never would’ve met you.
And somehow, the thought of never knowing you is scarier than facing my boss and telling him we had a personal relationship.
” He touched his forehead to hers, hoping the contact would somehow convey the sentiments he didn’t have the words to voice.
“You mean something to me. I don’t have a label for it yet.
I don’t know if it’ll last a month or a year.
But everything in me tells me this is where I’m supposed to be. ”
She swallowed and pulled away from his touch.
She stood and he moved to give her space to walk behind the armchair.
“Colton, I hear everything you’re saying, and I’m flattered.
” She placed her hand on her chest and gave him a weak smile.
“Believe me, I really am. But this sounds messier than either of us signed on for. Trust me, it’s just better if we let this go now before someone—namely me—gets hurt. ”
“Seneca, I just told you that—”
“And I just told you, I’m not willing to complicate my life like this.
I don’t need to worry about everything I do reflecting badly on you.
I also don’t need an entire law enforcement agency in my business, just because I want to sleep with one of its employees.
No matter how you frame this, you lied to me.
I can’t overlook that so easily. Please,” she whispered, dropping her eyes from his as she spoke. “Just go.”
If he hadn’t been kneeling on the floor, her request would’ve knocked him on his ass.
He rose slowly, partly because he didn’t want her to feel threatened, but mostly because the thought of losing her when he was this close to having her, it weighed on him like a boulder on his back, causing his knees and muscles to tremble under the unbearable weight of it all.
When he gained his footing, he closed the distance between them and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her against him and placing his lips firmly against hers.
He kissed her like a desperate man, hard, fast, and firm, because fear told him this might be his last chance to experience the sweet taste of her.
But when he pulled away and looked into hungry eyes that shone with unbridled desire, he knew this couldn’t be the end.
“This ain’t over.”
He released her and snatched up his Stetson on his way to the door. Before he left, he turned around halfway in her direction and smiled. “See you at breakfast.”
And before she could argue, he stepped through the door and headed to his truck.
He licked his lips, the sensation of her mouth pressed against his still made the skin there tingle with need.
Seneca was right, dating—especially if things got as serious as he hoped they’d get—could prove tricky for both of them.
He should let this go like she’d asked. But after the way she’d kissed him back, the need he saw burning in her eyes, Colton wasn’t about to let work fuck up the good thing he’d found.
*
Colton stood at the window peeking through the blinds as he got an eyeful of Seneca Daniels marching across the back pasture headed toward the office building.
Even from a distance her beauty called to him.
Her decadent reddish-brown skin that made him hunger for something sweet every time he looked at her gleamed in the newly risen sun.
She was what his Texas mama would call healthy, full-figured and fit from all the physical labor she did on the ranch, but still plump in all the places his hands ached to touch.
Her eyes were a deep brown and her thick curly hair was the darkest shade of jet-black he’d ever seen on a person without the benefit of hair dye.
Today it was plaited in two thick braids around the perimeter of her head, the long ends tucked away at her nape.
He’d been so close to realizing his dream of taking those braids down and burying his fingers in her tightly coiled tresses until he could feel her scalp, but as always work stepped in to fuck up any chance at happiness that came his way.
“How are things between the two of you?”
Colton didn’t need to turn around to know whose voice filled the air. Everything about his boss and friend, Jackson Dean, was as recognizable to Colton as his own reflection in the mirror.
“Well, I purposely lied to a woman I was romantically pursuing because of my job. The real one that she didn’t know anything about until I told her last night.
I’d say things are just as peachy as they should be ’tween us.
” Colton turned to cut his eyes in Jackson’s direction to make certain he understood the blatant sarcasm in his reply.
Jackson shook his head and chuckled appropriately. His constant good mood was a recent development of him falling in love with Aja Everett. He was happy for his friend, but he could use a bit of Jackson’s former surliness to help him wallow in his discomfort right now.
“There’s a simple way to fix things.” Jackson’s comment pulled him away from the window and made Colton take a step toward his friend.
“Really? Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Share your wisdom, friend.”
Jackson shrugged his shoulder and broadened his smile as he leaned in closer to Colton. “Give her some space and let her work this out on her own.”
“Not a chance.”
He turned around and peeked through the blinds again. She was still standing there. Still so close but far enough that he’d never be able to have her the way he wanted.
“You didn’t see her last night. After I told her, her first reaction was to run from me, like I was a threat to her.” He ran his hand through his hair as he shifted his weight from one planted boot to the next. “She wants nothing to do with me. She ended things on the spot.”
Colton dropped his head as the reminder of what he’d lost in a matter of moments washed over him. Jackson stepped forward, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.
“Colt. You had to expect her to react like that.”
“I knew she’d be mad. But to end things without at least taking time to think about what I’d said to her? I didn’t see that coming.”
Maybe he should have. He knew it was a possibility, but the disappointment eating away at his gut now felt like a surprise. It was a shock to his system that he couldn’t yet wrap his head around.
Jackson stepped away from his friend and shook his head.
“Colton, you’re a cop and she’s an ex-convict, a Black one at that.
She has every reason to distrust you based on that alone.
Add in the fact that you lied to her, you’re lucky she didn’t mutilate you and bury your body parts scattered across the back forty. ”
His jaw ticked and once again he tried hard to remember Jackson was his friend before going off. “What does her being Black have to do with anything? Unless you forgot, I’m Black too.”