Chapter 19
Steven
This wasn’t my first time at the rodeo of being arrested, but I had to admit, my first time hadn’t been nearly as much fun.
As a senior prank I and a group of buddies had vandalized the car of the principal of our school.
While we’d thought it was hilarious to paint a picture of a nude woman on the hood of his Maserati, he hadn’t.
Hell, the artwork was fantastic, every detail utter perfection, but alas, he didn’t think it would be right to drive down the road with a naked blonde lounging on the hood with her legs spread wide open and her pussy lips glistening.
To make matters worse, the woman in question was a real person and had just happened to be the woman the principal was having an affair with. Depicting the vivacious chick half his age didn’t win us any brownie points.
If it hadn’t been for my father’s influence in town, my guess is I’d still be locked away if the principal had made good on his threats.
What few people knew was that my father had paid him a personal visit to… encourage him to keep his mouth shut. Barrett Masters wasn’t immune to using mob tactics when necessary.
This was different. This was being caught with my pants down. Literally. Not only was there a morals clause in my contract with the Gators that outlined the worst offenses, and they didn’t include Jell-O wrestling, one thing was clear.
I couldn’t get arrested. If I did, it meant automatic dismissal from the team. I guess I hadn’t thought through the possibility of getting caught. Then again, my desire for the beautiful if not troublemaking Christine had caught me off guard.
Especially after what she’d said about shifters.
As if she’d been talking directly to me. As if I wasn’t fooling anyone. If that was the case, then why had she appeared in such distress around me?
My beautiful date had acted as if she was in heat, which was impossible for a human. While there was strong chemistry between us, there was no chance she was chemically my mate. It was completely unheard of.
However, my need to possess and protect was stronger than before.
Including with the police officer heading in our direction.
“Hurry, babe. We don’t have much time,” I told her, trying not to laugh at the set of circumstances. He had a flashlight in his hand, holding it over his head and toward the driver’s side open window.
“I’m hurrying. Can’t you stall him? And where are my panties?”
“I don’t think there’s time to worry about them. I’ll give them back later.” If we got through this. At least I had my shirt on, although it was still untucked. Forget about the tie and jacket. I wasn’t certain I hadn’t tossed the tie out the window.
She fluffed her hair, both panting and cursing under her breath. By the time she huffed and sat back in her seat, he was right on us.
“Evening, Officer. What can I do for you?”
The guy shifted the flashlight into the car, shining the light directly on her face. “Would you get that out of my eyes?” Her tone wasn’t what I’d call conciliatory given we were technically in the wrong.
My feisty little bunny just didn’t seem to think laws applied to her. I had to admit, I craved her even more.
“Evening, folks. Do you mind telling me what you’re doing parked out here in the dark?”
She’d asked me if I was able to read her mind more than once. While I shouldn’t be able to, and maybe I’d just been lucky before in figuring out what she was thinking, right now I had a terrible feeling she was ready to blurt out something that would push the envelope.
So I grabbed her thigh to try to keep her quiet while smiling, which wasn’t like me. Her hiss was loud enough even with the bright light, I was able to see his expression and he was none too happy.
“Why don’t you tell him, Danny?” she tossed out as if completely unable to keep her mouth shut.
“Yes, why don’t you… Danny,” he repeated.
“We were just having a little discussion and decided to pull off the road. I didn’t think we were breaking any laws or anything and I’m terribly sorry if we were. It won’t happen again. Will it, bunny cakes?” I turned my head, giving her my version of an evil eye.
Her sigh was no better than before. “No, of course not, Officer. Now, we’re late to dinner with my parents and I assure you that Senator Carrington won’t appreciate his daughter being late to a very important dinner.”
Whoa. Hold the fuck on. While I adored her for trying to use more than just her incredible feminine wiles to get us out of this situation, hearing that her father was a senator certainly hadn’t been on my bingo card. No wonder she’d said her parents were particular.
A senator. What were the odds this was the very senator who was proposing our rights reversal? I turned my head, studying her face. If she’d been acting, she’d done a damn good job. If she was some plant for her father, why bring me to dinner? Nothing made any sense, but my hackles were raised.
I found myself staring at her, completely ignoring whatever the officer was saying. This wasn’t good on any level.
“Your father is a senator?”
Before she had time to answer, the officer tapped on the door of my Trans Am. “I need to see some ID.”
Well, shit. It would seem my night wasn’t getting any better. I’d forgotten all about the fact I was pretending to be someone else. This was a complete nightmare.
Christine kept a smug look on her face while surfing for her purse.
While she was searching for her ID, I gave him mine, offering a smile that I hoped he could read through. He certainly seemed to be in a shitty mood while waiting for her to fork over her license, staring at me as if I was a criminal.
This wasn’t going to end well. I could feel it.
She leaned over me, slapping her license in his hand. The sickeningly sweet smile on her face was amusing, but I wasn’t ready to laugh. This could turn into a total disaster. He walked away with both in his hands and I leaned back against the headrest.
“Your father is a senator. Why didn’t you tell me?”
When she said nothing, I lifted my head, studying her. “Oops.”
I pointed two spread fingers toward her eyes then back to mine, repeating it as I huffed. “You and I are going to need to work on our communication skills. Why wouldn’t you think something like that was important?”
“Because I knew you’d do exactly what you’re doing right now.
Panic. My father has always been involved in politics from the time I was born.
He’s opinionated, arrogant, and everything I hate.
Trust me, you won’t like him and I knew if I told you the truth about who he was you wouldn’t come with me.
And I hate like hell to admit it, but I can’t stand the thought of my father winning. ”
“What do you mean winning?”
“If you think an arranged marriage is only for romance novels and crime syndicates, you’re dead wrong.”
“What?” I turned toward her, feeling the same level of anger that she was. I’d heard some shit, but that was ridiculous.
“Yeah. He’s even holding my trust fund over my head. Not that I care. I really don’t, but every time I’m forced into spending time with them, they’re already planning the wedding.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“Now you know why I didn’t tell you.” She leaned over again, a snarl planted on her lovely face. “What the hell is taking so long? For the first time in my life, I played what my father called the ‘get out of jail free’ card and this is the one officer who doesn’t care who my father is.”
When she leaned back, she shook her head. “I’m sorry, Danny. I really am. If you don’t want to go, I’ll understand.”
She pressed her lips together and all I could do was to shake my head.
“I’ll go. But I’m not happy about it.” Why did it feel as if I recognized the name of her father?
Maybe I was mistaken since I hadn’t been in Florida for long, but something about the name Carrington stuck in my craw. If only I had time to call my father.
“I promise you that we’ll leave as soon as possible. My mother will try and insist we stay the night in their big house, but I can’t do that. I’ll pay for a hotel room if we don’t want to drive back.”
At this point, I was pretty certain we weren’t going to make it to her parents’ home.
All the officer needed to do was open his mouth about my real identity and poof, I wouldn’t need to worry about dinner.
Since he was running my name through the system, I’d have a star placed next to my name given I was a shifter, so who knew what could happen.
“You really can’t stand your parents.” Could I dare trust her? And if she was my mate? Oh, God.
She laughed so bitterly I tensed. “I love them because they’re my parents, but I can’t stand them as people or that they won’t just allow me to live my life. I’ve reached the limit of my patience.” She had already reached for the door handle, ready to jump out.
“Whoa. You’re not going anywhere.”
“Like hell, I’m not.” She flipped her head in my direction, narrowing her eyes. I felt the cop’s presence and sighed.
He had an entirely different look on his face. I’d almost call it a smile. “Your story checks out, Miss Carrington.” He handed her the license, but held onto mine, reading it and looking at me not once but three times. “And Mister…”
“Wright.”
“Yes, there’s a smudge on your license. Here you go. You’re both free to go, but I’m going to give you a piece of advice. This park closes at dusk for a very good reason.”
I took the license, now clearly able to see the amusement in his eyes. “What’s that?” I asked, although I wasn’t certain I wanted to hear what he had to say.
The police officer eyed me carefully as if daring me to challenge him. “There’ve been reports of shifters in the park, ruthless and bloodthirsty shifters.”
“You’re kidding me,” Christine asked. Whether or not she was buying the story I couldn’t tell, but I did know he was pushing my buttons on purpose.