Chapter Five
Dan
Dark still hovered in my bedroom when I surfaced from an unremembered dream to the muted trill of my alarm. I dreamed like everybody else, but never recalled what about, just the emotions or sensations lingering afterward.
Sometimes fear or adrenaline.
Sometimes sadness or regret.
This morning, connection and happiness . . . and the reason for those lay on my arm, fingers tingling, my nerve endings dead from being pinned beneath her body.
Wouldn’t trade this for anything, though.
Eyes closed, I buried my face against soft, tangled hair. Flexing my other arm, I plastered myself to her spine, soaking in her scented warmth.
A huff of a pleased breath passed between her lips before she stretched against me.
And rubbed her cute little ass into my morning hardon. I hissed, tightening my arm. She smiled against my biceps. “Good morning.”
“Hey.” I kissed her cheek, nuzzled her ear, sucking her gentle, sleepy scent into my lungs. Her shampoo, my soap, a hint of fabric softener from the sheets clinging to her skin.
She rolled to fling an arm around my neck, thigh draped over my hip to bring us even closer together. Another kind of warmth pressed to my hard dick. “Let’s play.”
I swallowed a groan.
“I want to.” I cracked an eyelid to peer at the clock. “Gotta get in the shower. Can’t be late.”
My shift ran from seven to three – she didn’t have to be on the road until nine.
She slid against me. “What if I get in the shower with you?”
“Right. Because we’ll take less time in there.” I kissed her, toying with her bottom lip, teasing the corner where her dimple was.
“You do take your time.” She squeezed me closer, shifting from temptation to affection, although that was just as addictive. Maybe more. “Can I have a rain check?”
“Baby, you can have two rain checks.” I cupped her ass and nibbled down the side of her neck. “As many rain checks as you want.”
Holding my head in place, she laughed, the delighted waterfall of sound I loved, and hugged me close. She kissed my hair before pushing the covers back. “Get your shower. I’ll start breakfast.”
The opened door let light slant into the room, and I lay there a moment, arms folded behind my head. She was a dream, one I didn’t realize I’d had until I met her.
Didn’t know what she was doing with me.
I rolled from the bed and launched my five-minute stretch on my phone. In the shower, I shaved, soaped and rinsed, imagining her with me, what I was missing out on. Next time she stayed over I was setting the alarm thirty minutes earlier for damn sure.
After toweling off, I donned my uniform and gear, lacing my duty shoes good and tight, flexing my toes to check the fit.
In the kitchen, I found her pouring us both a cup of coffee. Bowls of oatmeal with fresh fruit waited on the island, and she leaned to set our mugs by them, my t-shirt riding up her thighs to flash her ass at me while she did so.
“You’re the best,” I murmured as she turned around.
I braced a hand on either side of her, trapping her between my front and the island.
Her brown eyes dilated, and one corner of my lips hitched.
Might be inexperienced, but I’d learned her reactions to me, studying them like I’d pored over anthropology notes back at UGA.
I slid a hand to her hip and angled her into me, grinning when I felt her breathing hitch.
“You’re a tease, Daniel Gallagher.”
I kinda liked it when she called me Daniel.
“Only if I don’t follow through.” I lowered my voice and rubbed my thumb in a circle on her hip, approximating the way she liked me to touch her somewhere else. “And I plan to later. Thoroughly.”
Planting her hand in the center of my chest, she gave a light shove. “Eat your breakfast before I ravage you, mess up your uniform, and make you late.”
Chuckling, I levered to my full height, loving the way her gaze lingered on me.
Nobody had ever looked at me like her.
Not anybody I noticed, anyway.
With the stools pulled close enough that our knees brushed, we ate breakfast and talked about our plans for the day. She was hitting up doctors at the bigger hospitals in Thomasville and Albany today, and who knew what my shift would hold?
I had plans for tonight now, though.
She dressed in her clothes from the night before while I washed up, and we walked down together.
“Be careful on the road.” Standing in her open car door, I cupped her jaw and lowered my mouth to hers, then brushed the ends of our noses. “I’ll get us pizza from Nick’s tonight.”
“Sounds perfect.” Patting my chest, she slid behind the wheel, and I stepped back to shut her door. I stood in the drive and watched her back out, watched until her car disappeared at the corner.
I bit the inside of my bottom lip. Needed to Google some stuff on my lunch break, something new to try tonight. I did not want her disappointed or bored with me.
The screen door next door squeaked wildly, and the wood door slammed so hard the glass rattled. I flinched.
“Good morning, Danny!” Nicole’s voice grated over my nerves. “Can I catch a ride?”
Hands braced below my duty belt, I narrowed my eyes. She was dressed for work, like every morning. Shit, that lipstick was red, though.
“Don’t call me Danny. That’s not my name.”
She faltered a few steps away, eyes widening. Her lips trembled before her mouth pinched tight. “Oh. I just . . . I think of you as my Danny.”
Narrowing my eyes further, I shifted my stance. My reaction to her wasn’t lost on me – I viewed her like an unknown subject on scene, like I didn’t know what I was dealing with yet, what the threat level was.
Lila said she wanted me. That she could be a problem.
My sister and EmmaLee, two of the smartest people I knew, said not to trust her.
I might be naive, but I wasn’t stupid.
That right there was a crossed boundary. The only woman who could use my with my name like that was Lila.
“I’m not your anything. We’re neighbors and sometimes I give you a ride.
Call me by the right name.” I pitched my voice to the calm, authoritative tone I’d practiced over and over at the academy, that I used whenever I entered a dicey situation.
“And don’t refer to me as yours. It’s not appropriate. ”
She froze. This time, the tremble to her chin was probably real. Her throat moved with a hard swallow, and she pulled her lips in, like smoothing lip balm. “Okay.”
I jerked my head toward my unit. “You need a ride, get in the car.”
Without looking to see what she did, I walked to the driver’s side and started my pre-shift inspection. She slid into the passenger seat, face turned away from me. Phone in her hand, she texted with shaky fingers. A soft sniffle hung in the air.
Yeah, I was immune to those, although that wounded noise rang authentic.
I almost felt bad because I’d probably humiliated her, except she kept pushing–
Oh.
Shit.
Yeah, Lila was right.
I stiffened and straightened from my slump, then tapped in my pre-check and logged on-duty through my laptop. While the engine warmed, I fired off a text to Lila.
Nicole riding with me to work. You were right. See what you mean now
Knew you were smart. She punctuated that with a kissy-face emoji.
Smartass. I love you. Staring at what I’d just typed, I backed that out real fast. Couldn’t say it the first time over text messages.
“Are we going?” Nicole fidgeted in her seat.
“You wanna walk?”
I barely caught her muttered asshole.
“I can be.” With a shrug, I shifted to reverse. Navigating the driveway, I frowned at her car in her carport. “Why isn’t your car in the shop?”
She startled, phone dropping to her lap. “Oh. Um, the dealership is shortstaffed. Mechanic shortage. They’re picking it up today.”
I nodded. “How are you getting home?”
My shift ended at three, but the city offices were open until five. I wasn’t waiting around on her, and I damn sure wasn’t making a special trip back to pick her up.
“Um, Elizabeth. She leaves the store about the same time I do the office.”
I snorted so hard my nose hurt. “She doesn’t work in that store.”
Nicole bristled. “She does now Hannah flaked out on them. Ridiculous.”
“Hannah flaked out.” I didn’t know her well, but remember Hannah Hall from high school, always in the media center studying, always leading something for student government. She was responsibility personified.
“Yes. She’s having a little tantrum because Elizabeth is successful and it hurts her feelings.” If an eyeroll could be audible, I’d have heard that one.
“Right.”
This was the longest conversation we’d had, and I wasn’t impressed.
And if she wanted me, like Lila thought, I was doing a jam-up job of changing that.
She had her phone in hand again, texting furiously. I ignored her on the remaining two blocks to the city complex.
In the fenced parking lot behind the building, I frowned at the PD seal next to the heavy metal door. “You want to file a report on this guy bothering you?”
“What?” She stared at me, eyes wide, those too-heavy, too-black lashes fluttering. “No.”
Why not? I swallowed that. I was new at this, too, and people got squirrelly about stuff. I’d ask someone who knew more before I pushed the point.
“You got a pic in case I see him around the neighborhood?”
She fumbled with her phone, fingers flashing across the screen. Finally, she turned the device toward me, an average looking guy pinning the camera with a bored expression. A cap sat backward on his head, a mullet brushing the collar of his Southern Tide t-shirt. Bro-country, all day long.
“What’s his name?” I filed away his features, the brown hair, blue eyes, the little scar by his mouth. “Text that to me.”
“Sure.” Skin pale about her pinched lips, she tapped on her screen and my phone vibrated. “Um, Brandon.”
“Last name?”
“Smith.” That strangled note might be fear. Maybe.
With her out of my car and headed around to the front of the building, I strode through the back door to the PD.
Antibacterial cleaner hung heavy in the air, fluorescent lights gleaming off the waxed tile floor.
I slid into a chair one table back from Josh for the shift change meeting and took notes while Dix talked.
In the department platform, I added a request for increased patrol rounds on my street.
Once the meeting broke up, I twisted around to look at Monroe, one of the older guys on the force. He’d been doing this since I was in middle school. He’d know what was normal. “Hey, Mel.”
He didn’t look up from his notebook. “What’s up, kid?”
“Normal for a woman whose ex is being sketchy not to want to file a report?”
“Can be.” He flicked a glance up at me, brows lifted over his reading glasses. “What kind of sketchy we talking?”
“Riding by her house, that kind of shit.”
“He texting, calling?”
I tried to remember what Nicole had said, but ignoring her and forgetting what she said was a habit. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Sometimes they don’t want to because that means admitting it’s bad. Or they know it’s bad and don’t want to make it worse.” Monroe tapped his pen on his pad. “Whose the vic?”
“One of my neighbors.” If she wasn’t reporting, she wasn’t an official vic and putting her name out there felt like invading her privacy. “Asked me to keep an eye out. I asked if she wanted to report. She said no.”
“You can’t make her.” With a shrug, Monroe tucked his pen in his pocket and shoved his chair back. “Good you’re nearby, though.”
“Yeah.”
Phone in hand, I studied Brandon’s photo. He looked like a prick. I tapped out a quick text. Need a description of his truck
Ford
Black
I stared. Lord, she was dumb.
All right, I did feel bad about that. Vapid, maybe. That was a good word. And fear did funny things to the brain.
New? Old?
Newish
Yeah, that was helpful.
Squatted
Of course it was.
Thanks
I added the sparse description to the patrol notes online.
THANK YOU!!! Bubbles danced on the screen. Sorry I called you an asshole
I left that on read. She might not get boundaries.
But I damn sure did.