Chapter 8
Charlie
It’s not even nine a.m., and I’ve already made my first mistake.
I called her.
“Absolutely not,” Jessica says in a voice so authoritative I can feel my blood pressure rise.
I grit my teeth as I move around the kitchen, grabbing everything I need to get out the door. “Can’t you listen to reason for five minutes?”
After my talk with Mitch, I’d decided to bite the bullet and come clean to Ryder. And even though she’s constantly dropping one mess after another in my lap, my decision affects her, and I want her consent.
Right in principle, horrible in practice.
“There is no amount of time on this planet that will make me think that’s a good idea.” Of course she doesn’t agree.
“He’s going to find out.”
“He won’t.” She lets out a growl of agitation. “Who’s going to tell him?”
Doesn’t she know how she is? Doesn’t she see it? “He’s going to know because he knows us.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. I thought you were cooler than this. It’s only a big deal if we make it a big deal. I won’t even talk to you on Saturday, okay?”
My frustration twists and wraps around me.
I swipe my keys from my kitchen island. This isn’t working. We’re going in circles. I try a different tactic.
The truth.
“Jessica, I don’t want to lie to him. He’s my second-in-command. Our relationship is built on trust.” I soften my voice. “He knows you’re different.”
I practically hear her gulp. “How does he know that?”
I don’t want to give her any more of an upper hand, but I don’t know how else to get her to stop digging in her heels. “Because I acted completely out of character.”
“Only because I shocked you, but you’ll be over it by Saturday.”
“But I don’t get shocked, and that’s the problem.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Look, if you want to blame it on me and my poor acting skills, that’s fine. Take the win, I don’t care, but that’s not the fucking point.”
She’s quiet for a long moment before she speaks. “If you tell him, by the time I start work on Monday, I’ll be that slut who had a one-night stand with the sheriff.”
“Your brother would never say that.”
“He won’t, but you and I both know news travels fast in small towns, and it’s always the woman who gets punished.”
Shit. She’s got me.
I’m not sure if she’s right, but I can’t be certain I’m not wrong.
Gossip about us is inevitable, but talk about our unfortunate attraction is different from talk of us hooking up in a motel room for anonymous sex.
Despite myself, I don’t want to take that risk with her. I sigh. “All right, I won’t tell him.”
“Thank you.” She clears her throat. “I’m sorry I’ve put you in this situation. It’s not what I wanted.”
“Apology accepted.”
“It’s your fault.”
This woman. “Oh yeah? How’s that?”
“All I could think about was how I’d have to see you again. It didn’t leave a lot of room for anything else.”
Oh no, she’s being vulnerable. She knows this is my soft spot, because, like an idiot, I’d told her when she’d been curled on top of me like a contented kitten. “You’re an evil woman.”
“Well, yeah, but it’s still true.” She blows out a hard breath. “What are you going to say to Ryder?”
“I’ll continue to play dumb, but if he presses and it comes down to a lie or the truth, I’ll tell him the truth.”
“But you promised.” Her voice rises again, and it sets off an alarm bell. That’s not defiance; it’s panic. Worry.
There’s something there, but now’s not the time to probe. It’s not my business. Her internal life is hers, and I’m not about to get any more involved than I already am because I can’t stop thinking about her.
But in this, I want her to trust me.
“That’s not the truth I’m talking about,” I growl out.
“What truth, then? Tell me in case he questions me.”
“He won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because if he presses, I’ll tell him I took one look at you and wanted to fuck you, and I doubt he’s going to want any additional information.”
“Is that the truth?”
“Stop fishing for compliments, you little brat.”
She laughs, and to my horror, it sets off a fluttering in my chest. “Will you tell me how it goes?”
“Yes. I’ll text you my number when we hang up.” Since I’m a public official, my personal information is blocked, but here I am, handing it over to her.
There’s a beat of silence. “Charlie?”
The way she says my name makes my cock hard. “Yes, Jessica?”
“Don’t make him any promises.”
I want to resist her pull because she’s everything I try to avoid in my relationships with women.
But deep down, I know it’s a losing battle.
There is no way we’re not going to fuck again. The only question is how long we’ll last. “I won’t.”
Her soft little gasp makes me want to reach through the phone line. I want her so badly. I’ve never wanted a woman like I want her. It’s like an itch I cannot scratch. Before I fall down the rabbit hole, I say, “Be a good girl and stay out of trouble.”
“Not help—” I hang up before she can finish the sentence.
I text her my number.
Thirty seconds later, my phone beeps.
Jessica
You’re going to pay for that.
Like I haven’t been paying since the second I laid eyes on her.
After the morning huddle, where we discuss the day’s priorities and I’ve set everyone on their tasks, it takes two minutes for Ryder to come into my office, close the door, and sit down in the chair across from me.
I give him my undivided attention. “What’s up?”
He stretches out his long legs and laces his fingers over his stomach. “I think that’s my question.”
I contemplate pretending I don’t know what he’s talking about, but I decide against it. “I assume this is about your sister.”
“Yeah, it’s about my sister and whatever the hell is going on between the two of you.”
I want to say nothing is going on with us, but that’s false, so I hold out my hands like I’m appealing to his common sense. “Again, why would I have called you?”
“She wasn’t driving her car, so you didn’t know it was her.” His dark-gray eyes narrow on me. “Seems the logical explanation.”
It is, but I’m not about to affirm his suspicions. I stick to the truth with a whole lot of stuff left out. “I didn’t know it was her.”
His jaw sets in a mulish line. “There was an intensity between you when I pulled onto the street. It didn’t look like two people who’d just met.”
I shrug. “I might have been a bit hostile to her.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah, lack of sleep and being chased around for a half hour while in the middle of an investigation that includes a high-profile, corrupt politician made me irritable. And I don’t know if you’ve met your sister, but she doesn’t take well to being yelled at.
” I meet his gaze directly and say with complete and utter honesty, “She aggravated me.”
Slowly, he nods. “Uh-huh.”
“Are there any questions other than the ones I’ve answered numerous times?” I gesture at my desk piling up with things that need attention. “Or can we get on with our day?”
He’s silent for a long time. “I don’t like the way you look at her.”
I weigh my answer then say carefully, “You know I don’t do complicated. Which she is, to the nth degree.”
Before he can respond, there’s a knock on the door, and I look through the window to see my desk clerk, Jeanene Gatto, standing there. I wave her in.
She’s a no-bullshit ballbuster in her forties who takes zero shit, which is why she’s great at her job, including managing the citizens of Revival, who believe I belong to them.
She opens the door. “The mistress is awake.”
“Thanks.”
Ryder and I are already standing, shifting seamlessly from personal to work mode.
“I’ll drive,” he says.
“Works for me.” I start grabbing my things.
“Meet you in five.” Ryder walks out the door, heading to his own office.
I pull out my phone to text Jessica.
My hands still.
Why do I want to text her?
It’s to update her on the Ryder situation, that’s all. It’s a courtesy.
I told her I would. I’m fulfilling my promise. I want her checked off my list so I don’t think about her for the rest of the day.
I shoot off the text, keeping it short and succinct.
Charlie
It’s handled.
Good. She’s off my plate until Saturday.
Jessica
The way my lower belly dips from Charlie’s name on my screen is embarrassing. Normally, when I get a text from a guy, I’m neutral at best, eye-rolling at worst, so this leap of excitement is worrisome.
I read the two short words then turn my phone over on my desk.
No response is necessary. If he had anything more to say, he would have said it. I return to my computer screen, refocusing on the email I’d been composing.
Two minutes go by.
I haven’t typed a word.
He’s distracting me. Again.
I’d never admit it, even to Hailey, but I’ve accepted the truth.
I am completely obsessed with Charlie Radcliffe. How could I not be? We barely know each other, but he chose me over my brother.
I have to thaw a little, right?
That doesn’t mean I have to text him.
It doesn’t mean I have to give in to the pull.
I reach for my phone, then put my fingers back on the keyboard.
No! It’s time to forget about him and finish the email outlining my current deadlines and the cases I’m working on for my successor.
But I don’t compose. I don’t type.
Instead, I think of Charlie glaring down at me last night in the bar.
The sound of his voice telling me what a good girl I am as his hands played over my body.
My skin grows impossibly tighter.
Oh my god, this is ridiculous.
I am a grown woman. I’m smart and accomplished. I’m being handed an entire legal department to build from the ground up in a growing city not stuck in the 1950s.
Yet I feel like a giddy teenager.
I need to go back to work.
My phone taunts me from my peripheral vision.
I can’t concentrate.
It’s a lost cause.
I snatch up my phone.
Jessica
Handled? What does that mean?
To my humiliation, I stare at the screen, not breathing, my heart pounding.
I wait five agonizing minutes.
Charlie
There were questions, and I handled it. Your secrets are safe.
I contemplate playing it cool for three seconds.
Jessica
Did you tell my brother you want to fuck me? Or not?
Charlie
Is fucking me all you think about? I’m wondering since you can’t stop bringing it up.
It is all I think about, but I can’t let his ego slide.
Jessica
You think you’re the first friend of Ryder’s to be hot for me?
Charlie
Just admit you’re desperate for me to objectify you.
My thighs clench as I read his words. He has a special gift. He’s the perfect combination of taunting challenge and praise. No other man has even come close to pulling it off. But that doesn’t mean I’m about to give him the upper hand.
Especially when I’m the one who has it.
Charlie
Another text from Jessica arrives in my phone.
Cruising down the highway on the way to the hospital, I angle away from Ryder in the passenger seat.
He seems to have concluded he’s not going to get to the bottom of why Jessica and I were standing on the side of the road, and he has left me alone under the pretense of needing to answer emails while he drives.
Which is what I’m doing.
Just in between texting his sister and swearing this message will be my last.
Jessica
I can’t wait to make you suffer.
I feel a smile tug at my mouth. She’s incorrigible.
My hand tightens on my cell.
I’ve resisted her since she hunted me down, and it’s adorable how hard she’s trying to bait me. On Saturday, I’ll be forced to ignore all her challenging, come-and-get-me ways. Forced to respect the distance between us.
This might be my only chance to engage.
It can’t hurt to give in a little.
Charlie
Oh yeah? How are you going to do that?
Jessica
On Saturday, when you can’t look at me, I’ll make sure it’s impossible not to.
A laugh climbs up my throat, and I cough it back down.
Charlie
I’m confused. Am I supposed to ignore you? Or take you down? You’re sending a lot of mixed messages.
Jessica
I’m stating a fact. A friendly warning.
I’m supposed to be working on cooling this thing down.
I’m doing a shit job.
Charlie
I’ve seen you naked. I think I can handle it.
Talking about her naked is probably a step in the wrong direction.
The texts I can’t stop responding to are due to lack of sleep. That’s all. Once I get some rest, I’ll find my willpower.
My phone vibrates, and I see her number.
Later.