Page 14 of Spark
Her eyes are wild and scanning around her as I reach for her hand and tug her forward and toward the sliding glass doors’ entrance.
“Good afternoon, Warrick,” Deputy Shaw says as we approach the front desk.
“Hey, Deputy Shaw. Is Cam around at all?”
The female deputy eyes me for a moment before her gaze moves to Verity, who has positioned herself slightly behind me.
My inner alpha male preens at the knowledge that my woman is using me as a shield because she knows that it’s my God-given right to protect and take care of her. But I don’t voice that because it’s the twenty-first century and women are more than capable of kicking ass and taking names. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be the one taking care of shit for my girl, it justmeans I won’t be saying it out loud, at least not while we’re both fully dressed and in company.
“Cam,” Deputy Shaw yells.
“Yeah,” a male voice calls back.
“You’ve got some visitors. Warrick and…” She trails off.
“This is Verity,” I tell her, glancing behind me, before turning back to face Deputy Shaw.
Deputy Amanda Shaw isn’t exactly a cougar. She’s probably only mid-forties, closer to my age than Verity is. But unlike what I know about my Verity so far, Deputy Shaw is an alpha female. The first time we met, she hit on me…hard. There were no coy glances or sexy innocence. Deputy Shaw curled her fingers into my shirt and asked to ride my dick.
I’m not saying I’m not into confident women, because I am, or at least I have been in the past. But Deputy Shaw’s blatant proposition did nothing for me. She’s an attractive woman, but there’s a hardness to her, covered by a little too much makeup and empty eyes.
If I’d said yes and gone back to her place, I’m sure I’d have had a good night. But I knew I wouldn’t want more than that, and one-night stands in a town this small are never a good idea.
I’d told her thanks but no thanks, and she’d sauntered away—no harm, no foul. But as her gaze slides to Verity, then to the way I’m gripping her hand, I wonder if she took my rejection a little more personally than I’d thought.
SIX
VERITY
Why am I here?
The beautiful female deputy is glaring at me like I’m an ugly stain on her favorite dress, and I have no idea if she somehow knows who I am and where I’ve been living for the last two months or if she and Warrick have a history and him holding my hand is making her want to pull out her gun and shoot me.
I try to slip my hand free of Warrick’s hold, but instead of letting me go, his hold on me tightens. A part of me expects him to turn and speak to me, but he doesn’t. Instead, he silently warns me to stop trying to get free, while he focuses all of his attention forward.
Did he bring me here to try to make this woman jealous? He asked me out earlier, but that doesn’t really mean anything. There were plenty of women at the club who got paid to have sex with the customers, then went home to their boyfriends and husbands without a care in the world.
Warrick and the deputy could have a relationship like that. Although, he’s not giving off any energy toward her right now.He hasn’t moved closer or called her by her name. I’m distracted from my thoughts when a tall man rounds the partition that hides the people in the back from the entrance.
“Hey Warrick, how are you?” the man says, greeting Warrick warmly.
“Hey, Cam. Sorry to bother you, bro, but I wanted to introduce you to someone.”
“Okay,” the man says, sounding curious.
Warrick tugs me forward and out from where I’ve been standing mostly hidden behind him.
“My new friend is going to be moving into my place, but we don’t know each other too well, and I told her you’d vouch for me.”
The deputy’s eyes widen for a moment, then a look of pure amusement spreads over his lips. Unlike Warrick, the deputy is tall but lean with floppy brown hair that falls haphazardly over his forehead like he’s tried to tame it, but he’s run his hands through it too many times for it to stay neat.
“This is Verity,” Warrick says, guiding me further forward without releasing his hold on me.
“It’s nice to meet you, Verity. I’m Deputy Cunningham, but you can call me Cam,” the male deputy says, stepping out from behind the desk and holding his hand out to me.
Reaching forward with the hand Warrick isn’t holding in a death grip, I shake his hand. “Verity Sanders, it’s nice to meet you, Cam.”
After half a moment, a tug on the hand still gripped in Warrick’s drags me a step backward, forcing me to let go of Cam’s hand.
