Page 73 of Cuffed (Everyday Heroes 1)
“It’s nothing, Grant. The loan guy was here earlier, and he was just . . .”
“He was just what?” The muscle in his jaw pulses as he clenches his teeth.
“I told you, I’m a big—”
“Girl who can take care of herself. Yeah, yeah. That doesn’t mean that prick has the right to treat you how he does. Who is he, Em? I can take a quick stop by his house and—”
“No. You’re not doing anything.”
“All it would take is some asking around, a little detective work,” he says, flashing me a smirk as he points to his shiny badge pinned over his heart, “and I could fix the fucker.”
“Thank you for the chivalry. I really appreciate your willingness to be my knight in shining armor, but I’m a big—I have it handled.”
He stares at me for a beat, our eyes warring over his hero complex and my independence. On any other day, I’d smile at the trait and think it was cute . . . but not right now. Not with my loan at stake.
“This is off your beat, isn’t it, Officer Malone?” I ask with a smile and try to switch gears.
“You keep ignoring me.” There is just a bit too much accusation there for his statement to be casual.
“No, I don’t,” I lie. “I’ve just been super busy.”
“Too busy to return a text or answer a call?” He angles his head to the side, and his brown eyes pin me motionless as they try to read my body language and unspoken words.
“Just busy. I have a lot going on.” A lot as in I’m trying not to want to talk to you as much as I’ve wanted to. I take another step back but bump into the wall behind me. “Did you need something?”
“I wanted to see you.”
I’ve never known just how fine a line there is between want and need until this moment.
“That wasn’t the deal, Grant.” I reject his words immediately because they hit too close to home.
I wanted to see him, too.
“What deal?”
“The deal we made the other night.”
“Oh, you mean your rules?”
“Yeah.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to believe any promises spoken when in the heat of passion?”
Heat of passion.
I level him with a glare. “Haven’t you realized yet I’m not your normal woman?”
“If by ‘normal’ you mean the type of woman who jumps out of airplanes, loves to eat food without shame, gives as good as she gets, and has no problem wanting sex for sex. Then, no, I’m sorry. I didn’t notice.” His face is stoic, but his eyes hold the humor and sarcasm his voice is lacking.
“Funny.”
“Perhaps, but it’s true.”
“The other night was a mistake.” Lie. Lie. Lie. I’m just so unnerved that he sees me so well when most days I can’t see myself.
“Nice try, but I call bullshit.”
“You can call it whatever you want, Malone, but it isn’t going to happen again.”
