another interview today. Last one before the final.”
“And you’re telling me subtly that you don’t want me here?”
“Was that subtle?”
“No,” he said. “Not really. But then, you’re not a subtle kind of girl, and I like that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means exactly what you think it means. Also. You’re at work. You probably shouldn’t flirt with me.”
“I am not flirting with you. Do you need me to write you a ticket to prove that point?”
“Honey,” he said, leaning a little bit closer, keeping his voice low. “You were flirting with me every time you wrote me a ticket. Don’t pretend otherwise.”
She felt breathless. It was difficult to think. When he was standing there above her, looking so tall and large, and like the most rock-solid bad decision a girl could possibly make.
And she had decided that he was her bad decision. Last night he had talked about riding crops, and then he had kissed her so gently. Today, she wanted to drag him back to the locker room—the women’s locker room that only she used—and have her way with him. More than just about anything. Right on the job. She wanted him to strip off her uniform and...
Well, maybe she didn’t really want him to strip off her uniform, because all things considered it wasn’t that sexy.
The harsh and terrible truth was that her belt buckle was Velcro. And the idea of him undoing her Velcro belt seemed a bit anticlimactic. Then there was all the work of dealing with her flak jacket. Yeah, no, she didn’t actually want him to strip her naked at work.
Of course, if he did...
It would be wrong. So very wrong...
She squeezed her eyes shut angrily for a moment, an extended blink where she wasn’t looking at West Caldwell, and righted herself.
“I’m actually just about to go out and do my rounds.”
“Can I do a ride along?”
She opened her mouth and closed it. She really didn’t have a good reason that he couldn’t.
“There’s normally protocol for that.”
“Yeah, but is it a problem if I do?”
She knew the general rules about it at the Gold Valley Police Department, and no. There wasn’t an issue.
“Before your interview,” he said. “Just for a little while. Come on, Pansy. I only ever get to see what you do when you’re writing me a ticket.”
“Fine,” she said. She breezed past him, past Martinez and past the receptionist without looking at any of them. Because if she did then she knew that she was going to see that they were gaping at West. And she didn’t need to be dealing with that. With speculation. Because she wasn’t going to be able to hold up to speculation. Not when that speculation was true, and likely even more salacious than the speculation was.
They headed toward the police car, and he opened the passenger door, then stopped. “I haven’t actually been in one of these when I wasn’t sitting in the back.”
She would have said something disdainful, but it just made her heart clench tight. And all of her frustration with him seemed to dissolve. He was making a joke, but she felt... She was angry.
Angry that he’d had years of his life taken from him. Angry that he had been painted as something he absolutely wasn’t. A man who would steal money. A man who would show such disregard for what other people had built with their own hands. If there was one thing that West seemed to hold sacred it was hard work. And he was...he was incredibly respectful of it. Of hers. He seemed to actually care quite a bit about her job.
And he had been concerned about it when he thought that Emmett and his situation might impact on her. About what Barbara might do. He would never have taken money someone else had worked for. She knew that.
She swallowed hard, then sank into the driver’s seat. He followed suit, settling into the passenger’s seat and buckling up. She started the car and pulled out of the parking lot, turning right and heading toward Main. She stopped at the cross street, with her right blinker on, waiting for her opportunity to turn. It didn’t take long.
Rush hour through Gold Valley was usually the result of ten cars getting backed up behind a tractor.
“So, what do your rounds include?” he asked.
“I do a circuit of the whole town. Go to the outskirts. Some days I park for a while, I’m not above being a speed trap. Especially not on the