ended up being one in the same. However, as partners went, she wasn’t bad.
Other than that alibi crap she’d pulled earlier, and questioning how they did things with the ME, she had been okay. Of course, she wasn’t Norm, but then, nobody was Norm. The man had kept him in stitches most of the day with his jokes. But Toni was turning out to be a pretty good partner, too. He figured as time went on, she would get used to Alexandria’s policies and procedures, which might be different from those in Miami.
But whether they would get used to each other as something other than sexual beings? That was the question. There had never been a single time when he’d seen her that by the end of the day, he hadn’t had her naked. Today would be the first. And then he wondered if he was the only one of them thinking about that.
Every night while in San Diego they’d made love, and whenever she visited him here or he visited her in Miami or their Savannah trysts in between, they made love. Every single day. That had made the breakup especially hard on him.
It had been months before he had finally bedded another woman, and even then, he’d compared her to Toni. And the next one. And the one after her. The woman’s scent would be different. The texture of her skin wasn’t as soft, and he didn’t enjoy kissing her as much as he did Toni. Nobody could kiss him and leave him groaning like Toni would. She’d been a rare find, and when she ended things, the memories tormented him for months.
“Looks like we’re here.”
Her comment tugged him from his thoughts. “Yes, we’re here,” he said, pulling into the yard of the upscale house that was in the Woodlawn section of town.
When he brought the car to a complete stop and turned off the ignition, Toni unsnapped her seatbelt, opened the door and got out. When she walked in front of the car, his gaze was automatically drawn to her ass. Even in slacks, it was nice, round, and shapely. As delectable as it could get. Perfectly toned cheeks his fingers used to love skimming over, squeezing and gripping. Hell, he’d even kissed them more than once. He had left his brand on them many times.
He hadn’t missed seeing more than one officer checking out her rear at the Tindal crime scene. Hell, they’d done more than checked out her ass—they’d checked her out, as well. Even with her hair in a ponytail, the contours of her face and her features left no doubt that she was a very attractive woman. There were a number of single men at the precinct who would jump at the chance to get to know her, take her out and wiggle their way into her bed. He needed to get prepared for that...though he wasn’t sure if he could.
Other than Norm, who’d met her one weekend by chance, none of the guys he hung out with at headquarters had known he was involved in a long-distance relationship. Some started suspecting it when he’d begun going out of town a lot. But when they would question him about those frequent trips, he would brush them off, refusing to be forthcoming with any details. Still, even if they’d guessed something was up, they definitely hadn’t had a clue she was a cop.
As he got out of the car, he was glad he’d never introduced her to any of them. Otherwise, this situation would definitely be fodder for gossip. The fewer people at the station who knew of their past history, the better. What had been between them once was their business and nobody else’s. Although, he figured Chief LaNeer had figured things out, he knew the man wouldn’t say anything.
Andrew released a deep sigh. The first thing he intended to do when he got home was down a shot of scotch, maybe two. Then he would take a cold shower.
Today had been one hell of a day, and it wasn’t quite over yet.
• • •
“I honestly don’t know what I can tell you people. Although I regret Maria is dead, she and I never got along. The less I saw of her, the better.”
You people? Toni would have to admit that Pamela Larkins had been right on the mark about Maria’s stepsister. Jennifer Evans was definitely a piece of work. They’d been inside the woman’s home for thirty minutes, and she hadn’t even