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My smile was feline. “I’m not at liberty to say.”
My throat was dry and my brain went stupid, putting Nash’s low groan from the night before on repeat in my head.
If broody, wounded Nash was sexy, bossy-pants Chief Morgan was a panty melter.
Angel? I was the Angel from Nash’s shower fantasy? My brain launched into a graphic replay of my nocturnal eavesdropping. I shook myself mentally and decided to deal with that information later.
I was going to knee Nolan in the balls and push Nash down the stairs, I decided.
“You know what no one tells you about standing in the middle of a pissing contest?” Cherry said to me with a toss of her blond curls. “What’s that?” I asked. “You’re the one who ends up smelling like pee.”
But it wasn’t nearly as sexy when the fight was actually a jurisdictional pissing match and I was just a pawn.
A little action on the gas pedal had my beefy Charger roaring to life on the open stretch of road. I loved big engines and fast cars. There was something about the open road and the rumble of a V8 that made me feel free.
Even through my pissed-off-ness, I could still appreciate the show autumn was putting on. The woods were alive with color. Leaves of red, gold, and orange clung to branches and rained down to cover the driveway.
Carrie Underwood as she dug her keys into the side of her ex’s truck.
“Oh, I’m not missing the domesticated Knox show for anything,” I told him.
I pointed the neck of my bottle toward the front door. “Those two ladies in there needed you. You stepped up and now the three of you are so blindingly happy the rest of us can’t look directly at you.”
“Feel like I’ve been waiting for Daze and Way my entire life. I’d go to the courthouse tonight if I could talk them into it.”
Physical affection ranked somewhere between being on hold with the cable company and getting a root canal. There had been a time in my life when my body had belonged more to medical staff than to myself. Since then, I preferred to avoid all surprise touching unless I was the one instigating it. Which only made my reaction to He Who Shall Not Be Named all the more confusing.
Just don’t let it fuck with the wedding or that’ll upset Naomi. And no one upsets Naomi besides me.”
“Witty’s doing that smug, almost-married lady thing where she tries to pair off all her friends so they can be smug, almost-married jackasses too,”
We Morgans were plain bad at talking about feelings, which meant I’d get a free pass from my brother and grandmother. But Naomi and her parents were the kind to spot a problem and talk it to death while doing their damnedest to solve it.
Like I didn’t know how much it cost Waylay to ask for what she wanted.
Waylay gave me one of those small smiles that I prized. It was one thing to make a happy kid smile, but to pry one out of the girl who had a lot of reasons not to was like winning a gold medal.
And you could have at least invited him in.” The fuck I could have.
“This isn’t an interrogation room, hotshot. And I’m not a suspect. Any relationship past or present between me and Nolan is none of your business.”
“All due respect, Angelina? I’m the one with holes in me. And if you’re here for any reason relating to that, then it’s very fucking clearly my business.”
I’d scaled the volcano and now I was looking down into pure, molten lava. All I wanted to do was jump into that glorious heat.
I committed the sound to memory, knowing I’d pull it out over and over again. Knowing even if my dick never worked again, I’d still wrap my fist around it remembering that sound coming out of those parted lips.
The woman hates to be touched. I can’t believe she didn’t detach your balls on her way out.”
There was about two feet of space between us and I swear I felt the air crackle like lightning was about to strike.
“You make me feel things. And after going long enough without feeling anything, feeling something—even if it’s anger or adrenaline—is better than the nothing.”
“Every time I’m near you, every time you laugh or look at me like you’re looking right now or get pissed off, I feel something.”
Something about this felt so right. So fucking inevitable.
Her gaze locked on mine and it felt like the midday sun warming me down to my core.
“I don’t seem to mind when it’s your hands doing the touching, hotshot.”
I didn’t agree. But I was a patient man. I’d unravel every one of those secrets she held back until she was laid as bare as I was. I tucked her head under my chin, then slid my hands under the hem of her cardigan to touch the skin of her back. Breathing in the scents of shampoo and laundry detergent, I held her to me like she was precious cargo and swayed.
I’d spent a good portion of the night tossing and turning, thinking about Nash’s proposition. I wasn’t used to a man getting under my skin or into my head like that. I hoped a good workout would help me shake out the obsessive rumination about exactly how close Nash wanted to get to me. Or how close I was willing to let him.
So what if his hands on me made me feel melty and decadent like a gourmet grilled cheese?
Miraculously, my heart had stayed in the safe zone through the workout from hell, but the rest of my body had given up.
Where Knox was more likely to punch you in the face if you pissed him off, Lucian was the type to methodically and creatively destroy your life.
“You’ve been avoiding my calls,” Lucian said, taking his seat and shooting me one of those piercing looks that had women’s underwear falling down to their ankles for over two decades now.
She’s all wanderlust and adrenaline and you break out into hives if you venture out of the county. You’ve got nothin’ in common.”
The relief I felt was immediately replaced with a wave of shame. As an officer of the law, I was programmed to fight for justice. As a Morgan, I was destined to just plain fight. Yet here I was, too depressed to spur myself into action.
I stared at the bottles behind the bar. People drowned themselves in those bottles daily to numb the pain, the fear, the discomfort that life doled out. Some numbed themselves in even more dangerous ways. Some never surfaced.
You two can’t be playing goddamn Scooby-Doo in the middle of a federal investigation.”
He was tight-lipped on the specifics of exactly what his company did for its clients, but I didn’t have to be a genius to guess that it wasn’t all aboveboard.
“By the way. You both are groomsmen.” My brother looked at me. “I guess you can be my best man.”
As a cop, that had been drilled into my head. I’d been trained to stay calm, to follow procedure, to operate on instinct. Yet no procedure, no training had prepared me for these kind of attacks.
Couldn’t protect this town if I couldn’t even protect myself from the monsters in my own fucking head.
Bullet wounds and panic attacks. Nash Morgan was a hot mess. Emphasis on the hot.
Now it was my turn to have trouble catching my breath. I’d never been with a man who needed me. Wanted me? Yes. Enjoyed me? Of course. But needed me? That was brand-new, terrifying territory.
You’re the marry-your-high-school-sweetheart type. How did some Knockemout cheerleader not tie you down?”
I couldn’t come up with a good enough reason not to besides the fact that I was scared to death I was going to let him sweep me off my feet with his sexy vulnerability. So I eased toward him across the cushion into the danger zone until our shoulders touched again.
But I was comfortable with uncomfortable silences.
