Page 80 of Tell Me Something True

“A job you obviously got.”

She nodded, slow and hesitant. “I did.”

“What job?”

Another hesitation. Another careful breath. “I’m a social worker.”

Fuck.

The Mount Laurel Police Department often worked with the city’s department of human services. He wouldn’t be able to avoid her. Not completely.

“Did Hayden tell you I was the assistant chief of police?”

Her flush deepened. Turned blotchy. “No.”

He waited, but she kept silent. It was another way for her to withhold the truth. To keep on lying.

But he was used to asking questions. Didn’t mind putting in the work to get the answers he wanted.

Even if they were answers he wouldn’t like hearing.

“Did you learn of my position before or after you interviewed for the job?”“Before. I…” She stopped. Licked her lips. “I saw it on the MLPD’s website when I researched the job.”

He’d known from the start she was lying. But he hadn’t pushed. Hadn’t tried to get to the truth because he’d wanted her too much.

“I wanted to tell you,” she insisted. “But you were so angry with me, I knew you wouldn’t listen.”

“I’m listening now. Tell me everything you should have told me that night. All the things you kept from me ten years ago. Let’s start with something easy. Let’s start,” he continued, shifting closer, “with how you got this.”

And he barely, barely grazed the tip of his forefinger over the scar on her chin.

She went still, her lips parting on a soft exhale, her eyes wide, the blue of them darkening. It was another mistake, getting this close. Touching her. It made it all too real, the pull between them. Amplified it so that it seemed the tip of his finger burned from the heat of her skin. Vibrated with the slight tremble of her lower lip.

He pressed down gently and her lips instantly drew farther apart. He made a sound, a low grunt of approval. His cock twitched.

Christ, but she was such a good girl.

He sucked in a breath between his clenched teeth. He wanted to put his previous theory to the test. Again.

Let’s see how good you can be.

But they were in the middle of the sidewalk on a bright and sunny Sunday morning with people driving and walking by and, undoubtedly, his sister still watching them from her spot at the living room window.

Now was not the time for wayward thoughts or a fucking hard-on. It wasn’t the time for him to be pulled under her spell again.

Now was the time for him to press his advantage.

He dragged his fingertip down to the point of her chin. Used it to nudge her head back as he shifted even closer. Couldn’t stop himself from sliding his fingers around, lightly cupping her throat, his thumb pressing against the base, his fingertips capturing the quickening beat of her pulse.

He leaned down, ducking his head so they were eye-to-eye. Mouth-to-mouth. Dropped his voice to a low, husky whisper and asked the question that had always haunted him. “Who hurt you, baby?”

She inhaled, sharp and swift, studying him like she’d looked at Walsh’s dog. Warily. Frightened.

Her throat worked under his hand as she swallowed, and he had to bite back a groan as he was hit with the image of her doing that exact same thing, of him feeling it with his fingers, while she swallowed around his cock.

But the twitch of his fingers, the heat in his gaze must have given his true thoughts away, because she went rigid, disappointment flickering in her eyes before she dropped her gaze to his chest. She took a slow, deep breath and then a long, deliberate step back.

Forcing him to let her go.

---