Page 37 of Just This Once

But we’d all done what we could to survive my father’s rule. We became achievers to earn his approval. Praise wasn’t doled out sincerely like Chief did. It was hard-earned.

I looked at the man I had often secretly wished was my father. He was on the shorter side—unassuming, yet a powerhouse. He had kind eyes and an easy laugh. He was tough, but it lacked the slicing edge of malice under which I had grown up. No, Joe Martin was tough because he saw the potential in everyone.

And you went and fucked his darling daughter.

Shame rippled through me. I had sat at the Martins’ table, eaten their food. Jesus, the things I had done to their sweet little Melly. It was a wonder I could look them in the eye.

Unaware of my internal tailspin, Chief held out a fresh cigar. “You’re sure you don’t want one?”

I swallowed around the hard lump that had formed in my throat. “Not tonight, but thank you, sir.”

Without pushing he simply nodded and tucked the cigar back into its box. “Outside of the station, you can call me Joe.”

I smiled and shook my head, my eyes not lifting from the concrete garage floor. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can do that.”

His brown eyes were smiling. “Maybe someday.”

I returned his kindness and shrugged. “Maybe.”

Three sharp knocks on the entrance to the garage startled us. Chief tapped out his cigar and flipped on a fan, dispersing the thick plume of smoke out the open window. It was no use. The entire garage reeked of tobacco.

Chief’s shoulders softened when Emily appeared in the doorway.

“Just me,” she announced, maneuvering the heavy door and carrying the platter that held Mrs. Martin’s famous brownies. She gestured with the platter before unceremoniously depositing it on a workbench to her right. “Mom says ‘don’t forget to close the window,’ because otherwise it’ll get buggy.”

The tips of Chief Martin’s ears grew red, and he smiled. “Thanks, Melly.”

Her smile softened as she looked at her stepdad. “You bet.” Her face morphed into a snarl. Turning to me, she plucked a chocolate brownie with a vanilla blondie heart off the plate. “Night!”

She waved over her shoulder and blew out of the garage just as quickly as she’d come in.

Chief Martin’s chuckle drew my attention. He took a generous bite of his brownie and shook his head. “I swear,” he mused, “I have never seen a more stubborn woman. Even as a child she was headstrong. Always liked thingsjust so, and if they didn’t go her way, she could dig her heels in and move mountains with sheer stubbornness. I don’t know what you did, but you’re in it.”

“What do you mean?” Panic ratcheted up my heartbeat.

Shit. Was he on to me? Did he know?

“Something’s got her hackles up.”

I plucked a perfectly square brownie from the plate. “I’m not sure either”—I was—“but I think it may be the general profession that irritates her.”

He took another bite and considered with a shrug. “She wouldn’t be wrong. There’s still a sensitive little girl beneath her grit and strong will, and our type makes it hard on a person like her.”

“Our type, sir?”

“The kind of person who can endure the stress of the job. The unknowns. The long hours. Dealing with death and trauma day after day.” He gestured vaguely toward his skull. “Makes a lot of us internalize our pain instead of dealing with it in a healthy way. Emily has always craved order and quiet predictability.”

I couldn’t disagree with his assessment ofour type, so I offered a quiet harrumph.

He was probably right.

Prim was a rule follower by nature, but I’d gotten glimpses of a hidden rebellious streak that I knew her father knew nothing about. It was a simple fact that she deserved so much more than a man like me, but I’m nothing if not a glutton for punishment, so I couldn’t help but poke the bear.

I wasn’t looking to be anyone’s husband, but if she ever offered another late-night fuck, I wouldn’t have the willpower to refuse.

It was bad enough I couldn’t stop thinking about how desperately I wanted to touch her again. I couldn’t stop thinking about the intensity of our connection that night, and I had stopped myself a dozen times from falling to my knees and begging her to let me worship the smooth angles and lush curves of her body.

I exhaled a sharp breath through my nose. It was time to finally concede that I was more like my own father than I wanted to admit. I was willing to sacrifice my standing in the eyes of a man I respected to get what I wanted... and I wanted onlyher.

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