Page 23 of Hot to Trot

"Hi, Roz," Scarlet said, giving an air kiss toward the older woman's cheek. "Love the blond streaks in your hair. They make you look ten years younger."

Roz beamed. "Thanks, Summer. I mean, Scarlet. Carly talked me into doing them down at the Curlique. She's a really good stylist."

"Little Carly Patterson?"

"Yep. My niece ain't so little anymore. She'll be twenty-one next month."

"I can't believe that. Where does the time go?”

"Lock the door, Roz,” Adam barked a bit too harshly. This wasn't a social visit and the two women standing in front of him needed to remember the reason Scarlet was standing here.

"Oh. Right." Roz twisted the lock as the first reporter reached for the handle.

Adam tugged Scarlet around the long stretch of counter toward the empty metal desk in the center of the office. "Sit here, please. I've got to get the processing kit from the back."

Scarlet sank onto the chair and crossed her legs. "So are you going to frisk me again?"

Roz paused at the coffeepot. Her eyes grew wide. “You frisked her?”

“Yeah, he did,” Scarlet drawled. "He's got good hands, if you know what I mean."

Roz's mouth dropped open and she turned accusing eyes on him.

Adam felt something terrible rise inside him. He knew what it was. A crack in the surface of his calm. One that could untether his self-control and fling it to the four winds, allowing him to bounce around with no constraints, no rules, no goal. "You know very well I never touched you inappropriately. To say any different-"

"Got you," Scarlet said, giving Roz a wink. "You're so easy to bait.”

Roz tittered. "I was wonderin'. Our Adam here is a follow-the-rules sorta fellow. He even makes us punch in on the time cards."

"The horror," Scarlet cried dramatically. The woman really was too much.

He spun on one polished boot and stalked to the rear of the station. He hoped Jared had returned the fingerprint kit and camera to the cabinet next to the extra toilet paper. Last time it had taken everyone three days to discover he'd put it in the boxwith the Christmas lights. Adam would process her, put her in the holding cell until she posted bond, then give himself another lecture on pretending the blazing-hot Scarlet was just another criminal. Just another woman. No one who would interest the professional, responsible leader of a police force. No one who would make him fantasize about the various ways to use a pair of red furry handcuffs.

He stomped on that thought.

He would lie to himself. He had to. Had to believe she was not an option because the alternative would make him weak. He had to be able to say no to desire. To accept anything else was to admit he couldn't do the job he was hired to do.

He was the chief of police.

It was expected that he would do his job and that he would do it well.

He wasn't his father.

He had integrity. He exerted control. He possessed morals. So he absolutely could not, would not fall prey to desire. He would pretend like hell he didn't burn for the woman talking to Roz about Taylor’ Swift’s favorite facial moisturizer. He would deny to the hilt that he wanted to cuff her to his bed and spend the better part of an afternoon getting acquainted with every square inch of her delicious body. He would rather cut out the tongue that he wanted to dip in her navel before feasting on the delicate beauty of her ankles... and all the splendor in between.

He would do it because Adam Hinton was a stand-up guy. He wasnota horny buzzard looking for fresh meat.

He couldn't allow himself to be.

SCARLET STUDIED her fingernails.The polish was chipped on her pinky nail. Guess she couldn't repair it, since it seemedunlikely they would allow a manicurist in the town jail. "I really shouldn't tease Chief Hinton so much."

“If you ask me, the man needs it, honey," Roz said with a twinkle in her brown eyes. "He tries so darn hard to do everything right. He's all rules and hard corners. It's almost sad to see a man wound up that tight. I swear, you could shove a piece of coal up his butt and have a diamond in a week."

Scarlet smiled. "Maybe I'll try that. I'm partial to diamonds."

"Ain't we all?" Roz laughed and filled the coffeepot with bottled water. "He's a good fellow, even if he has all kinds of crazy ideas about the way to do things. He loves gadgets and new-fangled police stuff. He wants paperwork done yesterday."

Scarlet nodded. "Nothing wrong with progress, though, huh?"

---