Page 26 of S.O.S. Perk

“If I can’t get what I want, you actually think I should resort to physical violence?” Sloane asked incredulously.

“Mmm, maybe just a broken nose, or something that’ll make him not so pretty for his next unsuspecting victim.”

Sloane barked out a laugh. “So, you’ve already got him painted as a villain, and I haven’t even had my first date yet.”

“Hey. Don’t blame me. You’re the one who’s putting negative vibes all over this.”

“I—"

Is that what she was doing?

Dammit.She probably was. And just because, in the past, she’d been burnt, her mother had been burnt, her sisters had both been burnt, it still didn’t mean…

Yeah. Sloane guessed it did. She was already bracing for a letdown before things with Perk had even gotten off the ground.

“Well, shit,” Sloane grumbled. “Have I…? Have you…? This is a pattern with me, isn’t it,” she stated. “You’ve seen me do this before. Kill a relationship before it can bite me first?”

“Uh, duh,” Mel responded. “I mean seriously, you haven’t dated in five years, so you haven’t done it recently. But that last guy… What was his name?”

“Hal,” Sloane supplied with a whine in her voice she couldn’t suppress.

“Right. Very cute, very respectable Hal, who mentioned that he’d been divorced twice. Then, before he had an opportunity to even talk more about it, you ditched his fine ass.”

“Well…he did say twice,” Sloane defended.

“And? That automatically makes him a risk?”

“Umm…” Sloane didn’t know the answer to that. All she knew was that it had caused alarm bells to go off in her gut.

“Okay, Sloane. Riddle me this. What if Perk’s been divorced twice? Will you shut him out before getting to know him?”

Thinking about it, Sloane doubted Perk had even undergoneonedivorce in his life, but what did she know? She hadn’t asked. They’d spent their entire time together talking about their respective offices, jobs, and Perk’s teammates and friends. She knew very little about him, including where he lived, even though her office clearly had that info. Sloane smacked herself in the forehead and bit down on her lower lip. How could she not have asked him a few simple questions? She was an idiot.

“Crap. I actually don’t knowanythingabout Perk, Melissa,” Sloane wailed into the phone.

She hadn’t used her Bureau position to research him. Although she could have. But that’s just not the way she operated with her personal life. “He could havefiveexes for all I know, or he might be a serial dater who likes adding notches to his bedpost.”

Although hehadmentioned that his love life to this point had been filled with women using him as arm-candy, and that he was attracted to Sloane because he perceived she was looking past his pretty face to the man beneath. That had to be a positive, right?

“Are you making your lip bleed, Slo?” Melissa scolded.

“Uh, maybe.” Sloane extracted in incisor from her tender flesh. “But you know what?” Sloane interjected, suddenly pumped to dig deeper into exactly who Perk was.

“What?” Melissa questioned; her tone mimicking Sloan’s upbeat one.

“I’m going toaskhim if he has any exes. And I’m going to question him on all kinds of other stuff as well.”

“You’re…going to communicate?” Melissa’s voice cracked in astonishment.

“Yup. Is that a surprise?” Sloane snapped back.

“Honey, it certainly is. It’s never been your initial modus operandi with guys before. Shit. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this Perk guy could be it for you.”

A small thrill moved through Sloane’s body, but… “Back off, Mel. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” she warned. “I’m only upping my involvement by a single notch here.”

“Well, I—”

“And on that note,” Sloane interrupted, “I think it’s time we changed the subject.”

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