Page 10 of Four Steps to the Perfect Fake Date

“Not the time, Cupcake,” he shot back through clenched teeth. “Are you injured?”

“My face hurts,” she said.

“Not surprised,” he answered. This couldn’t happen when he was on duty and had all his gear, could it? No. That would be too easy. He had some plastic cuffs in his truck, but he wasn’t walking away until he knew Daphne was all right.

It took a few minutes to get everything settled and the perp fully subdued, by which time Daphne was surrounded by old ladies trying to blot the blood from her face and clothes. As he dragged the thief to his feet, he glanced over at the woman who’d helped him take the man down.

Her face was still smeared with blood, but most of it had been wiped away. Her shirt was a disaster. What in the world had possessed her to get in the middle of this? Calvin had beenright there. She could have been seriously injured because of her stupidity, which was something he never thought he’d ever think about a brainiac like her.

Anger burned away the last of his worry for her. “You’re coming to the station,” he told her.

Daphne lifted her gaze to his, her nose pinched between her fingers. “Is that an order?”

She had to be the most irritating woman on the planet.You’re goddamn right it’s an order,he wanted to bark. Instead, he took a breath and did his best to cool his temper. “I need you to make a statement, and we can get your nose looked at while you’re there.”

Her eyes were already swelling, and she’d have nasty bruises come morning. Calvin wished he’d run a bit faster to stop her from getting hit in the first place.

No.

On second thought, he wished Daphne had used that big brain of hers to rustle up some common sense and dodge the punch when she had the chance.

“Go ahead,” one of the old ladies said, helping Daphne to her feet. “You did good, honey.”

“Thanks, Grandma.”

“I still think you should’ve kicked him in the balls.”

“I’ll try that next time.”

“There won’t be a next time,” Calvin cut in, voice harsh. “I’ll drive.”

“Yes, sir.”

His scowl didn’t seem to cow her, but she followed as he walked the thief to his truck, tightened the plastic cuffs on his wrists, and loaded him into the back seat of the cab. Daphne got in the front, and he circled around to get behind the wheel. She held a tissue to her nose and struggled with the seat belt until he huffed and clipped it in for her.

“Thanks,” she said, and sighed as her head hit the headrest.

Calvin ground his teeth and glanced at the man in the back seat. He was curled up against one of the doors, looking crumpled and unlikely to try anything stupid. At least one of them was reasonable. Calvin drove to the station.

When they got there, he let one of the deputies on duty handle the paperwork and walked Daphne to his office. She slumped into a chair and winced as her hand jarred against her nose.

“I’ve never gotten punched in the face before,” she said, pulling the tissue away from her face to look at the blood soaking into it. Her blue eyes looked a bit wider than usual when she met Calvin’s gaze. “How bad do I look?”

She looked awful. “I’ve seen worse.”

She prodded at her face. “Everything hurts.”

He batted her hands away and used his fingers to tilt up her chin. She blinked up at him with those clear blue eyes, but he kept his gaze on her injuries. He ran his fingers over the sides of her nose as gently as he could, his stomach clenching as she hissed. “Doesn’t look broken, but you should get some ice on it for the swelling. You’ll have nasty black eyes for a while.”

Daphne grunted in response. For reasons Calvin couldn’t quite explain, he kept his fingers on the edge of her jaw as he tilted Daphne’s face to inspect her wounds. Her skin was softer than he’d expected, like silk. Her jawbone felt almost delicate as his finger pressed into it to get her to turn her head. There was a drop of dried blood below her earlobe.

He should have run faster, and she should have stayed out of the damn way.

“You should get checked out at the medical center,” he told her. “You could have a concussion.”

“I’m fine.”

“Don’t be stupid, Davis.”

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