Page 205 of Hot Cops

Jarod shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe it was the word I was hung up on. We know what we want, but I don’t think we use the same terms the author did or even think about it that much. James constantly referring to his ‘most passionate desire’was definitely chick lingo.”

“How would a man say it?” Gladys asked.

“I want to get laid.” His response was too quick and too easy, but mercifully, the women laughed and concurred that they’d suspected as much.

Stephanie was suspiciously quiet throughout the discussion and, at one point, Jarod began to question whether she’d read the book at all. As the conversation wound down, Jayne asked everyone for their final impressions of the book.

Jarod stared at Stephanie until she was forced to meet his gaze. When she did, he raised his eyebrow, daring her to speak up, to express the ideas she’d shared with him last night.

She narrowed her eyes then glanced around the table. “I think it’s a nice fantasy, but don’t you all think the whole story was a bit unrealistic?”

Stephanie’s question triggered a spark that sent the other women into a loud flurry of protests. It took Jayne several attempts to quiet them down. “Why do you say that?”

Stephanie looked directly at him as she spoke. “First of all, I think the hero and heroine were confusing lust for love. There’s a big difference between those two things, but the author blurred the lines, pretended like they were one and the same.”

Jarod leaned forward in his seat. This was what he’d hoped would happen since sitting down at the table. She was challenging his assertions from last night. Putting up a fight. He was ready for her. “So people who are in love can’t be sexually attracted to each other?”

“Don’t be silly. Of course they can. I just think these two characters crossed that line awfully damn fast. Real life doesn’t happen that way.”

Gladys tapped her fingernail against her drink glass. “Are you saying you don’t believe in love at first sight?”

“Hell yeah. That’s exactly what I’m saying. That sort of thinking is shortsighted and impractical. How can you look at someone and fall madly in love based only on a first impression?”

Jarod agreed with her…to a point, but they’d progressed way beyond the first-impression stage. “I don’t think you can fall in love with just one look, but I’m not going to deny it’s possible to meet someone and feel a click, a connection.”

“A spark,” Jayne added.

Jarod nodded. “Yeah. A spark.”

Stephanie shook her head. “Love doesn’t come that easily.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“In order to fall in love, it’s important to really know the person and trust them. Trust isn’t something you can win overnight or even in a week. It’s something that’s earned over time. A lot of time.”

“I can understand that,” Jayne said, “but I think the author was saying sometimes there is beauty in taking that one leap of faith, in letting your guard down and opening your heart to the unexpected.”

“In following your gut,” Jarod added, purposely trying to remind Stephanie of their conversation the previous night.

Stephanie rolled her eyes. “In making an ass of yourself and setting yourself up for heartbreak. That sort of bullshit is a surefire way to misery.”

He wasn’t surprised by her words. The pain of her mother’s failed marriages was evident. Stephanie put on a tough exterior, but Jarod suspected there was a whole world of terror residing inside her. She was proud and stubborn. She wouldn’t let herself make the same mistakes her mother had made. She preferred the safe route—never letting herself feel anything deeper than friendship, never letting herself experience anything other than casual sex. When he’d asked her about her last relationship, she couldn’t remember one. He wondered if she’d ever taken a leap of faith with her heart, ever trusted someone enough to fall in love.

“You’re wrong.” His declaration tweaked her temper just as he’d known it would. The other ladies fell silent when Stephanie stared at him.

“Excuse me?”

“You’re mistaking cowardice for practicality, shutting yourself off from an emotion you can’t control.”

She frowned. “I wasn’t talking about me. I was discussing the book.”

He didn’t respond, though his silence made it clear he didn’t think she’d been talking about the book at all. He was deliberately baiting her. Stephanie needed her foundation shaken up a bit. She might pretend this conversation was all hypothetical, but he knew better and he wasn’t letting her hide from it.

She looked at Jayne. “Is the book discussion over?”

Jayne nodded slowly. “I, um…yeah, I guess it is.”

Stephanie rose and looked directly at him. “Do you have a minute, Jarod? I’d like to speak to you in private.”

---