Page 41 of Not That Impossible

He was so close, I could feel his body heat sinking into my bare skin. “Yeah? And?”

“And there is no way you’d arrest me, because then you’d have to explain to all of your friends and colleagues at the station, and on the official record, that I got you in a headlock because you were too busy looking at my abs. These ones right here.” I smoothed a hand over my stomach.

Liam looked.

If he clenched his jaw any tighter, he was going to crack his teeth.

I leaned in. “Got you again,” I said softly.

He raised his gaze and our eyes locked.

Hmm.

Imayhave gone too far.

I went further. “You can touch if you want. And don’t worry. I won’t put you in a headlock while you’re distracted.”

“How aboutIputyouin a headlock?”

I shrugged. “You can always try—”

He lunged.

“What the fuck!” he bellowed three seconds later from his position facedown on my sitting room carpet.

I sat happily astride his thick thighs, holding his hands, wrists crossed, at the small of his back.

As a police officer, Liam was trained in how to wrangle rowdy drunks on a Saturday night down at The Lion. As a fitness professional, I was trained in Muay Thai, among other disciplines.

He didn’t have a chance.

He bucked a few times, trying to unseat me, and yanked at his arms. I leaned some more of my weight onto him until he subsided.

“Jasper,” he said quietly, after a throbbing and rage-filled silence. “Get off me.”

“Okay. But are you going to be calm when I do?”

“Now.” His voice was a low, no-nonsense growl.

I rose up onto my knees and let his hands go. The instant I gave him room to move, he thrust up beneath me, knocked me over, and tried to pin me.

The air was loud with our gasps. Well, mostly his.

“What the fuck!” he said again. I had him bent over the sofa, his face in the cushions and one arm locked up and behind his back. He kicked out.

I avoided it easily. “That wasn’t calm, Liam.”

“Get off me,” he said. “Right now.”

My entire body prickled with goosebumps at his tone. Without thinking, I did as he said.

Instead of having another go at turning the tables, Liam straightened before sitting on my sofa.

I stood there, staring at him wide-eyed.

He slouched back in a relaxed sprawl and contemplated me.

I couldn’t read his face at all. I wasn’t great at reading peoples’ faces at the best of times. With my pulse hammering, my body primed from a tussle, and Liam right there with his eyes on me, I didn’t have a hope.

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