Page 20 of Locked Up by The Libra
“Watt! You cannot use being a cop now to your advantage.”
“Oh, sweetheart, yes I can. And I will. Whatever it takes to keep you here in Driftwood, where you belong. Now step out of the car, you broke the law. It is my duty to keep the roads safe, so let me do my job.”
“You’re serious.”
“Always serious when it comes to protecting and serving Driftwood.”
“While lying about it to a woman you’re fucking?”
“Willa, sweetheart, get out of the car. Don’t make me put cuffs on you.”
Scratch that, I am putting cuffs on her. Thinking about her hands shackled, leaving her helpless, makes my dick so hard it is obscene. I bend, yanking off her seatbelt and grasping her by the hips to pull her out. For a beat she puts up a struggle before I spin her, pinning her to the door after I kick it shut. Pulling out my handcuffs, I slap them on her, smirking when she lets out a little whimper of surprise. Or arousal, I can’t be sure.
“Told you once before not to try to run from me, little girl,” I hiss against her ear, licking the spot beneath it to her pulse, knowing how it turns her on. I nip at her neck when she tries to twist away from me.
“This is insane. You can’t arrest me. For speeding?”
“Nah, sweetheart. For trying to break my heart.”
No spoiled princess response to that one. I pull her from her car, stopping long enough to lock it up and take the keys. No one will touch it here and I’ll have it towed back to the cabin tomorrow. Tonight, all I care about is getting her back home and talking things out.
Leading her to the car, I pull open the back door, smirking when she gasps. Turning to glare at me, she tries to yank away from my hold. I push her against the cruiser with my hips, grabbing her throat as I lower my mouth close to hers. We’re both breathing heavily, but she is shaking.
“Watt, please. Let me go. This was a waste of time.”
“Finding one another was no waste of time. No accident. No mistake. You know it as well as I do. I screwed up, sweetheart. I know I did. I am not a man who makes the same mistake twice.”
Tilting her head back, she glares up at me indignantly. I brush my lips over hers, smiling when she gives me a little sigh. Still, I pull her to the back of the car, knowing it will be the one way she has to listen to me.
“Slide in, sweetheart. We have a stop to make before we go home.”
“Iwasgoing home, sheriff!”
“Not headed that way you weren’t.”
Chuckling when she huffs and falls back against the seat with dramatic flair, I close the door and climb in behind the wheel. Seeing her back there, in my hoodie no less, pulls at my chest. I never want to hurt her again. I know I could not take her ever leaving me. Not when she brought me back to life after so long being half-alive and all alone.
“We got two miles to town, I am going to make use of them. I was an idiot for not telling you I was the sheriff. The first day we met it was the last thing on my mind. All I could think about was having you, Willa. Pleasing you because you needed it, and I needed it. Finding you that day was like finding a part of me living outside of my body. Part of me I had been unable to find for so long because you were out saving the world.”
“Lot of good that did me, huh?”
“It did plenty good, sweetheart. I did break the law that night to find out about you. You have done a helluva lot more than most people. Maybe enough that it might cancel out some of the bad I’ve done in my life.”
“What do you mean, Watt?”
“I told you about just one day of a thousand days of being a marine. I lost friends, young, innocent men. Saw children die in the crossfire. There is nothing worse in this world than feeling powerless to survive while everyone else is dying around you. I was good at what I did, and I am ashamed of that. Who wants to be good at killing?”
“Oh, baby,” she whispers, sitting forward to tilt her head against the wire cage separating us.
“When I came home, I had completely forgotten who I was before. I couldn’t go home, I couldn’t face my family. I have a brother who used to look up to me. Who I should have set an example for? We haven’t spoken in five years, and I don’t blame them for giving up on me.”
“Did they give up on you, or did you give up on them?”
Wincing at her wise words because they might be right, I offer no more than a shrug. Pulling up in front of the station, I take a moment to collect myself. I have more to tell her, a lot more. Things a man should tell the woman he loves. My favorite sweets, what kind of music I listen to.
How much I want to be her husband.
“When I figured out what a little troublemaker you were, I knew I couldn’t tell you what I do. I was afraid you would shut me out. I shut you out first and I wish I could go back to that first day at the cabin and tell you everything about me. Because I want you to know everything, Willa.”
