Page 32 of Love Bank
Monday morning came all too soon. I’d spent all day Sunday, my one day off, unpacking the boxes of crap I’d brought into the house when I moved to Auburn Hill. For a single guy, I sure had a lot of crap I didn’t need or have any use for. I briefly considered setting fire to the lot of it, but decided against it as it wasn’t a burn day and I didn’t need Chief Waldo breathing down my neck after that inmate had gotten out last week. Besides, I needed all the kitchen utensils so I wasn’t eating out at Hell’s Tavern every night. I wasn’t getting any younger and my belt wasn’t getting any looser. I needed to cut back on the nightly beers.
So yeah, Monday morning was a little rough, but I felt satisfied with my progress. I only had two boxes left to unpack and they were books. I’d have to build a bookshelf first and then I could be fully unpacked.
“Morning, Bobby.” I nodded to the guard as I entered through the booking room. Behind the thick glass he lifted a donut in greeting and I would have smirked at his unhealthy breakfast habits if it hadn’t been for the bagel and cream cheese in my own hand. Mentally, I added a trip to the grocery store to my list of things to do this week.
“Morning, Meadow.”
My secretary smiled stiffly and looked back at her computer before I could ask how her weekend went.You know, for an eighteen-year-old, she sure does keep quiet. Guess we aren’t doing small talk.
I closed my office door and sat down at my desk to eat my bagel while I went over the emails that had come in yesterday. Movement out of the corner of my eye had me ignoring my computer and focusing on the building next door. Lenora, the new friend I met the other day at the bonfire, pulled into the fertility clinic. I smiled just thinking about Saturday afternoon.
Flying right by Lucille Eureka broken down on the side of the road set my soul on fire. Motivational gurus were always saying you should do what lights that flame inside of you, so I did. I left her blackmailing ass right there with a dead vehicle. But not before rolling down my window so she got a good gander at my smug smile before I left her in my dust.
Now, now. My smugness only lasted a split second before I dug my cell phone out of my pocket and called Lenora. She’d told me she was the only Uber driver in town. Figured she could come pick up Lucille. I was an ass, but I was also a gentleman who couldn’t leave a female stranded on the road. Plus, I knew we weren’t releasing any more inmates that evening, so she wouldn’t be hassled in the five minutes between when I left her and when Lenora came by to pick her up.
Lenora answered right away and said she just accepted a ride from that address and was already on her way. See? I got in a dig at Lucille and she got a ride. All’s well that ends well. I even passed Lenora’s little sedan as I made the turn onto Main Street. We’d waved to each other and I felt reassured Ms. Eureka would be fine.
That self-satisfaction reflecting on Saturday night only lasted a few seconds. The passenger side door of Lenora’s car opened up and an interestingly beautiful woman emerged. Her long blonde hair covered her face as she tugged down her short, tight black skirt. The woman had curves for days. For a split second I forgot all about my hard feelings toward Lucille and all I could think about was the gorgeous creature making her way to the front door of the clinic. If she was having fertility problems, I was happy to offer myself as tribute.
Not that I wanted any babies of my own right now.
But I could sure have fun trying to get her knocked up the old-fashioned way.
Lenora jumped out of the car as the woman unlocked the front door to the clinic. I frowned, a niggling thought at the back of my mind making me pause in my baby offering musings. Lenora held up a tote bag and ran it over to the woman, then ran back to her car and headed out of the parking lot. The woman stepped her beautiful ass through the front door and I lost sight of her.
Who the hell was that?
And why was she carrying Lucille’s ridiculous tote bag and unlocking Lucille’s place of business.
I swallowed hard and the bite of bagel I was chewing turned to dust.
Did I just ogle my blackmailer and mentally offer to give her babies?
* * *
I finally buried myself in work, lost in the world of inmate transfer schedules, a food vendor doubling their rates, and an employee already filing a Workman’s Comp injury. Yesterday, one of the janitors was called in to clean up a huge mess where an irate inmate pissed on the cement outside their cell when they didn’t want to go back in after their mandatory outside time. The janitor slipped in the piss, fell face-first, and chipped a tooth. The whole thing gave me heebie-jeebies.
A loud bang had me jumping up and grabbing my service weapon before I could take in what was going on. In the doorway, hands on hips like a vengeful superhero, stood Lucille. The door swung back from where it had hit the wall in her mad rush to enter and almost clipped her in the face. She got a hand out in time and gave it another fierce shove, but moved inside before it swung back yet again and clicked shut.
“Easy on my drywall there, killer.” I put my gun back in its holster and sat down. Not because I wanted to sit but more because my legs wouldn’t hold me any longer. To say my knees went weak would be an understatement.
Gone was the covered-up, mousy, middle-aged pain-in-the-ass woman from before. This woman, the one with her entire arms showing and bare legs that teased and then disappeared behind a short skirt, was Lucille at twenty years of age had her personality taken a sharp turn into sassy and interesting. My eyes nearly bugged out of my head as I took in the curve of her ass and hips, showcased perfectly in the tight fabric of her skirt. And her breasts? Holy shit.
She’d been carrying concealed weapons.
I didn’t get a chance to formulate a sentence or even ask what she was doing here. She strode in like she owned the place, and right then, she totally ownedme. She came right up to my desk, a cloud of flowery perfume hitting my nose and delighting my senses. My gaze traveled up her form, struggling mightily to focus on her face. And when I did, I realized more than just her outfit was different.
She looked younger, more vibrant, more tantalizing than any woman I’d met before. Her eyelashes fluttered open like I was watching a Disney princess in slow motion. All feminine. Seductive. Enticing. My brain was dumbfounded at the change, but my body was not. It was responding to the presence of a fertile female like nature intended.
I wanted her.
The slap of a stack of papers hitting my desk pulled me out of my trance. My gaze darted to the papers, where her fist kept them glued to my desk and obstructed my view of the print.
“What’s going on?” The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.
The new Lucille leaned in, her eyes lit to that shade of blue that spelled trouble. I breathed her in, feeling her body heat from just inches away. I didn’t dare move. Half of me hoped she’d lean all the way in and climb over the desk to have her way with me. The other half wanted the old Lucille back, the one who didn’t make me lose control of my body, just my temper.
“Everyone told me I didn’t need to put that camera doorbell thing on my clinic. ’Round here, we just knock, you know? But some inner sense told me it was prudent. Want to guess who I found on my doorstop Sunday morning, banging away on my door like maybe the twentieth time would be the one where I opened it had I even been there?”
