Page 13 of Beauty and the Cop
"Yeah, but they don't know that." His eyes glint with humor. "All you gotta do is lock that door again and waltz your ass over to my place. They'll never know the difference."
"Detective Noah Kirk, are you suggesting that I lie to my coworkers?" I pretend to be horrified, but I can't hide the smile stretching across my face.
"Uh, fuck yeah. No one should have to spend a Friday night talking about work."
I tap my bottom lip, pretending to think about it, and then reach for the lock on the door, flipping it. I step out onto the porch with Noah, closing the door behind me.
"Uh…did you get your keys again, sweetness?"
"Nope." I grin at him. "Now it won't be a lie. You have to rescue me again."
"Shit." The look on his face does not bode well.
"What?"
"I locked the window."
"You didn't!" But even as I say it…I already know he did. I see it written all over his face.
"I did."
"Noah!" I cry, staring at him in shock. "Now I'm really locked out."
"You did it to yourself, Dimples," he reminds me, like that helps.
Spoiler Alert: It doesn't.
"Oh my god." I press my palms to my cheeks, staring at him with wide eyes.
He just throws his head back and laughs. And dammit all, but I can't help but laugh with him. Of course I locked myself out for real again. Of course I did.
Chapter Four
Noah
"What's your favorite thingabout Chicago?" Elsie asks, her feet tucked up underneath her on my sofa while she pokes through her bowl of stir-fry, looking for any mushrooms she left behind. The bottom of her dress is pulled up so high on her thighs I can damn near see her panties.
I'm not telling her that I can see them, though. Fuck that noise. If she wants to flash them at me, I'm not going to complain. I'm dying to know what she's wearing beneath that pretty black dress.
I was jealous as hell when she told me she had plans tonight. I've spent the last week and a half obsessing over her…mad as hell that Jackson and I were chasing a homicide suspect through Chicago when I'd have rather been right here, getting to know every little thing about her. There's no way I was letting her go out tonight. Thank God I didn't have to resort to drastic measures like handcuffing myself to her.
I was seriously considering the option until she admitted she didn't even want to go. The problem solved itself at that point. She's been stuck here for the last hour and a half, waiting on a locksmith.
"Easy. The answer is obviously sports," I murmur. "We have hockey. We have basketball. We have football. What's not to love?"
Elsie grins at me. "So what you're saying is you like sportsball."
"Dimples, there isn't a man in this city who doesn't like sportsball." I chuckle. "What's your favorite thing about Texas?"
"The people," she says, her voice soft. "They can be stubborn as hell and set in their ways. Neighbors may not even like each other most of the time, but when it counts, they show up for one another."
"You sound like you speak from experience," I observe.
"Maybe a little. My dad got sick when I was in fifth grade. Cancer," she whispers. "The whole community pitched in to help make sure we didn't lose the house and had meals while he was getting treatment. He died when I was in the sixth grade. My mom was able to take the last few months off to be there…" She trails off, swallowing. "Well, she got to spend every minute with him right up until the end."
"Damn, Dimples," I whisper, my heart aching for her. "I'm sorry you lost him."
"Me too," she says simply, and then a sweet smile twists at her lips. "He was an amazing dad. My mom got remarried when I was fourteen. My stepdad is pretty great, too."
