Page 32 of Beauty and the Cop
She steps out, pulling her front door closed behind her. "Are we taking your car or mine?"
I cock a brow at her. The woman drives a Fiat. I barely fit in the damn thing without folding myself into unnatural shapes. If I push hard enough on the gas pedal, I'm pretty fucking certain my foot will go through the floorboard, and I'll be Flintstone pedaling the motherfucker.
"Right. The jail bus."
That's her nickname for my SUV, not mine. I don't even transport suspects since it's unmarked and has no cage, but when I told her that, she told me to hush and let her live in her delusions.
"The jail bus," I agree, offering her my arm like a gentleman.
She flashes me another killer smile, sending my heart into overdrive again.
Do not blow it, Kirk, I warn myself again, praying like hell I figure out how to tell her I've fallen in love with her at some point tonight.
"You didnotget kicked out of the third grade!" Elsie presses her hands to her cheeks as if caught between laughter and horror.
"I did." I grin, lifting my beer bottle in mock salute, which just makes her giggle.
Christ, I love that sound.
I love how easy this is with her. Nothing about tonight has been awkward or uncomfortable. It's just been…effortless. We've talked and laughed all night.
But I still don't have a clue how to tell her that I'm in love with her. That's precisely what this is, though. It's the only explanation for the way she sets me on fire and turns me inside out at the same damn time.
"How did you get kicked out?" she demands. Her lips twitch with suppressed laughter, her green eyes sparkling. She looks so fucking beautiful in the soft candlelight, as if that little bitof flame dancing in its holder brightens the spark inside her a thousandfold.
I take a swig of beer, my cock stirring to life again. My entire body feels like a livewire. Every move she makes has the bastard ready to stand at attention.
"She made me write sentences for fighting, so after my mom tore into me when I got home, I snuck out. We lived in this old house about half an hour outside of Chicago. The place was literally a kid's dream. Acres of trees, a fishing pond, and corn fields everywhere."
"Oh no," Elsie mouths, likely guessing where my story is heading. She's a teacher. She probably knows all the tricks in a kid's spite-filled arsenal. A little burble of laughter escapes before she contains it again, motioning for me to continue.
"Anyway, I snuck out through the kitchen door as soon as Mom turned her back, and headed out toward the pond. We had bullfrogs everywhere, so I started gathering the bastards up. I must have had about twenty-five or thirty of them in a big old box." I grin at the memory. Man, I was a little asshole growing up. "I kept them outside my window that night. The next morning, I made sure I got to school early, and I emptied the entire box in the classroom."
"You didn't."
"Oh, I did," I say, chuckling. "You could hear Ms. Brantley screaming all the way across the playground when she walked in and saw the frogs hopping all over the place."
A loud peal of laughter erupts from Elsie. It's not one of those delicate, polite laughs, either. It's the tears-in-her-eyes, can't-breathe kind of laugh. I fucking love those.
She has my full attention as she wipes tears, my gaze locked on the graceful line of her neck as she throws her head back, her whole body shaking with the force of her laughter.
"I thought I got away clean, but apparently, a little boy carrying a big box of frogs half a mile to school garners unwanted attention. The principal collared me within ten minutes. Made me catch every one of the goddamn frogs and then suspended me for three days."
"Oh my god, Noah." Elsie giggles, holding her stomach. "You're not serious."
"I am." I take a final drink before setting the bottle aside. One is the limit tonight. "My pops thought it was hilarious when he found out what I did. He laughed his ass off. But Mom did not share his amusement. I couldn't sit down for a week after she got through with me." I chuckle again. "Pops spent just as long sleeping on the couch."
Another peal of laughter erupts from Elsie's side of the table. Heads turn in our direction as she holds up a hand, pleading with me through tears and laughter to stop so she can breathe. It's hard to miss the smiles and admiring gazes directed her way. It doesn't matter how hard or how often they look, though. She's mine.
"Christ, you're beautiful, baby." I lean forward, tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear.
Her laughter dies in her throat as she goes still. For a moment, she just stares at me, her eyes wide and her mouth open in a little "O" of surprise. The pulse in her throat flutters like a hummingbird's wings. Her breath fans across my face.
"That dress of yours is making me so hard I can't think straight," I murmur. "I can't wait to see it on your living room floor, Dimples. I've been thinking about you naked for weeks now, you know that? I stand at my window, just fucking watching you because I can't look away."
"I…" She swallows, clearly at a loss for what to say. Her gaze drifts from mine, almost like she's anxious again.
Fuck.
