Officer Off Limits (11 page)

The intensity of her feelings rattled her a little. How unlikely was it that days after being dumped by her fiancé, she would find someone who could pluck anger, sadness, lust, and joy from her at will? Did the poor timing make it any less real? This being her first breakup, maybe she was simply rebounding but couldn’t recognize her impulsive behavior for what it was? Banishing the troubling notion, she turned in his lap and tucked her head under his neck. She didn’t speak, just let him hold her, trying to keep her runaway thoughts at bay.

Eventually, she sat up and pulled her clothes back on. After watching her dress for long, silent moments, he followed suit, refastening his pants. She crawled over the console into the passenger seat while he got out and slid into the driver’s side. As he turned the keys in the ignition, an excited voice emanating from the car radio filled the silence.

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you are just joining us or like everyone else, turned off your television sometime during the fifth inning, the Mets have staged the comeback of the decade this evening against the San Diego Padres, coming back from a ten-to-nothing deficit to win by a five-run lead. Folks, you had to see it to believe it…”

Mouth dropping open in shock, she turned to find Daniel looking at the car stereo with undisguised ecstasy on his face, sending her into a laughing fit.

“No
way
.”

“You know what this means, don’t you?”

“I know, I know.” She threw up her hands. “A picture of me in a Mets jersey.”

“No. Well,
yes
. But it also means, we have to make this a tradition. Parking lot nookie. Every game, no exceptions. As a lifelong fan, I owe it to the team. This comeback was
all
us.”

“Right. They sensed our sex mojo from the field.”

“Laugh all you want. I’m onto something.”

“You’re certifiable.”

Daniel pulled his hat from her purse and placed it on his head with a flourish. “Certifiably genius.”

Turning toward him in her seat, she frowned. “Wait, I seem to recall the parking lot nookie being my idea.”

He shrugged, a smile tugging the corners of his lips. “Sure, baby. It was your idea.”

Story flopped back against her seat, trying to maintain her frown and failing. God, the man was way too sexy for her peace of mind. “Take me home, you conceited jackass.”

Laughing, he put the car in drive and headed toward the exit.

Chapter Fourteen

Outside Jack’s apartment, Daniel stood behind Story, watching as she unlocked the door.

Taking advantage of her diverted attention, he let his gaze skim up her arm, over the curve of her neck to the sensitive spot beneath her ear. He could lean in now and kiss it, maybe lift the edge of her tank top and graze the taut skin of her belly with his fingers. He’d be inside her before they even made it to the bedroom. She would wrap her welcoming legs around his hips and urge him on, all breathy and flushed, calling his name.

But he wouldn’t allow himself any of it. Any of her.

On the ride back to Manhattan, he’d realized something that had disconcerted the hell out of him. There would be no more Mets games. Despite his attempt to lighten the mood with his impulsive petition for regular parking-lot loving, Jack would be out of the hospital next week and Story would start making plans to return home,
three thousand
miles away.

Daniel didn’t consider himself a selfish man, but when it came to the girl standing in front of him, he’d learned just how much of a greedy bastard he could be. She deserved someone far better than him, but the very idea of her with another man fucked with his head, so he expelled the thought before they had a replay of his earlier episode over the roses. Right or wrong, he simply didn’t think he was honorable enough to let her go.

If they continued in their current vein, she would likely chalk up her two weeks in New York with Daniel to a hot summer fling, nothing more. He couldn’t let it happen.

The lock turned in the door with a
click
and Story pushed it open. Daniel followed her inside, closing the door behind him and sliding the dead bolt, buying himself time to repress the urge to back her against it and…

Deep breath, Chase.
You negotiate hostage situations for a living—this should be a piece of cake. You can have one normal conversation with her that doesn’t end in sex.

Daniel turned from the door just as she slid her arms around his neck and stood on her toes to bring their mouths even. He closed his eyes defensively, knowing if he looked into those twin blue-green pools, he’d be lost. Every ounce of resolve he’d mustered would fly out the window and they’d be back at square one. But instead of blocking out her image, he saw Story in his traitorous mind’s eye, arms twined around his neck, those toned calf muscles flexing as she stretched to kiss him. When she tipped her head back, long blond hair would tumble down her back to brush the top of her waist.

With an agonized groan, Daniel placed his hands on her hips and set her away. She looked up at him with confusion and a hint of insecurity in her eyes, doing crazy things to his brain. How she could harbor insecurities when he wanted to kneel at her feet and pledge his fealty blew his mind. If he didn’t say what needed saying soon, she would end up underneath him on the floor, where he would banish every insecure thought swirling in her head.

Just say it.
“Story, I want you to stay.” She looked puzzled by his statement. With a shake of his head he tried again. “I’m
asking
you to stay. Here. Through the end of the summer. Would you do that?”

She went still. “What? Wh-where is this coming from?”

“Please don’t act like there’s not a good reason for me to ask.” He took a deep breath. “There’s something between us and I’m asking you not to leave before we find out what it is.” Even as he attempted to convince Story to stay, part of him wanted her to say no. It would be the right decision for her. She would need more than sex, and he’d never needed or wanted to provide anything beyond physical pleasure for a woman. He didn’t know the first thing about dating a girl like Story.

One battle at a time.
If he could just get her to stay, to give him some more time, he would make damn sure he figured it out.

“We’ve known each other less than a week,” she responded, shaking her head as if to clear it.

“I know it’s fast, but I don’t have a choice. You could pack up and leave at any time.” Yanking the hat off his head, he dragged his fingers through his hair. “If I let you leave without making damn certain there’s nothing I can do to keep you here, I’m going to regret it. In fact, regret doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

His words stunned her, Daniel could see it clearly on her face. Her attention shot down to the floor. She looked uneasy, as if she wanted to say something but didn’t know how.

“Daniel…”

“What is it?” He took a step toward her, stooped down to meet her eyes. “If there’s something preventing you from even considering the idea, I need to know so I can fix it.”

“It’s just…you don’t seem like the one-woman type.”

Just like that, Daniel felt any hope he’d allowed to accumulate burst like a bubble. She’d just confirmed his darkest fear. That a girl like her saw him as nothing more than a diversion. A rebound. Female faces and voices from the last decade rushed through his head, blurring together and making him nauseous. They had no place here. Not when the girl of his dreams sat just within his reach. Only, maybe she was really so far
out
of his reach, he couldn’t even see it. Perhaps he’d been in the process of losing her for the last ten years. Every time he’d engaged in anonymous sex, she’d slipped a little further from him. Only he hadn’t been blessed with the foresight to see her coming.

At that moment, Daniel knew with absolute certainty that not a single one of his conquests had been worth Story’s doubting his sincerity. Not by a long shot. He spoke around the iron band ringing his throat. “I can’t change what I’ve done in the past.”

“Of course not,” she said quietly. “I’m not asking you to change anything about yourself. I wouldn’t want you to.”

Daniel encompassed the room with his arms. “If that’s the case, then what are you doing here with me? Just having a little meaningless vacation fun?”

Face having lost all color, Story hastened to reply. “No. It’s not like that. Daniel…I just got out of a three-year relationship. I thought we were…this was…”

“A rebound.” With a sound of protest, she started to speak. Daniel, feeling something foreign and painful move in his chest, held up a hand that kept her silent. “Maybe I have no right to ask you to stay. That doesn’t change how I feel. I’m not asking you to stay in New York on a whim.”

Daniel watched as she processed his words, looking for any hint in her expression that might give away her thoughts. Mostly she just looked frozen in shock.

“You can’t just spring this on me and expect that I’ll agree without hesitation.”

“You’re right, I can’t.” Daniel reached down and took her hands in his. “I’m asking you to think about it. At the very least, give me until the end of the summer to convince you I can be more than a rebound. I’ll make it worth your time, baby. Just one more month.”

“And while I’m making this decision? What happens in the meantime?”

“I won’t continue seeing you without Jack’s blessing. Believe me, sunshine, this isn’t easy for me. But I don’t want what we have to be dishonest. That’s not us.” He released her grip and stepped back with a heavy sigh. “So in the meantime, I’ll give you some space. When we’re together, we don’t leave each other a lot of room to think.”

The idea of time apart seemed to rattle her, and Daniel could sense her growing panic. Her reaction reassured him that he was doing the right thing. If she didn’t feel something for him, the idea of him leaving wouldn’t bother her quite so much. “What if I decide not to stay? What if I call you tomorrow and tell you I’ve booked a flight home for next week?”

“Then I’ll have no choice but to let you go. We’ll leave Jack in the dark and you can chalk it up to a couple amazing nights,” Daniel bluffed. He would give her a few days, tops, to think about it. If she didn’t agree to stay, he would try a different approach. But he’d continue to fight for her until her plane left the ground. Even then, he wasn’t so sure he would quit.

She stared. “I wouldn’t even see you again before I left?”

The way she said it, with sadness and a hint of confusion in her tone, almost buckled him. Every instinct urged him to pull her into his embrace and reassure her that he would lie, cheat, and steal to spend as much time with her as humanly possible. But he didn’t. He had too much on the line. If he touched her, took her to bed now, everything he’d said in the last ten minutes would lose all meaning. She would never take him seriously.

You don’t seem like a one-woman type.
She obviously thought of him as a player and nothing more. Until he met her, it would have been true.

“Spending time with you knowing it’s only temporary would be difficult.” Taking one last look at her, Daniel turned and walked to the door.

“Wait,
that’s it?
You’re leaving?”

If he wasn’t in actual, physical pain at that moment, Daniel would have laughed at the outrage in her voice. He would undoubtedly regret leaving her looking so beautiful and vulnerable, hell, he
already
did, but he needed to follow his gut. If she felt an even an ounce of what he did, she would make the right decision. He just needed to have a little faith and a
shit-ton
of patience.

He didn’t want to consider the alternative.

…

Story frowned at the door Daniel had just exited through. She felt blindsided. Exasperated. And more than a little impressed.

Having come to know Daniel intimately, Story knew he’d left wanting her. Yet he’d felt strong enough about his proposition to suck it up and walk away. He’d done it to send the message that he meant business. Her body, unfortunately, was having trouble moving past the
no sex
subtext of his message.

She flopped down onto the couch with a grumble. Memories of Daniel beneath her in the backseat of his car assailed her, but she reluctantly pushed them aside. Somehow, in the last ten minutes, the situation had completely gotten away from her and she needed to puzzle it out, make sense of Daniel’s request. Not to mention the fact that she’d nearly agreed to it just so he would stay and make love to her again.

How quickly he’d become an addiction. In the beginning, she’d known it would be wise to stay away, but not
why
. Now she did. Every touch of his hands, brush of his lips, made her system scream for more. She’d never felt less inhibited in her life. Without realizing it, she’d allowed his single-minded intensity to wear off on her and become an equal participant, rather than a conquest. Tonight, in the parking lot, she’d hidden nothing from him and rather than judge her, he’d eagerly encouraged it.

It didn’t stop with physical attraction, and therein lay the rub.
Rub. Ha.
She loved being with him. Stolen moments in stairwells, baseball games…even talking to him on the phone made her blush like a teenager. She’d soaked up every moment with him tonight knowing it wouldn’t last. That she would be leaving for California soon. He would go back to playing the field and she would return home to pick up the pieces of a life she’d never wanted. She would miss him a great deal. But knowing just how quickly Daniel would move on would give her no choice but to get over him. Right?

Wrong. He’d sunk her battleship.
I want you to stay.
Just one more month. There’s something between us.
She hadn’t known how to react. If he’d really meant it and wanted her to stay, where would it lead? To a monogamous relationship? They’d just met. He couldn’t possibly be considering changing his lifestyle for her. Could he?

It had been so much easier when she’d seen Daniel as the ladies’ man with a craving for tan lines. Okay,
definitely
not easier, but at least the image had managed to keep her head out of the clouds. His declaration had her thinking dangerous thoughts, though. Dangerous, hopeful thoughts like maybe he really could be happy with
just
her. After waking him up from a nightmare, seeing the pain he hid behind his smile, and learning what she had about his past through Jack, she knew Daniel wasn’t just an overindulged bad boy used to getting what he wanted.

He was so much more. Thoughtful, generous, interesting. Daniel didn’t merely indulge her sense of humor the way Fisher had, he genuinely seemed to appreciate it. She felt safe with him, and not just in the physical sense. Safe from judgment. But she’d known him only a short time. Was it was possible he treated every woman with the same special care, and she’d been emotionally neglected for so long that she soaked up Daniel’s attention like a plant seeking water? A depressing thought, but a realistic one. She had no perspective. Her life had been completely thrown off-kilter over the course of the last week, and Daniel’s request for her to stay in New York had finally upended her.

It also tempted her. She and Daniel together. For just a little longer. Story pushed herself off the couch and stood. No more thinking tonight without the benefit of chocolate.

She went downstairs to the deli to buy a Twix bar and milk. Outside, she marveled over how crowded the streets were even at the late hour and decided the term “city that never sleeps” was totally accurate. In contrast, her building’s lobby sat empty and quiet when she pushed open the door to come back inside. Just as the elevator door closed, a male voice called for her to hold it. Her hand shot out to stop the doors from sliding shut.

A shiver of alarm passed through Story as her neighbor entered the elevator to stand across from her. If possible, he looked more disheveled than last time, when she’d helped him escort his mother to their apartment. His glasses sat slightly askew on his nose and his wrinkled shirt had come untucked from his pants on one side. Inconsistent with his appearance, he smelled as if he’d doused himself in cologne.

As the doors closed and the elevator began its ascent to the fourth floor, she felt him watching her closely in the confined space.

Story turned and smiled politely at him, trying to mask her unease. “How is your mother doing?”

He looked startled at her having spoken, but then his mouth twisted. “She’d be better if she was in the hospital. They practically kicked us out on our asses. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t really
know
how she’s doing, do I?”