Page 3 of No Take Backs
“That doesn’t sound right.” My words come out as a murmur, while I reach back into my purse for my contraband. “You always do something big for your anniversary.”
Ella rubs her forehead with one hand and with the other, she taps the table with Lyla’s rescue inhaler. “I don’t know what to tell you. We don’t have plans.”
“Cinderella.” I use her nickname again, only this time not with annoyance. “You gotta come clean. Might as well be with your baby sister. I can help you get through whatever it is, just tell me. No judgment, remember?”
Since the day she met Rich Prince, her very own Prince Charming, I started calling her Cinderella. And since that day, she has rolled her eyes and told me that I annoy the shit out of her.
“Things haven’t been right since Royal did what he did.”
I shudder at the mention of Rich’s brother, a monster if I’ve ever known one. He’d been arrested for stalking and trying to murder a girl I went to high school with.
“Poor Kennedy,” I mutter. Her story has been all over the news for weeks, and it is heartbreaking what she had to deal with at Rich’s brother’s hands.
“I know,” Ella whispers brokenly. “Rich has really had the weight of the world fall on his shoulders. And his parents think that Royal can’t do any wrong, you know. It’s just been hard.”
I watch her, ignoring the noise of other conversations around us, and focus on the tiny details I hadn’t picked up on before. The bags under her eyes. The tense way her lips press together. Even the way she clenches her jaw together, and I find myself inspecting her skin to make sure she isn’t wearing too much makeup.
“He’s not taking it out on you, is he?” My question hangs in the air as the song playing for the skaters shifts, and I watch the flare in Ella’s eyes. “If he is, I’ll gut him and feed him to some lobsters down in the harbor. I’m sure I can buy a lobster trap big enough for his body. Either that, or I’ll drop his corpse in a bear plot somewhere up north. No one will find him.”
Her laugh catches me off guard. “Oh,” she wheezes. “No. Rich would never hurt me, Nia. He’s dealing with the added stress of people thinking he’s just like his brother, and that’s following him home. Not only that, but his parents want him to defend Royal in court.” She picks up her drink, not the adult one I gave her earlier, but the massive bottle of water she’s been sipping on all day. “He said no, and now there’s a huge rift in their family. But he’s the best man I know, and how could he decide to defend a complete monster?”
Relieved, my eyes drift away from my sister and over to the cop again, who is staring with clear disdain at a group of people having a party. Then our eyes lock for a second before he turns back to the man across the table from him. He runs his left hand up to his head and I’m not ashamed to admit that I notice the complete lack of a wedding ring.
He laughs at whatever the man next to him says, and I think my panties start melting at that moment. He has dimples. Perfect dimples that I can see clear as day. Combine that with the short and messy light-brown hair, and dark-brown eyes, and I’m a goner.
“Earth to Nia.” Ella snaps her fingers in front of my face. “What are you looking at?”
She follows my line of sight and snickers. “I thought you were done dating uniforms.”
“Just cops,” I answer with a smile. “Eddie Stryker ruined that for me. That asshole had the audacity to get upset with me when one of his friends hit on me, not knowing we were together. Like that’s my fault.” I roll my eyes. “But I can still check out a hot guy, can’t I?”
It is a good thing I don’t date cops. And that I’m there with my sister and niece. Because he is just hot enough to make me change my mind. At least for one night.
2
JOSH
The first time I catch the blond woman with gray eyes staring at me, I brush it off as a coincidence—a fleeting glance shared between two strangers in a crowded room. But there’s something about her eyes, something haunted and intense, that lingers in my mind longer than it should. It’s the kind of look that makes you pause, makes you wonder what dark and secret stories lie behind it.
I shake my head, forcing myself to focus on the conversation at hand, but it’s no use.
When I see her again, those same gray eyes are locked on me, unwavering, as if she’s trying to communicate something wordless, something urgent.
I’m absolutely crazy, because there’s no way she’s looking at me. But I can imagine, just for a minute, that she is.
She bites her lip, and I swear my pulse starts to race.
She’s trouble, that much is clear. The kind of trouble I’ve spent years trying to avoid, yet here I am, drawn to her like a moth to a flame.
Those eyes that see straight into my soul, and hair so light she looks like a snow queen. All framing a face that I’d do anything to touch.
Fuck.
I’m getting harder just thinking about touching her.
It’s been so long since I’ve felt this kind of pull, this raw, primal attraction, that just watching a complete stranger bite her lip has me thinking about all the dark things I could do to her. Things she could do to me.
Like the inexplicable hard-on that I don’t think is going anywhere anytime soon. Not until I take a shower and rub one out, thinking of her mouth wrapped around my dick the entire time.