“Yeah, Mark. My husband,” Josie replies casually before her hand darts out to tap Regan’s arm. “Oh my, did you think we were on a date?” She thrusts her hand between herself and me.
When Regan nods, Josie laughs as if the thought of dating me is hysterical. I don’t know whether to thank her for not blowing my cover or scold her for making the idea of dating me sound so appalling.
The latter is less likely when Regan asks, “You’re married and not interested in Alex whatsoever?”
The elation in her tone has a massive bout of egotism joining our party. She sounds as if she just discovered the dweeb who took her virginity doesn’t count, as half-penetration is excluded from all sexual partner quizzes.
My wish to scold Josie returns stronger than ever when Regan asks, “Then why are you associating with him? He doesn’t seem like the best company. He is anaccountant,after all.”
There she goes again with another underhanded snark at my supposed career choice. I feel like I'm being hung out to dry when Josie shrugs in halfhearted agreement. "He does save us thousands in taxes every year, so the least I can do is take him out for a meal every once and a while."
Regan’s face pales as mine flames with anger. Anyone would swear it was Josie’s arm that got twisted to agree to this date—not mine.
A bucket of cold water is thrown over my flaming cheeks when Regan mumbles, “Hold on. He’s your accountant?” She snarks out the word “accountant” as if it’s part of a fresh batch of vomit.
When Josie nods without pause, Regan takes a stumbling step back. “Do you own a steroids company?” Although her comment was only meant for her ears, she grumbled it loud enough for both Josie and me to hear.
Josie slaps Regan's forearm, her laugh like a hyena. It bellows around the elevator, adding to the debilitating tension firing in the air. Regan is gobsmacked by Josie's admission. She isn't the only one. Josie's acting skills are so top shelf, I'm beginning to wonder if I’ve slipped into a time warp.
“But you. . . your hip. There was. . .” Regan stops talking to glare at the spot where I usually carry my service weapon. She won’t find it. Since I’m off the clock, my gun is off my hip.
The elevator dings, announcing it has finally arrived at the lobby. Rotating restaurants at the top of a skyscraper sound like an ideal night. . . until you’re stuck in the elevator with a woman as captivating as Regan. I feel like I’ve aged a decade in ten minutes.
“Where did you two say you met?” Josie asks as she steps into the lobby.
“We didn’t,” Regan and I answer in sync.
Regan is so caught up sorting through her confusion, it takes me placing my hand on the curve of her back for her to exit the elevator. If I thought the temperature in the elevator car was roasting, now it is ten times worse. Her dress is practically backless, meaning I had no other option but place my hand on her bare skin. This scenario couldn’t get any more dangerous. The slightest whiff of her floral scent already has me acting reckless, let alone the heat of her skin under mine.
I’m dragged from my inappropriate thoughts when Josie shouts, “Hold on one dang minute. It isn’t. . . She can’t be. . . Oh Alex, you little devil. How did I not put two and two together earlier? Is this Regan from Hector? The one you bumped heads with instead of measuring our new kitchen cabinets as you had promised?”
Josie shifts on her feet to face Regan, who is peering at her with as much bewilderment as me. Excluding Theresa, I never told a soul about my altercation with Regan. I filed an incident report, handed it to my superior to be signed off on, then tried my best to forget about it. As far as I am aware, our run-in is not public knowledge.
Josie fills our silence by saying, “Alex is an accountant, but his hands. . .O. M. G.. .their skills will set your pulse racing.” She says her comment as carnally as it sounds, not pussyfooting around her assumption I want my hands on Regan. It is a fact, but I’d rather it not be common knowledge. “The cabinets in our apartment are to die for. The tenants are in heaven.”
“You have an apartment on Hector?” Regan asks Josie. When Josie smiles and nods, Regan adds on, “And Alex was planning to measure the cabinets the day we bumped heads?”
“Uh-huh. Did you see the toolbelt he swears when doing carpentry? Rawr.”
I glare at Josie. She may as well strap on a dildo and take me for a ride. She just fucked me over. The tiger roar was too much. Skilled hands—yeah, Regan could have accepted that. Helping out friends—yep, what nice guy doesn’t? But wearing a toolbelt underneath a suit—un-fucking-likely. A moron with half a brain knows this, so there is no way a woman as smart as Regan will fall for Josie’s on-the-spot ruse.
I’m forced to eat my words when Regan mumbles, “Ah. . . and here I was the whole time thinking he was happy to see me.”
I want to say,“Don’t worry, it wasn’t just my gun digging into your ass that afternoon.”Instead, I settle on,“I arrived at Hector with the intention of helping out a friend, left with the threat of eye dismemberment.”
Regan splays her hands across her cocked hip. I really wish she wouldn’t. It amplifies the perfect swells of her curves. I don’t know why I believed I’d ever be strong enough to look past my attraction to her. I should have manned up and requested a transfer to another unit the instant she breezed back into my life, as distance is the only way I am guaranteed not to lose my job when it comes to this woman.
Taking my silence as annoyance, Regan mumbles, "Cut me some slack, Alex. You crowded the elevator panel like a twenty-one-year old's first time at a strip club. Then you said apartment 34."
“You said apartment 34?” Josie intercepts, her voice high with shock.
“Yeah. So?” I reply, acting like it’s no big deal.
Josie’s eyeroll is nowhere near as sophisticated as Regan’s. “Everyone knows the apartments on Hector don’t have any number fours. It’s bad Fengshui.”
I would respond to Regan’s pompous glare if I could take my eyes off Josie.Who the fuck is this woman?She started our date as a demure wallflower who spoke when spoken to and ended every reply with a question. She leaves as fierce and impenetrable as Regan.
Josie gives me a look. It is a look that reveals more than words ever could. Just like my family, her family has been in the Bureau for years. Unlike my family, it isn’t just the male members doing their bit for society. She’s one of us.
