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Her eyebrows shot up her forehead. “Are you kidding? That was the hottest part.” Cazzie stretched out one of her legs, then hooked it around my waist. “Does this mean you’re not mad at me anymore?”
I chuckled. “I haven’t been mad at you since you saved my life when the fire alarm went off.”
“Technically, I didn’t save your life. You said the guy just wanted to threaten you.”
“Maybe so. Or maybe he was going to change his mind and shoot me anyway. Either way, something changed that night.”
Her fingertips caressed up my chest. “It’s probably the fooling around we did on the floor.”
“Probably.”
“I’ve felt different since then, too,” she admitted. Her voice was soft and vulnerable as she gazed up at me. “I think about you in a new way, Luke. This entire job feels different.”
“Protecting someone you care about is different than protecting a stranger,” I said. “Imagine that.”
Cazzie’s laughter was sweet, and then I kissed her, and we both forgot all about our troubles.
“Promise me one thing,” I said.
Her eyes were wide as she gazed up at me. “Anything.”
“Never lie to me again.Never. Not even a lie of omission. Always tell me the truth, even if it’s not what I want to hear.”
“What if it’s a white lie?” she asked. “Like if a certain color shirt looks good on you?”
I gave her a look.
She stroked my cheek. “Of course, Luke. I promise. I’ll never lie to you again, about the big things, or the small. With one footnote.”
“Yes?”
“I need some discretion regarding my job,” she explained. “There are times when you don’t need to knowevery singledetail about what I do to keep you safe, or what threats the detectives have passed along. You would go crazy if you knew everything I knew. I’ll always tell you the important stuff, but I will exercise my professional discretion on everything else. Understood?”
“I understand,” I said. “And I trust you.”
“Good.” She grinned. “You can always trust me, Luke. I’ll never lie to you again.”
I kissed her, and knew she was telling the truth.
18
Cazzie
I fondly remembered everyfirst timeI’d had with a guy. My high school boyfriend and I lost our virginity together in the back seat of his Ford Taurus after a pep rally. At the end of boot camp, I stopped pretending to be a lesbian long enough to hook up with Private First Class Stephenson while we were on leave together. Jessie, the only long-term relationship I’d ever had, brought me home to his place after our third date and we had sex on his couch.
Having sex with Luke in a supply closet was definitely the hottest of all. The fierceness of his kiss, and how he desperately had to have me without delay. The way he drove into me almost recklessly, allowing his animal instinct to take over. The way we both trembled and cried out at the same time, then silenced each other with a hungry kiss. It left me giggly and happy, even more so than that first time in the back of the Ford Taurus.
After making out in the dark a little longer, we decided we needed to leave before we got caught. Luke found a box full of last season’s Stallions T-shirts, and used one to clean me off, then himself. We got dressed and slipped back into the hallway one at a time to make sure nobody saw.
I couldn’t stop smiling as I waited for him to shower and change in the locker room. People walked by—coaches, stadium employees, his teammates—and none of them knew what had just happened. None of them knew that Luke August and I fucked in the closet down the hall. It made the sizzling hot encounter a thousand times sexier than it already was.
“Ready?” Luke casually said when he emerged from the locker room.
I returned his friendly smile. “Sure.”
Luke joined his teammates at the bar to celebrate the win, but he only nursed a single beer for a polite amount of time before leaving. When we got home, I went through my normal routine. I walked the perimeter of the building, nodding at the unmarked patrol car and the two cops who were parked across the street. I checked all the windows inside, and made sure the security bar on the balcony was in place.
“I have something to tell you,” Luke said when I was done.
