AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m notthatmuch of a bastard.
“You know,” I say, unable to stop the words, “getting your mind off things helps.”
“I thought you said forget it.”
The bitterness in her soft voice eats at me and still I don’t move when I know I should just walk the fuck away. “Yeah, I did, but… everyone has a job to do, including you and me.”
“I’ll swap with someone else.”
I stare down into those green eyes that haven’t lost their ability to push me off-balance, draw me in. And something in me shifts. I’m sick and tired of her cooler-than-ice attitude, of her inability to at least pretend to tolerate me when there’s no other choice.
Tonight we need to work together, and we need to ignore the fact that she hates me and I want to fuck her against the nearest wall.
“Come on, Brandi. It’s not going to be that bad out there.”
She stares at me like not only am I lying, but it’s actually going to be worse, and I almost laugh.
Without saying a word, Brandi gets up from the bench and follows me out of the gym and to the front door of the school.
Like a ghost.
A silent, lifeless ghost floating just above the ground.
I can’t spend the night working in silence with a growing chasm of awkwardness between us, so I turn around to put an end to the awkwardness, at least for now, and then I see what she’s wearing. “Where the hell’s your jacket?”
“It was sunny when I left home.”
I don’t answer her, because we both knew there was a storm headed our way. We were briefed on it before we ever left the department.
Brandi shifts from foot to foot while she tries to come up with another excuse. “I didn’t think the lecture would drag on.” She presses her lips together, and her cheeks turn red. “Or the storm would come early. I had a hoodie—”
“Get it.”
“It’s soaked.”
And she looks so miserable I want to draw her in against me and…nothing. Do nothing at all.
“Oh shit. I’m sorry.” I back away, aware I’m doing it, and more than aware she knows it. “Stay here. I’ll pull the cruiser around. I think I have an extra jacket in it you can use.” In fact, I know I do. And I also know that after she wears it, I won’t wash it for a month while I pathetically smell it until her scent fades.
Before she can see through me, I turn and dash out into the storm.
In the vehicle I sit for a few moments, breathing unsteadily, trying to get everything back under tight control.
I can do this.
Keep her at an arm’s length.
It’s one night.
There are cameras in the cruiser.
Don’t fuck her in the cruiser.
With that in my head like a mantra that might be able to save me, I turn the key in the ignition and pull up as close to the doors as possible.
Brandi doesn’t move and I think maybe she’s decided against helping, which is probably the right decision with the direction my thoughts have headed. But she proves she’s stronger than she looks and she pushes open the door and runs out, her hands over her head in a futile attempt to stay dry.
She jumps into the front seat with a screech as lightning lights the sky above her. She shakes, damp and small and needing to be protected, and I feel like a total ass for making her come out in weather like this.
