Page 13 of Misadventures in Blue
But as Cat straightens up, gives me one of those thoughtful half pouts, and says, “Okay, Sutton, what am I going to do with you?” I worry that it’s not going to be simple at all.
Chapter Five
Cat
The sight of Jace standing in front of me stunned me so much that I don’t know how I fumbled my way through the rest of the conversation with Kenneth. There I was, praying Kenneth couldn’t tell how gingerly I was sitting on my office chair because I’d been reamed to heaven and back by a gorgeous man who’d been a baby while I was in high school, and then Jace just appeared, as if my tender cunt had summoned him into existence.
The difference between Jace and Kenneth was beyond startling. Next to the raw, potent presence of Jace in uniform, Kenneth looked like a photocopy of a Brooks Brothers ad. Where Jace was hard and lean from PT in the desert, Kenneth had the sort of self-conscious physique that came from paying a trainer a lot of money. And where Jace’s almost-rugged features are pulled into a look of stern detachment, Kenneth was all genteel symmetry and practiced smiles.
I’ve never felt that Kenneth was unattractive before now, but with Jace next to him…Jace might as well have been the only man on earth as far as my body was concerned. The sheer power radiating from his wide shoulders and crossed arms and wide, booted stance was enough to make me embarrassingly, shamefully wet. I stood up before I left a damp spot on my skirt.
“Okay, Sutton, what am I going to do with you?” I glance down the bullpen, relieved to see that no one is watching the Ice Queen blush over a rookie, and then I glance toward the door as I think. I have a few follow-ups I need to do, and I could probably task some of those to Jace, but if I’m honest, I’m not ready for us to part ways just yet. It feels like some kind of bizarre gift from the universe that he’s here at all. One of those coincidences that I’m in danger of making too much of, when I should just be grateful for the extra help. Especially when that help is as capable and competent as Jace Sutton.
The thought grounds me in the here and now. Back to reality and the case. With a deep breath, I turn to him and force myself to be nothing more than professional. At least in my words, if I can’t be in my thoughts.
“I think it’s best if we go through the evidence together, make sure you know everything I do,” I say. “Kim’s given me the meeting room across the hall as a base camp, so let’s start there.”
I gesture to the meeting room in question, but Jace doesn’t look where I indicate. Instead, he gives me a slow, heated once-over that makes my belly clench.
“I’m happy to start wherever you are,” he says after a minute, with just the barest hint of an eyebrow raise to underscore that he’s not only talking about the case, and then he turns and walks to the meeting room with the confident stride of a man who’s been to war.
It’s that presence that seals the deal, I decide as I follow him out of the little hallway made by my cubicle and the meeting room. With his kissable lips and long eyelashes, he could easily be too handsome to be powerful, but there’s something about those stormy gray eyes and the low voice and the authority he exudes simply by standing in place. It’s what makes him look like a cop and not like an actor who plays a cop on TV.
He opens the door to the meeting room and flicks on the light, and I can’t help it. I really can’t. It’s these fucking uniform pants and how they display the molded, muscled curve of his ass.
I look.
I gawk. Like a schoolgirl after the cute boy, I gawk.
And then I remember I’m thirteen years older than him and my gawking probably looks more like a leer.
Stop it, Cat. This can’t happen.
There’s a million reas
ons I can’t fuck Jace Sutton again. In our department, officers and detectives share the same rank, and fraternization is allowed within rank, but it’s still wildly unprofessional…even more so now that he’s been assigned to my case.
And then there’s the age difference. A twenty-four-year-old cop with a giant cock and flat abs? I have no doubt there’s a bevy of badge bunnies with limber, nubile bodies waiting to crawl into his lap face first and that he probably went home so fast after fucking me because he had no desire to fuck me again. Why would he want to fuck an old lady when there’s probably an infinite supply of eager twenty-somethings waiting to fall into his bed?
The thought is depressing.
But I’m not in the habit of allowing myself self-pity and never have been, even after Frazer’s death. I enjoyed last night, and I refuse to regret it. Even if it’s time to get back to real life now.
And I’m all ready for real life, for the contained control I normally enjoy, just as soon as I’m done looking at Sutton’s ass. Which I am. I definitely am done looking—okay, maybe just one more peek—
Jace turns faster than I anticipate, and there can be no doubt he catches me looking. His usual brooding scowl gets scowlier.
Which is fair. There’s no doubt it’s improper to be caught ogling your young coworker’s ass, even if you did fuck him the night before. But I can’t pretend shame. I can’t pretend there isn’t a tiny part of me that feels entitled to look.
I tilt my head and allow him a little smile. You caught me.
He kicks the door shut, and in a heartbeat I’m pushed against the wall and trapped between his hands planted on either side of my head as my phone and portfolio tumble to the floor.
I’m caged in by two hundred pounds of angry male muscle, but I haven’t been afraid of big, grumpy cops since I started academy—and anyway, my body associates all this intensity and closeness from Jace with something close to danger but much, much more fun.
“You’re looking at me like you want to be bent over a table again,” he says in a silky voice.
“Maybe.”
