Page 114 of Pawn's in the Bishop's Game (Checkmate 1)

He lifts his hands and takes a step back. “We’re good, man.”

“You got business here, or are you stepping away?”

“I have no business with her. I don’t even know her. I’m just a good samaritan fetching mayo from the top shelf.” I have to concentrate on not crushing the cell in my hand when he flashes a wink at my girl and backs up. “Catch you later, pretty girl. Don’t shoot anybody today, it’s bad for their health.”

As soon as he backs out of our aisle and turns on his heel, she turns on me. “Kane! What the hell are you doing?”

“Shopping. What are you doing? You know that guy?”

“No! I don’t know him. Never met him before in my life.”

I narrow my eyes and follow when she starts down the aisle. “Sounded like you knew him.” I lift my phone. “I heard you.”

“You heard me say what? That I didn’t know him and to go away?”

“Exactly! People who don’t actually know each other don’t say ‘I don’t know you’. They say ‘hey, I’m a stubborn ass girl. What’s your name?’ Only someone who actually knows someone would say they don’t know them and for them to go away.”

She stops by the candy bars and snatches up a Mars. “What the hell kind of logic is that? And why are you here? I didn’t tell you to follow me in.”

I snag a second chocolate bar and toss it into her basket. She’s going to need the energy. “I heard you talking to someone. I don’t know if you noticed, but most men you ever encounter tend to wanna hurt you. Especially men that I know. I heard a man, I came in to make sure you were okay. You want me to apologize for that?”

“No.” Stopping at the fridges, she grabs a carton of chocolate milk and drops it carelessly on top of the bag of chips. I grab a cola and add it to the weight pulling her arm down. “I didn’t realize we were shopping together. You said picnic, I said I’d be back in a sec. Now you’re in here, and I might have to explain to my family why I’m shopping with…”

“With?” I pull her to a stop. “With who?A guy like me?”

“Yes! A guy like you. A guy that my brother will ask if the neck tattoo hurt. A guy the chief will search anddefinitelyfind weapons. A guy my boss will lecture me over andnotreward my extra diligence on a case.”

“You always worry about what everything thinks?”

“Not everyone.” She points to a blonde standing behind the cash register. “I don’t give a shit what that bitch thinks – she’s a homewrecking slut that nobody likes. But I care what my family thinks. Not because they’d judge me, but because they worry. I’ve always been the good girl, the one they don’t have to worry about. It would be unfair to flip the script on them now.”

“So everyone else is allowed to be wild, but not you.”

“Trust me, everyone else is wild enough to carry the next five generations. My brother and sister are crazy. They don’t need me adding to it.” We stop in front of thehomewrecking slutat the cash register. Tossing her groceries on the conveyor belt, Jess all but ignores the woman. “I went skinny dipping last month. That was wild.”

“Skinny dipping?” Stopping mid sort-of-fight, my dick thickens in my jeans. “Where?”

“At the lake.” She taps her credit card to pay, then snatches the bags from the sneering woman and steps away. “It was fun.”

“Who’d you go with?”

“My sister and best friends.”

“A bunch of girls.” I stop her at the doors and grin like a fool. “Skinny dipping?”

“Mmhmm. Me, Britt, Kari, Laine. Sammy was there, but she’s a goodie goodie, too. Meg wasn’t there, because she’s got a brand-new baby, but if she wasn’t crowning, she would’ve been the first to lose her clothes. Jules wasn’t there, but only because Alex is a grump and would’ve flipped his lid and arrested us.”

“He’d arrest you?”

“Yeah.”

“He’d arrest his own wife?”

“In a damn heartbeat. He’d go for Jules first, because he’d need to cover her up. Now that she’s pregnant, he expects her to be respectable.”

“And you think me throwing myself on Alex’s mercy will keep me out of prison. You’re delusional, Blondie.” We move out of the store and head toward the parking lot behind her office. “He’d throw me into the slammer and laugh as he leaves.”

“He wouldn’t–’

---