Page 1 of Castling the Rook (Checkmate 3)

1

Riley

First Sight

She walks across Oz’s backyard like a queen.

Regal.

Beautiful.

Untouchable.

And absolutely unapproachable.

She was probably the coolest of the popular girls in high school; the cheerleading captain, the prom queen, probably even the principal’s daughter.

Andrea –Andi– Conner is my superior officer’s sort-of sister-in-law, which means she’s firmly out of bounds for me. But she’s beautiful, and I’m a man; there’s no threat scary enough that’ll stop me from looking.

The way she throws her head back and laughs sends chills through my blood. Her eyes are icy blue, and her dark hair barely touches her shoulders; put it all together, and I’m left standing on the other side of Oz’s yard with a beer in my hand and a creeper’s grin on my face while I watch her.

I’m not the bad guy in this story.

I’m not actually a creep.

I’m just a regular guy on the bottommost rung at the local cop shop. I’m thirty-one years old, single, and an asshole, because, creeper or not, I still watch this woman I don’t know and imagine tasting every delectable inch of her snow-white skin.

She wears jeans that I swear were painted on, and heels that send delicious thoughts racing through my mind; Andi Conner is like the dainty, raven haired succubus that has the power to chew a man up and spit him out.

And I think she knows it.

Sliding her arm through another guest’s – a guy’s – while she flirts and laughs, she walks with him to the edge of the yard, and each step they take into the shadows leaves me with aching teeth and a beer bottle in danger of being crushed in my hand.

She’s so beautiful, it hurts something deep inside my chest. Her soft hair flutters in the gentle breeze, and the fairy lights surrounding the yard make her blue eyes twinkle.

I don’t believe in love at first sight.

That’s not what this is.

But I’m a brand-new believer in wanna-fuck-on-first-sight.

I’ve never in my life been so drawn to a woman that I want to tear her clothes off no matter who’s around. No matter who sees it. No matter the fact she’s just about to become family to cops who carry big ass guns and might be inclined to shoot me in my white ass the second I touch her.

Sitting on an old wooden bench hidden in shadow and romantic music, Andi giggles with her new friend, touches his arm, his leg, his shoulder. She does the hair tuck thing that everyone declares is a sign of her attraction to him. She laughs at his jokes and eats him up with her eyes.

And smiling just as wide, he returns her advances. He jokes back. He knocks her shoulder with his.

I watch them together and fight the urge to take out my gun and tear him the fuck up.

An hour ago, I actually liked the guy. Marcus Macchio is a local, he’s my boss’ family, and he’s always in the station making jokes with the guys. But right now, as he sits back on the bench and crosses one knee over the other so it brushes her arm, he’s become public enemy number one.

My phone vibrates at the same moment the happy couple look up at me… like they’re talking about me. Her watchful eyes pierce right through my chest, then her playful smile makes my brows narrow.

Fuck them if they’re talking about me.

I throw one last glance at my coworker and the host of this party, Oz, then another toward my chief, then ignoring the beautiful woman, I step through the lush backyard and slide my thumb across my screen. “This is Riley Cruz.”

“Cruz. This is Peter Grady, assistant to the State Attorney General. We need to meet tomorrow morning, oh-eight-hundred.”

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