Page 59

“Guess that’s why she’s driving straight in instead of hitting the button to get approval?”

Anger rose in me at seeing Dempsey driving straight into Jessamy’s property without asking for permission first. It didn’t matter if we had the code or not, we would’ve given the courtesy of buzzing ourselves to announce our arrivals to anyone else. Jessamy shouldn’t be any different.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Hide.”

Her face blanched, all color leeching from her face as she took a step back from me.

Her eyes went blank, and all nearness I’d thought I’d felt with her ceased to exist in a half of a breath’s time.

I reached for her anyway, and she flinched.

Despite the anger that rocketed through me at the sight of her flinching from me, I touched her anyway.

“I don’t mean ‘hide’ in the way you’re thinking,” I said. “I mean, I’m going to put myself in another room so I can hear what she’s here for. I don’t want her to hold her tongue because she sees me. I don’t have any calls from her or anyone at the station about anything going wrong. They would’ve called it in with me first, before coming here.”

“Why would they do that?” she asked.

“Because I asked them to,” I said. “They don’t make a single move on you.” I crowded in close, my hand gripping her chin as I forced her to look up at me. Broken eyes stared in pain. “No one is allowed to touch you, talk to you, or arrest you but me.”

With that, I stepped away from her and started heading to her laundry room.

“What about your truck?”

“It’s new,” I said. “No one at the station’s seen it. Bought it last week and it’s been in my garage ever since.”

“Okay,” she sighed. “I really don’t want to do this, though.”

I jerked my head toward her. “You might want to put some pants on.”

She looked down at my t-shirt that she was wearing.

It was white, and see through.

But that was all she had on.

“And you?” she asked. “What are you going to do?”

She meant the state of my dress.

I had sweatpants and a tee on that I’d had in my gym bag in the car.

It was more than obvious what I’d been doing with her.

No man was at a woman’s house after a day like I’d had yesterday, in his sweats and a tee, this early in the morning without having a reason to be there.

And if I was making a house call like I was sure Dempsey was about to do, I’d be in full uniform.

She hustled out of the room to get some clothes on.

Except, when she got back, it was to see that she’d only added my sweatshirt on top of my shirt, both of which hung well past mid-thigh.

She’d corralled her messy hair into a high bun, though.

The kind that drove men insane.

Hair everywhere. High on the top of their head. Effortless.