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The chief’s brow furrowed more, and he shook his head. “Well, can you at least see Ms. Howard out?” Without waiting for a response, Archer ducked back inside his office and closed the door, leaving Chad alone with Tessa.
He glanced from the chief’s closed door to the one next to his that belonged to Sergeant Terlecki. Chad had come upstairs to offer Kent a word of support, but instead he wrapped his fingers around Tessa’s wrist and steered her toward the elevator.
“Thanks a lot,” Tessa said with total insincerity as irritation—not his touch—heated her blood. She shook his hand off her arm. “If you hadn’t come along, I would have talked him into signing up.”
He chuckled as he reached for the Down button of the elevator. “I don’t think so.”
“Why?” Pride lifted her chin. “I’m good at my job.”
The elevator must have been waiting because the doors slid open instantly. His hand touched the small of her back now, guiding her into the empty car. “I don’t doubt that you’re quite the saleswoman,” he said.
Somehow she felt insulted rather than complimented. “What are you implying?”
“Just that you’re not above using your wiles to get what you want—a contract—” he arched a dark brow “—or a free pass on a ticket.”
“Well, you didn’t give me a free pass.” Which didn’t say much for her wiles since he hadn’t been a bit interested then—or now.
“And the judge didn’t give you a free pass, either,” the lieutenant said. “Despite your recent attempt to sweet-talk him.”
Heat rushed to Tessa’s face. “Uh…”
“The judge e-mailed to warn me that you’re trying to get out of the academy,” Chad said, his voice sharp with disapproval. “Interesting that you weren’t above using your participation to score points with the chief, though.”
“I am participating,” she said. Because she hadn’t been able to talk the judge into changing her punishment. She’d even offered to pick up trash along the highway instead.
“But not of your own free will, like you wanted the chief to believe.”
“What are you—the sales spiel police? Do you take exception to everything I do or say?”
“Only when it’s not the entire truth.”
“You sound like you’re my father,” she said, not that she had a lot of experience with what a father sounded like. Hers hadn’t stuck around long; he hadn’t even waited for her to be born. But then, given her mother’s taste in men, that might have been a good thing; some of her siblings’ dads had stuck around too long.
A muscle twitched in his cheek. “I’m not old enough to be your father.”
“No, but you’re stuffy enough.”
“I’m not stuffy,” he protested. Clearly she’d struck a nerve.
“Oh, Lieutenant…” She emitted a pitying sigh. “You have no idea how stuffy you are.”
“Just because I didn’t let you flirt your way out a ticket?” he asked. “Flirting has surely failed you before, like it just did with the chief.”
“You think I was flirting with the chief?” she asked, thoroughly insulted now. Not that the chief wasn’t a good-looking man. Despite his having the highest position in the department, he probably wasn’t quite old enough to be her father, either.
“You were wasting your time,” he said, as he released a pitying sigh of his own. “The chief just lost his wife last year. He’s too loyal a man to notice another woman yet. Even you.”
“Even me?” He may not have meant that as a compliment, but Tessa took it as such.
Chad squeezed his eyes shut as if he regretted what he’d revealed. Then he admitted, “Even you. You know what you look like.”
She smiled. “My mama passed on good genes.” For physical appearance. For picking men, she had also passed on her lousy judgment genes, regrettably. Tessa had dated too many losers to be flattered by any man, yet the lieutenant wasn’t trying to flatter her. If anything, he was still insulting her. Her smile widened. “I hadn’t thought you noticed what I look like, Lieutenant.”
The elevator bell dinged as it reached the lobby, but Tessa reached out and pressed the door button, holding them closed.
“Your flirting doesn’t affect me any more than it did the chief,” Michalski assured her.
“I wasn’t flirting with the chief,” she pressed. “You’d know if I was flirting.”
“I would,” he agreed—too easily—then added, “but I don’t think you do. It’s probably just second nature to you, kind of like your speeding.”
“I know when I flirt.”
Unfortunately, so did he. Since her traffic stop, he hadn’t been able to forget the way she’d trailed her fingers over his and leaned in through her open SUV window, her breath nearly tickling his ear. His pulse quickened at the memory and at the reality of being alone with her. The elevator dinged again as someone probably stood on the other side of the doors, pressing the Up or Down button. But Tessa held the Close button again, trapping them inside the small car.
He could have easily brushed aside her hand and opened the doors, but he leaned against the wall of the elevator and wrapped his hands around the brass railing to prevent himself from pulling her into his arms.
“I don’t think you do know when you’re flirting,” he argued with her arbitrarily. Was he wanting to rile her as much as she had tried to rile him with her “stuffy” insult? “I think you act just as recklessly with your…wiles as you do your driving.”
“Recklessly?”
“Some day you might flirt with the wrong man,” he warned her, “one who doesn’t understand that you’re not really aware of what you’re doing.”
“I know when I flirt,” she repeated, jabbing the Close button again. Then she crossed the small space separating them, swaying her hips with just a couple of steps. She didn’t stop until her body touched his. Then she lifted her chin, staring up at him, her blue eyes wide and bright.
“Lieutenant…” she murmured as her fingers trailed up his chest to tap his badge.
He knew she was playing with him, teasing the stuffy police officer and trying to prove her point. But his heart beat hard beneath his vest. “Tessa…”
She bit her full bottom lip and then swiped the tip of her tongue across it, moistening her mouth. Her lips parted and she breathed the word, “Yes…”
He hadn’t realized he’d asked a question. To what was she giving permission—for him to kiss her? He leaned forward…just as the elevator dinged again. Without her finger on the button, the doors slid open to a trio of rookie officers standing in the lobby. Heat climbed to Chad’s face from where it had pooled lower in his body, where Tessa’s curvy body brushed his.
One officer whistled.
One whispered, “Oh, man…”
And the third spoke coherently, “Lieutenant, we didn’t want to be late for roll call. But we’ll take the stairs.”
“Sorry,” muttered the whistler as they whirled away from the elevator.
The rookies weren’t going to be the only ones late for roll call. Chad closed his eyes and groaned.
Tessa’s body, lush and soft, settled fully against his. He swallowed another groan, fighting to keep his body from reacting to her closeness. He dragged in a breath, but it smelled of her—some light floral scent and fruity shampoo. He gripped the brass railing so hard he nearly snapped it free of the elevator wall. But he wouldn’t reach for her. Even though his body hardened to the point of pain, he couldn’t give in to temptation.
Her lips brushed his throat as she murmured, “Now that’s flirting.”
Feeling her gaze on his face, Chad kept his eyes closed. He couldn’t see her this close and not lean down those few inches to press his mouth across hers, to find out if she tasted as sweet and naughty as she smelled.
She eased away and added, “And no matter what you claim, my flirting affects you.”
He opened his eyes just in time to watch her hips sway as she sashayed out of the elevator and walked across the lobby. She was right. She affected him. And he couldn’t have that—he couldn’t have her.
Chapter Three
Flirting with Lieutenant Michalski had been a bad idea. She had proved him right; she had acted recklessly. Now, after flirting shamelessly with him, she had to see him again at the CPA class. Her face warmed as she walked into class—late. She ducked her head, hoping not to draw attention to her entrance.
But Amy, the college girl, called out, “I saved your seat!” and waved her to the table at the front of the room.
“You almost missed us, Ms. Howard,” Lieutenant O’Donnell remarked from where he leaned against the officers’ table. “We were just about to leave for our tour of the department.”
Great, if she had been a little later, she could have justified leaving to the judge, if she had walked into an empty room. He would have had to let her miss this class.
“We’ll break into smaller groups to get into elevators,” O’Donnell continued. “We have sixteen citizens, now that Ms. Howard has joined us.” While Michalski, seated behind the officers’ table, stared at her in disapproval, O’Donnell winked at her. “There will be an officer with each group, so don’t worry about getting lost. And feel free to leave your academy binder and personal stuff in the room.”
Chairs creaked and voices rose in conversation and excitement over the tour. Tessa glanced down at the briefcase she had propped next to her chair. While the leather bag was heavy, it was also too important for her to risk leaving behind.
“It’ll be safe,” a deep voice assured her.
She lifted her gaze to Chad’s handsome face. Along with those gold-flecked green eyes, he had chiseled features. She sighed, disgusted that such good looks were wasted on a man with such an uptight personality. To silently challenge his claim, she raised a brow.
“You’re in a police department,” he reminded her.
“But someone pointed out last week how dangerous this area is at night.”
“Outside,” he explained. “On the streets. You’re safe in here.”
The memory of the two of them in the elevator—her body pressed against his long, lean frame—passed through her mind. She shook her head. She wasn’t safe in here—not with him. But she left her briefcase beside her chair and turned to leave the room, which had already emptied. He followed her as she walked down the hall to the elevators.
“You were late again,” he remarked disapprovingly.
“I was in the building.”
“Flirting with the chief again?”
She ignored his snarky comment, too filled with triumph and pride to be offended. “I was signing up the Lakewood PD as a client.”
Michalski grimaced with disgust. “I really thought the chief was immune to a woman’s charms.”
“I’m sure he is,” she agreed. “But, as I mentioned before, I wasn’t flirting. I offered the best service available. The fastest T1 line, reliable, accessible—”
He chuckled. “The chief gave you the account. You can stop selling now.”
“No, I can’t.” She had too many bills at home, too many responsibilities. “Not in this business.” She quickened her pace to join the rest of the class by the elevators; she did not want to wind up alone with Chad again.
“Don’t you ever slow down?” he asked as he lengthened his stride to match hers. Even in those ridiculously high heels, the woman moved as quickly as she talked. And as she drove. He sighed. “I guess I know the answer to that.” She wasn’t ever going to slow down, no matter what she learned in the class.
“Lieutenant, are you going to be our guide?” Amy asked as she batted her lashes at Chad.
Her flirting didn’t affect him like Tessa’s. Hell, Tessa got under his skin even when she wasn’t flirting. Like now, when she was all but ignoring him.
But wearing a bright red suit, with her blond hair swinging around her shoulders, she was impossible to ignore. When the elevator arrived, he stepped back, allowing the members of his group to file in first. Memories of the last time he’d shared an elevator with Tessa flashed through his mind, but he pushed them away and stepped inside the crowded car.
His group consisted of the overly enthusiastic college girl, an older Neighborhood Watch captain, Tessa and the granddaughter of the owner of the Lighthouse Bar and Grille. The Lighthouse was where most of the police department hung out before and after shifts for great food and conversation with people who actually understood the job.
During the tour, he did his best to keep his mind off Tessa. He focused instead on explaining the workings of the department, showing the 911-command room, the locker room, the gym and the roll-call room. When he brought them to the office floor, which was all but deserted this late in the evening, he stepped back. “Do you want to handle this area, Ms. Howard? You’ve been up here a few times.”
Her blue eyes narrowed in a glare. “That’s fine. I’m sure everyone—” she glanced at Amy “—would rather listen to you.”
“Lieutenant, do you have an office up here?” Amy asked. “I’d love to see where you work when you’re not out in your patrol car.”
“I just use a desk in the roll-call room, which you already saw,” Chad replied, with none of the charm Paddy had probably intended his tour guides to exhibit. But the girl’s attention unsettled Chad. While he wasn’t old enough to be her father, he felt old in comparison to her.
She was still in college although she acted younger than most of the kids he taught in the police academy at Lakewood U. She brought up memories of his crazy college days—playing hockey, frat parties, staying up all night to finish papers that should have been done earlier and would have been done earlier if he hadn’t spent all his time with Luanne. Too bad he hadn’t had more free time…
Fighting against the pressure building in his chest, he drew in a deep breath. He didn’t know why Amy had made him think of his late wife—the young girl was nothing like Luanne. Strangely, Tessa reminded him the most of Luanne, even though the two women looked nothing alike.
“Can we go back down to the weight room?” Amy asked, sticking close as he continued to show his group around the office floor. “You must use that room a lot, Lieutenant.”
Someone snorted over the girl’s flirting, probably Tessa. The snort turned into a chuckle as he quickened his step to gain some distance from the girl.
“We need to get back to the conference room now,” he said, herding the group toward the elevator. “Lieutenant O’Donnell is going to show some tapes,” he said as they waited for the car, “that’ll give you some insight into what a day in the life of an officer is like. Then you’ll have some idea of what to expect on your ride-along.”
As the elevator dinged and its doors slid open, Chad expelled a small breath of relief. He was so not tour-guide material. He owed Paddy for roping him into the job.
“Can I do my ride-along with you?” Amy asked, squeezing next to him in the elevator.
“Uh, Lieutenant O’Donnell hands out the assignments, so it’s not up to me.”
“Do we have to do the ride-along?” Tessa asked, speaking up from the other side of the elevator, which was probably as far from him as she’d been able to get without taking the stairs.
“For voluntary members of the academy, it’s voluntary,” he said and swallowed a chuckle over the anger that flashed through her blue eyes.
“Then can we put in a request for who we don’t want to do our ride-along with?” she asked with a sassy smile.
“You can try.” He fully intended to tell Paddy that Tessa was the last citizen he’d like to be paired with. As Amy shifted closer, he made a mental note to add her as the second to last.
TRY? TESSA INTENDED to get out of the ride-along entirely. She hadn’t agreed to that when she had agreed to enroll in the CPA.
“Are you mad at me?” Amy asked her as they took their seats in the conference room.
“What?”
“For flirting with Lieutenant Michalski,” she explained. “Are you and he…”
“No,” Tessa assured her. “Not at all.”
“Good.”