Free Lawman's Perfect Surrender by Jennifer Morey

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    “Are you all right?” he asked.
    “Yes.”
    “This isn’t how I would have planned it.” He slid out of her and pulled up his pants.
    “That’s a relief.” She reached for her crumpled sundress and stood to slip it on over her head.
    Standing two steps down, he was almost at eye-level with her. But she avoided looking at him. His heart still hammered and he noticed her taking more breaths than normal. The aftereffects lingered.
    He took her hand and that got her to look at him warily. While he was so out of sorts with what had just happened, he couldn’t leave her alone tonight.
    “Let’s get some sleep,” he said, climbing the stairs.
    He let go of her hand when he entered her bedroom.
    She avoided looking at him again as she found a nightgown and changed in her master bath. He stripped to his underwear and got under the covers. Shyly, she came to the bed and hesitated before climbing in next to him.
    “Do you want me to sleep downstairs?” he asked.
    “No.” She sounded stiff.
    He stared at the ceiling, wishing he didn’t have to be here. Something casual was fine. Out-of-control, frenzied passion was not. He didn’t want to feel that much with any woman. Not after being married once and losing it all. He wasn’t ready for anything that threatened to come close to that. For now, he just wanted to live without any attachments.
    “You don’t have to stay here if you don’t want to.”
    She’d said it because she felt she had to. A pang of guilt swarmed him. She was staring up at the ceiling, but through the shadows he saw that her face was drawn with strain, distress.
    Propping his head on his hand, he touched her chin with his fingers. She looked at him.
    “It’s not you,” he said. “I meant it when I said I wouldn’t have planned it that way. It just happened. I wasn’t expecting it, that’s all.” He hadn’t seen it coming. He hadn’t even thought to check for a D on her hip.
    “I wasn’t, either.”
    “I shouldn’t have allowed it to happen.” He slid his hand from her chin to the mattress between them. “I’m on duty.”
    “If you’re worried about me, don’t be.”
    He wasn’t convinced. “I’ll be more careful from now on.”
    “I will, too. I don’t know what came over me.”
    Lust came to his mind. Blindsiding lust. “You weren’t alone.”
    “I’m the one who took off my dress.”
    “If you hadn’t, I would have.”
    She laughed a little and he was glad for the levity.
    “Why do I keep doing that?”
    “What, taking off your dress? You do that a lot?” he teased.
    She smiled that megawatt smile of hers and he found himself enjoying her again, relaxing.
    “No.” When her smile faded, she explained, “I always act on impulse. I don’t think. As a result, I end up making mistakes. Big ones.”
    Knowing she meant her ex-husband, he didn’t take offense. If anything, he was relieved she wasn’t putting too much importance on this. He felt less cornered. He’d be able to do his job.
    If he could keep his hands off her. The way the chemistry between them had wiped his mind clean of rational thought cast some doubt.
    “How did you meet Jed?” he asked.
    “I worked in a bar. Where else do you meet losers like that? It was an upscale bar, but a bar nonetheless. I was a waitress.”
    “And he was one of your customers?”
    “Yes. He waited for my shift to get over and I went home with him. No thought. He hung around the bar after that. We started seeing more of each other. In hindsight there were things about him that bothered me, but I didn’t do anything about it. He wanted me and that was enough.”
    “Nothing stopped you from marrying him, so you did?”
    “Yes.” She rolled her head to look at him. “How did you know?”
    He shrugged. He knew people. He was a cop.
    “Did something like that happen to you?”
    And here’s when the questions started. He kept his reluctance from showing. “Not really.”
    “Something similar?”
    “It was