Free Dark Blue (South Island PD Book 1) by Ranae Rose Page B

sharks.”
    Her attitude toward the ticket boggled the mind. He was used to being argued with, pleaded with and cursed at. Belle didn’t lower herself to any of those levels. Hell, she’d just paid him a compliment.
    One that made him feel ten feet tall, even sitting down.
    When their dinner arrived, they left the conversation about Sanders behind.
    Instead, they talked about things that didn’t quell his appetite: the rebuilding of an iconic island pier, how Belle’s parents had downsized as empty-nesters, moving to Summerville, and what her brothers had ended up doing with their lives.
    Jackson didn’t have much to say when it came to family. He was an only child, and his mother’s liver had given out years ago after a lifetime of drug use. His father was in prison. He skirted those details with small talk, bringing up how horrible traffic would be the first weekend in September, during the annual South Island Fest.
    It was all normal stuff, and he was more than happy to discuss it with her. Just hearing her voice and watching her lips move was a pleasure. But it wasn’t what he really wanted to talk to her about.
    He wanted to ask her why she’d changed her mind about him, why she’d agreed to this date and whether she was glad she had. She was obviously aware that he’d changed – done something with his life – since they’d last met, and he wanted to know whether it was enough to make him desirable to her, for more than just sex.
    He suspected it might be, since she’d obviously been uncomfortable the other night when she’d thought that was what he’d shown up looking for. If she didn’t want that, why would she agree to go out with him unless it was to pursue what they hadn’t years ago: something more than just a half-night stand.
    Despite the logic of his reasoning, he wanted to hear her say it – to know for sure.
    Because every word she spoke and every look she gave him stirred a growing hunger, one that food didn’t diminish. She was back, and he was certain: she was even lovelier than when she’d left. He wanted her for real this time, with strings attached.
    He wanted the chance to truly make her his, not just to make himself her first.

CHAPTER 8
     
     
     
    Belle slipped off her sandals after dinner and left them in the sand, just in front of the dunes that separated the beach from the parking lot that stretched beyond it. Jackson took his shoes off too, and together, they walked the same beach they’d admired during dinner.
    It was dusk and the sky was a steely grey streaked with shell pink and fiery orange. All those colors reflected on the water, shifting and glittering here and there as the day died. The sand was starting to cool, and little crabs skittered across its surface, ghost-like.
    They walked without talking for a while, but it wasn’t silence. Noise was all around them: the crashing, rushing surf and the wind in their hair. A few locks had escaped from her knot, and they whipped around her face. Jackson’s strawberry blond hair had been cropped so short that the breeze barely affected it.
    It’d been a little longer back when she’d known him before, but the short cut suited him. It was masculine and carefully shaped, just like his body.
    He’d always been big and broad shouldered, but he’d definitely filled out. Lots of cops lifted weights, and he was clearly no different. Just looking at his muscles made her want to reach out and touch them, feel how firm they were.
    She fantasized about that as they walked along, just out of the water’s reach. Meanwhile, she watched him so closely that she noticed the moment he stopped in his tracks.
    When he turned to face her, her heart picked up pace. The evening light didn’t dull his eyes a bit.
    “I’m glad you called,” he said, his gaze locked with hers. “I don’t know what made you change your mind, but I’m glad you did.”
    “What do you mean, change my mind?”
    “I made you uncomfortable when I stopped by