Free The Officer Says "I Do" by Jeanette Murray Page B

of her back and pulled her against him roughly, letting her feel exactly what her actions had brought him to. Total desperation. His tongue swept in, tasting her in a way he never thought he would, never dreamed was possible. Even his own vibrant imagination couldn’t have known how sweet she would feel. Her groan of satisfaction vibrated through them, through the physical connection, and only spurred him on in the worst decision of his life.
    Ironic, really, that the worst things always felt so damn good.
    She took a nip out of his bottom lip and soothed the sting with a lick.
    “God, Jeremy, you kiss even better than I thought you would,” she breathed.
    That was what sucked him out of the rabbit hole he’d willingly jumped into. Her lips breathing his name. He tore his head back to escape her kisses, but thanks to leaning against the brick wall, it only resulted in intense pain as the back of his head slammed into the hard surface.
    “Fuck!” He saw stars and let go of Madison to cradle his throbbing head and doubled over at the waist. His vision tunneled for a moment, bright pinpricks of light floating in the blackness. Light, cool fingers pulled his hands down, and his senses started to come back.
    “No, don’t stand up yet. You’re too tall. Stand still.”
    “Madison, it’s fine. Stop—ow!” He jerked up and stumbled back a step.
    “Stop being a baby and get back here.” When he didn’t move closer, she sighed and rolled her eyes. “I’m a nurse, remember? I do this for a living. It’s probably fine, but I just want to check for my peace of mind.”
    He gently brushed his fingers over the growing bump and looked at them, then held them forward for inspection. “No blood, no broken skin. It’s fine.” She leaned close, and he took another step back. When she raised her eyebrows in an amused gesture, he felt his temper rise. “Honestly, it’s fine.”
    She threw up her hands in exasperation. “Fine. You’re fine. I’m fine. We’re all fine .” Her gaze grew sultry, and she took another step forward, which he countered with another backward step. “So can we get back to being fine together?”
    “Uh, no.” And cue the awkward conversation. “Listen, Madison. I know you’ve had a lot to drink and all, so I can just forget it ever happened.” Which was a total lie. If he lived to be a hundred and twelve, he’d remember what it felt like to have her taut body pressed up against his in a clear What are you waiting for? invitation.
    “Forget it ever happened,” she repeated slowly.
    Christ, this was awful. “Yeah. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”
    “Embarrassed.” Her eyes had lost their coy seductiveness, her face now a blank canvas. Acid roiled in his gut.
    “Right. So, let’s just go in and get some coffee, okay?” Before I toss you against the wall and finish what you started and then hate myself for the rest of my life.
    “Coffee.” She shook her head, eyes wide. “I can’t believe this. Are you serious?”
    He rubbed a hand across his neck. He wasn’t sure what he was anymore. “I mean, it’s just that… we just can’t…” He lifted his hands, then let them fall down by his sides helplessly. Where was the shovel? Clearly he wasn’t in deep enough yet.
    “We can’t. Well. We could two minutes ago when you had your hands on my ass,” she pointed out smugly.
    “I shouldn’t have done that. We shouldn’t have done that. And now we’re going to go back in that bar, have coffee, and move on. Because this”—he waved his arms at the brick wall they’d been leaning up against not five minutes earlier—“didn’t happen.”
    She stared at him a second longer, then turned on her heel and stalked to the door. After taking a deep breath, he hustled after her. But when he reached around her to open the door, she wrenched it open hard enough to bang him on the shoulder.
    “Fuck,” he muttered as she walked down the hallway. His shoulder throbbed in time