Free Kiss From a Rose by Michel Prince Page A

few commercial buildings in the area, they usually had at least two or three trucks here at lunch and dinner. When she was lucky a breakfast truck would park for a few hours in the morning.
    “You live around here?”
    “No, but I work in that building.”
    Marcus looked at the plain gray building, and for some reason Jenna felt ashamed. It wasn’t like she designed the damn thing.
    “Oh,” Marcus said with a tinge of disappointment.
    “Is there something wrong?”
    “You’re working today and you’ve already gotten your lunch, which means you probably only have twenty minutes left before you have to head inside.”
    “Are you a cop or a detective?”
    “All cops are detectives, but I have recently taken the exam.”
    “What area you want to…detect?”
    “Homicide, you know, the big time.” He smiled again and Jenna felt a warm flush.
    Since when could her brother pick a man for her this well? She was going to have to double down on his Christmas presents this year.
    “I know lunch hours are sacred time so please, eat. I’ll get something after you go back to work.”
    “Thank you. I probably would have forgotten about it until I went back upstairs again. It would have been my reheated afternoon snack when I got dizzy.”
    “If you’re going to get dizzy I’d prefer it be for a better reason.”
    “And what reason would that be?” Jenna asked with a slight lilt in her voice.
    ****
    Marcus eyed the brown-eyed goddess in front of him. Her white skin still had a bit of tan from the summer and her blonde hair was cut short in a bob that had her tucking the few loose strands behind her left ear. She must be adopted because there was no way this girl was related to Kurt. Her curves outlined like a river on a map—ebbs and flows he could see his fingers exploring for hours.
    Unlike most in the business world with the standard starch white shirt, Jenna was wearing a crimson shirt with a gray pencil skirt stopping a few inches up from her knee and high-heeled boots that cupped her calves in a way he wished he could.
    The only way he could see this failing would be if she suddenly decided a cop was too scary of a profession. There are those types of women. Then again if she was a Badge Bunny he’d be stepping away faster than she could tuck her stray hair behind her adorable little ear.
    Damn it, he always did this. See the adorable and miss the cray cray.
    “Well,” his southern brain took over and he leaned in a little too close. The smell of lavender and vanilla filled the air between them. “I’ve found being close to the right person at the right time can make me extremely dizzy.”
    “How’s your world right now?” she asked, then bit her bottom lip.
    “Like a tilt-a-whirl.”
    “You are nothing but game, aren’t you?”
    “I’m more than that.”
    “Really, then tell me something real, officer.”
    “I don’t want to pull back right now, but I’m a gentleman.” Marcus sat back and crossed his legs at the knee to give Jenna personal space.
    “What kind of real are you looking for?”
    “Why are you accepting set ups from Kurt?”
    “If I go to a bar I’ll end up attracting Badge Bunnies—”
    “What’s a Badge Bunny?” Jenna asked with a smirk.
    “You think celebrities are the only ones with groupies? Some women—”
    “Girls?”
    Oh, he liked Jenna’s spunk. She was right, women would not describe a Badge Bunny.
    “True, girls, get off on dating a cop. And they tend to hop around. It’s part of our benefits package.”
    “Is it because you know how to use handcuffs correctly? I hear they’re all the rage right now.”
    “Possibly. There’s a cop bar in downtown St. Paul. They crawl all over that place. If someone says you’re a cop they swarm like buzzards on a fresh carcass.”
    “Of all the analogies that’s the one you use. I can feel your disdain for them.”
    “They’re fun when you’re in your twenties and fresh out of the academy, but at some point you want