Elle Kennedy
was watching her with another man, at least he could keep an eye on her while he was here. Make sure she didn’t get plastered and do something stupid, like the lieutenant.
Yeah, that’s why you’re sticking around, a small voice taunted.
Fine, so maybe a part of him was hoping Shelby would get plastered and do him.
A guy could dream, after all.
14
Heat of the Moment
Chapter Two
Can you ever see her going for kinky sex, or hell, a threesome?
Shelby kept running the words over and over again in her head, wondering if she’d somehow imagined them. It was hard enough to think in this sweltering heat—add to that a shot of tequila and you got one struggling-to-function brain.
But no, she couldn’t have imagined it. She’d heard Garrett and Carson, loud and clear, as they’d discussed her. Scratch that—as they’d discussed all the reasons to not have sex with her.
It really was quite insulting, that they’d been indulging in locker room talk about her in her place of business. And yet a part of her was…flattered. Jeez, what was wrong with her? How could she possibly be flattered by the fact that Garrett and his buddy thought she was vanilla?
At least it answered the question she’d been asking herself the past year. John Garrett didn’t want to sleep with her because apparently she wasn’t wild enough for him.
Oh, she knew he liked her. He’d made that pretty clear during his chat with Carson.
But he also made it clear that he thought she was sweet. Not sweet, as in “man, she’s got a sweet ass” but sweet as in “I don’t want to fuck her because she’s obviously a huge prude in the sack”.
“I am not a prude,” she mumbled to herself.
“What was that, hon?”
Her head jerked up and she realized Paul was beside her again. “Oh. Nothing. I didn’t say anything,” she lied, suddenly wishing this man would just disappear.
One of the other officers was throwing up in the café restroom, so she’d let the lieutenant use the bathroom in the upstairs apartment, where she’d lived for the past two years. Paul’s absence had allowed her to eavesdrop on Garrett’s conversation, but now she kind of wished she’d never been nosy enough to lurk in the doorway. The last thing a
15
Elle Kennedy
woman wanted to hear was that the man she had the hots for didn’t think she was wild enough for him.
“So what do you say we kick all these losers out and go upstairs?”
Okay, so maybe that was the last thing a woman wanted to hear.
She shot the lieutenant a pointed look. “What would your wife have to say about that?”
He looked startled for a moment, then glanced down at the gold wedding band on his left hand as if remembering it was there. Uh, yeah, buddy, maybe take the ring off before you try to hit on a woman who isn’t your wife.
“My wife and I are actually separated,” Paul said quickly.
Yeah right.
“I’m sure the separation must be very painful for you,” Shelby said politely.
“So, the going upstairs idea…” He looked at her with a hopeful expression.
She just stared at him.
The hope dissipated like a puff of smoke. “Right.” He shrugged. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
She opened her mouth to retort that, yes, she could blame a guy for trying, especially a married one, but he scurried off before she could speak.
Trying not to roll her eyes, Shelby watched as Paul ambled into the café, muttered something to the officer he’d arrived with, then left her establishment without a backwards glance.
“Jerk,” she muttered to herself.
“Please tell me you had something to do with Lieutenant Asshole running off like that.” Carson Scott appeared in the doorway, grinning.
“You guys call him Lieutenant Asshole?” she said with a laugh.
“Either that, or Sleazebag Paul. It’s hard to pick one, seeing as he’s both an ass and a sleaze. We tend to alternate.”
Shelby peered past Carson’s impossibly broad shoulders, trying to catch a glimpse of Garrett. Apparently the game had ended, because most of the men in the other room were 16
Heat of the Moment
pushing back their chairs and heading for the door. A few approached the doorway, poking their heads in and thanking her for opening up the bakery. She just smiled, waved and wondered where the hell Garrett had run off to. Probably to find a woman who was into kinky sex and threesomes.
Too bad. Because if he’d ever bothered to ask her, he might be surprised to know that she was exactly that kind of woman. Just because she’d never acted out any of her fantasies didn’t mean she didn’t have ’em.
“So we’re taking off,” Carson was saying. “But we thought we’d help you clean up a bit before we left. Garrett took the beer bottles out to the recycling bin. I came in here to get a rag so I could wipe down the tables.”