“Ugh. Stop right there,” Jess said putting her hands over her ears. “I don’t want to hear any more.” She cast a look back and forth between Logan and Abby and smiled. “It’s been a pleasure to meet you, Abby. I think you’ll be a fascinating addition to the McCabe family. Now, I’m going to go introduce myself to your daughter. I’m an honorary aunt after all. Maybe I could teach her to shoot, or…whatever. Now you two play nice.” She dragged Declan away, leaving him alone with Abby.
Turning to face him, she stabbed a finger in his chest. “Did you have to tell them that?”
“Ashamed of me?”
“No, I’m not goddamned ashamed of you. Just because I don’t want the whole world to know that you spent your year in prison jacking off to some perverted image of me does not mean I’m ashamed.”
“Hey, hardly perverted.” He shrugged. “Okay, a few might get a little risqué but I’ll work up to them slowly.”
“Shut. Up.”
“Temper, temper.”
She gritted her teeth. “You’re just so…aggravating.”
“I know. Let’s go get you another drink.” He waved toward her empty glass. “I think it’s actually loosening you up a little.”
Her jaw clenched tighter. She was in a temper. He liked it. “I do not need loosening up.”
“Have another drink anyway, sergeant.” He led her across the room, took her glass from her limp fingers and sniffed it, then mixed her a vodka tonic, added ice and lemon, and gave it back to her.
“And will you drop the sergeant crap,” she said, taking a huge gulp. “I love what I do, and I’m not ashamed of it. And I’m not going to try to justify it to you lot just because your dad used to be a totally dodgy bastard.”
His lips twitched. “Okay.”
“Okay?”
He shrugged. The fact was he used it to remind himself of what she was, so he wouldn’t get too caught up in the whole fantasy thing and get carried away. She was a copper with a perfection complex. He was an ex-con who liked things messy. There could never be anything between them except a brief sexual fling. Having said that, he wasn’t ready to let go yet. The last few days had made that abundantly clear. He was back to jacking off to fantasies of her, and yeah, maybe they were getting a little perverted. Last night’s had involved handcuffs. And it was weird, because if he’d ever considered the whole bondage thing, then it would have been him doing the tying up. But there he’d been, handcuffed to the bed, with Sergeant Abby Parker, naked except for her police hat, riding him hard. He had a twinge and shifted.
“What are you thinking?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
Jesus, he was a mess. In some ways it would be easier if he could just go and slake his bothersome urges with a more convenient, less complicated woman…or two…and relegate Abby to the role of mother-of-his-daughter. But no one else interested him. Only her.
“Well?” she prompted.
“You really don’t want to know.”
“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want to know.”
He leaned in close. “Well…I was imagining you had me handcuffed to my bed and your tight little pussy was wrapped around my cock. I was at your mercy…and I was fucking loving it.”
Her eyes widened, darkening, and she swallowed then glanced around. “Shut up,” she muttered.
He followed her gaze and realized they were the center of attention. “Why,” he said. “Do you like the idea?” But she was probably right. This was not the time or the place. And he needed to resist the urge to wind her up when Jenny was around. He didn’t want their daughter to pick up on any conflict between him and Abby.
She smoothed her hands down the sides of her pants. “I want this to work with Jenny,” she said. “She’s already fond of you, and there’s no going back. So somehow we need to find a way to make it work between us two as well.”
She was voicing his own thoughts, so he’d back off at this point. But the truth was, he wasn’t ready to let go of his fantasies yet. He’d have to find a way to get her alone, though he suspected she’d be on her guard now. “I know,” he said. “And we will. Let’s go see how she’s doing. I’d rather not leave her alone with Jess too long.”
“Why?”
“She’s a bad influence.”
Chapter Ten
The party had left Abby down and depressed, and by Wednesday she still hadn’t managed to shake the effects. She wasn’t sure why and was a little scared to investigate her feelings too deeply.
She suspected that she might be a teensy bit jealous of her own daughter. Logan’s family had all been so welcoming. And she was happy about that, really she was. If anything happened to her, the weight of looking after Jenny wouldn’t all fall on her mum. Jenny had another family now, who’d made it more than clear that they were delighted to have her in the fold. Judith had even asked Jenny over to New York in the summer, which had pissed Abby off, as she should have checked with her first before issuing the invitation.