Disorderly Conduct (The Academy #1)

“Stop. I’m still recovering.” She sniffs. “That was the day I learned the meaning of smattering. As in, a smattering of applause.”

I make a sympathetic noise, but I’m battling a smile. “Speaking of YouTube, I bet your performance is on the Internet somewhere . . .”

“Assaulting a police officer is a felony, Charlie. Don’t force my hand.” There’s no heart in her threat, especially because she’s rolling our foreheads together, her fingers tangling in the ends of my hair. Does she realize what she’s doing? I don’t know, but I can no more stop her than I could screech the Earth’s rotation to a halt. My dick is rock hard because, hello, Ever isn’t wearing pants, but I’ve managed to keep my hips angled away, trying to keep this whole situation innocent. But she’s gravitating toward me. Or maybe we’re just being pulled like magnets, so I need to find a distraction soon.

“Hey.” I nudge her forehead. “I’ll buy you a drink if you show me some ‘Jenny from the Block.’ Right here, right now.”

Her arms drop from around my neck, head tilting, a single eyebrow lifting. Sexy as all get out. A fantasy I should let go of, but doing so feels fucking impossible. Feels wrong. “Are you daring me, Officer?”

I cross my arms over the invisible gash in my chest. “Double dare.” She gasps and my belt seems to tighten, so I drop a few lyrics from the song to get her moving, earning another laugh. “Let’s go, fly girl. This is your moment.”

She does some moves I recognize from the music video . . . and it’s glorious. People stop to watch her dance, chuckling into their drinks. Ever doesn’t pay any of them a hint of attention, though, she’s focused on me like we’re sharing the world’s greatest joke. We . . . are, aren’t we? It hits me like a cab speeding toward a green light. Now that I’ve stopped trying to be her friend for the wrong reasons, we actually have a chance to be real friends. Not the kind I’d been angling for—friends with benefits—but buddies who laugh and talk about the past without judgment.

Only, there’s not a chance in hell I could spend time with Ever like this. Not without wanting my mouth on every inch of her skin. Not without wanting her beneath me, moaning, telling me where it feels good.

And I can’t have both. Not if the job comes first. She deserves to come first, no questions asked. I can’t give that to her. I can’t give her friendship, can’t be her lover . . . I can’t give her anything.

She stops dancing, looking at me funny. “Charlie?”

“Ever,” I murmur, well aware that she can’t hear me, but unable to raise my voice any higher. So I gesture for her to come closer, so I can disappoint her again. Will this be the last time? Jesus. “Cutie, I—”

That’s when all hell breaks loose.





Chapter 19





Ever


Charlie is giving me the strangest look. I don’t know what it means, but I’m positive it’s going to pop this bubble we’re floating in. Demolish it. When he walked out onto the dance floor, his presence was just a given. Of course he was there. I’d wanted it so badly, he’d just appeared. I’ve been short sighted and delusional, thinking I could go out for a girl’s night and forget how much I miss him. Maybe we could be friends. Maybe it was worth the heartache of knowing he couldn’t, wouldn’t, give me more.

Because yeah, my heart? She is aching. Like a son-of-a-bitch.

In my entire life, there hadn’t been a single person—not even my girlfriends—who made me comfortable enough to throw my arms around their neck. To just know they would welcome it. And they would feel great. So warm and eager to hold me back. Charlie is the person who demands holding, demands it from the very bottom of my soul and I can tell, I can tell by the way he’s looking at me . . . it can’t last. For some reason, he showed up here, but it wasn’t to profess his feelings. Or tell me we could be more than friends. That much I know.

There’s no time to examine his odd expression or what it means, though, because a commotion breaks out behind me. I have this cycle of déjà vu. As though I’d seen this moment play out, but my consciousness had stolen it away until the consequences were too late. It’s Nina. I can hear her. She’s yelling. A man is shouting back.

Charlie’s expression goes from indiscernible to straight panic. He lunges forward, but I’m already whirling around, berating myself for forgetting Nina’s ex was here. Dammit, dammit, dammit.

Someone pushes me from the left and I stumble a little, but the crowd is packed so tight, I bounce off another body in short order. People were dancing a moment ago, but the shouting has brought them to a standstill, their necks craning to catch the action. I hear a frantic Charlie calling my name behind me, but I keep weaving through the sweaty bodies, focused on making it to Nina.

I finally see her. The man she was dancing with before now stands between her and the ex-boyfriend, but he’s laughing, like her distress is a game. She’s crying, another girl is attempting to drag away Nina’s ex. It’s a scene and a half, and I need to get my friend out of there. Pronto. So we can wince over this at brunch tomorrow morning, none the worse for wear.

But when I’ve almost reached Nina, her ex reaches over the mediator’s shoulder, shoving her back a step. Outrage makes everything in my line of vision bright, bright white. I shout my roommate’s name and I’m within reaching distance, when the mediator turns and two-hand pushes Nina’s ex. Hard. He reels, falling back on his haunches before surging to his feet. Fists start flying and all at once, it’s like everyone in the vicinity is fed a rage supplement. There’s pushing on both sides of me. Yelling. The music stops. The lights come up.

An elbow hits me in the ribs and I stumble, the breath knocked from my lungs. An arm wraps around my waist, though, keeping me upright.

“Ever.” Charlie’s reassuring voice warms my ear, but it’s laced with the same panic I saw douse his features moments earlier. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I nod, reaching out and grasping Nina’s wrist, tugging her close. “I’m fine. Nina, are you all right?”

She turns wide eyes on the crowd, obviously shocked by the pushing, the mayhem growing worse by the second as people start to get nervous and rush for the exits. “Yeah, I think so. I don’t know what happened—”

“Hey. I’m going to get you guys out of here. Now,” Charlie interrupts, his voice calm, eyes focused on me. “Don’t you dare run off on me like that. Not ever again.”