Cop's Passion (30 page)

“Sit down,
everyone.” Mrs Bernard shepherded them all to the sofas. “Now
Michael, you’ll have a cup of hot coffee?”

“Thank you, but
no,” he replied. “I had one down at the station before I left.”

Mrs Bernard
looked at Maddy.

“Um, sure.”
Maddy nodded. “Thanks.”

Mike sat down
on one of the two-seater sofas, his big frame barely fitting on his
side of the delicate furniture. Maddy sat next to him, perching on
the edge uneasily.

Eyes sparkling,
Belinda leaned forward. “So you know Mike?”

“He’s my
neighbour.” With a nod of thanks, Maddy took the cup of tea from
Mrs Bernard. “It’s how I first met him.”

“Just add your
own sugar and milk,” Mrs Bernard said.

Maddy started
to spoon sugar, immediately feeling the disapproval in Belinda’s
gaze as she added three teaspoons of sugar and a generous dollop of
milk to her cup.

“Just a
neighbour?” Matt raised his eyebrows at where Mike’s hand still
rested at her waist.

“We’ve been
going out.” Maddy felt the familiar blush rise in her cheeks as her
family studied her and Mike.

“I see.” Mr
Lovett picked up his cup of coffee. “You haven’t mentioned it to
us.”

“I haven’t been
around lately.” Her eyes dared Belinda and Matt to say
anything.

Matt’s gaze
narrowed, while Belinda dropped her gaze to her coffee cup.

“And we’ve been
busy.” Mike looked directly at Matt.

Uneasy, Matt
looked away. Maddy couldn’t blame him, she could just about see the
silent menace in Mike’s gaze and he wasn’t even looking at her.

“I see that
you’re a nurse,” Mrs Bernard broke into what threatened to be an
uncomfortable silence. “Been one for long, dear?”

“Ten years.”
Maddy took a sip of coffee, wishing she was anywhere but here.
Wishing her family was anywhere but here.

Unnoticed by
anyone, Mike’s fingers traced a small pattern on her lower spine
and immediately feeling his reassurance and strength, she managed
to relax a little. “This is nice coffee, Mrs Bernard.”

Mrs Bernard
smiled.

“So.” Mr Lovett
looked at Mike. “You’re a police officer.”

“Yes.” Mike’s
gaze was direct.

“Great career
options,” Mr Lovett continued.

“Dad,” Maddy
protested, knowing exactly for what he was fishing.

“Hoping to make
commissioner or something one day?” He continued, ignoring his
daughter.

“Not at all,”
Mike rumbled easily.

“Not planning
to stay in the Police Force for long, then?”

“Actually, yes,
I am.”

“Right. As
what?”

“Dad!” Maddy
protested again.

Mike’s hand
swept soothingly up her back, but his gaze remained on Mr Lovett.
“I like my job just fine. I like my life. Maddy likes me. That’s
all I care about, Mr Lovett. Got a problem with that?”

The silence in
the room was a stunned one. Mike’s blunt words hung in the air and
the Lovetts could only look at him with open mouths.

“Oh, dear,” Mrs
Bernard said faintly. “Michael, darling, that wasn’t polite.”

“Neither was
the questioning,” Mike returned. “I’m just laying it on the
line.”

“I think you’re
embarrassing Madeline.”

“Far from it.”
Maddy looked up from where she’d been studying her hands. Looking
around, her gaze met Mike’s. He regarded her steadily, his eyes
honest and direct. She smiled at him. “Feel free to continue.”

His eyes
crinkled a little in amusement as her mother murmured, “Now, dear,
don’t be difficult.”

“I like Maddy
being difficult,” Mike drawled. “It makes life so much more
interesting.” His gaze sweeping the watching faces dared them to
say anything different.

Matt glowered
but couldn’t meet his gaze for long, and Maddy could sense the
enmity coming off him.

Obviously
searching for something to say, Mrs Lovett took a sip of coffee
before saying, “I see neither of you had time to change before
coming here. Busy morning?”

“Always busy.”
Maddy placed the cup on the coffee table. “How have you been, Mum?
Dad?”

“Good.” Mr
Lovett leaned back on the sofa. “Company is doing well.” He was
watching Mike closely, trying to read something behind his
inscrutable expression.

“Glad to hear
it.”

“You could
always come on board,” Matt began.

“I’m happy
doing what I do, Matt. So how are things with you both?”

He took a sip
of coffee. “We’re doing well, aren’t we, darling?”

Belinda nodded
eagerly. “Next week we leave for Brussels. Matt’s going over there
to check in to see the new branch manager, and while he’s there I’m
going to hit the shops.”

Whoopee-ding
. Just the thought almost made Maddy’s eyes
cross. “Delightful.”

“And Jeannie is
coming, too.”

“Really?” Just
the memory of the skinny bitch almost made Maddy’s eyes cross
again.

“Yes, and - oh,
here she is now.” Belinda sprang to her feet.

Maddy glanced
around as Mrs Bernard got to her feet.

“Jeannie!” Mrs
Bernard gestured to her. “Your step brother and his friend are
here.”

Step-brother?
Maddy’s heart fell. Jeannie Bernard, of course. Bernard. Jeannie
Bernard must be Mrs Bernard’s stepdaughter, making her Mike’s
stepsister.

The stepsister
she’d thrown out of her home.

Oh shit, if
Mike knew, what would he do? Say?

As though Mike
felt the sudden tension in her, his hand stilled on her back and he
sat up straight, his gaze going from her suddenly ashen face to
Jeannie’s face.

Jeannie
air-kissed Mrs Bernard before sitting next to Belinda. Every line
of her dress skimmed her slim curves and she looked regal, elegant
and effortlessly stylish.

Looking at her,
Maddy felt overweight and under-dressed, which, she silently
thought to herself, was all correct.

“Jeannie.” Mike
nodded to her, but there was no affection in his tone or face.

“Michael.”
Jeanne nodded back to him but her gaze was fixed on Maddy. “Well,
we meet again.

If Jeannie was
waiting for an apology, she could wait until Hell froze over. Maddy
arched a brow at her. “We do.”

“You’ve also
met?” Mrs Bernard gave a tinkling laugh. “If I’d only known. It’s
like a reunion here!”

Mike’s shoulder
was suddenly against hers as he sat forward, his elbows resting on
his knees. “You two have met?” His proximity was comforting and
supportive.

“At my house,
yes.” Maddy looked at Belinda. “Jeannie and Belinda came calling.
We had an interesting conversation.”

Belinda smiled
nervously.

Jeannie picked
up a delicate biscuit and took a small bite. “Not a very gracious
conversation, if we must be frank.”

Oh boy.
“Probably not the best conversation to have right now, either”
Maddy said.

“I agree. It
wasn’t the most polite conversation of the year, but then, we don’t
want to go into your details, do we?” She turned smoothly to
Belinda. “So darling, tell me all about Brussels.”

Relieved at the
diversion of unpleasantness, Belinda started to tell her about the
planned trip.

Mr Lovett
looked between Maddy and Jeannie in puzzlement.

Mrs Lovett
shook her head at him before engaging Mrs Bernard in
conversation.

“Well,” Mike
said quietly in Maddy’s ear, “Care to fill me in?”

“Not really.”
Maddy reached for a biscuit.

Jeannie paused
to glance pointedly from the biscuit to Maddy.

“Don’t worry,”
Mike said after a pause. “I think I can guess.”

She could feel
the anger in him. “Really?”

“Oh, yeah. I
know Jeannie.”

Maddy leaned
close to whisper in his ear, “My condolences. I know my
family.”

He turned and
whispered back, “My condolences.”

They grinned at
each other.

“How about we
get that box and blow this joint?” Mike suggested.

The idea held
more appeal by the second. “Fabulous idea.”

Mrs Bernard
wasn’t so happy, but Maddy’s family seemed a little relieved. Maddy
gave her mother a polite kiss goodbye, nodded to her father and
accompanied Mike to the store room.

“So.” Kneeling
beside the box, he looked into it. “Want to talk about
Jeannie?”

“Want me to get
heartburn?”

“I take that as
a no?”

“Correct.”

He glanced up
at her. “If she was going on about your weight, ignore her. Jeannie
has no satisfaction in life and the only thing she can control is
her weight. That makes her a sad case.”

“You have to
admit, she looks better in clothes.” Maddy said it half jokingly,
but she couldn’t hide the wistfulness in her tone.

“Don’t you dare
let her snide comments get to you.” Mike’s eyes flashed. “And I’m
betting your family issues are to do with the same thing.”

“How did you
guess?” Genuinely surprised, she looked at him.

Catching her
hand, he pulled her down so that she knelt beside him. “Just a
hunch that you proved correct.” Slipping his hand around her nape,
he drew her forward so that their foreheads rested together and
they were looking into each other’s eyes. “Is that why you were so
reluctant to get into my bed fully naked?”

“Um…what do you
mean?” Guiltily, she dropped her gaze.

“No, look at
me.” When she reluctantly obeyed, he gazed steadily at her.
“There’re no secrets between us, Maddy. I knew there was something
wrong.”

“What are you,
a mind reader?”

“No. But Cindy
is pretty easy to blackmail.”

Her eyes
widened. “She told you? That push-over!”

Mike chuckled.
“But obviously you got over your shyness long before she spilt the
beans to me. And for that, Maddy Lovett, I admire you.”

She surveyed
him warily. “What else did she tell you?”

“Not much, but
if ever Robert crosses my path, I’ll ream him a new one.”

Mortified, she
closed her eyes. “I’m going to kill her.”

“You can’t kill
good friends, it’s not polite.” His tone warming, he pressed a
light kiss to her nose. “I’m glad you didn’t let your fears come
between us.”

“Cindy is
pretty persuasive.”

He frowned,
even though his eyes twinkled. “You mean it wasn’t my manly
physique? My handsomeness? My big donger?”

“Mike!” She
slapped his arm, half laughing, half anxious as she glanced over
his shoulder. “Your mother might hear.”

“She’s gone
back to her guests.”

“How do you
know?”

“Because she’d
never be impolite enough to leave them for long.” His arm slid
around her waist and his smile was decidedly wicked. “Just as it
would be impolite of me not to remind you of how much your body
turns me on.”

One calculated
tug and she fell into his arms. He twisted and pulled her beneath
him, and she laughed and struggled. “No, Mike! Good God, not
here!”

“Aw, come on,
Maddy. Just a little slap and tickle?” He caught her face between
his hands and kissed her deeply, lifting his head to allow her to
catch a breath while he licked his lips. “Mmmm, yummy. I can’t wait
to taste other lips.”

“Mike!”

“All that cream
for me.” His eyes glinted darkly. “I can slip my tongue deep
and-”

Clapping her
hand over his mouth, she blushed while half laughing. “Not here in
your mother’s house.”

“I wasn’t going
to.” He grinned. “Running around naked in front of my mother and
your family is not a turn-on. I want to run after you when it’s
just us two. Now that’s more fun. I can take you anywhere I want
then, over the table, the sofa, the-”

Slapping her
hand over his mouth again, Maddy struggled to a sitting position.
“Stop it.”

Mike’s hand
slid up her thigh as he moved with her, coming up onto his knees
either side of her thighs. His grin was so hedonistic that her
heart bumped hard and her panties - oh lord, they were getting
damp. “This is not the place for it.”

“I agree.”
Leaning forward, he kissed her lightly. “Let’s ditch this place, go
home, and boink like bunnies.”

She laughed.
“You? Boink like a little, fluffy bunny?”

“A big bunny,
then.”

“A big,
demented bunny.”

A loud throat
clearing sounded, and Maddy tipped her head back to see her
brother, Jeannie and Belinda in the doorway. Matt looked annoyed,
Jeannie smirked, and Belinda was blushing.

Not caring one
whit and showing it quite clearly, Mike winked at Maddy. “It’s a
date, then, hot stuff.”

Normally she
would have curled up and just died, but Mike’s brazenness simply
made her sense of the outrageous come to the fore. Not one to back
down, Maddy allowed him to pull her to her feet, and when he
slipped an arm around her waist from behind and leaned his chin on
the top of her head, she arched her brow at her brother. “Problem,
Matt?”

“Just came to
check that everything was all right.” Matt scowled at her

“Just dandy, as
you can see.” Bending her leg, she ran her foot up the inside of
Mike’s calf. “Even better when we get home.”

Matt glared at
her while Belinda bit her lip.

Jeannie ran a
scathing glance over Maddy, which she met with a raised
eyebrow.

Behind her she
could feel Mike’s tension and she knew he was waiting for his
stepsister to say one word, any word. Oops, it would be better if
she got in first.

“Well,
Jeannie,” she purred. “I have curves enough for any man but as you
can see, they’re all for Mike. He likes something to hang onto.”
Leaning back against him, she smiled sultrily. “I can take some of
the rough stuff, and the tender stuff, and you know what? As long
as Mike likes me the way I am, and as long as I like the way I am,
I don’t give a rats arse what anyone else thinks.”

Jeannie’s mouth
curled in disdain. “Keep fooling yourself. Every woman secretly
wants to be slim, and so does every man wish it.”