Force of Attraction (10 page)

Cole looked quickly away. She didn't want Hugo to get wind of her nervousness about the Weave before he'd even tried it. Maybe she'd wait until tomorrow to introduce it.

Cole glanced back over her shoulder, expecting to see Yardley rounding the corner of the building at any second. She would be expecting perfection. So far, no one was watching them.

She bent down and unclipped Hugo's leash. “I know you don't understand most of what I'm going to tell you but this is important. We have work to do. Important work.” She pulled a ball with a jingle bell inside, his favorite toy, from her pocket. “You get this if you try very hard.”

Hugo sat up and barked. He sounded ferocious but she recognized that this was his happy bark. She gave him a pat. “
Gute Hund.
Come on, let's see what you've got.”

Hugo bounded a few steps away from her and barked happily.

Cole was sweating by the time she and Hugo had cleared the A-frame, the Ring Jump, and the Pause Table, and not from exertion. She kept expecting Yardley and/or Scott to pop up. Where could they be and what were they doing?

*   *   *

Yardley and Scott had been watching Cole and Hugo from a viewing space inside the kennel barn. Yardley didn't want to spook Cole but she needed to access the younger woman's ability to handle her K-9 in the ring.

To her credit, Cole was working Hugo through the course with the skill of someone who was familiar with ring work. Hugo, in turn, seemed to be delighted by the challenge. Though it was obvious he wasn't familiar with every obstacle, he seemed game to try. With concerted effort, they just might pull off their end.

So now, to kick-start the other half of the team.

She turned on Scott suddenly. “What the hell were you thinking? Agreeing to work with your ex? How many kinds of stupid are you?”

That backed him up, as it was meant to. He had been staring out the window at Cole with every thought in his head reflected in his expression.

But he switched effortlessly to good cop mode, and smiled. “Officer Jamieson and I are professionals. It's about the needs of the task force. Nikki's very talented. I'd not seen her work Hugo in the field but I can tell—”

Yardley held up a hand. “You can't tell me about what you don't know, Agent. As for the rest, you need to shut it down. Or have you already told her?”

Scott's charming smile faded. “Told her what, ma'am?”

“The reason for that dopey look on your face every time you gaze at Officer Jamieson?”

His eyes narrowed. “Nikki's not in the mood to listen to me at the moment.”

“Cole's a good K-9 officer. In a few years she'll be great. You undermine her confidence in herself. You're the reason she's not at her best today.”

Scott looked like she'd thrown a bucket of ice water over his head. But, again, he recovered quickly. “Okay. Maybe we've still got unresolved issues.”

“That maybe and a dollar won't even buy you a cup of coffee these days. You hurt her once. You're capable of doing that again. That's why she's put you behind her.”

Scott looked away, genuine anger tightening his jaw this time. “Right.”

Yardley was silent for a moment. If she didn't set this up properly, she'd destroy any chance of them pulling off their assignment. “The first relationship was on your terms. Don't bother to deny that. You know how that turned out. What would be different this time?”

Scott sent Yardley a glance that had nothing to do with attraction. It was a “get the fuck out of my face” reaction. But he didn't act on it. “I've changed.”

Well, damn and good for him. But she couldn't let him off the hook on one step forward.

“Take a second and feel nice about yourself, Agent. And then realize everybody changes. Before you make another mistake, be certain you like the woman Officer Jamieson has become—not the person you think you remember.”

Scott's jaw worked for a moment. She decided not to give him the chance to ruin his admirable self-control. “I don't like being in the middle of anyone's personal business. But you brought this hot mess to me. So suck it up and tell me. Can you two work this out in a week?”

His anger suddenly dried up, reshaping into concern that softened his expression. “Whatever happens, Nikki's not to blame. I pushed for this. I'll take the weight for making it work.”

“Don't waste your breath on me. Go get shit done. For starters, that woman out there you knew as Nikki?” She hooked a thumb toward the window. “She calls herself Cole.”

Yardley turned and quickly walked away. She'd probably given him too much to think about too soon, but she didn't have time for subtlety.

God, she hoped he was as much of a quick study on relationships as he was on anger management. But when a man's heart was in a struggle with his pride?

“Damn you, John Lattimore. I will get even with you for this one.”

 

CHAPTER EIGHT

Cole entered the women's barracks at Harmonie Kennels to hear Hugo growling low in his throat. Her gaze went instantly to the shadowy figure sitting at the table at the far end of the common room. Her free hand moved to her waist until she remembered she wasn't wearing her weapon.

“Where the hell have you been?” The cranky male voice was familiar.

“Scott?” She reached for the nearest light switch.

Scott occupied a chair on the far side of a small table while Hugo stood guard on the opposite side, tracking him with the single-mindedness he reserved for cornered suspects.

Cole's lips twitched. “Hugo, what's that you've cornered? A
schmutzige Ratte
?” She glanced at Scott. “That's German for ‘dirty rat.'”

Hugo came to his feet, barking his agreement.

Scott stood up. “Very funny. Now call him off.”

“Hugo.
Lass es
.”

Hugo looked disappointed at the command to leave the intruder alone. He turned and came readily toward her, but looked back several times at his would-be prey.

Amused, Cole deposited her bag of groceries on the counter then retrieved a ball from her pocket, bouncing it toward Hugo. “
Gute Hund. So ist brav
.”

When Hugo had caught and bounded away to play with his reward, she turned to Scott. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.” He rolled his shoulders. “While I waited I thought you might have something to munch on. I had just found your chips when Batman there took exception to my presence. Don't you ever keep his kennel door shut?”

“That would defeat the purpose of having a guard dog. Still, you seem to be in one piece.” She looked him up and down, ignoring the wave of super self-awareness that seemed to be part of her every encounter with him. “I'd say you got off lucky.”

Scott glanced at Hugo, who was chomping so hard on his toy the jingle bell inside tinkled constantly. “We were actually negotiating pretty well until I ran out of chips.”

“That's when he cornered you?” Cole bit her lip.

“What's so funny? He could have taken a chunk out of me at any second.”

“I'm not laughing.” But Cole had to press a hand to her lips to keep back the chuckles bubbling up inside her.

“You're enjoying this.” He scowled at her, a decidedly sexy scowl that she remembered all too well.

She nodded, trying to hold in a breath that escaped in soft puffs of humor.

“It's not funny. Well, maybe it is a little.” He cracked a smile. “Don't tell Yardley about this.”

“What? That I found you hiding behind the kitchen table like a little girl afraid of a mouse?”

“You're enjoying this entirely too much.” He tried to maintain a scowl but her laugher was infectious. Before long his dimples popped into view. “I had almost forgotten your laugh. Your whole face lights up.”

Cole sent him a sidelong glance. “Don't make too much of it.”

“Why?”

“Because, just don't.”

Their gazes met, hers turned a deeper blue than usual, as if something had disturbed those depths and brought up shadows of things past. Maybe she was remembering how much they once laughed together, often in bed. In bed, nothing mattered but them. In bed they were perfect.

One glorious second his dick sprang to life along with the sudden urge to capture her laughter in his mouth. He longed to scoop her up, slam and lock the door, and carry her to the nearest horizontal surface where he could screw his wife until they were both too exhausted to move.

My ex-wife. And I can't touch her. Can't do any of the sexy nasty things streaming though my mind.

A man who lived his professional life observing and making split-second judgments about the emotional status of others, Scott clocked the exact moment she began to read his thoughts. Her eyes widened and her lips parted in a soft expression of alarm mingled with resistance.

He looked away first, not because she intimidated him. The exact opposite. If she saw more deeply into the dark dangerous desires swirling through him, she would refuse to continue to work with him. And who could blame her?

So, he slammed the door on his libido and put his emotions on lockdown before he put his hands on her.

All he had left was a jittery anxiety he channeled into the most useful emotion he could find. Anger.

“This is not a game.” He gestured toward Hugo. “How the hell do you expect Hugo to accept me when hostility rolls off you as regularly as waves on the shore?” Lust to anger in less than three seconds. A new record for him.

She didn't back down. She crossed her arms. “I'm not hostile.”

He took a few steps toward her. “You hate my guts. Admit it. Stands to reason Hugo isn't going to cuddle up to me.”

Cole bit the inside of her lip. He was pushing harder than the moment seemed to call for. “Are you finished?”

“I haven't begun.”

“Then this isn't going to work.”

“Oh, it will work.” He paused before her, reaching out to tug the end of the ponytail slung forward over her shoulder. “But you're going to have to warm up to me. For the sake of the operation.”

Cole jerked her gaze away. Warm up? She was much too hot already with him just standing so close.

The deep dark secret that had kept her awake for hours each night since Scott had reentered her life was that the connection between them hadn't eroded during the past two years. She might resent him, blame him for ruining everything, have every sane reason to distrust him. Yet their bodies still knew each other. The attraction held. Easy for him to make light of it. Impossible for her.

When she looked up again he had moved away from her. Was, in fact, peering into the grocery bag she'd brought in. “You can stay for dinner.”

He looked up with the delight of Christmas morning. “Great. What are we having?”

She unhooked Hugo's leash from around her waist. “Whatever you make. There's an hour of daylight left and I need to give Hugo all the time I can fit in on that Agility course.” She was out the door before he could reply.

Scott unstrapped his watch and washed his hands before unbagging the groceries. There was a whole raw chicken. Sweet potatoes. Kale. “Beets? Seriously?”

He held up the plastic bag to inspect them. Damn. Some of them were orange. He was all for healthy eating. But beets? He set them aside. Nikki never cooked beets when they were together.

Scott turned and glanced at the door Nikki—Cole, the door that Cole had left through. Yardley's comment about how Cole had changed skimmed his thoughts. Maybe Cole liked beets. So just maybe there was a way to do something with them even he would eat. Laptop in his cruiser. Recipes at his fingertips.

He finished unpacking bread, milk, and coffee. Onions. BBQ sauce. “Okay, now we're talking.”

*   *   *

“We need a cover story.”

They were sitting on the steps of Cole's barracks watching twilight slide into night in the sky overhead. Hugo lay stretched out beside her while Izzy had deigned to join them, but only at the far opposite end of the porch. At least no one was barking or growling, not even she and Scott.

Cole stretched out her legs, letting her boots make gullies in the gravel walkway. She was full of barbecued chicken, mashed sweet potatoes, and, surprisingly, roasted beets. “How elaborate will it have to be?”

“The best lies are those that stay close to the truth.”

Scott pulled free another beer bottle from the six-pack he had fetched from the barracks he shared with five other male handlers and offered it to Cole.

She shook her head. One was enough. “Could we be brother and sister?”

Scott choked on his beer. “The way I look at you could get me arrested for incest in twenty-five states.”

He said it lightly but Cole found it hard to smile.

“How about this? We're exes who recently got back together after you blew us up by screwing around. I'm giving you another chance but I'm not betting on this being a permanent arrangement because I don't trust you.”

Scott took a long pull on his beer. “Is that what you think? That I'm just doing this because I don't like being the bad guy?”

Cole gazed at him for several seconds. “I think you don't know what you want. I don't think you ever have.” She waved a hand around. “If this task force assignment is your way of trying to make something up to me then know that it doesn't make up for a thing.”

He reached out and touched his little finger to hers. “What do you want?”

Cole looked down at their touching fingers, wondering how such a tiny thing could set off such huge seismic quakes in her middle. She shifted her finger away.

“I want to do something important. I want to prove I didn't make a mistake in choosing a career in law enforcement.” She lifted her gaze to the night sky. “I want to prove I'm good enough.”