Officer Next Door (3 page)

Either way, she took pleasure in knowing that there were details she’d kept to herself, like where his tattoo was.

Now, if she could just keep Sasha from engineering some sort of disastrous confrontation with Liam, maybe she’d be able to manage getting to know him a little – or a lot – better on her own time.

* * * * *

Sometimes, twelve hour shifts had a way of going by incredibly slowly, depending on what went on at the prison. Today had been one of those days – the inmates Liam had been supervising hadn’t caused any major trouble.

Sure, he’d seized a lighter and a few cigarettes from a cell during a search, but that’d been it. No one had bled or died, and a heated argument over which TV channel the inmates would watch – one of their favorite things to fight over – had fizzled out before it’d escalated into an actual fight.

While Liam would never complain about a lack of violence and mayhem, the day had been torture, and he knew exactly who to blame.

Alicia Dalton. Finally, he had a name to put to the face – and the body – that’d been driving him crazy for the past three weeks.

He would’ve introduced himself sooner to his new neighbor, but he’d had a very real fear of walking up to her and being stricken by a raging erection no clothing would be able to hide. Normally, he’d like to think he had a little more self-control, but he was also a realist.

Fact was, he’d been watching her undress for the past three weeks. Their bedroom windows were directly across from each other’s, and apparently she had yet to hang curtains over hers.

As a result, when she slipped out of her clothing and into her pajamas, her lithe body cast a stunning silhouette against the blinds. Her naked shadow-figure had been dancing through his mind ever since the first time he’d caught a glance and stared, mesmerized.

Maybe he should’ve said something – she probably had no idea she was putting on a show – but that ship had sailed. There was no way he could bring it up now without it being obvious that he’d been enjoying it, and besides… He hated the thought of it stopping.

Having a conversation with her that morning had just about killed him, and his balls still ached as he neared his house, pulling into the parking area in front of the porch. His gaze was drawn automatically to the little blue house next door, and what he saw there didn’t disappoint.

Alicia was outside on her front porch, sitting at the patio table there. A couple of other women were with her – a curvy blonde and a tiny brunette – but Alicia stole the show, no question about it.

She wore her hair down and it hung in auburn waves, brushing her almost-bare shoulders. Narrow straps held up her purple sundress, a clingy thing that stopped a couple inches above her knees. He could just picture himself hiking up the skirt, bending her over the table and finding out if she felt as good as she looked.

He had no doubt that she did, just like he had no doubt about what he’d do as soon as he reached the privacy of his own home. Still, he walked slowly, unable to resist staring in her direction.

She was pouring drinks from a pitcher for her friends, but looked in his direction just as he reached his porch steps.

He nearly tripped and fell up them. Instead, he gripped the rail, digging his fingers into wood that reminded him of the hardness straining the front of his uniform pants. After tearing his gaze away from his new neighbor, he retreated into his house, locking the door behind himself.

The kitchen clock showed that he had fifteen, maybe twenty minutes before the guys arrived. He wouldn’t need that long, but he hurried to his room anyway.

Once he stripped off his duty belt, uniform and boots, he considered taking a quick shower. The early summer heat never failed to make him sweat, and his heavy, dark uniform definitely didn’t help. Besides, things would be a lot cleaner that way, and not just because he’d been sweating.

He headed down the hall to the bathroom, his hard cock leading the way as thoughts of that purple sundress – and what lay beneath – raced through his mind, fueling the almost painful lust his neighbor inspired. It was all he could do to turn on the water and step into the shower before he wrapped his hand around his dick.

The water was hotter than he’d meant for it to be, but he chose to let it scald him rather than pause to fix it. With the hot liquid streaming down his back, he faced the wall and finally let himself wrap his fingers around his shaft, creating heat and pressure that served as a substitute for what – who – he really wanted.

He still hadn’t decided whether having such a beautiful neighbor was a blessing or a curse. As he pumped his hand up and down the length of his cock, it felt like both. God knew it’d been a while, and if Alicia was interested in being anything more than neighbors, he had a feeling her arrival would be the best thing that’d happened to him in one hell of a long time.

On the other hand, if it turned out she’d prefer for him to keep his distance, he’d be sentenced to a case of aching balls sure to endure as long as she was living next door.

Or at the very least, until she invested in a set of bedroom curtains. Normally, he didn’t consider himself the type to spy, but damn, he was only human…

The thought of her undressing, completely oblivious to the fact that he was watching, pushed him to the edge immediately. Urgency surged through him, making every muscle in his body go tense. He thrust into his fist, picturing the outline of her naked body.

Somehow, seeing everything and nothing at the same time was more of a turn-on than he ever could’ve imagined. By now, he’d memorized her every curve, from the teardrop swells of her breasts – each enough to be a handful – to the half-moon perfection of her ass, a roundness he ached to lay hands on.

Instead, he braced himself with a hand against the shower wall. His fingers slipped against the slick tile, prompting him to stand a little wider, wary of falling. The tension mounting below his gut alone was almost enough to knock him over; he could only imagine what it’d be like to actually get his hands on Alicia.

In fact, he could imagine it in agonizing detail. His mouth watered at the thought of tasting her breasts, for starters – locking his lips around the nipples that made her silhouette something that kept him up at night. They tended to be hard when she undressed, and sometimes her fingers brushed them, causing them to draw up even tighter, even more defined. Whenever that happened, his own fingertips tingled with the urge to touch her, not just there but everywhere.

If given the chance, he could spend an entire night exploring every inch of the curves he’d come to equate with just-out-of-reach perfection.

With a sigh, he shoved his fist to the base of his cock, succumbing to the first surge of desperate pleasure. Come surged over his hand, joining the flow of hot water dripping from his fingers. It felt good, but not good enough to appease the desire for something more, the palpable lack thinking of Alicia never failed to make him aware of. There was no way around it: he wanted her. Bad.

He kept pumping his hard shaft until it hurt, then let the too-hot water wash away the mess before he finally adjusted the temperature, finishing his shower beneath a tepid flow. He was still half hard when he stepped out, reaching for the towel he’d left hanging on the door.

“Oh my God,” Sasha gasped. “Oh my God!” She lowered her face to her glass and took a long drink of Alicia’s homemade sangria.

“Calm down,” Alicia managed to force out. “You’re going to give yourself a heart attack.”

“Are you kidding me?” Sasha looked up, her eyes shining. “I’m barely into my thirties – way too young for a heart attack.”

“An aneurysm, then.” Alicia took a generous sip of her own drink, unsure of whether or not she regretted mixing up the big pitcher of alcohol. On one hand, drinking seemed to be spurring Sasha’s loud-mouthed nature to new heights. On the other, Alicia wasn’t sure she had any hope of surviving the evening without a drink or three.

She, Sasha and Kerry had just watched Liam get into the shower with a hard-on to shame all hard-ons. It hadn’t been completely gone by the time he’d stepped out, either. Sasha was beside herself, and even quiet Kerry seemed stunned.

Alicia had just about died when he’d walked into the bathroom, bare-assed and even more magnificent than she’d let on during her ill-advised discussion with Sasha.

“You never mentioned that he had a tattoo,” Kerry half-whispered, her cheeks stained a bright pink that contrasted with her fair skin and sable hair.

“He had a tattoo?” Sasha asked. “I didn’t even notice, I was so distracted by his huge—”

“Shut up,” Alicia pleaded as a car turned into Liam’s driveway. “I don’t want whoever that is to overhear us talking about him. You two are going to leave in a couple hours, but I still have to live next door to him, remember?”

“Lucky you,” Sasha breathed. “I’m so jealous I could die.”

Despite her declaration, Sasha seemed to forget her jealousy the moment Liam’s visitors stepped out of the vehicle.

Alicia had to admit, she could understand why they posed such a distraction. Both men were built along the same lines as Liam – tall and broad-shouldered. Their jeans and t-shirts didn’t hide their muscular bodies, either. One was blond while the other was dark-haired, and their short haircuts made it easy to picture them in uniforms like the one Liam wore to work every day.

“Are those his friends?” Sasha stage-whispered. “Do they come over often?”

“I’ve never seen them before.”

Liam – fully dressed now – came out onto the front porch to greet his friends, and for a moment, all three women simply stared in silence.

“That’s it,” Sasha said eventually, planting her hands on the table. “There are three of them and three of us; this is too perfect an opportunity to let pass.”

“Wait a minute!” It was all Alicia could do to keep herself from grabbing ahold of Sasha as the other woman rose from her seat. “What are you doing?”

“Making sure our little get-together merges with theirs,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I swear, if you mention the fact that we just spent the past ten minutes spying on him and comparing him to a prize cucumber, you’re never invited over again.” Alicia infused her voice with as much firmness as she could muster, gripping the edge of the table.

Sasha was down the stairs and striding across the lawn before Alicia could say another word.

“Don’t worry,” Kerry said. “She’s crafty. She may have the mouth and mind of a sailor, but she knows how to reign herself in, believe it or not. Like right now – I’d bet you a paycheck she’s about to put on her Southern Belle act and charm them into coming over here for drinks.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Alicia said. “Sasha, a Southern Belle?”

Kerry shrugged, her dark eyes meeting Alicia’s hazel ones. “How do you think she deals with customers at work? She has a polite persona she uses … sometimes.”

“I guess I assumed she wasn’t allowed out of the kitchen.”

Kerry broke into a rare smile. “Oh boy… Here they come.”

Sure enough, all three men followed Sasha across the lawn and right up the porch steps. By the time they stopped by the patio table, Alicia’s heart was in her throat.

“So, as I was just telling these three, I’ve got to get back to baking those brownies we won’t possibly be able to eat all by ourselves.” Sasha turned to Alicia and Kerry, flashing them a wink the men couldn’t see. “They’ll be ready soon, but there’s plenty of time for everyone to relax with a drink first.” She hurried into the house, leaving the other two women outnumbered by the three sexiest men Alicia had ever seen together in one place.

Liam nodded at her, his sexy mouth set in a serious expression that reassured her he had no idea what she, Sasha and Kerry had just witnessed. Still, it was impossible not to think about it as she met his eyes.

“Nice to meet you again, Alicia.”

The sound of her name on his lips sent a frisson down her spine despite the day’s fading but still considerable heat. “You too, Liam.”

“This is Henry,” he said, nodding to his blond companion, then the dark-haired one. “And this is Grey.”

“Nice to meet you both.” Her voice came out funny-sounding – a little too high. “This is Kerry, and I see that you’ve already met Sasha.”

The three men nodded, and silence descended, making Alicia long to smack some sense into Sasha. Unfortunately, the other woman was safely inside, protected from the perfect storm of awkwardness she’d created.

“You know what – I’d better go get three more glasses.” Alicia leapt up and hurried inside before they could accept or reject the offer.

She found Sasha rifling through her kitchen cupboards. “What are you doing?”

Sasha whirled, a sack of flour in hand. “Making brownies.”

“I don’t have any brownie mix, you know.”

Sasha gave Alicia what looked like a pitying glance. “A boxed mix? Blasphemy.” She kept pulling things out of the cupboard, setting a salt shaker and bag of chocolate chips on the counter. “Where’s your sugar?”

Alicia shrugged. “If it’s not in there, I must not have any.”

Sasha
tsked
. “I’m going to need you to borrow a cup from your neighbor, then.”

“What?”

“Ask to borrow a cup of sugar. I’m sure he won’t mind.”

“No way. I’ll just run to the store.”

Sasha spun, planting her hands on her hips. “Either you ask your neighbor for a cup of sugar, or I will.” A wicked smile crept across her face. “The choice is yours.”

Alicia sighed and turned for the door. “Don’t you dare come out of here – I’m officially confining you to the kitchen until I return.”

“It’s all part of my strategy, anyway,” Sasha said, shrugging and seizing a mixing bowl. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder. By the time I emerge outside with a tray of brownies, Henry will be wondering what took so long.”

“So you’ve set your sights on Henry?”

“I like blonds. Plus, he seems like the strong, silent type. I like those too.”

Well, at least that meant Sasha wasn’t preying on Liam. That fact might not be enough to save Alicia from
all
potential embarrassment, but it was something. “I’ll be back.”

She was halfway out the door when she remembered to turn back for glasses.

“Here we go,” she said, setting the tumblers down on the patio table when she returned to the porch. Pouring drinks for the guys barely took a minute, and then she had little choice but to face Liam. “Would you mind if I borrowed a cup of sugar? For the brownies.”

He blinked, and a split second of silence followed.

“Sure,” he said, relinquishing his hold on the glass she’d just handed him and pushing back his seat.

She breathed the world’s tiniest sigh of relief as she followed him down the steps and across her lawn, toward his house. Thank God for Southern hospitality, or charm or whatever it was that had Liam holding the door open for her as she traipsed into his kitchen. Back in DC, her next door neighbor had had a penchant for playing loud music and walking his dog in her tiny yard just so the creature could relieve itself there. Not exactly the sugar-lending type.

“Wow, this kitchen looks just like mine,” she said, noting the similarity in design. There was even an island in the middle of the room, just like hers. The only thing that was different was the fact that Liam’s cabinets were stained a deep green, whereas hers were the light, natural color of pine wood.

“Our houses were made by the same builder,” he said, opening a cabinet and reaching inside. “Back in the 50’s.”

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

He nodded, his back to her as he reached for a sack of sugar. “There aren’t many differences between the two.”

“You’ve been inside my place?”

“Yeah, but it’s been a while. It’s been a while since I’ve had a neighbor, actually. The last person to live in your house was an elderly guy, and the place got kind of rundown after he died. Took his son a few years to decide to fix it up and rent it out.”

“To me?”

“Yeah. I’d gotten pretty used to not having anyone next door.”

Heat flushed Alicia’s face, and she counted herself lucky that he wasn’t facing her. She knew firsthand that he’d gotten
very
used to not having a neighbor.

“It’s pretty secluded out here, huh?” Pine Hollow Road wasn’t quite as out of the way as it seemed. The small community of Cypress – Riley County’s only actual town – was just a five minute drive away. Still, her and Liam’s homes were tucked away on the tree-lined road, surrounded by its towering namesake pines. The effect was so charming it was almost otherworldly, or at least that’s what she’d thought when she’d first laid eyes on the home she was renting.

“That’s what I like about it,” he said, turning to face her with a sack of sugar cradled in the crook of his arm. “Close to everything, but not to anyone.”

“Well, I hope I didn’t spoil things for you by moving in next door.”

A certain look flashed in his eyes – all hard light and something that made butterflies burst into motion inside her belly – as he met her gaze. “You didn’t spoil anything. Here’s your sugar.”

“I only need one cup,” she said as he placed the entire five pound sack in her hands. His fingertips brushed hers, and – God help her – the split second of contact made her entire body tingle, all the way down to her toes.

“Take the whole bag, and bring it back when you’re done.”

A deliberate excuse to have her return to his place? Or was he just being neighborly? Alicia wasn’t sure, but a sense of excitement rose up inside her anyway, leaving her feeling distinctly Sasha-like. “Thanks.”

“So was your friend really planning to make brownies?” he asked. “Or did she surprise you with the news?”

Alicia blushed as she clutched the sugar sack. “You heard about her brownie-making plans before I did. How did you know?”

“I get lied to all day; it’s my job.”

“Right. I guess convicted felons probably aren’t the most honest bunch in the world.”

“Definitely not. I can’t say I like being lied to, but if it involves freshly-baked brownies, I’m prepared to let it slide.” A slight smile tempered his serious expression, and the sight of it nearly had Alicia melting into a puddle.

God, he was hot. A fierce sense of jealousy-laced satisfaction filled her as she silently congratulated herself on fetching the sugar in lieu of letting Sasha do it. Sasha claimed to have her eye on Henry, but no woman in her right mind would be immune to Liam’s appeal.