Authors: Jennifer Conner
Settling in to relax, he breathed in the scent of lavender oil she’d smoothed over his skin.
Dev never thought he’d been lucky in life, especially after these past six months. He’d almost begun to believe the Higher Powers had it in for him. But that was before Luci came into his world, turning it upside down.
Everything had happened so quickly, his head still spun. He figured he would have come out of his slump… eventually,
but Jesus
, a few days ago, he couldn’t even think of a reason to be alive.
Now there were hundreds.
He wanted to get Mac back as his partner and start being a good cop again. And when he got home after those long days of chasing down scum on the streets, he would get to know every curve and line of Luci’s body. He’d start with the little freckle right below her left nipple, work his way down, and then back up.
Her sharp wit and her body gave him hundreds of reasons to be happy every day.
Dev knew he couldn’t do those things on his own. He always needed that bigger picture to drive him forward. Luci was about as big of a picture as he could ever have hoped for.
Luci came from such an abusive past with her stepfather, and now her attacker, was she ready to accept a man in her life?
He didn’t want to take the chance of moving too quickly. He’d already made up his mind that she was the only woman for him, but he needed to make sure she felt the same way. He’d waited almost thirty years to find a woman he cared this deeply about. He could wait a while longer.
I love her
.
The words he’d been avoiding popped into his head before he could stop them. Maybe it was some of Luci’s weird Eastern medicine affecting him, because he felt happy, content and completely at peace for the first time in his life.
****
Cutting the roast chicken from the bone, Luci placed a hearty slice on Devan’s plate next to the potatoes and vegetables.
The evening had gone smoother than she’d hoped. Someone told her once, a way to a man’s heart was through his stomach. Maybe there was a little bit of truth to that. Bribery could be used to one’s advantage.
“That smells great,” he said, sighing.
Devan wore pajama bottoms, but was still shirtless. The curved hard planes of his chest and abdomen glowed bronze in the candlelight.
He waited until she’d served herself, before stabbing his fork into a potato and pushing the buttery chunk into his mouth.
“You eat like a starving man. It’s not that good,” she said, feeling the heat of a blush rise across her cheeks.
Tipping his fork in her direction, he said, “Let me tell you what I’ve ‘eaten’ today. I’ve had eight cups of coffee, three packs of peanut butter crackers and a piece of cold pizza from the break room. I wasn’t sure how long it had been there, I probably shouldn’t have eaten it, but I was dying. I
am
a starving man.”
“Why don’t you take a break? Go get lunch?”
He shrugged. “I get engrossed in a file, and lose track of time. When I look up, it’s time to go home. I know… I need to pack a lunch.”
“I’ll pack one for you and I’ll put it in a Snoopy lunchbox.” Her eyes flashed with mischief.
“Oh, that would be perfect. I get enough crap from the guys as it is. At least when I was on active duty, it was usually just Mac I had to listen to yapping in my ear all day. Now, it’s the whole stinking department. I can’t wait to get back on active duty.” Swallowing the bite in his mouth, he reached to pour more wine into his glass, and downed it in one gulp. “I know this sounds crazy, maybe it
was
psychosomatic, but the pain in my leg’s lessened after the treatment you just gave me.”
“Really? That’s great!” Luci exclaimed. “I’m so happy you gave acupuncture a chance. I’ll give you daily treatments. Hopefully that will speed your recovery.”
“I’m ready for that. I realize there can’t be any promises, but do you really think I’ll be able to get rid of this cane sooner, rather than later?”
Luci reached out and squeezed his hand across the table. “You’ve responded well to the treatments so far. I have complete faith in you.”
“Do you?” His eyes darkened. “Now, I’m not talking about my leg. I need to know you feel safe when you’re here. When you go back to the espresso bar, you—”
She interrupted him, and shook her head. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that. The owner laid me off.”
“What? That jerk.” Devan wadded his cloth napkin tightly in his hand, mumbling a few other coarse swearwords.
“I don’t blame him.” Luci laid her fork on the side of the plate. “He needs to keep the shifts filled. I haven’t been to work in days.”
“I’ll go talk with him,” Devan said, frowning.
“No. Don’t do that.” Luci shook her head. “I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be out. It wouldn’t be fair to him.” Taking a deep gulp of ice water, she closed her eyes.
“Fair to him? You were attacked at
his
stand. Maybe if he
had better fucking security, none of this would have happened in the first place.”
“I don’t want you to talk to him because I’m not sure if I want to go back to work there. I’m not sure I can. Every knock at the back door, I would be waiting for someone to grab me. I know, I should just buck-up and get back on the horse.”
Pushing away his plate, Devan motioned for her to come to him. Pulling her into his lap, he wrapped his arms around her.
“When this is over, you’ll find a better job—a
safer
job.”
“I feel as though I’ve always run away from violence. Maybe I should go back to the stand.” She looked down at the finger she was trailing over his chest.
“You haven’t run away from anything. Ever. You made the right decision by taking Jon away from your stepfather. You said you were afraid he’d come after you sexually, but abuse usually doesn’t stop with one family member. Did he hit your mother?”
When she didn’t answer, he continued. “What if you hadn’t left, and your stepfather put Jon’s head through a wall? You didn’t run away; you made the right decision. It was the difficult decision which kept both you and Jon safe and alive.”
She’d never seen her past explained like that. He was right.
Dropping his head on top of her hair, Devan sighed. “You were a victim of a violent crime the other night. It wasn’t your fault.”
Pulling back, she looked into his eyes. “Do you feel the same way about the shooting you were involved in?”
He was silent for a long moment. “Mac told me he blamed himself for the shooting that night. Here I spent the last six months thinking he didn’t want me as his partner because
I’d
made a mistake that cost the kid his life. I guess we were both trying to take the blame.” He kissed her gently on the cheek. “I realized it wasn’t my fault, it was just something shitty that happened. It was a moment in time where everything went wrong, and we had no control over what happened. Fate stepped in and dealt a bad card. ” Devan caught her chin with his thumb. “You don’t have to go back to the espresso stand.”
“Easy for you to say, Detective, you have a job.” She tried to smile. “I could probably borrow this month’s rent from Jon.”
“You could stay here.”
His offer caught her off-guard. “I don’t know.” Averting her gaze, she looked at the floor, and bit her lip.
“You don’t need to say it. You’ve told me before, you’re not a charity case. I’m really not a high pressure kind of guy. But my offer stands. You need to concentrate on getting through your classes this quarter, and not on where your next paycheck’s coming from or where you’re going to live.”
“What about the things in my apartment?”
“You could keep your apartment, if you want. I’ll loan you the money. Or you can move most of your things in here. God knows, the place could use a woman’s touch.” He smiled warmly. “What won’t fit in the house, we’ll put in the shed in back. It’s almost empty.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Just say you’ll think about it. Stay until we get all of this straightened out.”
Was Devan talking about her job, the robbery case, or their lives together? If she said yes, it would give her the time to get an answer to all three of those questions.
“We’ve only really spent the last few days together. What if we hate each other in a week?”
A sexy smile quirked the corner of his mouth, and he gently kissed her once on the cheek. “I can only speak for myself, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
“I can’t believe I was fired from the espresso stand!” Luci’s self-pity was replaced with indignation. “I was the best worker there! The other girls were more concerned with texting their boyfriends on their cell phones than doing their job.”
Devan looked at her, his eyes a rich cocoa brown. “He’ll never find anyone who makes a better latte, or who looks as good as you do in a bikini.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Is that so? You’ve been to other bikini stands to compare with the Naughty Latte’s baristas?”
“Nope. But living in California, I’ve seen my share of women in bikinis. Small, big, short, tall. Women who still look good, but have had so much plastic surgery their faces are tied on top of their head to keep it all from sliding down in a puddle of goo. And I can state this as a fact: no one rivals you.”
“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.” She watched to see if he laughed. “I always thought I was too top-heavy.”
“And that’s a problem?” Devan asked. This time he did laugh. The sound of it warmed her.
“Did you come to the stand every night just to look at my boobs?”
A pink blush tipped Devan’s ears. “At first, if I’m being honest, yes. But then, when I started talking with you, I found you had a brain. It took me awhile to adjust to that fact. Then it became a personal challenge. Spending time with you was like playing Jeopardy with someone in a bikini. I’d try and think of things in advance to stump you. The positions world leaders took on current issues, or historical dates and events. I could never get anything past you. You could discuss any topic I thought of. The more in-depth the questions were, the longer I could sit at your window and BS.”
“That always worked for me. Believe me when I say, you were the
only
guy who ever talked about anything other than their day at work, their ex-wives, or the weather. After the hundredth time you’ve said, ‘yep, it’s sunny,’ or ‘that’s too bad she took the dog’… it gets old.”
He laughed, but then grew serious. “I just want to be clear that you’re not going to be a burden moving in here. Everyone’s had hard financial times in their lives. I make an okay living as a detective, and I haven’t been out on the town a lot lately. I’ve saved some money. If you want to keep your place, I could loan you a few hundred dollars. I know you’ll pay it back when you get another job.” Devan sat her on her feet, and reached for his cleaned plate to clear away.
“I think I want to move in here.” She followed him to the kitchen and placed the pots and pans into the sink. Turning, she leaned back on the edge of the counter and looked at him. “But, I’ve never lived with anyone other than Jon. I don’t know how I’d be as a house mate. What if I have bad traits?”
“You? What about me? Here’s the deal. I don’t know how to cook, but I’d be willing to learn. I constantly lose the TV remote. I get grumpy in the morning before I’ve had coffee. I’ve never figured out how to separate the laundry. My white socks are always pink. I don’t think I snore… but you do, so it evens out.”
“I do not!” Luci took a swing at him.
He sidestepped. “Oh yes you do. You’re in denial. But it’s cute, kind of like a freight train, but way off in the distance.”
Luci’s grin faded. “I don’t have the best track record with men.”
“I’m not other men. It’s not fair to compare me with the men who’ve hurt you in the past.” Frustration flashed through his eyes. “It’s not because of the case… well, it is for the time being, but we both know it’s more than that. I want you here.”
She pulled in a shaky breath. Luci knew this was a big moment for both of them. The thought of commitment to a man had always terrified her, wondering if she’d end up like her mother. Her mother let her stepfather beat her mentally and physically.
Luci would never allow herself to be in an abusive relationship. She wasn’t her mother, and Devan wasn’t her stepfather. It was time to take a chance in her life and finally let someone in.
“All right, I’ll move in. How do we seal the deal?” Sticking out her hand, Luci asked, “Do we shake on it?”
Devan grabbed her and pulled her against him. “I have something in mind we’ll both enjoy
much more
…” He let out a sexy chuckle, pulling her into a deep kiss. “But you do snore.”
Chapter Eighteen
The next week passed in a blur. Devan had been right in assuming that most of Luci’s things could be worked into his house. Her funky thrift-store chic furniture blended in perfectly with his retro forties western decor.
With him working at the station every day and her studying for exams at school, they would come home at night, and fall asleep.
It was nice to finally have some time together. They’d hardly seen each other and Dev missed spending time with her.
Every day, he found he was feeling better, stronger. After dinner, he let Luci talk him into taking a walk in a nearby park. In the past, he would have rather spent time watching a ball game. But he liked being outdoors, and wondered why he hadn’t walked more often.
The park was only a few blocks from his house, but he’d never taken a walk through it. He wondered how Luci had found out about it. He guessed she’d probably gone against his orders and left the house to explore on her own.
He knew he couldn’t be with her 24-7. There had been no new robberies. Maybe the creep decided to leave town. Dev would prefer to see him behind bars, but if he’d moved on to another town, away from Luci, he’d settle for that for the time being.
Stabbing a leaf with the end of his cane, he tossed it off the path as he held her hand in his.
A breeze blew through the trees, ruffling her blonde and pink curls. They strolled along, making small talk about things they’d heard on the news.
Stopping, Luci stretched her back and turned towards him. “You haven’t said much this week about how your leg feels. I’m hoping the acupuncture takes some of the pressure off the nerves. In a few weeks, you’ll be as good as new.”
“I’m stubborn and impatient when it comes to certain things.” Pulling a folded envelope from the back pocket of his jeans, he held it up and waved it in front of her.
“What’s that?” she asked, reaching for it, but he flipped it from her grasp.
“It’s the Captain’s signature on the doctor’s form to place me back on active duty.”
Her eyes widened. “But you said you couldn’t get back on active duty until you were able to walk without the cane.”
“Your wish is my command.” Grinning, he raised the cane off the walk. Holding it over his head in a ceremonial gesture, he threw it spiraling into the grass. Taking a step towards her, he said huskily, “Come here.”
Luci’s smile widened. “You dirty dog. You were withholding pertinent information. There are laws about that aren’t there? I’m your doctor, I should know these things.”
“Then let’s play doctor.” His body hummed with energy and excitement.
“I’ve waited a long time to say this.” The blue of her eyes darkened. “If you want me detective… then come and get me.”
Sticking the paper in his back pocket, he slyly watched her, loving the way emotions flitted across her face.
As he moved closer, she stepped back. He grabbed for her, and they both laughed. She faked a step in the other direction and took off trotting across the grass.
Devan walked briskly after her, and he couldn’t believe it—his leg kept up the race. Giggling, Luci ran for cover under a tree. Wrapping his hands around the trunk, he waited until she made her move, and then was on her. She let out a squeal. Grabbing her around the waist, he pulled her down behind a fallen log.
He brushed a thumb over her cheek. “I win,” he said, smiling down at her.
They were both breathing heavily. Dev wasn’t sure if his breathing was from the physical exertion, or from wanting her so much every nerve ending in his body was on fire.