Page 82 of Tough Love
“I remember which way it was,” I say feebly, rising from my chair.
“There’s a shortcut to the car park. I’ll show you.”
I stand and allow him to take the lead, my head a mixed bag of emotions. I’m so confused, so angry yet happy that it was only Birdie. But at the same time itwasBirdie, and just because they split up a while ago, it doesn’t mean things were innocent that day.
“Why were you two there together?” I ask as we step out into the corridor.
“Birthday shopping for Deacon.” He glances down at me as though to gauge my reaction. “She gave me some story about not having enough for what he wanted, and how he’d be gutted if she didn’t buy him the telescope he’d eyed at the shop a few weeks back.”
“So you said you’d pay for it?”
“We usually go halves on everything,” he explains. “But yeah, that time I said I’d foot the whole four hundred and fifty.”
“Wow. That’s some present.” I never got anything that good when I was a kid. Hope this doesn’t mean Briar’s going to grow up thinking that’s the norm too.
“Apparently I have a habit of feeling guilty about things.” He smirks as he opens an access door out to the back parking lot for me.
Two rows of marked police cars sit across from where I stand hesitantly.
“You okay?”
“I kind of feel like I should start running even though I’ve done nothing wrong.” I point to the cop cars.
Evan chuckles. “Yeah. They have that effect on people.”
The road is a solid fifty-metre walk to my left, the car park where I left the Kia another twenty after that. “This isn’t a shortcut.”
“Nope.” Evan points over our heads to the cameras that point out toward the cars. “But there’s a metre strip along this wall that’s a blind spot.”
“Oh.”Ohhh….
His admission leaves me ridiculously happy for the fact he’s basically propositioned me.Such a harlot.
I smile as he steps closer, crowding me against the warm bricks. “I missed you like crazy, Amelia, even if it was me who walked away.” He lifts a hand to my face, his duty belt digging into me at this proximity. “And I promise, there’s no way that fucker is laying a hand on either you or Briar as long as I’m around.”
“He doesn’t scare me,” I murmur. “What he could do to Briar scares me.”
“Nothing. He won’t do a thing.”
“You can’t be sure of that.”
Evan leans closer, his forehead pressed to mine as he sighs. “I have to be this time. I have to be.”
I reach up between us, grazing my fingertips over his rough stubble. “It wasn’t your fault what he did to me, Evan.”
“I tried telling myself that for years, but I couldn’t convince myself of that bullshit, so don’t you dare believe it either.”
I push upward, tilting his face with my hand, and place a gentle kiss to his lips. “It.” Kiss. “Wasn’t.” Kiss. “Your fault.”
He takes my mouth hungrily, stopping me from being able to say any more. I ignore the discomfort of his uniform as he presses his body against mine and focus instead on the insane sensations his warm lips and tongue create in my mouth.
He shifts both hands to my jaw and ever so gently tilts my head so he can deepen the kiss. I groan as he jams a leg between mine, rubbing his thigh against the part of me that doesn’t care what day it is or why I’m here—it just wants him.
Iwant him. All of him. Past relationships, accidental children and all.
Evan pulls away, his breath coming fast as he exhales heavily out his nose, trying to regain some composure. “You know what made me change, why I enrolled in police college?”
“What?” I’m dying to know what happened to the boy to create the man. My head tells me it was something bad, but my heart can’t take the thought of him suffering in any way.