Beneath the Badge (First Responders 4)

She followed him through the cavern that was the gym and into a space that wasn’t much homier. The kitchen wasn’t really a kitchen at all, but a corner with appliances on one wall and a work space in the form of a long counter top. There was no table and chairs, just four tall bar stools in front of the counter. The back wall was nearly all windows, each one divided into maybe twenty smaller squares of glass. At one point Lindsay thought this place had housed a clothing manufacturer, but she couldn’t be sure. Early evening sun poured through the glass now, illuminating dust on the scarred hardwood floor. The guy would need an industrial mop to keep this floor shiny. Especially since the only other furniture was a huge sectional sofa and a coffee table holding a selection of magazines and a few paperbacks. There wasn’t even a television.

“I’ll be right back. There are plates in the cupboard and forks in the drawers.” He grinned. “I don’t have much. You won’t have trouble finding anything.”

Not much indeed. As the shower started running, she opened the first cupboard she came to. The dishes were mismatched and there weren’t many of them. She pulled out two plates, two glasses that looked like they were the gas-station-giveaway type, and in the second drawer she tried she found forks and knives.

The shower stopped running and her hands paused on the foil pan holding noodles. This wasn’t really domestic, but it was strange putting out food while Matt cleaned up. While he was standing in his bathroom buck naked…

That was not why she was here. It was not…

Except she thought maybe it was. Because she couldn’t get that kiss out of her head, and thanking him for his help was a very convenient excuse for showing up.

“That smells good,” he said, emerging from the bathroom.

He’d changed into jeans and a plain white T-shirt, leaving his feet bare. His hair was so short that it needed nothing more than running his hand through it. She made herself reach in the bag for a second item just to avoid staring. “You hungry yet?”

“I could eat,” he responded, pulling up a bar stool. “There’s beer in the fridge if you want one. Otherwise…water. I haven’t grocery shopped in a while.”

“Water’s fine for me.”

“Me too.”

She filled two glasses and then peeled the lids away from the food. “Noodles, vegetables, some fried tofu for me and I got you an order of cashew chicken.”

“There’s enough food here for an army,” he said, but she noticed it didn’t stop him from grabbing a set of chopsticks and adding items to his plate.

She filled her own plate and came around the counter to sit on the stool next to him. “This place is huge. And I noticed you don’t have a TV. I figured a guy like you…you’d have one of those big screen deals.”

“I travel li

ght,” he commented, wrapping noodles around his chopsticks. “I don’t watch a lot of TV, and if I want to catch a game or something I can always head to the pub.”

“Don’t your dates mind?”

He looked sideways at her and his lips tipped up at the corner. “Not so much. And it’s not like I have a million of them.”

She snorted. “Could’ve fooled me.” She speared a hunk of tofu with her chopstick.

“Jealous?”

This was what she’d missed, she realized. The rich insinuation in his voice that meant he was flirting. She’d enjoyed that the other night—well, in retrospect, anyway. She gave another snort. “Me? Jealous? Not likely.”

His knee touched hers. “You sure?”

Tingles ran up her leg at the subtle contact. “I’m sure,” she answered, but her vocal chords felt tight. Like the rest of her. She knew Matt Parker spelled trouble, so why was she here? To scratch an itch?

“Then why are you here?” he asked, echoing her thoughts. “Because you could have just called and said thanks for the help.”

“You did say the next time I owed you dinner. I always pay my debts.” She snagged a piece of broccoli and popped it into her mouth.

“Hmm. I thought it might be something else. That you wanted to pick up where we left off.”

“You seemed to have a pretty good love affair going with your heavy bag. What’s up with that?”

The cloud descended over his face again for a moment until he wiped it clean away, making her wonder if she’d actually seen it at all.

“Just working out some frustrations.” His left hand strayed over to her knee, suggesting what those frustrations might have been.

“What sorts of frustrations?”