“Noted,” I said. That made me feel a lot better. I was perfectly able to keep things professional, but I missed relaxing and goofing off with my coworkers on the force in Charleston. We’d had an easy rapport and a history of some damn near vicious pranks.
“You can relax now. Maybe I’ll try and relax too. Since I haven’t had a woman on my force before, I’ve been antsy that I’ll say something that isn’t appropriate to say around females.”
“Didn’t seem to bother you when you asked me in the interview if some ex with a magic dick was gonna lure me back to the city,” I said with a snort. He laughed. Thank God, he laughed.
“And that’s the girl I remember. God, you were relentless with Damon. Anything he said at the dinner table, he got a solid burn from you. You were so damn quick, and so mean but hilarious. Poor bastard never had a chance,” he said with a half-smile.
“My personality is not for everyone.”
“Maybe if they have a stick up their ass, kid,” he said, dismissing anyone who didn’t like my big mouth as an uptight jerk. I smiled at that.
“So before you were old and decrepit, you used to seduce all the cheerleaders by driving them up to look at the falls?” I teased.
“Maybe a couple of them,” he said, “it’s got a pretty view.”
“I’ll bet,” I smirked, still holding back on the retorts a little. My first instinct had been to say ‘oh a nice view of some perky tits’ but I hesitated to mention tits in the confines of the cruiser with Brody. Especially since mine had decided to strain against my uniform, the nipples hard, ever since he met my eyes in his office, so intense that he might as well have licked me between my legs. Not that I was going to sit in a police cruiser beside my boss and think of spreading my thighs as I leaned back on his messy desk and watching him fall to his knees before me. No. Definitely not. Because for some reason, my body lit up around him very inconveniently.
“Need to roll down a window?” he said, interrupting my thoughts.
“What?”
“You look a little flushed. Too hot in here?” he said.
“No I just—had too much coffee I guess. Got a little overheated,” I babbled, sounding stupid.
But it was better than telling the truth. He was Damon’s friend. I wouldn’t exactly like it if Damon marched into the diner and told my bestie Rachel he wanted her to suck him off. I’d smack the shit out of him and threaten to feed him a bar of Irish Spring when I was done. I shook it off.
“Here we are,” he said, indicating the overgrown pasture that had some tire tracks and a few beer cans littering the grass.
We got out and looked around. I picked up trash and put it in a plastic bag once we figured out there were no signs of a struggle or any indicator of a crime.
“We found out about this place two years ago when a girl called to report underage drinking that was happening at a party. Turned out her boyfriend was there with her friend and she got mad. Gave us a valuable tip though. Most of the time it’s harmless teenage stuff. Drinking cheap beer and dancing in the headlight beams to loud music. Hooking up in the cars. But it doesn’t hurt to check the hangouts,” he said.
I blinked, refusing to think about being in this field in the dark, the headlight beams painting the grass and our bodies yellow as we danced.
“So fast forward ten years and add on a cover charge and you’ve got the club scene in Charleston,” I said wryly.
“Probably has better lighting.”
“And more expensive booze, but the idea’s the same. It was a simpler time, Brody. And places like this were fun as hell.”
“I thought you were a good girl, staying at home and studying all the time,” he teased.
“Yeah, that was bullshit,” I shrugged. “I popped many a Keystone with Rach and some of our other friends. And I know I went out to that hill with Tanner when we were dating my junior year.”
“Tanner Belt? That asshole?” he said incredulously.
“What’s wrong with him? You were out of school and married by then,” I laughed.
“Yeah, but everybody in town knew he was a no good little shit. And you gave it up for Tanner Belt up on the hill?”
“I gave it up in the concession stand after a football game before that, Brody,” I said, rolling my eyes.
He eyed me, “That little particle board hut with the popcorn machine that burned everyone that ever touched it? How did you possibly?”
“Well, we didn’t touch the popcorn machine,” I laughed. He shook his head.