Chalk Dirty to Me (Madd CrossFit 3)

I blinked. “I just turned thirty, three days ago.”

His lips tilted up in a smile, then he brought his cup to his lips.

I watched the muscles in his throat as he swallowed.

His eyes, however, were all on me as he took me in.

“You’re not interested in picking up where we left off last night at the bar,” he guessed.

I felt my face flush. “There are… I’m… I didn’t…” I sighed. “There are reasons.”

Will’s face went stoic for a few seconds as he said, “You’re allowed to say no. At any point in time, and I’ll heed it.”

“Heed it?” I found myself smirking despite the seriousness of the conversation. “You sound like you’re using a different language sometimes.”

He shrugged. “I read a lot. And I graduated with a degree in English. Sometimes it just happens.”

Damn. Reading was hot.

Will reading would be hotter.

“But it doesn’t matter even if you wanted to pick up where we left off. I really do need to go get my truck, and that walk ain’t gonna walk itself,” he teased.

“Ain’t gonna.” I smiled as I moved forward until I was standing directly in front of him. “Thank you for the coffee. And the bed for the night.”

He brought his hand up and trailed it along the bridge of my nose.

Such an innocent touch, but one I felt in the deepest part of me.

“You’re welcome.” He hesitated. “I’m sorry for burning your nipple.”

Laughing, I skirted past him and got dressed.

When I came back out a few seconds later, once again dressed in my coffee-stained t-shirt, though luckily a bit dryer than before, it was to find him fully dressed as well.

He was once again in his detective uniform—a nice pair of unwrinkled jeans, a wide black belt, a black polo that had ‘PPD’ embroidered on the breast pocket, and his gun on his thigh.

I pointed at the gun.

“That’s not where you wore that last time I saw you,” I accused.

He walked up to me with a slip of fabric in his hands.

When he reached me, he caught the ends of my t-shirt, then slowly started to lift it over my head, as if he was waiting for me to say no.

I didn’t say no.

In fact, I steeled myself and allowed him to take the shirt off of me, even going as far as to raise my hands high above my head.

He slipped the shirt off of my shoulders, then over my head, all the while holding my gaze, and never letting it wander.

My heart was beating a mile a minute when he carelessly tossed my shirt in the direction of the washer, then slipped the fabric in his hand over my head.

It was a t-shirt much like the one I’d had on before, only this one was much more faded, and said a different police department on it—Gun Barrel PD.

“Gun Barrel?” I asked curiously.

He shrugged. “My old department. Loved it there, but just sayin’, I’d follow my nieces anywhere.”

My lips curled up into a smile just before I did the most reckless thing I’d ever done.

I reached forward and threw myself into his arms, wrapping my own around his neck, and placed a very thorough kiss on his lips.

He returned the kiss, being careful not to pen me in with his arms, and instead rested his hands just over the tops of my hip bones.

He may not know what happened to me, but I suspected he had a hunch something had happened to explain why I was skittish.

“Thank you,” I whispered when I pulled away.

His head tilted, and the cute curl right above his forehead fell with the movement.

I wound that curl around my finger and explained before he could ask. “I need slow.”

His eyes shifted to something between interest and regret. “I can do slow.”

CHAPTER 6

Adults are just kids with money.

-Ashlie to Will

WILL

“I looked your girl up.”

I rubbed my hands down my face.

I was tired.

I didn’t get a workout in because I’d overslept.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about a certain person that wanted me but wanted to take it slow.

I could do slow—like I told her I could—but it’d be torture.

I knew it would.

But if the reward was Cannel…

“Are you even listening to me?” Brianna barked.

I blinked, turning only my head to stare at her. “What?”

She’d been acting weird all morning.

Even worse, she was treating me like I’d cheated on her. As if we had an actual relationship when we sure the fuck didn’t.

It was getting old, and I didn’t really want to be listening to her, let alone talking to her.

These next two weeks would definitely prove taxing, that was for sure.

“I ran your girl through the database,” Brianna said, tapping her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel, almost as if she was mad at me for her having to tell me anything about Cannel at all.