Broken Toy

  “I was a little surprised to see you there. Duh.”

  “Yeah, well since you’re not the replaceable one here, it should be me.”

  “You saying you don’t want to work with me?”

  “That’s not what I said.”

  “Sounds like it.”

  “So let me ask you something. Sunday night, you obviously recognized me. I thought there was something familiar about you, but I couldn’t get a look at you because of your raincoat. Then it started pouring. Why didn’t you say anything then?”

  She knew no excuse she gave would sound good.

  That’s why she opted for the truth. “I was scared,” she quietly admitted. She finally looked at him.

  His handsome face wrinkled in a scowl. “You were scared of me?” he quietly asked.

  “No. Not of you. Of…everything.”

  “Is that why you didn’t come back Saturday?”

  “I—” Her mouth snapped shut. “I don’t know.”

  “You didn’t want to see me again?”

  “No. I mean, no, that’s not why.”

  “Then tell me.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you’re a cop?”

  “Probably for the same reason you didn’t tell me you’re an FDLE agent.” He leaned back in his seat. “I called that one wrong. I saw you carrying at the munch, but I honestly didn’t think you were a—”

  Dammit. “What?”

  “Carrying.” He glanced at her. “You leaned forward once and your gun printed.”

  She closed her eyes and groaned. Rookie mistake.

  “It wasn’t obvious to anyone else,” he continued. “The only reason I noticed it was I saw how you were sitting in your chair.” A corner of his mouth curled in a smile. “Occupational hazard.”

  “I suppose you weren’t carrying? I find that hard to believe.”

  He shrugged. “Ankle holster. And we’re straying off the topic with little time left to talk.”

  “I can work with you. All right?”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, really.”

  “I’m guessing you and Walker didn’t come together.”

  “No, I drove down from Sarasota. He drove in from Miami this morning.”

  He nodded. “Good. Then you can drive me back to Port Charlotte this afternoon. That will give us plenty of time to talk.”

  “What?”

  He turned in his seat again to face her head-on. “If you can’t spend forty-five minutes talking to me in a car, I might as well request someone else be assigned in my place to the task force this afternoon, before we get too far along.”

  The truth was she didn’t want him to be reassigned.

  She wanted to work with him.

  “Fine.”

  “Fine you want me to ask for reassignment?”

  “No.” She shifted the car into reverse and started backing out. “Fine, I’ll drive you back to Port Charlotte this afternoon.”

  * * * *

  Lunch wasn’t exactly uncomfortable, but it wasn’t a fraction as fun as the munch or class had been. Bill sat next to her while they ate and eased up on the staring once back in the conference room. He also used his work phone to run down some information and history on her.

  He had to admit he was damned impressed. She had a remarkable record and apparently zero ego about it. He’d unfortunately met more than his fair share of pompous assholes on the job, investigators who liked to flaunt their records as part of their self-worth.

  Apparently, Gabe fell squarely into the “just doing my job” camp.

  He respected her even more for it.

  At the end of the day, he told Al to go on without him. “We’re going to discuss the mugging case on the way back. I have a few things I can have her sign off on.”

  Al’s faint scowl made Bill silently swear. “Oookay,” Al said. “Whatever you say.”

  “And I’m going to take her over to Marelli’s for dinner.”

  “Oh.” Al grinned. “You’d think he’s their personal PR rep,” Al told her. “You’ll love their food.”

  Travis Walker came over, wearing a smile. “Ah, so you’re the detective that caught her not following orders, huh?”

  “What?”

  Walker laughed. “I’d distinctly ordered her to take three weeks’ vacation and not work, and she ends up tangled with a mugging.”

  “Hey,” she snapped, more than a little testiness in her tone. “I was the victim, you know.”

  “I’m just teasing you, Gabe,” Walker said. He leaned in. “See what I mean?” He hooked a thumb at her. “This agent is a massive workaholic. One of the best ever, but I keep telling her if she doesn’t learn to balance her life, she’s going to burn herself out.”

  “Work is my life,” she shot back.

  “You do need balance in this line of work,” Bill agreed, as if she hadn’t spoken.

  She glared at him as she shut down her laptop and got her stuff put away, but she didn’t respond.

  On their way out to her car, she asked him, “Do you think he bought that?”

  “What? Who are we talking about?”

  “Your friend, Al. Did he buy your excuse?”

  He stopped and turned to her. “What excuse? I am taking you out to dinner.” He stared down at her. “You have a problem with that?” he softly asked.

  Let’s see how she likes the real me.

  He thought for a second she was going to say yes, she had a huge, fat-ass problem with that, but then she gave a faint shake of her head that threatened to harden his cock right there.

  Technically, they didn’t work together. They worked for completely different agencies.

  Technically, it wouldn’t be a problem.

  He held up a finger. “And this is my treat. No arguments. Your gas money and your time driving me back down there, and back up, of course, so I get to buy you dinner. Fair trade. Got it?”

  She nodded.

  “Good.” He took her keys from her and walked to the driver’s side, unlocking the door and holding it open for her. Once she was in, he walked around and got in.

  She was staring at him from the driver’s seat.

  “What?” he asked.

  She looked like she started to say something, thought about it, stopped, then shook her head. She started the car, pulled out of the parking lot, and headed south on US 41.

  “Where to?” she asked.

  “That way,” he said.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Gabe didn’t understand it. She didn’t understand why she didn’t just tell Bill to go fuck himself when he’d said he wanted her to drive him back. And then buy her dinner?

  You know, normal guys do buy their dates dinner.

  This is not a date!

  Yeah, she knew she could lie to herself all she wanted, it’d still be a date. The date they didn’t get to have.

  The date she’d nuked by skipping the second class and standing him up.

  Yes, that was all on her, and she knew it. At the very least, she should have contacted the club to forward her apologies. But then she’d run into him the next night at the mall, and it had totally thrown off her equilibrium.

  That wasn’t a state she was used to.

  At all.

  “Tell me about the scars on your back.”

  She nearly slammed on the brakes. “What?”

  “The scars on your back. I saw part of them during class. They look pretty bad. Either tell me about them, or tell me it’s none of my business. Either answer is acceptable.”

  Well, wasn’t this kind of what she thought maybe she’d been looking for when she indulged in her stupid little fantasies? An Alpha guy she could trust not to be an asshole?

  “Courtesy of my grandmother,” she mumbled.

  “How old were you?”

  She snorted. “Which time? I lived with her from when I was eight until the day I graduated high school. The most recent ones are the top layer. Last time she actually got me hard enough to
break skin, I’d just turned seventeen.”

  “What about your parents?”

  “They died when I was eight. Car wreck. She got custody of me because my mother’s parents were dead, and both of my parents were only children. No aunts or uncles who could take me.”

  “And then?”

  She stopped for a red light before she looked at him. “You’re awfully nosy, aren’t you?”

  He arched an eyebrow at her.

  When he didn’t say anything, she let out a frustrated sigh. “Went right into basic training after high school. Four years in, college at UF, police academy, then straight into law enforcement.”

  “Brothers or sisters?”

  “Nope.”

  “You never pressed charges against her for the abuse?”

  “I had no other family I could turn to. She had me in a strict Catholic school. What do you think I did?”

  “Fair enough.” He remained quiet for a moment. “You can ask me questions, too, you know.”

  “Why didn’t you get remarried before now?”

  “Like I said, I guess I wasn’t fishing in the right pond.”

  “So you did that stuff with your wife?”

  He shrugged. “Not really. In bed we weren’t vanilla, but we weren’t crazy, either.”

  “I’m not looking for anyone to order me around.”

  “Didn’t say you were, or that I wanted that in a relationship.”

  She swerved a little as she glanced at him. “Relationship?”

  “What?”

  “You think we have a relationship?”

  “Did I say that?”

  “I—” She clamped down on it. No, that was not what he’d said, just what she’d jumped at. “Sorry.”

  He smiled. He did have a handsome smile.

  Damn him.

  “I went to the club the week before the first class,” he said. “The night before the munch. I saw Seth and Leah playing, using rope bondage. It intrigued me. I’m not interested in heavy impact play, really, because I’m not a sadist. I like the control aspect, though. The rope was artistic.”

  Answered her next question. “I’m not looking to get my ass beat.”

  “Never said you were. I believe I just said I wasn’t interested in that.”

  She felt like he was running conversational circles around her, and it was her fault for not keeping up.

  This was not a problem she was used to having. “So why dinner?”

  He shrugged. “I want to spend more time with you. Now that it appears we have even more in common, and that we both have a vested interest in keeping this part of our lives separate from our professional lives, it looks like we can trust each other.”

  “Why do you want to spend more time with me?” she asked.

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Because I like you, that’s why. I’m attracted to you. I’m not looking to play relationship games. If you’re not interested in me, it’s all right to tell me. No harm, no foul. I won’t be an asshole about it.”

  Ask a stupid question. “I don’t know what I’m looking for,” she admitted. “I’m not even sure why I went to the class beyond curiosity.” Well, that was only a half truth. “Okay, I did want to see you again.”

  “Why did you go to the munch then?”

  “Honestly?”

  “Of course.”

  She sighed. “My boss referred me to the restaurant. Non-professionally,” she quickly added. “When I went, the place was packed. I’d seen about the munch on the website, saw another couple sail on through, and decided to go for it so I didn’t have to wait forever for a table.”

  “You weren’t at all curious about the lifestyle? You just wanted better restaurant service?”

  It took her a few moments to finally mutter, “Okay, maybe I was a little curious.”

  “Did I do something to offend you at the munch? Or at the class, or dinner?”

  “No! I told you, I wanted to see you again. I enjoyed meeting you and talking to you.”

  “Then why did you bail on the second class?”

  That was the million-dollar question. “I told you, I was scared.”

  “Fair enough.”

  He didn’t elaborate.

  She felt she owed him more of an answer than just that. “Look, I suck at this relationship stuff, okay? I’ll admit it. One thing I’m not good at. Haven’t had to be good at. Take it or leave it.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  “What?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not asking for undying devotion. I’m asking for dinner. If that’s beyond you, then okay, whatever.”

  “Dinner?”

  “Yeah, dinner.”

  Suck it up, buttercup. “Okay, fine. Dinner.”

  “My treat.”

  She grumbled before nodding.

  “So does this mean we have some sort of relationship starting?” he asked.

  Hell, she had used that word, hadn’t she? “Maybe. Is that an acceptable answer, too?”

  He nodded, that smile still curving his lips and doing something to her insides that she hadn’t felt in too damn long.

  If ever.

  * * * *

  Bill struggled not to burst out laughing. He could tell how hard this was for her. He also knew that had he slipped into sympathy mode over the shocking revelations about her grandmother and what happened to Gabe during her childhood, she likely would have locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

  She was over it, or at least claimed she was, so he wouldn’t push her. There would be plenty of time in the future to explore that if she decided to really trust him. Plenty of time to get the full story from her.

  If they made it that far. Frankly, he was having fun verbally sparring with her and hoped they had more than just one more date.

  Right now, he wanted to make it through dinner without her bolting like a terrified rabbit. No, physically she wasn’t afraid of him. Her fear came from the inside. Maybe she didn’t even realize it, but he could see it. All his years in law enforcement and dealing with a wide swath of people, he wasn’t a stranger to reading reactions.

  Maybe she didn’t even know what she was really looking for. He was okay with that, too. As long as he could coax her into another date after tonight.

  And another.

  One tentative step at a time, until he could prove to her he was on the level and wasn’t looking for a quick lay or a doormat.

  She was neither of those.

  He never understood abusive asshats who wanted to break a woman’s spirit. He wanted a woman who had fire, a strong, stubborn spirit, someone who would willingly want to be with him and, sometimes, willingly want to submit to him. Not because she had to, but because she wanted to.

  There was no honor in breaking someone’s will. The only honor was in earning someone’s trust enough that she willingly wanted to give him what he sought. The thrill of knowing that he was the only person who got to see that side of her.

  The only person she trusted enough to show that side of her.

  And the more independent the person, the greater the honor, in his mind.

  His Ella had been the same way. Everyone who thought they knew her, and him, would have been shocked had they seen their bedroom dynamic. Sometimes even outside the bedroom, although to a far lesser and more informal way than some of the people from the club. He’d never had to demand it.

  In fact, she’d been the one to instigate it early on in their relationship. And he’d been happy to know he was the first and only one who’d ever seen that side of her.

  Magic.

  He yanked himself out of thoughts of the past before he sank too deeply into them.

  Ella was dead, but now, just maybe, he’d met someone he knew he could give his heart to.

  If she’d have him.

  And, more importantly, if she’d let him.

  * * * *

  Bill was both glad to see Marelli’s parking lot wasn’t filled, and
a little disappointed they weren’t busier.

  It meant the family would likely be stopping by their table to chat and interrupting his time with Gabe. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but maybe tonight he should have picked another restaurant.

  Dori greeted them when they walked in. “Bill, there you are. And who is this?”

  Uh-oh.

  “Uh, Dori, this is Special Agent Gabriella Villalobos. We’re working together on a task force.”

  “Ah.” The waitress looked disappointed. “And here I was hoping she was your date.”

  He didn’t miss the look Gabe shot him over her shoulder as she followed Dori to a table. He also couldn’t interpret what that look meant.

  “I take it you’re a regular here,” Gabe muttered after they were left alone to look at their menus.

  “Nearly every night. How pitiful is that? They invite me to their home for the holidays.”

  She stared at him over her menu. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.”

  She let out a snort as her gaze returned to her menu. “I dodge invitations to my boss’ house every holiday so I don’t have to pretend I know how to be sociable.”

  “You seemed sociable enough last Saturday night at dinner. Leah and the others were very disappointed you didn’t come back for the second class.”

  * * * *

  Gabe felt her face instantly go red. “Yeah, well, tell them I’m sorry about that. Feel free to tell them my reasons, too. That I’m a cop.”

  “I think you should tell them yourself.”

  She dropped her menu and stared at him. “What?”

  He leaned forward, arms crossed in front of him and resting on the table. “The third class is this Saturday. I’ll pick you up on my way there.”

  This wasn’t the easygoing man she’d gone out to dinner with.

  This man was definitely an Alpha. Still, he hadn’t crossed over the line into asshole territory…yet.

  “I haven’t agreed to go to the class.”

  “You owe me.”

  “What? Owe you what?”

  “I was really looking forward to seeing you at the second class.” He smirked. “And because I was so bummed about you not being there, I volunteered to take a Sunday shift, nearly got struck by lightning in a parking lot, and had to spend a couple of hours sloshing around in the rain and mud at night after a K9 officer doing tracking, all because someone decided not to pay attention while walking to her car. You know how many hours of paperwork I had to go through?”