You Only Love Once. Tori Carrington

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СКАЧАТЬ God, he couldn’t even bear to think that he’d somehow fallen short of the mark performance-wise. Missed the three-pointer. Left her swinging in the proverbial wind.

      He shifted and covertly eyed her. Naw. It wasn’t even remotely possible that lady-killer David McCoy had left a woman sexually unsatisfied. Hell, he had a black book full of names to prove differently. An endless list of women just begging for a phone call from him.

      He crossed his arms. It wasn’t possible.

      He slanted her another glance. Was it?

      “That’s it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask the detectives here. We should be getting a suspect sketch out to all units before the end of first shift.” A pause. “And officers, I won’t kid you. We don’t know what we’re dealing with here, what the suspect’s capable of and how far he intends to go. The female officer who signs on will be faced with a very dangerous situation. We want you to take that into consideration before tendering your name.”

      David practically sprang from his chair. “Thank God, that’s over. You ready?”

      Kelli grimaced. “I’ve got…something to do first. Meet me out at the car?”

      He shrugged. “No prob.”

      Women. Probably had to go powder her nose or something. Lord forbid she should look less than her best to apprehend a shoplifter.

      KELLI DISCREETLY wiped her sweaty palms down the length of her slacks when she finally left the briefing room. Her chances of winning the grand prize in the Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweepstakes were probably better than getting on that task force. She’d only been on the job in D.C. for two days. What did it matter that she had three years of solid experience in New York? Or that she’d gone undercover twice there as a prostitute to arrest potential johns?

      Still, she’d had to submit her name for consideration, no matter what the outcome. Chasing down men who preyed on women was exactly what she’d always been driven to do. If she couldn’t find closure in her mother’s case, she could make damn sure no other young girl had to face what she had. She would offer them closure. A chance to see the offender punished for what he’d done to a loved one. An opportunity to go on with life knowing that there was some justice in the world.

      She had to do it. No matter how dangerous the road she had to take to get there.

      She shrugged into her coat and opened the outer door, admitting that maybe her chances at the assignment were better than she thought. Even she was surprised to find the task force already had her personnel file. Written there in black and white for the entire world to see was her career goal: become a full-fledged homicide detective before she reached thirty. She cringed. Sure, that was her goal. But what had she been thinking when she wrote that little tidbit down for her supervisors to see? She might as well have written that when she was ten she’d wanted to be president of the United States.

      “Smooth move, Hatfield,” she muttered to herself as she put on her hat.

      She wasn’t surprised to find David glowering in the squad car, tapping the face of his watch like a taskmaster. Kelli climbed into the passenger’s side, inclined to tell him that she had enough on her hands with one father, she didn’t need another. But that might lead to her revealing who her father was, and she wasn’t quite up to dealing with that can of worms right now.

      “Took you long enough,” he said, backing out. “What did you do, eat some bad Chinese or something last night?”

      Kelli stared at him, her mouth agape. Of course he would think she’d needed to make a pit stop at the bathroom. She wouldn’t be surprised if he thought she’d needed to powder her nose, or whatever men thought women did nowadays. Lord forbid she’d have any interest in joining the task force. And far be it from her to fill him in. It would only make it worse when she found out she hadn’t made it.

      She snapped her mouth shut. “Yeah, something like that.” She switched on the radio and picked up the handset. “Dispatch, this is Five-Two, heading out.” She settled back into her seat. “Look, David, you and I really need to have that talk I mentioned yesterday.”

      “About what?”

      His blank expression told her he truly didn’t have a clue. “About the little stunt you pulled yesterday morning.”

      He didn’t look enlightened.

      “When you sent me out for donuts while you, by your lonesome, went out and saved the world.”

      “Oh, that,” he said, grinning. “I didn’t save the world, Kelli. Just kept a guy who needed some sleep from mucking up his life any more than he already had.”

      “Did it ever cross your mind to consult with me first? To work out a plan together, then have Sutherland approve it?”

      He appeared to think her question through, then shook his head. “Nope.”

      She pointed her finger in his direction. “That’s exactly the reason we need to talk. Just what did you think you were doing climbing that fire escape without backup? Without anyone knowing just what you were doing? Then barging through that open window like…like some uniformed supercop there to save the day?”

      He arched a brow. “Uniformed supercop?”

      Kelli bit her tongue. She’d picked up the description from one of the many news reports the night before.

      “Look, Hatfield, you and I could argue about this all day…and all night,” a decidedly suggestive twinkle entered his eyes, “but when all is said and done, there was no time to plan. SWAT had a shot and Sutherland was about to give the order for them to take it. I had to act, and I had to act fast.” He stopped at a red light. “Okay, I admit, sending you to get donuts was a pretty rotten thing to do—”

      “Downright crappy.”

      He grinned. “Yeah. But, hell, I was still shocked to find you were on the force, much less my partner, and I needed some time to adjust before going out and playing Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, you know?”

      His explanation made Kelli more agitated. Only because it made a twisted sort of sense. What was the world coming to when she understood the inner workings of a mind like David’s?

      Worse yet, what was with her desire to keep looking at the way the material of his slacks clung to his hunky, well-defined thighs?

      “Just don’t do it again, McCoy, or else you won’t have to worry about Sutherland taking a piece out of your behind. I’ll be the one with that honor.”

      He flashed that devil-may-care grin at her again, making her want to smack her forehead against the dash in exasperation. “Sounds fun.”

      She mumbled a series of unflattering remarks under her breath.

      David’s grin vanished. “That was just a joke. Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I’ll let you take the lead on the next call that comes in, okay? Whatever it is—bank robbery, car chase, shoplifter. You name it, I’ll stand back and let you handle it any way you want to. You’ll be completely, totally, in charge.”

      Naughty images that had nothing to do with police work slid through her mind. Finally, she managed to say, “I don’t want to be the leader, СКАЧАТЬ