“I know. I agree. But you know how those insurance cash-pinchers get. They don’t see the fire, unlike the rest of us. They see the money.”
“Maybe they should join fire and rescue for a night. I’ll bet they wouldn’t last an hour.”
“Did you sleep with her?” Marco brings the conversation back around to its dreaded starting point for no reason at all. “She’s living under your roof and you have history. It’s only going to be a matter of time before you do, anyway.”
I grind my jaw. It’s hard keeping up with this man’s mind sometimes.
“No. I haven’t slept with her and don’t intend to.”
“You’re fooling yourself.”
I flash him daggers. We’re here to work, not discuss my love life.
“I bet she’s pissed at you. She has good reason to be.”
I choose to remain silent.
“And the sexting? How’s that going? Might be best for now to keep that one quiet.”
I need a dispatch call to come and save me right now.
“You could say that it’s…going.”
“The mystery woman still isn’t interested in meeting?”
“Turns out the mystery woman isn’t so mystery…” I shoot Marco a knowing glare and wait for him to catch on.
“Fuck, Rourke.Piper?” Marco’s eyes flare wide. “How did you not know?”
“Because she was more innocent back when I knew her before.”
We also never really got around to sexting back then.
Didn’t need to. One look in her eye always did it for me.
And it definitely did something to me earlier when her face was only an inch away from mine. Cornering her was a bad idea that worked more in her favor than it did mine.
But it was necessary.
I needed to make her cave.
And I almost did.
Now I find myself dealing with a high-stakes situation. I have never been tested this way before, brought right to the edge of temptation. I had to relieve myself in private before heading downstairs to begin dinner, but one look into her knowing eyes and my cock sprung right back to its original hardness.
Fucking minx.
Relieving myself is all well and good until I see Piper and realize that I want her. So fucking bad. Even those oversized sweats find a way to turn me on.
“Evening, gents.” Ryan strides into the room with a coffee in hand. “Rourke,” he starts. “You have the face of someone who has irregular bowel movement.”
“It’s the girl,” Marco comments. “Possibly her son too.”
I elbow Marco in the side.
Ryan switches off the TV and hands over a pile of documents for us to sort through. “We all moved out of the city to cut down on responsibility, but that doesn’t give you two idiots the right to slob about all night.” He snaps his fingers. “Latest case files—unsigned.” He’s looking directly at me. “Electronic signatures aren’t a thing out here, Rourke. Manually sign each of these documents and organize them by date. The computer doesn’t do that for us here.” He tosses a giant pile onto my lap and continues, “I have training for the pair of you to complete after that.”
“Yes boss,” Marco says, with sarcastic privileges I don’t yet have.
