Just before we finished dinner, Rio texted me to make sure I got the information.
He also invited me to the ranch offices to chat if I wanted to.
I should be crawling into bed. I should be easing my aching feet out of my shoes, downing two full glasses of water, and collapsing. Instead, I’m walking under a crescent moon with Anton over to the Monarch Hills offices.
It’s the perfect chance for us to resurrect what all that meant tonight, but I’m shaking in my Nikes now. What if sex was the heat of the moment for him? What if, now that I’ve finally, for the first time in my life, decided I might be ready to commit to something bigger, he pulls back?
What do I say?
Well, I disagree, Easton. We should definitely do that again. Especially the part where you give me a mind-blowing orgasm and make me feel like the only girl in the world.
I stare at the ground and wince inside.
“Are you okay, honey?”
Honey.He started calling me that from time to time after we all joked I was a “honey trap” in the last big case Shadow Justice cracked involving Lara’s stalker. I never thought much of it, but now, I want it to be so much more than an inside joke. I want to behishoney.
“Yeah…” But I don’t mean it. “I’m thinking about the case…”
He lets out a one-syllable laugh. “No, you’re not.”
He knows damn well I’m still thinking about the line we just crossed, and now I know he’s thinking about it, too.
“No, I’m not,” I admit. But I’m not ready to talk about tonight.
This is exactly what I knew would happen if I fell for him. I’d lose my focus on work.
“But I should be.”
We do need to talk, but…work first.
“Understood,” he replies.
And of course, that understanding only makes me fall harder because he’s so damn mature. So…patient.
In the past, when I wanted time to think about things, men would always push me. They couldn’t stand not having insight, information. I guessed it was because without knowing what I was thinking, they couldn’t control the narrative.
Men never let me have time to think, and if I’m pushed, my default answer is no. No doesn’t send you jumping off cliffs. No doesn’t get you in trouble the way yes does.
We walk in silence, though I note it isn’t awkward or standoffish, and I’m so grateful for Anton right now.
He deserves ayes.
But tonight, I acted before I thought, and I need time to rake some common sense over the evening and see what I think through my head, not my heart.
Lead with your mind, baby…That was the advice I was always given.
We reach the large outbuilding where the Monarch Hills offices are, and the ranch is quiet around us, save for the occasional nicker of a horse.
We climb the stairs to the offices that are on the second floor and enter them. Rio, Ava, and Enzo are here. Sometimes, I wonder if these people ever sleep. I think all three of them are workaholics, but then again, I’m here, too. I guess when you find something you love doing, it doesn’t feel like work.
“Hey,” Ava says, glancing up from her laptop. “Sorry to drag you out so late. I bet you’re desperate to hear what we found, but your baby wants to sleep.”
“Yeah.” I rub my belly. “But for the next twenty weeks, cop duties first.”
Rio kicks back from the table, eyeing me with something new in his rough gaze. Respect maybe? Anyway, it’s the first time he’s looked at me like I’m on his level.
We all sit around the conference table where Enzo clicks at his laptop keyboard until he finally turns it around and shows me an image of a young man with brown, floppy hair and deep-set eyes. Early to mid-twenties.
