— TWO —
HIS jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. “You don’t want me here?”
Oh, hell. Why did he have to ask that exact question? She didn’t want to lie. “I don’t think it’s healthy for you to come in here multiple times a week. You should buy some groceries.”
“That’s not an answer to my question, baby.”
“I’m not your baby.” She hated the waver in her voice. She totally was and always would be. But it hadn’t been enough. “I need to get back to work.”
He looked around and then back at her with a now amused look on his face. “Yeah?” He lifted his voice. “Hey, Frank, can Liv take a break?”
A muffled yes sounded from the back of the kitchen and she rolled her eyes. “You don’t get to—”
“Oh, shut up.” He snagged her hand and pulled her outside. She hated how willingly she trotted along behind him.
The diner sat on a large gravel lot on the edge of town, one block in from the county road that ran north up the peninsula. Between the diner and the county road was a country block of nothing but trees and snowmobile trails, and it was into this wooded area that Rafe headed.
A cool wind rustled the leaves overhead—just starting to turn colours—and she shivered. He unzipped his hoodie and handed it over but she shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t be stupid,” he muttered and wrapped it around her. She reluctantly shoved her arms in the sleeves and he glowered at her as he reached for the zipper. The sweatshirt was way too big—he had a solid foot on her—and as he ducked low enough to grab the lower hem, their cheeks touched.
Damn double damn. Somehow this was totally different than the hug inside the dinner. His breath hot against her ear, the pounding of her heart in her chest. He froze, bent over her like that, and she opened her mouth to tell him to back up but nothing came out.
Ever so slowly, he dropped the zipper parts and slid his hands inside the warm fleece instead. He found her waist and tugged gently at her t-shirt, freeing it from the waistband of her jeans. He breathed her name against her skin, and she froze. Don’t say anything else. Don’t stop touching me but let’s not talk. Let’s pretend for a minute.
As if he understood, he pressed his mouth against her neck and sucked gently at her pulse point at the same time as he found bare skin under her shirt. With a groan, he lifted her up and pressed her gently against a tree, notching one of his super awesome thighs between her legs and under her butt. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist, and tipped her head back, letting him feast on her skin. This was a terrible idea. She was definitely going to regret muddying these waters.
Two years and they hadn’t so much as touched hands. Now two embraces in one day. At this rate she was going to let him fuck her in a forest.
But he didn’t move his hands higher or lower. He stroked one thumb back and forth across the bottom of her rib cage, but the rest of him was perfectly restrained. Except for the part where she was wrapped around him and his mouth was wet and hot on her neck, this was just a hug.
A completely naughty, nipple-tightening hug.
And then he shifted his pelvis and she felt his erection beneath her, and it was most definitely not just a hug. They were ten seconds away from dry-humping. And she couldn’t wait.
“Rafe.” She gasped as he ground against her core at the sound of his name. “We can’t do this.”
“I’m not moving on.” He nipped at her ear. “I’ve tried. I can’t do it. You’re it for me.”
She closed her eyes. She didn’t want to think about his attempts to move on. Didn’t want to think about the mess they were currently making by opening this can of worms between them, either.
She didn’t want to think, full stop. “I need to get back inside. Come over tonight and we can talk.”
There wouldn’t be any talking. She was going to answer the door naked.
But just as she talked herself into something totally foolish, he saved her from herself. He winced, and she felt the air around them drop five degrees. “I can’t come over tonight. I have to work.” His voice had a desperate edge to it, one with which she was all too familiar. “I’ll come to you as soon as we’re done.”
Same old promise. She sagged against the tree, letting him go in more ways than one. “No.” He held her as she lowered her legs to the ground. She couldn’t look at him, didn’t want to see the look on his face. “I don’t want to re-hash that argument. I’m sorry.”
She pushed past him and walked out of the woods. The pulsing pain in her chest wasn’t enough to make her turn around and take one last look. What she wanted—truly, deeply wanted—wasn’t on the table. Entertaining the lingering attraction between them would just cloud that reality.
— —
Rafe should have seen that coming. Foresight had always been his downfall with Liv. She wanted him to be perfect, and he was so far from that it wasn’t funny.
She wasn’t wrong about him prioritizing work over their relationship. He just didn’t see any other way to be a cop and a soldier. Duty called, all the fucking time.
He loped after her, slowing to a walk when he caught up. He kept a safe three feet between them and waited for her to speak.
“Here’s your sweatshirt,” she said quietly, handing it over. Still not looking at him. “We should talk. Really talk. No more of…” she pointed to the woods behind them. “Whatever that was.”
“I’m free on Sunday.” Two long days away. He wanted to promise tomorrow, but knew he couldn’t. Who knew how long the raid and all the associated statements, evidence collection and paperwork would take?
“Are you going to your mom’s for dinner?”
“Nah.” That stopped being fun the day he’d left Olivia. He showed up for command performances but the weekly thing was too painful.
“You want me to feed you?” Her words were…not quite reluctant, but definitely not loaded with suggestion. He looked at her in surprise and she shrugged. “A peace offering.”
“You don’t have anything to make up to me, Liv.”
Her lips twisted into a sad smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “We can talk on Sunday. I have to get back to work.”
He rolled those words over and over in his head as he drove to the small, three-story apartment building that he now called home. Thought about them as he took some melatonin, darkened his room and forced himself to sleep. They were the first thing on his mind when his alarm told him it was time to get up and, fifteen hours later when he dropped back into the exact same spot, he still hadn’t made any more sense of them.
In between he hadn’t thought of Liv much, or her words, because that was how he pretended the dangers he faced every day at work couldn’t touch her. That the long stretch of wild lake shore on the peninsula wasn’t prime drug-trafficking territory and he hadn’t spent the last handful of hours waiting for a transfer bus to take some grower peons to the county jail. It was a drop in the bucket. Last night’s bust hadn’t netted any of the bosses—their goal in moving it up three days.
It was possible that all three grow-ops that had been hit at once in a coordinated sting just happened to only have recent hires on site. More likely was the extraordinarily unsettling possibility that they’d been tipped off. And with only twelve hours’ notice, that narrowed the pool of potential turncoats to the officers involved and a limited number of support staff. All trusted.
When they’d returned to the detachment office, Dean Foster had thrown a chair across the room. Rafe couldn’t blame him—and while Dean had been letting loose in a rare tantrum of epic proportions, Rafe had quietly been watching the room.
It wasn’t necessarily in their house. Three busts, three detachments. And a lot of tactical unit officers brought in from across the province. But he didn’t let out a sigh of relief when he only saw matching anger on the faces around him. That meant nothing.
Cops made epic liars.
On his way out, Dean had quietly stopped by Rafe’s desk and suggested he come over later in the afternoon for a beer, an offer he was definitely going to take his friend up on.
The Fosters and the Minellis had grown up together. Dean and Zander had been in the same grade. Three years junior, Jake and Rafe had idolized their older brothers. Funny how that handful of years faded into nothing in adulthood. Even the younger siblings were all grown up now. Matt and Tom, both twenty-eight. And then the babies, Sean and Dani—the only girl between two families. It was like she had seven older brothers—and resented the shit out of it.
Heaven help the asshole who’s stupid enough to fall in love with her.
Dean and Rafe were the only two cops in the family. Matt and Dani worked together at Bruce EMS. Zander was full-time army out west. Jake owned his own construction business. Tom was a park ranger in the provincial park system that dotted Bruce Peninsula. And Sean…he liked to tell people he was an adventure racer. Rafe knew that the younger man grabbed more short-term Army contracts than anyone else in their reserve unit, went on every available course, and he’d jump at the next opportunity to go overseas. That worried Rafe, but Sean was a good kid. And not much of a kid anymore, but that was part of the problem. All of his brothers had tours in Afghanistan under their belts. Sean’s bad luck was being too young. By the time he’d graduated university and finished his officer training, the Canadian Forces were packing up in the sandbox.
And Rafe, who was currently serving as Sean’s second-in-command—2IC—in their section…his only overseas experience had been a training tour in Dubai. It hardly qualified him to offer counsel. Maybe it was time to loop Dean in on the situation.
And just like that, Rafe realized he’d spent half an hour thinking about everyone he knew except Liv. His Olivia, whom he’d lost for precisely this reason. He shoved the Foster brothers out of his head and thought about what Liv might want to tell him—feel compelled to tell him—that would make her sad.
Another thirty-three hours and she’d tell him herself, but he wanted to get this on his own. Wanted to show up at her house the next day with a bottle of wine and newfound husband wisdom.
— —
They hadn’t had much of a chance to talk about work before Jake and Matt showed up. That led to a re-cap of Thursday night’s trip to Lion’s Head. Matt’s version of events cast Rafe in the weeniest of lights, of course.
“This dude had a hot chick crawling all over him, and he couldn’t even get it up.”
“Fuck you, asshole, see if I’m ever willing to be your wingman again.” Rafe flipped his friend the bird before grabbing another handful of chips. They were on Dean’s deck, in his backyard, which overlooked Rafe’s old backyard. Now just Liv’s.
After the kiss-that-wasn’t-a-kiss-but-was-a-whole-lot-more yesterday, Rafe had a plan. Well, more of a pipe dream than a plan. He wanted Liv back.
She was working tonight. Otherwise he’d just hop the fence and try again. And even though he’d had a nap, he wasn’t truly well rested, which he’d need, because he figured that between him admitting he wanted her back and actually getting her back would be a lot of fighting and making up.
“Stop staring at her house.” Jake slid into the chair next to his and handed over a cold beer.
“It’s my house.” He knew he’d just growled at his best friend and he didn’t care.
“Hasn’t been for two years. Time for you to get over her, dude.”
He didn’t answer. No point in admitting that he hadn’t done that yet, and wouldn’t pretend that he was going to.
“So who was the hot chick?”
“You know what, Jake? Instead of giving me a hard time after the fact, how about you go out with your brother. Natalie would have been happy to sit in your lap most of the night instead of mine.”
Jake made a face and Rafe snorted. “See? It’s not me. Maybe we should all stop measuring ourselves against Matt’s oversexed libido. Hooking up isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
Matt cackled. “Trust me, it really is. Both of you would be much happier if you’d had a roll in the hay the other night. And you actually have to go through with the hook up before you get to pass judgement on its value. When was the last time either of you got laid?”
“No comment,“ Rafe and Jake said at the same time.
“That means an embarrassingly long time. I’m guessing…not since Olivia for Rafe, and not since college for Jake.” Matt let out a high-pitched yelp as his older brother dove for him. Rafe chuckled to himself as the deck thumped over and over again with flailing Foster limbs. Some things never changed. And never stopped being funny.
Dean plopped into the chair Jake just vacated. “We’re getting too old for this shit, man.”
Rafe grunted. Matt and Jake rolling around like idiots at least served as distraction from the bigger problems in their lives. “How about you? Still seeing that lady doctor from Port Elgin?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“A ringing endorsement for monogamy.”
Dean sighed. “We’re not exactly…I’m pretty sure I’m her piece on the side. Her ex-husband lives in Toronto, and she’s been making a lot of weekend trips away.”
Rafe knew his first reaction should be disappointment for his friend, but all he heard was the phrase piece on the side over and over again in his head. It made him see red. “You think she wants him back?”
Another sigh. “Who knows? Probably telling that I’m most annoyed about having to go back to condoms, right?”
“When did you…”
“At the start of the summer. We both got tested, ya know? And then a few weeks ago she pulls out a rubber and says, ‘maybe we should use this…less messy.’ Except the clean up had always been my job. No skin off her nose. So…” He made a clicking noise with his tongue. “There ya go. I don’t know, maybe I’ll end it.”
Rafe didn’t bother to point out that obviously Dean was better off without that drama. Not his problem. But jeez…if Liv had slept with someone else, he’d lose his ever-loving-mind.
Cold, clammy fear punched him in the throat. He’d know if she’d slept with someone, wouldn’t he?
If she had dated, he’d need to make his peace with that. Wasn’t sure how he would, because the thought of someone else’s hands on her hips, another man’s mouth on her neck…that enraged him. No. Enraged was an understatement.
But he sure as shit wouldn’t shrug over it.
He definitely needed a plan. Taking Natalie to the diner for breakfast had been a bonehead move, but it had crystallized the fact that Liv still loved him. And if that was the case, they’d made a monumental mistake.
No, he had made the mistake. He’d chosen his town and his jobs over the woman who meant more to him than all of those put together. He couldn’t quit and moving would be tricky, so declaring his love at this point would be an exercise in stupidity, particularly considering he’d tried once and had to back off because of work. But he wasn’t going to be content just circling in her orbit anymore. Somehow, he was going to find a way to be the man she deserved.