I watched my kids glide across the water in the scull.

They were flawless. Not that they didn’t make mistakes. No, they needed more practice to become a single, solid unit of muscle and brains but they had come so far. Poor kids from broken homes and at-risk they were learning teamwork and dedication and commitment out on the water and I couldn’t have been prouder.

“They look good,” Tyrique slid up beside me, his voice deep but tinged with a little bit of teenage wobbliness. At sixteen he was already towering over me, his body strong and his heart even stronger. He was a good kid and I loved that he was taking such a leadership role at the center and here at the rowing club. We weren’t supposed to play favorites but I did when it came to him.

“Yeah. They do, “I agreed, sliding a glance over to him, pleased to see the self-satisfied grin on his face. I nudged him with my elbow, making him laugh. “You’ve got a lot to be proud of here.”

“Nah, it’s all you Doc.” He waved me off, turning back towards the boathouse, his progress abruptly stalled out by something behind us. “Hey. You need something?”

I turned to see who was he was talking to and stopped mid-turn. Aiden Cross. Looking contrite and sullen and entirely fuckable on my pier. I wanted to kiss him and punch him at the same time. Not a good mix of emotional reactions for someone trained to parse out other people’s emotions.

“I’m here to talk to Carla,” he answered, moving towards me but stopping when Tyrique edged partially in front of me, his body language saying loud and clear that Aiden was only getting near me if it was through him. Aiden paused, his gaze taking in the long form of this man-child acting as my protector. “It’s okay man. I’m a Police Detective.”

Tyrique scoffed, his distaste evident in the sound and his body language. “No offense but being part of the 5-0 doesn’t exactly put you at the top of my ‘trustworthy’ list.”

“It’s fine, Tyrique. He’s fine,” I placed my hand on his arm and gave him a smile that I hoped translated as the truth. Yeah, I had a problem with Aiden but it wasn’t because he was a cop and I didn’t want to reinforce Tyrique’s already skewed perception of law enforcement. “I know him. This visit is . . . personal.”

Tyrique looked between us, his eyes narrowed with his suspicion. He was my protector, my knight and I worried about him taking on the role for yet another person in his life. With a mother working two jobs, Tyrique already looked after his younger brother and the kids at the center. He didn’t need to add me to the list as well.

“Is he the reason you’ve been upset?” Tyrique pointed at him and I reached up, wrapping my fingers around his wrist to lower his arm. I turned him towards the water, gesturing towards the kids in the scull. I ignored his question.

“You make sure they get in safely. Okay?” I looked up at him, smiling back at him when he gave me a tentative one. “Thank you. We’ll be in the boathouse office.”

I turned, motioning for Aiden to follow me, pausing briefly to adjust a container of life jackets sitting next to the door. I needed to remind the kids to put that away before they left to head back to the center. We were expecting rain and it would suck to let the jackets get waterlogged and moldy.

I opened the door to my small office and ushered him in, going out of my way not to brush against him as he maneuvered his large body through the opening. His scent, masculine and sharp, filled the space when I closed the door and I remembered how it had lingered on my skin after he’d left me last night. I’d debated showering, opting instead to go to bed with him all over me. I’d woken aching and wet, pissed off and embarrassed.

And now he was here and I was having a hard time maintaining a certain level of anger when I also wanted him. Badly.

“So, you work with these kids? You teach them rowing?” We both looked out of the window, the scull flashing across the horizon as the teens worked together as a team.

“I volunteer at the Anacostia Youth Center. I started offering free counseling to the kids there, especially the LGBTQ kids, and then it expanded to my starting the rowing program. I rowed in college . . .” I let my train of thought lapse, feeling suddenly like I was babbling to fill the space. It wasn’t like me. Another testament to how much Aiden threw me off balance.

“Georgetown. You were very good.” Aiden gave me a tight smile at my surprise. “I did a background check on you. It was standard protocol.”

“For a murder suspect. Yes. I understand,” I said as I moved away from him, leaning against the desk to get this thing started and ended. “Why are you here, Detective? Coming to arrest me after all?”

He flinched, the quick recoil of his body at my words told me that they had hit the mark I intended. Whatever he was here to do, I wasn’t going to let him off easy.

“No.” He cleared his throat, stepping in closer to me, hand outstretched. Now it was my turn to shift back, as much as I could retreat from his touch with the desk behind me. “I came to apologize. I’m sorry” I opened my mouth to warn him off apologizing for what had happened between us. That I couldn’t stand. His expression twisted into a knot of anger and resolution. “I’m not sorry that I touched you. Fuck, I’ve wanted to do that since I first laid eyes on you. I’m sorry for using my badge. That was wrong.”

I knew he wasn’t lying to me about this. I don’t know how I knew but I chalked it up to years of training on reading people and parsing out whether the things they said matched what they were really feeling. Aiden Cross was not a liar. That much I knew of him.

“Fine. Apology accepted,” I said, moving to open the door and show him out. I sounded prim and cold and that is how I needed it to be to get him to go. This was never going anywhere between us and I didn’t want to show my hand or my heart. “The kids will be back soon. I need to get out there.”

I was shoved against the door, his body crowding mine with all his heat and muscle. I should have grabbed the door but my arms twisted around his body, my fingers curled into the fabric of jeans, holding him close to me. It was involuntary but exactly what I wanted and now he knew.

His breath was hot on my cheek as he spoke, his fingers rough in my hair and down my bare arms. His skin was calloused and I shivered at the sensation of his touch.

“I’m not sorry that I tasted you. I’m not sorry that I will never forget what it looked like to have you on your knees with my cock in your mouth.” His finger trailed across my cheek, ending in a sensuous swipe against my lower lip. I opened on a gasp and he slid the tip in a little bit, teasing the sensitive space just inside. My belly grew tight and my thighs clenched. “I’m not sorry that you came all over my mouth. I want it again.”

“Aiden,” I breathed out on a moan and then a gasp of surprise when he spun me around.

“Say it again,” he demanded.

I swallowed hard, willing my voice to actually work under the weight of his desire and my own. “Aiden.”

His mouth was hard on mine, tongue deliciously intrusive as I opened to him.

I met him wet thrust for slick slide, my fingers digging into his hair to pull him down to me. He groaned and I shifted beneath him, opening my legs wide to allow him to wedge his body between them. His cock was hard underneath his jeans and he ground it against me. It wasn’t the right angle so I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his waist, leveraging off the door to hump him.

It wasn’t elegant. It wasn’t sophisticated. It had all the earmarks of a teenage grope fest in the back seat of my parent’s car except now I knew how good sex could be and how to get it. I knew Aiden could give it to me.

And fuck me. I wanted it. Wanted him.

“Hey Doctor Carla!”

The sound of J.J. yelling for me from the pier just outside the very open window of my office quickly ripped me out of the family station wagon and back to the present where I had responsibilities. And the first one was to avoid being caught having sex by these kids.

“Stop. Stop,” I said, breaking the kiss and lowering my feet to the ground. Aiden chased my lips, his hands cupping my face to hold me in place. I reached up, tracing his eyebrow before moving upward to grab his hair and tug him back. “The kids are back. Stop.”

“Shit,” he said, banging his palm against the door in his frustration. He dropped his forehead against my own, his breath harsh against my face. “Shit. Fuck. Shit.” He opened his eyes and met my own, using the weight of his body to keep me where I was. “I’ve got to see you again.”

“Bad idea.” Such a colossally bad idea. I was who I was and he was who he was and what we wanted didn’t match. Not one little bit.

“Wrong answer.” He pressed his lips against mine briefly, his tongue sweeping inside for less than the length of a heartbeat. “Go out with me.”

“What? On a date?”

“Yes. A date.”

“Like dinner and a movie?”

He tilted his head, smiling down at me with wicked allure. “I was thinking of cold beer, hot dogs and a Nats game. I remember that you like them.” My mouth fell open in shock and he lifted his hand and shut it slowly, his grin all kinds of cocky now. He ground his groin against me and I sucked in a breath, my eyes half-shuttering with the jump of my own arousal. “And then I want to fuck you.”

I stared at him, drawing my lip between my teeth, knowing that this was the edge of the cliff and I had no way of knowing if there were rocks below. All I knew is that I wanted him and he knew me, knew about my kink and still wanted to see me.

No wondering how long before I told him. No awkward conversations explaining about Club D. No seeing them pull away and disappear with empty promises to call once their work wasn’t so busy. He knew it all already.

Maybe I could take a chance.

I smiled at him. “You had me at hot dog.”