CHAPTER 6
Steven
“Before we get started tonight I’d like to take a moment to propose a toast and to congratulate one of our favorite detectives. One who is now officially off the market.”
A few heads turn scanning the room looking for clues on who the chief might be referring to. I haven’t told anyone yet, so all this must be coming from Monika.
A few of the ladies look through their programs. Each officer has his own page in tonight’s program. It tells a bit about his life, his career, and of course a few measurements like biceps, chest, and shirt size. That and how many cases he’s worked on…the most interesting thing he’s come across…things of that nature.
And unfortunately there I am on the last page. I was supposed to be the final auction of the night. The last officer who brings in the most. The final chance to get a date with a cop. I have to admit the event was fun and for a good cause, but I’m lucky to not have to participate this year although I know a few of the ladies in attendance won’t find it so lucky.
Miss Lewis from Pasadena had purchased me three years in a row. We did everything from have dinner to playing doubles tennis with what seemed to be her entire group of girlfriends. Fortunately she never pushed the envelope or insinuated at anything sexual, like Miss Long did. Jeez I just remember how she tried to tell me her last name was Long for a reason. Because she could handle each and every last inch. I was lucky to escape that date with my clothes not ripped and shredded as much as she was grabbing at me.
But those days are long gone thankfully. Now it’s time for the other officers to set new records and for junior officers to experience the action…figuratively and quite possibly literally in some cases.
“Please raise a glass for Detective Shields and his lovely fiancée May,” the chief says.
I feel May’s knee find the back of my calf and I try my best to hold back a smile. I don’t look down at her knowing doing so would set us both into a frenzy of laughter.
“Shield?” a few voices say.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
I raise my glass high in the sky and turn to May. We clink glasses and then take a drink as does the rest of the room.
And then it starts.
Lieutenant Ferguson clinks his glass with a spoon soon to be followed by a lot of other officers.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” fills the banquet room.
A verifiable pattern of romantic behavior. That line of fine print from the department’s insurance policy starts running through my mind.
There’s no way a newly engaged couple wouldn’t want to put on a public display of affection right? But half of these guys here haven’t ever seen me with a woman seeing that I’ve been married to my job all these years.
But there’s a big pink elephant in the room that only I know about. The truth, and I’m not talking about what May and I are up to.
The truth is I want to kiss her. Badly.
I’m not so sure I needed all these people here to witness our possible first kiss, but I guess when in Rome…
I turn to face her and she’s already looking up at me. Somehow she seems closer. I don’t want to take my eyes off of hers but I quickly look down at the floor and see she’s standing on her tiptoes.
Does she want this as bad as I do? My career revolves around reading people and body language. Her body isn’t lying. She does.
My right hand comes up finding her cheek. I run my thumb along that smooth skin. That same creamy skin I admired yesterday in the coffee shop is now in my hand.
I push back a lock of her hair as I watch her chest heave up and down. As much as I’m trying to control my own breathing I know the pace of my breath is right in line with hers.
This is real. This is so real.
I lean in and just before I close my eyes I see her eyes close. As my face gets just inches from hers I stop, feeling the heat from her skin and her breath.
I pray that no one is looking at my trousers right now because I’m definitely not concealing the pistol that’s in my pants right now. I’m locked and loaded and have that thing drawn and ready to fire. She’s taken me from zero to sixty in no time flat.
I move in closer, knowing our lips are separated by no more than a couple of inches.
I can’t resist anymore.
I gently place my lips on hers and feel her lean up and into mine.
I want to devour her right here and now, but that’s not how I treat a lady…my lady. She is isn’t she?
I pull back and just look at her. Her eyes take an extra couple seconds to open but when she does they’re as wide and focused as I’ve ever seen them. Her pupils are dilated and I’m sure she sees the same thing as she looks into mine.
I feel a pat on the back, but it takes me a second to turn around and acknowledge it. I’m still fixated on her.
“Congratulations, detective,” the chief says.
The chief?
He must have come down off the stage and approached us without my noticing. And now I suddenly notice that everyone is clapping and hooting and hollering. But it hasn’t just started. They’re well into it. I didn’t even hear the cheers break out.
I was completely lost in her. Gone. Focused on the only thing that mattered.
Her. Pretending to be hers and that she was mine.
Pretending…right?