RISEN
The pager squawks as Tiana—my favorite, yet most annoying and wickedly vindictive dispatcher—depresses the call button, accentuating her bitchiness tenfold.
“You’re the one that enforces the law.” Bleep, it squawks effectively, telling me off in-between her snarky remarks. “Now, pick up your big girl panties and arrest her.” The worst goddamn part about all of this? Tiana’s fucking right. I won’t tell her that to her face, though. Fuck no. That would be stupid of me.
“Fuck off, Tiana,” I say into the vacant patrol car, being careful to not express it on the pager system. Like I need another reason to be penalized.
Tiana’s five foot five frame, perky smile, and bubbly attitude may seem sweet and adorably cute to those who don’t know her, but to someone like me who does, her interior could cut you like a knife if you cross her. She’s the ‘screw you’ friend that you expect bucket loads of honesty and candor from in every comment, which is what I like about her, if I’m being totally honest. She may be the bitch, but I’m the asshole. The bad weed. The fucker that no one wants to get too close to with the mental baggage and seedy past. The guy constantly screwing up without trying, and I have horrible fucking luck.
Blowing out a heavy breath, running my hands through my slightly long hair, I give myself a personal pep talk. “Get your shit together, Risen.”
Fuck. Like this traffic stop is going to help me get my shit together. It’ll pull me even deeper into hell’s ass.
Peering out of my patrol car at the woman standing nonchalantly on the grass, waiting—no, begging—to be arrested, I’m scared shitless to be the one to do it. China Crown was a pinup on my walls throughout most of my senior university years. I was keeping paper towel companies in business as a hot and horny young twenty something. Thoughts of her kept me working out my cock. I’m only a few years older so it’s not creepy; at least, that’s what I told myself, even back then. Now as I adjust my pissed off dick, preparing to go back out to her and the awaiting bike, I have to calm the dirty thoughts that run rampant in my mind. I need to think of cross-dressing fat guys, catheters and enemas—anything just to quiet my rising blood. If it gets any louder, I’ll walk out there with a raging hard-on. That would most certainly show up on the car cam.
Fuck, I’d never hear the end of that ribbing at the station.
As I’m sitting in my cruiser, contemplating the circumstances, my personal phone rings. Relaxing the growing boner faster than that moment when your mom walks in on you having sex, I pull it from the clip on my belt. Finding Tiana’s perfected resting bitch face on the screen, I can feel this routine stop going even more sideways.
Sliding the lock, I answer in my usual ‘go fuck yourself’ tone. “What the fuck, T?”
“There’s nothing special about Miss China Crown, Risen.” Tiana doesn’t see what I see. She looks so pure and so sweet, which is a total one-eighty to the woman on the track. She doesn’t let anyone get the better of her, ever. China Doll Crown effectively crushes the competition with a perfected smile that wishes you better luck next time.
Flipping her hair out of its hairband, shaking the chocolate length down her svelte frame, my cock strains against my chinos once more. She’s fucking beautiful. Seeing her mocha and midnight hair streaming in the breeze, sticking every so often to her blood red lipstick, I have the hardest time keeping myself under control.
“You can’t let her off with a fucking warning.” Don’t I wish. “And don’t fucking lie to me anymore than you’re lying to yourself.”
Trust me, I’m not. I know the truth. She’s dangerous to my career. Fuck, to my supply of conditioner.
“Give me a break, Tiana,” I say crassly, pissed she’s schooling me about my fucking job.
“Risen, life would be silently torturous, and verdantly fucked-up without you here to harass. Stop being such a pussy.”
“That’s something I’ve never been accused of.”
She laughs into the receiver. “Yeah, well, right now, I’m accusing you of being one. Man up.”
Losing a bit of my steam in the argument, I say, “T, I’m just pissed to be the one to do it.”
“Risen, you’re lying to yourself if you think she’ll appreciate you letting her off the hook. Be the bastard I know you are. Arrest the fucking princess.”
To me, the idea of arresting her on lawful technicalities feels like a shit draw. Her life has been plastered on every news feed, every channel, and talked about on every fucking entertainment show for months. China Crown has had her ass handed to her on a Hollywood, gold-plated platter.
“Get it done, Officer.” Without a goodbye—like I expected one—Tiana hangs up with a resounding click.
Looking out the chipped windshield, huffing out my building frustration, I grab the last of what’s left of my man card. When I pulled up beside the two-wheeled devil on the highway exit, I knew what it was right away, a KRGT-1. What I wouldn’t give to ride that thing just once. On the curb sits a bike that’s worth more than someone like me could make in two years, idly and patiently waiting on its kickstand to be released. It’s streamlined, sexy as fuck, and dangerously enticing. The sleek, flat black titanium frame and single-eyed devil screams its need to speed in every nut and bolt. I don’t fault China for letting it off the chain either. I would’ve too.
Sitting here like a pansy-ass fuckwit, looking at the heaven-sent beauty of China Crown, I curse my position. I’m the cop, and she’s the unlawful citizen that has a bench warrant out for her arrest. Both of us have no choice in this situation. As I resign myself to that fact, I hate it more and more as the seconds’ tick down. I can’t let her off with a warning without risking my job, and I’m almost sure that if I arrest her, I’ll be dealing with a full-blown princess fit.
Fuckity fuck, fuck. “Fuck!” I grind out before picking up the receiver of my CB radio. I need to put an end to my internal misery. I know that Tiana is going to enjoy this way too fucking much. I’m never goin to hear the end of her I told you so’s.
“Officer Scott,” I clip off. “I need a call in to Tracey’s to get the bike picked up. It’s a hundred thousand worth of naked metal on the side of Crenshaw."
The pager squawks and squeals as she replies. “Ten four, Patrolman.” Tiana’s voice is malicious and gleeful. I know T’s enjoying this way too fucking much. I swear, I can see the grin from here as it creeps across her features. She relishes the position I’m in.
Tossing the mic across the console, I cuss some more.
Why did it have to be her? Of all the people to pull over, why did it have to be China Crown? It’s not like I’m a loser who can’t find a date, but she’s always been the unattainable one on a pedestal. Watching her like the voyeur I am, Doll texts away on her phone with no understanding of the shitstorm she’s about to be engulfed in. While her petite painted fingers move a mile a minute across the screen, I think about what I wouldn’t do to have those scrape down my arms. I want so badly to pull those full red lips through my teeth and punish them. Man, it’s gonna be hard to keep my shit together and do my job at the same time.
Blowing out heavy breaths, I pop the door of my cruiser and step into the heat of day. The sound of the closing door has Doll turning my way with surprise lighting her features. I swear to all that’s holy, her wide-eyed surprised gaze is even more stunning than I could’ve imagined. I’m going to need a few cold showers to wrestle this hard-on, and soon.
“Officer Mason.” Before I have a chance to move away from the car, Captain Scott chirps across my chest walkie with a derisive and harsh tone.
Now the real shitstorm starts.
Turning away, I depress the receiver and respond coolly. “Yes, sir?”
“Tiana has informed me of your progress with Miss Crown. I expect to see the report on my desk within the hour. No exceptions.” Tiana threw me to the wolves. She probably thinks she’s doing me a favor by telling her father. Well, regardless, no more fucking butterscotch candies for her.
“Yes, sir. Of course.” Answering him, I rub my thumb knuckles into my eye sockets, causing stars to swim in my vision. I wish it would make me temporarily blind.
“I expect this will be cared for with professionalism,” Captain Scott chimes in tautly, as I cuss the fucking uniform I wear. Tiana’s father, and my boss, are holding my nuts in a noose right now, and there’s nothing I can do about it. I never thought of being anything other than a cop after the mess of my teenage years. To fight my past, and to swamp out the specters that wander in my soul, that’s all I could’ve hoped for when taking this position.
Calmly, I answer, “Ten-four, sir.” And without a further reply from the captain, I huff. Fuck, fuck, fuck!
This.
Is.
Shit.
Hardening the shield around my soul and bucking up my courage, I turn back to China. I need to seem stern, professional, to the point and contrite, even though I feel like a fucktard and a pussy for wanting her autograph.
Clearing my throat, I approach her. “Miss—”
“Yes, Officer,” she says sweetly.
“There are outstanding tickets that haven’t been processed and paid out. I’m going to have to ask you to come with me to the station.”
“The fuck?” Crap. Princess, meet fit. Stay on point, Risen.
“Miss, I’m going to have your bike impounded, and you’ll have to come with me.”
“The fuck you are!” The look on her face could stop anyone in their tracks. This is not going to go well.
Being the asshole I know I can be, I pull up to my full height and stare her down. “There are four outstanding violations that you’re wanted for, and it seems you didn’t appear in court last week. The judge has sent an order of detainment. I’m sorry to do this, but you’ll have to come with me.”
Stepping up beside her, taking in her honeysuckle and vanilla fragrance as it clouds my mind, I pull out my cuffs. Flicking them apart, I concentrate on the task at hand. I swear, I hear the wheels in her head spinning with retorts that are probably—no, most definitely, not ladylike.
“You have got to be shitting me, right? I mean, this isn’t real. Who put you up to this, ’cause it’s not fucking funny.”
“I wish I was joking, Miss Crown.” Crap on a cracker, do I wish.
Tossing her arms in the air as I unlatch the first cuff, China takes a step back. Flicking it against her upraised petite wrist, I turn her around gently before adding the second bracelet. My mind reels as I imagine using these cuffs for something else.
Pressing the links to her wrists, I feel her soft, supple body up against mine where we touch, ever so slightly. I’m a big guy at six-six, making Doll’s five-ten or eleven seem petite. And where her little body is long, contained, and tight, mine is bulky and overshadowing hers in the best possible way. The blood rushes in a torrent back to my already straining cock, reminding me that I’m a full-blooded man in my prime. The slightest touch makes it rise to the occasion. On the best of days, I have to concentrate on keeping a chubby down, and this is really trying my resolve.
“I’m being arrested?” she asks. “You know this will be on the news at five, Officer. I hope you wore your best dress for the pictures.” Acting indignant and pissed, but calm about the whole fiasco, China scans the surrounding sky and streets, looking for the paparazzi that linger on every street corner like cockroaches, just waiting for their next scavenged roadkill. This must be hard for her.
“This has got to be the worst fucking joke, ever.” Deflating slightly, China resigns herself to the fact that she has no choice in this. Me, I wish I could rewind this day too.
“Not a joke, Miss. Though I wish it were.”
Seeing China in posters for years, I always thought she was spectacular, but up close, she’s even more stunning. Turning her to face me, sucking in a deep breath, I realize there’s not a single blemish on her skin. The manicured eyebrows that peek out from behind her wire frame Tom Ford sunglasses are near perfection. Mesmerized by the tiny freckle just by her nose in the shape of a star, it finishes off the package, enhancing those pouty, blood red, full lips that I want so badly. If I were less of a gentleman, I’d take them between my own.
Who am I kidding? I am less than a gentleman, and more thug than I’d like to admit.
Lifting off her glasses, I hook them in my jacket pocket and wait as she adjusts to the light of day. Purely stunning. No other words can describe her seafoam green and gold eyes that are framed by massive chocolate eyelashes. I’m staring into the depths of an abyss. Pausing for longer than I should, China looks up at me, almost quizzically, with a cheeky smile. She knows how she affects men, and me specifically. Dammit, get your shit together, Risen.
“Officer?” She grins slyly. With a knowing gaze that tells me she sees right through my composure, I sidestep her. Pulling the key from her bike’s ignition, I listen to her huff and grumble under her breath. It’s cute as hell.
“I can’t believe I have to do this,” I mutter to myself as I move her off toward the car’s back door. Clearing my throat, I do my job in earnest. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney.” I turn her toward the open car door and continue. “If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I’ve just read to you?”
Opening the door and holding myself to the side, I ask her, “With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?”
“Yes, I understand, and no, I don’t, Officer,” she says harshly.
Placing my hand on her head, I help her bend down enough to get her inside the car without hitting the frame.
Scooting to the middle of the seat, she glares up at me with a look that I’m sure more than one opponent has had the chance to see and fear. “Are you okay there, Miss Crown?”
“Perfectly peachy, Officer.” Clipped, short, and to the point. She turns away from me and the open door where I stand, giving me the cold shoulder.
Closing her door and opening my own, I mutter to myself about the whole fucked-up scenario. Hopping in, I find myself checking the rearview mirror with an overwhelming need to apologize. I’m not normally known for being a pussy, but I’m twisted in knots about this. It’ll do me no good to tell her how fucking horrible I feel for arresting her, or what an asshole I am. I wish it were under different circumstances that we were meeting. All of it means shit. She’s still arrested, and I’m the officer who put her there.
Turning around and passing her sleek, deserted machine, I hope to fuck that Tiana arranged the hook with Tracey’s. Because without a doubt, within three point nine seconds of us drifting down the street, that bike will be scrap metal.
Shit sticks! This sucks.