The Marriage Moment
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Katie Meyer
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18
Chapter One
Nothing in Deputy Jessica Santiago’s training had prepared her for this moment.
Not her bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice, not her time in the police academy and certainly not the packet of training materials she’d memorized before starting her first shift as a deputy in the Palmetto County sheriff’s department. Sweat trickled between her breasts under the perfectly pressed navy uniform she had so proudly put on a few hours ago, mocking her commitment to bravery in the face of danger.
But Ryan O’Sullivan wasn’t the kind of threat she’d expected to face as the only female law enforcement officer to come from Paradise Isle, Florida, in nearly a decade.
What was he doing here? He wore the same uniform she did, and for a moment her face heated as she remembered exactly what he looked like without any clothes at all. But he wasn’t supposed to be in Paradise. The last they’d spoken, a hurried and awkward conversation as she’d dressed herself in the early morning light, he’d told her that he’d hired on at the police department in his home town. He should have been hundreds of miles away in Miami Beach, not across the room, looking every bit as sexy as she remembered. She never would have slept with him if she’d thought there was a chance she would see him again.
Not that she had been a virgin—she’d crossed that bridge back in college with a longtime boyfriend, though that relationship had turned into a long-distance breakup when he graduated from the University of Florida a year before her and moved to Oregon. But one-night stands weren’t usually her style either. She’d been raised in a religious household, and although she didn’t always go along with everything the church taught, in many ways she was still the good Catholic girl her mother had raised her to be. But even an angel would have been temped by Ryan O’Sullivan.
Tall with broad shoulders that spoke of his college swimming success, he towered over everyone else in the room. At only five foot three herself, Ryan was a full foot taller than her, but that wasn’t why she’d mentally marked him off as out of reach. It was much more than that—he was the uncrowned king of the academy recruits, the kind of man who inspired admiration from other men and something a bit more visceral among the women.
Looking at him now out of the corner of her eye, it was easy to see why he’d always had a flock of females around him everywhere he went. Dark hair, classically sculpted features any male model would envy, and soulful brown eyes that were more sinful than her favorite triple-chocolate espresso cake. So yes, she’d crushed on him, as had every other woman in their class. But she’d gone to the academy to learn, not to flirt. So every time he’d asked her out she’d ignored him and focused on the job at hand. Until graduation night, when a bit too much tequila had intensified the lust she usually kept under control, overriding her better judgment.
And now she was regretting it. Because alcohol or not, had she known she’d be working in the same department with him two months later, she would have kept her clothes on and her legs crossed, no matter how intense the chemistry had been between them.
No, not chemistry. That implied a real connection, something beyond the sheer relief of finishing up such an intense training schedule—and topping off that liberating sense of freedom with a hefty dose of alcohol-lubricated lust. It was pure hedonism; nothing personal. In fact, she was probably stressing out over nothing. As many women as he’d been rumored to have been with, and as much booze as they’d shared, there was a good chance that night hadn’t even registered on his radar. He likely hadn’t given their encounter, or her, a second thought since then.
Clutching to that hope, she kept her eyes forward and headed for the door the minute the department meeting was over. She was to report to the staffing sergeant, where she’d be paired up with a partner and given her patrol orders for the evening. Thankfully, her brother had recently switched to day shifts; the last thing she needed was a protective older brother hovering over her on her first shift. As long as he wasn’t there, she didn’t care who she got partnered with.
Or maybe she did. Blocking her way into the main precinct was Ryan, a boyish grin on his face. Dread slithered through her gut. Surely they wouldn’t pair up two rookies, would they?
“Jessica, I was just coming to look for you.”
And I was trying to avoid you, she nearly muttered. Instead, she managed a nervous smile, and tried her hardest to forget that he’d ever seen her naked. “Well, you found me.” Smooth. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” Or ever again.
“Jason ended up getting the post in Miami. It was kind of a last minute thing.” He shrugged, his muscular shoulders stretching the limits of his department-issued uniform. “This was the only other opening left, and I remembered you talking about what a nice town Paradise was, so I figured I’d give small-town life a try.”
“Oh.” Of course she’d known he hadn’t purposely come here to be with her, but hearing that it was his last choice didn’t feel great either. “Well, I hope you like it. It’s very different from Miami.” She’d grown up there too, but the Little Havana neighborhood she’d called home was nothing like the wealthy suburb he came from. She’d been in college, living in the dorms, when her mom and brother picked up and moved to Paradise. Over long weekends and holiday breaks she’d gotten to know the small island, and although she still sometimes missed the excitement of Miami, Paradise was her home now.
“So I’ve noticed. But I figure you can show me around, help me find the best local hangouts and such.”
She blinked in surprise, but found her voice quickly. “I don’t think that’s a great idea.” At all.
“Hey, I just meant when we’re on patrol. Since we’re going to be partners and all.”
What? Her pulse pounded in her ears. “We can’t be partners. All new recruits are supposed to be assigned to more senior deputies.”
“True, but almost half the night shift is out with the flu. There just aren’t enough senior deputies to go around for all us newbies. So the sergeant in there said we can either ride desks for the next few days, or partner up for the night. What do you say?”
Ryan held his breath while Jessica considered his offer. She’d left town before he’d had a chance to see her again, and he had no idea what she thought of their night together. As far as he was concerned, it had been incredible. But he’d never gotten to say so, and now she was looking at him as if she’d rather be anyplace but by his side. A few weeks ago, they’d been as close as two people could get, and now she wasn’t sure she could stand one shift on patrol with him?
“What about...um, the other night?” She glanced nervously down the hall, obviously not wanting to be overheard. “Isn’t there a rule about not pairing up people who have any kind of romantic connection? Not that we do, of course.” Her face flushed a deeper red than he would have thought possible. “I mean, I know it was just one night. But I don’t want to start off by breaking the rules.”
No, she wouldn’t want that. She was the kind to play things by the book—he’d learned that about her at the academy. “I told the sergeant that we’d briefly had a thing, but that it was in the past. He said he was too short-staffed to worry about old feelings, and that unless we wanted to just go home we should be grown-ups about it and get to work.” He waited, breath held, to see her reaction to the pronouncement. Would she agree that things were entirely in the past? He wasn’t entirely certain of that, himself. Certainly his instinctive reaction to her was alive and well in the present.
Jessica’s sigh of relief was audible. “Okay. Hopefully he’ll keep that information to himself. The last thing I need is rumors getting around.”
So that was how it was going to be. Not real flattering, but if she wanted to pretend nothing had happened, he certainly wouldn’t push her on the matter. At least, not at first. “Fine by me.”
Relief, and something else he couldn’t quite place flashed in her eyes before her features schooled themselves into the professional detachment he was used to from her. A lot of the guys had said she was cold, or worse, because of the way she carried herself. More likely, they were just annoyed she showed more interest in her coursework than she did in them. And her scores showed it—she’d been at the top of their class. As far as he was concerned, her dedication was something to be admired, not resented, even if it meant she’d spent a long time refusing his advances. Still, he’d found himself watching her more often than he liked to admit. With perfectly smooth, copper-colored skin, almond shaped brown eyes, and raven black curls that fell halfway down her back, she made grit and determination look sexy.
Even now, with her hair pulled back at the nape of her neck and wearing an androgynous uniform that tried (and failed) to hide her lush curves, he couldn’t help but want her. He knew the softness of her skin, the taste of her lips, and now he was going to have to pretend they barely knew each other? He’d heard that the first few weeks on the job were hell, but this wasn’t the version of torture he’d expected.
Still, he was man enough to know when his advances weren’t wanted. Strictly business was what she wanted, so that was how it would have to be until and unless he could convince her otherwise. “Here’s our patrol assignment.” He handed her the paper with their patrol area and held up a set of keys. “Mind if I drive?”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Don’t you think I should be the one to drive, since you asked me to show you around?”
She had him there. Reluctantly, he handed the keys over. “Next time, I drive.”
“You like to be in control,” she observed, heading down the hall toward the exit.
“Don’t you?”
She hesitated, then nodded. “Fair point. But I’m still driving.”
He grinned. He could let her win for now. But if she thought she could walk all over him, she needed to think again.
In the car, she buckled herself in and then examined the paper with their area assignment again. “Looks like we’ll be covering Paradise and the stretch of backroads between here and the highway.” She smiled, a rare glimpse of the woman he’d briefly held in his arms. “Looks like you’ll get that tour after all.”
“Let’s get to it then.” He was glad they’d gotten that assignment for their first night. The other patrols would be working their way inland, covering the ranching towns and wilderness areas that made up the rest of eastern Palmetto County. He was a city boy, and although he would no doubt be spending plenty of time out in the boonies, he was happier in a town, even a small one like Paradise. Besides, it would give them something to talk about. He had a feeling he’d otherwise be in for a long, silent night. Maybe if he got her to open up about the island she so clearly loved, it would break whatever tension was between them and give them a chance to start over.
The sun was just sinking below the horizon as they started off, tinting the clouds with pink and gold. On Lighthouse Avenue, Paradise’s version of Main Street, people were milling about, heading into restaurants for a casual meal out or hurrying home after a long day at work. Streetlights flickered, attracting swarms of moths and probably some mosquitos. Summer was still a month off, but you’d never know it from the temperature, or the beach-casual clothes everyone seemed to be wearing.
Compared to Miami, where fashion was king, it was jarring to see people in cut-offs and tank tops going about their business. “People don’t dress up much here, do they?”
“Not unless you count name brand sunglasses or rhinestone flip-flops.” Jessica grinned. “When most people have known each other since they were in diapers, dressing to impress doesn’t make much sense, I guess.”
He smiled at the idea. “Good point. I may need to downgrade my wardrobe a bit, or I’m going to look out of place.” Not that he wore three-piece suits or anything, but his designer dress pants and shirts were probably going to be overkill.
“Casual clothes are a lot easier on a cop’s salary,” she pointed out practically.
“That’s the truth.” A small-town deputy didn’t make much money and his parents had stopped subsidizing him when he graduated from college. “I used up most of my savings to cover the tuition for the academy. My parents would have helped out for law school, but as my stepfather said, they weren’t shelling out a dime just for me to be a beat cop.” He shrugged. “I expected as much from him, but thought my mom might have sided with me, considering my dad wore a badge for almost twenty years.”
“So your stepfather disapproved—but didn’t your Dad stick up for you?”
Ryan swallowed hard against the emotion that was still strong, even after all these years. “He was a cop. Past tense. He had a heart attack the year before I started high school. A freak congenital thing they said, although I don’t imagine his affinity for fried food helped much either. When Mom remarried, she moved up the criminal justice ladder to a lawyer.”
“Hence the push for you to attend law school?”
“Exactly. What about you, is your family supportive?”
Jessica’s laugh in response was without mirth. “That’s not exactly the word I would choose.”
Ryan kept silent, obviously waiting for her to elaborate.
She might as well fill him in. It wasn’t like there were any secrets in a small town like Paradise, less so in the law enforcement community. “My dad wasn’t around much when I was growing up. He loved us, but he didn’t know how to settle down. He was always chasing the next adventure, betting that the next risk was the one that would pay off. But it never did. He lived hard, and he died young, leaving mom to pick up the slack, to shoulder all the responsibility that came with being a real parent.” She shrugged. “She pretty much raised my brother and me on her own, and worries like you’d expect her to. My brother, on the other hand...” She trailed off, trying to find the words. “He’s on a mission to help me find something—anything—else to do with my life.”
Confusion furrowed his brow “But isn’t your brother a deputy himself?”
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Yup. Trust me, we’ve had the ‘pot, meet kettle’ conversation more than a few times.”
“Sounds like there’s a story there.”
She put the blinker on, then turned off the main drag and onto the road that led to the public park. “Not really. He’s just a typical, overprotective big brother. He thinks he needs to take care of me—to save me from myself.”
“Ah, I see. And Big Brother thinks his chosen career is too dangerous for his baby sister?”
She couldn’t hide her grimace as she thought back to all the arguments they’d had on the subject. She prided herself on her self-control, but her big brother had a way of getting a rise out of her. “That’s exactly what he thinks.” If Alex had his way, she’d be working in an office somewhere, where the biggest risk was a paper cut. “But he’s backed off recently, mostly because my mom made him. He might be tough, but she’s tougher.”
“So determined women run in your family. Sounds like he’s outnumbered.”
“You could say that.” She drove a slow lap around the park, looking for anything or anyone out of place. A few older teens were shooting baskets, and a young couple had their heads together on a bench, but other than that the place was pretty much deserted. Heading away from downtown she turned onto the beach road that bordered the eastern edge of the island.
Here along the dunes the night was pitch black, her headlights the only illumination. It was like being on the edge of the world, which in some ways, it was. Beyond that cloak of darkness the sea stretched all the way to Africa. “I hadn’t realized how much I missed the ocean while at school.”
“Yeah, Gainesville is a great town, but if you grow up by the sea I don’t think you ever can be happy living away from it.”
“I think you’re right.” She reluctantly steered west and away from the water, heading for the bridge to the mainland. A maze of backroads ran up and down the coast, mostly leading to fishing shacks, bait shops and the occasional home. A quiet area, but also secluded enough to hide the occasional poaching shack or teenage keg party. “What made you go to UF, rather than somewhere down south?”
“Same as you, I bet. Their criminal justice program is one of the best in the nation. I didn’t want to be one of those cops who are just in it for the sirens and the gun, you know? I wanted to really learn the law, to be the best law enforcement officer I could be.” He shrugged, the movement illuminated by the glow of the instrument panel. “I know that sounds corny.”
“No, it doesn’t.” She understood what he meant. It was true, you could technically become a cop with no more than a GED and six months of academy training, but the field was moving past that. “You see it as a profession, a career, not just a job.” And given what he’d said about his family, maybe a way to honor his father as well?
“I do. Maybe it’s not as impressive to many as a law degree, but I want the badge to mean something.”
“Hey, those lawyers wouldn’t have a job if we didn’t enforce the law. There are differences, but at the end of the day you need both, like, two sides of the same coin. I’m surprised your stepfather can’t see that.”
“It’s okay. Honestly, I think he’s still stuck in a different time, when people who became cops didn’t have an education beyond high school. For him, if you can handle academics well enough to go to college, that meant you should do something better.” He smiled wryly. “Or at least something that pays better.”
She winced. “I still say law enforcement is as good a job as any, but the salary part is hard to argue with. Especially considering how expensive college tuition has gotten.”
“That’s why I had to get a scholarship. I couldn’t justify taking on debt when it would take so long to pay it off on a cop’s salary. And even if he’d been willing to help out, I wasn’t going to take his money when I knew he didn’t approve of my career choice.”
“Same here—about the scholarship I mean.” She hadn’t considered that he might have been on a scholarship too. From the start she’d pegged him as a rich kid riding on his parents’ dime. He’d certainly dressed the part, with designer labels from head to toe. But it seemed she’d read him wrong. He might have money, but he came from working-class stock same as her. And he was paying his own way, despite his family’s current wealth. If she was going to be worthy of that shiny new badge on her chest she’d need to stop making assumptions based on appearances.
The crackle of a radio signal ended her thought process, the dispatcher’s words sending a shot of adrenaline into her system.
Drunk and disorderly at Pete’s Crab Shack. Suspect possibly armed.
“Didn’t we just pass that place?” Ryan asked, his voice tight with anticipation.
“Yes.” She swung the car around, her stomach roiling at the sudden motion. She’d been dealing with a nervous stomach all week, anticipating her first day on the job, and the shock of seeing Ryan had made it worse. She’d grab some antacids later. First she had a job to do, and she wasn’t going to let a few butterflies in her stomach interfere with her job.
