Rose gets flagged down by some woman at the other end of the bar. She immediately falls into conversation with her—whomever she is—and Noli makes her way to my side as “Achy Breaky Heart” starts playing over the bar’s loudspeakers.
“This is Poppy’s favorite.” She rolls her dazzling blue eyes.
I bend lower so she can hear me over the music. “Don’t tell me you don’t have a tiny crush on Billy Ray Cyrus too.”
“What would that say about my choice in men?” She wags her eyebrows at me.
I hum. “Good point. So you’re less into country music singers and more into cops. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Who says I’m into you?”
I arch my eyebrows ever so slowly.
She stares back at me, but there’s a shadow of a smile on her face. She blinks first and scans the bar. “I wonder who that is that Rose is talking to. I don’t recognize her from our high—”
Noli stops talking abruptly. I turn toward her, and she’s gone rigid. The relaxed woman I’ve grown accustomed to has been replaced by a hardened statue.
“Noli, are you—”
She whirls around, and her gaze collides with mine. There’s a sort of frantic, desperate look in her eyes. “I need you to kiss me right now. No questions asked.”
Before I can process her request, she’s up on her tiptoes. She reaches for my face and tugs it down to her level, pressing her lips to mine.
It’s my turn to freeze. Noli is kissing me. For whatever reason.
I’ll figure that out later.
For now, I pull her closer so we’re chest to chest. I tangle one hand in her hair and give the other hand free rein to caress her back, finally touching the skin along her exposed spine.
She sucks in a breath as I trail my fingers up and down, and for a second, I think she’s going to pull away, but then she deepens the kiss, pressing our mouths more firmly together and sliding her leg between mine.
Noli kisses like a woman who knows what she wants. She tastes like the fruity cocktail she’s been sipping on, but this isn’t some drunken make-out session. She’s been nursing the same beverage all night. So she’s in complete control here, and unlikethis morning, I’m happy to let her take the wheel. I know she’s in her right mind, and I’ll get to the bottom of her motivations later.
I drop my hand from her hair and squeeze above her hip. She moans and squeezes my biceps in return. I can’t help but smile into her mouth at that. I knew she liked those. I’ve caught her checking out my muscles when she doesn’t think I’m looking.
She nips the bottom of my lip, as if she knows what I’m thinking. If we were talking with our words instead of our kisses, I’d be giving her a hard time right now, and she’d be shooting retorts back at me.
As it stands, I’ll gladly communicate with Noli this way whenever and wherever she wants me to. In fact, I think I could kiss her all night.
A throat clears to my left. I ignore it, moving my mouth to trail kisses down the side of Noli’s neck. I’m taking my merry time and relishing this opportunity to smell her skin. The leftover scent of the day’s sun is mingling with her usual buttery aroma, and the combination is intoxicating. I only pull away when I feel her body stiffen under my lips.
“Oh. Hey,” Noli says.
When I ease back, I look first to Noli, who has washed her face of any expression, and then to the man standing off to our side.
I do a quick assessment of him. Probably five foot ten inches, with muscles that look like they’ve been earned in a gym. He’s got a buzz cut that looks dangerous, and a pie-eating grin that looks more calculating than a T-89 graphing calculator. As a cop, I try to give all different types of people a chance to prove themselves without my preconceived notions getting in the way, but I don’t like this guy.
I loop my arm over Noli’s shoulder. It’s a possessive move, and the man in front of me doesn’t miss it. His mouth hardens into a smile that looks more like a sneer as he stares at my hand resting casually on her shoulder before he flicks his gaze to Noli’s face and then to mine.
“You’re back. With company,” he says.
“Just in town for the weekend.” Noli’s voice is strained. It’s the same tone she uses when she’s slammed in the comm center. To anyone else, she probably sounds completely in control, but I sense her anxiety.
I give her shoulder a gentle squeeze.
“This is Collin.” Noli glances up at me, and I smile down into her face, giving her a look of tender affection. I’m not acting. In this moment, in front of this guy, I want Noli to know I’m with her. On her side. Whatever she needs.
She returns my smile, but there are stress lines around her mouth. I want to kiss them away.
