“You’re beautiful without all that, you know.”
“Thank you. But I like dressing up. I don’t have a lot of reasons to, and I want to look nice for you.”
His eyes darkened. He slipped his hand around the back of my thigh, below the height of his desk so it wouldn’t be as obvious—although I doubted if anyone was looking at us, they wouldn’t know that we were together.
“Wear that black dress that you told me about. The one you wore for that tool who took you to get pizza in it.”
“You remember that?” I told him about that months ago. I remembered clear as day because that was the same time the tension between us shifted. I had always had my low-key crush on him, but that day, walking in the woods with him to look over the crime scene again, the air was charged differently. I had thought it was all in my imagination, but maybe I was wrong.
“Of course I do. I pictured you in that dress more timesthan I could count, except it was always my arm you were on instead of that idiot’s.”
My face flushed. I looked around the room, but no one was paying us any attention. At least, I didn’t think so, until I caught Captain’s eye as he stood in his doorframe.
“Captain is watching us,” I whispered.
A wolfish grin spread across Luke’s face, his eyes never leaving mine.
“We could really give him a show, if you want.” His fingers tightened around my thigh. My jaw hung open, my rounded eyes looking back at Luke in astonishment.
First, we went skinny-dipping, and now, he was openly flirting and touching me at work—with his superior watching. This new, playful Luke was full of surprises, and I was here for all of it. Mostly.
“You’re a menace, Officer Wilder.” I shook my head, laughter spilling from my lips.
“Figured it was worth a shot,” he smirked.
I left him to finish his work before hitting the streets, getting myself settled at my workstation as well.
An hour later, I was sitting at my desk when Officer Brimley came in.
“Scarlett… um, hey.” His eyes shifted around the room, landing anywhere but on me.
“Morning, Chuck. What brought you in today? Didn’t you work last night?” I asked.
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Captain just asked me to come in for something. I should let him know I’m here.” He walked away with more quickness than I usually saw in him. The entire encounter was odd, but I didn’t think much else about it when a call came through.
“Scarlett, can I talk to you, please?” Amy Lingard called from her office.
“Of course.” I started toward her, but she stopped me.
“Why don’t you leave the headset behind. Officer Brimley can cover for you.”
My stomach was instantly in knots. Amy didn’t call me into her office, almost ever, really. What was this about? And the second dispatcher, Brimley, just happened to be here to talk to Captain about something at the same time I needed someone to back me up on the phones? I didn’t like the coincidence of that at all.
Chuck still wouldn’t meet my eye as I passed the headset to him. My heart was beating faster as I made my way into the human resources office.
“Do you want me to close the door?” I asked.
“Just a second.” She tried to smile, but it dropped before it ever really made it there.
A moment later, Captain Langston was here as well.
“What’s going on? Did I do something wrong?” I asked, my eyes bouncing between them.
I probably shouldn’t have flirted with Luke so openly in the station. It was unprofessional, and I would apologize for it if that was what this was about. But if so, I hoped they planned on having a conversation with Luke too. It wasn’t like it was just me who behaved unprofessionally.
“Scarlett,” Amy started, her hands folded neatly on the desk in front of her, “as a member of this department, we expect you to uphold the highest standards of discipline and virtue. Even though you are not a police officer, you are still a representative of this organization.”
“Is this about…” I started to ask before I was interrupted.
