In the Line of Duty: First Responders, Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

you.”
    “That’s presuming a lot.”
    “Maybe. Of course, I thought for a minute that there was a chance you just really didn’t like me, but then I knew that was impossible.”
    “Your ego isn’t suffering, I see.” Oh my. She was bantering with Jake and she was enjoying it. This really should stop. Other than working his case, she should have nothing to do with him. They were too different. She could never condone his choice of living.
    “My ego is just fine.” He winked at her, popping a dimple. “I don’t exactly believe that your…disdain is probably the best word I can think of. I don’t believe it’s about the night you put me in jail. I deserved it. I was an idiot. A drunk idiot who deliberately provoked you from the back of your cruiser.”
    He had. The suggestion he’d made regarding her handcuffs still made her blush. “So that’s not the real you?”
    “Oh, it was the real me then . I was pretty messed up. Home on leave, didn’t want to go back, my head screwed up… I was blowing off steam.”
    The head-screwed-up bit was the part that caught her attention. She knew he’d done a few deployments, but he’d always seemed so carefree and, well, disgustingly charming around town. Was there more to him than the cocky ex-soldier? She wondered what he’d seen. What he’d done. If he’d really struggled when he’d come back.
    If he still did. She knew better than anyone that you couldn’t escape your past.
    “And you want me to know this why?”
    They reached her car and she stopped, rested her butt against the back door of her cruiser. The angle made her that much shorter than Jake’s full height, and she had to look quite a ways up to meet his gaze.
    “Damned if I know,” he said softly, his hazel eyes searching hers. “Except I think you formed an opinion that night. One that you still hold against me every time you get a call from one of my staff. I promise you,” he continued as one corner of his mouth quirked upward deliciously, “I don’t run around the parking lot in my underwear or make lewd suggestions about handcuff fantasies anymore.”
    A smile flirted with her lips.
    “At least not in public.”
    Damn him. She didn’t want to laugh but couldn’t help it.
    “That’s better,” he said, resting his weight on one hip and taking a long drink of pop. She watched his throat bob as he swallowed and her mouth went dry. There was no use pretending Jake Symonds wasn’t gorgeous. He was.
    “What’s better?”
    “A smile. I wasn’t sure if you remembered how. Well, except when you dumped me in the water this afternoon. You seemed to enjoy that well enough.”
    She had, and there was no sense denying it. “Well, now I’ve smiled, so it’s time I left.” She boosted herself away from the door and took her keys from her pocket.
    “What are you doing next Sunday?”
    The question took her by surprise, and she hesitated with her hand on the door handle, turning her head to look at him. He wasn’t smiling now. In fact, he looked dead serious, his full, bowed lips unsmiling and his eyes earnest, without the saucy teasing she normally saw there.
    “Why?”
    “Just wondering if you have the day off. If you…well, hell,” he said sheepishly, after a long pause. “If you aren’t busy…”
    “You asking me on a date, Jake?”
    “And if I were?”
    She shook her head. “Why on earth would you want to go out on a date with me?” It wasn’t like they had anything in common. They argued more than anything else. Though she had to admit, she was starting to sort of enjoy their arguing.
    He took a step closer. “Oh, I don’t know.” He started ticking reasons off on his fingers. “We’re both single, about the same age, living in the same town. You’re beautiful, and even though we appear to argue a lot, I think we both enjoy it.”
    He thought she was beautiful? But he always saw her in her uniform, which was about as un-feminine as it got. And her hair was always