Perfect Fit Read Online Free PDF

exhaled hard. “When I came back and took this job, I didn’t handle things between us as well as I could have.”
    His unexpected admission surprised her. “You didn’t handle it at all.”
    A wry grin tugged at his lips. “Neither did you.”
    He had her there.
    But he spoke before she could formulate a reply. “I’m the one who came back to town. I should have at least acknowledged that something happened between us.” He looked at her with regret in his brown eyes and more than a hint of an apology in his expression.
    “Something did,” she whispered, suddenly seeing the man she’d taken to bed and not the police chief who barely noticed her.
    His heated gaze swept over her, and an unmistakable arc of sexual awareness shimmered between them. She melted on the spot. But she wasn’t naïve, nor would she take an apology of sorts as an opening.
    Though she would admit to hoping he’d offer one. “Why are you bringing this up now?” she asked.
    “Truth?”
    She nodded. “Always.”
    He inclined his head. “Sam asked what I’d do to a guy who treated Erin the way I treated you.”
    Not the answer she’d been hoping for, and deep inside, hope withered. Mike hadn’t suddenly decided to care about her feelings. He was merely making amends because her best friend had come to her rescue.
    She straightened her shoulders, preparing to walk out with her head held high. “Don’t worry. I knew the deal going in, so you can relax.” She was proud that her voice didn’t waver.
    “Oh.” He blinked, appearing surprised by her answer.
    Well, what had he expected? Her undying gratitude that he’d stepped up as a man? Or for her to cling and beg him to give them another chance? Neither would happen. Not now and not if hell froze over, Cara thought.
    “I’m glad we understand each other,” he said gruffly.
    She managed not to curl her hands into fists and show her real emotions. Feelings she wouldn’t let surface until later, when she was alone.
    “If we’re finished, I have paperwork to complete.” She started for the exit, but he still blocked it with his large frame.
    Realizing he stood between Cara and her escape, he stepped aside and opened the door.
    She was almost past his alluring scent and the tempting warmth of his body when she forced herself to pause. “Mike?”
    “Yeah?”
    “You can tell Sam he worried for nothing. I always knew you weren’t the kind of guy to expect much from,” she said, sweeping past him with as much dignity as she could muster.
    Only when his door slammed shut with him inside did she allow her knees to buckle as she sank into the chair behind her desk. She’d get past this moment, she promised herself.
    She’d get past Mike Marsden. On the job, she’d continue to be a good little officer and treat him with the respect he was due. But off duty? No more tiptoeing around him. She’d be herself, the only way she knew to put him and the entire night behind her once and for all.
    I always knew you weren’t the kind of guy to expect much from.
    He knew what Cara meant with her cutting remark. Not only had he deserved it, he’d prided himself on that verything. Unless the people involved were his immediate family, Mike made himself off limits. Like his biological father, Rex Bransom, Mike had taken off from Serendipity as soon as he got the chance, leaving his family and the police force he’d recently joined.
    Also like his sperm donor, he’d hurt a woman in the process. At least Tiffany hadn’t been pregnant, as Mike’s mother had been with him. Mike was young then, barely twenty-two, and he hadn’t known enough to lay out his feelings for Tiffany—or lack of them. To Mike, she’d been fun and he liked her well enough, but he sure as hell never planned on marrying her.
    He shuddered at the thought, recalling how he’d used his escape from Tiffany as his ticket out of his small hometown, next stop Atlantic City, where he’d picked up again as a beat cop. He’d