The Officer's Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

drizzle and steaming puddles to her car.
    “It’s a sleeping bag and pillow,” he said as he opened the rear door and tossed a bundle onto the seat behind her. “Consider it a peace offering. I know I came on pretty strong at the house. It’s my job to get you out of harm’s way and keep you safe, but I didn’t mean to scare you to death.”
    So the big burly policeman had a heart. That was a surprise. Stephanie gathered her wits enough to thank him. “I can’t take your sleeping bag, though,” she said. “You’ll need it.”
    He overrode her protests. “They have cots for us at the station. And don’t worry about getting it back to me. I know where you live.”
    He probably intended the “ah, shucks, ma’am” grin to reassure her, but Stephanie was too busy listening to herheart. It pounded, every beat shouting, “Too late! Too late!” It was too late to run. Too late to get a hotel room. Too late for anything but a nerve-wracking drive into the middle of the state where she hoped to find space in a shelter. She would have floored it all the way to Orlando if she’d known how to get there.
    Fortunately for her, Officer Lincoln’s thoughts were a tad more organized. He ripped a hand-drawn map from his notepad and handed it through her lowered window. “It’s a straight shot from here to the shelter. You have a full tank of gas?”
    She nodded mutely.
    “A cell phone?”
    “Yes, but it doesn’t work,” she said. The useless device made a dandy paperweight though. With trembling fingers, she used it to anchor the map into the cup holder.
    “It will once you reach the mainland. What’s your number?” he asked.
    She gave it to him while he jotted notes on a pad.
    “You’ll be all right,” he said. His voice dropped like a lifeline through her open window and she clung to it. “Just follow the map and don’t take any detours.”
    His words might have satisfied a Florida girl, but she was from Ohio. She needed more reassurance. She fought an unexpected urge to put Officer Lincoln’s oath to serve and protect to the test by burying herself in his muscular arms. His chest certainly looked broad enough to shield her from the coming storm.
    “You’ll be all right,” he repeated. He leaned down until his face was inches from her own.
    Wishing she shared his confidence, Stephanie searched for courage and found more than she was looking for in his hooded blue eyes. He leaned a fraction closer. Momentary uncertainty made her check either side of the window where the doorframe supported his weight. Satisfied he wasn’t about to slap the cuffs on her a second time, she finally allowed herself to believe she was about to be kissed. How much she wanted it stunned her.
    Her breath stalled. Her lips prepared to be met. Her eyelids drifted down and…
    The air pulsed with the glow of a distant lightning strike. Thunder clapped its heels and she jerked back. Cold water dashed her face and drowned her brief fantasy as a sudden downpour drenched the man outside her window. Officer Lincoln pulled away from her car as if he’d been slapped, but he gave her a thumbs-up sign and a wide grin. In the instant it took her window to glide home, water had already begun to pour from the brim of his uniform cap. He signaled her onto the roadway.
    She watched him shrink in her rearview mirror, knowing he had her back if she needed him. While she couldn’t deny how good that felt, she gave her head a stern shake. Kissing the police officer would have been a mistake on so many levels. With her future riding on this move and the new responsibilities that came with it, there was no time in her life for romance. One director had already failed at the job, his name quietly expunged, his job reassigned—to her. This time, Space Tech expected results, not excuses. But her schedule was already in shambles and she hadn’t even spent a day behind her new desk. If she couldn’t get things back on track—and soon—the only thing