by Taylor Lee
Viviana was surprised at his obvious anger. It was one of the few times she’d seen his arrogantly implacable mask slip. She realized for the first time that the antagonism between the two of them just might be taking a toll on him as it was on her. She tossed her head and said, “Then maybe we should discuss my report tonight. It’s probably time that you know what the fuck I’m doing so that I can get the hell out of this office and back to doing whatever the fuck it is that I’m doing.”
He frowned at her then raised an eyebrow as a smile stole across his lips. At the knock on his door, he called out, “Come in.”
Mick O’Reilly poked his head in the door and glanced from one to the other of them, then asked hesitantly, “Sorry boss man, and you too, Viv, if I’m interrupting. The guys and I just wanted to be sure you two are going to join us. We can’t remember when our Enchantress has ever been in the office all day, staring at her computer no less. We’re hoping that she’ll work off some of those frowns with a Maker’s Mark or three at Flemings. And as the guys indicated, Commander, we’d be honored if you’ll come too.”
Jax answered for them both. “Sergeant Moreau and I are done for the day, Detective. I for one will gladly bring a long day to a close with a convivial group of men and expensive scotch.” He turned to Viviana. “I’m pleased to drive you over to the salubrious celebration, Sergeant.” When Viviana shook her head, Mick popped in. “It’s like I told you at the mayor’s bash, Commander, our golden girl doesn’t need anything from anyone—including a ride. As long as I’ve known her, Viviana has refused so much as a cup of coffee that she didn’t pay for, much less a ride or, hell, even a helping hand.”
Jax breathed out a soft snort and smiled at the ebullient detective who didn’t realize that he was throwing gasoline on simmering coals. “As I seem to be saying often these days, that was the past. Perhaps among all of us we can convince Sergeant Moreau that going it alone isn’t always the most efficient or pleasant way to go.”
Viviana thought about Jax’s layered message later at the bar. The only woman in the rowdy group, after the third shot of expensive scotch, she’d begun to relax. It was hard not to feel appreciated in the midst of the gang of men whose attentions made it clear that she was as much of a celebrity as the righteous commander was. Her short-term bubble of good humor burst when Francis Flemings, the suave owner of the bar and her trusted CI, joined the celebration.
Bowing to Viviana, he reached down and kissed her hand. To the delight of her team, he said, “Ah, Sergeant Sexy, I mean Sergeant Moreau. I’ve missed you. What has kept you from my humble domain? Please tell me it’s not something I’ve done.”
When Viviana demurred, Francis turned to the commander, who was sitting across from Viviana. “But you, sir, are becoming something of a regular.” Speaking to the group as a whole, he said, “Apparently my unassuming digs have caught the attention of the makers and shakers. Not only was Flemings the after-party go-to place following the mayor’s snazzy bash, but Mayor Simpson has decided that his high-level advisory confab will meet at yours truly. In addition to the mayor and his lackeys as well as the police chief, the commissioner, and your righteous commander, the group includes Deidre Cummings.” Pausing for effect, he winked at Viviana. “You all know that stuck-up socialite but admittedly gorgeous piece of ass—if you like them without much meat on their bones.” Francis smiled at Jax. “Please tell me that your elite group truly did reserve Flemings for the mayor’s weekly huddle going forward.”
Viviana didn’t hear Jax’s reply. In fact, she had no idea how she’d made it from the noisy bar to her car or to her condominium’s patio. She only knew that Francis’s boast had confirmed that while she’d waited anxiously for nearly eight fucking hours for her commander to return, he was hobnobbing with the community elite, including Deidre Cummings. She refused to dwell on why that information hurt as much as it did. She was determined that after her short conversation with her superior officer in the morning, she would spend as little time as she could at the precinct and as far away from Commander Hughes as possible.
Chapter 14
Jax strode across the squad room and nodded to Viviana, who was sitting at her desk. “Give me ten minutes to get settled, Sergeant Moreau, then we can meet.”
Not waiting for her response, he went into his office and closed the door. He’d spent a good part of the night deciding how he would manage their upcoming conversation. He’d been as surprised as the rest of the men at the bar last night at Viviana’s abrupt departure without so much as a “good night” to any of them. However, unlike the rest of the group, he had a damn good idea of what had shoved the burr under her saddle. He’d merely nodded when Mick O’Reilly had tried to help the others understand Viviana.
“You gotta understand, men. Viviana just ain’t like the rest of us. She never tries to explain her behavior. Guess she figures it ain’t any of our business. Even mine and I’m her fucking partner. My assumption is that she got a call from one of those super-secret CIs of hers, and she’s off to a late-night rendezvous. If I’m lucky, she might tell me about it in the morning, but dollars to doughnuts I won’t hear a word about it. Whatever had her skedaddling out of here like a bat out of hell, she’ll manage. And she’ll do it all by her lonesome—the way she always does.”
Remembering the gregarious man’s assessment of Sergeant Moreau’s unexpected exit, Jax acknowledged that, unlike O’Reilly, he knew why Viviana had summarily left the bar without saying good-bye to any of them. He’d seen her shock at the Flemings’s owner bragging about how his establishment was now the center of the universe. Jax knew damn well that what upset Viviana wasn’t the fact that the mayor and the rest of the men had been there but that a particular dark-haired socialite had been with them.
Jax admitted that he was more than a little concerned about Deidre’s presence himself. It wasn’t that she didn’t belong in the leadership meeting. She was clearly at the center of the city’s ruling elite. It was just that she’d made it abundantly clear that her primary interest was in him. Jax was accustomed to dealing with interested women. Hell, who didn’t like being openly pursued by attractive women? Besides, it was far from the first time that a powerful woman had set her sights on him. He acknowledged that part of the reason he’d spent several hours on his deck last night after he’d extricated himself from the reveling detectives was to diagnose his reaction to Deidre.
Her open invitation to a potential sexual relationship had been part of her approach in the first five minutes that he’d met her. Again, hardly a new or unexpected invitation for Jax. Even her veiled references to kink, including BDSM, were not surprising. He’d met many women over the years who had sensed his affinity for adventurous sexual experiences. No doubt, his dominant personality triggered that reaction in like-minded sexual aficionados. No, he decided that there was an edge to Deidre’s pursuit that was off-putting. A hardness that couldn’t be masked by her truly lovely face and runway model figure. It was a veneer that put him on guard for reasons he hadn’t figured out.
And then of course there was the issue of Viviana. He’d seen her pained reaction to the snobbish socialite at the mayor’s party. He knew that Viviana didn’t feel inferior to the haughty doyenne or that she couldn’t handle Deidre’s put-downs. Hardly. Viviana could give as good as she got. No, it was Deidre’s open pursuit of him that challenged the feisty blonde bombshell who had been his undoing since the moment he saw her in Belize. He also knew that Francis Fleming had hit Viviana with a double whammy last night. The impresario had blithely mentioned Deidre’s participation in the lengthy meeting that had captured a good part of Jax’s day. A day Jax had consigned Sergeant Moreau to her desk. As powerful a punishment as he could have conceived of for the proud, indomitable woman.
Breathing an audible sigh, Jax went to the doorway and looked out over the busy squad room. It was bustling with early morning activity as the arriving squad prepared for the day. He caught Viviana’s gaze and motioned for her t
o come to his office. Watching her traverse the crowded room, he was struck by her fluid grace. Even her relatively modest dress pants and her holster strapped to her belt couldn’t hide her sweetheart ass. Her long-sleeved turtleneck sweater couldn’t have masked her curvaceous breasts if it tried. Jax smiled at the eager cops who snuck glances at the startlingly beautiful woman, then grinned when she passed by as though they were happy just for being in her presence. Jax knew how the besotted men felt. Even knowing that they had a challenging conversation ahead of them, he was eager to have Viviana next to him. At least as he laid out his requirements for her and determined that she would meet them, he’d be within breathing distance of her compelling fragrance and irresistible presence.
Steering her into the room, he led her to the conference table and pulled out a chair for her. Aiming to lighten the tense moment, he picked up her report from his desk and looked at it as if surprised. “Well, I’ll be damned. Is it possible that the most difficult detective and definitely most challenging woman I’ve ever known has actually done something that I asked her to do?” He added, letting his smile widen to a grin, “Tell me, Sergeant, what can I do that might convince you that you could make both of our lives a hell of a lot easier if you’d just do as you’re told?”
He wasn’t surprised when her resolute chin shot up several inches. While apparently intending to reply in kind, the edge to her voice was evident. “Number one, Commander, you might try not to be such an overbearing, arrogant asshole.” She added with a sweet smile, “If that is within the realm of possibility.”
Jax laughed out loud and winked at her. “Now that we have established the ground rules for this skirmish, shall we begin, Sergeant?”
He dropped her report on the table, then grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the mini fridge by his desk and handed one to her. Taking the other for himself, he sat down in the chair at the head of the table. He purposefully chose this seat because it put him in touching distance of her alert, now on-edge body. The fact that she pulled back confirmed that she hadn’t missed his mildly aggressive move. Deciding to up the ante further, he said, “From the challenge that it’s taken us to get to this point, am I correct in assuming that Captain Michels didn’t require activity reports?”
The flush pinking her cheeks and her audible intake of air confirmed that she knew he was intentionally provoking her. “No, Captain Michels assumed that his staff members were all law enforcement professionals. He didn’t find it necessary to throw his weight around to ensure that we all knew that he was the boss.”
Jax raised a quizzical brow and said, “Ah, that may have been true of the rest of his staff, the ninety-nine percent who don’t slam doors and throw tantrums.” When she just glared at him and chose not to respond, he pressed her. “How did he handle the other one per cent, Sergeant Moreau—you?”
She hesitated, then tossed her head and said nonchalantly, “He didn’t try.” She tipped her chin up another notch and added, “I handled him.”
Jax moved toward her so that his knee pressed against hers and his arm almost touched hers. She visibly startled and made an obvious attempt not to pull away. He closed in another inch and said softly, “Ah, yes. And so here we are, Viviana, where we’ve always been.”
She visibly swallowed and stammered, “I . . . I don’t know what you’re talking about . . . ”
He shook his head and held her gaze, not letting her look away. “Yes you do, sweetheart, so let’s deal with it now, shall we?”
When she just stared at him, he said, “First we need to address the fact that I’m not Captain Oscar Michels; I’m Commander Jaxton Hughes.” He added, “And to complicate matters further, I’m also your former lover.”
When she startled and tried to move back, he reached for her hand and pulled her up next to him. “Uh-uh, Viviana. There’s no way that we can work together until we address these two issues.” Still holding her hand, he said, “Let’s deal first with the fact that I’m not your former captain. In short, my feisty sergeant, the upshot of that basic fact is that unlike you did with Captain Michels, you will not be able to manipulate me, lie to me, misrepresent what you are doing, take actions and ask for permission later, disobey my direct orders, or any other of your usual modi operandi.”
Without releasing her hand, he nodded at her report lying on the table. “For example, it took you three days and a full day sitting at your desk to produce a barely passable synopsis of your work.” When she frowned and again tried to pull away, he shook his head, refusing to release her hand. “Just so you know, it took me all of a minute to read your full report. While there is at least some detail, it is primarily your attempt to throw me a bone, get me off your tail.” He grinned at her surprised expression and said, “It ain’t going to work, Viviana. If you haven’t grasped that fact yet, please do. It will save us both time and energy. For example, the only item in your report worth my attention is your last CI report where you hint at a genuine crime in the making. That is the issue that we’re going to discuss this morning. When you leave my office, I will know exactly what information you have, what you’re planning next, and how I’m going to help you. The other CI reports are basically crap, your way of keeping me in the dark, from knowing what you’re doing.”
Viviana snatched her hand back and leapt to her feet. She glared at him, infuriated at his arrogant assumptions about what she would or would not do. She was also horrified that he’d seen through her subterfuge and attempts to throw him off her trail. It was unnerving that he understood her as well as he did. God, it was like talking to Sly. She couldn’t put anything over on him either. She also didn’t know how she could deal with what happened to her body and her spirit when she was this close to him. She breathed a hard sigh, realizing that Jax knew exactly what he was doing to her. She didn’t have to see his eyes darken to know what he was thinking.
Determined to get some control of the conversation and her shaky emotions, she said, “Fine, I’ll grant you that you are not Captain Michels. That’s a given. And yes, goddammit, you are my fucking commander. But what does that mean? Commander? That you say jump and I’m required to ask how high?”
He leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out in front of him, then crossed his feet at his ankles. Viviana sucked in a deep breath, startled at the flood of sensations that streamed over her at his surprisingly sexy posture. She stepped back to put distance between them. To her horror, he stood and reached for her hand, then led her back to her chair and nudged her onto it. He pulled his chair in front of hers so that he was facing her, then sat down, his knees close to hers. Leaning forward, he grasped both of her hands in his. His voice was as serious as his expression.
“Viviana, listen to me. You and I are on the same team. And you are correct, I am a demanding commander and arrogant as hell. But you can ask any member of any team that I’ve led, and they will tell you that they gladly trusted me with their lives.” When she closed her eyes to avoid looking at him and bit down on her bottom lip to keep it from trembling, he continued. “To lead a team like that requires trust and honesty. The bottom line with me, Viviana, is honesty.”
She jerked her hands free and faced him head-on, surprised at the anger that washed over her. She didn’t hide her sneer. “You insist on honesty? Fine, then I’ll be honest. You have one up on me, Commander Hughes. I can count on half of one hand the people I’ve trusted in my life, and you are not one of them. As for your men, the ones who trust you with their lives, who trust that you will never betray them? Lucky for them.” She added bitterly, “Unlike the ones you aren’t willing to take into your confidence, the ones you’d betray in a second if the need arose. In that case, honesty becomes a distant second, right, Jax?”
His eyes darkened, and he nodded in agreement, confirming that he understood she was referring to their experience in Belize. “Yes, Viviana, you’re correct. For the people I don’t trust to bring onto my team? If necessary, I would mislead them.” He breathed
a hard sigh. “I know you don’t understand, and I don’t expect you to. But to be clear, Viviana, in Belize I was leading an international mission two years in the making. Scores of lives were in the balance. And, no, I did not think that I could trust you to know who I was.”
Trying to keep her voice from shaking, she said, “Which is why when you decided that I could fuck up your mission, you decided to fuck me instead?”
Jax sucked in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “If you wish to describe what we had in Belize in that way, that is your choice. I will only say it is not the way I would describe it.”
Not able to keep the anguish out of her voice, she said, “No, Commander, as you said yesterday, Belize ‘shouldn’t have happened,’ and you would take it back if you could.”
Seeing the agonized tears in her eyes, rather than tell Viviana how he really felt about her, Jax shrugged. “I’ll admit that, like you, I live by the creed that the end justifies the means.”
“And fucking me was a means to an end?”
Forcing himself to respond quietly and not give in to the emotions tearing at his gut, he said, “Again, if that’s the way you choose to look at it, I can’t blame you. Which brings us squarely to the second issue we need to deal with if we’re going to work together. That’s the fact that we were lovers.” Jax reached out and held her chin between his thumb and forefinger, forcing her to meet his intense gaze. “Whether you choose to admit it or not, Viviana, we were wildly passionate lovers. Which make the fact that we can no longer be lovers incredibly difficult—for us both.”
The silence in the room was deafening. When the trembling detective just shook her head and refused to look at him, Jax forced himself to acknowledge the tears swimming in her cerulean eyes. Swallowing the tsunami of surprising emotions threatening his composure, he swung for the fence.