by Lyn Gardner
Brodie raised an eyebrow, and leaning back against the deck, she reassumed the position of cocky. “Working.”
“And what do you do here, Miss Shaw?”
Brodie wasn’t a boastful person. She had worked long and hard to get where she was, and with a pound of talent and a few ounces of luck, she’d been able to build a rather lucrative career for herself. But there was something about the petite Inspector that made Brodie want to push buttons just to see the results, so in a tone dripping with arrogance, she said, “Well, for starters, I own this company.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes,” Brodie said, her eyes roaming over Kate’s figure from toe to head. “Care to hear more over a drink?”
In Kate’s mind, Brodie Shaw had just moved from cocky to obnoxious. She had met men, pissed out of their minds, who didn’t hold a candle to this woman’s ego, and Kate had had enough.
Kate reached into her pocket and pulled out a business card. “You know what, Miss Shaw? I’ve had a very long week, and you’ve just capped it. If there is anything else you can think of concerning what happened tonight, please give me a call.” Pushing the card into Brodie’s hand, Kate turned on her heel, making it to the door before the woman called out to her.
“Oh, there is one more thing,” Brodie said as she read the card, memorizing the name in an instant.
Kate turned around. “Yes?”
Brodie’s eyes sparkled with merriment. “I just have to say, Kate, I think you’re positively gorgeous.”
Kate’s lips thinned, and with a scowl to end all scowls, she stomped across the room, ripping the card from Brodie’s fingers and replacing it with another she had pulled from the notepad. For the briefest of moments, Kate locked eyes with Brodie Shaw, believing her disgust would make the woman cower, but instead, Shaw’s face grew even brighter. Kate’s cheeks began to heat, and with a huff, she turned and stormed out of the room.
Brodie glanced at the card in her hand and sniggered when she saw the name Elliott Thackery staring back at her.
***
Other than a quick trip to visit her mother on Christmas, the last day of the year and the first of the next went without notice for Kate. She worked a few extra shifts and spent her nights alone, pushing away thoughts that were nagging her like a toothache. A toothache in the form of a sensual stare she could not forget. Heading into another weekend with no plans, when her best friend suggested they spend Friday night after New Year’s binging on takeaway food and boxed wine, Kate leapt at the chance. If she couldn’t erase the thoughts running through her head, she’d drown them in alcohol and who better to do it with than Gina Parker.
They had met in college when they were assigned to share the same dorm room, and their friendship grew slowly. Kate had always second-guessed herself when it came to studying, so she spent long hours poring over books and lessons while Gina glided from semester to semester with a pristine academic record. Kate rarely left the school grounds, generally preferring to use whatever free time she had in the library. Gina, on the other hand, would disappear after her last class on Friday and not reappear until Sunday afternoon, shuffling into their room looking knackered, yet happy.
One Friday during their third semester, Gina disappeared as she always did; however, in the wee hours of Sunday morning, she stumbled through the door, making enough noise to rattle the windows. Startled, Kate turned on the light and gasped. Gina was standing in the middle of the room with torn clothes and a bloody, tear-stained face. Between sobs, Gina confessed she had gone home to tell her family she was a lesbian. Although Kate was surprised by the announcement, she didn’t let it show, but when Gina confessed her split lip and bruises were courtesy of her mother, Kate cried, too.
Disowned and shattered by the people who were supposed to love her, the vibrant blonde with the light blue eyes and the natural smile had ceased to exist. In her place was a sobbing woman, a woman pained, and a woman scorned, and a woman Kate pulled into her arms in an instant. Through hugs and whispered assurances that all would be okay, and amidst the tears and sniffles they both shed, their friendship was born.
Gina sat in Kate’s lounge, staring off into space. She had arrived at Kate’s promptly at seven, carrying a box of Chardonnay and a bag filled with an assortment of Indian food. Over meat samosas, lamb kebabs, and chicken curry, Gina had filled Kate in on her recent holiday to Spain. Usually, when they got together, they prattled on until their jaws grew tired, but tonight Gina had carried practically the entire conversation.
Gina raised her eyes when Kate returned from visiting the loo. “So, what’s going on in your life?”
“What do you mean?” Kate said, stepping around Gina to sit on the sofa.
“You didn’t say much over dinner. Anything exciting happening with you?”
“Nope,” Kate said, picking up her glass. “Same old, same old. Go to work. Come home. Repeat.”
“It sounds like you’re stuck in a rut.”
“It is what it is,” Kate said. “It’ll change eventually.”
Gina’s face turned rosy as she gazed at Kate. “So…do you want to know what I think?”
“Can I stop you?”
“No.”
Kate snorted out a laugh. “Then go ahead.”
“I think you seriously need to get laid.”
“Why is sex the answer for everything with you?” Kate said, eyeing her best friend. “Just because I may be a bit on edge doesn’t mean I’m horny.”
“Since when?”
Kate paused, trying to remember why they were best friends, and then it came to her just like it always did. Gina was Gina. Open, honest, beautiful, and unafraid to voice her opinion on almost any subject, under the heading of best friend in Kate’s dictionary would forever and always be a picture of Regina Parker.
“Look, just because you screw everything with two legs, doesn’t mean I have to,” Kate said before finishing what was left of the wine in her glass.
Gina grinned. “Not everything.”
“I stand corrected,” Kate said, holding up a finger. “Everything without a Y chromosome.”
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Gina watched as Kate got up and gathered their empty glasses. “So, you haven’t had a date in weeks, have you?”
“I had a lunch date just the other day.”
“That was with your sister,” Gina said, uncrossing her legs so Kate could walk by. “By the way, how is Devon?”
Even if Kate wasn’t a Detective Inspector, the fact that Gina had a massive crush on her sister was as plain as the nose on her face. “She’s great, and she’s still straight, so stop drooling.”
Gina snickered as Kate went into the kitchen. “I was just asking.”
Kate reappeared after refilling their glasses, and handing one to Gina, she returned to her place on the sofa. “I can’t believe, after all these years, you still have a crush on my sister.”
“Sorry.”
“You’ve never tried to—”
“Kate, I told you years ago. I’d never do anything to risk our friendship. Devon is straight. Devon is your sister, and Devon is off-limits. End of subject.”
“But you still think of her that way, don’t you?”
“Kate, I can’t help how I feel. Now, can we please change the subject?”
Gina’s thoughts drifted. The last thing she needed to be thinking about—again—was Devon. Like Kate, Devon was a natural beauty who did little, if anything, to enhance it. A few inches taller than Kate and three years younger, Devon preferred jeans over skirts and kept her shoulder-length brown hair forever pulled into a ponytail. Yet, under the baggy clothes Devon wore, she was all woman, and she was a woman Gina found irresistible.
“Did you ever think of me that way?”
Brought back to reality by Kate’s question, it took a second for Gina to get her thoughts in order. “What? Think of you as…um…hot?”
“Yes.”
“Sure. It does
n’t take two good eyes to see you’re beautiful, Kate, or were you just looking for a compliment?”
“No,” Kate said, shaking her head. “I mean like…um…like—”
“Like wanting to shag your brains out?”
Kate felt her cheeks redden, and she took a quick sip of wine. “You know, in college, I always thought your bluntness was just a phase. Boy, was I wrong.”
“You love it, and you know it,” Gina said with a wink.
Kate nodded as a few giggles escaped. “Well, did you?”
“In school, there were a few weeks where I would have given anything to get into your trousers, but I got over it.”
“I never knew that.”
“Some things are better left unsaid. You forget, for quite a while, you were the only friend I had, and that meant more to me...that means more to me than anything.”
“Thanks,” Kate said as she leaned over and kissed Gina on the cheek. “I like you, too.”
“So, any prospects on the horizon?”
“Huh?”
“Dates. You remember dates, don’t you? When the fellow picks you up at the door, takes you to dinner, dancing and maybe drinks, and then brings you home, where he tries to snog you, and hopefully, you let him. Ring a bell?”
Kate rested back against a stack of throw pillows. “I’ve been busy.”
Gina frowned. “Don’t you miss being the center of someone’s attention, having someone give you that certain look?”
“That actually happened a few weeks ago, and it made me very uncomfortable.”
“Why?”
“Because it was a woman doing the looking.”
“What!” Gina jerked to attention. “A woman was hitting on you? You’re kidding—right?”
“Is it that hard to believe?”
Gina leaned back into the soft cushions of the sofa and smiled. “Not hard, but definitely interesting,” she said. “So, come on. Don’t leave me in suspense. Tell me what happened. Who is she? And don’t leave anything out.”
“She’s no one, Gina,” Kate said, shooting her friend a look. “She’s just some overconfident, brash woman. That’s all.”
“Overconfident? In what way?”
“Well, for starters, she wouldn’t stop staring at me,” Kate snapped. “It was like she was…I don’t know…it was just unnerving and not to mention rude.”
“Okay, so how’d you meet her?” Gina said before taking a sip of wine. “And where’d you meet her?”
“It was just before Christmas. I was heading home, and there was a call about a burglary. I figured I’d check it out to see if they needed any help. She was the one who called it in.”
Gina tilted her head to the side. Kate’s expression was pinched, the blue veins in her temples easily seen through her ivory skin. “What in the hell did she do to get you this wound up?”
“I am not wound up,” Kate said, whipping her head around to glare at Gina.
“The hell you aren’t. If you hold onto the stem of that glass any harder, you’re going to break it.”
Kate lowered her eyes and saw her knuckles were now white. Relaxing her grip on the goblet, she took a sip of her wine before setting the glass on the coffee table.
“That’s better,” Gina said. “Now, come on. Spit it out. What’s got your knickers in a twist?”
“I just don’t like it when someone knows they’re attractive and assumes, because of it, they can pull anyone they want. She stood there, staring at me like I was a piece of meat, and then she had the audacity to say…” Kate stopped and took a deep breath, trying for the umpteenth time to push the thoughts of that night out of her head.
“Bloody hell, don’t stop there. For Christ’s sake, woman, what did she say?”
“She said I was gorgeous.”
A second later, Kate nearly jumped out of her skin when Gina’s boisterous laughter suddenly filled the room. “I am so glad you think this is funny,” Kate said. “And here I thought we were friends.”
“We are, but Kate, have you listened to yourself? You’re miffed because an attractive woman, your words, not mine, called you gorgeous.”
“She had no right to say it.”
“It was a bloody compliment for God’s sake.”
“It was wrong!”
Gina flinched. “Why? Because she was a woman?”
“Yes.”
“Kate, a few minutes ago, I said the same thing to you, and you had no problem with it.”
Kate drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “It’s not the same.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’ve never looked at me the way she did.”
***
“Christ, I need a shag,” Brodie said, running her fingers through her hair as she watched her friend, Cassidy, pull her new laptop from a box.
Cassidy grinned, setting aside some Styrofoam packing. “Well, don’t look at me.”
Brodie smiled and walked away, returning a minute later with two bottles of beer and an ashtray. Lighting a cigarette, she pushed the pack toward Cassidy. “Are you sure I can’t interest you in a quickie?”
“If you’re talking about the fags, no thank you, and I thought you quit.”
“I did, but if you’re not going to give me what I want, I have to replace it with something.”
“God, you’re horny tonight,” Cassidy said, and reaching over, she snatched Brodie’s cigarette and stubbed it out.
Brodie sighed. “It’s been almost three weeks.”
“Three weeks?” Cassidy quickly did the math. “Shit, are you saying you haven’t gotten laid since before Christmas?
“Yep.”
“Isn’t that a record for you?”
“Don’t be cheeky.”
“Well, it’s true. Isn’t it?”
Brodie took a gulp of beer and debated on lighting another cigarette knowing full well if she did, Cassidy would put it out again. Resting into her corner of the sofa, she crossed her legs and glanced over at Cassidy. “Why haven’t we slept together?”
“Because we’re friends, and if we fall into bed together, that could ruin it…and you know it.”
“We’d still be friends,” Brodie said, shrugging. “Just with benefits.”
Cassidy chuckled as she pulled the sleek, state-of-the-art laptop from its plastic wrapping. “Brodie, you’re just saying that because you’re randy. You’re a shag’em and leave’em kind of woman, and that’s not what I’m looking for.”
“You still in the closet?”
“God, I hate that term,” Cassidy said, hanging her head.
“Well, are you?”
“You know I am,” Cassidy said, raising her eyes. “Look, Brodie, I appreciate you’re all out and proud, but it’s just not that easy for me. I only came to terms with it a few years ago, and before that, I was married to a man. I doubt that my friends or my family would understand, and for right now, it’s just easier to—”
“Live like a nun?”
“Jesus Christ! Look, why don’t you just go get laid and let me do my work,” Cassidy said, flipping open the laptop. “This is going to take some time, so go to a club, find a woman, and get it out of your system. I’ll lock up when I leave. Okay?”
Brodie pursed her lips. She had pestered Cassidy for days about getting the new laptop set up, and when Cassidy called to say she had time to do it that night, Brodie jumped at the chance, but she hadn’t thought it through. Other than three days spent with her family over Christmas, Brodie had worked almost non-stop during December. Her usual Friday night jaunts to the clubs had taken a back seat to the demands of clients and rapidly approaching deadlines, but the rush was over, and the last place Brodie wanted to be on yet another Friday night was stuck in her flat. She was randy, especially after setting eyes on Detective Inspector Kate Monroe. “Are you sure?”
Cassidy chuckled again. While she had only known Brodie for a few years, it didn’t take her long to realize the woman was a player, and tonight, Brodie
definitely wanted to play. “Yes. Get out of here.”
“Thanks, you’re the best,” Brodie said, jumping to her feet. She leaned down and kissed Cassidy on the cheek. “You know, you could come with me. Leave this for another day.”
“I’m not into bars or picking up strange women in them, and besides, three’s company.” When she saw Brodie immediately waggle her eyebrows, Cassidy shook her head. “Don’t even think I’d go there with you. Now, get the hell out of here before I change my mind and force you to watch me set this bloody thing up.”
Chapter Two
Chase Wakefield was a doctor and a great catch, except when it came to Chase, Kate wasn’t fishing. She wasn’t even trying to bait the hook.
They had dated on and off for a few years, but their relationship wasn’t going to lead to anything, and Kate knew it. He was busy running a clinic in Northern England and hated the hubbub of London. She loved the velocity of the city, and even though she didn’t frequent clubs, the thought of living in the country sent shivers down her spine. But when Chase called to say he was in town, Kate eagerly agreed to see him. She had an itch, and she was sure, at least for one night, he could scratch it.
Chase adored Kate. She was attractive, smart, and funny. While the sex wasn’t incredible, and he knew she loved the city, he refused to accept that their relationship couldn’t grow into something more. Chase was a country doctor, living a country life, and he wanted a wife...a wife named Kate.
They caught up over curried duck and Chardonnay, talking for hours about their careers and lack of social lives. They both knew the evening would end in Kate’s queen-size bed with the floral duvet, so rushing through dinner, drinks, and dancing wasn’t necessary. They took their time, holding hands occasionally, tossing innuendo about to gauge the other’s reaction and holding each other close while they danced. And when they finally arrived back at Kate’s flat, she didn’t need to ask him inside. Chase followed without a word.
They had slept together before, so the night brought no surprises for either of them. Chase knew Kate preferred the lights off, and she knew he liked the window open. She knew he liked to have a glass of water by the bed, and he filled a wine glass for her, setting it on the nightstand to the right. They undressed in silence, and it wasn’t until Kate was wearing only a bra and knickers when Chase touched her. His hands were large and somewhat rough, but his touch was gentle, and when he pulled her into his arms, Kate went willingly.