Witches of Three: Charlene

by Temple Hogan

  “I’ll pick you up tomorrow evening,” he said with a certainty she admired and cursed. They couldn’t get involved, but they already were. “We’ll drive over to the lake and find a place to have dinner. We’ll talk where we…”

  She knew what he meant, where people were and they had to control themselves. The problem was she didn’t want to talk. She wanted to fuck, right here, right now.

  “I would like that,” she said, which was a total lie. She didn’t need food, she needed sex, hot sex, with Nick Hilliard, and she needed it now.

  Seemingly unaware of her feelings, he dropped another light kiss on her lips, all proper and casual then he was gone, his long strides taking him out of the house and away from her. She blinked, wondering if what had happened had just been a figment of her imagination.

  “Oh, please, don’t let it be,” she whispered then went to deal with her nosy sisters who were crouched on the staircase eavesdropping!

  Chapter Three

  Okay, so it wasn’t easy to be in the same building with Nick Hilliard and not want to go into his office and strip off her clothes and lay across his desk like a heathen sacrifice that he couldn’t refuse. If she did that, someone would walk in, sure as ducks fly, and with her kind of luck, it would be Ralph Latimer and the whole department would know.

  Of course, she could wipe his memory clean, and that would be a gift to the whole world, or she could just make time stand still while she and Nick did the grand dirty deed on his desk, but someone might try to call in with a real emergency, or she could—she wouldn’t. She’d play it straight.

  Out on patrol, away from Nick, she was able to think rationally, thank God, but even there, she had trouble keeping her mind on things. She was driving, and twice, she’d nearly run a red light. Jerome Rodrigo, her partner who had been relabeled Geronimo the moment he’d stepped into the department, glanced at her.

  “Something bothering you, Spencer?” he asked.

  “Just preoccupied. Sorry.” She drew a breath and vowed to keep her mind on the road.

  “Hey, what do you think about the captain?” he asked.

  “He’s okay,” she muttered.

  “Yeah, he’s a stand-up guy.” The young Latino glanced at her. “By the way, congratulations on your award.”

  “Like I said. I didn’t earn it on my own. It belongs to all of us.”

  “Yeah, that was a nice speech you gave. Uh-oh.” He shifted in his seat and peered out the window as a gang of teenaged boys sprinted down the sidewalk, knocking into other pedestrians. A man ran out of one of the shops, shouting after them.

  “Cut ‘em off at the corner,” Geronimo said, but Charlie was already picking up speed.

  She spun the wheel, and the car swerved around the intersection. She braked sharply. Busy looking behind them, some of the boys didn’t see the cruiser until they ran into it. Those who did, tried to sprint away, but Geronimo was already out of the car and nabbing them. Charlie jumped out on her side and rounded the car, giving one young punk an upper cut as he tried to push her aside. Her cuffs were ready, and she handcuffed two of the kids together. By the time she had them into the back of the cruiser, the storeowner had arrived.

  “Little hoodlums,” he yelled, shaking his fists. “You see what happens, you steal, you get caught. Now you go to jail, and you deserve it.” He got closer to them and yelled some more. “I know you, I tell your mothers.”

  “Okay, back up,” Charlie said to him, and he obeyed, but his face was flushed and his eyes snapped with anger. “If you want to press charges—”

  “I gonna press charges,” he said, shaking his head. “I give them chances before, but it don’t make no difference. They come back and steal some more. This time, I press charges.” He raised his voice and his fist. “You hear? This time, I press charges.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” one of the kids said, his eyes filled with derision. He glanced at his buddy, who gave the man the finger.

  “That’s enough,” Charlie snapped. “You and your pals are in real trouble here. Don’t make it worse.” She slammed the door closed before they could answer.

  Geronimo dragged a handcuffed boy back to the cruiser and shoved him inside.

  “I come down and press charges,” the storekeeper said.

  “You do that, sir. We’ll hold them at the twelfth street station,” Geronimo said and climbed back into the cruiser.

  Charlie started the motor and pulled into traffic.

  “Hey, you can’t do this to us,” one of the boys, who’d shown himself to be the ringleader, said from the backseat. “You don’t have any charges against us. That old man’s balmy.”

  “Nevertheless, you’re going down to the station to answer a few questions,” Geronimo said. “If you’re innocent, you’ll be released. If not…” He shrugged. “So sit back and relax.”

  The boys fell silent, contemplating their future, no doubt. The ringleader looked from Geronimo to Charlie.

  “So who’s this?” he asked derisively. “Your woman? What do you do? Make her come drive you around ‘cause you don’t have the balls to do it yourself? You rent her out? I’ll take ten minutes with her, providing you don’t ask too much. I’ll even pay a little extra if she keeps the uniform on while we do it.”

  Geronimo slapped the back of his fist against the wire divider. The boys jumped and settled back in the seat.

  “I never had me a cop,” the ringleader said defiantly. “You change your mind, let me know.”

  Charlie remained silent during this exchange. She knew the kid was just venting his frustration and hoping to cause an incident that would lend him some leverage once they got to their destination. Silence was the best way to handle such things.

  Once they had their perps lodged in the holding cell, they settled down to do the paperwork. Charlie heard a familiar voice and glanced up. Nick stood at the other end of the room, chatting with another officer. Her heart contracted, and she frowned, trying to concentrate on her paperwork, but his voice worked its magic, reminding her of how husky and sexy it had sounded last night. She wrinkled her forehead in an effort to ignore him and his voice. Suddenly, he was there, standing beside her desk.

  “Everything all right, Officer Spencer?” he asked and leaned over to look at what she was working on, his weight braced on both hands on her desk.

  “Ye-yes, sir,” she stammered. “We just brought in some kids who were robbing a grocer.”

  His hand rested near hers, and one finger came out to lightly brush against hers. The touch was electrifying for all its lightness. She glanced up at him and caught his gaze. Oh, those sexy eyes. They held a message just for her, and it had nothing to do with work. It was all about the two of them.

  “Any problems bringing them in?” he asked, and to the world around them, he sounded professional and impersonal. Only she could feel the touch of his finger against hers and the heat in his gaze.

  “N-no, sir. Geronimo was with me.”

  “Good.” He nodded, straightened and walked away, his bearing straight, his pace brisk as always.

  She couldn’t help noticing the trim butt and the long thighs. She thought about having a peek without his clothes, but she might give herself away. And they were supposed to be circumspect, that word again, which she was beginning to hate already.

  She was grateful when she and her partner went back out on patrol. This time, she let him drive and sat hunched in her seat thinking about Nick Hilliard. A bank robbery could have occurred right outside her window, and she wouldn’t have noticed. Geronimo talked about his wife, Adelina, and Charlie grunted her responses in the appropriate spaces. By the end of her shift, she was a bundle of nerves. She couldn’t do this. If it was this bad now, how would it be if they started an affair? On impulse, she stopped by Nick’s office.

  “What’s up, Spencer?” he asked, not looking up at her.

  She hated that. How did he always know it was her?

  “Uh, about tonight?” she began.

/>   He looked up then. “Getting cold feet?”

  “No, I mean, this is just not going to work.”

  He regarded her for a long moment while she tried to center her attention on a spot three inches to the left of his ear.

  “I just think we should forget it,” she said with more conviction than she felt.

  “Is that what you want me to do?” he asked. He’d put aside all pretense of paperwork and gazed at her with that same intensity he’d shown the night before.

  “Yes, I mean…” She paused and hung there like a tongue-tied girl who’d just been asked out by the school jock. She hesitated so long that Nick drew the obvious solution.

  “We’ll talk tonight,” he said softly. “I won’t try to coerce you into something you don’t want.” He smiled with a tenderness that swept away all her concerns.

  “Eight o’clock?” she said breathlessly, and without waiting for his response, she walked out of the office and headed for the exit, her demeanor no different than it had ever been, but inside herself, she was a quivering pile of conflicted emotions. She wanted him, oh yeah, that was a given, and miraculously, he wanted her, too. So what was the problem? She was Charlie Spencer, witch extraordinaire, awarded policewoman and a modern woman who had definite ideas about what her place was in the world.

  She’d had a few affairs and therefore was experienced when it came to men, and she was certain she didn’t want one to rule her life. So what was she doing with Nick Hilliard? What had started out as her own personal little crush on her sexy boss had turned into a raging, got to have him, no matter what the cost, obsession.

  She paused with her key in the lock of her front door as a solution hit her. The reason she was so rattled was that she was trying to deny her feelings for Nick. If she had an affair with him, she’d grow tired of him in a couple of months and could then go on with her life. Oh, lord, and she used to make fun of Phil with all her men before Beck came into her life. This wasn’t the same peccadilloes her sister used to get into. Briefly, she remembered a character named Killie who’d tried to run off with the family silver. This was Nick, and he was so much more than most women could hope to find.

  Enough! She wasn’t going to think like that about him. He was just a man like any other. So what if he was handsome as sin and a man of integrity with all sorts of worthy character traits? What she wanted was to get in his pants, straight, simple, and she was certain, imminently satisfying. No, he’d be more than satisfying. He’d be electrifying. Okay, so she was a Thomas Edison proponent. She wanted it all, the electricity, the can’t-breath-so-I-might-die-climaxes, the whole sweating, grunting, rutting, glorious part of sex with Nick.

  She got in the shower and used her favorite bath gel that cost a fortune and left a divine scent that made men turn their heads when she walked by. Then she plucked and shaved every part of her body including her crotch. She washed her hair in another exorbitantly priced product that smelled of exotic flowers and hot tropical nights. If she was going through with this, she was going to give it all she had. She pulled on a pair of lacy thong panties, skipped the bra and chose a dress of pale-blue silk, because men liked blue, which was missing a large part of any normal dress. Low cut, uber short, the scrap of silk hugged her curves and left little to the imagination. She noticed her nipples were tight buds beneath the fabric, and she thought briefly of donning a bra, then changed her mind and, in a moment of daring, took off the lacy panties.

  “Be warned, Nick, I’m out for bear,” she said to the image in her mirror, liking what she saw. Expertly applied makeup deepened her eyes, which glinted with dangerous lights, and her hair, which she’d left long, swirled around her shoulders with brilliant highlights. No touch-up work needed here. The doorbell rang, and for a moment, her confidence wavered, then she pulled on the old Charlie ‘I-am-woman' attitude and sauntered to the door. Nick stood, with a big bouquet of flowers, on the other side, watching her through the glass. By the time she swung the door open, his gaze was that of slavering hungry wolf who’d found his sex mate.

  Good, she thought. The best way to handle a tough situation was to take control of it. She was pretty sure she just had. Nick was a man, and she was a witch! Not a contest. She liked the odds!

  “My God, you’re beautiful,” Nick said and stepped inside.

  At first, she thought he meant to take her into his arms and kiss her as he had the night before, but he didn’t. He simply took her hand in his and brushed his lips across the back before handing her the bouquet.

  “Talk about beautiful,” she said, eyeing the extravagant arrangement. “Come on in while I put these in water.”

  He followed her to the kitchen, eyeing his surroundings. “So this is where you live,” he commented. “It looks like you, sleek, sexy, yet functional.”

  “Thank you,” she said, sliding the flowers into a vase of water.

  “If you put an aspirin in there, it’s supposed to keep them longer.” He grinned at her.

  Suddenly, he didn’t seem like that sternly professional police captain, but like a much younger man. She sensed vulnerability about him and realized if this was a difficult thing for her to work through, it must be for him as well. He had a lot on the line here. His career could be finished. So much for seducing him and throwing him aside when she tired of him. It was a silly rationalization on her part. They were both risking too much for this to be a casual fling.

  “Do you want to go out to eat? I could make something here, and we could talk.”

  “I think we’d better go out where there are people.” He looked at her steadily.

  “I’ll get my wrap,” she said and went to the hall closet.

  Nick followed, and for a long awkward moment in the close confines of the front hall, they stared into each other’s eyes. Charlie’s heart thumped in her chest, and Nick looked grim. So much for fun. This wasn’t going to be fun, no matter which way they went. Her frivolous conclusions fell away, and she pulled on her wrap with a somber air.

  They talked of mundane things on the way to Malarky’s, a bar and grill on the east side of the city. She’d been thinking on the drive there and realized her sexy attire screamed they were already having an affair. She had to do something about it. He parked and hurried to open the door for her. His eyes widened when her wrap draped open and he spotted the low-heeled pumps, demure dress and prim bun at the back of her head.

  “How did you…” He looked around as if he’d missed something then back at her.

  “I’m a witch,” she said lightly.

  “You’re joking, right?” he asked with a grin.

  She affected an enigmatic smile of her own and walked ahead of him into the restaurant. If he only knew, she thought, and of course, she’d have to tell him the truth sometime, just not right now, not while they were discovering their feelings about each other. For one of the rare times in her life, she wished she weren’t a witch. Ah, well!

  Nick asked for and received a booth in the back. They settled in across from each other and gave their orders to the friendly waitress. Finally, with margaritas set before them, they sipped and relaxed against the cushioned backs. Except, Charlie knew there was no relaxing for either of them.

  “So here we are,” she said, and Nick nodded, his long fingers playing with the rim of his glass.

  “I never thought I’d be in this predicament,” he began. “I’ve thought long and hard about it ever since you came into my department. I tried to pretend I wasn’t attracted to you, but each day I denied my feelings just made it worse.”

  “I’ve felt the same way,” she said softly, staring into his eyes then she ducked her head. “I was so busy trying not to feel this way because I didn’t want my career to be affected, but I never thought about what you’re risking.”

  He moved his hand and lightly brushed her fingers, much in the same way he had earlier in the day. Charlie thought she’d never felt such an erotic touch. She longed to feel his hands everywhere on her body, but for
now, this had to be enough.

  “We can’t do this,” she said mournfully. “We can’t risk everything for an attraction.”

  “Is that all it is?” he asked and waited for her answer.

  She couldn’t give it. Things were going too fast for her. She’d just gotten used to the idea that Nick wanted her as much as she wanted him. How irresponsible she’d been in her daydreams about him. She’d given only the minutest thought to what a relationship between them would mean. Nick had, and he hadn’t been scared away by the conflicts they would face. She took hold of his hand and squeezed it tightly, letting her touch tell him what was welling inside her. She looked into his eyes and let him see her need for him. She felt his answering needs in the tightening of his fingers entwined with hers.

  Their food was delivered, but neither seemed inclined to eat. It grew cold between them.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Nick said gruffly, and they rose and left the restaurant, pausing only long enough to pay and leave a tip for their waitress.

  Back in the car, Nick leaned across and kissed her, his mouth hot and demanding. Silently, they drove back to her house. She was aware they hadn’t talked, but it seemed they’d spoken volumes to each other.

  Nick followed her in, and she led him to her bedroom, pausing only to kiss and grope each other. His hands brushed the tips of her breasts, and she gasped and got rid of the dress she’d worn. Her hands tore at his belt buckle and reached inside to feel him hot and turgid, filling her palm with an urgency that matched hers. They left his pants in the hall, his shirt was draped over an expensive sculpture Charlie had thought she couldn’t live without. His shoes and socks were shed at the foot of the bed. She was naked and waiting.

  They fell on the bed together, her hands clenching his hard cock, his hands cupping her butt cheeks to pull her closer. He dipped his head and caught one of her nipples and sucked on it, his teeth raking along her sensitive tips. They kissed some more, their breaths coming in gasps, their hands plundering, exploring, enticing slivers of desire that pierced them both.