“When I first saw Baby Lock—that’s Lachlan Downy, Junior, the cute as hell redhead that you’ve been seeing hanging around your man—in that uniform, I about died.” She snickered. “Baby Lock used to be this surly teen with a perpetual bad attitude. Then turned into that? Yowza.”
My eyes focused on her.
“You know Lock?” I asked curiously.
She nodded. “Everyone knows Lock that’s been here for more than ten years. I’ve been here going on twelve now. And Baby Lock—he really hates being called that, by the way—is a staple around this station. Like the team mascot—only more like the team baby. Everyone loves him.” She shook her head. “I still can’t believe he did what he did.”
I looked at her with curiosity written all over my face.
“What did he do?” I whispered.
Her brows rose. “You won’t get that story from me. It’s not talked about.”
I opened my mouth to push, but there was a throat clearing that had us both jumping and turning in our seats.
Her husband, Yao, was standing there looking like he wanted to kiss the hell out of her. Then spank her.
Oh, and there was a rather dark and pissy looking man standing right next to him. In his tight pants that we were just talking about, as well as his hooker boots.
“Oh, baby,” Tanika said. “When did you get there?”
Yao moved his hands as Tanika did when she was describing Justice’s ass, and I covered my mouth with my hands to keep the burst of laughter inside.
Tanika shrugged. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you checking out that girl’s boobs when we were in line at the coffee shop this morning. I saw. The girl saw. The girl’s man saw. He was just too intimidated by you to say anything.”
Yao shook his head. “I was looking at the gun that she had concealed underneath her boobs.”
Tanika rolled her eyes. “I’m sure. That’s why you looked for a good five minutes while we were waiting for our drinks.”
“Want to grab lunch while these two talk about boobs?”
Justice’s raspy words had things inside of me perking up to attention.
Like my vagina and my nipples.
Using the guise of reaching for my phone, I covered my breasts—and my obstinate nipples—and stood.
“Oh yeah,” I said. “I have an hour. Is that enough?”
Tanika rolled her chair to the side. “Take the time you need. As long as you can cover me and Yao when we go to lunch, you’re golden.”
I saluted her, causing her to smile.
“Yes, ma’am,” I teased.
I reached for my cross-front purse and lifted it up over my head, settling it in place.
What I wasn’t aware of doing was making my breasts split apart and push out at the seams of my bra, making them appear bigger.
We made it to his personal motorcycle before he said, “Hooker boots? Really?”
I covered my mouth with my hand and burst out laughing.
He narrowed his eyes at me, but ultimately shook his head and mounted his bike.
I mounted behind him, but since he was still wearing his duty belt, I couldn’t get as close as I wanted.
Also, his baton—and not the one that I’d love to have touching me—was digging into my thigh in a really uncomfortable way.
He passed me back the helmet, then slipped his police issued one on over his own head.
By the time I had his buckled around my chin, he’d started the bike and had already begun rolling slowly out of the parking lot.
By the time that I had my hands holding on to his belt, he’d already begun accelerating.
I didn’t bother asking where we were going to eat. Anywhere was good.
What I hadn’t expected was for him to take me to a food truck.
But the amount of happiness I felt for that moment I would always remember.
***
Justice
The food truck had been a random choice as I’d pulled out of the parking lot.
I’d been trying to distract myself with how much I hated my utility belt seeing as it kept her from plastering all the way up against me when I saw the sign for the food truck fair that was going on in downtown Kilgore today.
On a whim, I decided to take her to them.
It was fast and my boss had suggested that we eat there to make our presence known when we were at our morning meeting before our shift started.
Thinking that it would be perfectly fine since there were a lot of people there and that she’d likely like it just as much because she liked weird and new things, I decided what the hell?
Apparently, based solely on the look of wonder on her face, it was a good choice.
“I. Love. Food. Trucks,” she declared breathily.
My lips twitched.
Instead of answering, though, I slipped my aviator sunglasses off and then removed my helmet.
If I tried to remove my helmet first, it always meant that my glasses would be on the ground by the time I got the helmet off. Since the stupid helmet was just as fuckin’ tight as the pants and the uniform top.
Speaking of uniform top, I fuckin’ loved that Royal had noticed. I mean, sure, I’d have loved more that she noticed me in something other than the most humiliating outfit that there ever could be, but I’d take what I could get.
There were some days that I thought she was into me.
Then there were others, like when she woke up today with my cock digging into her hip, that she acted completely unaffected by it all.
Meanwhile, I was having trouble sleeping, and when I did finally fall asleep it was to wake up on top of her, curled around her like a second skin, and my cock so hard that I feared it would forever stay that way.
I moved so that Royal was shielding my lower body, knowing that with these pants, they left nothing to the imagination.
Hell, I’d gone from wearing regular boxer briefs to a silky less tight boxer brief because the lines were so goddamn bad.
When had I started caring about panty lines?
Jesus Christ, I sounded like a girl.
“I want to try that one,” Royal said, drawing my attention.
My eyes went down to her face, and I was struck anew at how beautiful she was.
Her hair was up in a sleek ponytail today, the kind where there’s a bump on the top that poofs up. The sun was catching the shade of her hair and turning it a hundred different shades of red.
Her eyes looked lighter in the sun, too. Not so much a gray as an almost misty blue.
I’d never seen anybody’s eyes shift from gray to blue as much as hers did. I wouldn’t call them hazel, either. It just depended on what light she was standing in at the time.
Today she was wearing more casual clothes than she had the last three days. I was thinking it was more because she was running out of things to wear since she hadn’t packed that much than because she wanted to be comfortable.
I made a mental note to run by her apartment when I had free time tonight before I went to pick her up from her shift, and then turned my attention to the food truck that she was pointing at instead of the way her ass looked in her jeans.
“Which one?” I asked since she was pointing in the direction of all of the food trucks. Not just a specific one.
She took me by the hand and led me through the maze of people to the truck with perhaps the longest line there, and said, “This one.”
I studied the truck.
“It’s grilled cheese,” I said.
Not that I cared.
I could pretty much eat anything.
But, saying that, it was grilled cheese. I could make that shit at home.
“I know,” she said. “It’s fantastic. Plus, look at the line. It has to be good, otherwise there wouldn’t be this big of a line.”
She did have a point there.
I crossed my arms over my chest and waited in line behind her, listeni
ng to her talk about her day.
“And then there was a call about a stalled vehicle on the freeway. A stalled vehicle in the fast lane. Did you hear about that one?” she asked.
I grunted out an affirmative as I studied the menu.
“I was writing a ticket at the time, but I remember hearing about it,” I admitted. “What are you getting?”
“I think the Cheesemeister,” she answered. “Do you think the jalapenos will be super-hot?”
I shrugged and bent my head to say, “Probably not. Sounds good, actually. I might get that, too.”
She turned up to me and winked. “But if you get the same thing as me, how am I going to get to taste yours, too?”
She had a point there.
“Then what do you suggest?” I asked. “Because honestly, it’s just a cheese sandwich.”
“That one has meat on it. Pepperoni. That sounds good.”
Actually, it did sound pretty good.
“I’ll get that one, then. You get the other. We can split them,” I suggested.
She shot me a beaming smile then practically clapped when the last person in front of us moved aside with their orders in tow.
After placing our orders and receiving them, we turned to look for a place to eat, finding one right near the truck.
The table itself was a rather large spool that came up to my belly. It came up to mid-chest for her.
Placing our food and drinks down, I walked back to the truck and gathered napkins.
When I got back, it was to find two other people also sharing the space.
Royal rolled her eyes when I gave her a ‘why didn’t you tell them no’ look.
“Excuse me,” I said as I pushed into the gap. “I was right there.”
The woman turned and looked at me with anger on her features. “There’s not anywhere else…oh, sorry.”
I snorted as they gathered their stuff and walked away.
Royal was laughing quietly as she snacked on her chips.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she said. “But, just sayin’, you’re just as intimidating in that uniform as you are in dirty jeans and a black t-shirt while working in your garage. Those pants may be tight, but they don’t detract from your scariness.”
I shrugged.
I’d been told that I was scary before.
But it wasn’t like I could help it.
“Genetics,” I said. “My dad’s a big guy. Plus, my ex likes to say I have resting asshole face.”
She snorted. “You don’t have resting asshole face. You’re just big and intimidating. The beard makes you look kind of dark and sexy in a brooding kind of way. Plus, you have those glasses back on, so your eyes are hidden. Which is kind of why I knew you weren’t so bad when I first met you. Your eyes are kind—at least when you want them to be.”
I was processing her words when she spoke again.
“Who’s that?” Royal suddenly asked.
I placed my hand on her hip and leaned down into her so I could better hear what she was saying. “Who’s who?”
She brought her hand up to cup my face, then turned it so that it was in the direction of another food truck.
“That woman that’s staring at you with her heart in her eyes,” she whispered.
I looked over to see Natalie Coffee, my ex, staring at me like I’d just gutted her.
“Speaking of exes,” I said. “That’s her.”
I turned away, uncaring and unwilling to give her any more of my life than she’d already stolen from me.
I wasn’t bitter anymore—at least I didn’t think that I was.
But I wasn’t really wanting to have anything to do with her, either.
I pulled Royal’s hand into mine and then squeezed it before dropping it and picking up my sandwich.
After taking a large bite, I nearly moaned.
“Oh, man,” I said. “You should’ve totally gotten this one.”
She took a bite of hers and moaned.
“I guess I can see why they’re so popular,” she said as she held her sandwich up for me to take a bite.
I did, and then my eyes crossed.
“Shit,” I said. “I don’t know which one is better.”
And I didn’t.
They both were wonderful in their own way.
I offered her my sandwich, and we traded off like that until both were gone.
“I’m considering getting another one,” she said, eyeing the line.
I looked at my watch and grimaced.
“I have about fifteen minutes of my lunch left before I have to be back at work,” I apologized. “We don’t have time.”
She sighed. “Can we come back here tomorrow?”
I grinned wickedly. “Not tomorrow, no. Remember we’re going to my parents’ and I have the next three days off. But next week, hell yeah.”
She gave me a thumb up and said, “Sounds perfect.”
I looked up only once to see if Natalie was still there and was happy to see that she was gone.
Thank God.
Chapter 12
You can delete your post, but you can’t delete the screenshot I sent my best friend.
-Text from Royal to Justice
Justice
I knew the moment that I pulled up on my bike that I should’ve come straight home—with Royal in tow.
But Lock had offered to take Royal home for me when I’d mentioned an errand I needed to run, and I hadn’t thought it would be a big deal.
What I should’ve expected was for Natalie to be pissed off that she’d seen me and Royal together earlier at the food truck fair, and that she’d come by and confront me.
But I hadn’t expected it.
What I also hadn’t expected was to find Lock on the front porch leaning against the front door with Royal on one side of the front porch, and Natalie on the other.
He looked like a referee ready to intervene if blood was shed.
I stretched my neck and cursed myself and my stupidity.
I should’ve known.
Natalie had always been that way.
One time her dog had chosen me over her, and she’d gotten pissed and didn’t talk to me for three days. She also neglected to feed her dog and made me do it.
Needless to say, she was more than predictable.
She didn’t want me, but she didn’t want anybody to have me, either.
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself as I parked my bike.
And, of course, that would be the moment that my mother chose to call and make sure that I was still on for this weekend.
And, since I never ignored my mother no matter what, I answered it with a terse, “Yeah?”
“Is that any way to greet your mother?” my mom asked teasingly.
“I just came home and found Natalie on my porch with the girl that I’m really starting to have a thing for standing on the other end of the porch from her,” I said. “I’m not in the best of moods.”
“Your dad told me you were bringing Royal. Let me talk to her while you deal with Natalie,” Mom ordered. “I wanted to talk to her anyway. Make sure that she didn’t have any allergies or anything that I needed to be accommodating.”
I didn’t bother arguing with her. I knew that it was likely the best option I had at this point.
Hanging my helmet up on the handlebars of my bike instead of taking it in with me like I would’ve normally, I dismounted and headed for the front porch.
“She’s pissed,” I said as I looked at Royal.
Her arms were crossed tightly underneath her breasts, making them pop up slightly. And her mouth was pinched into a tight line that clearly relayed that she was not just pissed, but irate.
I fixed my eyes on Lock as I took the steps up, and he shook his head in an ‘I didn’t know what to do’ way.
I rolled my eyes and turned to find Royal watching me with a narrow-eyed stare.
/> “My mom wants to talk to you,” I said. “Here.”
Royal, startled, took the phone and said, “Hello?”
Then they started talking like they were best friends. As if they’d done it a hundred million times before.
I grinned, knowing that was my mother’s doing and turned to see Natalie scooting closer.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
She smiled softly.
I used to love that smile.
“I love what you did with the place,” she said. “It’s everything we always talked about.”
I snorted. “You didn’t want to live in a cabin like this. You wanted to live in the city in a five-bedroom house that was a five-minute drive from Starbucks. I’m fairly sure those are the exact words that came out of your mouth.”
She shook her head, not the least bit deterred.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw you today,” she said. “You looked really good.” Her eyes trailed down the length of my body. “God, that uniform.”
“He’s talking to the woman who broke his heart,” Royal said loudly. “And she’s about to get her ass kicked.”
Before Royal could scoot around my body like I knew she was intending to do, I hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her front up to my back, pressing her in deep and not letting go.
I knew that my belt was likely digging uncomfortably into her belly, but I wasn’t really wanting to deal with Natalie’s shit tonight. She was the type to hold a grudge.
“I’m not sure why you’re here,” I said. “But I think it’s time to go. Royal and I are heading to my parents’ tomorrow, and I really don’t want to get into this tonight. We have to get up early, and Royal gets a little ticky when she gets riled.”
Royal pinched me. On the ass.
I barely kept my mouth from twitching.
“Are y’all new?” Natalie all but snarled.
Royal pressed her forehead into the muscles between my shoulder blade and rocked her forehead back and forth.
“No,” I said.
We weren’t even started.
That wasn’t really a lie, was it?
Not that I didn’t want it to be something.
Make Me Page 9