Butterface (The Hartigans #1)(35)
“Not an offer I’m going to turn down. It’s a date.” Her cheeks turned pink the moment the words were out of her mouth.
He knew exactly where her mind was going, and he liked it. Not that he’d admit it out loud to anyone, but a date with Gina sounded pretty damn good. Since he couldn’t have that for real, he might as well let Hollywood help him pretend.
“That it is,” he said, sliding his palm across the small of her back and keeping it there as they walked across the parking lot and to the movie theater, as they stood in line for tickets, and while he carried the popcorn on their way to find their seats.
And when the lights went down, he moved the arm rest between them into the upright position. “To make it easier for you to reach the popcorn,” he said when she gave him a questioning look.
By the time the great white’s fin was spotted for the first time, his arm was resting on the back of the movie seat and they were sitting so close that if she dropped an M&M it wouldn’t be able to fall between them.
The fact that he’d already seen the giant shark menace the summer swimmers at least a million times wasn’t the reason why the action on the screen was just background noise. Instead, he was tuned in to the way her shoulders tensed whenever the music changed, how her eyes widened as the action picked up, and how she giggled and shrugged when she caught him watching her reactions. When the police chief declared they were going to need a bigger boat, Ford was curling a strand of her wavy hair around his fingers and feeling every bit like a horny high school kid with no clue what to do next. And when the credits started on the screen, neither of them moved. They just stayed pressed against each other in the darkness as everyone got up.
Maybe he turned to her first, maybe it was her tilting her face upward, but before the first gaffer’s name scrolled by, his mouth was only an inch from hers. Her full lips were parted, and her hand dropped from the popcorn bucket to his thigh.
All thoughts of the dangers of fraternization and his captain’s warnings scattered. He dipped his head and her eyes fluttered shut just as someone in the row behind them passed by, accidentally jostling them in the process and sending what was left of the popcorn flying.
Gina grabbed the bucket before it hit the floor and sat back in her seat, that open, needy look on her face disappearing. “Sorry, I guess I crowded you.”
She was giving him an out. He should take it, but he didn’t.
Instead, he cupped the back of her head, bringing her toward him, and kissed her.
Electricity shot through him the moment his lips touched hers. And when she opened underneath him, it was all he could do not to move his hands to her hips and pull her across the seat and onto his lap so he could rock her against his straining dick, deepen the kiss, and finally give in to the want that had been building since the night of the wedding.
Some sane part of him pushed its way to the forefront, though, and reminded him of where he was and who he was kissing. Breaking the kiss wasn’t something he wanted to do, but he had to anyway.
They sat there staring at each other for a second, and the sight of her kiss-swollen lips made him want to give back into the insanity of kissing her, but he held on to his fast-fraying control. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s okay, it was just a kiss,” she said, avoiding looking at him as she stood up and brushed the stray popcorn kernels off of her. “Didn’t mean a thing, right?”
His gut clenched at the declaration as he stood up—because kissing Gina was starting to mean something to him, and there wasn’t a damn thing good about that.
Chapter Ten
Ford futzed with his tie the next morning, cursing whoever invented the damn things. He hated ties, but wearing them wasn’t optional for detectives on Waterbury’s force, so he’d gotten used to them. Now, after nearly five years of wearing one almost every day, he couldn’t get his fingers to work right to make a Windsor knot. Why the muscle memory amnesia? Probably the lack of sleep after that almost kiss yesterday at his parents’ house. Cockblocked by his own mom. That wasn’t right.
And as soon as they’d gotten back to Gina’s house after that kiss in the movies, she’d disappeared up the stairs, and he’d spent another night staring at the ceiling and wondering if tonight she was wearing the black lace panties.
“My grandma will think you’re up to something if you wear a tie.”
He turned and saw her standing in the open door to his makeshift room. She was wearing a retro-styled pink dress that was so sugary sweet all he wanted to do was dirty it up. Fuck. That was not where he needed his thoughts to go.
“It’s her birthday party, right? You’re dressed up.”
“Thank you.” She did a quick curtsy while giving him a teasing wink. “Still, a button-down shirt for you is fine. The tie makes you look like a cop.”
He checked out his reflection in the mirror above the cold fireplace. It was just a regular plain navy tie. It wasn’t like it was emblazoned with the department’s logo. “I am a cop.”
“Don’t remind me.” She snagged the tie from his hands and dropped it onto his freshly made couch bed.
“So, you’re saying you’re not going to introduce me to everyone as your boyfriend, Detective Hartigan?”
She looked at him like he’d just told her that she had ants crawling up her arm. “Oh God no, and don’t mention it to my grandma, she’s liable to curse you.”