Frisk Me(14)

And the more she thought she was supposed to want it, the less she did.

She leaned forward and grabbed a handful of chips. “Beth, do you think I’m completely screwed up?”

“Well, if you are, nobody can blame you,” Beth said without hesitation. “Your family’s a piece of work.”

“So true,” Ava agreed as she munched on the chips.

“But,” Beth said, pointing a finger. “You are fabulous. You have to forget the crazy fam. Do what you want to do.”

Ava ran a finger around the rim of her glass. “Yeah, that’s kind of the problem.”

“Meaning?”

Meaning, what if I don’t know what I want to do?

But she wasn’t ready to say it. Not out loud. Not even to Beth.

So instead she changed the subject to the one and only thing that could deter Beth from her fix-Ava campaign…“Hey, what did you find out about that band Christian liked for the reception? Are they still available?”

As expected, Beth was only too happy to have the chance to talk wedding, and for the next hour, Ava was able to let herself forget, just for a little while, that despite her life looking pretty perfect on paper, she felt utterly and totally lost.





CHAPTER SIX



Luc crossed his arms over his chest and glared.

Ava Sims glared right back.

“No cameras,” Luc said. “That’s nonnegotiable.”

She narrowed her eyes as though to say everything’s negotiable.

And for a woman who looked like Ava, everything probably was.

She was wearing a pantsuit today. It was light gray and should have been dull as hell, but the way it hugged her slim body was anything but subdued. And the strawberry-red of her high heels was distracting as all get-out.

“Perhaps we should get your supervisor.” Her snooty tone made it clear that she expected to out-gun him, but this was one area where Luc knew that Captain Brinker, power-tripping as he was, would have his back.

“By all means,” Luc replied with an easy smile and a sweeping of his arm toward Brinker’s office. “May I show you the way?”

Ava moved forward, as did her sulky-looking cameraman, and Luc held up a hand to stop the lanky blond from getting in the front doors.

“Not you. Her.”

Ava rolled her eyes. “Wait here, Mihail. I’m sure Captain Brinker will clear this up.”

Five minutes later, Luc didn’t even bother to hide the smug grin as Ava regretfully told her cameraman that while the NYPD had every intention of cooperating as best they could, they simply couldn’t allow a camera inside a building where sensitive documents were piled high on every desk.

As it was, Ava herself had a mound of confidentiality-agreement paperwork to get through, and Brinker set her up in one of the conference rooms.

Luc decided to take his last few moments of peace to catch up on his own paperwork.

His partner had other ideas.

“Dude. You never said she was hot.”

“Who’s hot?” Luc asked.

Lopez threw a paperclip at Luc, hitting him squarely in the chest. “Don’t insult our friendship.”

Luc grunted. It was bad enough that he had to put up with Ava Sims for the next few weeks; he drew the line at discussing her almost painfully good looks with Sawyer.

Lopez was a damned good partner, but it was times like this that Luc missed Mike most acutely.

Luc had never had to worry about these sorts of things with his former partner. Mike Jensen had been happily married to a school nurse. They’d had a six-year-old son who’d had a serious case of hero worship for his dad…

Luc’s fingers clenched around his pen. The last thing he needed on his mind right now was his former partner. Not with the f*cking paparazzi sitting twenty feet away with an all-sanctioned pass to pry into his life and share his secrets with the world.

Not that he had any intentions of sharing his secrets with a reporter. Especially the one currently sitting down the hall.

But Ava Sims was smart and driven as hell. His instincts told him that if she wanted to find the story—the real story—she would.

Fuck.

Luc considered himself a don’t-stress-about-it kind of guy, but from the second he’d heard the words America’s Hero and TV series, he felt like he had a ball of tension permanently lodged in his chest.

Luc’s eyes fell on his partner who was not-so-subtly doing the occasional 360 spin in his chair in hopes of catching sight of Ava when she finished up with her paperwork.

Inspiration struck, and Luc leaned back in his chair, trying to look at Lopez from Ava’s point of view. His partner was good with women. Luc already knew that. But Sawyer tended toward the bubbly cheerful kind.

Not smooth-talking career women with just a substantial layer of chill.

Still…it was worth a shot.

Luc stifled the smile, letting his former scowl resettle on his face. If Lopez thought he was being played, there was no way he’d go for it.

“Hey, so Cap said the hot reporter would be doing ride-alongs with us. That’ll be cool,” Lopez said.

“Seriously? You hate ride-alongs,” Luc said.

Lopez held up a finger. “No, I hate the dippy, I-wanna-be-a-cop-someday type of ride-alongs. Those stupid kids are always offering advice when they don’t know shit about shit. But Ms. Sims will be a nice kind of ride-along. Just sitting, observing…looking fine…”