Frisk Me(23)

“I don’t do serious, Sims.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Ever?”

Luc shrugged. “Lots of cops don’t.”

“Because of the frequent brush-with-death thing?”

He was silent for a moment as he pictured Mike. And Mike’s funeral. Then he remembered Mike’s widow and son sobbing silently in the front row of the church…

His fingers clenched into a fist beneath the table, and he forced himself to take a long, slow breath. This was why Ava Sims was dangerous to him. It would only take a few well-placed questions, and the entire world would know that their hero-cop was so far from a hero it wasn’t even funny.

“Let’s just say I know a few too many cop widows—and widowers, for that matter—to ever put a woman I cared about through that.”

“But your entire family is cops. Surely they don’t all feel that way.”

“No,” he granted. “My parents have been happily married for over three decades. And my brother Marco is halfway to the altar already. The other two…hell, I doubt they could pay a woman to put up with them for life, so it doesn’t really matter.”

She opened her mouth as though to argue, but Luc beat her to it.

“Cops don’t make good husbands, Sims.” He softened the statement with a smile.

It was hardly the first time he’d had this conversation with a woman. Luc was always careful to set expectations upfront, but some women seemed to think they were the exception to the rule.

But Luc’s commitment to non-marriage was one rule he had no intention of breaking.

Ava surprised him. “No judgment here. Marriage is…” she paused, as though searching for the right word. “Crap,” she finished.

Luc washed a bite of bacon down with a sip of water, surprised by her succinct dismissal of marriage.

It wasn’t that he thought all women were secretly trying on wedding dresses in their spare time, but in his experience it was rare to run into a woman who was so openly anti.

And though he was tempted to ask why…to know what made her tick, he took the easy path instead.

“Sims.” He let his eyes go wide in bafflement. “Did we just have something in common?”

She smiled, and it was a pretty thing, this genuine smile instead of the knee-jerk smile he was used to seeing from her. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“Deal. So what else do you have for me? You’ve got until I clean my plate to pick my brain, because once I’m on duty, chitchat is off-limits.”

“Hold on there, cowboy, we’re not done with the prior topic just yet,” she said, nipping a corner of her toast with her perfect white teeth. “So you’re not looking to march down the aisle. I get it. But what does a bachelor cop’s love life look like?”

“What’s it look like? Lots of curvy blondes, mostly. Often naked,” he replied.

“Sounds very Beverly Hills brothel.”

He smiled at her tart tongue as he took his last bite of omelet. “Probably could make room for a skinny brunette who talks too much though.”

Ava pulled her napkin off her lap and began fanning herself. “Wow. With moves like these, how do you ever find time to sleep?”

“Seriously though, Sims, leave my love life out of the story, would ya?”

“But—”

“Look, I get it,” he said, his voice gentle. “People want to see that stuff. They want to know I’m half-smitten with a childhood sweetheart or ‘waiting for the right one,’ but I can’t give you that.”

She threw up her hands. “Well I can’t just say you’re a bed-hopping commitment-phobe.”

He frowned. “Why not? It’s the truth.”

“Which usually is what I’m after, but—”

His head snapped up at that little slip. “What do you mean that’s usually what you’re after? What’s different about this story?”

She lifted her hand and nibbled on her thumbnail before tucking it into her fist and putting her hand back in her lap. “I just mean that this is a big story. A lot of people will be looking at it.”

“Isn’t that the point of network television? Lots of people looking at it?”

“No, I mean, a lot of network people will be looking at it. My bosses.”

He searched her face, surprised to see the conflict there, even though he didn’t understand it. “And they’re expecting to hear about my love life?”

She chewed her lip, the nervous gesture at odds with her polished appearance. “Let’s just say a little romance wouldn’t hurt the story. They want something that’ll make the audience melt, you know?”

Too damn bad. The only secrets Luc had were the kind to make the audience hate him.

He reached across the table to pat her arm. “You’re a good reporter, Sims. You’ll find a way to romance it.”

“Maybe I’ll stick with the ‘currently married to his job’ thing. They don’t need to know that currently is actually indefinitely.”

“There you go. What else?” He held up his last piece of toast. My plate is nearly clean.”

“Tell me about college.”

“What about it?”

“Cops don’t have to go, and yet you and all of your brothers did. Sister too.”