Unauthorized Affair (Unauthorized #1)(11)
She grabbed her clothes and pulled her pink hair back into a bun, trying to make it less noticeable. She hadn’t wanted to dye it blonde until she absolutely had to. She hoped it wouldn’t hurt her today.
At the police station, she entered and told the desk sergeant why she was there. He directed her to the stark, empty hallway where she was supposed to wait, but only after several disapproving glances at her pink hair. She sat and waited, feeling very self-conscious and hating herself for it. And hating herself for hating herself for it. She wasn’t a cop yet. Pink hair was OK in the rest of the world.
She heard boot steps from the far end of the hallway and sat up straight, trying not to think of her hair. A cop entered the room - she spotted the gold badge and heavy gun on his belt immediately. Her every instinct was to smile at him, but she fought it. All through the testing so far nobody had smiled at her. Like it wasn’t allowed till you were done with recruit class or something. The man was tall, wearing blue jeans, heavy work boots, and a plain, dark t-shirt that stretched pleasingly over his obviously muscled chest. His dark, rumpled hair seemed a bit too long to be a cop, and his full lips were framed nicely with 5 o’clock shadow. She felt a spark light in her midsection and smiled at him without meaning to. A split-second after the smile crossed her lips she realized what was going on. The spark she felt was attraction and the automatic smile was her body’s way of betraying her by letting him know. She whipped her eyes straight forward and berated herself in her mind. God, Jen what is your problem? Does everything have to be about men all the time? And here? Now? Reel it in, girlfriend. This man is off-limits. In fact, all cops are off limits. Let’s just make that rule right now. That way you won’t mess up your new job, if you manage to get hired.
The man walked directly to the door but paused there for a moment, like he was waiting for something. Jen avoided looking at him. The last thing she wanted to see was how nicely he filled out his jeans. “Miss Mansko?”
“Yes. That’s me.” She stood up.
“In here please.” He opened the door and motioned her inside.
Jen took a few deep breaths and tried to get past the awkwardness of the moment. Inside was a regular desk and chair, with a small machine and dozens of wires coming out of it. A man sat at the desk. Jen barely noticed him. Her eyes were on the wires.
“Sit down please,” the man at the desk told her, motioning towards the chair. He began to strap wires on her arm, her fingers, and around her chest without a word. Jen tried to catch his eye, hoping for a little encouragement or some explanation. But he never looked at her face, only her wires. Her nerves zinged with anxiety, even though she knew she didn’t have anything to lie about.
The cop from the hallway sat in a chair along the back wall, watching. Jen’s wildly roving eyes caught his and he dipped his head and gave her a half smile, the encouragement she had been looking for. Jen felt her nerves calm right away. At least there was one friendly face in here. She gave him a small smile back and took a deep breath. You can do this. This is nothing, she told herself, feeling the sting of anxiety in her chest and throat anyway.
***
35 minutes later, Hunter sighed to himself. She was passing the polygraph test, there was no doubt about it, and her answers were showing her to be perfect police officer material. But undercover material? Maybe not so much. Despite her half surfer-girl, half party-girl looks, she really was not much of a party girl. No drugs. Lots of drinking when she was younger but not recently. Never broke the law, unless you counted skipping school. And all of those things meant she’d probably never hung out with a hard crowd. She didn’t seem to have a hard edge to her. So did that mean she was scrapped for the undercover role he had planned to put her in? Maybe.
He studied her face, trying to see past the sweet persona he now believed was the real her. She had her gorgeous hair pulled back tightly. Two spots of color, high up on her cheeks, gave her an exciting, flushed look. He tried to listen to her last few answers, but instead, found himself wondering if those two flushes of heat on her cheekbones would appear if he kissed her lips, or her neck, or maybe if he trailed kisses down over her collarbone towards her —
“Sgt. Foley, I’m all done. I’ll have the results to you in an hour.”
The examiner’s voice startled Hunter out of his inappropriate thoughts. He scrubbed his face with his hand and looked at the examiner, who had just swung his chair around so that Jennifer Mansko couldn’t see the front of him. He popped one thumb up against his chest and nodded at Hunter, indicating she had passed. Hunter nodded back. That was all he needed to know. Now to at least run her through the paces. If she reacted timidly or couldn’t pull off the fake buy, he would dismiss her. It would probably be for the best anyway, considering the effect she had on him.
He thanked the examiner, who was busy taking all the wires off of Miss Mansko, and stood up. Miss Mansko looked up at him expectantly with those big blue eyes, a bit of anxiety playing on her face. She wanted to be a police officer badly, he could tell. Why? he thought. A pretty, sweet woman like you? What in the world would make you want to rub your face in humanity’s worst and dullest?
“Follow me,” he told her, a bit more gruffly than he had intended. Oh well, if I can’t stop thinking about her, at least I can make sure she doesn’t know I’m thinking about her.
Hunter took off at a swift pace, leaving Jennifer Mansko three steps behind him. He traversed the familiar halls unconsciously, until he ended up in front of the office he shared with Sadler. Sadler was working out of one of the assistant chief’s offices today, screening another candidate. It was imperative that none of the candidates met each other until they’d all agreed to the terms and sworn secrecy of the undercover work.