Read Cop's Passion for Free Online

such big words,
huh?”
    Shame slid
through Maddy, and she could feel the blush ride up her cheeks. “I
apologise, I really do. Sometimes…”
    Big arms folded
across the massive chest and the t-shirt pulled tight across
bunched biceps. Combined with his dangerous and now forbidding
expression, it was an alarming move. He stood so still, so
dangerously still, and the menace in the kitchen was enough to make
Maddy swallow.
    “Sometimes?”
There was no way that rumble could get any dangerously softer.
    She wanted to
run and hide, stick her head in the sand and never look at him
again. But damn it, she was an adult, and adults had to face the
consequences of their actions.
    “I have a bit
of a temper,” she finally said. “And…uh…sarcasm.”
    “Really?”
    “It…um…I
sometimes say things I don’t always mean.”
    He just
continued to look down silently at her.
    Feeling lower
than a snake’s belly - and that was damned low - Maddy glanced away
and started to sidle towards the door. “I think I better go.
I-”
    “Stay.”
    “No, really,
I-”
    “Maddy,
please.”
    It was the
‘please’ that made her stop. Lifting her head slowly, she finally
looked up into his eyes. The anger was gone, but he still looked
stern. Her guilt combined with his expression made her a little
irritable. “What?” The snap in her voice made her want to close her
eyes and just die. “Shit. Again.”
    Mike looked
down at her for several seconds before shaking his head and
surprising her by cupping her elbow and moving her over to the
table. Pulling out a chair, he waited for her.
    Now she was
feeling downright miserable. Her cheeks were burning.
    “Sit,” he said.
“Please.”
    “Mike…”
    “Maddy.”
    She sighed and
sat.
    “Now,” he said,
moving away. “Tea or coffee?”
    To refuse now
would be churlish, and she figured she’d been nasty enough for one
day. “Tea.”
    “Mint? Rose
hip? Camomile?”
    He drank herb
tea? What the hell…? Then again, he was probably a health freak,
and so saying, her sugar-laden peace offerings were no good.
    Peace
offerings, huh. That had turned out well. Not.
    “Maddy?”
    Keeping her
eyes on the table, she replied, “Um…whatever you’re having.”
    “I’m having
plain black tea.”
    She glanced up
to see him getting cups from the cupboard. “Not herbal?”
    “Ugh. No.” He
didn’t turn around as he busied himself with getting a tea caddy.
“I keep the herbal stuff for my sister.”
    “Oh. Well in
that case I’ll have plain tea with milk and three sugars.
Please.”
    “No worries.”
He spooned sugar into a plain mug.
    He moved easily
around the kitchen, but as the silence stretched on she finally
said, “I really am sorry, Mike.”
    For the first
time, he glanced up. “I know.”
    Surprised, she
blinked. “You do?”
    “I know when
someone is sincere. Your apology was sincere.”
    “So we’re
okay?”
    The word hung
in the air between them. Maddy held her breath, not knowing why it
was so important to her but knowing that it simply…was.
    His smile was
slow and easy, spreading across his face, his eyes crinkling at the
corners. In that moment he looked so unexpectedly devastatingly,
dangerously handsome, it took her breath away. “We’re okay,” he
rumbled.
    And her heart
flipped.
    “But,” he
added, “I’m still not keeping that kitten.” When she started to
protest, he pointed the teaspoon at her. “No. And that’s
final.”
    With a sigh,
she subsided back in the chair.
    Mike poured hot
water into the mugs and jiggled the teabags before taking them out
and adding milk to one of the mugs, which he placed before her on
the table. Going back to the kitchen, he retrieved two plates, two
forks and a knife, and returned to the table. Sitting opposite her,
he opened the container containing the chocolate cake and his eyes
lit with appreciation. “Yum.” Without further ado, he cut off two
big slices, placed one on each plate and slid a plate across