Read Strokes Vol #3 for Free Online

brightened. Danny blinked against the harsh fluorescence filling the stairwell. “SRT will be suiting up.”
    She nodded, sighing as she crawled off his lap. “Better go. You’ll be busy getting the prisoners back into their cells.”
    “When shift’s over…”
    She gave him a nod. “My place.”
    Danny gave her a lopsided smile. “Don’t even think about entering the barracks again.”
    She tilted her chin. “I’m not crazy.”
    Reluctant to leave her, he turned her toward the corridor and the hub’s control booth. “Stick with McGee.”
    He gave her ass a slap, and she aimed a glare over her shoulder, then walked with a sway that drew his gaze straight to her round, muscular bottom. Their conversation was far from over. Only talking wasn’t going to cut it. Maybe she needed a little dose of reality.
    *
    Even through the rattle of the spray hitting her glass shower door, Jenna heard the front door slam. Rinsing the last of the suds from her hair, she turned off the water and tugged her towel from over the edge of the door, wrapping it quickly around her body. By the sound of the heavy thuds of his boots, he was a man on a mission. She had no doubts what was on his mind.
    What had been on everyone’s mind during the debrief at shift’s end. She’d felt the glances, saw the condemnation simmering in the male officers’ eyes. Despite the fact females had been serving inside the prison for years, she was a problem. Too pretty. Too slim. A distraction for the prisoners and officers alike.
    Things she’d faced down before. No matter how she’d tried to minimize her attraction—no makeup, loose uniforms, her hair pulled into an unflattering, tight bun—she still stuck out like a sore thumb. Danny had to come to her rescue, and that put him in unnecessary danger because guards caught in the dark were supposed to hit a wall and wait. He’d traversed the entire barracks to get her out. Yet no one pointed a finger at him for breaking protocol. They all understood the need.
    More than once the LT and the major had offered her easier duty, inside the infirmary or permanently manning a hub’s control, but she’d refused, wanting to prove herself. Not because her sole ambition was to be the best corrections officer she could be, but because a successful stint there would make her application to the police academy stand out among the other candidates.
    Danny knew this. But he didn’t support her. Even before they’d begun to see each other, he’d been after her to quit or transfer. When she’d been assigned to his shift, under his command, he’d kept silent about their relationship because he’d been hell-bent on protecting her. Maybe it was time she asked for a transfer to another shift.
    The thought left her cold. Because even though things had gone sideways tonight, she’d known he would get to her. No matter what. And that thought had kept her from panic. Not something she would ever let him know.
    Her bathroom door slammed open. Still dressed in his uniform, Danny’s shoulders spanned the door frame. His short black hair skimmed the upper edge. His dark blue shirt, spattered with raindrops, reflected the stormy color of his eyes as he raked her with a glance. Anger simmered in the glance he gave her.
    Her chin shot up. “No, hello darlin’?”
    His hand shot out, grabbed her arm and yanked her against his chest. “Fight me.”
    Her eyes widened. “What’s this about?”
    He gave a sharp shake of his head. “Shut up. Fight me.”
    She inserted her free hand between them and shoved at his chest. “Danny?”
    “Think you could have fought Draper off if he’d been after you?” he said, his voice a deep, graveled growl.
    She swallowed hard against a burning lump at the back of her throat. So that was what this was going to be. A lesson. Proof she wasn’t strong enough, mean enough to be on that barracks floor. “Stop this, right now.” She pushed again, but he ducked down, shoved his shoulder