Read The Officer's Promise (Brothers in Blue Book 1) for Free Online Page B

need.
    I quickly pushed aside my embarrassment.
    This was Ryker.
    He would be nothing less than a complete gentleman. Smiling, I remembered his remark in the living room.
    The way you smell is making it really hard to be a gentleman right now.
    He came back holding a plastic bag, his steps faltered momentarily when he found me half undressed with a big smile smothering my face.
    “What’s so funny?”
    Only confusion and what could easily be described as desire, registered in his eyes.
    My smile quickly faded, nervousness staking its claim.
    “I—I know this is awkward, but can we pretend for just one second that you’re not about to see me naked?”
    Reaching past me, he switched off the water, allowing the space to fill with heated silence. My words hung between us like the steam billowing throughout the room.
    “It’ll be real fucking hard, but I promise not to look.”
    Eyes locked on mine, he pulled the shirt from my hands, dropping it to the floor, and a shiver rippled across my sensitive skin. His soft blue eyes never fell below my mouth as he helped me stand up, placing my palms on top of his broad shoulders to steady me.
    His hands moved to my waist. Air froze in my throat as warm fingers grazed my skin in deft whispers of care.
    Adoration.
    Ryker lied.
    He promised not to look.
    But I could feel his eyes all over me, and if it wasn’t his hungry gaze it was his hot breath, traveling across my skin with every move he made.
    For the first time in years, I felt like I could finally breathe again.
    Suddenly, he took in a sharp breath then reached out, fingering the small ring hanging from a silver chain around my neck. I’d kept it hidden from Trent, tucked away in my jewelry box for all these years.
    “You kept it?”
    “Of course I kept it.”
    Those dark blue eyes lifted to mine. They were filled with so many questions, but instead he simply said, “Come on, get in before the water gets cold.”

S itting in roll call the following day, I tried to pay attention to what Lieutenant Arnold was saying, as he spoke from behind the podium in the front of the room, but I couldn’t seem to focus on anything.
    Except her, and that promise ring, and the last day I saw her.
    Wearing a black dress with a gray cardigan that matched the late afternoon sky, MaryAnn sat on the swing in our backyard. Her long chestnut hair hung in soft waves over each shoulder, eyes trained on the ground as she swayed back and forth slowly. I didn’t need to see them to know they were red and puffy from crying. She’d been through so much the last ten days.
    We all had.
    Firefighters had yet to recover her parents from the devastating rubble. Both of them worked on the sixty-ninth floor, close to the point of impact. My father, police commissioner for the city of New York, has worked around the clock, searching. Not only for her parents but also for his brothers in blue and firefighters who ran in when the building was coming down.
    A memorial service was held in their honor at church today, but I know it didn’t bring her any real comfort.
    She’s still so sad.
    I thought about how I would feel if I lost even one of my parents, the pain in my chest so overwhelming I could hardly breathe. I couldn’t imagine losing both and losing them like she had.
    When I came to a stop in front of her, she lifted her grief-stricken eyes to mine. They were filled with so much sorrow. I wish I could take the pain away for her, but I have no idea how.
    My father told me the pain would never go away, only become easier to bear as time passes.
    “You okay?” I asked, kneeling down in front of her. It was a stupid question. I knew she wasn’t okay, but I didn’t know what else to say.
    She shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks. “I’m moving away, Ryker. My grandmother, she’s taking me back to Oklahoma with her.”
    My world stopped spinning. The axis completely broken and destroyed.
    “When?”
    “Our flight leaves tomorrow