Bad to the Bone (Wicked Reads) by Karin Tabke Page A

hand rested casually on the butt of
his gun.
    “What are you going to do? Shoot me if I
don’t do what you say?”
    His lips quirked. “I’ll use whatever force is
necessary.”
    Shivers hopped along her spine. She wasn’t
sure if she were afraid or intrigued. Either way, she didn’t
resist. She took her driver’s license out of her wallet and slapped
it into his waiting hand. His big fingers wrapped around hers
before she could pull away. His touch was electric. A shock wave
went straight to her nipples and banked south to the juncture at
her thighs. She tried hard to remain impassive. She tugged her hand
out of his grasp, then dug into the glove box for the registration.
This time, caution prevailed; she sat back and handed it to him,
keeping all but her fingertips inside the car.
    He took it and looked at her license. “I’ll
be right back, Ms. Olivia Connor. Don’t go anywhere.” There was a
hint of amusement lacing his deep baritone.
    Did he just laugh at her as he walked away?
She stuck her head out the window, to tell him to go to hell, but
he had already reached his cruiser. She sat back, her temper
flaring. “Damn cops think they’re God’s gift.”
    In her rearview mirror, she watched him watch
her through his front windshield as he called in her info. After
what seemed interminably long, he strode back to her door. He
reached inside the car, released the door lock, quickly pulling the
door open before she realized what he was doing.
    “Step out of the car, ma’am,” he said
thickly.
    “Why? You can’t arrest me for blowing a red
light!”
    “Step out of the car, ma’am.”
    Her pride screamed “no.” Her reason told her
to just do as he said so she didn’t invite any more trouble than
she already had. Ultimately, Olivia was good at following
instructions.
    She stuck her left foot out of the car, her
four-inch heel digging into the soil of the shoulder. When she
stood, she nearly snapped her ankle. The bad cop reached out to
steady her. His long fingers wrapped possessively around her bicep.
Her skin flared beneath his chaste touch. When her second heel
stuck in the ground, she jerked away from him and had he not
grabbed her with both hands, she would have tumbled backwards into
the mud. The velocity of his actions brought her chest to chest
with him.
    The contact was electrifying. She pushed
back, alarmed by the potent energy that sparked between them. The
sucking sound of her shoe being devoured by the mud pulled her
attention from the hard body pressed against her. Keeping a
steadying hand on her arm, the cop reached down, yanked it out of
the thick goop and handed it to her. His gaze burned with male
arrogance. “You’ll want to hold on to this,” he mockingly said.
    She took it from him, shook his hand from her
arm, and, on one leg, she hopped and put it back on. When she
composed herself and was free of the quagmire, she demanded. “Why
did I have to get out of my car?”
    “You have warrants. I’m taking you in.”
    “ What warrants? You can’t do that!
I’ve never been arrested in my life!”
    “Do you have any needles, weapons or drug
paraphernalia on your person?”
    She searched for any hint of a smile because
this had to be a joke. But his face was impossibly hard. Except his
eyes. They glittered in the artificial light of his headlights.
    Olivia looked at the sergeant stripes and
three hash marks on his uniform sleeve, then up into his peremptory
stare. “Look, Sergeant, I told you, I have never been arrested in
my life so I can’t have warrants! Call dispatch and have them run
my license again. And while you’re at it, call your watch commander
and tell him you have a situation here.”
    He raised a brow.
    “I’m not going anywhere,” she said, crossing
her arms over her chest. “Not until you do what I say.”
    Those full lips tightened and his brilliant
green eyes flashed. His right hand grabbed her left elbow and he
spun her around, pressing her none too