Cops And...Lovers? by Linda Castillo Page A

floundering. "I was shaken up. Let's not make this any more complicated than it needs to be."
    He shot her a stony look that told her he wasn't buying it. Then, turning abruptly, he started for the door. "Go to bed, McNeal. I'll send Mrs. Thornsberry to stay with you tonight."
    Erin wanted to argue, but she knew better. She didn't want Nick to come back. Not when her heart was still pounding and her lips tingled with the feel of his mouth against hers. Lowering herself to the sofa, she watched him walk out the door, wondering how in the world she was going to handle working for a man who made her lose control every time he touched her.
    * * *
    Nick had always prided himself on control. That's what made it so impossible to believe he'd just gone against every shred of intelligence he'd amassed over the last thirty-eight years, and kissed Erin McNeal. His deputy, for Pete's sake! A woman with a wild streak that ran right down the center of what was probably a very pretty back. What was the matter with him, reacting like an oversexed schoolboy, when he was grown man with a man's responsibilities?
    But Nick knew that kiss wasn't the worst of it. He'd wanted her with the kind of urgency he hadn't felt for … too long to acknowledge. If she hadn't pulled away, he wouldn't have stopped. Not with one kiss. Not even with two. How the hell was he going to handle this?
    "Damn you, Frank," he murmured.
    Pausing at his truck, he risked a glance at the window of her second-floor apartment. The lights were still on. He was still aroused, and the frustration pounding in his groin annoyed him no end.
    Gritting his teeth, he unlocked the truck door and slid inside. He'd have to be careful in the coming weeks. As much as he didn't want to admit it, maybe he was more vulnerable than he'd thought. Not emotionally, he assured himself, but physically. After all, a man's needs could be shoved aside for only so long. Nick needed female companionship. Steph would eventually get used to the idea of having a woman around. Maybe a woman would help fill the void in both their lives.
    What Nick didn't need was Erin McNeal. Just because she made him hot around the collar didn't mean she was right for him. She was exactly the kind of woman he wouldn't bring into Stephanie's life. His little girl had already been hurt once by a reckless adult. He'd rip out his own heart before he'd let that happen again.
    It struck him then that Erin was the first woman he'd kissed since Rita's death. That it hadn't been a chaste kiss disturbed him and made him realize he'd taken a step into yet uncharted territory.
    Unexpectedly, the old, familiar pain stirred deep in his chest, the wound so newly healed that it still bled when probed. Nick rode the waves of pain, surprised by their force after three long years. The grief still cut him on occasion. Rita's death had taken something vital out of him, bits and pieces that could never be replaced. Nick had vowed the day he buried her that he would never again put himself through the agony of loving someone.
    Shoving thoughts of Rita ruthlessly aside, he muttered an oath, his voice sounding low and rough in the silence of his truck. Erin McNeal was off-limits. Not only to protect himself, but to protect Stephanie. After what had happened today, Nick knew with the utter certainty of a man who'd already experienced hell that Erin would hurt them both if he allowed it. No matter how much he wanted her, no matter how much he liked the way she looked, or respected her as a police officer, he could never allow himself to care.
    Slamming the truck into gear, he pulled onto the street and started for home. No, he assured himself, he didn't care about Erin . She didn't need him looking out for her. If she wanted to self-destruct, that was her business.
    Hopefully, he would be able to talk Mrs. Thornsberry into sitting with her tonight. Nick knew it was a copout, but he wasn't up to it—even if Erin was one of his deputies. The fact of