RIDING WITH THE COP (The Pleasure Of His Punishment) by J.S. Scott

Lilly Thompson was glad the evening was almost over.
    As she dug into the pocket of her well-worn pair of jeans to pay the gas station attendant for her coffee, she rolled her shoulders to release some of the tension from her neck and shoulders.
    She tossed the change from her purchase into the cup beside the cash register; her purse was at the police station and she hated carrying change in her pocket.
    A quick glance at her watch confirmed she was nearing the end of her shift on her last police ride-along, something she wasn’t doing for excitement or fun. Three full shifts were required for her Forensics Lab Technician bachelor’s program and she was at the tail end of the very last one. It was time spent that would count towards her apprenticeship hours. After many hours in the crime lab, she had thought it might be good to see how things happened out in the field.
    It had been a long four years and Lilly was grateful that she would be graduating in a few months. Hopefully she could nab an entry level job at the lab where she was doing her internship, so that she could get an apartment in a decent area of town and maybe eat something other than hotdogs or whatever else was on sale at the market. Living the life of a poor student was somewhat brutal, but it would pay off in the end.
    Lilly had learned a lot in her three shifts with the Sheriff’s Department. She had spent all three evenings with Sergeant Jake Simmons, which could be seen as a blessing or a curse. He was knowledgeable, but he made her a little edgy. Okay…maybe more than a little , she acknowledged to herself as she slowly made her way to the door, stopping to glance at the newspaper headlines before exiting. She was stalling, and she knew it, but it meant less time spent confined in a vehicle with Jake.
    Jake Simmons was a large, bulky, muscular man who seemed to take up a lot of space, even though they were riding in a Ford Expedition. He loomed over her five-foot-five height by at least seven inches and he was built like a bulldozer. There wasn’t an inch of fat on his body and his sculpted muscles seemed to strain the material of his police issue uniform.
    His features were ruggedly handsome. Dark blond hair and brown eyes set into a face with a steel jaw that was usually lightly sprinkled with a dark blonde shadow, and lips that rarely smiled.
    It wasn’t that he was mean or discourteous to her. He answered her questions with patience and seemed interested in helping her reach her career goals. Lilly couldn’t really put a finger on the reason for her discomfort with him. She had absolutely no reason to be tense, but he somehow exuded…danger. Occasionally, she would catch him staring at her so intently that she wanted to squirm, almost like she was a specimen under a microscope.
    Lilly tried to shake her feelings off as she exited the convenience store. It was ridiculous to feel uneasy with Jake. He was a veteran at the Sheriff’s Department, a sergeant who took his responsibilities seriously.
    She grabbed the door handle of the Expedition, opened the door and swung herself up into the seat of the large, marked SUV. As she secured her seat belt Jake quickly put the unit in gear.
    “We need to investigate a possible breaking and entering on this side of town. Suspicious activity outside a house with no lights on and nobody home,” he informed her casually, in his familiar baritone voice. “It’s right around the corner so I opted to go. Are you willing to do a little overtime?”
    “Yes. Of course,” Lilly answered as she dropped her coffee into a cup holder. She knew it was time for both of their shifts to be over, but Jake always did what was best for the community, and they were close to the incident.
    He turned the corner into a small subdivision and pulled up silently in front of one of the ranch style homes. He had cut the lights before he slid to the curve and cut the engine immediately.
    Jake opened the door quietly. He motioned