Special Forces_Operation Alpha_Protecting Charlotte Read online

  “Yeah, you might have a point there,” he laughed. “Remind me again, how many tamababies did we have?”

  “So many.”

  “Too bad we threw them all in the river.”

  “Oh my gosh,” I sputtered. “I forgot how creepy that thing ended up being.”

  “Okay, in hindsight, maybe it was a little creepy. But it’s not like I was ever going to top this thing as a gift anyway.” He lifted the toboggan a little higher and wiggled it.

  “Exactly! And it’s a good thing that I made my mom keep it all these years, or else I wouldn’t have had it for our date today,” I pointed out smugly as we trudged up the biggest hill inside the park.

  “But will it be like all the times before where I’m the one doing all the work while you’re along for the ride?”

  I squeezed his arm, feeling his strong biceps even through several layers of clothing. “I think you can handle the heavy lifting.”

  “For a chance to look at this view? Damn straight I can.”

  I peered over the trees towards the harbor. In the distance, I caught sight of the Statue of Liberty. “It really is amazing, isn’t it?” I asked.

  “The best,” he agreed. Only, when I turned to look up at him, his eyes were aimed at me instead of the tourist attraction in the harbor.

  This guy. Seriously, he was better than I ever imagined.

  “Show me if you still have all the right sledding moves, Tomlinson.”

  He waited to answer, getting us situated on the toboggan first. When we were perched at the edge of the hill, his big body wrapped around mine, he whispered in my ear, “I think you’ll find I’ve got new moves you’ve never seen before.”

  As we hurtled down the slope, I shivered. Not in fear or because of the cold. It was because of the sensual promise in his boast. Sledding with him now was even better than it’d been when we were in middle school. It felt like we went way faster down the hill, it was easier to carry the toboggan back up, and the way we snuggled against each other on the slide took our flirting to a whole new level. We were surrounded by screaming kids, it was freezing cold, and the snow had gotten our clothes wet. But none of that put a damper on the sexual tension simmering between us. By the time we were done, I barely even felt the cold because I was so turned on.

  “Want some hot chocolate?” I asked as we trudged towards a mom who agreed to watch my stuff after Chad offered to help them get their sleds up the hill.

  “I’d love some.”

  I dug into my bag for my thermos after giving the woman my thanks. “Here you go,” I offered, holding it up for Chad to take. Then I pulled two pairs of thick socks out and handed him one. “I also thought we could both use a dry pair of socks, so our toes don’t freeze off.”

  He smiled and chuckled under his breath. “Our old sled. Hot chocolate. You really did think of everything for our date.”

  “Not just any hot chocolate. It’s mint flavored.”

  “My favorite,” he murmured.

  “Yeah.”

  He let the toboggan fall to the ground next to us. Then he pressed one strong finger under my head to tilt my chin up. “Damn, beautiful. I’m going to have to bring my A-game if I want to impress you the next time we go out.”

  “It isn’t a contest.”

  “You’re right; it’s not,” he agreed, bending low to brush his lips against mine. “If you win, I win. You lose? Same goes for me. We’re on the same team; you and I.”

  “I like the sound of that.”

  “Good ‘cause once you’re on this team, there’s no trades or retirement.”

  We’d only reconnected a couple of weeks ago. If it’d been anyone else who was making offhand comments about a future together after that short of time, I’d probably be freaking out. But with Chad, it felt right. “Then I guess we need a team name, huh?”

  “How about Team Tomlinson? It has a nice ring to it.”

  Considering all the times I’d written Charlotte Tomlinson in my diary and on my notebooks growing up, it sounded darn good to me, too. I nodded, grinning.

  I was still smiling when we grabbed dumplings from a place on 8th and parted ways to head back to our own apartments. Nothing was going to dim my Chad-induced buzz. Not even getting yet another weird-ass message through the Cop Car Clash help function when I got home.

  6

  Chad

  My day had been pretty fucking shitty so far—literally since our last collar had crapped his pants in the back of our squad car. Thank fuck it’d been towards the end of our shift, and we were finally done. With the text Charlotte just sent me, it looked like it wasn’t going to get any better, either.

  Charlotte: Something came up at work, and I won’t be able to meet you at dinner. I’m sorry!

  Me: Let me know if you get it wrapped up earlier than expected, and I’ll bring carry-out to your place.

  Charlotte: Will do! You’re the best.

  Me: What can I say? I can’t let you starve.

  And it wasn’t like I didn’t have ulterior motives since it would mean that I still got to see her tonight. We’d only made our plans earlier that afternoon, but I’d been looking forward to it ever since then. It hadn’t been enough time to plan anything special since I’d been in the middle of a shift, but I figured that could wait until the weekend when we had more time.

  “And once I figure out what the hell we should do,” I mumbled to myself, pulling up the site for the Empire State Building again to double-check the hours for the observation deck.

  “Dude,” Luke grumbled, bumping into my shoulder. “Say it ain’t so.”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “That.” He pointed at the screen of my phone. “What’d you do? Pull up an article on the most romantic dates possible and pick the cheesiest suggestion?”

  Heat tinged my cheeks because that’s exactly what I’d done; the first part anyway. And there hadn’t been much for me to pick from on the list of ten ideas because we’d done more than half of them already. Ice skating, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting, museums, dinner and a movie, sledding—been there, done that. I needed something special, and indoor rock climbing wasn’t going to cut it. “Like you’ve got any better ideas.”

  “You’re really going to take her to the Empire State Building for a date?”

  “Yes. Maybe. I don’t know.” I shrugged. “The thing is; I want to do something special with her this weekend. And yeah, I pulled up a stupid list on the internet for ideas and the Empire State Building jumped out at me because she couldn’t stop talking about some chick flick she watched with her mom when we were kids. She went on and on about how romantic it was when the couple met up at the Observation Deck at the end of the movie. The second I saw it on that damn list, it made me think of how much she liked that movie.”

  “You’re turning into a pussy. It’s because you haven’t banged her yet, isn’t it?”

  I punched him in the arm, not bothering to hold back at all like I normally would if we were messing around with each other. “Don’t fucking talk about her like that. She’s my girlfriend, not one of your meaningless one-night stands.”

  “Sorry, man. Didn’t mean any offense.” He held his hands up and took a step back. “But if you want to get laid, you should just take her to that sex museum instead. Or a burlesque show. Skip the sentimental crap and take her somewhere sexy to get her in the mood, if you know what I mean.”

  “I told you—”

  My threat was cut off by our captain opening the door to the locker room, peeking his head inside and calling my name. “Tomlinson. My office. Now.”

  “What the fuck did you do?” Luke hissed when the door shut again.

  “No idea.” I slammed my locker shut. “But whatever it is, it’s not like you have room to complain after your stunt with his niece.”

  “Damn, I thought you’d let that go since I was indirectly responsible for you meeting up with your girlfriend again. You would never have bump
ed into her at Target if I hadn’t gotten us on the Captain’s shit list, remember?”

  “Maybe,” I conceded. “But I would’ve found her later. No doubt about it.”

  I heard the rumble of his response as I walked out of the locker room, but it wasn’t loud enough for me to make out what he said. Not that it mattered. I’m sure it was along the lines of me owing him my undying gratitude. Luke talked a lot of shit, but I let it slide because he was my partner and I knew if shit went down, he’d have my back. He came off as a douche to some, but I’d gotten to know him well enough to understand that it was a front he put up. Deep down he was a good guy.

  Very deep down, I thought to myself as I walked into the Captain’s office and saw his scowl. I really hoped this wasn’t related to what’d happened between Luke and his niece.

  “You needed to see me, Sir?”

  “Come in and close the door behind you.”

  I mentally braced myself for bad news as I did as he ordered and stood in front of his desk, but in no way was I prepared for what he had to tell me.

  “I’m not one to deal in gossip, but I’ve heard talk around the precinct that you’re seeing the gal who created Cop Car Clash. Is that right?”

  “Yes, Sir,” I answered warily.

  “Charlotte Manning?”

  “Yeah.”

  He gestured towards one of the chairs behind me. “You’re going to want to sit down for this, son.”

  I dropped onto one of the seats. “What happened? Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine,” he reassured me. “But one of my neighbors is a professor at NYU. He stopped in today to ask me about a situation regarding one of his former students. Said the girl was brilliant. Developed a game that’s been selling well as an app, and the big guys have started sniffing around wanting to make a deal to carry the game on their platform.”

  “She told me all of that already. I’ve played the game myself, and it’s as awesome as her professor told you. She’s really excited about being able to get it into more people’s hands.” I leaned forward, balancing my elbows on my knees as I stared at my captain. “But I don’t see why any of that would worry your neighbor so much that he’d stop in to talk to you about it.”

  “Did she mention any of the threatening messages she’s been getting?”

  “Threatening messages?” I growled, jumping out of my seat to prowl the floor of his office.

  “That’s what I thought,” he sighed. “My neighbor said she didn’t seem too worried about it. She mentioned it to him today when they met so she could ask for some advice when it came to negotiating her deal.”

  I ran a hand through my hair, trying to remain calm but not doing well at it. “Why’d she go to this guy about it when she could’ve come to me?”

  “He said that the only reason she even brought it up with him was to see if she needed to divulge that information during negotiations. He asked to see the messages and didn’t like what they said. So he put her off about the deal stuff and told her they’d have to catch up again this evening to go over it.”

  “That’s why she couldn’t meet me for dinner,” I muttered.

  “He wanted my advice on how she should proceed before he saw her again,” he continued.

  “What’d you tell him?”

  “The same thing I’m gonna tell you—there isn’t much that she can do about it beyond filing a report. Unless this guy escalates and does something we can charge him with, there’s nothing we can do for her.”

  I stalked towards his desk and slammed my hands down. “That’s not good enough, Captain. She’s my girlfriend. I can just sit around with my thumb up my ass if she’s in danger.”

  He stood up, narrowing his eyes at me. “I’m going to let your outburst slide, just this one time because I know what it’s like to be worried about your woman. But you need to keep a lid on it because getting pissed off isn’t going to do anything to keep her safe.”

  “Understood, Sir.” I reached out and shook his hand. When I turned and walked out of his office, I did so grumbling under my breath, “I might not be able to do anything as a cop to help her, but you can be damn sure I’ll figure something out as her boyfriend.”

  7

  Charlotte

  “Thanks for the advice,” I told my former professor and faculty advisor.

  He gave me a stern look. “Promise me that you’ll listen to all of it, Charlotte. Not just the parts about negotiating your deal.”

  “I will. I swear.” And I meant it. I hadn’t been worried about the messages I’d been receiving because I thought it was just something most female game designers went through. I’d heard stories about it all through college and assumed it was something I’d go through eventually. The gaming industry has been male-dominated for a long time, and guys tended to think of it as their turf. I knew that going in, and figured this was just my first test. Besides which, it wasn’t as though the messages were even that scary. But my professor seemed to think it was something that I should take more seriously, so I was going to talk to Chad about it tonight.

  Me: Got done earlier than expected. Meet at my place?

  Chad: On my way.

  Me: Are you stopping to grab dinner, or should I?

  Chad: I will.

  “Hmm, that’s weird,” I mumbled. When we’d texted about an hour ago, his messages were funny and flirty. Just like they usually were. Not brusque to the point that they made me wonder if he was pissed about something.

  Me: Okay. See you soon.

  I was more freaked out by the possibility of a fight with Chad than I was about having to deal with whoever it was that’d been sending me the messages. I couldn’t remember a single time when we’d truly fought before—not even when we were kids. There’d been stuff we’d disagreed over, but we’d always managed to work it out without too much of a problem. And everything had been going so smoothly between us since Black Friday.

  Dating Chad came as natural to me as riding a bicycle...or ice skating since that was more apt considering I’d never liked bikes. We might not have seen each other in years, but in so many ways it was as though hardly any time had passed. Lots of his likes and dislikes hadn’t changed, and neither had mine. We knew each other’s families. Our pasts. Who we were deep down inside.

  It made it easy to fall in love with him.

  Again.

  In barely two weeks.

  It might have happened quickly, but it wasn’t puppy love like it had been when we were younger. And it most definitely wasn’t just friendship. He was the first thing I thought about in the morning, the last at night, and he filled my dreams in between. I already felt more for him than I had any other guy I’d ever dated—which is why I’d been thinking it was time to move our relationship to the next level.

  We’d only messed around so far. And we’d both enjoyed it. Immensely, judging by the number of orgasms we’d given each other. But we hadn’t taken it past oral, and I was beyond ready to know what it felt like to have Chad move inside me. So, I was going to do something completely out of character—I was going to seduce him. And being the geek that I was, I even had a plan for how I was to do it.

  “Damn. Step one is a heck of a doozy,” I mumbled as I stared at myself in the mirrored door on my closet fifteen minutes later. I’d stopped at Victoria’s Secret the day before to pick up something to wear for Chad. The black lace bra and panty set that I’d picked out were sexier than what I usually wore. I’d tried it on this morning, but then I decided to go with something more comfortable since I had a busy day, including a meeting with a professor who could have passed for my grandfather. Just the thought of wearing sexy lingerie under my clothes while talking to him left me mortified, and that wasn’t the goal for this outfit.

  “But knowing Chad’s going to be here any minute and, if all goes well, is going to see me like this? Yeah, that’s the mood I was going for,” I whispered as I tugged on a pair of jeans and a sweater. I felt like I had a dirty secret, one th
at I hoped would knock him out of whatever funk he was in that prompted him to be so short with me in his texts.

  My feet were still bare when I heard him knock on the door.

  “Here goes nothing,” I muttered as I flipped the deadbolt and opened the door.

  I didn’t even get a greeting out before Chad was in my apartment, the door shut and locked behind us, and he was dragging me into my tiny kitchen. He set the brown paper bag he’d brought with him down on the counter, and lifted me up and set me next to it.

  “Whoa!” I yelped, grabbing hold of his shoulders to steady myself. “What’s going on?”

  He leaned forward, pressing his palms down on the counter on either side of me and caging me in. “That’s what I’d like you to tell me, Charlie-bean.”

  “I don’t understand. Are you mad at me? I haven’t even seen you in two days, how could I have done something wrong?”

  “You’ve been getting threatening messages? And I had to hear about it from my captain?”

  “Oh, shit,” I mumbled, dropping my forehead against his chest. My professor had mentioned that he’d asked someone for advice about the situation. It was just my luck that it’d end up being Chad’s captain and got back to him before I had the chance to bring it up myself.

  “What the hell were you thinking, not telling me about this?”

  My head jerked up, and I cupped his chin with my palms as I stared into his eyes. “It wasn’t like that. I swear.”

  “I need more than that, Charlotte.”

  “I didn’t even think anything of it until my old faculty advisor from NYU made a big deal about it today. I was going to talk to you about it tonight over dinner and ask for your advice about what I should do since it sounded like there isn’t much the police can do to help me until whoever it is actually does something to hurt me.”

  His green eyes lit with fire. “Nobody’s going to fucking lay a finger on you, beautiful. Except for me.”