Getting Real by Vicki Lewis Thompson

Author:Vicki Lewis Thompson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2005-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

“I’M OVER IT, Sam. I’m over you.”

“That’s a shame, because I can’t say the same.”

He wasn’t surprised when Charlie looked at him like he’d sprouted a new head. In reality, he had. Not a new noggin, per se, but definitely a new brain. His old one hadn’t provided him with the sense to hold onto a woman who challenged him, excited him, pushed him beyond the limits of his admittedly conservative lifestyle and upbringing. Try as he had over the past nine years to find a lover who would fulfill his needs the way Charlie had in just a few weeks, he’d come up empty. Until fate and reality television had lent a hand.

She braced her hands on the headphones. “You’re insane,” she claimed.

“Am I?”

He switched seats, ducking to avoid banging his head on the low ceiling. He thought she might attempt to move out of his way, but in the tight confines of the helicopter, she had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. He’d already wasted a good twenty minutes of this ninety-minute trip, although, that was short in comparison to the time he’d wasted over the past nine years.

He was done waiting, done biding his time. He had her trapped in ultimate privacy, high above the ground and away from anyone who could hear them or see them. Jacey and pilot occupied the cockpit, but the coach of this particular Agusta 109C had been designed for both luxury and discretion. The seats—soft, tawny, padded leather—extended from floor to ceiling. The small window separating the pilot from the passengers was covered with a thick curtain, accessible only on their side. The headphones could be tapped into by the captain, but on their current setting, what he said to Charlie and vice-versa remained between them.

The time to make his move had come.

“Charlie, can you honestly tell me that you don’t wonder what might have happened between us had we not gotten caught by the brass and kicked out of the academy?”

Like it or not, they had to deal with the past completely—put it to rest—before they could move on to any sort of future.

“I don’t have to wonder,” she answered. “If we hadn’t been caught, you and I would both probably be detectives right now, pulling in crappy pay and working long hours on cases that test our faith in humanity.”

“And that differs from our current lives, how?”

“Well, you don’t exactly get paid in bubblegum wrappers, Sam.”

He nodded, conceding that point at least. He made great money at Foster and Bragg. “I wasn’t talking about our careers, anyway. I was talking about us.”

After a moment of careful maneuvering, Charlie crossed one leg over the other. “You never struck me as a romantic.”

He grinned ruefully. “I’ve developed a taste for the sentimental over the past few years.”

“I’d have to check out your little black book and see if that’s true.”

He dug into his jacket pocket and retrieved his PDA. With a glib smile, he tossed her his handheld computer. “You can check anything you want, but you won’t find anyone to vouch for my new romanticism in there.

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