Page 3 of Protect and Serve

He stopped by her window and stared at her for a long moment before handing her papers back. “I see this isn’t your first rodeo, Miss Silver.”

Yeah. Shit.

“I’ve had…a few tickets.”

“Six in the last six months. You realize you are coming very close to losing your license for reckless driving?”

“I’m not reckless. I promise.”

“You are a repeat offender. I’m within my rights to take you in.”

Her heart lurched. Well hell. This had never happened before. “Take me in? In where?”

“Jail.”

She boggled. Actually boggled. Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped and she stared at him like a tarsier. “J-jail?”

He let her stew for far too long before he relented. “But I won’t. I do, however have to give you a ticket.”

She batted her lashes. Sometimes that worked. “Please? Can you let me go with a warning?” She even tried a smile.

He didn’t budge. “A warning? What kind of warning?”

“You know… Please don’t speed again?”

He snorted something that might have been a laugh. “I think you’ve had plenty of warnings.”

Seriously? No one had ever given her a warning. They went straight to Ticket Land. She batted her lashes again. Hopefully he wouldn’t think she was having a seizure.

And he didn’t. He leaned closer. Close enough that she could smell his delicious breath, feel his heat, see her own reflection in his stupid glasses, and he whispered, “That didn’t work in high school, Claire, and it’s not going to work now.”

Her pulse stuttered. Wait. What?

Did she know this man? How could she know this man and not know she knew this man?

Her gaze flicked down to his nametag. Dunham. Dunham? Had she known a—

It hit her like a wave, hard and fast and spinning her around in a breath-stealing froth. Shit. This was Charlie Dunham? She flicked a look at his shoulders, his broad chest, the biceps bulging from the short sleeves of his uniform. It couldn’t be Charlie Dunham. The scrawny boy who’d followed her brother Cody around like he was God? The boy who’d pulled her pigtails and had once stolen her clothes when she’d been skinny-dipping in the lake?

“Charlie?” she had to ask.

His lips kicked up into a smirk. Now that she remembered.

Then he ripped the ticket off his pad and handed it to her. She took it with numb fingers. “Try to watch your speed, Miss Silver,” he said in an annoyingly officious tone. “Oh, and say hello to Cody for me. Now that I’m back in town, he and I need to get together for a drink.” With that, and a mocking salute, he spun on his heel and walked back to his cruiser, leaving Claire stunned and silent in her car.

Charlie Dunham was back in town. And daham, he was hot.

Chapter Two

Claire Silver.

Shit. Of all people to pull over the first day on duty at his new assignment.

It had brought his past back with a vengeance. And still, even now, she made him feel like that awkward skinny kid who’d lusted after her in high school. She was, and always would be, his unattainable dream.

Claire had been a beauty, even as a girl, but she’d been way out of his league and he’d known it. As a kid, he’d had to satisfy himself with annoying her as much as he could. Stupid stuff, like short-sheeting her bed when their families went to the lodge together, hiding alarm clocks in her room to wake her up every hour on the hour, stealing her clothes when he caught her skinny-dipping…

His mind stalled on that memory.