All of Me (3 page)

The
female sagged back against Nathan in a very…distracting…way.  She started
crying again.

“Come
on, now, Stell…”  Nathan instinctively loosened his grip and Stella fell into
her sister’s arms. 

Needing
to put some distance between himself and emotional/alluring perps, Nathan
turned and scaled the porch steps in two steps.  He followed the other male
officer –
Janiewski
, his nameplate said - and Danny’s stances and stood
real close to Mr. Numbnuts.  It was three officers of the law on one pushy
prick and the dude was most definitely feeling the pressure. 

His
smirk faded and his posture went limp.  “I didn’t do jack shit,” he said
weakly.  He tried stepping backwards, but Danny was already there and that was
like bumping into a brick wall.  The guy lifted his hands. “I swear to God, I
didn’t touch her sister.  We got into a fight and she came at me.  I just
pushed her away.”

“Next
time be a man and walk away with touching anyone, okay?”  Janiewski said,
stepping even closer to the guy. 

Danny
leaned in from behind and whispered, “’Cause dash cams can break or get
unplugged.  And when that happens, people can get hurt.  Bad.  And we’re not
your typical sparring partners.  We’re not little girls.”  Danny pressed his
bulky frame into the guy’s back.  “We don’t look like little girls to you, do
we?”

If
the guy had been any more afraid, he would have pissed his pants.  These
abusive shitheads were all the same: so big and tough when they were hurting
someone smaller and weaker, but the biggest wimps alive when confronted by
someone bigger and badder.

And,
for obvious reasons, they were Nathan’s absolutely least favorite wastes of
human space on the planet. 

Nathan
rested one hand on his holstered gun and placed the other on the dirtbag’s
shoulder.  He squeezed hard enough to make a point and smiled – which, anyone
who knew Nathan could tell you, meant trouble. “If I ever hear that you put
your hands on this woman’s sister – or any female – again, I’ll be back. 
Looking for you.  And I’ll be very pissed off. And you really, really don’t
want that happen, okay?”  Nathan squeezed harder and the guy flinched.    

Mr.
Big and Tough nodded and swallowed hard.  But then he made the mistake of
opening his stupid mouth.  “But she…”  He pointed a shaking finger over
Nathan’s shoulder.  “
She
came here and assaulted
me
.  Aren’t you
going to do something about that?”

“Yeah,
Officer Drazek, aren’t we going something about that?”  Danny asked, his eyes
trained on the back of Jerk-Off’s head.

Nathan
smiled again.  “Of course, Officer MacDonough.  We’re going to tell this guy
that any man who puts his hands on someone smaller and weaker than himself –
for any reason - is a pathetic, despicable human being.  And that if he ever so
much as
thinks
about doing anything like that again, I will assure him
he will be a very, very
sorry
pathetic, despicable human being.” 
Nathan’s smile dropped.  “Now, you’re going to go into your house and we’re
going to drive away.  From now on, you’re going to be a man and keep your hands
to yourself and we’ll all live happily ever after.”  Nathan dropped his hand
and crossed his arms over his chest.  “Any questions?”

Dipshit
opened his dumb mouth again, then shut it.  Opened it, then shut it.  He looked
like a fish gasping for air.  His face turned beet red and sweat broke out
across his upper lip.  The guy was pissed, but ultimately chose to nod.

“Good.” 
Nathan gave him one more pointed look before walking away. 

He
reached the bottom step, looked up, and stopped in his tracks.

She
was a mess standing next to the female officer: the wind still
whipping her dark, wavy hair wildly around her face, her v-neck top askew, and
her face flushed and tear-stained. 

From 32 years of
being himself, Nathan knew the woman couldn’t possibly tell what he was
thinking. 

Thank God.

Because what he
was thinking was that this woman, Stella, was without a doubt the most
beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

Not cute.  Not
attractive.  Not drop-dead gorgeous and not good-looking.

Truth was, she was
all those things, but mostly she was
beautiful
.  And fascinating in an
exotic, ethnic sort of way that had always appealed to him.

It
was dark, but the moon was full and Nathan blamed it for the ethereal glow
around her wild hair.  Even in the half-darkness, Nathan could tell she had a
soft, smooth darker complexion and a smattering of freckles across the bridge
of her nose.  Her lips were parted and she had the tiniest of overbites.  Her
deep, dark eyes were rimmed with smudges of what Nathan could only assume was
makeup of some kind.  And they were staring at him; boring into him.  Nathan
fought the urge to close his eyes or turn away because her gaze was so
pleasurable it hurt.

“Thank
you, brother, for that.”  When the female officer spoke, Nathan forced himself
to meet her eyes.  He dipped his head in a nod.  She sighed, running a hand
over her spiky, dark hair.  “Our youngest sister dated this jerk for a few
months and he got grabby.”  She shot the beautiful gypsy a look.  “I told my
sister not to do anything stupid, but, as usual, she didn’t listen.”

Stella
was supposed to be kicking Eddie’s butt and/or avoiding arrest.  Instead, she
was standing here like a dummy; wondering about things she shouldn’t be and
feeling things she’d never felt before.

The
cop –
Drazek
– was hot.  No doubt about it.  Way too tall, too handsome,
with arms that were way too muscular.  And he was way too good at being all
cool and calm.  And at threatening Eddie.  His huge hands had been warm and
strong on her bare arms and his deep voice had activated every goose bump from
the nape of her neck to the backs of her calves. 

And
his appearance perfectly matched his no nonsense attitude:  old soul,
whiskey-colored eyes, a sharp Roman nose, and thin-nish lips pressed together
in a perpetual grimace.  His sandy brown hair was precisely clipped close into
a sensible, slightly cool style with a military flair, short all around with a
little spike in front that might have been a cowlick.  Stinkin’ adorable.  The
only bit of whimsy in an otherwise very serious scene.

But
unfamiliar men were not Stella’s favorite people in the world.  And unfamiliar
men who happened to be cops?  Well, that particular demographic had been
crossed over Christmas list for some time now.

Anyway,
he was probably married, which, knowing what Stella did about cops, meant he
had “beat wives” on every street too.  A guy that good-looking in that uniform
and with that strong, silent type attitude?  Stella guessed he’d already banged
half of Cleveland.  And that he’d have the other half under his belt by
Christmas.  Married or not.  But most likely married.  With kids.

What
a pig.

“No
problem,” The Other One said, busting into her bizarro musings.  “Glad we could
help.”

“Obviously
no report,” Drazek said to Nina, arms crossing back over his broad chest. 
“We’ll put a 10-15 on paper to document the call, but leave out all the
drama.” 

Stella
huffed. 

Her
sister shot her a look.  “
Stella
…”

“It’s
not
drama
, Nina!  It’s called defending your family.”  When Stella
pointed at the hot cop’s chest, his eyes narrowed.  “
You
should have let
me hit him!” 

“That
hit would have landed you in jail for the night and Carla and I don’t have the
cash to bail you out,” Nina said.  “And neither do any of your other sisters or
your father. So you should be thanking this lovely officer instead of giving
him a
malocchio
, Stell.”  Nina signaled to Jay.  “Let’s get her home.”

Stella
felt his eyes on her as Nina and Jay half-escorted, half-dragged her to the
patrol car.  Nina did the whole
guide-the-perp’s-head-into-the-car-so-we-don’t-get-sued-maneuver
and off they went.

Stella
didn’t hear any of it:  Nina’s chastisements, Jason intervening on her behalf,
or the whir of the warm wind flowing through the cruiser’s windows.  She was
way too amped up. 

She’d
tried to behave, she really had.  Stella had gone to work and done an admirable
job of remaining focused despite her agitation until about 10:30 pm when Fi had
called her on her cell.  That’s when Stella had found out that “putting his
hands on her” meant Eddie shoved Fi hard enough that she had fallen and scraped
up her hands and right leg.  Stella had gone ballistic; getting Christopher to
cover her patients, jumping into her car, and high-tailing it over to Eddie’s
house (thank you, Google).  The only mistake Stella made was calling Nina for
“back up.” 

Yeah,
that had been an error.  Next time, I’ll work alone.

Nina
and Jay had arrived right after Eddie called the cops from behind the safety of
his screen door.  But Stella wasn’t sure what would have happened had Nina not
showed up because Eddie had been really pissed and they already all knew his
affinity for hurting women.  Not that Stella couldn’t have held her own.  In
fact, with how pissed she’d been, she probably would have won that particular
match.  But Nina and Jason had shown up, ruining any butt-kicking possibilities.

Not
to mention the appearance of those two Cleveland cops. 

Somehow
Stella managed to make it through the ride home and into her bed within 30
minutes.  She thrashed around for a bit, making a mental list of the people she
needed to talk to and the stuff she needed to do. 

But
mostly she thought about a certain stern cop and how she hoped his wife found
out about his girlfriends before she wasted any more of her good years on his
sorry ass.

Chapter
Three

He touched her
there
. 
Because when you were having sex with a woman that’s where you were supposed to
touch her.  She seemed okay with it.  She didn’t say anything or make any
noises indicating otherwise. 

Although she
didn’t say anything or make any noises indicating she’d liked it, so maybe I
should stop.

Nathan moved his
hand to the more neutral hip area and waited.  Still no response.  Figuring the
hip area was as good a place as any, he tried concentrating on the intercourse
he was about to have. 

They were in her
west Cleveland apartment in her boxy, peg-legged black bed, lying on top of a
hospital-cornered bold-striped sheet set.  Her tidy bedroom was as silent as
death and as cold and dark as a tomb.

Why the
fuck
am I making so many dying analogies right now?  I’m supposed to be having
fun
. 
Jesus Christ…

Nathan gritted his
teeth as she touched him
there
.  Hesitantly.  Gently.  Way too gently. 
As if she wasn’t sure if it was going to fight back or not.  She moved her hand
up and down. 

It was jerky and
not at all the stuff of even the most basic love scene, but then again, his performance
wasn’t either.  And this had nothing to do with love.

Despite his morbid
internal musings, self-loathing, and overall awkwardness, Nathan knew he could
pull this off.  He’d done it before and he’d do it again because even robots
had needs.  Yes, they were fewer and of a lower standard than normal men made
of flesh and bone, but they had them all the same.  And those pathetic needs
were to blame for the innumerable blind dates and awkward hook-ups Nathan (and
his partners) had endured over the years.  He’d spent a few years trudging
through his fair share of “Badge Bunnies” because they were easy to land and
easy to get rid of.  Women who chase cops aren’t looking to marry them or even
have a relationship.  They want to fuck cops because they get off on the
authority dynamic.  And because they think cops are into sexual gun play and
kinky handcuffing.

But irresponsible
gun ownership and usage of city property for personal sexual satisfaction were
not within Nathan’s comfort zone and he’d been forced to dash a good amount of
hopes.  He’d hated to disappoint, but rules were rules and right was right.

It had been those
disastrous interactions that led Nathan to enter into this stilted relationship
with Christy.  Their courtship had been fast-tracked since Danny was (as he’d
put it) “fuck buddies” with Christy’s roommate, Leila.  Nathan and Christy had
spent a handful of long afternoons/evenings avoiding eye contact with each
other at various restaurants, bars, and social events until Danny had finally proposed
they double date.  Eye contact had been established, polite conversation had
been made, and a mutual liking for order, structure, and stability was
discovered.  All a recipe for a steady, uncomplicated, and maybe even enjoyable
relationship – Nathan’s
only
relationship other than his friendship with
Danny.

Unfortunately,
time with Christy seemed to be having an opposite-of-enjoyable effect on
Nathan.  Every time they were together, odd, intense feelings of what he could
only describe as despondency and agitation rattled his brain and paralyzed his
body.

He’d had the
feelings before.  In fact, he had them every time he was physically close to
another human being, especially women.  But this was different.  They were
getting worse.  The isolation and goddamned loneliness he felt when his skin
touched Christy’s nearly choked him.