Tipsy (2 page)

Forget being quiet. I couldn’t do it. I
opened my lips to give him a less-than-polite answer and turned my
head.

Every single word fled my brain. I mean
my vocabulary literally ran away. I couldn’t even blame them. There
was no word that could compete with such a face.

His eyes were such a deep blue that
they held me captive in a single glance. He had a masculine and
angular face, with a straight nose, full lips, and a cleft in the
center of his chin. He was clean shaven and smelled so good that I
actually leaned closer.

Who in the hell actually leaned closer
to an officer who wanted to give her a speeding ticket?

He was lean but not too thin, tall, and
did his uniform justice. I was a little embarrassed to admit the
gun strapped to his hip turned me on.

And then I saw the
handcuffs.

I didn’t know I was a dirty ho until
that moment. I imagined all kinds of inappropriate things involving
those handcuffs.

He took off his hat and ran his hand
through his hair. “Ma’am?”

I glanced at him, once again struck by
his eyes. I felt the need to lean even closer, but I stopped
myself.

“
What?” I said, the word
coming out a little harsher than I intended.

I swear he stifled a smile. “You were
speeding…” he said, trailing away.

I couldn’t stop staring at the little
dent in his chin. My tongue would fit in it perfectly. I cleared my
throat. “I’m late for work.”

The statement brought me back to
reality. “Shit!” I yelled, hitting the steering wheel. “I’m late
for work.”

I winced and turned back to him. “Are
you going to arrest me now?”

He laughed. He actually threw his head
back and laughed.

God, he was sexy.

“
Where do you
work?”

“
Right up the street at
Razor’s Edge.”

“
You make a habit out of
speeding through an intersection?”

I made a frustrated sound. “Only on
days I don’t get my coffee, have to get out of bed at ungodly hours
and…” Oh, crap, there I went again. I looked at him meekly.
“No?”

“
No coffee, huh?”

“
No,” I grumped.

He sighed and straightened. He pulled a
pad out of his pocket and then proceeded to write on it. I wondered
how much this was going to cost me.

A minute later, he handed back my ID
and registration. I put them away and turned back to collect my
sentence.

He was putting the notepad back in his
pocket.

“
Isn’t that for
me?”

He leaned back down in the window,
bracing his forearms on the side of the car. “Nope. It’s for
me.”

I felt my forehead crease. “I know I’m
not properly caffeinated, but don’t people who speed usually get
tickets?”

“
Usually,” he
agreed.

I lifted my eyebrows. I was back to
being mute. He was incredibly close.

“
I’m going to let you off
with a warning this time.”

I made a sound that might have come
across as an agreement.

He grinned. “On one
condition.”

I scowled. “I read an
article about this once. Officers of the law letting people go in
exchange for…
favors
.”

He chuckled. “Is that so?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m
not that kind of a girl, Officer Shady.”

He lifted an eyebrow and I
felt my cheeks heat.
That’s good, Julie.
Insult a cop.

“
Are you the kind of girl
who would go on a date with a shady police officer?”

My hands broke out in a clammy sweat.
Did he just ask me out? “That depends,” I said saucily.

What the hell is wrong with
me this morning?

The rate my day was going, I was going
to shave off someone’s eyebrow and turn their hair
green.

“
On?”

“
How many times this
admitted shady cop has pulled women over to ask them out on
dates.”

He flashed a smile and my heart
stuttered. “Never.”

I wasn’t sure I believed that, but I
wanted to. “If I agree, will you let me go to work?”

“
Yep.”

“
Okay, then.”

He smiled again and straightened,
putting on his hat. “Watch your speed,” he said, tapping the side
of my door with his fingers.

“
Don’t you want my
number?”

He leaned down once more. “Already got
it. What do you think I was writing down?”

“
I’m pretty sure that’s
abuse of your job.”

He chuckled. “You gonna call my boss
and rat me out?”

Hell no, I wasn’t. “Maybe.”

“
I don’t think so,” he said
softly.

“
What makes you so
sure?”

“
Because, Julie,” he
drawled, and I swear my name on his lips made me lightheaded. “You
want to go out with me.”

I did. But I wasn’t going to tell him
that. He was already suffering from an oversized ego. “You going
tell me your name?”

“
Blue,” he said, stepping
back from my car.

I’d never heard that name before. But
considering the pull of his eyes, I understood it.

“
Well, Blue, I guess I’ll
see ya when I see ya.”

“
Oh, you’ll see me. Tonight.
I’ll pick you up at six.”

Tonight? He worked fast. Maybe he
should get a speeding ticket.

I waited until he was in his cruiser
before I pulled out onto the road. He pulled out behind me and
followed my car the entire way to the salon. When I pulled in the
lot, he kept going and I blew out a nervous breath.

I needed to revise my earlier
statement. It was no longer the morning from hell.

For once, I was actually glad I got my
ass of bed.

1

Julie

Several months
later…

The guy that never called? I was
staring at him. How unfortunate for him I was holding
scissors.

I thought for sure the minute he laid
eyes on me and my potential weapon, he would turn tail and run. He
wasn’t very smart, which he proved when he never called (clearly,
his loss) and then again when instead of walking away, he came
closer.

He smiled as if flashing his perfectly
straight, white teeth would make me swoon.

My days of swooning over him were
over.

Candy, the flighty receptionist, wasn’t
immune to his oozing good looks, casual charm, and smooth-talking
self. She all but drooled when she waved her hand in my
direction.

I narrowed my eyes when he lazily
strolled over to me, his hips rotating as he kicked out his
jean-clad thighs and his worn T-shirt brushed against the
low-riding waistband. He didn’t say anything as he lowered himself
in the black swivel chair in front of me.

“
What do you want?” I
snapped when he only stared at me with his deep blue eyes through
the mirror.

He looked pointedly at the scissors in
my hand. “A haircut,” he said like it was obvious, flashing that
grin again. “That is what you do, isn’t it?”

I thought about stabbing him. Like
seriously stabbing him.

I snapped the gum I wasn’t supposed to
be chewing and smiled. I had to behave; management was watching. I
couldn’t afford to be seen disrespecting a law enforcement
officer.

“
Where’s your uniform?” I
asked, arching a perfectly waxed brow at him.

He gave me a sly smile. “Left it at
home. Didn’t want to give any of the ladies here heart failure
today.”

Then he winked.

Dammit. It was sexy.

I rolled my eyes, refusing to
acknowledge the fact that he was indeed a hot bad boy who was
actually good. I turned my back and reached toward the hook and
pulled off a fuscia cape to drape around his neck.

“
Pink?” he said, lifting a
brow.

“
I spilled something all
over my black one. Oops! If you want to go somewhere else, I
totally understand.”

He smirked. “Nope. I’m already
here.”

I fastened the Velcro a little tighter
around his neck than need be. He lifted a brow again, and I
shrugged. “Wouldn’t want you to get all hairy.” I batted my
lashes.

He snorted.

I expelled a quiet breath and silently
told myself to get it together. He was a client. He needed a
haircut. It would be over in ten minutes and then he’d
leave.

I didn’t want to touch him.

I had to.

Instead of getting right to work, I
forced my eyes up and looked at his reflection in the large mirror
hanging over my workstation. His brown hair had grown longer since
our one and only date. It was shaggy and hung over his ears and
forehead. The back brushed against the cape.

The last I saw him, it was shorter. Cut
around his ears, short on the sides, and a little length on the
top, which he mostly wore messy (no doubt because he didn’t bother
combing it).

I rested my palms on the back of the
chair. “So what’s up with your hair?”

“
I haven’t had the chance to
get it cut in a while,” he said, keeping those deep azure eyes
trained on me through the mirror. “Do you remember how it looked
before?”

“
No.” I lied. Gheesh, he had
a big ego.

He pursed his lips and studied me. I’m
sure he knew I was lying. I wondered if he would call me out.
“Guess I’m not that memorable,” was his reply.

I lifted one shoulder in a half shrug.
The gum in my mouth felt like a piece of cement all of the sudden
and my jaw ached every time I chewed. I stepped around the chair
and reached for a tissue, discreetly spitting out the gum and
throwing it away. Then I reached for the clippers and plugged them
in, resting then in front of the mirror.

“
Short on the sides, a
little longer on the top,” he instructed.

I grabbed a clean black comb and my
sheers and took my place behind the chair.

One, two, three…
I counted and then pushed my fingers into his
hair.

It was soft and a little unruly. It was
thick so it instantly covered my hands, hiding them from
sight.

I hope I can’t find
them.
The thought made me jerk and the tip
of the sheers caught on his hair and pulled.

“
Sorry,” I said, clearing my
throat, and pulled my hands away.

After that I tried not to think about
who was sitting here. I tried to only focus on the hair.

That lasted about five seconds. How was
a girl supposed to be so close to a man who literally made her
heart race and not be affected?

After I combed the hair and checked its
length, I decided to remove some of the bulk with the scissors.
“I’m going to cut your hair dry today,” I told him. “Using the
clippers on wet hair doesn’t work that well.”

“
Do your thing,” he
drawled.

I ignored the little flippy
feeling in my stomach and got to work, removing some of the
shagginess at the base of his neck and around his ears. He smelled
so good that it was almost distracting. A clean scent with a hint
of spice. It was an older scent, one that had been around for a
long time, but it was my favorite.
Old
Spice.
It was all man and it taunted my
senses as I worked.

He didn’t speak when I set down the
scissors and picked up the clippers and snapped on one of the
guards. I spun his chair around so our backs were to the mirror,
and I breathed a sigh of relief. His eyes were so gorgeous and I
had felt them on me the whole time I worked.

I moved quickly and confidently,
trimming the hair close to the base of his neck and up around his
ears. I did a low, gradual fade to the top, leaving it long and not
quite faded all the way. I would clean it all up with the
sheers.

After I was done with the clippers, I
spun him back around and our eyes collided in the mirror. His new
shorter hair drew attention to his square jaw and the stubble that
grew there. When we went out, he was clean-shaven.

In fact, he seemed a little worn all
around. He was still sexy as hell, but there was something about
him that seemed… tired.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was
asking him about himself. “How have you been?”

“
Busy.”

Too busy to call,
I thought bitterly.

“
How about you?”

“
Fine,” I said, giving the
same generic answer I always gave when someone asked me about
myself.

As I cut the top of his hair, I leaned
into him. Every so often I would brush up against the side of his
arm or his shoulder. My body tingled with awareness and never
before had I ever felt like cutting someone’s hair was so…
intimate.