HOT
MESS 2
AVAILABLE NOW!
As
a lieutenant on the city's elite SWAT team, I had a job I loved. I
lived in a beautiful penthouse apartment overlooking the city park. And the
love of my life spent every night in my arms. My life was pretty damn good.
Which
was why I was not thrilled that someone was fucking with it.
Someone
should have told me I was the comic relief. I would have prepared better for it
or at least remembered to wear underwear. Tonight was the one year anniversary
of the night Sal and I met. It was special. I was going to propose. It would
have been a whole lot easier to propose if the man I wanted to propose to was
actually there. Tonight was supposed to be perfect.
Which
was why I was not thrilled that someone was fucking with it.
STORY
EXCERPT
My life was pretty damn good. As a lieutenant on the
city's elite Special Weapons
And Tactics unit, I had a job I loved. I lived in a beautiful
penthouse apartment overlooking the city park. And the love of my life spent
every night in my arms.
If my life was good, the love of my life was perfect.
Lancaster Harris III—or Lany as I preferred to call
him—was everything I had ever wanted in this life and the next. His sweet laugh
and easy smile, the way he was always so happy to see me, even the lower lip
that slid out when he went into a pout.
I found it all adorable.
From the moment I spotted him walking into a bar almost
a year ago, I knew he was going to change my life forever, and I was right. I
had never been happier or more satisfied.
Which was why I was not thrilled that my boss was
fucking with it.
I glared holes in the man. "You seriously can't
expect me not to say anything to Lany."
Police commissioner or not, the man was insane.
"Lt. Delvecchio, you need to understand the
magnitude of this situation."
I turned to look at the man in the gray suit. He was
just as crazy as my boss.
"Your...uh...partner"—The guy seemed really
uncomfortable with that word—"can't know anything about this
assignment."
"Then what in the hell do you expect me to tell
him?" I snapped because the mere thought of hiding something from Lany
made my stomach roll. "Sorry, honey, I won't be home for dinner tonight,
but don't worry. It's nothing."
"That could work," the man insisted as he
pushed his wire rimmed glasses up his face.
I narrowed my eyes. "You were a detective before
you went to work for IAD?"
I was having my doubts.
"I was," the man replied almost defensively,
as if had to defend himself before. "I worked vice for three years and
homicide for another four before going to work for the Internal Affairs
Division."
Hooray for him.
"Are you married?"
The man's brow furrowed. "What—"
"Are. You. Married?"
The question was simple, had a yes or no answer.
"Yes." He still looked confused.
"Then you should know hiding anything from your
partner is a very bad idea."
I liked it when Lany was happy with me. In fact, I
preferred it that way. All sorts of wonderful things happened when there was a
smile on Lany's face and a sparkle in his amber-green eyes.
And not all of them were sexual.
Yes, Lany was so incredibly beautiful that he made my
teeth ache. I pretty much started thinking about ways to get him naked the
moment I saw him every day. I couldn't even begin to count the number of nights
we spent curled on the couch together, naked, cuddling.
It was actually one of my favorite weekend activities.
I'd watch some sports game while Lany curled into me, reading away on his
Kindle. Once the game was over, we'd watch movies together. Sometimes, we
skipped the movies and just sat and talked until the desire that seemed to
always burn between us ignited.
The one thing Lany and I had between us was honesty,
and I wasn't about to jeopardize my relationship because they wanted me to go
on some stupid undercover op. I cared too much for Lany to ever lie to him.
"Look, Lt." Inspector Owen Jones pulled at
his tie. Sal could see beads of sweat on his upper lip. The nervousness on the
guy was almost tangible. "We need you to do this. The department needs you
to do this."
"Why me?" I crossed my arms over my chest as
I regarded the two men trying to convince me to go on this mission. "I'm a
cop. I've always been a cop. Whoever you are after is going to know that."
"We understand that, Lt. Delvecchio,"
Commissioner Jerrod Harris said. "That's why you're perfect for this
operation."
I always found it interesting that Police Commissioner
Harris was so professional at work, and such a laid back guy at home. The guy
was not only my boss, he was Lany's uncle. Here, he called me Delvecchio or Lt.
Delvecchio and expected me to address him as Commissioner Harris or sir. Away
from work, he called me Sal and I called him Jerry.
We never mixed the two up.
"You've never hidden your relationship with my
nephew," the man continued.
"Why would I?" I snapped, my anger coming
quick. "Anyone lucky enough to have Lany in their lives would shout it
from the rooftops.
I had been the lucky one to figure that out.