Page 23 of Cuffed By Your Love

She blinked, caught off guard, but she didn’t hide the way her chest rose a little quicker. She went back to her ice cream, letting the spoon hover, letting me watch her lips wrap around it again.Her pretty ass knew what she was doing. She was testing me, pushing to see if I’d fold.

Inside, I was folding like the folks’ laundry next door at the laundromat. My thoughts were a mess: how her lips would taste, how soft her skin would feel under my palms, how her walls would come down if she just let me in.

EJ munched happily on his gummy worms, oblivious, until suddenly he piped up. “Miss Pretty, you like my daddy?”

Both of us froze.

She choked on a laugh, eyes wide. “What makes you ask that, sweetie?”

He shrugged, lips sticky with sprinkles. “’Cause you look at him like you want his ice cream.”

Jonay’s jaw dropped, and I damn near spat my drink out. “EJ!” I barked, trying to hold back my own laugh, but it slipped through anyway.

He grinned, proud of himself. “What? You do! And Daddy been staring at you the whole time like he forgot he got his own ice cream.”

Jonay hid her face behind her spoon, but not before I caught the blush creeping up her cheeks.

I leaned in, voice low and smooth. “Outta the mouths of babes, huh?”

She peeked at me, flustered but smiling, her eyes dancing with heat and embarrassment. “Your son needs to mind his business.”

“Nah,” I said, locking eyes with her. “Sometimes he just say what I can’t.”

For a beat, the whole shop faded again. The waffle cone scent, the hum of conversation, the laughter from the counter, all of it blurred. It was just her, me, and this undeniable pull that had me wanting to risk it all.

Then her phone lit up.

One word.Moonlight.

I only caught it for a split second before her thumb flipped the screen over, but the damage was done. Whatever that message said, or whoever sent it, had changed her whole aura. The playful gleam in her eyes dimmed, replaced with something sharp, raw, unsettled.

Her spoon trembled slightly in her hand, clinking against the cup. Her breathing shifted, quick and shallow, as her eyes darted toward the windows, the door, even the booths in the far corner, like she was expecting somebody to come walking through and drag the peace right out of her.

Every nerve in my body snapped to attention. My instincts as a man, as a cop, as somebody who lived through the streets, didn’t play when it came to shit like this.

“What’s wrong, gorgeous?” The words left my mouth before I even thought about them, low and protective, laced with the kind of alertness that meant I was ready to move if she needed me to.

She froze, her hand clenching into a fist around the spoon before setting it down too carefully, like she didn’t trust her own grip. Her lips parted, but the only thing that came out was a quick shake of her head. “Nothing.” The lie rolled off too quickly, too practiced.

“Jonay…” I leaned in, eyes locked on hers, trying to catch whatever she was trying so hard to bury. “Talk to me.”

But she wouldn’t. Her fingers trembled as she shoved the phone back into her hoodie pocket. She forced a smile, thin, brittle, the kind that cracked around the edges.

“I should get going,” she said abruptly, her voice pitched higher than before, legs already shifting under the table. “Thanks for letting me crash your ice cream date.”

EJ’s face fell. “But you just got here?—”

She leaned down, kissed the top of his curls, and whispered, “We’ll hang out again, Spider-Man. Promise.” Her voice cracked just slightly, enough for me to hear what she didn’t say.

Then she was gone, the silver bell over the door chiming like an alarm instead of a welcome.

I sat there staring after her, my jaw tight, my gut twisting. The sweetness of the moment was gone, replaced with something sour, something unsettled.

“Daddy?” EJ’s little voice pulled me back. He looked up at me, his brows furrowed. “Why did Miss Pretty leave so fast?”

I forced a smile that didn’t touch the weight in my chest. “She just had somethin’ to do, lil’ man.”

But inside, I was storming.