Page 62 of Enemies with Benefits

Kayden grinned, taking on a pose. "You going to actually talk to me or stand there and stare at all this magnificence?"

Of course, he decided he needed to punctuate his words by slapping his ass and making it jiggle. Thankfully, I didn't jerk my eyes away because Jesus, even if I was becoming more aware of my attraction tosomemen, he was a goddamn idiot, and that cancelled out everything.

"You're an idiot," I told him as I buttoned my shirt. "No one is staring at anything of yours. Especially in that stripper underwear."

"You say that, but I've had plenty of compliments."

"When? The last time I heard someone say something nice about them, it was Perry. And that was when he was being gross about it."

"Ha, and watching you threaten him was great."

I rolled my eyes as he continued dressing. “Still can't believe he reported me for being homophobic."

It hadn't been about homophobia, it was how absolutely gross he had been. Telling the guy I'd break his fingers if he said anything like that again had been perfectly reasonable, as I'd told the captain later when I'd been pulled into the office. I'd pointed out that if any other officer had talked about a female officer, that if they kept wearing clothes like that, they'd be tempted to take them out for drinks until they were drunk enough to let them plow that ass six ways to Sunday, then that cop would have been in deep shit for sexual harassment. Saying that shit to another guy didn't make it okay, and Kayden might have tried to play it off, but I could tell he was uncomfortable.

"Eh," Kayden grunted as he pulled on his jeans. "I mean, it would have been one thing if he had just said 'nice ass, ' I'll give you that. It's a pretty nice ass."

It was, but. “When it comes to attention, you're bisexual."

He laughed as he yanked on a shirt. “It's the twenty-first century. If a guy wants to show me a bit of attention, who am I to argue? It's not going in the spank bank, but if a guy is willing to risk some homophobia thrown in their face because they find methathot that they can't not say something? That's a compliment."

"I hate you," I grumbled as I closed the locker.

"Because I'm making sense?"

"Fuck you."

"You'll have to treat me to dinner first."

I sighed. “I think I'll leave that to Moira."

There was a moment of silence before he cleared his throat roughly, his tone soft and a little wary. “How did you?—?"

I looked up, surprised to see him watching me carefully. "What?"

He shifted uncomfortably, sitting down to pull his shoes on. "Moira. What you just said."

I blinked in confusion. "What about it? You two have been spending time around one another a lot, and I haven't seen you try to sleep with her once."

"Um, okay?"

"Which you only do when you're into someone. Plus, she keeps laughing at the stupidest shit that comes out of your mouth, even when she's rolling her eyes. She's not the type to waste laughter on someone unless she's into them. You two have been flirting nonstop."

"Uh," he cleared his throat again, staring down at his feet despite having both shoes on. "About that?—"

I couldn't see his face, but I would bet from his tone that he was wincing. It took me a moment, and then I grunted. “You have slept with her."

Now he did look up with a wince. “It's only happened a few times, and it only started recently, and I?—"

I stared at him in confusion as he stood up, at a rare loss for words. As we left the locker room and made it out of the precinct to the street, I understood what his problem was. "Wait, are you worried that I'm going to be pissed?"

"I mean," he began in exasperation. "I know what she is to you."

"What shewas," I corrected instantly. "We dated, and yeah, I was in love with her, but I don't feel like that. We broke up for areason, Kayden, and those reasons didn't magically change over the years. And they definitely didn't change because she decided to hide from me that I had a fucking kid."

"Still pissed about that, huh?"

"You're goddamn right. And when I figure out how to stop being mad, then maybe I'll figure out how to make peace with it. But I haven't been able to, so I'm going to be pissed about it for a while longer. Why, you planning on defending her?"