Bending the Rules by Susan Andersen Read Free Book Online Page B

was ruthlessly banishing it even before she took a swift step back. Yeah, yeah, she had big brown eyes and creamy skin and a soft cloud of curly blond hair that he wouldn’t mind wrapping around his fists. Hell, he’d strip her down and do her against the nearest wall in a New York minute if she’d let him.
    But that wasn’t going to happen, and his shoulders hitched in a barely conscious move. Oh, well, he thought mendaciously, life was just full of disappointments. You learned that young growing up in the foster system. Or—as in his case—mostly in the system, since he hadn’t spent all his time in foster care after his mother died. Sometimes whichever male relative had been cut loose from the pen would swing by his current dwelling to spring him for a while—against Child Protective Services’ rules, of course, since the state didn’t consider any of the de Sanges men good parent material.
    CPS rarely had to mount a hunt for him, however, because it was never long before Dad or Pops or his brother Joe broke parole—and Jase would find himself delivered back into foster care about the same time the loco parentis of the hour was loaded shackled into the back of a van for a fast trip back to the slammer.
    So big deal; Blondie wasn’t going to provide him with a handy outlet for all this electricity zinging around inside of him. It wasn’t the reason he’d come here anyhow, so it was time he dragged his attention away from the subtle sheen of lavender smoothed from her lashes to the crease of her eyelids and got down to business.
    He took a step forward and felt a little spurt of satisfaction when she fell back. Eradicating that as well, he watched without expression as he backed her step for step into the short hallway of her apartment and closed the door behind them.
    “You’ve had me pulled off a crucial case to attend to what you decided is important for the last time,” he informed her in a low, even voice. “So, here’s how we’re going to work this. You want me to waste my time on this Arts For Thugs project? Fine. I have my orders from the mayor and I’ll follow them. But I’m doing this my way and I plan to watch those kids’every move. You better hope to hell they don’t screw the pooch, Ms. Calloway, because I’m going to be breathing down their necks every minute. And if they so much as spit on the sidewalk I’ll haul them in, lock them up and throw away the key.” Or not. But damned if he was giving her a single reason to suspect he might not be serious.
    “Oh, yeah, like that won’t all but guarantee that they’ll mess up!”
    He shrugged. “Not my problem.”
    “Well, guess what, Detective? I’m making it your problem.” She took a hot step forward. “I was feeling kind of bad about you being dragged away from your work, so I thank you. Your oh-so-sensitive approach to dealing with kids just knocked that clean out of my repertoire of regrets.”
    She got right in his face and he smelled clean skin, felt warm breath fan his chin. “I’ve got a flash for you, de Sanges, I have strings I haven’t even begun to pull. You think the mayor is as high up the food chain as I can go? Think again. So here’s how I say we’re going to work this. You will stay ten—no, make that fifteen—feet away from my kids. The price for you being any closer than that is your willingness to work alongside them. I expect you to be civil. And you can bring your own damn paintbrush, too!” Cheeks flushed, breathing quick and shallow, she stepped back. “Now I’d like you to leave.”
    He stared down at her and the temptation to give in to the de Sanges genes sang through his veins like a sweet narcotic. He knew ways to make her back down—ways that, without issuing an actual threat, would scare the spiral right out of those long, blond curls. All he had to do was lean down and whisper a few succinct sentences in her ear.
    Snapping shut the lips he had opened to do just that, however, he turned