Knockout! A Passionate Police Romance by Emma Calin Read Free Book Online Page B

told her.
    “And your father?” She asked.
    He hesitated a little.
    “Well, it wasn’t a perfect match - he is a poor university teacher you know, but he never...”
    “Never?” She prompted.
    “Never wanted a boxer for a son. He is a serious poet, what you call an intellectual.”
    “Not even with your fame and success?”
    “Especially not those things.” He said sadly.
    She reached across the table for his hand. He returned her squeeze.
    “Too bad,” he shrugged, “I cannot say that my mother wanted it - but it has brought so many things - obviously money, respect and freedom.”
    Once again the weight of her big lie sat like a stone in her heart. He was talking so openly about his life and she could not return the same. She would tell him now!
    The message alert of her mobile dragged her attention away. She apologized and pulled it out of her bag. It was a short report from the London bureau of Interpol. “Note your interest in La Salle. Asian sources report huge money going on Brennan to win. Looks like something is cooking up around this fight. Have a nice week-end.”
    Inwardly she nailed down her responses. She looked at him, wondering what he knew. Her best way of finding out was to hang in there - but how could she? Why didn’t she simply ask him? He was looking at her with a slightly raised questioning eyebrow.
    “The boat business - or something romantic?” He probed.
    “No, of course nothing like that. It’s my father.”
    “Ah, you have arranged the sea trial.”
    “Yes”, she lied, slipping further down the slope of deceit, but grateful to get off the ropes.
    “When could you be available?”
    “I am in France all week and then I must fly to California for training.”
    “Isn’t the fight in New York?”
    “Yes, but my mother is in Monterey.” He said, nodding ruefully.
    “So, I will fix a day at the end of the week and call you.”
    “OK,” he beamed, “so we will meet again.”
    “We have not said Good night,” she replied with a knowing glance.
    He grinned. Small wrinkles were beginning to deepen at the corners of his eyes. Looking at him left her melted. She tried to focus on the significance of the message. Freddie was on the radar of her enquiry. Inspecteur Du Maurier had logged her interest in his file and now she was professionally linked to him. If she had to investigate him she could hardly do it as his lover. She couldn’t trick her way into his heart or compromise her career by having an affair with a suspect. She ought to tell him and leave - but lose the chance of a major advance in the case. She could work to show his innocence just as well as his guilt.
    “We could go dancing.” He suggested tenderly.
    She looked back into his eyes.
    “Can’t I keep you just to myself?” She replied, realizing she was being blatant and shameless. Despite herself she was slipping further and further beyond an invisible line. He still didn’t know where she lived. She could change her mobile number in the morning. Like a fool she had told him she sold boats and was linked to Leyton Marine. She could never have known that her work would involve him. In the back of her mind she realized that he was in danger both from crooks and in the ring. Now she had lied about the message from her father and was committed to a sea trial on a Nereus 74 in a week’s time.
    She swallowed the last of her wine and with it everything that swirled around her. She - they - had tonight and if there were never another night in the world, she had until morning to fulfill something she knew was her destiny.
    She watched the other diners, wondering how their affairs intertwined. There would be few with such a complex lives. He took her hand across the table. His touch thrilled and electrified her body, merging her emotions with a physical longing.
    “I saw you and the world was a different place.” He said in a slow deliberate deep tone.
    Her eyes were locked with his, both of them searching within