Yup. Cisco’s cop-chops were showing.
Hilly scoffed, attempting a blasé response. “There’s not a lot of people who remain anonymous in such a small burg,” she countered.
“Yet, you do.” Cisco wasn’t giving up, but that wasn’t the deal.
“Uh, uh, Cisco,” she scolded. “You assured me I’d get this one-day stay-of-execution before you continue to probe, and I’m holding you to it.”
She didn’t know what that reprieve would win her exactly, but she wasn’t letting him go back on his word.
“You’re right,” he huffed, polishing off his last bite with relish.
Hilly pushed her salad around, having lost most of her appetite.
“Listen,” he continued. “I want you to feel comfortable enough that you’ll eventually tell me the reason you’re tied up in knots around me, so in that vein, keep asking me questions. I’m an open book. I’ll answer anything.”
Hilly kind of liked this game. She could fill her mental-diary with all things Cisco, then when he disappeared from her life, she’d have memories to pull out and savor.
“Fine. Why is your house so clean?” she blurted out. “I’ve never seen a bachelor pad so devoid of clutter.”
Cisco laughed. “I knew you’d pick up on that, because from what I recall of your camp, you’re pretty organized yourself.”
She snorted. “There’s organized, and there’s freaking immaculate, Cisco. I’m in the former category, but you are firmly in the latter.”
“Caught,” he grinned. “And that’s no secret among people who know me, so I’ll share.” His face grew semi-serious. “The shrinks I went to see as a kid seemed to think my mild OCD comes from a time before my parents, where I most likely lived in poverty and squalor. I can’t remember any of it, but if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Disarray causes me to become anxious. Setting things to right soothes my soul. It’s become the way I cope.” His head tipped to the right, just slightly. “Does that make you think I’m a nut-job?”
Hilly mentally reared back. Why would he believe that? Obviously, his orderliness was a coping mechanism that worked for him, and who was she to talk? Hilly was very familiar with those kinds of emotional defenses.
“Of course I don’t think you’re crazy,” she assured him. “I think it’s commendable that you live the way you do and are comfortable with it. Nobody, not one person; your friends, family, or acquaintances, should get to say how you live your life.” She ended far too vehemently for the conversation they were having, but she couldn’t help herself.
Cisco, of course, picked up on that.
“Who tried to make you feel bad about being you, Hilly?” he asked gently.
His query was her own fault for getting so steamed, but she managed to deny him a response. “No way, Cisco. You’re asking me questions again.”
“And getting no answers,” he growled back. “But I’m making a mental list, and once today is over, I’m going to ask them all again.”
“You really are relentless.” She pursed her lips and sighed. “Why is my history so important to you?”
She didn’t expect it when Cisco leaned forward over the small table; his face coming within inches from hers.
“Because I find you intriguing. In all ways. And that’s not something that happens to me very often.”
She tried to dismiss the gravity of his statement. “Meaning you normally pick up women based on their outward appearance, only?” she quipped, but with a trace amount of bitterness in her tone that she couldn’t hide.
Cisco frowned, but clarified his position. “I suppose it would look that way to anybody who doesn’t really know me. But in reality…the women I…engage with, are normally the ones who make the first move. I might have been a bit of a player when I was younger, but these days I normally hold out for something…more, and the ladies who approach me because of my job—badge-bunnies, we call them—no longer have much appeal.”
Hilly thought her mouth might be hanging open, and placed a finger under her chin, pushing upward to find out.
It was closed. Just barely.
But damn, Cisco had revealed something very personal about himself, and Hilly wasn’t quite sure how to take it. Did his speech mean he found her more interesting than the women he generally interacted with in bars, or was she in the other category? If she gave in to impulse, leaned forward and kissed him, would he group her with those females who chased after his uniform?
“What are you thinking?” he finally asked, and he was so close she could feel his warm breath on her lips.
Yeah, it smelled like onions, but it didn’t detract from his allure in any way.
“I…”
Hilly gave herself a mental slap, and pulled back, sitting ramrod straight to put an adequate amount of distance between them.
“I, uh, think it’s probably time for me to get back to camp.”
Cisco raised a brow, still leaning over the table. A slow smile tilted the corners of his mouth upward. “I didn’t take you for a coward, Hilly.”
“A coward?” she repeated, glowering. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do,” he continued to taunt. “You find me just as fascinating as I find you, but instead of going with those feelings, you’re convincing yourself that it would be a big mistake to explore what might be between us. I think it’s a defensive thing you probably do quite often.”
Hilly didn’t like being called a coward, nor did she like Cisco’s insinuation that she routinely sabotaged pending connections…even though he was spot-on.
What should her response be? He was clearly waiting for one.
With one sharp inhale, she thrust away her fear, leaned across the table, grabbed Cisco’s cheeks between her palms, and laid the kiss she’d been fantasizing about smack dab onto his chiseled lips.
She almost groaned as he softened beneath her touch, and when his mouth parted slightly, Hilly couldn’t help but inch her tongue forward to take a deeper taste.
The growl that emerged from Cisco’s chest woke her up, and with a gasp, she pulled back, putting feet between them again, appalled at how forward she’d been.
