With some dude who looked like he’d walked out of the pages of a men’s magazine in his perfect suit, crisp red tie and artfully sculpted hair.
Bastard.
Especially since Gavin had forgotten an umbrella and currently felt like a wet junkyard dog after the run from the subway to the precinct entrance.
The perfect specimen of law and order turned and extended a hand. “Hello. I’m Sam Baxter. Local FBI bureau.”
“Gavin Hayes. NYPD.” He then turned to Sera, his expression carefully neutral. “I’m Gavin.”
“Serafina Forte. Brooklyn DA’s office.”
Her hand slipped into his, and while it was a cordial handshake, he immediately had the memory of their fingers linking together on New Year’s Eve as they walked to his apartment.
Something raw and elemental sparked between them, and Gavin purposely pushed it down. Whatever sparks had flared between them three months ago—and obviously still flashed and burned now based on their touch—had no place here. This was his shot. His appointment to the task force was an essential step in matching his ambitions to the outcomes he wanted at work. And in a span of two minutes, he’d raced through jealousy, envy and embarrassment.
Not the way he’d envisioned his first day on this all-important next step in his career. Yet here they were.
While he’d known she was a lawyer, he hadn’t known she was with the district attorney’s office. They’d avoided talk of what they did beyond the basics. It had seemed intriguing at the time, the “who do you know” and “what do you do” conversations too mundane for them. Too pedestrian to interfere with the passion that arced between them.
It was only now, face-to-face, that he realized a bit more conversation might have helped in the months that had passed since.
If he’d known she was in the DA’s office, he could have...
Could have what?
Gone after her?
Tried to talk to her?
Asked her why she left him?
None of those questions led to good outcomes. Especially because of one, outstanding truth: if she’d wanted to see him again, she’d have found a way.
And she hadn’t.
Even with that disappointment, he couldn’t fight the bone-deep interest that filled him. That vivid color of her hair was even richer in person than his memories. The sweep of her heavy lower lip still intrigued him, leaving him with the raw, damn near elemental need to draw it between his teeth.
And those eyes.
It was idiotically poetic, but those liquid blue eyes were fathoms deep, full of knowledge and secrets and something that looked a lot like forever.
Which only added to the bad mood that punched holes in his gut.
He’d wondered about her every damn day since the first of the year, and now she showed up on the most important morning of his professional life?
“We were just getting some breakfast.” Sera gestured toward the table along the wall lined with breakfast and coffee carafes. “Please, help yourself.”
Her voice was low, professional and incredibly polite. Something in it made Gavin wish he could smudge a little bit of that perfection that had gotten under his skin and made him ache.
It was hardly rational. Or fair.
But what about this situation was fair?
Before he had a chance to consider it further, the room was brought to attention, and they were all instructed to get breakfast, pick up their badges and find a spot at the conference room table.
“Looks like the bell for round one,” Sam said with a chuckle.
Sera’s answering laugh had Gavin crumpling the edge of the notebook he’d grabbed from his locker on the way in, but it was enough to pull him out of his thoughts.
Time to get coffee and take a seat as far away from Serafina Forte as he could. He had his future to focus on.
And he needed to get his mind the hell off his tempting past.
Gavin was here.
In the room. In the building. And on her freaking task force.
Gavin Hayes.
He was a cop, and in a twist that she should have seen coming, he worked in the precinct that covered her Brooklyn neighborhood.
What were the odds?
Even as that question drifted in and out of her mind, she had to admit, they were pretty darn good. They had met at a local bar, after all. On some level it was a bit of surprise she hadn’t seen him sooner.
Only...
He was here. Now. Back in her life as she embarked on one of the most important opportunities of her career. A three-month task force, the lead had told them during introductory remarks, with a possible extension to a fourth month.
