The Fallback (Sample Chapters)

7. Eat Crow

    "When are you coming?" Grey shook his head at himself.

    "That's a loaded question if there ever was one," Tati told him with a smirk.

    Ah, yes. Another awkward Skype session.

    "You've been talking to me too much, gorgeous," Grey told Tati with a grin. "You almost picked up on the s****l undertones as quick as I did."

    "All your fault," she tossed back plainly. "And to answer your question, it's the same as the last time I told you. I can't make people change their summer plans any more than I can change the earth's gravitational pull."

    "s**t," Grey cursed, displeased with her answer. "But I'll be out of town the whole time you're here!"

    "Don't whine," she admonished, frowning. "It's unbecoming of a…of a gentleman."

    "You must have me mistaken with someone else," he told her. "I am definitely no gentleman. Especially in—"

    "If you finish that sentence I'll make sure this is the last time I go to Denver," she warned him with an arched brow. Grey had taken to adding “especially in bed” to the end of every blessed sentence. Even when it didn't make a lick of sense.

    "You're no fun."

    "Sue me," Tati tossed back.

    "No, I'd rather f**k you."

    Tati had long-since stopped blushing at Grey's naughty jibes. She always found biting back at him worked better for her.

    "Maybe next year," she said offhandedly.

    "So—in six months or so? I can wait," he told her.

    "So, what are you going to do while in Boulder?" Tati asked, effectively changing the subject on him.

    "Gonna get laid, and get paid."

    Well, at least the last part was true. He wasn't so much for the one-night stand thing anymore. Tati hadn't believed him when he first told her. She didn’t know if she even believed him now.

    "Back on the one-night stands?" she asked, her lips quirking up a bit.

    "Nah, not really," he told her with a frown. "Not after that herpes scare."

    "You honestly thought a zit was herpes?" she asked him, her lips thinning so he couldn't see the smile she was trying to hide.

    "Well, not until I googled it," he said. "Then I knew it wasn't herpes. But I certainly did deflate quick enough. Chick probably thought I had erectile dysfunction. But what really freaked me out was the other photos. Do you realize what advanced stages of s******s look like?"

    "Yes, I had to read a lot of medical books when I was in school," Tati reminded him. "It was truly frightening."

    "But seriously, when are you going to come out to Denver again? After you coincidentally come at the only time I'm leaving the immediate area for a significant length of time?" he asked.

    "Well, next year I have to visit my Dad's relatives in Chicago, so unless there's a death or a wedding, probably not for another two years," she told him and then watched his face fall. It was honestly adorable when he looked so utterly disappointed.

    "Then I'm telling Asher he needs to propose to Kay already," Grey said. "They've been together long enough. Time to have that white picket fence and start popping out babies and all that shit."

    "Knowing Ash and Kay, they'll just head off to Vegas and not tell anyone they got hitched until they get back," Tati told him with an arched brow.

    "f**k, you're right," Grey stated with a groan. Ash and Kay were surprisingly a no-frills kind of couple. Even though she worked in a beauty salon and he was a tech geek, they both enjoyed the simpler things in life when they weren’t at their respective jobs.

    "Okay then, who do I have to kill?" Grey asked, his wicked grin sliding easily back onto his face.

    "Devon?" Tati speculated. "Unless they're off again."

    "I dunno with those two anymore," Grey admitted. "I have yet to come up with a word to describe those two freaks."

    "Wishy-washy? Toxic? Unable to commit to what they want?"

    "All three," he told her. "Speaking of wishy-washy, you can't f**k Jon when you get out here."

    Tati blinked back at him like he was crazy. The segue boggled her.

    "And why would I f**k Jon?" she asked.

    "I dunno, but he thinks you're hot, and I don't take friend's sloppy seconds," he told her.

    "Ew," she muttered as her face scrunched up. "I'm not f*****g anyone. Besides, I finally told Cole I would go on a date with him."

    "You did?" Surprise colored both his face and words. He wasn't a huge fan of Cole and he hadn't even met the fucker. He just thought the man was encroaching on his territory. Sort of.

    "Yeah, I figure if I have a shitty enough time I can always tell him it just won't work out between us," she surmised as he pulled her hair back from her face. "If I never say yes, he'll just continue to annoy me until I have to put a restraining order on him. A restraining order on a cop is pretty laughable."

    "Well, don't give it up on the first date," he warned her with a tight smile. Or ever.

    "Like you would?" she countered with a wicked grin.

    "Uhm, yeah—like me." It kind of bothered Grey a bit that Tati thought of him as the consummate playboy. Though admittedly, it was his own damned fault.

    "I probably won't be giving it up at all with him," Tati told him. "My horoscope told me to stay away from big, beefy law enforcement officers this month. He could break me in half if he wanted."

    "I could do the same—"

    "With your d**k," Tati said at the same time Grey finished with, with my d**k. The man was too predictable for words sometimes.

    "Jinx," Tati quipped like the juvenile she sometimes acted like. Again, Grey's fault. Entirely.

    "See—we'd be perfect together," Grey told her.

    "If only you weren't halfway across this great nation," she told him with a fake sigh, the back of her hand coming up to her brow in a fainting gesture.

    "So, when is this date happening anyway?" Grey asked her.

    "Tonight," she informed him.

    "Isn't it already after 7 PM there?" he asked her, glancing at the time on his laptop. She shrugged in response.

    "Yeah, but he said that where we’re going the action doesn't start until 10 PM at the earliest."

    "And where is that? A s*x dungeon or a Satanic ritual?" Grey wondered out loud.

    "Ew—neither," Tati spluttered out. "We're going dancing."

    "Don't wear anything too tight," Grey advised her sternly. "It'll give him the wrong impression."

    "All my clothes are tight," Tati told him. "I look like a moose if I wear baggy clothing."

    "Okay, then—nothing too short," he offered.

    "I'll be sure to wear my best muumuu to the club," Tati rebuffed with a roll of her eyes and a biting tone.

    "Okay, maybe a little short. But keep your t**s covered up." Grey grimaced as he thought of Tati covering up her curvy little body in what amounted to a tent.

    "Anyways, I have to go make some food and get ready," she said as she got ready to log off. "Beauty takes time and effort."

    "Not true beauty," Grey posed. It was sort of sweet.

    "Look at you—our widdle Gwey is all gwowed up," she said, pretending to pinch his cheeks through the video feed.

    "Never baby-talk me again, woman," he told her gruffly before wishing her luck on her date and signing off.

***

    Surprisingly, the date with Cole wasn't going half bad. The man could actually dance and was so large that none of the other men wanted to go near Tati, for the most part. The one that did, only came over when Cole was getting them refills on their drinks. And he left quickly when he saw who Tati was with that evening. It was like having her own personal security detail.

    Word must have spread quickly around the place, because when Tati wasn't sitting at the bar with a Mai Tai and Cole next to her, they were dancing on the floor together, a wide area around them empty as they boogied down.

    "I didn't know you could dance this well," Cole half-yelled in Tati's ear as the music blared from oversized speakers mounted high on the wall of the club.   

    "Well, my mother was a ballerina," she told him, also needing to raise her voice. Her throat was starting to get sore from all the talking they had attempted over the loud music. "She has her own dance studio on Charter Street."

    "Minkov's Dance Studio?" he asked her, his brows raising a bit in surprise.

    "You've heard of it?"

    "Yeah, it's kinda been my beat for the past six months," he told her. "Hey, do you wanna get out of here? I think I'm starting to lose my hearing and my throat feels like it's on fire!"

    Tati nodded, agreeing. If she had to yell anymore, she'd be hoarse in the morning.

    "We could go to my place, if you don't mind," Cole suggested when they had stepped outside the club. "It's only a few blocks away. No funny business, I swear. We can have a nightcap before I take you home."

    Cole had had way too much to drink that night, even if he was six feet tall and 225 pounds of solid muscle. Tati was more than willing to catch an Uber home so he wouldn't be a hazard to the other drivers on the roads. She'd tell him later, though. There was no rush, as it was a Friday night and she didn't have work in the morning.

    The two chatted on the short walk to his apartment. Tati struggled to keep up with his long strides. Her heels were barely made for dancing, much less walking a few blocks in downtown Seattle late on a Friday night.

    She had listened to Grey. Somewhat. The dress she was wearing was mid-thigh, but covered most of her breasts unless she danced a little too vigorously. Of which she had a tendency to do if she had enough drinks in her.

    Tati tried to hide her slight limp. She was getting blisters, and blamed her ridiculously high heels on them. She should have offered to get them a taxi or rideshare. Her feet were killing her now. She was just wondering how strange it would look to take off her heels and walk down the road with her bare feet when she was swept off them—literally.

    She squeaked out and had found that Cole had picked up her and was hauling her down the road in a bridal carry. She looked up at him in shock until he smiled reassuringly down at her.

    "Like I couldn't tell your feet were hurting from those damned shoes you've been wearing all night?" he asked her with a grin. "You've been practically hobbling for the past two blocks. It's only another three blocks and we'll be there and I can get you a couple of band-aids for your blisters."

    Cops were pretty observant, and Tati wondered what she was thinking when she thought she could fool him. Obviously, she hadn't been. Thinking, that is.

    They didn't talk for the remainder of their journey to his place, and to her delight, he was the bottom flat in a duplex that was in good repair in a safe part of town.

    Cole didn't let her down until he was in the house and was settling her gently on the couch. He knelt down beside her and took off her shoes before placing them on the floor.

    "Be right back," he told her, and walked down the hallway looking like he took up most of the width of the narrow space. Jesus, the man was huge.

    When he came back out, he had cotton balls, some antiseptic, and a few band-aids. Tati looked at the antiseptic and crinkled her brows.

    "One of your blisters opened up and could get infected," he told her gently as he sat down on the couch next to her. He placed one of her legs on his lap until she was forced to turn her body to face his, both feet settled on his meaty thighs.

    "I hate shoes," she muttered. "If I could walk barefoot everywhere, I would."

    He smiled slightly. "Hard to do in a city. And sort of ironic since your mother's business deals in highly specialized types of shoes. Tap, ballet, jazz."

    "I guess you're right," she realized and sat back a bit against the armrest of the couch.

    After he had disinfected her ankles and added the band-aids to the blisters, he placed her legs back onto the ground.    

    "Would you like a drink? I'm afraid I only have beer and water," he told her. "Unless you'd like a shot of Jack."

    "Water would be fine, please," she answered and watched his tight little ass as he walked into the kitchen.

    Not bad, she thought to herself. He had a perky little bottom for a cop. And he was surprisingly sweet. And hot. And hadn't tried to immediately grind on her at the club like some juvenile teen on his first date. She’d had to make the first move, but had made it subtle enough so that her body was eventually pressed up close to his in a gradual procession.

    When Cole brought her the drink, she saw he had added ice to it. And a straw. Tati couldn't imagine a man like him using straws.

    Giving her the glass, she took a long sip before setting it down on the coffee table. He had his own beer, and Tati was even more sure that he would not be driving her home tonight. He may have had the constitution of an ox, but alcohol and driving didn't mix well. Ever.

    "I'm going to take an Uber home in a bit," she told him after they had chatted for a while. Their ears were still ringing, so they talked slightly louder than they normally would have.

    "Leaving so soon, sweet thing?" he asked her before placing his bottle down on the table next to hers and coming in to cup her cheek.

    Suddenly, his lips were on hers. She could taste the bitter beer on his lips, its yeasty undertones not at all as unpleasant as she would have thought. His hand went from cupping her cheek to cupping her neck, the fingers pushing through the loose strands of her hair and massaging her lower scalp as his mouth gently molded to hers.

    Cole teased the seam of her lips with his tongue before she parted them slightly. He slipped between them slowly, taking his sweet, old time.

    Then he was in her mouth, everywhere. Like a whirling dervish, he tasted every inch, massaging her smaller muscle with his more dominating, larger one.

    She hadn't even realized what was happening until she was placed on his lap, straddling his muscular thighs. Tati felt the cool air on the soaked fabric covering her p***y and pulled away from Cole, his mouth only wandering lower to skim down her neck.

    "Wait, Cole," she gasped out. Suddenly everything Grey had said to her came reeling back into her mind. She could feel the man's hard length pressed up against her, and he was groaning as he ground his hips up into hers.

    "What, my little beauty?" he asked her, his mouth and tongue still assaulting the sensitive skin on her neck.

    "W-we should stop," she told him on a moan. They really should. The mini make-out sesh was hot, but damn he was hard as nails beneath his jeans and it was doing things to her. Things that would lead to other things that she would probably regret later on if she didn't stop him now. Not that she wanted to. It had been far too long since she had been with a guy. Over two years, in fact. She had been way too focused on her career for a relationship.

    "Why stop a good thing?" he questioned, hot breath fanning her face and neck. "Besides, I'm not done with you yet."

    "I-I...oh, God," she moaned out, willing herself to break the hold he had on her. Not the physical one, either. "I don't sleep with people on the first date."

    His lips detached from her skin and she almost wanted to whimper at the loss.

    "You're right," he said to her. "You deserve better than that."

    He pulled her off his lap, his lungs heaving in deep gasps of air.

    "s**t, that was hot," he uttered out. "You have me hard as a f*****g rock."

    Tati laughed a bit at his candor, and it broke the unbearable s****l tension in the room. He pulled her into his side and rested his arm over her slender shoulder.

    "Now what's this I hear about a possible second date?" he asked with a mischievous grin down at her.