Forever The World of Nightwalkers - By Jacquelyn Frank Page 0,2

excitementmmenother places.

Her eyes yanked away from the dog and its victim and zeroed in on the owner of that voice. The victim was dressed in a thick padded suit designed specifically to withstand the majority of a dog bite. However the man commanding the dog, the man training him, was in full uniform.

Jackson. Sergeant Jackson Waverly was one of the two K-9 officers in the Saugerties, New York, police department. His former canine partner, Chico, had died about six months earlier in the line of duty. Sergeant Waverly had not taken it well at all. To him it had been no different than if he’d lost a human partner. And considering Chico had laid down his life to protect his partner’s, she’d say he’d earned that sort of respect.

For a while there she’d been pretty sure Jackson wouldn’t be able to bring himself to continue on as a K-9 officer. He’d been putting off training with his new dog, showing very little interest in the handsome German shepherd named Sargent. But three weeks ago …

Three weeks …

Three weeks ago something had changed dramatically in Jackson. If anyone had asked her to explain, she probably couldn’t have done so with any real clarity … not without sounding like a goofy schoolgirl with a demented little crush on some boy.

Oh, she had to admit that on some level she’d always found the man appealing. How could she not? He was damn beautiful for a male and any woman with half a brain and at least a partially working libido would accede to that. He was tall, but not overly so. Tall enough to be several inches taller than her lofty height of 5’7” with the constant addition of three- to four-inch stiletto heels. It was such a rare thing, really, for someone to make her feel smaller and more delicate than she truly was. But he also made her feel …

Scorched was the only word she could use to describe it. It was how she had felt that day, three weeks ago, when he had gone from being this sometimes-appealing/sometimes-pain-in-the-ass man to …

“I’m putting you on notice, Marissa … I’ve come to realize that there is no one on this planet, in this time, more intriguing than you are. You are a puzzle, and a pretty one at that. I think perhaps it would be a terrible shame if I were to let you slip away from me.”

Who the hell says that to a woman? It ought to have been obnoxious. Or at the very least corny. It ought to have been offensive and uncomfortable, considering he was technically a patient of hers and it would be a serious breach of ethics to entertain what he was teasing her with.

So no. She’d shut herself off from it. Pretended that it had been his idea of a mean little joke, of wielding male authority over a woman he hadn’t been able to conquer with his charming smiles and ridiculously beautiful green eyes. Those clear as glass, bright as a turquoise ocean eyes, eyes so brilliant they jumped out of his nobly featured face. Even more so, it seemed, than usual these past three weeks.

Poppycock, she thought fiercely. He rattled her cage and made her take notice and now she was having flights of fancy every ten minutes … not to mention quite a few steamy dreams with Jackson as the headlining star.

Part of the problem, she realized, was that he was always there. Every time she turned around she could see him or hear his deep resonant voice. Like now, as he re because …vg.called his dog with a sharp, strong command, sending the powerful animal gamboling back across the field to his side where Jackson kneeled and gave him praises, tousling his ruff, and giving him his favorite toy as a reward.

It didn’t help that the practice field was right outside her windows. It was damn distracting, watching him be stunningly authoritative and then, by turns, goofy and fun-loving as he played with Sargent between rigorous training sessions.

But in no time at all the intensive training would end and so would her equally intensive immersion in the tempting Jackson Waverly sightseeing tour.

Yay.

Darn it.

“Hell,” she muttered, giving the blinds a frustrating yank, dropping them hard into place and blocking out half the sunlight in her office. “All it was was one stupid little moment of flirtation,” she muttered.

Well, that wasn’t exactly the truth, either.

Shoving herself back toward her desk, she decided not to