Julia waited for Max to stop touching her but he didn’t. His foot stayed against hers, firm and strong. As physical encounters went, it was a meaningless connection and yet it felt more significant than the almost-kiss. She didn’t have the courage to look him in the face and try to read what he was feeling.
He’s married, her mind whispered, more gently than before.You need to be smart here, Bennett.
She eased her foot away, pretending all she wanted to do was stand.
“Julia,” Max said so softly she almost didn’t catch it. Julia ignored him. She didn’t want to talk about what was happening in painful, explicit words. Words like “wife” and “affair” and “never going to happen.” She wanted to be drunk, to burn the edges off her weepy, lovesick feelings with alcohol. She reached for the whiskey she’d placed high on the shelf next to him ignoring his noise of protest. “Can we get wasted now?”
Chapter 4
“COMEon, Max. I can’t drink this whole thing all by myself. I’ll die.” Julia’s lower lip popped and she became the definition of the word “beseeching.”
When Julia first showed up at Brenthill, Max’s first thought had beenthis can’t be good. Later he realized he’d been wrong. Julia wasn’t bad news, she was trouble with a capital T. Trouble in the way she looked in skirts, trouble in the way she swished her long brown hair over one shoulder while she bent over a computer. Just fucking trouble.
He’d known that and yet here he was locked in a police station with her while she waved a bottle of whiskey in his face. Deep, deep trouble.
Drinking was a bad idea, any idiot could have told him that, and yet Max had never wanted to say yes quite as badly in his life. Yes to alcohol and yes to whatever loss of control it would inevitably bring. He put his head in his hands. “We really shouldn’t…”
Julia batted her eyes. “Are yousure?”
The road to hell is paved with “we really shouldn’t”, Connor. Be more assertive.
“The whiskey’s evidence and we’re not opening it,” he said, attempting his cop voice and getting something dangerously close to playful.
Julia’s eyes sparkled as she broke the bottle’s seal. “Oh no. The evidence has been compromised.”
She raised it halfway to her lips and held it there like she was waiting for him to lunge forward and snatch it from her hands.
“You gonna do something with that liquor, Ms. Bennett?”
“I sure am.” Julia tipped the bottle toward him. “Here’s to our imprisonment, Senior Constable Connor. May it be both brief and hazy.”
She took a swig and the cocky swagger vanished. “Jesus Christ.”
Max chuckled. “Taste good?”
“It tastes like petrol.” Julia examined the label. “Tawny Tiger Barrel Aged Whiskey.I don’t think that’s a real brand.”
“Well, it was confiscated from around here. Probably a hard-core Russian wino.”
Julia pulled a disgusted face. “My mum’s a hard-core Russian wino. At least she drinks cans.”
Max was surprised to hear that scrap of information. He didn’t think he’d ever heard Julia say more than five words about her family. “You’re Russian?”
“On my mother’s side. Her maiden name’s Zolnerowich.”
“That sounds very Russian.”
Julia took another drink, her full mouth puckering with distaste. “Oh God, it just gets worse and worse. Here.” She held out the contraband. “Your turn.”
“After that ringing endorsement? No thanks.”
She pursed her lips. “If you get drunk with me I’ll tell you who at Brenthill Googles the grossest things.”
“Doesn’t that breach some kind of confidentiality agreement?”
Julia smirked. “You’re thinking of priests. Why? Got something to hide?”
“No,” he said too quickly.