The First Time is the Sweetest (6 page)

Jimmy ducked and backed up, avoiding another punch as Sabrina dumped her tea on the guy who was threatening her. By the time the guy stopped sputtering, she had her hands on a glass sugar dispenser. He regarded her warily, wet hair plastered to his face. She could tell he wanted to smack her. She breathed deep, trying to calm down when she noticed they’d attracted quite a bit of attention. She figured the cops would come soon since they weren’t that far from the station. They just needed to wait and keep from getting into a brawl.
A worse brawl,
she thought.

Unfortunately, Darrin’s buddies weren’t too smart. They kept trying to hit Jimmy, who ducked faster than they could move. After a few more missed punches, Sabrina saw Jimmy sneaking a laugh at the ridiculousness of it. She felt herself smile, reluctantly starting to believe they’d get out of this intact when a gunshot rang out. Everyone flinched as the large bay window of the bistro’s front facade shattered.

Chapter 3

Jimmy lunged for Sabrina and hauled her beneath the iron table on their right. Another shot hit the table surface and ricocheted, hitting a large vase of flowers and sending the shards and dirt crashing around them. One more shot glanced off the ground near where Darrin still lay dazed. She could see the fear on his face when the rest of the patrons panicked, overturning chairs and running away. Darrin’s friends abandoned him and dashed off just as the police arrived with flashing lights. She was squashed under Jimmy, his hands on her head keeping her face near the hot pavement. Adrenaline raced through her as Jimmy cursed, but there were no more shots. Two officers jumped out of their car, crouching next to the tires behind the open doors.

“Everybody okay?” one of the officers shouted, looking around wildly.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Jimmy yelled back, still not letting her up.

“Just stay down until we secure the area,” the cop responded, motioning to the other officer. “It looks like the shots were fired from across the street, possibly from that building.” His partner nodded and spoke into his radio.

A few minutes later, another police car pulled up across the street, and the cops jumped out, crouching and looking around before dashing into the building across from the bistro. It wasn’t a very tall building, but it was at least three floors higher than the one-story restaurant. Jimmy and Sabrina waited on the pavement. She closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at Darrin. She could feel every inch of Jimmy on her back as she began to shake from the adrenaline letdown.

“Shh,” Jimmy soothed into her ear. He eased up on her head and stroked her hair. Sabrina relaxed into his caress, enjoying the way he felt above her. Then, shockingly, he grew hard as she shifted slightly beneath him, pressing her ass into his groin as she tried to get more comfortable.

“Oh God,” he whispered, his voice low. Sabrina gasped, then arched her back slightly. She loved that she could arouse him, even in the middle of the most violent situation she’d ever been in.

“Evil woman,” he groaned, shoving his erection against her. She wiggled some more, feeling herself flush from both the adrenaline rush and the weight of Jimmy on top of her in such a public place. She opened her eyes to find Darrin staring at them in shock. She smirked and rubbed her face against Jimmy’s hand, holding Darrin’s eyes as she did. Yeah, maybe she was a bit vindictive.

“If you don’t hold still, I’m going to come in my pants like a teenager,” Jimmy said in her ear. Sabrina gasped, then wiggled some more, and he groaned under his breath. She tried to stop moving, knowing that this wasn’t the right time or place for teasing. Darrin glared at them, not looking at all dazed anymore. Sabrina stared right back, daring him to say a word.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered to Jimmy. “I can’t help it.” She felt him groan again, quietly, then heard footsteps and turned her head to see who it was. One of the policemen had walked over. Jimmy was already shifting off and up.

“You can get up now.” One of the cops reached down to give Sabrina a hand up. Another officer hauled Darrin to his feet, holding him firmly while a few more patrons who hadn’t run away struggled off the ground. “We searched the building and the surrounding area, and it looks like another gang-related shooting,” the officer said as he steadied her. She swayed, lightheaded from getting up so fast.

“There have been gang shootings in this area?” Jimmy asked as he brushed the gravel from his shorts. She dared a glance. He’d untucked his T-shirt. It hung below the waistband, and she smirked, knowing he’d rearranged his clothing on purpose.

“Yes. From what we can tell so far, one of the gangs moved into this area from the city about a year ago; then two months ago, another new one moved in and started fighting for territory.” The cop shook his head. “We’re not equipped to deal with this. The sheriff said if it happens one more time, we gotta call in the Feds. I guess this is the ‘one more time.’” He blew a hard breath out, then waved to his partner to bring Darrin closer.

“I had no idea that gangs were a problem here,” Jimmy said to Sabrina, shaking his head.

“I know,” she replied, looking around at all the trees and the pretty downtown landscaping. “This is a small town, and we’ve all been shocked this past year at how easily they came in. That’s probably why Dad asked you to come and keep me company this summer.”

Jimmy nodded in agreement. “I’m just glad I have the kind of job that lets me move around so that I could be here,” he said, then stopped as the cop holding Darrin moved closer.

“We received a call that this kid was harassing you and your girlfriend, is that right?” the second cop asked. “A bystander called us and said you were eating when he and his friends came over to your table.”

“Yeah,” Jimmy answered, sighing. “It was nothing, really, just the usual adolescent idiocy.”

“He tried to hit you, Jimmy!” Sabrina exclaimed, shaking her head.

“Yeah, but he missed every time, didn’t he?” Jimmy replied. By now the cop was grinning, and Darrin looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole.

“Are you going to press charges?” the first officer asked. Jimmy cocked his head at Sabrina, smiling.

She sighed and shook her head. “No, as long as they leave me alone from now on. They didn’t really do anything except try to intimidate us.”
And they failed
, she thought, smirking. She glanced at Jimmy, and from the way his eyes twinkled she could tell he was thinking the same thing.

“All right,” the cop said, shaking Darrin a little bit. “I’m letting you off with a warning. Tell your friends that we’ll be watching you. It was a stupid thing to do, you know? Especially with Jimmy here. He could’ve snapped your neck without you even noticing he’d moved.”

“What?” Sabrina asked, confused. She looked at Jimmy. He just shook his head, still smiling.

“Didn’t you know?” the cop asked her.

“Know what?”

“Jimmy here did a stint with my brother in Afghanistan. He was one of the journalists who rode with my brother’s platoon.”

“Do I know you?” Jimmy asked him, looking bemused.

“Nah, I know you from the pictures my brother sent me last year. He told me about how you saved his butt during an ambush on one of his patrols. Three guys came out of an alley, and you took down two of them with your bare hands, right? My brother was really impressed. And grateful!” the cop said, laughing.

“Oh, I think I remember that. Your brother, is he David McNally?” Jimmy asked, reaching out to shake the officer’s hand. “I remember him saying something about having a cop for a brother.”

“That’s him!” Officer McNally replied happily. “He’s my little brother, and we were all real happy you saved his neck.” McNally looked at Darrin. “Okay, you, time to go. Don’t bother Mr. Kinnell and Miss Birch again, got it?” Darrin nodded, and the policeman let him go, watching him walk off before turning back to them.

“You know my name?” she asked him, surprised.

“Yeah, your dad and my mom went to school together.” Sabrina rolled her eyes, and McNally laughed. “Yeah, I know, I know, small towns,” he said, still chuckling when his partner waved to him from the car. “I gotta run. You guys going to be okay?”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” she said. Jimmy nodded.

“Okay then, take care. Just give us a call if you run into any trouble, hear?”

They agreed and waved as he walked off.

“Well!” Sabrina said. “That was a bit more excitement than I usually like with my morning tea.”

Jimmy laughed. “Yeah, tell me about it. Let’s head home, shall we?” She agreed and he took her hand.

As they headed home, Sabrina pondered what Officer McNally said about Jimmy, how he “took down” two men by himself. She knew he was strong and had probably been in sticky situations as a journalist, but didn’t realize he’d had training.

“Jimmy?” she asked, stroking his hand with her thumb. “Where did you learn how to fight? How did you take down two guys in Afghanistan like that? You weren’t armed, the cop said.” She looked at him and Jimmy glanced at her as they walked, but didn’t say anything for a long moment.

Finally, he sighed. “Remember the guy I told you about, Gabriel?”

She nodded. “Yeah?”

“Well, we were wrestling one night, just fooling around as we watched the game, and suddenly, he flipped me over his head as easy as if I were a pillow. He stood there, laughing while I stared at him in shock, the wind knocked out of me.”

Sabrina snorted, picturing Jimmy flat on his back, gasping.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” he said, smiling. “Later he told me his training included lessons in Krav Maga, a type of hand-to-hand combat. It’s a quick and dirty way to bring down an opponent. After he left, I went on one of my first assignments to Philadelphia, writing about some gang- and drug-related crimes there. I had to go out late at night for research, and of course I was mugged. Luckily, I only lost my wallet, but I realized that it might be a good idea to learn how to defend myself if I was going to become a journalist. I took some self-defense classes, then got hooked on Krav Maga. I love the economy of it, its practicality. It’s not about trying to put on a show and it doesn’t use a lot of formal rules. It’s about survival.”

Sabrina watched him as he walked, his body moving so gracefully, and she realized that when he’d grabbed her and shoved her under the table earlier, he knew exactly what he was doing.

“Thanks,” she said.

“For what?”

“You probably saved my life, jumping on me back there. Who knows what could have happened with those bullets?” Sabrina felt a surge of gratitude for his quick thinking.

“Well, I couldn’t let my new girlfriend get shot on our first day together, could I?” he teased, smiling.

“Girlfriend, huh?” Sabrina still couldn’t quite wrap her brain around the idea of it. He was fun and handsome and incredibly sexy and for some reason, he seemed to want her just as much as she wanted him. Amazing, since before this week she’d never even had a date. Sure, she’d liked Jimmy since she was thirteen, but crushes never worked out in real life. She thought about what it was going to be like, spending the summer with him, remembering the softness of his lips. She looked over. He seemed happy, swinging their hands a little as they walked, then winking slyly at her. She wondered how long this would last before reality came crashing down.

* * * *

Later that afternoon, Sabrina cleaned up the house a little and Jimmy worked on his latest article. They’d just finished eating the last of the leftover spaghetti and settled on the sofa in the living room when Jimmy turned to her, looking serious. Even when he wasn’t trying, he looked sexy. He’d changed into a button-down shirt but hadn’t bothered to close it. Her eyes kept straying to the smooth strip of skin visible between the open sides. She licked her lips. Occasionally, the silver metal of his nipple ring glinted as he moved.

“What do you think your dad would say if he knew we were dating?” he asked her, stroking a strand of hair back from her face. Sabrina peeked at his left nipple for maybe the thousandth time in the past hour until she caught the look of amusement on his face. She blushed.

“I think he’d be fine, actually,” she replied. She and her dad were very close since it was just the two of them. He’d always been supportive and encouraging. “He approves of you, you know,” she said, smiling at Jimmy. She leaned in and dropped a quick kiss on his lips, just because. He pouted when she didn’t linger. What she really wanted to do was lean over and bite his nipple ring. She wanted to suck it into her mouth and play with it until he moaned. Didn’t he realize how sexy he looked with his shirt open?

“Yeah, but liking me because I’m his neighbor and his friend’s son and wanting to kill me for sleeping with his daughter are two separate issues,” he said, faking a look of dismay.

Sabrina felt a thrill at his words. “I don’t think you need to worry,” she said, wishing they could stop talking and go straight to the “sleeping together” part of the conversation. “My dad knows I’m twenty-one, and he met my mom when he was sixteen, younger than I am now. They were really happy together until the car accident.” She cupped Jimmy’s cheek, savoring the warmth of his skin, the prick of his stubble. She wished he would stop worrying and kiss her already. She looked forward to telling her dad about Jimmy. More than once, he’d told her he wanted her to be happy, to find someone who would care about her for who she was, someone who saw the person, not just the package. Although, she had to admit, she enjoyed Jimmy’s obvious attraction. She eyed his lap. His arousal pushed against his jeans, and she imagined running her hand along the thick length.