Thanking the waitress for their waters, Regina sipped hers. Regina decided she’d keep to herself the fact that he’d stepped in front of her, forcing her to finish what she’d begun say. She also wouldn’t say what being that close to those acutely blue eyes had done to her. She knew her best friend too well. Janecia would want to overanalyze it, and the truth was she was done thinking about the uptight sergeant. She’d already spent the better part of her day, trying to figure it out. Even when he was looking at her with what she assumed was unexplained indignation, he did so with such intensity that it was confusing as hell. But even more confusing was what she’d thought she’d seen in his eyes when he asked her to finish what she’d begun to say that morning. The guy shouldn’t feel anything for her either way. Good or bad. He still didn’t know much about her at all. Yet even tonight there was no hiding the ill will he had toward her.

“But it doesn’t make sense. He doesn’t even know you. And you’re so damn cute.” Janecia leaned across the table and whispered. “You think maybe he’s gay?”

Laughing, Regina nearly spit up her water. Sergeant Billings gay? That still wouldn't explain why he would dislike her so much. One glance up and Janecia’s theory flew out the window along with Regina’s laughing mood. The sergeant was now whispering something in the ear of the same blonde he’d been smiling at so cheerfully earlier. “He might be married,” she said, unable to move her eyes away from him and the giggling blonde.

Once again, following her eyes, Janecia turned to observe him and the girl. “Stop looking,” Regina whispered.

Janecia did, even though Regina couldn’t. Suddenly flustered with herself, she wondered why it hadn’t occurred to her that he might be married or even in a relationship. Even more frustrating was why the hell did it even matter? The guy was obviously a jerk who didn’t like her. It was annoying enough that he’d decided to hate her on little to nothing to go by, but even worse was the fact that, on just as little, she’d been taken enough by him to have given him and his unreasonable abhorrence to her so much thought.

“Sweetie?”

Regina swallowed hard, glancing away when she realized how intensely she’d been staring at the pretentious sergeant and his girl. “Hmm?”She took a very casual sip of her water but still didn’t look Janecia in the eyes.

“Are you sure you’re not leaving out anything about you and this guy?”

Now she looked at Janecia curiously. “No, why?”

Janecia lifted a very telling brow as she leaned over and put the straw between her lips. She took a drink of her water then raised a shoulder. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because ever since you spotted him and his little female friend your mood seems to have taken a dive.”

Regina scoffed, a little too loud and the waving of her hand in front of her might’ve been overkill because she nearly knocked her water over in the process. Janecia stared at her, clearly unimpressed, but Regina wasn’t about to tone her response down because it wasn’t an act. She didn’t care. The guy was practically a monster to her. Why on earth would she even be looking at him in terms of anything other than someone she should hate? Or because she wouldn’t lower herself to his level and hate someone she didn’t even know, at the very least she should be irked with him for being rude. He could take his lack of desire to know more about her and shove it up his ass.

About to further protest Janecia’s ridiculous insinuation, she was caught in his eyes as he began to walk off with the blonde hand in hand. As much as she knew she should look away, his eyes were like a magnet. It seemed the longer she stared at him the darker his stare went until he leaned over and kissed the girl deeply. That instantly snapped the pull he’d had on her, and she closed her eyes.

“You okay?” Janecia asked gently.

Regina opened her eyes, turning back to Janecia, feeling completely embarrassed. “Yeah. Yeah.” She cleared her throat and smiled weakly at her very concerned-looking friend.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, G. But clearly there’s more going on.”

After successfully convincing Janecia that she was fine and there was nothing else to tell about the stuck-up sergeant—or maybe not so successfully—her friend let it go anyway.

On her drive home, Regina came to the conclusion that nothing good could come from trying to figure out why this man, who might even be married, didn’t like her. From that moment on, she decided her best bet was to avoid him at all costs, and when it wasn’t possible to, she’d just ignore him completely. It was what he seemed to want anyway, so that was that. She was done giving any more thought to Sergeant Jerk Face!

~*~

Brandon

After a long day of supervising one of his newest DIs as he did his first evaluations of the newest recruits, Brandon made his way back to his office. He rode with Sergeant Miller in the golf cart they’d used to drive out to the field where the evals had taken place. Miller was in the middle of some long-winded story about his days as a DI when Brandon noticed Rodriguez and Ms. Brady just outside his office building, chatting. Slowing as he drove by them, they both turned to him. The big smile Rodriguez had worn up until that moment flattened, his face going even paler than it already was. Ms. Brady’s smile wasn’t as big as Rodriguez’s, but it did seem to fade gradually at the sight of him.

Rodriguez nodded at both him and Miller then turned back to Ms. Brady and said something. In a flash, he disappeared back into the building. Brandon didn’t even realize he was still glaring when he glanced back at Ms. Brady, who was still looking at him. Bringing his attention to his driving, he was alarmed at how unbelievably irritated the sight of Rodriguez yapping it up with her made him feel.

Instantly speeding up, he drove to the back of the building where he parked and he and Miller parted ways. It’d been such a long day. He’d planned on heading straight to his car and going home. Instead, he stalked into the building. With no patience to wait for the elevator and because he felt as if he needed to work off some steam, he hurried up the stairs.

Rodriguez had ignored a direct order. That was the only reason why Brandon felt so fucking annoyed. There was no other reason. Never mind the fact that the only other time Brandon had seen Ms. Brady all week she’d evoked the very same annoyance he felt now. That was two days ago, and she’d been laughing at something one of her engineer co-workers was saying to her.

Swallowing hard as he reached the top of the stairs, he turned the corner into the hallway just in time to catch Rodriguez waiting for the elevator. The second Rodriguez saw him he turned to him, taking a few steps away from the closed elevator doors.

“Sir, I can explain.”

“Yes, you can and you will,” Brandon said, his tone hard and full of authority just as he’d been trained by the very best. “Only not here, not like this.” He got right in Rodriguez’s face. “I want a full report on my desk tomorrow morning, explaining why you ignored a direct order from your superior. I wanna know exactly what you were talking to her about when you’ve been instructed to stay away from her entirely. And also want you tell me why the hell I shouldn’t write you up.”

The elevator door opened, and Ms. Brady stepped out, staring at them almost in question. Brandon looked away, refusing to make eye contact, and Rodriguez did the right thing, not even acknowledging her. They waited silently until she was out of sight. “I don’t normally give second chances, so consider yourself lucky.”

“Sir, yes, sir.”

Brandon took two long steps into the still-open elevator and turned around to face Rodriguez, who wisely didn’t dare step in with him. “First thing in the morning, Rodriguez,” Brandon repeated the order through his teeth.

“Sir, yes, sir,” Rodriguez said just as Brandon hit the close button, and the elevator doors closed, leaving a very staggered-looking Rodriguez outside.

This was completely unacceptable. Brandon needed to get a grasp on what she was beginning to do to him. The fact that Rodriguez had ignored a direct order was reason enough to piss Brandon off, but he shouldn’t be getting this worked up over it.

The elevator doors opened, and he stepped out still feeling incredibly agitated as he walked out toward the front door of the building. Would he really write Rodriguez up if his report wasn’t satisfactory or worse if he stupidly admitted to having been flirting with her? The thought of Rodriguez’s remarks about what he’d do to her in the bathroom slammed into him.

Pushing the front doors open with a little more force than necessary, he concluded two things. Not only would Brandon write his ass up but he’d get the perverted asshole transferred to another fucking base.

Second conclusion? As much as he was trying to deny it, what this girl was doing to him was getting way out of control.

* * *

The next morning, Rodriguez’s report was on Brandon’s desk when he arrived, though Rodriguez himself was not there. Brandon knew Rodriguez would be out doing evaluations of his own all week. He was glad for that. He’d spent too much time thinking about what might be in the report, what he might learn about Ms. Brady, the woman he wanted nothing to do with. Brandon knew he’d be scrutinizing the report a little closer than normal, and it was better if Rodriguez wasn’t there to witness it.

Along with the report was a letter of apology to Brandon for having disrespected him, though Rodriguez made it clear it was not his intention. The report stated that Ms. Brady had made the first contact as they stepped outside together. He went on to outline the conversation about the change in the weather and how Rodriguez felt it rude to just ignore her so he carried on with the harmless conversation.