Cop's Best Friend: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 68) Read online

  COP’S BEST FRIEND

  AN OLDER MAN YOUNGER WOMAN ROMANCE

  _______________________

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS, 68

  FLORA FERRARI

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  A Man Who Knows What He Wants Series

  Cop's Best Friend

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Epilogue

  Series

  Newsletter

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright © 2018 by Flora Ferrari.

  All Rights Reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The following story contains mature themes, strong language and sexual situations. It is intended for mature readers.

  A MAN WHO KNOWS WHAT HE WANTS

  Book 1: Baby Lust

  Book 2: Veteran

  Book 3: Built

  Book 4: Bambino

  Book 5: Rescued

  Book 6: Leader

  Book 7: Professor

  Book 8: Burned

  Book 9: Worldly

  Book 10: Pistol

  Book 11: Policed

  Book 12: Driven

  Book 13: Lucky 13

  Book 14: Lumberjacked

  Book 15: Protector

  Book 16: Carpenter

  Book 17: Italian Stallion

  Book 18: Gardener

  Book 19: Budapest Billionaire’s Virgin

  Book 20: Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 21: Cocky CFO

  Book 22: Fireman’s Filthy 4th

  Book 23: Mechanic

  Book 24: SEAL’s Secret

  Book 25: Police, Pooch, and Smooch

  Book 26: Fireman’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 27: Billionaire’s Virgin Ballerina

  Book 28: Bitcoin Billionaire’s Babysitter

  Book 29: Veterans Day Daddy

  Book 30: Cowboy’s Christmas Carol

  Book 31: Police Officer’s Princess

  Book 32: Statham

  Book 33: Bodyguard

  Book 34: Greek God

  Book 35: Billionaire Single Dad's Babysitter

  Book 36: Mountain Man

  Book 37: SEAL’s Justice

  Book 38: Royal Romance

  Book 39: Doctor Mountain Man’s Special Delivery

  Book 40: Crocodile Dan D

  Book 41: Mountain Man’s Secret Baby

  Book 42: Doctor Bad Boy’s Secret Baby

  Book 43: Cop’s Babysitter

  Book 44: Nanny for the Cop Next Door

  Book 45: Small Town SEAL’s Saving Grace

  Book 46: Cop’s Fake Fiancée

  Book 47: Billionaire’s Nanny

  Book 48: Cowboy’s Babysitter

  Book 49: Steamy

  Book 50: Brother’s Best Friend

  Book 51: Possessive Professor

  Book 52: Firefighter’s Babysitter

  Book 53: Soldier’s Secret Baby

  Book 54: Ward’s Independence Day

  Book 55: Doctor Next Door

  Book 56: Possessive Policeman

  Book 57: Coached by the MMA Fighter

  Book 58: Boss’s Babysitter

  Book 59: Virgin in New York

  Book 60: Rock Star’s Baby

  Book 61: Possessive Protector

  Book 62: Possessive Australian

  Book 63: Best Friend’s Brother

  Book 64: Possessive Cowboy

  Book 65: Summer Romanced

  Book 66: Possessive Prince

  Book 67: Lovers’s Enemy

  Book 68: Cop’s Best Friend

  COP’S BEST FRIEND

  Cop.

  Best friend.

  Nothing more.

  We’ve been best friends since we were kids, but when he went off to high school a year before me he became the “older man” every younger woman was after.

  But he never chased them. All he was ever interested in was chasing bad guys, and now he’s living out his dream as a courageous cop in the big city.

  He’s part of the thin blue line between order and anarchy. And there’s been a thin line between us that we’ve managed to never cross…one that would put our friendship at risk forever.

  Not a chance.

  Not worth it.

  Until this perfect police officer stops me on the street late one night.

  I should have kept my lips shut…

  But instead all I could think about was putting them on the lips of my best friend, the charming, rock hard cop.

  But we’re just friends, right?

  *Cop’s Best Friend is an insta-everything standalone instalove romance with an HEA, no cheating, and no cliffhanger.

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  CHAPTER 1

  Connor

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sidewalk at your three o’clock,” I say as I ride shotgun in the patrol car.

  “No time right now,” Lieutenant Banks says from the driver’s seat.

  There’s always time for a distressed woman, especially on the sidewalk after dark.

  “Pull over, Lieutenant!”

  “You’re out of line, Sergeant,” he says reminding me he outranks me.

  Ask me if I give a fuck.

  “Now!” erupts from so deep within the pit of my stomach I swear he jumps in his seat.

  And the patrol car slows as he guides it to the curb.

  I’ve got the door open and my black boots are putting pavement behind me quickly as I make my way towards her.

  A woman in need always gets my help, but this isn’t just any woman in need.

  “Fuck!” I say underneath my breath as I sprint to her.

  “Autumn. Autumn, talk to me. What’s wrong?” I ask as I take her shoulders in my grasp.

  “Connor,” she says, tears streaming down her face. “What are you doing here?” her speech is slurred.

  In all my years of knowing this girl I’ve never so much as seen her buzzed, so just the fact that she’s been drinking is enough to set off alarm bells. Big ones, and whoever caused this is gonna pay.

  Nobody fucks with my best friend in the entire world…the nicest girl on the face of the earth…and the girl I’d do anything for.

  “I’m here to help you, baby. What’s wrong?”

  She looks up at me and sniffs. I feel a rage boiling inside me as I see the hurt on her face.

  I haven’t seen her like this since the time she told me about her parents being shot on the street during a botched robbery attempt when she was fourteen. It’s the only time she ever mentioned it because she doesn’t want anyone’s pity. She’s a damn fighter, stronger than most of
the men I know and that goes for the guys on the force…and they’re no pushovers.

  “Sergeant, we have to go. Chief’s orders. 459 over at Big Dale’s Diamonds.”

  “Who cares about some damn diamonds,” I say. “Leave me.”

  “I can’t leave you. You’re my partner.”

  “Beat it, Lieutenant. I’ll settle this with the Chief tomorrow.”

  “Sergeant, get in the car!” he yells.

  I turn back at him and snarl. He purses his lips and shakes his head as he leans way over across the console and the passenger’s seat and pulls the door shut.

  At least he got the message I think to myself as he drives off.

  But I still haven’t got an answer from Autumn.

  “What did he look like?”

  She sobs again.

  “Where were you?”

  “At the bar,” she says.

  Finally. Something I can work with.

  “Which bar?”

  “Over there,” she says pointing across the street.

  “The Oasis?”

  She nods vigorously.

  “What’s he look like?” I say as I look at the bar ready to go over there and tear the place to shreds, beating the shit out of anybody that so much as looks at me wrong.

  “He’s not there, Connor. Don’t you get it?”

  I pause. No I don’t get it and it burns inside. I’ve known Autumn since the first day of preschool and at this point in our lives we can practically complete each other's sentences so when she tells me I don’t get it what it really means is I don’t understand and I haven’t been listening.

  But I have been listening. We had coffee just yesterday and she was telling me about her problems with some guy she wants really bad.

  I was shocked as she never talks about guys. Never.

  And I was shocked at my reaction too, because I felt jealousy fill me. I felt myself squeezing the coffee cup so hard the ceramic handle broke right off. I could feel the tension in my body. It felt like I was bench pressing a mid-sized sedan or trying to lift a boulder off the ground, two impossible tasks but my muscles were giving their all and all I was doing was just sitting there…fuming.

  Getting more and more angry.

  First at her for finally meeting a guy after all these years. Then I wised up and got disgusted at myself. Why should I be mad at her? What did I expect? That a twenty-seven year old woman doesn’t want to meet a man one day? That we can just keep going on like this…as friends forever? That my friendship with her wasn’t going to stand in the way of her meeting someone special.

  More special than me? Bullshit.

  I was the one for her and my six foot five inch frame let everyone that so much as tried to talk to her know it. All a guy had to do was look in her direction and sure enough he’d see me right there…every time.

  I was always by her side. We were inseparable, and that includes dating…which neither of us ever does.

  Who needs to date when your best friend is the only person you ever want to be with.

  But as I sat there yesterday the rage hit me again, wondering why I just don’t go for it one of these days. Just tell her how I feel. Just kiss her for Pete’s sake.

  We’d been close before but we’d never crossed that line. It’s too big a risk. No way I was going to try something with her and mess it all up, lose the only thing that I really cherish in this world.

  Because we’re the same. That’s why we were best friends since the moment we met.

  My parents were also killed in a botched robbery attempt. And just like Bruce Wayne as a kid in Batman I knew right then I wanted to fight crime. I worked my ass off to earn the uniform of the L.A.P.D., and fight crime the right way.

  And tomorrow I was going to get an earful why I didn’t do exactly that.

  How I abandoned my partner.

  How I disrespected a superior partner.

  How I basically lost my freaking mind.

  But the only mind that matters right now is hers, and it’s obviously going a million miles a minute as she tries to process what just happened.

  I know all about this. We’ve studied it a million times. She’s having trauma after some incident. I need to get what information I can to do what I need to do, whether that involves staying on the right side of the law or not.

  Because when it comes to your best friend in life you do what you’ve got to do…no questions asked.

  But just like Al Pacino said in the Godfather, a movie we must have watched together hundreds of times before on my couch, “Don’t ever take sides, with anyone, against the family.” And whoever just crossed her took a side against me whether they know it or not.

  Because she’s family. She’s all I got. And whoever wronged her is gonna have nothing when I’m done with them, especially if it was some grabby prick on a first date.

  I’ll rip his fuckin’ fingers off.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I don’t get it…that I don’t understand, but can you tell me…tell me where he went?”

  She shakes her head as if she’s just as frustrated as the Lieutenant.

  She looks down at my boots on the sidewalk and then looks up at me.

  “He’s here.”

  “Where? Show me. Now,” I say ready to get revenge for her.

  “You can’t see him can you?”

  My eyes shoot left and right scanning the area. Nothing.

  “Autumn, you’ve got to tell me. Where is he?”

  She sobs again.

  “Is it that guy you were talking about?”

  She nods her head profusely. “Yes!”

  “What did he do? Did he break your heart? That son of a…”

  “Yes!”

  “Just tell me his name and I’ll pay him a visit he’ll never forget.”

  Now I know I’m close and I can really feel the hate boil through me.

  She just looks at me with a confused look…probably similar to the confused look I give her in return.

  “Con…er,” she says.

  That’s weird. “Same as mine?” I ask pointing my finger back at my chest.

  “Don’t you get it? It’s not the same as you. It is you, you big idiot,” she says pounding on my chest with her fists before she melts in my arms.

  I catch her with my hands as I hold her, standing there stunned.

  CHAPTER 2

  Autumn

  Three hours earlier

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’ve got to cut you off,” the bartender says.

  “It’s miss! Cause he doesn’t want me,” I slur back at him.

  His cheeks puff up and then he exhales as he goes to the other end of the bar so he can pretend to wash glasses. I know what he’s doing over there. He’s not fooling me.

  But how can I blame him?

  He doesn’t want to hear my sob story…again.

  I’ve been telling him about it nonstop like a broken record since I walked in here.

  Heck, I tried to tell Connor yesterday, but despite all the winks and nudges and hints, it just went over his head.

  What are we doing, Connor and I?

  We don’t have one of those secret pacts where if one of us is single at thirty then we decide to get married or something like that…because we don’t need it.

  We are so meant for each other that it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

  I don’t even think about other guys and he never so much as mentions other girls. At first I thought it was just an unspoken thing, but now I know there were no other guys or girls.

  But one of us has to step forward and be brave.

  One of us has to risk everything.

  And that’s gonna be…me, right after I sober up.

  I stumble out of the bar and nobody so much as helps me with the door, which seems even heavier than normal.

  That’s the problem these days. No gentleman.

  I’m all about girl power, but jeez guys, you can still get a door for a lady once in awhile�
�especially when you’re exiting at the same time. Nobody likes a door slammed in their face.

  But that’s beside the point. Young guys are just too…young. Too immature. I mean come on, I just saw a video the other day where you can buy a clip-on man bun. A clip-on man bun! And it had almost twenty million views already. For nine dollars you can look more like a woman with her hair tied up, and just as with everything that comes to guys these days it’s not even real.

  I swear guys are getting worse than girls. And after the whole makeup for men thing catches on in the west like it’s already catching on in Korea…forget about it?