Above Protection (Imperfect Heroes Book 1) (27 page)

I bit back a smile.

We walked slowly to his car in the
parking garage of the federal building and he opened my door. “No
need to guard me so closely anymore,” I teased.

Before I could get in, he gently
yanked the back of my hair, looked around the garage to ensure we
were alone, then growled into my face, “I will always guard you
closely. Too bad if you don’t like it.”

His lips were inches from mine. And
how did he know I liked to have my hair pulled? I tightened my grip
around his bicep. “You are bossy.”

“You like it,” he whispered into my
mouth.

I wanted to jump him right there in
the parking garage. I wanted to pull open his pants and get on my
knees and thank him for his chivalrous actions. But I restrained
myself.

I got in and he closed my door, then
went around to the driver’s side and started up the loud car. As we
drove out of the lot and onto the main street, he said, “I hope you
cleared your schedule for the rest of the day.”

I laughed. “I’m unemployed. I have
nothing else to do. We going to your place?”

“No, yours is closer, and I’m in pain
over here.”

I looked down at the bulge in his
pants and my eyes widened. He gave me a sideways glance that was
colored with hunger and possessiveness and I was glad my panties
would be coming off soon. They were soaked.

He slammed the door to my condo and
fastened the deadbolt, then ripped my purse from my shoulder and
tossed it onto the sofa. He turned and faced me, more animalistic
hunger dancing in his fiery eyes. I had no doubt mine reflected
back the same.

Pushing me up against the wall, he ran
his hand up my bare thigh under my beige skirt and kissed me. I
gasped when his hand reached my panties, then I felt him smile.
“Ready for me, I see,” he said. He then ran his tongue around the
shell of my ear. My body erupted in flames as he began kissing down
my neck and his fingers snaked into my panties. I still had on a
pair of nude colored pumps so I wiggled my panties off and they
dropped to land on top of them. I kicked free of them and
giggled.

With my trembling hands, I unbuttoned
his dress slacks and ran the zipper down. Then I reached in and
untucked his dress shirt and loosened his tie enough that I could
pull them both off over his head. I tossed them to the floor. I ran
both hands around to his backside and put my fingers into the
waistband of his pants.

“Fuck, woman, your touch,
God…”

“Shut up,” I said to him, proceeding
to crush my mouth back onto his. Placing both meaty hands under my
bare ass, he lifted me up and I put both legs around his waist. He
carried me to my bedroom and set me down on the bed and ripped my
shirt off, then my bra.

“Damn you’re so gorgeous,” he
murmured, pulling his pants off. I gazed down at the large, angry
red scar on his right thigh. It extended from above his knee almost
to his groin area. Of course I had to keep my gaze traveling north.
I hadn’t forgotten how big he was, but it was still a shock to see
it spring free. I glanced at it with hooded eyes, then back up to
him.

“You have one and only chance to tell
me you don’t want this,” he murmured, staring hungrily at
me.

“Come here,” I said, up on my
elbows.

He climbed onto the bed and pushed my
legs apart, sank himself between them, and pushed into me. No
condom, nothing this time, and at that moment, I didn’t care one
bit. He felt so good stretching me as wide and hot.

He groaned into my ear as he stroked
in and out. I closed my eyes and enjoyed it, meeting his hips
thrust for thrust. The buildup was almost too fast and as the wave
of ecstasy washed over me, I gripped his body with mine, I cried
out. “Oh, my God. Duke, oh… my… Duke…!”

“Yes, that’s it, baby,” he said
between kisses.

With my neck tilted back and eyes
closed, I didn’t see him pull out of me, but I suddenly felt his
loss. He flopped onto his back next to me and reached over and
grabbed my hip, rolling me on top of him. I placed both feet flat
on the bed and smiled down at him as I slowly lowered myself,
impaling my wet core onto his thick cock.

I used that leverage to ride up and
down and he stared into my eyes, the storms in his now raging out
of control. His breathing was hard and he closed his eyes when I
went back down to my knees and stilled on top of him. I slowly
leaned forward, brushing my breasts over his hard chest.

He began to move his hips up and down
and I again met his thrusts. I sat up straight and he opened his
eyes, both of his large hands covering my small breasts. His thumbs
ran over my rock-hard nipples and I groaned. I was going to come
again, I could feel it building quickly.

“I love you,” he breathed out, his
eyes trailing from my breasts into my eyes.

I smiled and panted out, “And I love
you. But I think you know that.”

His eyes closed and his head jerked
back into the pillow. “Oh fuck…”

I felt him stiffen right as my second
orgasm hit. I screamed out as I spasmed all over him, riding out
the wave. I finally collapsed on his chest, our hips still moving
slowly together.

He wrapped both arms around me and we
stayed latched together, breathing heavy. Reaching around to a
blanket draped over the side of the bed, he pulled it over us and I
closed my eyes, sighing happily.

Chapter 31

Duke

The pretty nurse is in the
first thing I see when I open my eyes. She looks down at me with
big brown eyes and says, “Welcome back, Sergeant.”

I squint against the harsh
light and confusion, my head feeling foggy. “Where am I?” I
groan.

“Military hospital in
Germany, hun.” She is writing on a clipboard.

The reason I’m in the
hospital comes back to me quickly. “I can’t look. Do I still have
my leg?”

She sets the clipboard
down and gazes sympathetically at me.

Shit. No. Fuck. Please
no…

With a coy smile, she
flips back the blanket to expose my leg. It is twice the size as
the other, and the top half is wrapped in lots of bandages, but
it’s still there. I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Yes, Sarge. You still
have your leg. Lucky Dr. Singh was on duty. The guy is a miraculous
surgeon. You’ll have a nasty scar and probably a limp, though. He
had to take a lot of muscle.”

I close my eyes. Bye bye,
Marine Corps. They’re gonna discharge me. Oh well, I can’t worry
about that right now.

“Thank you, nurse,” I
murmur and fall back to sleep.

Suddenly I’m not in the
hospital anymore. I’m on the battlefield again, hiding behind an
outcropping of dirty buildings surrounded by sand. My leg is
killing me behind my camouflage uniform, but I keep shooting my
rifle at the insurgents who are shooting back to us. “We need to
get the fuck outta here,” Ellis says next to me as he keeps
shooting.

I shake my head. “No, we
kill these bastards first.”

“No, Duke, come on, we
need to go.”

Right then, Ellis drops to
the ground, a bloody round hole in his forehead, his dead eyes open
and staring into nothing.

“No!” I screamed. I bolted upright in
my bed and gasped hard. I realized where I was quickly and scrubbed
a hand over my beard.

Rayanne sat up and took the sheet to
cover her chest. She rubbed my arm, blinking at me with worry. “Are
you okay?”

I looked into her beautiful eyes and
sighed with relief that it was just a dream. I’m not back on the
battlefield and Ellis isn’t dead. I need to call that kid and see
how he’s doing.

Nodding at my beautiful woman, I said,
“Yes. I am now.”

It had been two weeks since the trial.
We were both glad the ordeal was behind us and we hadn’t spent one
night apart, trading nights at each other’s houses. She’d found a
job here in Tampa at a law firm who was happy to hire her with all
her experience.

Pushing some of her blonde hair out of
her eyes, I laid her back down and covered her body with mine, my
mouth gently finding hers. I quickly began making love to her for
no other reason than I selfishly needed the comfort. Not that I’d
ever admit that to her, but somehow I think she knew. She most
certainly didn’t protest.

I waited nervously for the door to
open, my hand grasping Rayanne’s. I looked over to her and smiled,
and she returned it. My God, she’s so gorgeous, and I can’t believe
she puts up with me. I’m so far from perfect, and she’s nothing
but. I’m never letting her go. I don’t deserve her, but she doesn’t
seem to grasp that.

A very pregnant Talia opened the door
and smiled, brushing a red curl from her forehead. “Hi, Duke!” She
widened the door to invite us into the new townhouse she and Ellis
shared.

“Talia, this is my girlfriend, Rayanne
Lynch.”

“Nice to meet you!” Rayanne said
cheerfully, smiling at Talia.

“Duke!” Ellis said, walking into the
living room in a pair of dark blue tactical uniform pants and a
light blue polo shirt with an official-looking seal on one side of
the chest. “E. Anderson” was embroidered on the other
side.

He saw me looking at his clothing and
turned a little red. “Sorry. I just got home from work. Make
yourselves comfortable, I’m gonna go change.” I shook his hand and
nodded.

Talia led us to the kitchen and dining
area where there were fixings for hamburgers, a salad, a fruit
plate, and plenty of drinks spread out.

“This all looks great,” Rayanne said,
handing Talia a plate. We had brought our own meat to
share.

“Yes, I love to cook,” she smiled,
rolling a hand over her large belly as she took the plate and
unwrapped the foil. She began rubbing spices over it with her
clean, bare hands.

“When’s the baby coming?” I asked,
taking a handful of barbeque potato chips and popping one into my
mouth.

“Six more weeks,” she replied,
smiling.

“Boy or girl?” Rayanne asked as she
sat down.

Ellis came out wearing shorts and a
T-shirt and put his arms around Talia’s belly. “It’s a boy. We
don’t have a name yet, because I know that’s going to be your next
question.”

I chuckled. “I see.”

Ellis picked up a plate of meat,
indicating for me to follow him out back to a small but spacious
patio that was decorated with planted flowers and shit. A barbeque
pit was built into the corner of the yard and the grill was smoking
and ready to go. He began placing the meat on the grill and said,
“So how are you doing, Duke. I mean, really?”

“Great. Really and truly. I met
Rayanne on a case, because I know that’s going to be your next
question.”

He raised a dark eyebrow, his light
blue eyes staring at me. “Seriously? Isn’t that against the rules
or something?”

I laughed, because I was never, ever
gonna live it down as long as I was with her. “Yeah, sorta. I was
put on a protection detail and fell in love with the victim. The
bureau kinda frowns on it.”

His eyes widened.

“No, they’re not gonna fire me,” I
replied before he could ask.

“That’s not what shocked me. You said
you were in love.”

I hid my smile, which is all I’ve been
doing it seems since Rayanne has been in my life. “So fucking
what?”

Ellis grinned and flipped over one of
the steaks, and I watched as he held the spatula with four fingers,
since his pinky was missing. He smiled and shook his head. “I’m
happy for you.”

I clapped him on the back. “Thanks,
man.”

He pointed at my mouth. “Where’s the
dip? I got some Styrofoam cups in the kitchen if you want
one.”

“I quit.”

Ellis froze and pretended to bring a
two-way radio up to his mouth. “Repeat, over?”

“Yep. It sucks, but I’m dealing with
it. Rayanne doesn’t like the snuff.”

He was about to pop off a smart retort
when the girls came outside carrying drinks. Rayanne had a glass of
white wine in her hand, and Talia’s was water. Well, I think it
was.