Callahan's Fate (17 page)

“Don’t you?”

Callahan laughed. “Well, yeah, you know
I do.
 
But I can drive and I enjoy
it.
 
I’d have a car, but there’s no place
to park it, not where I live.
 
It sounds
fun ,but
it would wind up being a pain in the ass.
 
I suppose you drive back home.”

“Of course,” she said. “Everyone except
a few ninety-year-old ladies does, and kids who are too young.
 
I liked my last car, too, a Nissan Altima.”

“
Whaddya
do,
sell it?”

She nodded. “I did, to have a little
more money to make the move here.
 
I miss
it but I can’t see myself driving in this traffic.”

“Aw, you could, I bet.” Callahan
navigated around a pair of taxis and a delivery van with skill. “It just takes
practice.”

A long, sleek limousine shot out of a
cross street into his path, but he hit the horn and changed course.
 
When he glanced at
Raine
,
she had her hands clasped tight, eyes shut.
 
“You okay?” he asked.

“Yes, but that was close!”

“Not really.”

“I’m still shaking!”

“Then come here,” he said.
 
At the next traffic light, he kissed her long
and deep. “Better?”

Raine
purred like a
contented cat. “
Much,
thanks.”

If she rubbed against him any harder, he
might have to rethink this moving thing and go back to his apartment.
 
His cock twitched with interest about the
same time
Raine
cried out, “Oh, look, how cute!”

He glanced over and grinned.
 
A middle-aged couple dressed in matching
clown costumes marched their two dogs on leashes down the street.
 
Each of the pups wore a pointed clown hat.
“Yeah, it takes all kinds.
 
You’ll
probably see a lot of people dressed up.
 
If I didn’t have to work, maybe we’d go out or something.
 
Or just stay in, order a pizza, and watch a
scary movie. It’s not my favorite night.”

She put her hand on his thigh. “Don’t
you like Halloween? I do.
 
We always went
trick-or-treating back home.”

“It’s all right.
 
I know it’s a lot of fun for kids, still, but
it’s a night when a lot of mean things go down, too.
 
I’ve worked too many Halloweens as a cop to
think otherwise.
 
Somewhere between the
bobbing for apples and the candy, there’s always a few violent crimes and dark
stuff.
 
There’s usually a call or two
about a ‘real’ vampire or someone says they saw a werewolf or something.
 
And the vandals get out in force.
 
I liked it fine as a kid, though, especially
in Brooklyn.”

“Why there?”

Callahan watched the traffic with one
eye and looked at her with affection. “We could go trick-or-treating to a few
houses.
 
Over here, in most of the city,
kids just go door to door in their apartment building, or to a few of the
shops.
 
Or these days, they go to parties
or events like that Pumpkin Fest thing in Central Park.”

“That’s different,”
Raine
said. “So, will I need to pass out candy to kids in your building?”

Damn me and my
big mouth.
“No, I’d rather you don’t.
 
I work three
to eleven, remember? So I won’t be home and I don’t want anyone harassing you.”

“You mean Spike, Bull, or Shoe?” Her
soft voice cut right to the heart of his fears.

“Yeah, I do.”

“We haven’t seen them since I moved in
with you,”
Raine
told him.

“I know, but we
gotta
be careful.
 
I wish I didn’t have to work
tonight, doll.”

“But you do.”

“That’s right, but I’m off tomorrow and
Monday,” he said. “Hey, we’re here.”

Callahan maneuvered the truck into a
spot down the block.
 
Earlier in the
week, he’d delivered some boxes and a big plastic tote so it shouldn’t take
long to pack up her remaining possessions.
 
He got antsy being in the neighborhood because the last sighting of the
bastards had been here.
 
If they might
turn up anywhere, he figured it would be in the vicinity.

Raine
climbed out of
the truck, and he caught up with her. “Stay close, you hear me? And let’s make
it as quick as we can.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and
rubbed them as if she
were
cold, but he had a feeling
fear, not a chill, fueled the gesture. “Okay, it shouldn’t take too long.”

An hour later, they had stripped her two
rooms of anything personal.
 
They hadn’t
dallied, not even to linger over her framed photographs of family and friends
back home.
 
Callahan did a walk-through,
checking for anything that might have been forgotten, but found nothing.
 
“Do you see anything else?” he asked.

“No, I’m sure we have it all.
 
All I need to do is drop off the key to my
landlady downstairs.”

He nodded. “I’ll carry down the last of
the stuff while you do.”

Once he wound his way back toward
midtown, Callahan relaxed.
 
The imminent
possibility of Bull or Snake popping up into view diminished with each mile he
put behind them.
 
By the time they
carried
Raine’s
possessions into his apartment, Callahan
was giddy enough to dance, if there had been any space.
 
With her boxes and totes scattered across his
kitchen floor, there wasn’t much.
 
He
nudged one of the crates with one toe. “Jeez, I don’t know if there’s room for
all this stuff.”

Although he made his tone teasing,
Raine
glanced up at him with a sober expression. “Don’t
worry, I’ll get it all put away in no time.
 
I’ll do it tonight while you’re working your shift. I’m sorry for the
mess.
 
It must look like I’ve invaded
your space.”

Callahan grinned. “Baby, I’m glad you’re
here, and I’m kidding. I’ll help you until I go if you want.
 
Just let me take the truck back to Jim and
bring us a sandwich or something from the deli.
 
Whaddya
want?”

She smiled back. “An Italian, I
guess.
 
Thanks, Callahan.”

“You’re welcome.
 
I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t hurry,” she told him. “Maybe I
can get everything put up and back in order.”

He laughed. “I’ll be back in thirty
minutes, tops.”

An hour later, Callahan opened the door
to his apartment and grinned.
 
The aroma
of fresh-brewed coffee filled his nose, along with a hint of
Raine’s
fragrance.
 
If he’d been blindfolded, he would have known a woman was present.
 
After the chill walk, the heat emanating from
the radiator enveloped him like an embrace, and for the first time ever since
he had moved in, he felt like he was home.

In his absence,
Raine
had reduced the mess scattered across the floor by at least a third, and she
glanced up with a smile. “You’re back,” she told him.

“I am.” He maneuvered around her stuff
and put the bags from the deli on the table. “Sorry it took longer than I
expected, but Jim got to talking and there was a line at the deli.”

“That’s okay,” she told him. “I’ve been
busy.”

“I’ll say! You’re a fast worker, doll.”

Her face lit up. “If I am, I learned it
from you.”

“Meaning?”
Callahan
thought he knew but he wanted to hear it straight out.

“We’ve known each other, what, not quite
a month?” she said. “But we’re together, we’re a couple, and I love you.
 
I don’t know what to call what we have, but
it’s there and it’s real.
 
A lot of
people would think it’s happening too fast, but not me.
 
I take it for the miracle it is.”

He liked what she said. “
Me
, too, honey.
 
Let’s
eat.
 
Are you hungry?”

Raine
stood up and
came to him.
 
She put one hand on his
chest, the other rested on his shoulder. “I am, for food,” she said. “But I’m
hungrier for you.”

Callahan forgot the food, his looming
shift, and everything else when she spoke.
 
He took her mouth with his and teased his lips over hers with finesse.
 
Exquisite chills shuddered down his spine as
all the heat in his body descended into his dick.
 
It hardened as he kissed her, and as his
desire increased, his reason vanished.
 
He managed to navigate through the stacked boxes and totes without
stubbing a toe without ever releasing his grip on
Raine
.
 
She hadn’t folded it into a sofa yet, and he
pushed her back onto it.
 
By then, she
had her blouse half off and wiggled out of her jeans.

He removed his shirt and ripped off his
pants in record time.
 
Callahan finished
fast enough to remove her panties.
 
He
cupped one of her breasts in his hand, savoring the weight of it, and bent down
to suck the nipple.
 
At first, he was a
gentle as a newborn, but then he used his teeth to nibble and she squealed.
“You want me to stop?”

“Never,” she gasped. “Don’t.”

So he continued,
then
switched to the other nipple.
 
She moaned
with pleasure and managed to reach down to grasp his cock in her hand.
 
As
Raine
wrapped
her fingers around it, she ran them up and down in a way that brought an
intense, almost painful, sensual delight.
 
In response, Callahan went a little wild.
 
He buried his face between her breasts and
kissed her there.
 
Then he went on a
kissing frenzy, beginning at the soft hollow at the base of her throat,
expanding to both sides of her neck, and over her
titties
.
 
He kissed, he licked, and he nibbled.
 
He left love bites in several places as he
moved downward.
 

Raine
clutched him,
her fingers tight against his skin.
 
She
extended one hand and used her nails to rake down his back.
 
He enjoyed it and knew what he would do to
pleasure her.
 
Callahan spread her legs
with haste, but instead of entering her with his cock, he lowered his head and
extended his tongue.
 
He used it to enter
her pulsating wet passage and stretched until he touched the end to her clit.
 
Her body convulsed around it and he tasted
her musky woman flavor.
 
His dick
hardened more with every whimper, each gasp that she made, and when he figured
she couldn’t take anymore, he reared back and then plunged into her.

Sweet Jesus, she fit his cock like a
custom-made sheath to a sword.
 
The walls
of her pussy clenched tight around him, and when she tightened her ass muscles,
Callahan thought he’d die a glorious, pleasant death.
 
His bones melted as his flesh yielded.
 
The tension built until it became almost
unbearable, the sensations so intense the pleasure bordered on pain.
 
He needed release, but he wanted to take
Raine
with him for the ride so he pumped harder.
 
As he watched her face turn crimson, he knew
she was about to come so he penetrated deeper, and when she shuddered, he let
go.

They came together in a wild, wicked
rush of delight.
 
His limbs shuddered and
body convulsed until he thought he might pass out.
 
The climax satisfied and sated him. Callahan
rode the spirals of pleasure until the last made him blind for a few
seconds.
 
Then he collapsed beside her on
the bed, panting hard, sweat-soaked but happy.
 

“Oh, God,” he said when he could speak.
“That was fine.”

“Awesome,”
Raine
replied. “Fantastic.
Terrific.
Marvelous.”

“Yeah, all that.”
He narrowed his
eyes to glance at the clock. “Shit! What time is it?”

“Almost one,” she said.

The quiet after-moment vanished. “I
gotta
get around.
 
Shit, I have to be there at three, so I’ll need to leave by two-fifteen
at the latest.”