Convict: A Bad Boy Romance (31 page)

“Please,” I say. “God, Stone, make me come,
please.
”

He starts fucking me again, slow and shallow and hard, sinking himself impossibly deep with every stroke, making sure that I can feel his cock inside me perfectly.

“You said fast and then slow,” he says, his voice low and rough, like he’s having a hard time hanging on himself. “I’m just fucking you like you wanted.”

“Stone,” I whimper, right at the brink, every muscle in my body tensed and ready to spring. “Oh my God, Stone.”

Then I come like a supernova exploding, a slow chain reaction that happens in waves, slow bursts that make my toes curl and my hands clench as I shout Stone’s name over and over again.

It doesn’t stop, just rocks through me with smaller and smaller shocks as we keep moving together until I can finally open my eyes, panting for breath, Stone still hard inside me.

I reach behind myself and grab the back of his neck, turning my head.

“I love feeling you come,” he growls, still fucking me hard and slow.

“Come,” I say, and arch back against him.

“Fuck, Luna,” he whispers.

“I like feeling your cock as you come inside me,” I say, and arch into him again, as hard as I can, sliding him deep.

“You’re fucking dirty, Luna,” he groans.

Then I feel him explode inside me, his thick cock pulsing as I fuck him again and again. He says
oh fuck, Luna
, over and over as he grabs my hips and pulls me tight against him.

At last, we’re just rocking together. He’s still inside me and I’m braced against the wall, the side of his face against my upper back.

Stone slides his arms around my waist and I feel him take a deep breath. We stay that way for a long moment, and even though it’s not comfortable I don’t want to move. It’s dark and quiet and everything just feels
right
, like I’m closer to him than I’ve ever been to anyone and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

He turns his head and kisses my shoulder blade. Neither of us says anything, but I can’t think of anything to say, no way to put
all this shit happened and there was a lot of drama but I still feel like this is how it’s supposed to be, like I’m in a warm blanket that’s tailor-made to my body that also makes me come really hard
into a proper sentence, so I don’t.

Stone holds the base of the condom, pulls out, and sits up against the headboard as he pulls it off and ties a knot. I sit next to him.

He tosses the condom onto the floor of his bedroom, then puts his arms around me. Somehow, the condom on the floor doesn’t ruin the moment, and I lean against his chest, just basking in the afterglow.

“Luna,” he says, after we’ve both been quiet a long time.

“Hm?”

He’s playing with my hair with one hand, absent-mindedly pushing his fingers through the curls, and he takes a deep breath.

“I don’t know what I’m doing,” he says.

“No one does,” I say.

“I don’t mean like that,” he says slowly. “I mean I’m twenty-nine and the job at Eddie’s is the first one I’ve ever had. The longest relationship I’ve had was a couple weeks. The deepest friendship I ever had was with the guy I ratted out to the FBI.”

I reach across him and take his other hand in mine.

“Stone,” I say, even though I’m not sure what I’m going to say next.

“I’m afraid I’m going to hurt you, Luna,” he says, his voice quiet in the dark. “I’m afraid I don’t know how to give you the things you deserve, or how to be your boyfriend, or how to be the kind of person you want.”

“But you are,” I whisper.

He presses his lips to my head, and I look over at him. His face is still pretty badly bruised. He’s got an eye patch on one eye and a cut under the other that I’m pretty sure will scar, not to mention a constellation of bruises over the rest of his body.

Stone rests his forehead against my head and sighs.

“I think this might sound really cheesy,” he says.

I squeeze his hand.

“I promise not to tell anyone,” I say.

“I thought I was a lost cause until I met you,” he says, the words coming out in a rush. “I thought I was always just going to get through life, and it was always going to be hard and I was going to be alone, but I thought that was what I deserved, and it was okay. And then you came along, and I tried to tell myself I just wanted sex and I’d be fine once I got what I wanted, but I
missed
you, Luna.”

He swallows. I don’t say anything, because I don’t think he’s done.

“I want to be better for you,” he whispers. “I don’t think I’m good for you and I don’t think I’m who you deserve, but I want to be. I don’t have a map for
how to live a good life
and I’m afraid I’ll fuck it up, but Luna, I swear to God I’m going to try.”

“Stone,” I say, looking up at him. “You’re not a bad person. You did bad shit, but that’s fixable.”

I raise his hand to my lips and kiss it.

“I’m not here because I think you’re perfect,” I say. “I’m here because I like you.”

He nuzzles my hair.

“Now how about you let
me
decide what I deserve?” I say.

He laughs quietly into my hair.

“Fine,” he says.

M
y stomach growls
, and my ribs hurt a little, but I don’t want to get up. Luna’s snuggled against me, her warm skin against mine, and everything feels perfect and effortless right now, like there’s nothing better in the world.

We don’t say anything else, just lean against the headboard, half-dozing.

A phone buzzes, over by the door.

“Noooo,” Luna says.

It keeps buzzing.

“It might be work,” I say, even though I don’t want her to get up.

Luna sighs.

“Work can leave a message,” she says.

“Don’t you have an incredibly important job solving crimes, like you keep reminding me?” I tease.

“Fine,” she mutters.

She gets off the bed, walks over, and answers. I push myself up and walk to the bathroom, grabbing the condom off the floor as I go and tossing it into the trash.

When I come back into the bedroom, the lights are on and Luna’s wearing underwear again.

“They got Hammer talking,” she says.

“Yeah?” I ask. I’m not sure what that means for me.

Luna doesn’t know — no one knows — but I’m not going back into witness protection. I’m not running anymore. I’m not leaving this life that I’ve finally started getting used to, and most of all, I’m not leaving
her
.

“Talking, and talking, and
talking
, apparently,” she says, then looks at me, one eyebrow raised. “He was higher up than you thought, Stone.
Way
higher.”

My heart skips a beat, and I start putting on my pants as well. Luna walks over, half-naked, and puts a hand on my shoulder. Then she kisses it softly, and leans her face against me for a moment.

“Is everything okay?” I ask, stroking her curly hair.

“Yeah,” she says, and kisses my shoulder again. “Let’s go make dinner.”

I put a shirt on and follow her to my kitchen.

* * *

D
ays go by
, then weeks. I get to take the eye patch off, and I go back to work. The doctors say I’ll need glasses earlier than I would have otherwise, and they say I might have more headaches than I used to, but otherwise I’m fine.

No, I’m better than fine.

Luna sleeps over most nights. It turns out that Hammer didn’t like putting girls in shipping crates either, and he ends up spilling nearly
everything
. The FBI arrests dozens of people.

Suddenly, there’s almost no one left to come for me, and anyone who’s left is much more worried about themselves than about punishing me. The Tortuga PD stops stationing an officer outside my door every night, and I start spending more nights at Luna’s.

I was afraid it was going to be hard. I was afraid I was going to want to fall back into my old ways, into clamming up around her. I was afraid that I’d feel trapped, get bored, start looking at other women, but I don’t.

It isn’t all easy. Talking about feelings is hard. Communicating when we argue instead of just getting angry is hard. She has quirks that can be annoying and weird pet peeves I don’t understand.

But I don’t get bored. I don’t want someone else. Even when she does all the dishes except the silverware for some reason I
cannot
understand, I still want to be with her more than anything.

* * *

A
month
after I get kidnapped, I’m parking my crappy car in the same lot outside the Tortuga police station I got taken from. I hardly recognize it from that night. It’s sunny, since it’s three in the afternoon on a Friday, and the lot is full.

I get out of the car, shut the door and check my blazer in the reflection from the window. It’s the first one I’ve ever owned, and it’s kind of uncomfortable, but I wanted to look nice for this. I even asked Luna if I should wear a suit to her ceremony, but she just laughed at me and told me that half the audience would be wearing their
nice
flip-flops.

When I open the front door of the Tortuga Police Station, there’s a big sign to one side of the reception desk that says COMMENDATION CEREMONY, with an arrow pointing down a hallway. I’m about to follow it when I recognize the guy behind the receptionist desk.

We both stop.

Don’t,
I tell myself.
There’s no reason at all to talk to Chad, especially since he’s obviously being punished with receptionist duty.

But I remember him calling Luna a dumb slut, and my blood boils. I walk over and lean against the counter.

He
glares
.

“Do you know where the commendation ceremony is being held?” I ask, giving him my best technically-friendly smile. “My girlfriend is getting a commendation because she’s a great detective who solved a rhard case.”

A few officers in uniform walk through. People drift in and out.

Chad looks like he wants to murder me.

“Detective Luna Rivers?” I say. “You might know her. She just got promoted a few months ago, but she’s doing really well.”

“Down the hall to the left,” he says, the veins standing out in his forehead.

“Thanks,” I say.

Someone goes through a door, and for a moment, we’re alone together in this room.

“Have a good time with that tramp,” Chad says.

Fury bolts through me, and I nearly reach out and grab him by the shirt.

Be better than that
, I tell myself.

I lean over the counter again.

“You’re a fucking weakling who couldn’t be happy for someone else’s success,” I say, keeping my voice low and quiet. “And you want to knock Luna down to your level, but she’s got you beat in every
single
way I can think of, and you’re a jealous child who can’t deal with that.”

I’ve been going to therapy, by the way. It was Luna’s idea. I think it’s helping.

Chad snorts and opens his mouth, but I cut him off.

“She’s too good to stoop to where you are, but if you want to keep calling her names, you come call her names to
me
,” I say. “I’m not afraid to stoop pretty fucking low.”

The door swings open again, and people walk in. Chad doesn’t say anything in front of them, and I nod at him once.

“Keep that in mind,” I say, and walk down the hallway to the auditorium.

* * *

D
uring the commendation ceremony
, I sit next to Luna’s mom, who squeezes her dad’s hand proudly throughout the whole thing. Her brothers are there, too, along with a few of her friends who I’ve never met before.

They’re all
nice
, even though I’m pretty sure they all know my whole story. As we wait for Luna after the ceremony, we drink lemonade and eat cookies and I make polite conversation with people who have never really broken the law.

Her brother Raine still seems a little suspicious, but he’s the one she went to after she saw the prison tattoo. I don’t think I made a very good impression just then.

At last, a door opens and Luna walks out, along with Batali and the other two detectives. Her mom shouts her name and envelops Luna in a giant hug.

“We’re so proud of you!” she says. “Sweetie, you did great.”

“I just stood there,” Luna says, blushing, her mom still holding tight.

“You did a great job solving the case and being a detective,” her mom says.

“Thanks, Mom,” Luna says.

I stand back a little and let her family hug her and tell her how great she is. I want to shout
my girlfriend is awesome and good at her job and I’m super proud of her
to the world, but I’m not exactly sure what my place here is. I don’t want to step on any toes.

Finally Raine gives her a noogie, she makes a face, and then sees me still standing there.

“Hey,” she says.

I pull her in and wrap my arms around her, and she makes a slight
oof
noise.

“You did great,” I tell her, not sure what else to say.

“Thanks for coming,” she says, her face smooshed against my chest.

I smile into her hair.

“Of course I came,” I said. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

We pull apart because we’re in front of her family and coworkers, but she keeps my hand in hers for the rest of the reception. She introduces me to everyone there as her boyfriend, and even though I can see them thinking
isn’t he that guy who was in witness protection
? they’re all warm and friendly.

After the reception, we go to dinner at her parents’ house. I help set the table and do the dishes, and after dinner we eat dessert and drink wine and laugh, sitting around the fire pit outdoors.

The whole time I’m nervous. I still don’t think of myself as the guy who meets parents and drinks wine and gets along with families, but here I am. I’m doing those things.

Slowly but surely, I realize: it’s working. I
am
that guy. Luna’s here, holding my hand all night, and for her,
I’m that guy
.

* * *

I
drive
Luna back to my house. She had a glass of champagne and a couple glasses of wine, so by the time we’re in my driveway, she’s got one hand on my leg.

The moment I park she pulls me over to her and kisses me, her tongue in my mouth as her hand sneaks under my shirt.

“I nearly made you sneak off and fuck me in my parents’ bathroom,” she murmurs, her hand winding through my hair.

I was already at half-mast, but I’m instantly rock hard.

“Be nice,” I tell her as she nuzzles her face against mine. “I’m trying to make a good impression on Karen and Gary.”

“They like you,” she says into my ear. “I like you, so they like you.”

She bites my earlobe, and I inhale sharply. I only had one glass of wine, so I’m not even buzzed, but it’s nearly impossible to have Luna all over me and not give in right away.

“Only until they catch me with my face between your thighs on their bathroom sink,” I say.

She laughs quietly in my ear.

“Go on,” she says.

I take a deep breath.

“Wait,” I say, exerting all my self-control. “I have a surprise.”

She looks at me, eyebrows raised.

“What kind?” she says, her voice cooling a little.

“A good surprise,” I say, undoing my seatbelt.