Officer in Pursuit (15 page)

“Not really. I couldn’t stand it if
you knew any of the details. I’d have to go live under a
rock.”

“No, you wouldn’t. Whatever he did,
it’s not your fault.”

She didn’t say anything, and he didn’t
push her. In a way, he was glad – his gut ached and churned at the
thought of anyone abusing her, and he got the feeling that the
details of what she’d been through might be hard to hear. She was
anything but a melodramatic person, and this was the only time he’d
ever seen her remotely so upset.

Truth was, he didn’t know what to do –
what he possibly could do – to make her feel better, and it was
killing him.

“Want a drink?” she eventually asked.
“Coffee or something?”

“Do you? I’ll make it for you. You
just sit here and relax.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want
anything. I just thought you might.”

“I’m fine.”

“Can I ask you for another
favor?”

“Yeah. What is it?”

“Will you stay the whole
night?”

“Yeah.” Again, he was relieved she’d
asked, that he didn’t have to make an ass out of himself trying to
keep her safe. “And don’t feel guilty about asking – this is my
chance to return the favor for you taking care of me the other
day.”

She squeezed his hand, and the slight
pressure sent heat radiating up his arm and through his body. Maybe
he was a dick, but he liked being touched by her, no matter what
the circumstances. He couldn’t help it.

When she leaned against him, he just
about jumped, he was so shocked. He quickly adjusted to the warm
press of her body against his though, her cheek against his
shoulder and her arm against his biceps. He didn’t dare move, for
fear that he’d scare her away.

It must’ve worked, because she didn’t
go anywhere, just stayed where she was, hot and soft against him.
He was wearing a t-shirt, and her top was short-sleeved too – they
were skin-to-skin.

When he felt her gaze on his face,
pulling at him like gravity, he looked down at her and was locked
in eye contact.

Awareness swept through him, hot and
immediate, a little unsettling. He could feel the curve of one of
her breasts against his arm, and her breath was flowing over his
skin. Not getting turned-on was easier said than done.

He thought of why he was there in the
first place, what they were dealing with. He had himself good and
ashamed by the time she leaned closer, her lips brushing his
jaw.

Stars spun in his field of vision,
like he’d been hit. Her lips were soft though, delicate against his
skin. Delicate and hot, pressing harder now, touching the corner of
his mouth.

He leaned in and kissed her, thinking
of nothing but her, forgetting where they were for a full, glorious
minute. When her tongue slipped between his lips and touched his,
he pulled back.

He searched her gaze for some sign of
regret and found none. He was almost tempted to pinch himself, in
case he was dreaming. His lips were still tingling though, and his
cock – fully hard now – was pressing so desperately against his
jeans that it hurt. The sensations were too real to be a dream,
even an erotic one.

When she leaned in again he went with
it, slipped his tongue easily between her lips, letting it tangle
with hers. She tasted so good – like wine and fruit from the party
– and she was warmer than he ever could’ve imagined. Another minute
into the kiss and she was halfway in his lap, no longer just
pressing against him, but actually on him.

When her thigh pressed against his
dick and she didn’t shy away, he stopped kissing her. She had to
feel him – he was so hard it felt like he might split at the
seams.

“We should stop,” he forced himself to
say. “This isn’t the time to mess around like this.”

He was terrified of taking things too
far, of taking advantage of her. At the same time, he ached for
more – more of anything she’d give him, or let him take. It was an
animal urge sharpened by months of longing and fantasizing, and he
had to fight to keep it in check.

“Thanks,” she said, “for being so
gentlemanly. But I don’t want to stop.”

He made an involuntary sound in the
back of his throat – something like a moan. “Oh yes you do. Trust
me. I’ve been fantasizing about this all summer, and given the
circumstances I think I’d be a real asshole if this ended the way
it does in my fantasies.”

“I know what you’re saying.” She
stared directly into his eyes, her gaze unwavering. “I’m not naïve
– I want to sleep with you.”

There went that sound again, the one
that made it seem like he was choking on the unbelievable reality
of Kerry wanting to have sex with him, now of all times.

“You have no idea how much I like
hearing you say that.” He struggled for something else to say,
something to make really, really sure that she knew what she was
getting into. He thought of asking her whether it was the wine
talking, but remembered that it had only been one glass, hours ago,
with dinner.

“After all you’ve been through these
past few days, are you absolutely sure you want to do this now?” he
finally asked. It was the best thing he could come up with – most
of his blood had migrated south, leaving him decidedly
stupid.

“Yes. I’m sure. Please don’t baby me –
I know you want it too.” She pressed a hand against his dick,
rubbing her palm against it, slow and hard. “I can see that you
want it. I can feel it.”

CHAPTER 12

Grey stifled a moan and almost came in
his jeans. Jesus! This was like the beginning of one of his wildest
fantasies.

He grabbed Kerry by both arms, pulled
her farther into his lap and kissed her, hard. Their tongues
twisted together again, and she straddled him, her thighs squeezing
his. His erection settled in the apex of her thighs, and though
they were both clothed, it was the most erotic thing he’d
experienced in what felt like an eternity.

He finally did what he’d been longing
to all summer: ran his hands all over her body, touching
everything, stroking her flat belly and cupping her breasts in his
hands. She leaned in as he touched her, pressing herself against
him, getting closer and closer until she was flat against his
chest.

Her hands were between them and he
realized what she was doing when he felt her tugging on his jeans
zipper.

He hadn’t thought he could want this
more, but as she unfastened his jeans, desire and urgency hit him
hard, like a one-two punch. All the reservation – the faraway looks
and stunted explanations – that he’d come to associate with Kerry
was gone now, bizarrely non-existent.

Was it because the truth had come out
about her ex-husband? Had she thought, for some crazy reason, that
he wouldn’t be interested if he knew she’d been married before? Was
this some sort of weird test designed to determine whether he still
wanted her, now that he knew?

And if it was, didn’t she realize that
no one would be able to resist her like this, regardless of how
they felt?

He caught her by the wrist,
stopped her just as –
Jesus
– she pulled down the waistband of his boxer
briefs and brushed his shaft with her fingers.

“You’re sure you wanna do this?” He
had to ask again, because he was dangerously close to the point of
not caring why they were doing this or what her motivation was. “We
don’t have to. If that’s what you think—”

“I’m sure.”

Her reply galvanized the unbearable
lust rising inside him, the urge to give in to what he’d been
thinking about every time he jacked off for the past five months.
He couldn’t hold back anymore – not now that he was sure she didn’t
want him to.

When he let go of her wrist, it was so
he could slip his hands beneath the hem of her shirt and begin
unwrapping every last inch and curve of the body she always covered
so modestly, like she didn’t have more beauty to show off than most
women could ever hope for.

He went as slowly as he could bear to,
lifting her shirt over her head and running his hands all over her
sides, belly and back before he unhooked her bra.

He was momentarily frozen at the sight
of her breasts, bare and almost exactly what he’d imagined when
he’d seen her swimsuit clinging to their curves. They were small
and round, soft-looking above the flatness of her belly, beside the
tightness of her slender arms. A perfect complement to her petite
frame, and an irresistible contrast to her toned body.

When he pressed his lips against one,
the skin was just as soft as he’d thought, like silk against his
mouth. Her nipples were a dark pink and hard – hard against his
cheek, the corner of his mouth and then his tongue as he drew one
past his teeth.

She drew a sharp breath he could feel
filling her lungs, pressing her breast more firmly against his
face. And she arched against him, into him.

He had his arms around her and didn’t
want to let her go, or stop what he was doing. And for a while he
didn’t, but there was still more he wanted to see, touch,
taste…

His undone jeans were open in his lap,
and his dick brushed her thigh as he unzipped her jeans too, then
peeled them off, revealing a pair of blue panties. They were made
out of some impossibly smooth fabric, and the cut was like tiny
shorts. He was pretty sure women had a name for the style, but
couldn’t think of it – not when his mind was fogged by the sheer
ecstasy of feeling her pussy radiating heat through the thin
material, warming his fingers.

Whatever they were called, he liked
them because they rode up in the back, exposing the lower half of
her ass to his touch. He gripped her by her ass cheeks and pulled
her all the way back into his lap, groaning when her thigh rubbed
hot and bare against his cock.

When she was settled, her pussy was
pressed against his shaft. If it hadn’t been for her panties, he
could’ve been inside her.

She wriggled against him, making her
silk-smooth panties rub against the head of his cock, teasing him
almost to the point of coming. God, he’d wanted this for a long
time, and he hadn’t expected it to happen tonight. It felt too good
to be true. He had to make a conscious effort to rein himself in,
to keep from losing it right there, all over her little blue shorts
and flat belly.

The thought drove home a fresh
realization – a god-awful one. “I don’t have a condom,” he said,
his lust stubbornly multiplying instead of fading. God, he couldn’t
stop now. “Do you?”

She froze. “No. Shit… I didn’t plan
this.”

He hadn’t either, but earlier that
summer he’d put a condom in his wallet during a fit of wishful
thinking. Last week, it’d fallen out and he’d discovered a tear in
the package. That’d been just after Kerry had declined to walk out
onto the pier with him and he hadn’t bothered to replace
it.

He bit back a groan. “I’d go get some,
but I don’t want to leave you alone.”

Visions of strolling through a drug
store with a raging boner haunted him. They should offer condoms in
the drive-through pharmacy window – they’d probably make a
killing.

Anyway, he couldn’t leave her, even if
he somehow managed to stuff his dick back into his
jeans.

She wrapped her hand around his shaft,
shocking him with heat and pressure. “We could still do things.
Maybe not exactly what we want, but still…”

She ran her hand up and down his shaft
with a boldness that would’ve floored him if he hadn’t already been
sitting back on the couch. His balls drew up tight against his
body, and he could feel the inevitable building up of tension
inside him already, pure heat pooling at the base of his
spine.

What they were doing was so unexpected
– so fucking perfect, except for the lack of a condom – that he
didn’t want to ruin it. Didn’t want to drag her out of the house
and risk stirring up her fear again. He wanted to keep her here not
only for his own sake, but so he could keep her fear at bay. Give
her something else to focus on – something good.

Pleasure instead of pain.

“We could,” he said, and, in a feat of
sheer willpower, pulled her hand off of his dick. “You’re first
though.”

His mouth watered as he slid her
panties down over her hips, peeling them away and exposing her
pussy.

He couldn’t look without
touching.

She was wet – that was the first thing
he noticed. Wet and tight, he found when he nudged a finger in,
gently rubbing between her lips, unable to keep out, even if he
wouldn’t be able to bury himself there like he wanted. Not tonight,
anyway.

She gasped, went almost
rigid.

“You okay?”

“Yes. It just … feels so
good.”

He felt her gaze on his lap, heard the
change in her voice as she looked down.

He was hard – throbbing. Still
exposed, just like she’d left him, his cock hard and straight above
where she’d shoved down his underwear and jeans. He longed to feel
her hand around his shaft again, but knew he wouldn’t last long.
Ignoring the ache in his balls, he shifted against the couch,
lifting her out of his lap.