RELENTLESS (16 page)

“Good things come to those who wait,” he chided, grinning and unfastening his pants.

He was back against me in an instant, drinking in my kisses, trailing his hand down my heaving chest. I wanted to slow down, to revel in his caresses, but we didn’t have the luxury of time or location. The adrenaline of the brick through my display window made it impossible for me to slow down my desperate clawing at his shoulders, the way I drew my legs around him and dragged him toward me.

“I’m going to give you what you need, baby,” he said, the pet name making me shudder with something I couldn’t name. “You don’t have to worry about a single thing. I’m going to give you everything you need.”

With that, he plunged into my soaking pussy, dragging me to the edge of the countertop and keeping me there, balanced precariously. It was hard to relax or enjoy myself when I was afraid I was going to go tumbling to the floor.

“I’m not going to let you fall,” Tyler whispered against my mouth. “Trust me. Let yourself go.”

It was easier said than done, but I tried for his sake. He was right. His strong arms pinned me in place even as he thrust up into me. I was safe. I was secure.

I hugged his neck and dragged my teeth up his throat, kissing him as he panted, rubbing my hands over the fuzz of his cropped blond hair. His cock was a piston, plunging into me again and again, a machine, its sole purpose to give me comfort and pleasure.

I muffled a howl of completion into his shoulder, biting the skin hard to keep from making too much of a racket. We could hear commuters walking by just on the other side of the plywood. For the first time, I was grateful for the brick that broke the window. There was no way Tyler and I could’ve had sex in here with that expanse of glass.

Tyler grunted intently after I released his shoulder from my mouth, moving jerkily and in the way that I was coming to recognize as pre-orgasmic. To make his climax even sweeter for him, I squeezed my inner muscles, convulsing around his cock. I was rewarded for my extra effort as Tyler gasped rapturously.

“Yes, baby,” he groaned, coming and coming, filling me with his seed. “Yes, yes.”

Oh, God. It was so sexy to watch him let himself go, to see his eyes flutter and know that I was the cause of it, to see his pulse beat in his throat and realize that I could pierce this man’s careful façade. I didn’t know if he realized how vulnerable he looked when he was coming. I didn’t want him to know, afraid it would make him hold back. One thing was clear. Good or bad, right or wrong, I was in love with Tyler Marlowe. I was in love with him and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

We held each other for several long minutes before getting dressed again. I found my ruined panties and slipped them on, not minding a little extra air beneath my skirt.

“Sorry about that,” Tyler said, grinning.

“You owe me a new pair,” I said, arching an eyebrow at him.

“I’ll pay my debts, don’t you worry,” he said. “Now, let’s talk business.”

Distasteful business. I had to keep reminding myself that I’d hired Tyler as a private investigator. I’d never lose sight of my endgame—to be reunited with my son—but Tyler was a delicious distraction until that day came.

“I’m worried about your personal safety,” he said. “Ben did this in full sight of the public.”

“So it was Ben,” I said. “Ben, personally.”

“I saw him throw the brick and tried to follow him for a while, but the traffic was too much,” Tyler explained. “And I needed to make sure that you were all right.”

“You big softie,” I teased.

Tyler snorted. “I don’t feel good about you staying in your apartment anymore,” he said. “We’re going to go there now and pack a bag—and get your evidence—and then you’re going to be staying with me.”

That was it. I didn’t have a choice in the matter, it seemed.

“What’s the problem, Ms. Crosby?” Tyler asked, those blue eyes shimmering for all they were worth.

I looked at him, memorizing his strong jaw, the tiny lines at the corners of his eyes, the shadow of whiskers on his cheek and chin.

“I don’t know anything about you,” I said truthfully, “but you want me to come live with you for, oh I don’t know, indefinitely.”

“Until we eliminate this threat,” Tyler said.

“I don’t know you,” I repeated.

“What do you need to know?”

“Why did you leave the FBI?”

I was sure he wasn’t going to tell me with the way that his face stilled, the mask that I’d been getting to see under more and more firmly in place.

“If I tell you why, will you stay with me?” he asked. “I need to keep you safe.”

The way he said it made me feel like he needed it for reasons beyond solving the case, but I could’ve been trying to read too much into the simple statement.

I nodded.

“I left the FBI because I botched a case,” Tyler said. “There was a hostage situation, a gunman with a mother and her young child. I pushed the gunman too far, certain that he was going to break, and he did—just not in the way I wanted him to. He snapped and shot both subjects before shooting himself. My superiors reviewed the case, told me what I should do to make improvements, and sent me right back out in the field. It didn’t feel right. I wanted to be punished, I guess. I felt as guilty as hell. So I resigned. Retirement didn’t really suit me, though, so I became a private investigator.”

“So when you say not to bring bombs and machine guns to the fight we’re fighting …”

“I’m speaking from experience,” he finished.

“Can I ask you another question?”

“Not until you’re safely at my place,” Tyler said. “Let’s go.”

He drove us in his car to the apartment even though it was close enough to walk.

“In case we need to go somewhere fast,” he explained, pulling it into a loading zone and putting his emergency blinkers on.

      I packed a bag with some work clothes, pajamas, and comfortable clothes, then added all of the evidence collected thus far into a folder, being sure to slip in the latest note from the brick. I zipped up my bag and looked around at my apartment. It seemed vulnerable somehow, and I couldn’t envision myself spending another night alone in it.

“Ready?” Tyler asked. He’d been pacing the entire time, alternating between peeping through the door out into the hallway and peering out the windows that looked down onto where his car was parked.

“As I’ll ever be,” I sighed, letting him take my elbow to hustle me out of there.

Tyler drove erratically at first, going around the block several times before straightening out his path. Just when I thought we had to be getting close to his home, he switched tack, doubling back on the path we’d just traveled.

“Are you lost?” I asked.

“Nope. Just making sure we don’t have a tail,” he explained.

My blood chilled. If Ben could put a brick through my boutique window in the middle of the afternoon, I could only assume he’d go through other lengths to get to me, including having me followed.

“And do we?” I asked, looking at Tyler for any betrayal of what he was feeling.

He glanced at me and gave me a sure smile. “We’re fine,” he said. “We’re going to my place, now, I promise.”

His place was an amazing condo with an unbelievable view of the city. It was sleekly modern, spare, but clean for a bachelor pad.

“You should’ve told me about your place sooner,” I said, looking out the enormous windows on the twinkling lights of the city. “I wouldn’t have hesitated to move in.”

Tyler laughed. “This is only until we can neutralize the threat against you,” he said. “I’m afraid I’m not great at roommates.”

“Can I ask that other question now?” I reminded him.

“Ah. I thought you’d forgotten about that,” he said. “Go ahead, I suppose.”

“Why’d you decide to take on my case?” I asked.

“I told you,” he said, smiling easily. “Pretty women are my weakness.”

“Flattery,” I scoffed. “I’ll take the truth, please.”

“You’re a pretty good detective, yourself,” Tyler said. “How about you tell me.”

I hesitated, biting my lip. Did he want to know what I really thought or what I hoped for?

“You found me to be delightful and utterly irresistible and sexy,” I said lightly, planting a kiss on his lips.

“Guilty,” Tyler said, kissing me back.

I put my lips on his ears. “And you wanted another chance,” I whispered. “A second chance to make things right from when you left the FBI.”

“People deserve chances, don’t they?” he asked, looking at me.

“Everyone deserves a chance,” I said, conscious that I was echoing my mentor Carlotta’s words. “Everyone.”

“I’m going to get your son for you.”

“I know you are.”

      We kissed, long and deep, leisurely and without the frenetic energy we’d had for each other up until this point.

We had time to enjoy each other now.

“Let me take you on the tour,” Tyler said, slipping my skirt off my hips. “The living room.”

“Gorgeous,” I said, unbuttoning his shirt.

Tyler dragged me into the next room, kissing me and slipping off my ruined panties.

“The kitchen,” he mumbled, fondling my bare ass.

“A vision,” I said, drawing circles on the skin of his bare chest.

“The office,” he said, relieving me of my shirt.

“I can see how you get lots of work done in here,” I said, yanking off his pants.

“And the bedroom,” he said, wrestling my bra off of me and falling into the bed as I got him tangled up in his boxers.

We laughed, wriggling together, intertwining our limbs and kissing. I looked into those blue eyes and lost myself. I didn’t want to be found again.

“Tyler …”

“Don’t,” he said softly. “Don’t.”

His gentle plea gave me pause. I’d wanted to tell him how much of a comfort he was, how thankful I was that he was here to give me a safe place to stay, that I didn’t know what I’d be doing without him by my side.

And that I loved him. There was that, too.

He pushed into me softly, driving any thoughts I had flitting around in my mind out with his cock. My pussy was getting downright used to him, molding around his dick and drawing him deeper. We laid side by side, Tyler spooning me, entering me from behind, the angle of his member inside of my wet pussy absolutely blowing my mind.

The position allowed him to explore my body at his leisure, rubbing his hands over my breasts, playing along the lines of my smooth stomach, leveraging my hips around his easy thrusting. It was less like sex and more like a union, both of us taking comfort and pleasure in each other, unhurried, nowhere to go, nowhere to be but here, in this moment.

We built the pace slowly, Tyler controlling it but me responding. A couple of times, I backed us up on purpose, slowing down to a previous pace to draw out the pleasure, the utter closeness of our coupling.

“Tease,” he breathed in my ear, making me shiver.

When we reached a blistering pace, one neither of us could slow even if we’d wanted to, we came at nearly the exact same time, within seconds of each other, crying out, unabashed, our climaxes rolling over us in irresistible waves.