Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic) (18 page)

“Everything is fine, ma’am, but we had a noise complaint. A neighbor said she heard screaming and thought that someone was being murdered.”

She blushed hotly as she clutched the front of the robe around her swollen breasts, now her face flushed a shade of burgundy and Den wanted to climb onto her right then and there. Just lay her over the bar and plunge head first into her. The probie’s eyes were stuck on the swells of her chest and Den was pissed off about it, too.

He growled under his breath.

“Uh, sorry.” She dropped her head and Den wrapped his arms around her.

Yeah, she’s mine. All mine.

Jenkins nodded. But Den saw the man ogle Sidonie.
Not happening.
“Okay, well if you don’t mind, can I see your ID?”

Den wasn’t going to have them eyeing Sidonie anymore than they had, so he grabbed his pants and pulled his identification out. But he made sure to flash his badge when he opened the wallet.

“Here you go.”

By the time it was all said and done the pair of officers shook his hand and offered a suggestion. “Maybe you should keep it down.”

Den walked over the door and smiled. “Will do and thank you for checking up on us.” The officers nodded and took their cue to get the hell out.

He leaned over and planted his mouth over her ear. “Do you know what I’m about to do to you?”

“Neanderthal,” she huffed under her breath.

“When they drive away, I’m going to tie you back to the bed and give you enough slack to run a bit.”

Sidonie gasped, and the officers stopped before they planted a foot inside the car.

“Ma’am?”

“Nothing… Sorry, gentlemen. Have a nice night,” she called out and buried her face in Den’s armpit.

Jenkins suppressed a chuckle and the car drove off.

Den laughed. This was going to be the best weekend yet.

He did exactly as he’d threatened and lashed her back to the bed. Only this time she was face down and ass up. He gave the slack to her lower restraints, used the bindings at her knees instead of the ankles.

“Ugh, it’s wet,” she complained.

“That’s your fault.”

“And cold.”

“Your fault, too. It’ll warm up soon enough when you come again.”

When he rolled on a condom and forged himself inside, she had become so accustomed to his cock that he was able to seat himself fully with the initial surge.

“Fuck yes.” He hissed and smacked her ass with his hands.

“Oh!” She jumped forward.

“Shhh… you don’t want the officers to come back while I’m fucking you. Do you?”

“No…” She groaned and shook her head.

“That’s right. You don’t want me to stop do you?”

“
No
! Don’t stop. Plea-aase Den!”

“Then be quiet. Very, very quiet. I’m hunting pussy.” He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her into an odd angle that was purely about her submission and nothing else.

Sidonie laughed throatily and he thrust deeper than before, causing the laughter to die with the plunge of his cock.

She tried her best to be silent, but he knew that now she had tasted screaming nirvana, nothing less would do.

Since she muttered his praises to the heavens in her pillow, he was able to hear the slurp of her juices and the sloppy sounds of their sexes mingling. It was grossly, grotesquely sexual, the slush and gush of cock and cunt.

She did run, but only for a split second as the bedding tethers wouldn’t allow for much.

“Where ya’ headed?” he asked her as she shook her head.

“Oh god, I don’t know!” She dropped her face into the pillow and bit down with a sexy little growl that made him even more vicious the next go around.

“Nowhere to go.”

She chuckled, a hoarse, pitiful sound. “Fuck me, you think I don’t realize that?”

“If you don’t know, now you know,” Den sang out.

She chuckled and her hips quivered with each bout of laughter. “Did you just?”

“Yeah, I did quote that lyric. I have the album, too.” He winked when she looked back at him.

“You are an odd duck, you know that?”

“Maybe I’m not the odd duck. Maybe you’ve been quacking in the wrong pond.”

“Maybe you need to finish fucking me.”

“I could do that. But maybe I could try something else first.”

“Okay.” She shrugged her shoulders as much as she was able to and wiggled her hips suggestively.

Damn, he had to admit, it was addictive. Everything about the situation was. He had never imagined he could crave a woman the way a junkie hungered for another fix. There was nothing too dirty with her, things he had never imagined lay within his grasp.

He never had to worry that she would look down on his urges. Other women had told him to slow down, begged him not to fuck too deeply. She only asked for more and there was no way he could stop.

Crave?

Shit.

All he could think about was the next time he’d get to be inside of her, despite the fact he was inside of her at that very moment. The next time he could hear her moan his name and she already chanted it at that second. The next time he could sink his cock in any orifice she’d let him use and he’d used two thirds of what she had to offer already.

And strangely enough, she never, ever, said no to him.

Den had a unicorn in his grasp.

When he rolled over the next morning, it was to the scent of vanilla and bacon. The combination made his stomach growl and he sat up.

Sidonie.

She was in his kitchen, making him a meal.

It sounded so simple.

And it was for many people.

But he had been alone and in all honesty, his ex wasn’t much of a cook to begin with. She was a sweet woman, though, for the right man. He wasn’t it.

He’d tried though, for the sake of familiarity. But at the end of the day, he wasn’t what she needed. She needed a man with gentle hands and a nine to five that she could greet him at the door with a kiss after.

She would pretend to cook for him, and likely her husband would never notice that the rotisserie chicken she made came from the grocery store’s deli. He would have sweet, tepid sex with her and then she would turn off the lights and go to bed before ten.

That wasn’t his life.

Not by a long shot.

But somehow, Sidonie got it.

She fit in perfectly, despite how odd they were on paper.

After he went to the bathroom, Sidonie popped into the bedroom. “Dang! I hoped I’d get to wake you up with breakfast in bed.”

“You still can.” He sat back in the bed and pulled the blanket up in a mock sleeping position.

When she didn’t move, he chuckled under the covers. “This is where you are supposed to wake me up.”

Sidonie laughed. “Okay, I’ll bite. Wakee, wakee… eggs and bakee…”

Den popped his head above the covers and stretched. “That smells amazing. Where’d the waffles come from?”

“You have an iron in the kitchen, still in the box.”

“Yeah, housewarming gift.”

“I thought so.”

She sat the tray on his lap and he looked down at the spread. She had made scrambled eggs and bacon to go with the waffle and there was a cup of coffee nestled next to a glass of OJ. She even laid a flower on the tray, a wild something or the other that just popped up in odd pockets out back.

“I like.”

“Good.
Bon appétit
!”

“Come here.” He grabbed her hand and she let him tug her down into bed without much protest.

The tray wobbled, but he steadied it with his knees.

“Thank you,” he said, from somewhere so deep down that even his feet stood above it.

“Welcome.” She picked up the fork and served him, one bite after the next until he was stuffed.

“I ate all of that?” It was a pretty heavy meal for this time of day.

“Yeah.” She grinned.

If he was a lucky man, every morning would be just like this one.

Like
Like?

Sidonie lazed about with Den the entire weekend, enjoyed movies, and made love. The more time she spent with him, the more she liked him.

As in like
like
.

That was a problem for sure.

That Monday, he watched her dress for work as if the basic routine of getting ready was a novelty.

But then again, it was for her too. It had been awhile since any man watched her get prepared for work.

He watched her tug a scarf around her neck. “What are you doing for lunch?”

“Nothing?”

“Meet me.”

“Okay.” Why did she ever say that?

But when had she ever been able to say no to him?

And on the handful of occasions her ex was around, he’d certainly never looked at her with unabashed lust over something as simple as pantyhose and heeled shoes. Although, her ex would have probably gotten harder when he put on her clothes for himself.

That was a heady feeling, to have a man look at her with as if she was worthy of wanting.

That afternoon, she waited for her children to come home with a sense of anticipation. She hated when they had to leave for more than a few hours. Oddly enough, they missed her, too. She could tell by the way that they cuddled with her for two hours, long enough to have dinner and watch a movie.

That week she was barely able to eat, sleep, or perform her daily duties, mainly due to all-around distraction. Everything she did had a memory of him tied to it. When she woke in the morning, her first thought was an image of him and a vague sense of missing something.

Him. Next to her. Holding her.

When she went to work, she thought about their handful of midday meals together. When she picked up her phone, she thought about how she’d gotten it in the first place. When she dressed, she thought about whether he would like it or not, even if he would never see the outfit.

He had invaded everything around her, stolen her sense of self. It was a cruel form of torture, to see something and want it. Even worse was to have something and lose it.

And, eventually, she was going to lose him, whether she wanted to or not. Ten weeks. That was the expiration date and here she was, less than halfway in, ready to look for the man in the daytime with a flashlight.

They sent the odd text message throughout the week, but she tried her best not to hang over the phone in anticipation. That was harder than she imagined it to be.

But when he called her on Wednesday, she answered the phone breathless when she had to make a mad dash to reach it.

“What are you doing?”

“Um, nothing much for once. Just washing clothes.”

“Really? At the laundromat?”

She laughed. “No. I bought a new washer and took it out of my rental. I can’t go through that again.”

“I bet. So what are you doing for lunch tomorrow?”

“Uh, no plans.” But her heart raced and wouldn’t slow down.

“You have some now.”

“Okay.” Damn it, she was such a pushover for him.

Somehow, he’d gotten her addicted in just a few short weeks to his brand of take no prisoners sex.

“Stop breathing like that. It’s just lunch.” He growled.

“Sorry.”

“You give me a hard on that throbs when you breathe like that.” And just like that, her panties were a ruined slush.

“Fuck, you’re doing it again. I should have waited to call you.”

“Why?”

“I’m on duty for a while yet. I traded shifts again this week.”

“Really? Why?”

“One of the guys wanted to take his wife on a short trip for their anniversary, so I let him take my night shift so he could fly out early.”

“Gotcha.”

“I have a doctor’s appointment, by the way. If you want, you can come with me,” he said nonchalantly.

But she had a much harder time being as cool about it as he was. “Really?”

“Yeah. And if you would like, the nurse could go ahead and get you checked, too.”

“That would be perfect. My OB won’t have any appointments available until next month. When is it?” Her doctor was a handsome Arabic man with a devilish smile and great bedside manner that kept his practice flooded with happy women.

“It’ll be Friday at one thirty, if you can make it.”

She would at least be able to have her meetings, so leaving early shouldn’t be too much of an imposition to the development team. They were in the process of building the prototype bracelet, so all she did was supervise the overall aesthetic of the design. Her contributions were on hold until the testing phases. “I can do that.”

Katie and Mark had a game on Thursday night, so they wouldn’t need to be picked up until late. There was a moment somewhere for a quick session they could resume later on, when there was time for more.