A creak against the floorboard caught my attention and I lifted my head. The sight before me not only confused me, but shocked me. I rubbed my eyes, blinking a couple more times, however the image remained.
“You want me, haven’t you?” Kipp’s voice filled with emotion and washed over my body to send tingles straight to my center.
I nodded, incapable of speech. He stood at the end of the bed, naked. His wide shoulders melted away to arm muscles I couldn’t deny were a piece of God’s handiwork. His chest bulged with two impeccable square muscles, and lord, did I crave to run my hands along his tanned flesh all the way down to the hard lines of his abs.
Apparently, he wanted me too. His thick erection was so hard it never moved from its eager position while he made his way closer toward me. He met the edge of the bed, placed a knee on the mattress and I forced my gaze back to his eyes. The grin on his face held more power to arouse me than his body did.
A rush of pure lust took me to a place my mind couldn’t process or contain. I raised myself off the bed and took his gorgeous face in my hands. “Make me forget why it’s wrong to love you.”
“I’ll do that and more.” He closed the distance between us to capture my lips.
How can he touch me?
My hesitation only lasted a second when his wet tongue swept across mine in slow, steady movements. How his soft lips molded with mine so perfectly. He grabbed onto the back of my head and deepened the kiss. His breath came rough through his nose as his lips became firmer, guiding me to feel the strength—the presence—that lived within him.
Oh how I believed it. Not only with his mouth against mine, but in his muscles as I moved my hands from his face and ran them gingerly along his biceps, causing each one to flex in response.
He nibbled through the kisses, took my tongue into his mouth to suck it, and with a deep groan, he devoured me as if he’d waited a lifetime to have my body just this way.
I whimpered in need. I’d never been so aroused from kissing. The longer our embrace went on, the more I wished he’d get on with it and take me until I saw stars. But as he drew away from my mouth, I met his ravishing gaze and an undeniable truth lived within. He’d only begun. His desire to taste me, kiss me, have me in his arms had consumed him, and now that he could do so, he wouldn’t waste it on hurried wants.
With his eyes focused on mine, he moved slowly down my body. I shuddered and my gasp froze in my throat as my nipples tightened with a desperation only his mouth could relieve. As he nestled above my chest, his playful grin declared he planned to entice me to the point of insanity. He leaned down, and with a light lick on the swell of my breast, I was sure he’d already gotten me there.
I tangled my fingers in his hair and squeezed, begging him to come at me harder and to end the anticipation that made my center contract. He growled deep and low as he bit my skin, and with the softest touch, licked the taut bud. I arched my back and a gasp of pleasure sprang from my throat.
He kissed his way over to the other breast where he repeated the move. I trembled, quivered in requirement for him to give me more. My body burned with desire as my stomach fluttered with butterflies.
“Now you’re ready for me, baby,” he said huskily and he sucked a nipple into his mouth. He placed the little bud between his teeth, squeezing gently, but the pressure had been the relief I needed. I tightened my fingers in his hair, held him there and begged him to continue.
He held my breasts in his hands and switched between them, pleasuring each one deliciously. I moaned, gasped and squirmed beneath him. He held such confidence—so sure about his movements. No gentleness lived within him. No hesitation. When he acted, he did so with poise and an arrogance I surely believed he was due.
Not until he had his fix and I flushed with uncontrollable arousal did he leave my breasts. I watched him kiss hungrily down my stomach and I didn’t hesitate in his advance. I widened my legs, drew them back against my body and gripped my knees to spread myself wide, allowing him full access.
He didn’t waste a moment and placed his hands under my bottom, raised me and angled my body up to him. When he lowered himself between my thighs, I gasped, a sound to put a voice to my scorching body.
I squirmed beneath him. He placed his hand on my stomach and he held me still. With his other hand, he slid one finger inside me. I moaned with pure satisfaction as he passed through my tender flesh. Exactly what I needed, the force of something driving me, filling me. I wanted more. He didn’t deny me and removed the finger to replace it with two. His fingers were thick, strong and just as large as any man’s I’d slept with before. He stroked. His gaze stayed focused on mine. His pupils dilated. I moaned along with his movements. Little noises, which spoke of the happiness I experienced having him there and looking at me so intently.
A knowing grin rose to his face, and before I figured out what the look had been about, he curled his fingers. A loud gasp of surprise escaped my mouth and my eyes widened. In one swift move, he found my sweet spot, a place I thought had been foreign to me until now. I thrust my hips in a demand he play with the area and build the sensation rising inside me.
“No one has pleasured you right,” he said, equal parts haughtiness and satisfaction.
I grasped the sheets with my hands. “Don’t stop.”
He put more weight against my stomach with his hand, angling my body further. He kept his fingers deep inside me and flicked the sensitive spot. I released shuddering breaths, squeals—everything and anything that screamed of a complete loss of control.
My hands tightened in the bed sheets. “M-m-more.”
His eyes burned deeper, his jaw clenched tight and he took it upon himself to send me to heaven himself. He slammed his fingers inside with the palm of his hand only adding to the sensation as he stimulated my nub. My entire body tightened and I arched my head back, sucking in a breath. I extended my legs and my toes pointed as my body teetered between life and death.
My breath whooshed out, my eyes fluttered open. My body was heavy and tingled with erotic fulfillment.
I blinked slowly. Kipp now positioned above me, his gaze needy and wanting as he knelt between my legs. He placed his hands on my knees, bending my legs back along my sides to open for him. Then he took his erection in his hand, stroked it and placed the tip against my center.
I ran my gaze over him and I’d never seen anything so beautiful. Against the sculpted lines of his abs, the hairless skin made his erection look all too appetizing. I craved to taste him, touch him, but the strain he suffered made my wants impossible. His desperate eyes told me he couldn’t wait any longer to have me.
With a slow, gentle movement of restraint on his part, he found a home inside me. His eyes closed and his moan touched my soul as it spoke of a truth that this—whatever held between us—had been real no matter what the circumstances. I cupped his face as he moved oh so slow. His expression filled with lustful intentions. But something else too—something far deeper as his gaze of love bore into mine.
Without a single inkling of warning, he slammed into me with the full strength of his body. I screamed, a sharp sound of surprise and almost pain from intense pleasure. He slid out only to thrust back into me, harder now. He waited only a moment for me to gather my breath before he repeated the move.
Again.
And again.
The bed banged against the wall. I shook to my core as he tormented me with his rough thrusts. I panted, cried out, unable to do anything else, powerless to make sense of the sensations. Every nerve bud in my body awakened.
“Not yet,” Kipp all but growled. I released a sharp cry as he stilled. “I’ll finish you, but I want to watch you ride me when I do.”
I didn’t hesitate. I pushed him back so he knelt, climbed on top of him and lowered down onto his erection. With his hands on my hips, I wrapped my legs around him, held on to his shoulders and rocked against him.
“Do you feel what you do to me?” His voice dropped an octave and
his hands tightened around my hips. “Do you know how insane you drive me? Fuck, Tess, you’re incredible.”
“Prove it—show me how wild I make you.” I met his gaze in a challenge to make good on his promises.
The corner of his mouth curved and the hooded look in his eyes told me I might regret my words. I wanted to lower my head, melt into his embrace to save myself from the intensity capturing me, but I couldn’t look away from him. Not with his eyes raging with more passion than I thought lived in one person. Not when he looked at me as though he’d been undeserving of me. And definitely not when his eyes said that after we were done, he’d only want more.
He rocked me harder against him in an urgent demand. “Tess,” he shouted.
“Kipp.” I echoed his shout, but suddenly, everything around me blurred. His movements increased, his expression tight and filled with the tension of his impending release.
“Tess,” he called out again. Now it’d been loud and demanding—not at all lustful.
Wait! What?
I shot straight up out of bed and glanced around, trying to make sense of what happened, plus attempting to settle my pounding heart.
Kipp loomed over his bed—fully clothed. He reached out as if he wanted to touch me, but pulled back his hand. “Are you okay?” Concern showed heavy in his gaze.
“What?” I exhaled, breathless.
“You were moaning and saying my name. Did you have a bad dream?”
Holy shit, it was a dream.
I had heard of erotic dreams. Hell, I always wanted one, but not with the man in the dream staring at me, asking why I yelled out his name. “Er, I didn’t have a bad dream.”
Kipp’s worry settled into a smile. “Everything all right?”
I nodded, glancing down at the bed, unable to meet his stare, nibbling on my bottom lip. “Everything’s fine.”
“Seems like you had a good dream.” His voice sounded rich with amusement. “Do you wanna share?”
Oh yes, I’d been way too obvious that my dream was sex related. Kipp knocked me off my game. For years, I prided myself on the ability to show nothing on my face. But with him, it’d been impossible to do so. I needed to correct the problem. I lifted my chin and glared at him. “I dreamed about my ex-boyfriend.”
His expression said he didn’t believe me. He gestured toward the door. “Just meet us out there once you’ve dressed, we have to get going to the station.”
“Yeah, okay, be right out.”
His cold presence left the room and I glanced at the clock. Eight a.m. I fell back on the bed and drew the covers over my head. What the hell just happened?
It hadn’t only been the hot and heavy sex which left me winded. I would expect to have naughty dreams while sleeping in his bed, especially since his pillow smelled like him—or what I thought he’d smell like—soap and hunky man.
What bothered me most were the words I said. “Make me forget why it’s wrong to love you.”
I was attracted to him as I had never been to anyone else, experienced little flutters whenever he came near me and the man held the ability to make me blush with a few short words. All these things made me believe I’d formed a serious attraction, but one realization I couldn’t push away became a hard cold truth.
I didn’t want him to leave.
Damn it all to hell! I’m in love with a ghost!
The thought stayed on my mind as I hurried and got dressed. After I stepped out of Kipp’s bedroom to join them, I kept my eyes on the ground beneath my feet. Even as we made a quick trip to my condominium to gather some of my things, and even now as I walked toward the entrance of the police station, I never looked up. The dream and feelings were all too real. If I made eye contact with Kipp, I doubted I could hide the emotions that swelled in my heart.
“Are you sure everything is all right?” Kipp asked for the twentieth time as I followed Zach in through the main door of the police station.
“Mmm hmm.” I inspected the dirt on the tiled floor. How had I allowed this to happen? I never got personal, let alone allowed myself to open my heart to a ghost.
Zach muttered hellos to the officers around him as we walked through the station. I focused on the back of Zach’s heels, which slowed. I stopped behind him, glancing up just enough to see him open the door to the interview room.
When I cleared the door, Max sat at the table with at least ten banker boxes stacked on top. He had one open with a pile of files spread out in front of him.
He looked up from the notes to me. “I talked to Mr. Cobb this morning. He has granted your request for an extended leave of absence.”
“Did he sound angry?” I asked.
“He wasn’t thrilled.” Max grinned. “But what choice did he have?”
“Wonderful.” I sighed. “He’ll be a real joy to be around when I get back.” He’d have to do some of the legwork himself.
“Just shake your spectacular ass at him,” Kipp said, stepping in next to me, “and I doubt he’ll stay angry for long.”
“Thank you for calling him,” I said to Max, flatly ignoring Kipp’s comment, which made him chuckle. I gave no thought to that either.
Max nodded and held a card out. “You’re a grievance specialist from here on out. Welcome to the team.”
I laughed, took the card and studied the visitor’s pass. “I’m a what?”
“As far as the department knows, I’ve brought you on to help Kipp’s fellow officers deal with their loss.”
“But I have no experience with that,” I retorted.
Max’s eyebrows rose. “Don’t you?”
A wave of uncomfortable heat washed across my body. “I-I…” I sucked in a deep breath to hold myself together. I’d learned long ago to hide my feelings involving my family’s deaths, but whenever someone brought the situation up and I didn’t expect it, the pain pushed its way to the surface. “Sorry.” I shook my head to shed the sadness. “Sorry, you surprised me. You’re right, I do.”
“What surprised you?” Kipp’s tone sounded tight. “What’s wrong?”
I glanced at him, straightened my shoulders and demanded my voice to not waver. “My family died.”
He stared at me, knowingly. “In the car accident?” Of course he’d catch on quick, he was a cop after all.
I nodded and forced the tremble in my chin to stop. I hadn’t cried over their deaths in years, let alone thought of them. I avoided the topic like the plague and didn’t plan for that to change. But it hadn’t been the topic that made these uneasy emotions rise to the surface, it was Kipp’s gaze on mine, the way his eyes said, “It’s all right for you to cry.”
The support and comfort sounded nice and all, but leaning on him couldn’t happen. I had enough trouble on my plate and looking to him to heal my pain wasn’t an option I wanted to explore.
“I’m sorry I had to go about it that way,” Max said. “But it was the only explanation I could come up with for having you join our ranks on such short notice. It’s easy for me to pass off that you’re part of a support group to give aid to people who have lost loved ones.”
I hastily hid every emotion. “No, it’s fine, it makes sense. It just surprised me is all.”
“You can’t run and hide forever, you know.” Kipp’s stare remained intent, but now his gaze held a rigid determination.
My blood boiled. Who was he to say how I dealt with my pain? Ignoring it had always been how I got through my days. I had never once dealt with it, never experienced the stages of grief. Instead, I just trudged on and it worked fine for me.
Before I could release my wrath, he interjected, “I understand more than you think.”
I hadn’t expected him to say that. “Calm down. Don’t blow your lid.” That’s what I thought he would come back with. Not him sharing a similar story. I shouldn’t have been curious, but I shouldn’t have been a lot of things. “How?”
His eyes filled with sadness as they glazed over, lost in a memory. “My mother died from breast cance
r and my father followed a year later from a heart attack.”
I had to wonder what would’ve been worse. In my case, I lost both my parents all at once. Here one day, gone the next. To have to suffer the pain of losing a loved one on two separate occasions, I doubted I could’ve handled it. “When?”
Kipp blinked and his gaze became steady and strong. “Ten years ago. I’ve had years to deal with their deaths and it’s taken that long to accept that they’re gone. Trust me, holding on to the pain isn’t going to help you. You need to allow yourself to grieve.”
Caley had said the same thing to me a thousand times. Telling me it was all right to be upset for what happened to them and I didn’t need to be strong all the time. But I never allowed myself the right, never wanted to live in the state of mourning, and just because Kipp had been through a similar situation didn’t mean I would change my mind. He needed to prove to me that his way had been worth it, because in my eyes, ignoring my heartache sounded much easier. “Why?”
Zach chuckled. “How. When. Why. What’s next, who?”
Kipp ignored the comment, as did I. He trailed a finger along my cheek and the icy touch sent a shiver down my spine. “It’ll begin to eat you alive and that’d be a damn shame. Do you want to live your life surrounded by such shadows?”
For once, someone else understood my pain, but that didn’t mean I’d deal with it like he suggested, he hadn’t proved his point. He only said he had accepted it and I couldn’t ever do that. My family was gone. Nothing I did would ever bring them back.
I lifted my chin in defiance and stared at him to prove my point that how I dealt with it had been the right choice. “What works for you doesn’t work for me.” I glanced at Zach. “Can we move along? I don’t want to spend my entire day surrounded by stinkin’ cops.”
Laughter echoed in the room.
No amusement showed in Kipp’s gaze. His expression gave nothing away, but his eyes swarmed with questions. I tried to care nothing about what he held on his mind. A feeble battle. I might wish the deaths of family didn’t cause a permanent ache in my heart and that I didn’t have feelings for the ghost in front of me. But both were undeniably true.
Supernaturally Kissed (Frostbite, Book One) Page 8