by Molly McLain
“Do you full-body press all your routine traffic stops, Sheriff?”
He grunted and wedged a knee between her legs. “Only the pretty ones.”
“I bet.”
“I miss you.”
“You’ve said that before,” she exhaled. Holy crap, when had she gone breathless?
“And I mean it every time I say it. Jesus, woman, you have no idea what you do to me.” He dropped his forehead to hers, closed his eyes, and breathed her in.
She closed her eyes too, because she didn’t want to see this. Didn’t want to feel him so close. Didn’t want to give in and do something stupid.
“We can’t just stand here like this,” she muttered, her fingers digging into her palms, resisting the urge to touch him and soothe the need radiating off of him.
“We can’t go on avoiding each other either.” And then he kissed her. No prelude or warning. Just a kiss so hard and consuming that it stole every last ounce of already sparse air from her lungs.
She pulled away with a gasp, her lips wet and swollen from the assault. Something caught her attention from the corner of her eye and— “There’s a car coming.”
Mark stepped back quickly, breaking all contact, and she frantically brushed her hair back into place. Not that it mattered. The lights still flashed on his SUV and they stood outside her vehicle. They’d draw attention no matter how innocent they tried to look.
“Get back in the car,” he mumbled. “I’ll follow you home.”
“Please don’t.”
“Ally...” He shot her a pleading glance.
“Not now, okay? I’m tired.”
After a long moment, he nodded. “All right. Can I call you later at least?”
Not if we’re smart. “What would we talk about?”
The approaching car slowed as it passed by and she cast her eyes to the asphalt. She didn’t need to know who’d start the next round of rumors about her and the town’s beloved sheriff.
“Us, Ally. We’d talk about us,” he said impatiently and she gave a sad sigh, because...
“Is there an us anymore?” She didn’t wait for him to answer, just got into her car and drove away, leaving him on the side of the road staring after her.
She had no idea if she meant the words or not, but she couldn’t think about it right then, because she was moments away from being sick.
***
“I’m a fucking idiot.” Mark paced across his cousin Tony’s living room floor, both hands driven back into his hair.
“I told you that three weeks ago, man. And frankly, I got my own shit to deal with right now, so don’t expect any sympathy.” Tony tipped back a bottle of beer and drained it. There were already two empties on the coffee table in front of him. More than the quota the guy normally allowed himself, so whatever he was dealing with must’ve been pretty friggin’ serious too.
“Nicole all settled in Chicago?” he asked.
“Hell if I know.” Tony grunted. “Haven’t heard from her.”
Ouch. And that reaction made him a total hypocrite.
“Yeah, don’t even bother trying to offer any advice on this one.” Tony pushed to his feet and stalked to the kitchen with the bottles. “Shit, maybe you should call Nic. You two can chat about how distancing yourself from the people you claim to care about is working out for ya.”
“Piss off, man. My situation is completely different than yours.” I’ve been in love with Ally for months and you barely know Nicole.
“You’re right. I told Nicole to go, because it’s what she needs to do for herself. Ally, on the other hand, she’s right here, waiting for you to get your head out of your ass.”
“She wants me to shift my priorities. Put her—us—at the top of the list and my job second. I can’t do that.”
From the other room, Tony turned to face him, frowning. “Why the hell not?”
“Because it’s my job. My life.” The one thing I know I won’t fuck up.
“Hate to break it to you, but you’re not getting any younger.”
“I’m thirty-two.”
His cousin lifted his hands. “Like I said—not any younger, bro.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Tony cracked open another beer and padded back into the living room. Mark promptly relieved him of the drink, because they both knew he didn’t need it. “Prick,” Tony muttered and flopped himself down onto the couch again. “It means it’s time you thought about something other than work. Like settling down. Having a family.”
“Oh, sure. You just don’t wanna be the only guy in town strapped down with a kid.” He rolled his eyes and took a pull from the bottle.
“Brianna’s not a lead weight, man. Don’t talk about her like she is.”
Who the hell was this guy?
“Yeah, yeah,” Tony continued on. “I know it took me a while to get to this point, but you know what finally did it for me? Meeting Nicole.”
Jesus Christ. He hadn’t come over to listen to this sniffle-fest. He just wanted to vent about Ally. Blow off some steam and have Tony put him in his place, so he could get through the next week without acting like a fool in front of her again.
“Listen, I know I had a good thing going with Ally. I just don’t understand why we can’t make it legit and say we’re together, but keep doing what we were doing.”
“You mean fucking her when it was convenient for you and then leaving her wet and wanting when duty called? I can see why she’d be jumping all over the opportunity to have more of that.”
“Fuck you, asshole.” He grabbed a throw pillow from a chair and chucked at Tony’s head. “I want to be with her and only her. That should be enough.”
Tony grinned. “That’s special, man. Real touching. But chicks worth keeping around generally wanna be more than a bed warmer. I can’t believe I have to tell you this shit.”
“I love her.”
Tony blinked. “You’re just now figuring that out?”
“No. I just...I haven’t told her yet. And I’m not sure I should until I know she’s willing to work with me on this.”
“Stop right there.” Tony leaned forward, elbows on his knees, one hand palmed out. “That’s your problem. You want her to compromise, but you’re not willing to do the same.”
“When did you become Dr.-fucking-Phil?”
“Probably the same time you became such a moron.”
Brianna’s little cry sounded from down the hall and Tony got to his feet. “Sometimes the biggest risks reap the greatest rewards, man. But you gotta get over the fear of change first.”
***
After losing her lunch and the bottle of water she thought might cool her down, Ally had crawled into bed. She slept until the sun went down and until a dream so vivid and real snapped her back into consciousness.
She rolled onto her back, chest heaving, staring at the shadows dancing on the ceiling. The damp ache between her legs pulsed with unsatisfied need and the friction of her bra brushing against her nipples with every breath was almost painful and taunting. So damn taunting.
Blindly, she reached out for the nightstand and the vibrator she kept tucked inside. Her hands shook as clumsily as her limbs as she pushed down her shorts and panties and grazed her fingers through the curls and the cleft beneath. The faintest brush of a fingertip against her sensitive flesh had her hips lifting from the sheet, seeking out more of the pleasure she’d experienced in the dream. She closed her eyes and brought the images back to mind.
Mark...sliding his hands and lips long the insides of her thighs. His big shoulders nudging her knees further apart. His tongue...a torture device, licking at her as she slammed her hips against his face and gave herself over the most glorious orgasm ever.
But her own touch wasn’t enough to get her to that high-flying place on its own. And neither was the vibrator, not because her body wasn’t humming on a tight rope of arousal, but because she kept getting distracted by the vision of his face in her rear view
mirror.
“Dammit!” She pounded her fist into the mattress and the vibrator bounced off the bed and onto the floor. The end must’ve popped off, because there was no buzzing against the hard wood. Just silence. And the sound of regret—and fear—thumping in her chest.
She sat up slowly, expecting the nausea to rear its head, but the only thing she felt was the lingering tingle of desire low in her belly.
His expression flashed across her mind again, his frustration and his need etched so clearly in his features. There was no denying that Mark wanted her. It was his ability to give her what she wanted that remained in question.
She glanced at the clock. After seven already. Would he be home or out with the guys? More importantly, would he still want to talk to her?
She picked up her phone, but stopped short of dialing. There was something she probably needed to figure out first, because going to him or even calling him with the uncertainty still simmering in the back of her mind? Not a good idea. Especially with so much unease already between them.
She had to know. They both had to know. And there was only one way to find out.
Chapter Seven
She pulled into his driveway a half hour later, relief and nerves rioting inside her when she spotted his truck parked in front of the garage. The blinds were closed over the patio doors, but the faint blue glow of the TV shined through. Home and still awake.
The white drugstore bag on the passenger seat stood out like a white beacon against her dashboard lights and she suddenly wished she’d used the bathroom at the store rather than waiting. Why the hell had she thought Mark would be cool to spend his Friday night waiting for lines to show up or not show up on a freaking stick?
God, this was bad. So, so bad.
She dropped her head against the steering wheel, one hand instinctively sliding to her belly. She didn’t even know if Mark could put her at the top of his list and now this...
She half-considered putting the car in reverse and leaving so she could go home and deal with this unexpected craziness on her own and at her own pace, but the light on the front porch flipped on and the door opened. He stepped out a second later.
His expression was exactly the same as it had been earlier. Only this time, he was also bare-chested and just the sight of all that skin and muscle made her mouth water and her breasts ache even more than they already did.
The bag and its contents forgotten, she got out of the car and, like her legs had a mind of their own, walked slowly to him. With every measured step, her heart pounded faster and it became harder and harder to breathe. His proximity alone had that soul-wrenching emptiness inside of her reaching out for him. It was a void only he could fill, and it was about so much more than sex.
The drama of the past few weeks faded away and, by the time she reached him, she couldn’t remember any of the reasons why she shouldn’t touch him. Or why she shouldn’t love him.
“You changed your mind about talking?” he asked as she stepped onto the concrete landing before him. His scent tickled her nose and she had to swallow down the saliva pooling on her tongue. Her hands shook and a slow, steady beat began to pulse low in her belly, picking up right where she’d left off at home.
Only he was real this time, not just a figment of her desperate, deprived imagination.
She put a finger to his lips and shifted close enough for their chests to touch and for her to feel the heat radiating off his body. “Shh,” she said, as one hand splayed wide over the light dusting of dark hair in the middle of his pecs. “I don’t want to talk.”
“Ally...” His voice was a low rumble that she felt more beneath her fingers than heard with her ears. “We can’t keep doing this.”
“We can talk later. I need to kiss you first.” Her hands slid around his neck and her lips were on his before she could register that he’d reached out for her, too. He groaned and fisted a handful of her sweater to eliminate the last sliver of air space between them.
Between making up for too many weeks without tasting each other and the frantic fumbling of hands trying to touch all of each other at once, they somehow managed to get inside to his living room.
Mouths still fused, she pushed him back on to the couch and dropped down onto his lap, her knees on either side of his hips. Mark’s dog, Bo, jumped up from his bed in front of the fireplace and ran out of the room.
“God, I’ve missed you,” Mark said, gasping for air when she pulled back to jerk her sweater over her head. She missed him too and while working out their relationship was something they needed to figure out now more than ever, she needed this first. Needed him.
His hands wandered up the back of her tank top and the rough scrape of his calloused skin sent goose bumps skittering across every bare inch of hers. Her nipples tightened against the lace of her bra and suddenly she needed his touch there. To ease the ache or, at the very least, make the pain feel good.
“Touch me,” she whispered, tugging his hands from her back to her chest.
A glaze of desire washed over his eyes and his lids drooped as he cupped her breasts in his big palms and squeezed.
“Oh, God...” She whimpered at the mixed sensation of pleasure and pain, her head dropping back and her hair falling down the middle of her back. Her nerves were so on fire that even the little tease of her hair against her skin made her twitch.
“Aw, baby, you’re on fire,” he muttered, his mouth wet against one swell and then the other before he stuck his nose into the valley between and inhaled. “Fuck, you smell good, too.”
His hips flexed beneath her and the hard ridge of his erection pressed into her core, covered in a pair of cotton leggings. In less than a minute, she could be undressed and snugged around his shaft, but the attention he gave her chest was too delicious to rush.
He’d pulled down the cups of her bra, the pad of one thumb brushing across one straining point while he dipped his mouth to the other. Her feverish skin had nothing on the wet heat of his tongue and the pressure of his cock against the cleft of her sex paled in comparison to the not-so-gentle nip of his teeth on her nipple.
A shot of pleasure zipped straight from that point to the apex of her legs and she writhed against him, her body seeking out more of the primal satisfaction only he could give her.
“Suck me harder,” she panted, almost crying out in protest when he retreated to unfasten her bra. He was back in an instant though, his head bobbing from one peak to the other, sucking, pulling, and biting...until every fiber in her body tensed, strung high on the precipice of release.
“You gonna come like this, pretty girl?” he asked around her flesh, his knowing, sapphire eyes smiling up at her while she shook in his arms. “Damn, babe, I think you are...”
He dove in again, all lips and tongue and tugging and pinching and she shattered. A million stars burst behind her eyelids and all the cells in her body pulsed with the most intense orgasm of her life. She bucked against him as her sex fluttered and, in moments, she was on her back with him looming above her.
“I need inside,” he murmured, his stubble scraping along her collarbone as he feasted on her neck and worked her leggings and panties off. She did the same with his cotton pants, using her heels to push them further down his hips before she reached between them and guided his swollen shaft to her entrance. “There’s nothing better than this, Ally. Nothing in the world better than feeling you wrapped around me.” With that, he slid in, filling her to the hilt with one sure thrust.
She arched off the couch, because no...there was nothing better than loving Mark like this. She clung to his back as he pumped in again, her hands skating along the map of muscle that twitched every time he moved. His thighs pressed against the back of hers and every stroke of his hips brought the slap of his balls against her ass, which felt almost as good as his thumb on her clit. Mark Dunn didn’t just screw, he made love with his entire body.
He leaned down and stole a kiss that took her breath away and brought tears to her ey
es. “You’re mine, Ally,” he muttered. “We’re not perfect and I can’t make you the promises you want to hear, but I can tell you that there’s no one I ever wanted more.”
He strummed his thumb against her clit, in a series of sloppy, desperate measures to get her off as he grunted and drove in one last time, emptying himself inside her.
She didn’t come. In fact, she barely even registered his release, because her brain was hung up on the words that had just come from his mouth.
No promises. No confessions of love. Just that selfish possession again and a weak, heat of the moment offering.
God, she was so stupid.
“Get off me,” she whispered, dancing on the edge of an ugly cry.
“Am I hurting you?” He shifted up, but it wasn’t enough. She couldn’t breathe. Her chest burned. Her throat constricted...
“Get. Off.” Don’t cry, Ally, don’t freakin’ cry...
He dropped to one knee on the side of the couch, lifting himself away from her. With the movement came the warm, wet reminder of the vow of trust they’d made months ago. And the reminder of how that decision had the potential to change their lives if something went wrong. Like it maybe already had.
And he didn’t even love her.
She scrambled to her feet, sucking in breath after desperate breath as she grabbed for her pants.
“Babe, what’s wrong?” He was on his feet too, pulling his pajama bottoms back up with one hand and reaching out for her with the other. “Ally, come on...”
“Don’t.” She jerked away as she snagged her bra off the floor and pushed her feet into her shoes. “This was a mistake.”
“No.” He stepped in front of her as she turned toward the kitchen. “We’ve never been a mistake.”
Will you think that about our baby?
“Ally, what do you want me to say? I don’t fucking know what it is you need me to do to fix this. I just know I can’t keep seeing you walk away.”
“Yeah, Mark, I got what you need loud and clear.” Dammit, tears!
“Tell me what you need then!” he hollered. And not just raised his voice either. Hollered. Like, rattled the pictures on the walls and yelled so hard his face turned red. “But it can’t involve my job, because I can’t fucking change that! I won’t!”