by Tessa Bailey
A stricken look transformed her features for a beat before her expression returned to where he wanted it. All-out lust. “No.” She cupped the back of his neck, drawing him close to her mouth. “I want this more.”
Their tongues met first, licking together, apart, back together. An act so intimate, he became more aware of his cock than he’d ever been in his life. It felt like lead, every inch buried in her, wrapped in tightness. Incapable of making her wait any longer for what he would deliver, Austin groaned and fell into a wet kiss, giving her clit quick side-to-side strokes with the root of his dick. As she started to spasm, the climax traveling through her body in a way Austin could feel, their kiss turned voracious. Neither of them would break for air, mouths slanting, sucking, and biting, lips sliding, sinking back in together. He was lost. Fucking lost. Could have drained every last ounce of his passion into her shaking body from the kiss alone. They weren’t done yet, though. She still had too much fight left in her.
Austin broke their kiss with a curse. Polly threw her head back on the pillow and echoed his sentiment on a release of breath. Her whisper turned into a scream when he sat up in an abrupt move, positioning himself on his knees and yanking her hips onto his lap, without ever leaving the heat of her body. “That one was for your clit.” He ran his thumb over the rosy spot in question and made a savoring sound in his throat. “Look how pretty.”
Polly gasped, twisting on the bed. “Austin—”
“Shh.” He reached beneath her body, took her delectable ass in two firm hands. “This good boy is going to bang you until pleasure drips down these cheeks. Unless it pleases you to take a break and use the belt on me again.” He lifted Polly’s hips and jerked her up and down his erection, biting his lip to contain a growl at the way her tits bounced. “Which do you prefer?”
Her gorgeous eyes were wild with heat, fogged over yet remaining sharp in true Polly fashion. “Again. Please do that again.”
Without a single hesitation, he tightened his hold on her sweet backside, slid her up his slick length and brought her back down hard, thrusting up into her simultaneously. Sweet fucking hell, she was slippery and responsive, little aftershocks from her earlier orgasm pulsating around him. “Tell me which part of my cock is hitting your G-spot.” He moved faster. Faster, faster, faster. “I want to know how to move my middle finger the first time I finger-bang you beneath one of those short skirts.”
“All of it is touching…” Her heels locked together behind him, her sex-goddess body pumping in rhythm with his drives, tight little bottom flexing in his hands. “I don’t know. All of it. All…”
“Come on. Feel harder.” Goddamn, he loved that he’d robbed her of speech. That’s right, sweet. That’s what Austin does. “Show me with your hand where I’m rubbing you so good.”
With a throaty moan, she slapped a shaking hand down, four inches below her belly button, pushing down with the heel. “Here. Here.”
A curse tripped past his lips when he felt the corresponding push against the head of his erection. “Keep your hand there,” he ordered, adjusting his angle slightly to exploit the spot he’d discovered with her help. “Push your tits toward the ceiling and feel me hit it. Ahhh…there we are. Gorgeous fucking girl.”
An invisible claw dug into the base of Austin’s spine, telling him holding out wouldn’t be an option much longer. He’d never reached a climax so fast, with such force. Spending himself in a woman was always a necessary function, one that had increasingly been accompanied by guilt. Not with Polly. No, everything was out in the open. All his faults. All his transgressions. He was fucking her as himself, no one else. Just a little more…need more. Austin released one cheek of Polly’s backside and circled the base of his cock, using his thumb and index finger. Pausing in his drives, he gritted his teeth and squeezed, allowing the building orgasm to subside.
“Austin, I’m so close…oh my God…”
“Jesus, I’m close, too. I’m never close. I never even want it.” He bent forward and licked a path from her belly to the soft skin between her tits, giving a few hesitant bucks of his hips, cursing when his balls drew up tight again. Too tight. Fuck. He found her exposed clit, worrying the bud with his thumb. Refusing to neglect the spot he’d found inside her, he used his remaining grip on her ass to work her down onto his dick, a savage smile spreading across his face when she moaned loud enough to be heard in the hallway. “Tell me there will be a next time, Polly.”
Austin heard the vulnerable note in his voice and swallowed hard. This was about addicting Polly, giving her everything she needed. Not opening himself up for a knife in the side if she denied him. No. No. There would be no denying today.
“I—”
“Yes.” His pronouncement interrupted her, the pace of his touch on her clit turning punishing. “You want this. You want it every fucking day. Don’t you?” His upward thrusts moved like an accelerating machine. “I want to be commanded by you. I want to be your fuck. As soon as I empty myself, I’m going to fill right back up and wait for another chance at your pussy. Tell me you want that. Tell me you want me on goddamn speed dial to be your fuck, Polly. Say it.”
Her answering orgasm was so violent in its potency, Austin fell forward on a strangled shout of her name, catching his weight on one elbow, still managing to pump his hips. Not for long, though, the sound, feel, knowledge of her pleasure making him a slave to his own. Austin’s seed left him in earth-shaking waves, indescribable bliss blanketing him in a silence that somehow connected him to Polly by virtue of its association with her. Their damp bodies were pressed together so tightly, he could feel her heartbeat knocking in time with his.
“Say there’ll be a next time,” he said, easing off Polly to collapse chest-down on the bed beside her. Not relaxing, however. Not until she answered.
Polly’s chest shuddered up and down. “There—”
Her hand flew to her mouth as she caught sight of something behind him. Denial speared him that a threat could be in her vicinity, but a glance toward the door eviscerated that fear. Nothing there. They were alone. Thank God. “What is it?”
“Your back.” She reached out a hand, then drew it back. “I didn’t know I was doing that. I…God, I made you bleed.”
“Polly.” He shook his head, wishing she’d laid that hand on him. Wanting to be touched after sex. Who knew? “It’s fine. It means you enjoyed me.”
Nothing about his statement appeared to comfort her. She sat up without bothering to shield her nude body, and Austin’s anatomy stirred, forcing him to adjust the weight pressing down on his length. Polly must have misinterpreted his wince, believing it had to do with her nail marks, because she made a small noise, her gaze running down his back, his ass. “Does it hurt where I used the belt?”
If he said no, would the moment be over? Having this tenuous bond broken so soon made him anxious. The cool, dark air of the hotel room enfolded them, somehow making them as close as they’d been with their bodies joined. Normal people held each other after sex, but they weren’t normal people. They weren’t afterglow people. Still, old habits died hard, and Austin’s gut told him how to achieve what he wanted. And what he wanted was Polly touching him, in any way.
“It doesn’t not hurt,” he murmured. “I suppose.”
A handful of silent seconds slipped by while Austin held his breath. As if in a trance, she ran gentle fingers over his backside, tracing lines he imagined the belt had left behind. His eyelids fell like stones when she began to knead the sore flesh…caring for him. Austin was so overcome with the unfamiliar sensation of contentment, he didn’t realize she’d moved closer until he felt her applying pressure to the wounds on his back with soft fabric. Pressing, pulling away, pressing. When her lips replaced the fabric, Austin’s eyes flew back open, the organ in his chest attempting to smash free of his rib cage. He didn’t dare move as she kissed each and every scar on his back, still massaging him beneath the small of his back. Her breath drifted over the trail her kisses left behind, making his
stomach muscles seize. God, he wanted to rock his hips, wanted to drag his cock up and down on the bed, but what if she stopped? He’d die if she stopped because of something he did.
“How can I hate these marks so much when I left the same ones?” Polly’s soft voice cut through the darkness, a single finger trailing down the center of his ass, forcing Austin to stifle a groan. “And how can I see these red lines and want to put them there again tomorrow?”
Someone up there loves me. Austin lifted his upper half off the bed, twisting to face her. The uncertainty arranging her features made him want to reach out, cup the back of her neck. Something he pictured a lover doing. He opened his mouth to reassure her, then realized for once he had no answers. “I asked you for it, Polly. We both needed something and took it. That’s a sentiment we both recognize, isn’t it?” He waited for her slow nod. “In this room, let’s forget what happens outside and do only what we understand.”
Holy motherfuck, he was really putting himself out there, wasn’t he? Not something he typically did unless the outcome was a sure thing. Polly was the opposite of a sure thing. A gamble. One he really wanted to win, although he hadn’t a goddamn clue what he’d do with his prize. One day at a time. Or night, as it were. Perhaps if he wanted her to agree to see him again, he should behave in the manner that befitted a…suitor.
Good God. When had his brilliance turned to shambles?
For once in his life, Austin didn’t think. He reached for Polly and laid her down lengthways among the rumpled comforter, attempting to situate her in a comfortable manner, no idea if his actions were strange or necessary. It just seemed to him that since he wanted her to stay and be comfortable, he should see to it. When he was satisfied that she wasn’t going to launch herself from the bed, he took his place across the pillows. Going on impulse, he reached behind her and drew his fingers up and down her spine, striving for nonchalance when she sighed with enjoyment.
“Okay,” she husked. “Just in this room.”
Austin blew out a slow breath and attempted to ease closer without her noticing. “Don’t think for a while,” he said.
She yawned. “You either.” Oh, he’d thought Polly in a skirt was his kryptonite? Sleepy, sated Polly had just taken the motherfucking lead. “We’ll talk about everything when we wake up,” she murmured.
Austin made a sound of agreement, already knowing he wouldn’t let the conversation happen.
Chapter Eleven
Polly tried to appear her usual unruffled self as she scrolled through old emails on her department-issued phone. She saw none of what appeared on the screen, but it beat the hell out of watching the door, waiting for Austin to arrive at their scheduled squad meeting. He’d been gone when she woke up sometime in the middle of last night, disoriented and alarmed by the total darkness. Usually the screen saver from her laptop served as an adult version of a night-light, and the pitch black had catapulted her into a panic. Then she’d remembered. And her panic had been replaced with an even more unacceptable emotion. Hurt.
Austin’s postcoital vamoose had resulted in today feeling like the world’s longest walk of shame, although her rational brain told her it was ridiculous. She’d been the one holding the belt, after all.
She sat up a little straighter in the fold-up plastic chair, swallowing a gasp when her core pressed against the hard seat. Sensitive. So sensitive. It almost embarrassed her how much one fleeting memory of Austin’s treatment of her body could provoke such delicious swelling between her legs. His knowledge of the female body and how it reached the peak of pleasure should have turned her off. But alas. It did not. Recalling his rapt interest in every shiver of her body, every moan and clench, the way he’d attacked those weaknesses at the slightest show of enjoyment…nothing worked to subdue the craving for more. Again. More.
Yeah. Not even happening. She’d let him glimpse her weaknesses, begged in front of him, and even slept beside him. The ultimate show of trust. And he’d bailed, delivering a serious blow to her feminine pride. He’d even left a single teabag on his pillow, in lieu of his big, dumb, gorgeous head. A taunt? She didn’t know. Worse, even when he finally deigned to grace them with his presence at the meeting, she probably wouldn’t have a damn clue what his leaving without a word meant. Last night had been a fluke. Today, he would be hiding everything behind a smug mask once again.
The one not-so-minor detail preventing her from feeling totally played? She hadn’t been the only one to let her guard down in that hotel room. Not only his guard, his…will. He’d handed it to her on a gilded platter. Polly wasn’t so seduced by Austin that she couldn’t see his agenda. He’d gotten her into bed by utilizing what he knew. It was how he operated, whether his decisions were conscious or not—and she’d dropped her armor that night in the club long enough for him to see her desire to be in charge. As long as she was aware of his con, she wasn’t being conned. Right?
Only, the con had been absent in the hotel room. His need for atonement had shone through in his words, his actions and reactions.
Whatever you’re thinking of doing with that belt, do it.
If it pleases you.
Yes, ma’am.
Polly gulped down the remainder of her tea. What would she do now that he’d unlocked that part of her? It had only been lingering in the shadows until last night. A suspicion, not an actuality. Now a demand blazed like a comet from one end of her belly to the other, burning brighter with each trip.
“Polly,” Erin prompted from across the room. When had she gotten there? The blonde sat perched on Connor’s lap, waving out a lit match. “I ate pancakes alone this morning. What gives?” Connor grunted words meant only for Erin, making her laugh. “Hey, I might have done a run-out, but I went back and paid.”
“Only because I made you,” Connor said, battling exasperation. “And I don’t think they found it funny when you tried to pay with Monopoly money.”
“Ah, they did, too.”
Erin waved off Connor’s lecture just as Bowen and Sera entered the room, followed after a moment by Henrik. Still no Austin. Polly forced her hands to remain still in her lap, but they longed to fidget some more with her phone.
“Damn. Does the captain ever show up on time anymore?” Bowen paced in a circle, hands on hips. “I’m starting to feel a little slighted, if you want to know the truth.”
Henrik gestured toward Bowen with the paper coffee cup in his hand. “What is that on your knuckles?”
Bowen scratched the back of his neck. “Paint. What of it?”
“Nothing. I just had no idea you were an artist.”
“He is,” Sera broke in. “An amazing one.”
Henrik’s amusement over the couple’s defensiveness had made him even more striking, in a rugged, worldly manner that would usually appeal to Polly over, say, a flawless man who could grace the cover of European fashion magazines if he so chose. Henrik was an ex-fighter, a nice tidbit she’d learned via a little internet research this morning upon returning home. He came straight for a person, while Austin launched sneak attacks.
Checking her phone and realizing Mr. Sneak Attack was now three minutes late, Polly felt her own defensive move coming down the pike and did nothing to prevent its arrival. She smiled at Henrik and indicated the empty seat beside her. The one Austin usually fell into with the carelessness of an alley cat just in from a night of prowling the streets.
The ex-cop gave her a truly knowing look, reminding Polly he’d been placed on this squad for a reason, but took the seat anyway. God, Henrik was massive. From a distance he’d been tall, but up close his shoulders looked better suited to an NFL linebacker. The police force had lost a valuable asset in kicking out Henrik.
One of his dark eyebrows dipped, a conspiratorial move. “I think we’re interested in pissing off the same guy.”
She gave him a prim look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He gave her a slow wink. “Message received, sweetheart.”
Polly de
cided Henrik was good people, criminal record and all. Heck, his misdeeds might have even tipped the scales in his favor. She wondered if he would be upset knowing that—in dire need of a distraction—she’d hacked into his personal bank account this morning, the historical transactions of which had interested her enough to peruse his file on the department’s crime database.
To this day, Mr. Henrik Vance refused to admit why he’d destroyed police evidence that would have implicated local Irish mob boss Caine O’Kelly. But if Polly were a betting woman, she would have laid every last cent on that destroyed evidence implicating the beautiful, rarely pictured redhead who had the misfortune of being born with the O’Kelly last name. Ailish O’Kelly, the mob boss’s daughter, who—coincidentally—had been in custody around the time Henrik committed his crime.
Brisk, purposeful steps interrupted her thoughts, sending the heat comet ricocheting around her belly. Unless you’d been studying Austin for months as closely as she had, you would have missed the slight pause in his step, the tightening of his arrogant smile, as he joined everyone in the room.
Henrik didn’t even turn to look at the new addition, merely giving Polly a nudge in the side with his elbow. “Nailed it.”
Polly couldn’t prevent her smile, even though it trembled just a little, not unlike the insides of her thighs. A product of having the cocky Brit nearby after the orgasm festival he’d treated her to last night. She lifted the ice-cold cup of tea to her lips and watched Austin over her shoulder, as casually as she could manage. His answering look from just inside the entry was blistering, singeing her skin like a thousand tiny torches. As his attention shifted between her and Henrik, his reaction didn’t stop at anger. No, it promised retribution so powerful it swiped the oxygen out of her lungs.
Then his smug countenance was back in place, like it had always been there. In a movement brimming with male grace, he reached into the inside pocket of his trench coat and removed a package, handing it to Erin.