Kat, Knight Watch (Iron Orchids Book 11)

by Danielle Norman

  “Seems kind of sacrilegious since all I want to do are very bad things to you.”

  “That sounds heavenly too,” I practically purred. “What are we doing?”

  “Making each other feel good.”

  “Okay, I’m good with that.” I slowly eased out of my clothes, making a small pile on the floor, and Jackson followed. There were no games, no dragging it out. “Bed, let’s take it to the bed.”

  As I moved to crawl up, he wrapped his arms around my waist, lifting me so I was propped up on my hands and knees.

  He already had a condom and was rolling it on when I glanced back to him. Then he moved like a predator, ready to claim what was his. In one thrust, he was inside, and a deep guttural moan escaped my lips. It matched how I felt at being so filled at that moment. This feeling of fullness felt too raw to be expressed in words.

  He pushed deeper, reaching around to palm my breast, rubbing my nipples between what felt like his forefinger and thumb. With each slam of his hips, I moaned, and he continued kissing and biting his way across my shoulders.

  When I was close, every inch of him burying deep inside me, he reached around and squeezed my clit, sending me spiraling into an orgasm.

  “Holy fuck. Yes,” I panted as I writhed.

  “That’s right, baby, let me hear you. It’s so fucking hot.”

  He thrust, teased my clit, and thrust again. He repeated it over and over until I was on the brink of blacking out. He swelled and got harder inside me, his muscles started pulsating, and he was dragging me over the edge again.

  Kat

  During the night, a cool front had rolled in, making the day a perfect one to be outdoors. A DJ was mixing music in a tent across the parking lot from where we were straddling our bikes, and vendors were already selling fried foods and alcohol.

  My elbows rested on my handlebars, and my chin rested in my open palm as I watched different agencies roll in. Some rode their bikes here while other trailered their bikes.

  “Kitty Kat!” I turned to the only person except for Alyssa—who had stopped calling me that when she was about six—who still referred to me in such a way, Stella Lang. She would have been a modern-day Marilyn Monroe with curves, blonde hair, and a beautiful smile if Marilyn wore a mini skirt, Harley shirt, and black leather boots that zipped up to her knees. My favorite thing was her black leather vest with a giant patch emblazoned with the Iron Orchids logo.

  “Erotica author!” I hollered back.

  “Damn straight. My head is a fucked-up place to be, and now I get to share it with the world.”

  “And people pay for it?” I asked sotto voce.

  “Abso-fucking-lutely.” Stella looked around the crowd. “Are we the first ones here?”

  “I think so.”

  “Fantastic, at least you don’t have to wait alone any longer. What’s been going on in your life?”

  “Not much, boring as all get out.”

  “I call bullshit,” Harley whispered from behind me.

  I spun around. “Hey, I didn’t see you get here.” I turned back to Stella. “Did you see her walking up?” Stella raised one eyebrow like I had just asked the dumbest question. I guess it was sort of dumb. “Next time, warn a sister.”

  “I came early to help set the course. Did you tell Stella about the new guy?”

  “Ooh, is he yummy?” Stella asked excitedly.

  “Totally delish,” Harley answered. “The two met one afternoon and hooked up that night.” I stared at Harley, wondering why she thought that was anyone’s business but my own.

  “Please tell me he was good—like, really good and you haven’t turned into a rooster.”

  “Yes, he was good, real good,” I answered somewhat reluctantly.

  “Thank god, I’d hate to think any cock-a-doo.” Stella cackled. “Get it, rooster, any cock-a-doo?”

  “Stop it. It was a one-time thing.” Okay, two, but I wasn’t telling them.

  “Are you fucking crazy?” Harley shouted and several people turned to see what was going on.

  “Shhh, take it down a decibel or twenty.” I cupped my hands over my ears.

  “That man is seriously hot and was seriously eye-fucking you all night. Don’t let him get away . . . yet. I’m sure you can get some more wear out of him.”

  “What she said.” Stella pointed at Harley.

  “How would you know, you haven’t even met him?” I snapped.

  “Harley just painted a pretty decent visual.”

  Needing to change the subject to something other than my sex life, I said, “Here are a few of the others,” and pointed to Sadie and Piper rolling up. A second later, Kayson and Carter followed.

  “Who all is actually competing?” Stella asked.

  “We have four women and four men from our county. We’re just waiting on Max and Aiden,” I explained as I stepped back to make room for Piper to pull in next to me.

  We were all in our standard OCSO Motors uniform of white button-down and dark green pants tucked into fugly riding boots.

  “Hey, Kat, guess who I saw?” Piper asked as she got off her bike.

  “No clue, who?”

  “Jackson. He’s probably looking for a parking spot.” Motorcycles are given priority access, but since most of the parking lot was set up as a competition course, parking spots were hard to come by.

  I scanned the crowd for him as Stella shouted to try to catch her sisters-in-law’s attention, “The gang is here.”

  They were all together, and even though they were dressed very differently, they each had on a vest identical to Stella’s.

  “We’re not a gang!” Ariel hollered.

  “We are,” Harley mumbled. “We are gun-toten, badass mambo jambos.”

  I tilted my head and then mouthed mambo jambo? “Granted we are badass, but can you come up with another description besides mambo jambo? Sounds like we are all seven-foot-tall, wide-as-a-windmill Tongan women. How about mofos?”

  “Nah, I like mambo jambos.”

  Everyone jumped back, and I looked down as small hands were wrapped around me. “Oreo, you’re a cop?”

  I couldn’t help but smile. The kid was sort of cute. “I am.”

  “Where’s your police car?” Julien still held on but looked around.

  “I don’t have one. I have a motorcycle instead, see.” I pointed to my bike. “It has lights and a siren just like a police car.”

  “But way cooler,” Julien emphasized.

  “Yeah, way cooler.” I glanced over to my tribe to find them all watching, including Jackson, who had joined the group. He moved closer to me and I startled at the feel of his warm hands at my back.

  “I hadn’t realized he had sort of reddish hair. I like it; reminds me of someone else.” Harley gave a wicked smile.

  “He has strawberry blond hair,” I retorted then turned my attention to Jackson, but not before realizing that Julien was still holding on to me. “Excuse Harley, she has the hots for an Irishman.” I glanced over to where Aiden stood with some of the other guys.

  “I sort of like Greek coloring so much more.” Stella was all dreamy-eyed.

  “And, Stella is married to a Christakos,” I explained.

  “I sort of prefer Greek coloring too,” Jackson announced.

  “See, I like him already. I’m Stella, and you must be action Jackson.”

  Heat colored my cheeks, and I refused to glance at the man standing next to me.

  “Ignore them,” I begged.

  “Hey, you four.” Kayson caught our attention, unknowingly saving Stella from being strangled. “You ready?”

  “Ready as I’m going to be.”

  “Good luck.” Jackson bent so only I could hear.

  “Do good, Oreo.” Julien held out his hand for a high-five.

  “You’re okay, kid.” I clapped his hand as my sisters came running toward us.

  “Kat.”

  “Kat. Did we miss anything?” Alyssa and Thalia were both staring openly at Ja
ckson.

  “No. Did you come by yourselves?”

  “Nah,” Thalia answered. “Galena and Petra brought us. They’re trying to find a parking spot, so we jumped out.”

  “Jackson, these are my other sisters, the two you haven’t met yet. Alyssa and Thalia,” I said as I pointed to each one.

  “Wow, you five look so much alike.” He looked between the three of us.

  “It’s a Greek thing, we’re all related, so there’s a lot of inbreeding,” Thalia deadpanned.

  “What? There is not.” I smacked her arm, and she cracked a smile.

  “I like her. She said that with such a straight face.”

  “Well, not sure if I like you or not since I haven’t heard anything about you, but we’ll remedy that. Kat will be on the course, and we will get to talk and talk and talk.”

  I groaned and gave Jackson an apologetic look. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Go.” He leaned over and placed a quick kiss on the top of my head.

  I glanced at Julien to see how he reacted, but it was as if it were no big deal. Cool.

  “Oh my god. Alyssa, if a guy ever kisses me on the head, kill him. Just shoot him. He isn’t worth my time.” Thalia rested her hands on her hips and was giving Jackson the evil eye while everyone else around us was cracking up laughing.

  “Oh, excuse me, I don’t want your sisters to kill me.” Jackson gave me a second kiss—this time on my lips.

  “Meh,” Thalia said as she turned and headed off.

  “I’m so sorry,” I whispered to Jackson.

  “It’s okay. If this is what I was missing by being an only child,” he said, “then thank god my parents stopped after me.”

  Jackson

  “We have to go check in.” Kat gave me a hesitant smile while I pulled Julien off her.

  “Oreo, I brought you somefin.”

  “You did? What’s that?” Kat had really changed toward Julien and I was surprised by how fast he had wiggled his way into her heart. Well, not really surprised, the kid was hard not to love.

  “Dese!” Julien held out several packs of Oreos. “I saved dem from my lunch just for you.”

  His gesture was so sweet. “How about I take one and you eat the others? I’m nervous and if I eat too much it will make me sick. So you eat them for me, okay?”

  “All of dem?” Julien’s eyes were bulging.

  “Yep, every single one, you let daddy know that I said to.”

  “And you’re a cop, you have to listen to cops.”

  “Yep, that’s right,” she confirmed, and I audibly groaned while everyone else around me softly chuckled.

  I didn’t care who was watching at that moment, I reached forward and cupped Kat’s face, trailing my thumb along the top of her cheek. “Kick ass,” I whispered low enough that I wasn’t overheard by tiny ears.

  She wrapped her hands around my wrist and leaned into my touch. “Thanks.” Kat gave me a squeeze before she headed off.

  “Jackson, this is my fiancé Liam,” Piper introduced us. “And this is Sadie’s husband and her daughter Callie.”

  “Nice to meet you guys.” I cleared my throat. “This is my son Julien.” I pointed to my little man.

  “Hi.” Callie waved. “You want to sit on the blankets with me?” Julien caught my eyes.

  “It’s okay, I’ll be right here. You can see me.” I watched the two walk off and then turned back to the remaining people. Piper had left to join Kat. “Could someone explain how all this works? I’ve never been to one of these events before.”

  “The fee you paid to come in today was really a donation to the Fallen Heroes Fund. The different motor units compete more for bragging rights; although, the donation is made in the name of the unit that wins,” Liam explained.

  “Is there a scoreboard or something?”

  “Yes and no. There are points and times called out for us to keep track if we want to but they keep their own, just not where we see it. How the whole thing works is, there are four different challenges, a continuous and a precision course plus there is a speed and a slow time race. Top three in each category will get trophies, but the team with the most overall points is deemed the challenge winner,” Liam explained to both Ryan and me. “An announcer will call out times for the races as well as deductions during the courses.”

  “Have a seat, y’all,” Ariel called. “We’re starting.”

  “Mom’s up,” Callie called to her dad Ryan as the announcer called out Sadie Montgomery.

  Sitting there felt sort of strange. I was close to my family, but these people were tight, like invade-your-space, know-no-bounds tight. And, truthfully, I didn’t belong. I liked Kat . . . a lot, but we weren’t even dating.

  Sadie revved her engine, and Julien popped up on his knees so he could see better. A clock counted down and Sadie took off, whipping around orange cones and sharp curves at a high speed.

  “One minute, eight seconds,” the announcer called out as soon as Sadie crossed the finish line.

  One by one, the different women or men competed, and they were cheered on by everyone. Of course, it was easy to tell who the rider belonged to since that area was always louder, but everyone still cheered for everyone. When it was time for Kat to run the precision course, I held my breath. Each time she approached the next obstacle she had to lean the fifteen-hundred-pound bike into an almost forty-five degree angle and sweep up the small flag. I held on to Julien tightly, but he was oblivious to my stress.

  In the end, Orange County had the most overall points, but they also had the most competitors.

  “Next year, you will snag one of the trophies, I guarantee it,” I whispered into Kat’s ear as everyone congratulated Piper, Kayson, and Carter on their individual wins.

  “We’re outta here,” Alyssa announced. “Jackson, it was nice meeting you. I can’t wait to tell Mana all about you.” She gave Kat an evil smile. “Dude, you’re cool.” She gave Julien a fist bump.

  “She taught Julien that,” I explained to Kat, who had missed the entire lesson.

  “Bye!” the rest of Kat’s sisters shouted.

  “Nice meeting you too, I think.” I waited until the four of them had walked off before turning to Kat. “Your sisters are scary, you know that, right?”

  “I know,” Kat agreed.

  “It was nice meeting you, Jackson, hope to see you again.”

  “Nice meeting you too, Ariel.”

  One by one, everyone started to say their goodbyes and then split off.

  “Kat!” Thalia shouted.

  “Kat. Our car. Galena wants you to come,” Alyssa panted from running so hard.

  We all started running. I pulled Julien up into my arms and followed.

  “Where?” Kat hollered since she was in front of the rest of us.

  “Keep going, over to the left.” Thalia waved.

  Almost the entire group that had been sitting with us noticed us and started moving our way. I saw Galena’s head above the cars but couldn’t see anything else until we rounded a row.

  “Oh, shit,” I hissed.

  “Dat’s a bad word, Daddy.” Julien placed his hand over my lips.

  I pulled his hand away. “I know, I’m sorry.”

  “What the fuck?” Liam said.

  I covered Julien’s ears, but truthfully, what the fuck was right. All four of Galena’s BMW tires had been slashed and someone had keyed the entire passenger side.

  “How could someone do this with so many cops around?” I whispered to Kat.

  “That’s how. This is a Harley dealership,” Kat explained. “All of the cops are in one area. It is still open to the public and look where the cars are parked. This isn’t a watched area. Hell, I doubt the security footage could pick up anything this far.”

  “Don’t care, I’m going to see if there is anything on the security cameras,” Carter said, already heading toward the main building.

  “Who has incident reports on them besides Kat?” Kayson
asked.

  “I do,” Harley stated.

  “Can you grab one and write this up?”

  “Yes, sir.” Harley headed off, presumably to grab a report form.

  “Get whatever you need out of the car,” Leo ordered Galena. “I have one of my tow guys coming, he’ll drop this off at the shop and we’ll get this fixed immediately.”

  “Alyssa, can you take Julien right over there and hang out with him for a bit?” Kat pointed over to where Ryan stood.

  “Sure.”

  Once Julien was out of the way, I started before Kat even had a chance. “I know what you are going to ask and the answer is, I have no idea. Is it possible that Tammy did this, sure. But why? Your house, okay, I can understand that, I’ve slept there. The bank, once again, she could follow me since I work there and go there almost every day. But Galena’s car? I’m not dating her, I don’t drive it, have never even been in the car. So, no, I can’t imagine it being her.”

  “I don’t know, Jackson, she could be just trying to create havoc and my family is just as much in her line of sight as anyone.”

  “I will try and think more on this, I will, I promise. While you all are waiting here to do your cop stuff, do you want me to run home and get my car so Julien and I can get the four of them home?”

  “Would you?” Kat looked relieved to have that problem off her shoulders.

  “Of course. I’ll be right back.”

  Kat

  “Let’s run in and grab something for dinner,” Jackson said as he pulled into the parking lot of a Publix grocery store.

  “Perfect, I have an idea as well, it will be a game we can play and dessert.”

  “Dessert?” Julien was bouncing in his booster seat.

  “Yep, it’s something my family used to do when there were a bunch of kids around. The three of us can play it tonight,” I explained.

  “You play with your dessert? We don’t play with food, do we, Daddy?” Julien unbuckled himself from his seat and got out of the car.

  “Nope,” Jackson agreed as he waited for Julien to join him.

  “This one you can play with and it’s fun; you sure you don’t want to make an exception?” I glanced down and waited to see what he was going to do.