On the Prowl
Page 25
Hot pain rolled through her and she gasped. She hadn’t been spanked since she was a child but her response was all adult now. Naked as she was, the heat was coursing over her skin and collecting in the most embarrassing place. Her fingers curled into the cushion beneath her. She was horrified by her reaction.
“Rich snobs have been breathing down my neck,” Riley said. “The commissioner himself has stopped by my desk more times than I can count. Even your sugar daddy, Roger Thorton, has been making a royal ass of himself.”
“Uncle Roger?” she said on a high note.
“You call him uncle?” His hand came down in a series of sharp smacks.
Her breath hissed out her lips as she tried to cope with the stinging in her backside. Her ass felt like it was on fire. It throbbed with every beat of her heart. Worse yet, the pulse between her legs was starting to match the rhythm.
“I should throw this pretty red ass of yours in jail,” he said as his flat palm connected again. “Maybe that would teach you a lesson.”
Her body writhed. Oh, God. He had to stop.
“I’m not proud of what I’ve done,” she gasped.
“Neither am I.” A swift rap on the underside of her cheeks caught her by surprise and every muscle in her body clenched.
“Aiyeee!” she screeched. Her backside was a mass of raw nerve endings but the sensitivity was pouring over into her pussy and her breasts. Her heels came up into the air as she dug her knees into the sofa. She couldn’t take much more.
She was either going to cry or come.
She didn’t know which would be more mortifying.
Riley was breathing nearly as hard as she was. She could feel his rib cage expanding and contracting against her waist.
“Why couldn’t you have trusted me just a little?” he asked, his voice strained. “Did that fuck in the van mean nothing to you?”
A whimper left her throat. He couldn’t talk about fucking now. He simply couldn’t.
He finally stopped spanking her but his hand lay flat on her backside. That was almost worse. Talia moaned as her nerve endings pricked and burned. She tried to roll away but he held her in place. If only he’d move that touch between her legs… A tear of frustration slipped down her cheek.
“You’ve got my head so screwed up, woman. Just look at what you’ve got me doing,” he muttered. His hand stroked over her red cheeks. “Hell, you should go straight to my captain. Get me thrown off the case. Maybe that’s the answer to this all.”
“No!” She was the bad one, not him.
And she really wanted to be bad now. She had no shame left. Shifting, she tried to get his hand where she needed it the most. Instead, his fingers toyed with the crevice of her ass, driving her to near distraction.
“What am I going to do with you?” he said tiredly.
Couldn’t he tell?
She groaned but she knew that wasn’t what he was asking of her. He was thinking ahead to her future.
Their future.
Fear suddenly overrode her agitation. Somehow, somewhere, the two of them had become intertwined. What happened to her affected him and the implications weren’t good.
She was going down, she knew—but she didn’t want to pull him down with her.
Her breaths went short as the reality of the situation hit her. Letting her go wasn’t an option, either. She couldn’t ask that of him. She knew him too well. His conscience would crucify him—and she couldn’t hurt him like that anymore. He was a good man and a good cop. He’d lose whatever respect he had for her if she didn’t accept the punishment she deserved.
Somehow, the thought of losing his respect made more tears press at her eyes than all the swats he’d given her behind.
Defeated, her body went limp. She lay her cheek against the cushion beneath her, finally accepting her fate. “Arrest me,” she whispered.
“What?” he asked, bending down to hear.
“Make love to me again,” she heard herself saying, “but then take me in. It’s the only thing you can do.”
His head snapped back. “What the— No! Fuck no!”
The words were impulsive and regret immediately flooded his face. Pressure formed in Talia’s chest as she watched him. He was torn between being a man and being a cop. She knew she had to push him in the right direction.
“Riley,” she said gently. “It’s time.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw and he stared at her for what seemed like a lifetime. All the emotion that had ever been between them seemed to congregate in that space and moment. She knew. She could feel it expanding inside her chest. Finally, something clicked behind his eyes.
“I said ‘no’.”
The hand on her bottom slowly moved and her breath caught. Fire trailed across her skin and she groaned aloud when his hand dropped between her legs. This was what she’d wanted so badly. He caught her firmly just like she needed and she ground her forehead against the couch. Two fingers sought entrance. She was so wet, she took them easily.
“You’re the most frustrating, consternating woman I’ve ever met. You’ve done some stupid things but I can’t condemn you for them,” he said as his fingers stroked her intimately. “Your heart was in the right place and it’s the biggest heart I’ve ever met.”
“Mmm,” she murmured involuntarily. She tried to fight off the arousal crashing through her system. “Don’t put your job on the line. Not for me.”
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll work it out later,” he said gruffly. His fingers wiggled inside her more aggressively. “We’ve got something more important to take care of right now. If I heard right, you just asked me to fuck you.”
“But Riley…”
“Later.”
He leaned over her and she flinched as his sweatshirt brushed over her buttocks. Even that soft touch was too much on her sensitive skin. She heard him rummaging around in something and she twisted around to see what he was doing. She froze when she saw The Box.
He came up with a plump little African man that sent her heart to racing. “No,” she said, instinctively backing away.
“Relax.”
She couldn’t. She’d conceded enough to him already. He couldn’t make her submit any more. She tried to push herself up onto her elbows and knees but he easily overpowered her. Her neck craned around. “Please, Riley. No.”
“Trust me.”
He was asking too much. “It’s too big.”
“It’s just right.”
She tensed hard but felt the tip press against her pussy lips.
“Oh,” she sighed. Her muscles nearly melted. She’d take it there. She settled back down onto his lap and spread her legs wider. Her pussy was starving to be filled. She was embarrassed that the spanking had made her cream but it let the phallus slide in easily. He worked it in deep. She moaned when he began spinning it inside her tender cunt.
“I was so angry when I found these in Winston’s office, I actually saw red,” Riley said, his voice going hoarse. She felt the hand on her lower back stiffen. “I saw his lab. Did you—”
“No,” she said quickly. She knew he was already jealous of Roger and Brent. “My relationship with the professor was purely collegial.”
“Then he never used these?”
She blushed as her thoughts jumped to Jennifer. “Not on me.”
“Good.”
He began pumping the figurine in and out of her, wetting the polished wood with her sticky juices. Her hips began to rock but she groaned in despair when he inexplicably pulled the sex toy out of her.
He didn’t leave her alone for long. He moved the knobby head of the carving to another secret spot and her back bowed.
“Ah!” she gasped in surprise. “Riley!”
“This is what this little guy was meant to do,” he said as he pressed the African man firmly against the bud of her anus.
Shock made her slow to react and she grabbed for him clumsily. He caught her hand with his free one and held tight.
“You asked me to fuck you, Talia. Let me.”
Her brain stopped functioning. All she could think about was the wicked device at her back door. Her body fought the unnatural intrusion but the pressure was inexorable and unavoidable. Her sphincter surrendered and the butt plug slipped inside.
She clutched so hard at Riley’s hand, their fingers turned white.
The pressure was all-encompassing and oh-so-intimate. What hadn’t seemed so big in her pussy felt huge up her ass. She was inexperienced with anal sex. All she’d ever taken back there before were Riley’s fingers. The butt plug felt just as big, but much, much harder. She felt stretched to the point of discomfort.
“Easy,” he crooned as he pushed the devious little man further into her. “I know you’ll like this. You loved it when I touched you there.”
She wasn’t so sure. She swiveled her hips to try to get away from the mounting pressure. She let go of his hand and reached back to try to pull the plug out but he pressed her wrist against the small of her back.
“Just a little more. There. How does that feel, baby?”
Feel? She felt invaded, stretched, debased—and horribly aroused. The dark pleasure was too much to bear.
His hand caressed her tender backside. “That’s what I thought,” he said softly.
The plug was lodged deep inside her—so deep Talia was afraid to breathe. She moaned when he left it there. A similar pressure began in her pussy and she jolted.
He’d taken another piece from the set and was now inserting it in her cunt. It was one of the larger pieces of the set. She could tell the moment it passed her lips and began to seek entrance.
“No!” The denial burst from her lips even as her back bowed with pleasure.
“No?” he asked, stopping halfway.
“No… I don’t know. Oh, God. It’s too much!”
“Do you want me to stop?”
“Yes. No. I’ve never— Take the other one out.”
“You’ll hate me if I do.”
“Riley, please…”
“Please, what, babe?” He began moving the sex toy in her pussy, giving short thrusts that sent pleasure spiraling through her.
“Oooooo.”
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He pushed hard and her pussy opened to take the dildo to the hilt.
Talia’s eyes closed tightly as her mind spun out of control. The pressure was overwhelming. She was filled to the point where she couldn’t take any more. The discomfort made her toes curl but she couldn’t find any relief. The only relief she would find would be a climax but that lingered laughingly just out of her reach.
She reached for her clit.
“Oh no, you don’t. You asked me for that.” The room spun again as Riley rolled her onto her back. He scooted out from underneath her and she watched as he savagely attacked his clothes.
Her arousal mounted impossibly higher as he stripped. She’d never seen him naked before.
But God, she wanted to.
He pulled his sweatshirt over his head. It went flying and nearly knocked over the lamp behind him. He ripped his T-shirt as he jerked it upward and she murmured in need. His body was mouthwatering. All sinew and muscle. His pecs were rock hard, and his belly was flat and rippled. The muscles in his arms bulged as he threw aside the shirt and reached for his jeans. The zipper nearly broke as he yanked it down. He kicked off his shoes and pushed down his clothes in one smooth motion. His socks followed and he rose before her in all his glory.
Talia swallowed hard. She’d seen that before but its size still shocked her. His cock was full and standing up like a battering ram. His balls were plump and pulled up tight. Unconsciously, she opened her legs wider as he dropped to his knees before her.
He caught her ankle and lifted her leg so it was draped across the back of the couch. He pushed the other over the side so her toes touched the floor. The wooden pieces shifted inside her and her neck arched. “Ahhhhh.”
He settled over her and she clutched his shoulders so tightly her fingernails left half-moons on his skin. The weight of his body intensified the full feeling inside of her. She felt close to bursting.
“I can’t turn you in, Talia,” he said into her ear. “You need me too much.”
He kissed her and she fought for her climax. She just couldn’t quite get there.
“Do you need me, babe?”
“Yes,” she cried. She needed him. Inside her. Pumping hard. “I need you, Riley. Not these things.”
He heard the pleading in her voice and reached between her legs. He pulled the dildo out of her vagina so quickly, her body spasmed. He didn’t make her wait. His hot, hard flesh took the African man’s spot and thrust into her.
She cried out. He’d left the butt plug in and she felt him moving against it. Dark waves of pleasure crashed over her and she clung to him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and the wood shifted deep inside her. It was enough to push her over the top.
“Riley,” she cried out as her fingernails bit into his back.
He rode her hard through the orgasm and past it. Sweat dripped from his forehead as he pounded into her, bringing her to another sharp peak. Talia came three times before Riley’s head snapped back and his hips jerked uncontrollably. When he fell replete on top of her, she held on for all she was worth. It was a long time before he stirred.
“This is it, Talia,” he finally said, his harsh breaths brushing against her hair. “You’ve got to stop. The New Covington Cat Burglar has to disappear.”
“I know,” she said.
“No, I don’t think you do. We need to get some things straight right here and right now.”
He propped himself up on his elbows. His chest heaved as he looked down at her. “I know why you steal and, God help me, I even admire you for it. When I figured out the risks you were putting yourself through for those kids, I had to shake my head.”
He gently cupped her face. “But there’s more to it than that.”
She looked up at him in confusion. “No, that’s why I—”
He pressed his thumb to her lips, cutting off the words.
“Just listen.” He brushed her hair back. “There’s a deeper reason why you keep putting yourself in harm’s way and I’m not talking about revenge, although that was a driving force, too. I know you don’t want to hear this, baby, but you’ve got a serious self-esteem problem.”
“Self-esteem… I do not!” Talia had never been so surprisingly offended in her life.
His weight didn’t budge from atop her. “You’ve told me how difficult it was growing up in New Covington the way you did. You said you didn’t fit in anywhere. Brent Harrington obviously did a number on you and you’re still letting him do it.”
She was flabbergasted. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I didn’t let him do anything.”
“Maybe not, but he’s an issue for later. It’s your brother who pisses me off the most.”
“My brother?” she said, her jaw dropping. She’d had enough of this. She shoved at his shoulders, trying to get him to move off of her. “I love my brother.”
He caught her wrists and held them against the cushions. “And he loves you. He just likes to hold it over your head how your father left the family business to him.”
Her mouth snapped shut. She couldn’t deny it but she’d never admitted as much to anybody other than Sadie. She looked up at Riley warily. Where was he going with all this?
“I saw how he treated you at the auction,” he said. A trace of leftover fire lit his eyes. “I wanted to introduce my fist to his face.”
She shook her head. “That’s just Adam. I don’t think he means to do it.”
“Then tell him to stop.”
The hard look in Riley’s eyes made her take pause. There was emotion a mile deep there. He didn’t like how her brother treated her. She blinked hard to fight the moisture that suddenly gathered in her tear ducts.
“You haven’t, because you think he’s right. You think your
father left the company to him because he trusted him more. Loved him more.”
She flinched. The words hit her like fists.
“Damn you, Riley. That’s enough.” Anguish clogged her throat and tears began to trickle down her cheeks. He was digging up things she hadn’t wanted to face, things that had festered deep inside her for years.
She tried to look away. He gently turned her back to him and brushed a kiss against her forehead.
“You’ve got it all screwed up in your head,” he said softly. “I didn’t know your father but it’s pretty easy to figure him out.”
“Why are you saying these things to me?” she choked out. She didn’t want to have this discussion now. She didn’t want to have it ever.
“Because you need to hear them. You’re too close. You can’t see the obvious.”
“Maybe I don’t want to see it!”
“Think about it, baby,” he said persistently. “What, out of everything in this world, did your father hold dearest to his heart?”
She shook her head. Not only was he poking at her deepest insecurities, he was still embedded inside her. It made it impossible to think. Impossible to cope.
“It wasn’t his company,” he said with certainty.
Of course, it was. She’d adored her father. She’d worshipped him. Riley might not have known him but she had. If there was anything her father treasured, it was—
She blinked as the lightbulb went on inside her head.
“My mother,” she whispered.
“Exactly.” He used his thumb to wipe a tear from her cheekbone. “I studied up on you and your Foundation, you know. Your mom was an art teacher in the public school system.”
Talia’s lips began to tremble. “My father started the after-school program in her memory after she died.”
“And he entrusted it to you.”
Shame slapped her full in the face. Oh, God, it was true. Her father had left her an incredible gift but she hadn’t appreciated it for what it was worth. Much worse, she’d sullied that memory in the vilest way.
She began crying in earnest. She felt Riley’s arms wrap around her. He rolled them onto their sides and tucked her up against him. He held her tightly as sorrow racked her entire body.