Coming Together: At Last, Volume One

by Alessia Brio, L. A. Banks, Lisabet Sarai

  She tossed her hair over her shoulder and met his eyes. She found them attached to her and burning with sheer hunger. His voice had been forced, but his eyes betrayed his thoughts. Officer Lopez hadn't forgotten about their little romp, and judging by the swelling at the front of his jeans, he wanted a repeat performance.

  "You wanna head on out then?” he asked, voice thick as honey. “It's early, but the night crew should still be there."

  Lori smirked, dropping her gaze to the desk's neat surface. Surely, he isn't going to go all casual friends routine on me! As we're both undercover as lovers, I can't just disappear for a week without some explanation. He sounded sad that I was leaving for the office though. What gives?

  "What, you want me to leave?” she asked, plucking items off her desk and putting them into a lightweight backpack so that tonight, during their surveillance, she could scoop up her pack and head out to the stroll around the diner without digging around for the proper tools. “I mean, if my being here makes you feel uncomfortable..."

  Because, partner, it sure unnerves me. My heart's pounding, and my pussy's wet from you being so damn close. To be true, it's always been this way with you, Juan, but now, now that we've actually done it ... my cravings are so much worse.

  "No, I want you to stay,” he said, surprise making his voice an octave higher as the tight twist of Spanish accent lingered over his words. “Last night, Lori ... We should talk about it."

  The look she gave him made him blow out a breath. The last thing she wanted was to discuss it.

  "I'm fine. Not uncomfortable at all. I guess I can stop guessing what's under your uniform."

  Did he just say that? Did he just say those words to me?

  "Funny,” she muttered and finished packing up her bag. “But I'll be the one making jokes when you're standing in front of Internal Affairs about your sexual harassment of your partner! Don't screw with me, Lopez!"

  When his shadow fell over her, Lori's heart shot up to her throat. Suddenly so close, she brought her eyes up to his. His musky cologne tickled her nose and set her clit to a fast beat. With only the desk between them, Lori coughed out her rising libido.

  "I don't think it's funny,” he whispered, his accent making each word sexy and sensual, silk across her skin. He placed both strong hands on the desk, and leaned in to her, beckoning her toward him, the air thickening. “But listen, partner, the same charges can be slapped on you, too. You did have your mouth on my cock last night, so don't issue threats."

  So it was, but his face was buried between her thighs, that flat tongue pressed against her clit, driving her into a frenzy of sobs. The memory alone scorched Lori's pride and she couldn't hold his gaze anymore. Face burning bright with anger, Lori nearly snatched off the zipper as she closed her backpack. She pulled it on with her lips pressed so tightly together, her teeth ached. With managing not to shoot him, Lori holstered her gun. He sported that smirk which had wormed its way into her fantasies and seared itself into her memory.

  Damn him for being sexy and arrogant.

  "You look so fucking hot when you get all angry and mad, Lori,” he said, the smirk widening into a grin. “Let us pretend now to be boyfriend and girlfriend, like last night, partner."

  "Fuck you, Lopez,” she growled, giving him the finger and cursing her wet panties. “Fuck you very much."

  Face burning as bright as the rising sun, Lori spun then darted out of the apartment before she could give in and screw him on the cheap ass linoleum floor.

  [Two]

  Juan was fast on Lori's heels, refusing to let her get away quite so easily. As it was, her sexy little legs didn't get her further than the graffiti-splattered hallway right outside the door.

  He hadn't meant to rile her, well not more than a little. There was just something about the feisty Lieutenant Morgan that made him crazy. She had the most innocent, soulful eyes he had ever seen. Ten years on the job would have tainted most people, yet she kept that certain something that glowed from within. When she turned those deep coffee-colored eyes in his direction, he felt a sense of awe and wonder. It didn't matter if she was glaring, smiling, or in deep thought. There were none of the shadows lurking in those depths. Like she was untouched by all the shit they swam through on a daily basis. She made him believe in people, and that pissed him off as much as it turned him on.

  Juan had fought his attraction tooth and nail from the moment she became his partner. Despite those damn eyes of hers, Lori Morgan was one seriously tough nut to crack. You couldn't faze her, couldn't shake her up. She was cool, calm, and steady no matter what was going down. He couldn't ask for a better person to watch his back. He didn't want to screw that up.

  So what if he couldn't help but watch surreptitiously whenever she walked by? Hell, those curves would call to a dead man. It was a wonder how someone so short in stature could be so perfectly stacked. Full high breasts could not be hidden beneath dark oversized shirts, irrespective of what she believed she was doing dressing in them. Sweats could never disguise those impeccably curved hips. Hey, he was a full-blooded Latino. Nothing turned him on like full, squeezable hips—the kind you could really get a grip on.

  How many times had he sat there at his desk trying to hide a painful hard on while trying to concentrate on casework? He had taken to wearing jackets that hid groin area so as to hide the bulge in his pants that never seemed to go away. His nights were spent in fevered fantasies of how her dark espresso skin would look against his own naturally honey-colored flesh. His dreams were often so vivid, so real, he found his pulsating cock in his hands, stroking frantically to how he had surmised she would look wearing nothing but him. His mind had painted a full picture of her nude body, open and willing. But his dreams had not begun to touch at the sheer magnificence that was Lori Morgan.

  Last night had rocked Juan's world in more ways than one. Lori was explosive in the sack, sure, but she was so much more than a one night stand. He hadn't been prepared for the emotions that assaulted him. He was thirty-three years old, and never before had a woman affected him the way Lori had. Every sigh slipping from those full, pouty lips fed his soul. Every cry made his spine a little straighter; his heart beat a little faster. He found himself striving to drive her over the edge over and over again, because every time she came apart in his arms it was like he had a glimpse into heaven. Damned if he didn't want that again.

  Contrary to what Lori believed, he hadn't left last night. Juan had snuck out early this morning, creeping out of the lumpy metal bed to take a walk. He had hoped she would be gone before he got back. He didn't know what to say. Lori had always been his partner, reliable eyes watching his back. Fantasizing about her was fine, safe even. The reality of Lori as a sexual partner was something Juan didn't know how to deal with.

  "Wait, Lori!"

  Grabbing her by the shoulder, Juan swung her around to face him. There was a faint blush to her dark skin, barely noticeable, but there. Her eyes shot daggers right at him, her lips pursed, her arms akimbo. Damn, she was sexy as hell when she was mad. Whatever he had planned to say flew out of his head. All he could think about was kissing her. Maybe pinning her to the wall and taking her right there in the hall. He couldn't do that, though. The walls looked like they hadn't been cleaned since the building had been built. She was too good for that.

  "Yeah?” Lori demanded, her little foot tapping the filthy floor.

  Juan winced as puffs of dust and dirt rose up in little clouds around her foot. The place was a true dive.

  "Let's go to breakfast and talk about this like adults.” It sounded lame to his own ears, so he hurriedly added, “We are good partners. I don't want to ruin that. We need to get past this."

  Please, amada. Just say ‘yes.'

  As much as he had wanted to avoid her earlier, he wanted to be with her now. Just to talk. Okay, that wasn't true. He wanted to be inside her again. He wanted to taste her on his tongue, drink the cream that flowed heavily when she came. He wanted to hear his name on
her lips, screaming out to him as she came. His cock grew heavier, throbbing against the inside of his thigh. His hands literally itched to cup those full, luscious breasts he knew were hiding under that shapeless sweatshirt. His heart slammed against his rib cage in a furious tattoo, and he was sure she could hear it.

  "I don't think we have anything to talk about,” Lori finally answered.

  She hadn't said no, which meant he was getting somewhere. He knew his partner. If the answer was no, she would have told him to kiss her ass, something he would be all too willing to do.

  Keep it together, Lopez, he warned himself sternly. To her, he poured on the pressure. “Come on, Morgan. I don't want this thing between us.” No, I want it on you. “We used to be friends. That's important to me. I don't wanna lose you as my friend."

  Surprisingly, it was true. Lori was his friend, and he didn't want to lose her friendship. Maybe not as much as he wanted to be her Papi, but he really didn't want to screw this partnership up. He didn't think he could handle seeing her with any of the horn-toad detectives who made raunchy comments about her behind her back.

  "Why?” Lori asked, turning those big, innocent eyes up to his. They always seemed to hit him right in the gut. “Why is it important to you? Why don't you want to lose my friendship?"

  There it was, the question he was terrified to answer. What did he say? Did he admit he had been falling in love with her, a little at a time, since the first moment he saw her? She would never believe that. She would think he was trying to get into her pants again. He was, but that wasn't his main goal.

  Yeah, so what is your goal, idiot? Fuck! He didn't know. He knew he didn't want anyone else as his partner-ever-and if they got involved, chances were they would be separated at work. He also knew he wanted much more than just a working relationship. So what did he want?

  "It's important to me because you are my best friend. I value that, and I value you.” No bullshit there.

  "Alright,” she final conceded. “But bring your gear, because I ain't coming back here until the next shift."

  Juan felt like jumping for joy, but he wisely suppressed the urge. Slow and easy. He wasn't about to let her slip away from him now.

  [Three]

  An interior light shone bright and golden through the windows of Gin Cho's Tasty Food Diner. The tables and floors gleamed with a surface clean that Lori suspected never quite made it to the corners, crevices, and beneath the visual surface. It reeked of dirty mop water and the stained air hung heavy with the aroma of grease. Hell, she could taste the smear of oil on the air, but this dive was the closest, only three blocks from the slummy apartment they shared during the night shift. Cho's fashioned itself a Waffle House, but they offered up humans deep in the basement. Lori and Juan knew Chen carted his Chinese trafficked women through this very establishment.

  Lori hated the place, but it offered decent food, even if the owner was their prime suspect in the human trafficking case.

  She sighed. The sooner Lori got 'the talk' over with, the better. Loathe to admit it, even to herself, she had to agree with him. Three years was too long to start over with a brand new partner, and her ties to him held her fast. At this point in their friendship, Juan could finish her sentences, guess what she wanted from the fast food places they frequented on occasion, and knew her favorite radio station. It would take three more years to train a new partner properly, to attune him—or her—to Lori's preferences.

  What if the newbie didn't want to be as giving as Juan in their professional partnership? What if the newbie was an asshole, bigger than Juan could ever be? Lori's heart galloped at the thought of spending long, late hour shifts with someone she despised.

  Oh no, I can't do that. Sure, Lopez can be a pain, but he's a good guy underneath the swagger. And I've already seen what a sizzling and tender lover laid beneath the coarse exterior.

  Yeah, starting over with a new partner was out. So she had to settle this thing with Juan right now. Explain how it had been for the job and that's all it was. Period. She could do that.

  She chewed on her bottom lip as she searched out a suitable booth. Gin's consisted of a twenty booths spread out in a U shape that wrapped around the centrally-located grill. Behind the grill, a lone piece of 21st century technology—a plasma television—spilled in the 24-hour news. In front of the grill, a safe distance away, was a counter and about six stools for those solo customers who came into the diner. All too aware of Juan's proximity to her ass, Lori wanted—no, needed—to put something solid between them before she spun around and climbed all over the luscious Latino body. He still smelled like MAN, all masculine with the scent of Calvin Klein cologne. All she longed to do was flick the tips of his toffee colored nipples into points and nibble on them with her teeth. That would be quite a sweet breakfast treat.

  Even now, his body called to hers, the scent of him being so close, the shifting of his muscles as he adjusted his backpack. It took a lot of anger, burning hot fury, to stem the other kind of flame flickering deep within her core.

  "Pick something already,” Juan quipped from behind her. The playful banter made her smile, repelling a bit of the sticky irritation clinging to her since last night's loss of control and her own surrender to the throbbing impatience of her clit. “I'm starving. I could eat a horse."

  "Your mouth isn't big enough for a horse, Lopez,” she scoffed, replying to his comment without even thinking. They always bantered in this manner—an old married couple their colleagues called them. Which was why the two of them were “volunteered’ for this undercover assignment. Their easy going relationship would convince the human trafficker that they really were lovers since it seemed so natural to everyone else.

  Juan's breath brushed her ear and made her jump as he whispered, “But yours is. And it's such a hot, delicious mouth, baby."

  Lori sucked in her breath and the tickling trickle of desire zipped up her back just before her fury at his words engulfed it. She shoved her elbow into his gut as hard as she could before stalking off toward the rear right corner booth. Ears burning, clit pulsating, and pussy damp, she had to get out of his personal space before she caved to his game. And she was sure it had become a game to Juan, a chance to bed her down again and watch her tough exterior crumble—again.

  "Oaf!” Juan grunted. “Hey, now, that hurt!"

  "Serves you right,” she muttered to herself, still attempting to stem the rising heat on her cheeks. Damn him!

  Now that he'd mentioned it, she couldn't rid her mind of the image. The huge head of his phallus beckoning with a bob for her to place her lips over him, cover him with her sweet, hot mouth, and she did without question. So long she desired to taste him, to feel his hardness against the back of her throat, to watch as his face contorted and twisted in pleasure, and to listen as his breath become ragged, his pleas for pleasure too numerous and too fast to understand as they melded in to Spanish. Yes, that's what she wanted again—to witness the tough as nails Juan Lopez begging, pleading, calling her name as her mouth took him to the height of delight, to the peaks of bliss.

  She closed her eyes as Juan slid into the booth's other side.

  "What's wrong, Morgan? Sit down. Come on, let's eat,” he said, concern lifting the pitch higher. Though he sounded calm, natural, Lori heard the tiniest hint of fear.

  Fear? No, Lopez feared very few things, perhaps worry. Yes, he was worried.

  About what?

  The plastic crinkled beneath her weight as she slid into the booth.

  Lori snatched up a fingerprint smeared menu and began scanning for what she wanted to eat. Truth be known, she didn't want to even be sitting here, but she had to get this done. She valued their friendship too much to let it die because of their dual carelessness.

  He was a great partner.

  And he'd been a superb bed partner, too. What about that, Morgan?

  Lori mentally slapped the thought away, but not before it had registered with her nether regions, and she had to cross her
legs tightly and squeezed as hard as she could to try to stem the liquid heat of her hunger from growing. A sigh escaped her lips and she heard Juan cough loudly. She ignored him and leaned forward, making her panties pull taunt across her pussy's swollen lips.

  Oh, man, I've got it bad. I want his cock inside me, right now, on this table, deep and balls slapping against me, just like last night in the living room.

  "You got that look on your face, Morgan. You want me to give you somethin'?” Juan cajoled.

  Lori's eyes shot up to his burning ocher ones, and her stomach tightened in immediate response. Her hips involuntarily rotated against her panties’ fabric, and she pressed her lips to stop the whimper from becoming audible.

  Saved from having to answer him, at least right away, a rail thin waitress with glazed eyes and a weathered complexion stopped short at their booth. Those eyes had seen too much, and Lori immediately recognized the look of hopelessness etched permanently onto the woman's face. She'd seen the same expression on many of the girls who came from China to America illegally via Chen. It seemed these women had been stripped of their desire to live by their very countrymen and all for profit. Her shoulders sagged, and Lori saw the hunger to fight, to live had been scrubbed out of her. As if the things that had been done to her would not clear.

  "What I get you?” she asked, pencil in one hand, a notepad in the other. Even her voice had seemed downtrodden as if worn from attempts at saying something important. “You hear today special?"

  "No, thank you,” Lori said, turning her eyes away, her determination to bust Chen renewed. Yes, she and Juan had issues, and they had to resolve at least one of those issues right now, this morning. There were other fish to fry. “I'll have coffee, two eggs, and toast."

  The waitress scribbled a few marks and with the same monotone voice turned to Juan.

  "You?"

  "I'll have the pancake special with bacon, and coffee."

  The waitress nodded and shuffled off to the area behind the counter and stools. There, she read off the orders in fluent Chinese, never raising her voice and avoiding eye contact with the cook.