Citywide

by Santino Hassell

  She nodded. “Yeah. But he’s in jail. I identified him and gave the investigator all the details. I don’t know how long they’ll be locked up, because they could get bonded or whatever, but . . . there’s an actual investigation and everything, which makes me happy.”

  I nodded, forcing a smile for her even as my brain sprinted ten steps ahead to a thousand what-if scenarios. What if someone else decided to use that information to target her? What if someone else decided to rob her or her house now that her address had been made public? What if those dude’s friends decided to avenge their now-jailed buddies?

  What if people decided to lash out at Chris, who’d found the evidence on the guy’s laptop? Or Mere’s brothers? Or Jace—the dreamy-eyed guy who looked like an anime character?

  “Hey, what are you thinking?” Mere leaned in, concern creasing her face. “You got that serious mean mug again.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry. I can just tell you’re not exactly walking on sunshine at the news.”

  “That’s because I’m a cynic with a huge chip on my shoulder.” One glance up front at Chester showed he was driving, eyes on the road, but something about his body language made it clear he was all up in our convo. “How long are you going to have this guy driving you around? I’m sure he was taken off some other kind of duty, right?”

  Chester nodded without speaking, and Meredith inclined her head. “Caleb wants all of the QFindr execs to have full-time security until this situation dies down. Right now we have an entire forum of trolls plotting against us, trolls who have our personal information and addresses, and the situation is close to spiraling. So . . .” She looked down, eyelashes shading her eyes. “Caleb and Aiden both agreed that using Dad’s team is for the best.”

  “Do you agree?”

  She raised a shoulder slightly. “I guess. I don’t like him, but this is for the best, right?”

  I watched her cautiously. “You tell me what’s best. This is about your life.”

  Meredith rubbed her thumb over my knuckles as if she was trying to massage the scar tissue away. “I think we should be safe. Especially now. And that my personal feelings about my father aside, utilizing his force is smart. And . . .” She cleared her throat and looked up, meeting my stare. “And I think, if you want to, you should consider that job.”

  “Why the change of heart?”

  “Because I was having a kneejerk reaction, a series of them, without really thinking it through. It’s not like you’ll be golfing with the man,” she said, causing me to snort. “Besides, I’d love it if you were my guard.”

  “Uh, no. Not gonna happen.” I shook my head empathetically. “This isn’t a Whitney Houston movie, ma. No blurring the lines at work.”

  “But we’d get to spend so much time together, plus so much sex.”

  “Right, plus me being distracted by wanting to fuck you nonstop when I’m not wanting to go homicidal on the next fool who looks at you wrong.”

  Meredith batted her eyelashes at me. “That was so romantic.”

  “Yeah, that’s as much as you’re gonna get from me, so I’m glad it touched your heart.”

  She laughed, and upfront even Chester snorted. I pulled her in for a half hug, relief fanning out over me in an unfamiliar way. I hadn’t been this emotionally invested in a girl in a while. Then again, I hadn’t had someone look at me the way Meredith looked at me in a while. She wasn’t deterred by my hard-ass exterior, sneers, or cold attempts to drive her off. She somehow bypassed all that in a way that no one else had ever done, or tried to do, before. I didn’t know why I was so special to her, or why she was so special to me, but all of this special shit had to lead somewhere good, right?

  “I want to kiss you.”

  “So do it,” she said. “Right here in front of Chester.” I kissed her forehead, and she scowled. “That’s it?”

  “Until you fully explain your change of heart, yeah.”

  “Fine. But let’s wait until we’re at your place.” Meredith tilted her head onto my shoulder and curled against me. I was all hard angles, but she acted like I was the most cuddly person in the world. “Unless Angel and Victor are there . . .”

  “Shouldn’t be.”

  “Good. We can talk, but then I want makeup sex.”

  Upfront, Chester sighed. I just laughed.

  Thankfully, Angel really wasn’t home when we got there. His day tended to depend on cancellations and emergency visits for technician support, and I did not have the mental capacity for an audience. There were few times when I could interact openly without my guard up if there were people watching.

  There was a difference between talking to people and talking in a way that ripped me open and left me bare, and I’d never been good at that. Even as a kid, the idea of answering a question when called on in class had fucking paralyzed me. The idea of being wrong, and being ridiculed for being wrong, had been terrifying. Why would I open myself up to that? Why would I open myself up to anyone but people I trusted one hundred percent?

  I flipped the locks and tossed my keys on the counter.

  “You want anything?”

  Meredith shook her head. “Can we go to your room?”

  “You sure? It’s not the most visually stimulating.”

  She snorted. “I’m not here for a light show, T.”

  Shaking my head, I kicked off my shoes by the door and led her to my room. The bed was still unmade, and she hesitated at the foot of it. Her long fingers trailed along the messy sheet, and I wondered if she could remember our night together as vividly as I could.

  Judging by the hazy way she looked at me, with her teeth catching on her lower lip, she did.

  I grabbed the front of her dress in my hand and tugged her to me, loving how she came with no resistance at all. I loved it even more when she slanted her mouth for me and let my tongue in to play, lashing at her in hot wet strokes as she pressed her body to mine. My hand found its way into her hair, my other one shooting up her dress to clutch her ass, but she did nothing more than hang onto me as I tongued her breathless.

  As a teenager, I must have kissed hundreds of girls as I’d claimed my status as one of the few out studs of our high school. Kisses should not have had the ability to power through my body armor and explode through my nerves, but these did. Because these were kisses I’d fantasized about for a fucking year. Even when I’d resented her and hated myself for fixating on her, I’d wanted it so bad.

  “What is it about you?” I rasped against her lips. “I’ve been wanting this since that fucking cruise, and every time I touch you, I just want more and more. And I don’t think I’ll ever get enough. You have no idea how weird this is for me.”

  She panted against me, hands sliding up to curve over my shoulders. “What? How ridiculously intense every little touch is between us?”

  “Yeah.” I jerked her harder against me and flicked my tongue at her lower lip. “That.”

  Meredith rubbed her breasts against me, undulating like a ridiculously sexy wave. “I think they call it being totally infatuated and in love at first sight. People just don’t usually simmer over it for a year the way we did, Sergeant.”

  My body clenched up at the use of my title, from my abs to my pussy. My fingers became clawed in her soft skin, eyelids lowering.

  “Fuck, I like that.”

  Her lips curled up, gaze full of knowing. “What else would you like, Sergeant Maldonado? You know I’ll follow any order.”

  Damn it, this wasn’t what this little jaunt to my apartment was supposed to turn into. We were supposed to be having serious conversations to avoid repeats of earlier bouts of anger and silent treatment, but all I wanted right then was to bend her over and play with her until she came all over that cute little dress. I didn’t want her to just say my name. I wanted her to scream it. To sob it. To fall apart while her body opened for me and got wet for me, as she begged her sergeant not to stop.

  “Keep the dress on,” I whispe
red. “I want to see how badly I can ruin some more of your clothing.”

  An actual shiver went through her, and then her eyes opened wide like she’d just had a revelation. “Few people can get me wet from words alone.”

  “Then you’ve been screwing the wrong people.”

  I pushed her down onto the bed, nodding to indicate she should scoot back. She did, which was when I realized she was still wearing her boots. She hadn’t taken them off at the door. The picture of her sitting against the headboard with a soft cotton dress up around her waist and old chunky boots still on her feet was something I wanted ingrained in my mind—her looking like a biker someone had forced into an Easter dress.

  “You’re gorgeous.” Her rosy skin turned a deeper shade of pink, and I couldn’t help another smile. They weren’t so rare around her. “People must tell you that all the time.”

  “Those people aren’t you.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  She thudded her head against the headboard. “You only say things when they have an actual meaning. Most people give compliments because they think they’re supposed to, or because they want something from the person on the receiving end.”

  “Bleak,” I noted, kneeling on the edge of the bed and inching closer to her. “Maybe I’m saying it because I want to lick your pussy.”

  “It already belongs to you, Sergeant.” One of those cocky smiles appeared, but there was no resenting it, because she knew exactly what to say to set my blood on fire. “Like I said, you could do whatever you want to me. I want you to do whatever you want.”

  I walked my fingers up her legs, watching the way her thighs automatically inched wider apart.

  “Funny, because on Saturday it seemed like you’d ghost on me if I did something you didn’t want.”

  Meredith jolted upright just a little, even as I continued my slow investigation of her smooth skin. “Do we need to talk about that now?”

  “Yeah. We do.”

  “Why?” she whined a little, pillowy lower lip pushing out in a charming pout. “Serious conversations are one of the leading causes of vaginal droughts.”

  I twisted my mouth to the side to avoid laughing, but she caught the motion and winked.

  “It’s like this.” I crawled forward again, not stopping until I was kneeling between her legs and forcing them to remain splayed around me. “I want to touch you. All over. Know every inch of that body you spend so much time shining to a polish. And I can’t be that close to you, and know you that thoroughly, when there’s a big. Fucking. Problem. Looming just over the horizon of our orgasms.”

  “Holy shit, a Marine and a poet.” Meredith put a hand over her heart, but then flopped to the side in a heap of willowy limbs. “Okay, fine. I’m sorry. I have a tendency to want to skip straight to pretending nothing unfortunate ever happened.”

  “I get that, and in some cases that’s probably okay. For example, if we start dating and I get pissed at you for leaving your hair all up in my drain, I might bitch one time without needing a thorough discussion a few days later.”

  Meredith put her hands on my hips. “So dating and sleepovers are in our future.”

  “If we can get through this convo, I sure as hell hope so.” I leaned in for another quick kiss, because her mouth seriously was irresistible. When she pushed herself against me, parting her lips for a brief hint of tongue, it was a struggle to sit back on my haunches again. “I know it seemed like I took your past with your father lightly, and that was a dick thing to do.”

  She blinked at me and her hands tightened around me. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “Why not? It’s true. If someone had ever tried to brush off my shit with my parents and act like it was no big deal, I would have flipped on them.”

  “Maybe so . . . but it’s a different situation. I can admit that.” Meredith shrugged and rolled her eyes up to the ceiling. “The stuff with my parents is complicated, but it’s not— I don’t hate them. I really don’t. I just hate how cold they are. But the older I get, the more I realize they don’t know any other way to be, so they couldn’t even learn from each other when they were together.”

  I resumed rubbing her thighs, liking the way she almost always shivered just a bit under my palms. For someone who looked so delicate, she enjoyed a bit of roughness. The thought spurred me to press down harder, slide my hands up higher.

  “Keep talking,” I said softly.

  “Stop distracting me,” she said with a smile. “A couple of years ago, I realized I’d almost started to become like them. Judgmental and heartless.”

  “Yeah? What changed?”

  “The company I kept.” She looked down then, eyelashes shading her big blue eyes. “I spent more time with Oli, Aiden, and Caleb. Then I befriended Jace and reconnected with Ashton. And oh God, Charles and Stephanie. I love her. And she calls me out so much, which I need.”

  I could see that. Easily. My lip curled up at the mental image.

  “You never fucked my homegirl, did you?”

  “No.” Meredith made an offended face, then smiled. “She wouldn’t let me.”

  I couldn’t help it—I laughed. For as much as her smug entitled attitude had pissed me off, I loved how honest she was about who she was and what she wanted.

  “But anyway, my father—I just hated the idea of him being in my life any kind of way without me choosing it. And then I talked with Stephanie, and she reminded me that he would be in your life. Not mine. And that was your choice. Not mine. And that me putting the weight of my grudge on you wasn’t fair.”

  “Right, so you couldn’t figure that shit out yourself?”

  Meredith thwacked my side. “Come on. I’m just now recovering from being a prima donna asshole. Sometimes I need to be reminded that I’m not the center of the world. Eventually, I’ll be better at consistently checking myself.” All traces of joking left her expression, and she pushed herself up onto her elbows. “I swear I’ll be better.”

  “I’m sure you will, if you were already trying to improve yourself before meeting me. I’d have some doubts if it was just to get in my pants.”

  She snorted. “I don’t just want to get in your pants. I want to get in your bed. And your shower so I can clog it with my hair.”

  This time I didn’t fight my laugh, and I didn’t stop myself from leaning in for a longer, slower kiss. One that let me taste every inch of her mouth and draw out soft little sounds that translated to restless shifts of her hips. I kissed down, dragging my lips over her chin before making my way to her throat, all while covering her hands with my own to hold them in place.

  “I love the way you touch me, Sergeant Maldonado.” Her breath hitched when I eased down, sliding my mouth over her dress and between her breasts. “I used to fantasize about it. Try to figure out how you’d be in bed.”

  I laced our fingers together and pulled until she was flat on her back, and smiled at her gasp. She bent her knees, causing the dress to slide up her thighs and expose the light-gray underwear she wore beneath.

  “And how’d you think I’d be?”

  “Just—” She gasped again, louder this time, when I pressed my mouth against her pussy through the thin fabric covering it. “Just like this.”

  “You haven’t seen shit yet, ma.”

  Her hips lifted, thighs spreading wider. I took the offering and traced every inch of her with the tip of my tongue. The folds hiding her clit and the outline of her lips with the same painstaking slowness. She jutted her hips up again, seeking more, so I gave in just a little by pressing my tongue down harder.

  She arched her back, moaning beautifully for me, and I pulled back with a smile. I loved how flushed she got, pink turning to red when she was turned on. Not to mention the way her nipples poked through her dress.

  “Don’t stop,” she said, pleading and firm at once.

  “Wasn’t planning on it.”

  I rubbed two fingers over her slit and moved them up and down. Slow, then, at
the first hint of dampness through the fabric, I sped up. Another noise tore out of her, a deeper moan. Wanting to hear more, I rubbed faster, teasing her clit on each upward slide.

  “Yes,” she whispered, breathy and already sounding far gone.

  I looked up, expecting her to be watching, but found her head tipped back and her hands busy. She’d yanked the dress up so it had caught near her neck and was toying with her nipples. Rubbing them at the same pace as my fingers. When I moved faster, so did she, and soon she was writhing on the bed and twisting them.

  My body throbbed in response, and the sensation intensified once I returned my attention to her sex and realized her light-gray underwear was soaked through.

  “I love how wet you get.”

  I leaned down just enough to touch my lips to the patch of fabric, sucking on everything I could, My body clenched at her taste. I was rewarded with another of those throaty groans, so I pressed her legs up and back until her sweet spot was perfectly displayed and positioned for me to devour. After one last glance up at her—just to see the utter delight of Meredith watching me with keen desperation, biting her lower lip as she gripped one knee to her chest and continued to toy with her breasts with the other—I moved her underwear to the side.

  Goddamn, what a sight. She’d opened up for me, and she was drenched, clit swollen. I gave it a light slap with my fingers, and she released a huffed giggle.

  “No laughing,” I said from between her legs.

  “Oh, this is serious business. Yes, you’re right.”

  “Super fucking serious.”

  I showed how critical this situation was by sliding two of my fingers into her hole and leaning up to latch my mouth on to her nipple.

  “Fuck.”

  Her cry had to have transcended the ceiling and broken through the walls, but she got louder as I steadily slid my fingers in and out, up to the knuckle. With my fingers in deep, my thumb swiping over her clit in a circle, and my lips sucking her nipple into my mouth with pressure that was likely close to painful, her agonized moans turned to ecstatic shouts.