by Measha Stone
She lifted her legs, bending her knees, her sweet pussy gripping tighter around his cock.
“Don’t slow down,” she begged, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Please. Not slow. Not gentle.”
He kissed her, withdrawing until only the tip of his cock nestled inside her warmth.
“Beg,” he uttered against her lips.
She huffed.
He didn’t move. Pushing himself up on his elbows, he remained in position, not inside her enough for either of them to be satisfied.
“Please,” she whispered.
He turned his head, leaning down until her lips were a breath away from his ear. “Say again?”
“Please.”
“Please what?” He pushed his dick farther in but stopped again.
“Please fuck me,” she whimpered, moving her hips trying to get him to give her what she wanted. But she didn’t want him to just play a role for her. She needed to let him have the control, and she wasn’t going to come until she realized it.
“Please fuck me, what?” he asked, pressing her hips into the mattress. “The more you try to control this, the more disappointed you’re going to be,” he warned. He’d have to jerk himself off in the shower as soon as she left, but he would follow through.
“Please fuck me hard, sir?” She sucked in her lower lip and dropped her hands to her sides. “Please, sir.” There it was. The soft plea coming from her submissive side. Not a huff, or a sigh, but a genuine quiet plea.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“No, sir. But please, don’t make me wait anymore.” She wiggled her hips from side to side..
He pulled the shirt from her eyes. She blinked a few times but once focused, she stared up at him.
One quick thrust, and he was inside her again, fully imbedded. He kept his hands on her hips and drove into her over and over again.
“Clit. Rub your clit for me, Sophie,” he urged.
She did him one better. She licked the tip of her fingers and ran them down her body until she was between their bodies. He could feel the slickness of her fingers as he thrust into her.
A shiver ran through her body. The little tremor started and blossomed into pulsating waves that he could feel along his cock. She called out, screaming his name over and over again.
“Fuck!” He dug his fingers into her hips and plowed into her a few more times before his orgasm tore through him, and he froze above her. His vision faded in and out while powerful burst of energy slowly ebbed to a soft throb until it completely calmed, leaving him sucking in air, and pressing fast kisses to her face.
“You make me lose my train of thought,” he accused, slipping from her body and reaching for his T-shirt on the floor to wipe her down. It seemed every time he had a plan of what to do with her for the evening nothing went according to plan.
“Yeah, you have that effect on me, too,” she whispered, though it sounded a bit more forlorn coming from her than him.
Chapter 16
“Excuse me, are you Detective Nelson?” a hard voice interjected into Sophie’s thoughts. A new report had been sent over from the M.E.’s office, and she was trying to read through it. Not exactly light material.
“Yes, that’s me.” She swiveled in her chair and stood to greet the woman attached to the voice. An inch or two taller than herself, and at least fifteen pounds less around the middle. Colorful tats across her chest revealed by the loose-fitting tee she wore only increased her attractiveness. She had bad girl written all over her. In fact, she might actually have it written on her body somewhere with the amount of ink she showcased.
“Hi. I’m Dani. Scott said you’d be here. I’m supposed to be meeting him for lunch, but he’s running late. Said to hang with you until he gets here?” She tucked her chestnut hair behind her ear, displaying a silver earing that crawled up her ear.
“Uh, sure. I guess. I thought he’d be back by now.” Sophie looked at the time on her phone. He’d gone to check on the IT information they were still waiting on, trying to get them to hurry with the server searches.
“Last text said ten minutes, tops.” Dani smiled and dug out her phone from the bag she had strapped across her chest. Definitely an artsy type, one who probably was up for anything at any time and never had to plan out her day or clench her teeth while meeting someone new. No. Dani probably didn’t feel the uncomfortable heat rising while they stared at each other.
Damn, she hated this. Small talk might as well be Chinese, as fluent as she was either language.
“I’ve seen you somewhere before,” Sophie said, tapping her fingers against her chin. She’d heard about her, of course. Scott had filled her in his friendship with both Dani and Grayson, even before they’d agreed to put the benefits in their friendship. He’d been in the military with Grayson and Dani’s older brother, Sammy. Unfortunately, Sammy had been killed on the battlefield and didn’t return home from deployment.
“Yeah, Black Light.” Dani nodded with a sweet smile. “I was there on Valentine’s Day.”
Sophie cringed. Of course, she had been.
“Ah, you were there for the spectacle that was my first night out in the world?” Sophie pinched the bridge of her nose, wishing she wore a rubber band to snap against her wrist.
Dani laughed softly and leaned forward to touch Sophie’s arm. “It wasn’t that bad. You’re not the first person to pass out in a crowd like that. I’m just glad Scott was there. Probably made it a little easier when you came to, having someone you knew in the room.”
“Or insanely awkward,” Sophie couldn’t help but laugh.
“Yeah, or that,” Dani agreed with a grin. “So, was that your first time at Black Light or in a club like that, period?”
Sophie turned her head to see who could overhear them, heat spreading through her neck.
“Shit. Sorry, forgot for a minute where we were.”
“Forgot what?” Scott walked up to them, place a hand on Dani’s back and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Sorry that took so long.”
“No problem. Just chatting with Sophie here.” Dani readjusted the strap of her bag.
“Anything new?” Scott asked Sophie.
“Still nothing, but I’m going back down there this afternoon and sit on him until he gets what I need.” His eyes found Sophie’s. Did he even know when he turned on the Dom stare?
“I’m sure that will help,” Sophie said, rolling her eyes. “While you’re at lunch, I think I’ll go visit the M.E. I don’t understand something I’m reading here. It looks like he found bruises on the vic’s forearms.” She picked up on Dani’s stare and shook her head. “Sorry.”
“No, I’m fine. Scott’s talked work before with me. Kinda used to it by now.” Dani glanced up at Scott then back at Sophie. “Why don’t you come with us for lunch. I don’t want to steal your guy from you.”
“No, no, that’s okay.” Sophie shook her head. Friend lunch ranked right next to friend dinner—which was only one tip toe away from meeting family. “He’s not my guy. It’s fine,” she added hastily once Dani’s words registered.
Dani’s eyebrows furrowed, and she looked up at Scott.
“Yeah, Sophie, you should eat something. Just come with.” Scott shifted his stance until he towered over her.
“No, really. I’m just gonna grab something after I talk with the M.E. I don’t want to eat before that conversation.” She forced a laugh, which no one joined.
“It’s just lunch with a friend, Sophie,” Scott said, mostly under his breath. Dani must have heard, though, because she became interested in the adjustment buckle of her messenger bag.
“I really need to get down there before Dr. Greene decides to dig into another body. I hate walking in on that shit.” She scooped up the file on her desk and held it to her chest. “Go have lunch, I’ll meet up with you later, after you’ve bullied IT into finding that email.” She plastered on a smile that ached all through her face into her chest.
Dani’s eyes soften
ed like she’d just been wounded, but she nodded and gave a polite smile. “Maybe next time, if you aren’t busy.”
“Of course,” Sophie said. Having lunch with them wouldn’t be the end of the world. She’d survive. But it wasn’t just lunch. Not with Scott. Nothing was just as simple as a meal when it came to him.
“I need to give Gray a quick call.” Dani pulled out a cell phone and waved it in the air. “I’ll meet you out front. It was nice meeting you.” She gave Sophie’s arm a squeeze and stalked off through the desks toward the front office.
Scott watched Dani leave before turning to Sophie. His irritation heated the space between them.
“You can’t even do lunch with a friend?” he asked, annoyance clear in his voice.
“I’m not hungry. Besides, you said yourself, you haven’t really had time to talk with her since the Valentine’s party. It’s fine. Go catch up, and we’ll meet up later.” She shifted from one foot to the other.
Friends with benefits. That’s where they were, but the sense of rejection she saw in his expression tore at her. No matter how much she wanted to toss the manila folder on the desk, link hands with him, and walk off to lunch, she couldn’t. She wouldn’t. One of them needed to keep their head on straight.
“Dinner, then? Just us?” He positioned himself in front of her, blocking her view of the rest of officers in the room.
“Something more substantial than salami sandwiches?” she asked, hoping she’d managed to get her tone right. Lightened the mood.
He huffed a laugh. “If the princess would prefer a full meal, then we’ll have all four food groups present.”
She screwed up her face. “Not all four. Don’t get crazy on me. We can skip the veggies.”
He leaned closer to her, making like he was reaching for something on her desk, but stopped when his mouth came close to her ear. “Eat lunch, a real lunch, and I’ll let you get away without veggies at dinner. Be a naughty girl and order a sandwich, and you’ll have a paddling as your appetizer and orgasm denial for dessert.”
She took a deep breath. One. Two, and let it out slow.
He snagged a pen from her desk and waggled it near her nose.
“Salad for lunch. Got it.” She managed to at least hold back the smile.
He took a step back and pocketed the pen. “Sounds like a good idea, Sophie.”
She watched him walk out of the area. His jeans hugged his ass especially tenderly today. His black leather jacket cut just right, giving her a first-person view of his physique. Fuck he was delicious.
How had she been his partner for two months before opening her eyes to the beauty that was Detective Russo?
“Sophie!”
She jumped.
“Where’d you run off to?” Camille, a detective at the next desk over, laughed.
“Just tired,” Sophie lied.
“Well, sleeping beauty, I just got a call about your case. Dispatch patched it to the wrong desk. A Ms. Elizabeth James called about your vic. Said she received the messages. Said she’s not the next of kin and gave me this name and number.” Camille handed over a piece of paper.
“Did she say who it is?” Sophie looked at the scribbled name.
“Just said she’s the next of kin and to please stop contacting her, then disconnected.” Camille shrugged. “Sounded more afraid than angry, like she just wanted this off her plate.”
“Huh.” Sophie bit down on her lip. “Thanks.”
Tossing the manila folder on the desk, she grabbed the phone and dialed the number on the piece of scratch paper.
No answer.
She hung up, tapped her fingers on the receiver then tried once more.
No answer.
And no answering machine or voice mail, either.
She handed off the bit of information on her way down to meet with the medical examiner.
“Hey, David, can you do a reverse phone number look up for me? I have a first name and a number, but I need who the number belongs to, and anything else you can find on them. Previous arrests, divorces, birth certificates, whatever. I just need to know who it is and how they connect to my vic.”
David shoved the last bite of an Italian sub into his mouth and nodded.
“Sure thing,” he said out of the side of his mouth while chewing. “Give me a few hours.”
“Thanks.” She patted his shoulder and headed down to the medical examiner’s office to discover more about bruising on a corpse.
Who wouldn’t love this job?
At least it would distract her from thinking of Scott. Doing that was dangerous. Too dangerous. She’d rather spend the afternoon dodging bullets in the literal sense than navigating the mine field that was her mind. Any thought about how she really felt about Scott threatened to blow her whole afternoon. Better to avoid the entire topic.
Chapter 17
“Leave it be, Scott,” Dani said for the third time during their walk back to the station house.
“Easier said than done,” Scott replied.
“She’ll come around. You said she got burned dating someone she worked with, right? She’s just being cautious. If you push, she’ll bolt.”
He’d told himself the same thing, knew she was right. Pushing Sophie into a relationship talk would make her freeze up. Offering to keep things casual had been a fucking bonehead thing to do, though.
“I guess if you could wait on Gray like you did, then I can give her a little more time,” Scott conceded.”
“I didn’t wait. I was too scared to act; there’s a difference. You are with her, just not as intense as you want. So, take it slow. Burrow under her skin, like I know you can. Hell, you did just fine with me. And it couldn’t have been easy dealing with someone as angry as I was when you guys got back from Afghanistan.” She linked her arm through his.
“You were a kid who’d just lost your brother. It was easier with you.”
“That’s because there wasn’t much pressure. I was like a sister to you. So, take some of the pressure off with Sophie and just let things happen.” Dani had good advice—for other people.
“For a kid, you’re pretty smart.” He ruffled her hair until she smacked him away, laughing.
“Uh, huh. You don’t think I’m so young when you sit in my chair. By the way, you still haven’t come by the shop to work on the design for your new tat.” She poked his forearm. Dani had done all the tattoos on his body, and he was itching to add another.
“Yeah, things have been a bit crazy with this case and Sophie.” He scratched the back of his neck. The sun beat down on them, warming the winter air enough to an almost tolerable temperature.
“Well, when you’re done solving your case and you’ve gotten the girl firmly attached to your hip, come by, and we’ll get the design down.” She flashed him a smile. It was a wonder Gray had managed to wait years to put his mark on this beautiful girl.
“I will.” He stopped outside the station. “How about we have Sunday dinner near my place this week.”
Dani’s smile dropped a fraction. “Why?”
“’Cause I’m tired of hauling my ass across town to your apartment then having to listen to Gray bitch about that damn window you haven’t gotten fixed yet,” he grumbled.
“The window is getting fixed.” She sighed with her response. “He’s even more overprotective now than before.”
“Well, that’s what we do. We take care of our girls, and you’re a hell of a lot more to him than just his buddy’s little sister, now. You’re his.”
A blush crossed her cheeks, and she gave him a shove.
“Yeah. I get enough of that talk from him. You don’t have to explain it to me, too. Now, get back to work. I have an appointment coming in soon.” She gave him a hug and headed toward the bus stop. Any offer of a ride would be rejected, so he didn’t bother. But he would ask Gray about letting her take the fucking bus around everywhere. She had the means for a damn car and shouldn’t be hoofing it so much.
He shook hi
s head at himself and headed back into the station. If only taking care of Sophie could be so easy. Not that she needed taking care of. She didn’t need any help in the adulting department. But he’d noticed the way she dug her nails into her palms when she was flustered. An easily missed tell if he hadn’t seen her do the same with her thighs during her discipline the other night. But now he noticed she did it often. If she’d just let him in, he could help her. He could give her the stress relief she was looking for, show her she didn’t have to rely only on herself.
“Hey, Scott, I have what you wanted, but you aren’t going to like it.” Craig signaled from his office.
Unless it was a signed confession by someone who’d actually committed the damn crime, of course he wasn’t going to like it.
Scott followed him into his office, maneuvering around the tech equipment. “So what’d you find?”
“Nothing.” Craig plopped down in his chair. “I have searched through her personal emails, her work servers, the emails of Singleton who said she got the email. Nothing. If that email did exist, whoever put it out there has more knowledge than me about this stuff.”
“You don’t think there was an email?”
“Nope. I don’t. You’ve had two people come in about it, right? Two people confessing to her murder? Any chance they were part of all this? Trying to throw us off?
Scott sighed. “It’s possible. It’d be risky. I mean, we could have just taken their confession and run with it.”
“Yeah. Well, I’d say they probably had a good reason to go along with it, then. Maybe whoever had them do it was holding something over their heads? And you did say you saw through them pretty easily. Right?” Craig swiveled back and forth in his chair.
Scott groaned. “This case is really starting to piss me off. So, no email. Anything of worth at all?”
“Not from my end. Sorry.” Craig held up his hands.
“Thanks anyway.” Scott unzipped his jacket, taking it off as he made his way to his desk. False confessions, phantom emails, what next? The wrong victim?