Uniform Fetish

by 10 Author Anthology

  He concocted a quick story. His rule was to be as vague as possible when making something up. “The store’s owners are clients of mine. What about you? Shopping for something special?”

  She chuckled. “Like I’d ever be able to afford anything here. I’m working on an article on Weatherby’s Grand Opening.”

  “You’re a journalist?” he asked, relieved she had a plausible reason to be taking pictures.

  “Not exactly. I’m helping out a friend I’m meeting here any minute.” Her gaze traveled to the entrance.

  His relief flew out the door as a wall of muscle entered the shop and Turk’s voice rumbled in his earpiece. “Get outta there, Mad Dog.”

  “And there he is. Come, I’d love you to meet him,” she said tugging on his sleeve.

  Maddox turned his back to the door and his thumb and index finger captured her wrist. “Gotta go, but meet me for a drink later,” he whispered in her ear.

  “I’d like that. But...”

  “McAvery’s Bar on Broome in an hour. Come alone.”

  “Jasmine?” A man’s voice sounded behind Maddox as he released Jaz from his grasp and stepped into the crowd of shoppers, heading to the back of the store.

  “Is he watching me?” Maddox asked into his wire.

  “Negative. He’s busy talking to your friend. Just get back here,” Turk grumbled.

  Maddox winced as he pushed open the door. He was prepared for the verbal slashing from his partner.

  “What the hell were you thinking? You were about two seconds away from Vino identifying you. You don’t think he remembers what the officer who arrested him looks like? He had all the time in the world to study your face while you testified against him a couple months ago.”

  “A lot of good that did. He got off,” Maddox muttered. “Anyway, he didn’t see me, and I had to set up another meeting with Jaz.”

  “Ya mean a date?” Turk shot him a crooked smile.

  “Look, it’s no coincidence Vino showed up tonight. Something’s going down, and she seems to be involved somehow.”

  “Guess we lucked out you have a personal connection to Vino’s flavor of the month, huh?” Turk asked, pointing to the monitor.

  Maddox hunched over the desk, his gaze fixed on Jaz as she walked at Vino’s side. He gripped the table’s edge to prevent him from smashing the monitor to the ground. At least the fire raging through his veins replaced his hunger. The only thing he wanted at that moment was busy cozying up to the man he’d tried to send to jail.

  Chapter Two

  Pushing open the heavy oak door of his favorite pub, Maddox spotted Alex McAvery at the bar, tipping back what looked to be the last of his beer. Kale, McAvery’s bartender, stood in front of the taps, and his hair, gelled to pointy spikes stood out like blond beacons in the room’s darkness.

  “Mad Dog!” Alex and Kale called in unison.

  “Hey, to what do we owe the pleasure? It’s not Sunday,” Alex asked, rising to meet Maddox. Watching the game with a burger and beer at McAvery’s was Maddox’s Sunday ritual.

  “Do I need a reason to drop some cash at my favorite bar?”

  “You know your money isn’t good here, my favorite cop.” Alex pulled him into a hug and slapped his back.

  “Here’s the deal, man. I’m meeting an old friend in a couple minutes, and she doesn’t know what I do for a living. I’d like to keep it that way for now. So no cop jokes and I’m paying. That’s an order.”

  “I make it a rule to listen to a guy who carries a gun. You got it. I’ll let the staff know, too.” Alex grinned. “If she doesn’t know you’re a cop she must go way back.”

  Maddox nodded. “We were good friends in high school. Sorta partners in crime. We got in a bit of trouble the summer before our senior year. My father pulled some strings and got me off. Jaz lived with a foster family and wasn’t so lucky. Social Services took her away, and I never saw her again until tonight.”

  It wasn’t for lack of trying. Her juvenile records were sealed, but even with his resources in the police force, he couldn’t get a good lead on Jasmine McGregor.

  “Jeez. But why don’t you want her to know you’re a cop?”

  “That’s classified, my friend.” What was he going to say? Her suspected boyfriend should be in jail but got off on a technicality and was planning to commit grand larceny with her help?

  “You cops and your secrets. At least have one beer on me?” Alex turned to the bar. “Kale, get this guy one of the new long necks we just got in. And no cop jokes. Mad Dog has a date.”

  Kale nodded and twisted the cap off a dark brown bottle. “Here you go. It’s a new IPA.”

  Maddox sipped the beer, his eyes fixed on the basketball game on the screen above the bar. The smooth liquid hitting his throat unwound the tight spring that’d wrapped inside him from the moment he saw Jaz in the store. Her presence stirred memories that turned and twisted in his head like fall leaves blowing along the highway. His mind flashed to the last time he saw her.

  ****

  A gritty mixture of water and sand seeped into his shoes as he crouched behind a bush holding Jaz’s shivering body to his chest. “We’re not getting away with it this time,” he whispered in her ear. His teeth chattered through his breath. The night air was a cool contrast from the sweaty summer evenings they’d spent in the park wrapped in each other’s arms.

  “Don’t say that. We’re Bonnie and Clyde, remember?” She twisted in his arms. Her fingers brushed his forearm as she reached for his cheek. Her other hand held the carton of cigarettes they’d lifted from the counter of the convenience store.

  “Promise me this is the last. We’re gonna get caught. My dad will kill me.”

  What began as a game over the summer had become something else entirely to Jaz. He saw a change come over her. She craved the rush like one of the junkies on the streets near their apartment building. She needed it. The voices and footsteps grew faint. She blinked a few times. Dark eyelashes framed eyes that reminded him of moss after a summer rain. Those eyes had ways of making him do anything she asked.

  “I promise,” she whispered with a slight nod. He believed her for a moment even though he’d heard those same words at least a half dozen times before. Her palm cupped the back of his neck, and jagged fingernails, a result of her nervous habit, scratched his prickled skin. He closed the space between them and brushed her bottom lip with his own. “I love you,” he mouthed before sinking into her mouth, tasting the familiarity of her favorite cinnamon flavored gum masking the cigarette they’d shared before their latest heist.

  Her eyes, filled with promise and masked innocence, burned in his memory. Everything else was a blur. From the minute she yelled, “We’re over here!” to the bright lights and gloved hands that pulled Jaz from his grasp and escorted them to separate police cruisers.

  “Your father’s on his way down,” the officer said on the way to the police station.

  The look of disappointment in his father’s eyes turned like a knife in Maddox’s gut. “You’ve given me no choice,” his father said. Jaz and Maddox’s last night together earned him a ticket to military school.

  ****

  “This seat taken?” The voice he’d know anywhere spiraled him back to the present. He turned to the first woman he’d ever truly loved, the only woman. A tentative smile formed on her face as he stood and reached for her. She wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed, her cheek resting on his chest.

  They stayed that way for a long moment before Jaz tilted her head and peered up at him. “It’s so good to see you.” She slid onto the barstool next to Maddox.

  He lifted his bottle from the bar. “Beer? Or have you graduated to fancy cocktails?”

  “May I?” She pointed. Her fingers brushed his as she took the cool bottle from his grasp and lifted it to her mouth. Her lips curled around the opening as she took a long sip. He shifted on his stool. Jaz still had the ability to make him hard within seconds. Her glistening lips sent his
body into overdrive.

  He cleared his throat. “Another one of these,” he called to Kale. He turned back to Jaz. “Got us a couple of burgers, too. Best in town.”

  She smiled, and her shoulders rose and fell with a deep breath. “It’s been a while since someone’s taken care of me. It’s really good to see you, Derrick.” She didn’t try to hide the leisurely path her gaze followed up his body ending with his face.

  He’d often wondered how Jaz convinced him to do all the crazy things they did that summer. His answer stared back at him. It was just her, all of her, plain and simple. Jaz was his intoxicating weakness. He forced his gaze from her lips as their past came barreling back in spotty memories. He remembered how much he loved how the freckles on her nose matched the golden specks in her eyes, and how she twirled a lock of her hair behind her ear when she was nervous. Her fingers casually circled the rim of her bottle reminding him of the way her hands wrapped around his cock. Whoa. Settle down, Mad Dog.

  He pinned her with his gaze. “I have questions about that night,” he said, remembering what had driven them apart.

  She nodded. “I know you do. But can we just … be for a while? Please?”

  He searched her eyes. As much as he needed answers to the questions that gnawed at him for the past five years, he sensed she needed something, too, the relaxed comfort of longtime friends. He glanced at the television screen. “Still like sports?”

  She chuckled. “That’s a big yes. I even made a career out of it. Well, trying to anyway.”

  “No kidding? How’s that?”

  She shrugged. “When I aged out of juvenile services I enrolled in a broadcasting program with the money I had saved and landed a gig reporting college hoops for a small station in Charlotte. I left New York and changed my name, ready for a new start. I bounced around a little … Nashville, Jacksonville, and Richmond. I went where the work was, but my dream is to work in one of the major markets. That’s what brought me back here.”

  “You changed your name?” He’d figured she had. Her juvenile services records were sealed, so he had no way to check out what had happened to her after they were caught. But every search he did after she turned eighteen came up empty.

  Two platters filled high with burgers and fries were placed in front of them, and Jaz picked up her burger with two hands and took a bite. The sound of her breathy groan went straight to his cock. Memories of her sounds, the feel of her skin, the way her pussy clenched around his dick swirled around him.

  “Man, you’re right. This is a good burger.” She nodded. “As soon as I aged out of foster care and the state released me, I changed my name. I left New York and my name behind. I’m Jasmine Silver now.”

  “How’d you get the gig for the article you’re writing on Weatherby’s?” he asked.

  “Jimmy, the guy I met at the store, found me the reporting job and said it could turn into something bigger. He has connections.”

  Connections, my ass. “This Jimmy. He’s your boyfriend?” The question spat from his mouth.

  “No, just friends. We met in juvie, and we stayed in touch. I hadn’t heard from him in a while. He contacted me out of the blue last week about the Weatherby’s thing. I had some downtime in between seasons so I came back for a couple weeks. Damn, that reminds me. I have to send my info in on the article.”

  Damn it. Jimmy Vino was setting her up. Maddox could feel it in his bones. “Where you staying?”

  “Jimmy booked me into a hotel a few blocks from here. Walk me back?”

  He wanted nothing more than to do what he hadn’t been able to five years ago. It took every ounce of restraint not to scoop her into his arms, take her back to his place, and protect her from the evils of the world. But she was the key to putting Vino where he belonged. He dropped a few bills on the bar and slipped his hand around Jaz’s waist.

  Chapter Three

  The nagging alarm in his head signaling danger was buzzing too loudly for Maddox to dismiss. Jaz’s small hand snaked around his back, and she hooked her thumb around his pants’ belt loop as they walked toward her hotel. “Just like old times. Remember we talked about living around here? I was going to paint and you were going to play guitar in a band.”

  Maddox snorted. “Drums. I wanted to be a drummer.”

  “Right. That was it. And we were going to have one of those ultra cool lofts like those.” She stopped short and pointed at the iron loft building across the street with floor to ceiling windows. “And we’d smoke pot and make love all day and I’d go to your gigs at night. Remember?”

  Maddox’s gaze followed the direction of her finger. It seemed like a lifetime ago when they’d stood on the same street planning their life together. “That was our plan,” he said, brushing his fingertips along the small of her back. “Let’s go. You have an article to submit. The hotel’s right around the corner.”

  Jaz stood still, her gaze stayed fixed on the building across the street. “I don’t want this night to end. Don’t let me go. Please,” she said quietly.

  Fuck. He pulled her into his chest. Stroking her hair, his fingers caught the ends of her curls, pulling down. He guided her face so her gaze met his. “I never wanted to let you go, Jaz.” His lips grazed hers, gently at first, until her whimper filled his mouth and fueled the fire burning low in his belly. His tongue swept over her lips coaxing entrance into her sweet mouth. Jaz’s sexy moan filled his mouth as she opened for him. Allowing him in. His hand slid through her open jacket and rested on her waist. A strip of exposed skin from between her sweater and skirt warmed his palm, and he rubbed the pad of his finger over her heated flesh.

  She giggled and broke their kiss.

  “You remember how ticklish I am.”

  He tilted his forehead to hers and ran his fingertips along her side again. The warmth of her body called to him. Happy he’d left his holster with Turk to hold, he pulled her closer, melding their bodies together. His erection throbbed through his slacks, and she sucked in a breath as he pressed his length against her soft flesh.

  “We’d better get inside before we’re arrested for lewd conduct,” she whispered against his lips and laced her fingers between his.

  He knew he should’ve deposited her safely at the hotel entrance and gone home, but he couldn’t. She was smack in the middle of an investigation, and the last thing he should be doing was sleeping with a suspect, as innocent as he hoped she was. But common sense seemed to fly away like an old hotdog wrapper in the wind when he was near Jaz. Nothing could get him to turn around and leave her, so he swept any bit of remaining common sense out of his mind as they walked around the corner and he followed her through the glass doors of the hotel. Once inside the elevator he wrapped his palms around her waist, backing her into the corner. He rested his forehead on hers. “Why’d it take you so long to come back?”

  She shook her head and cupped his cheeks with her palms. “I wanted to call you so many times, but I couldn’t do that to you. I almost ruined your life once. I didn’t want to do it again.”

  “I wish you had called me. I could’ve helped you,” he whispered. He kissed her softly at first, letting her know everything was going to be okay. The body language of old lovers returned in a flurry of kisses and familiar touches. The ding of the elevator interrupted their private exchange, and she pulled her room access card from her purse. Nothing mattered more than getting her into her room and naked as fast as physically possible. He plucked the card from her fingers and swooped her up into his arms. “Room?”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck. “1232.”

  He found her room and unlocked the door after a couple of tries. Kicking the door open he strode to the bed and carefully placed her on a sea of pillows and blankets. He lowered himself on the mattress next to her and traced the pads of his fingers down her face and neck. His thumb hooked under her chin, and he devoured her as his tongue hungrily possessed her mouth. They pawed at each other’s clothes until their jackets, pants, and shirts lay str
ewn across the bed and floor. He climbed over her body and leaned his weight on his elbows on either side of her, his throbbing erection pushing at her entrance.

  “Fuck,” he hissed. Condom. In his haste, he’d kicked his pants to a pile on the floor at the foot of the bed. He rolled from her sweet warmth and found a condom in his wallet. It had been so long that he sent a private prayer to the condom gods that he even had one. He tore the package and rolled the latex over his cock.

  Jaz’s gaze met his as he move over her body, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. “Now, Derrick. I can’t wait any longer.”

  He plunged into her soft core, and she cried out. Her nails dug into his back as her hips rose to meet his thrusts. She threw her head back into the pillow as he claimed her body. Maddox slowed, his fingers tracing a line up her side to her face.

  “Open your eyes,” he demanded. Her eyes fluttered open, and he melted into the sea of innocence that was so familiar to him. He rolled over, positioning her body over his own. Her fiery curls fell over her shoulders. His gaze moved to her breasts bobbing softly as she rode his cock. A flash of metal caught his eye. He reached between her tits and ran his thumb over the ring attached to a long chain around her neck. He hadn’t noticed it in his haste to feel the heat of her flesh.

  “Is this…” He didn’t finish his sentence. He’d known his own class ring.

  She nodded. “You told me it would protect me when you weren’t around. I wear it always.”

  He dropped the ring, and it landed exactly where it should, between her breasts and over her heart. “Come here.” He pulled her down, her lips meeting his as he pumped into her core.