Running my hand around to the front of his jeans, I unsnapped the button and as I went for the zipper, I felt his hand on my wrist. He pulled his head up and looked at me.
“Tsk, tsk. We just got here and you’re already ripping my clothes off.”
I looked at him incredulously. “What the hell did you expect me to do when you kiss me like that?”
He grinned wickedly and snapped his jeans. “I’m hungry. We can finish this later.” He adjusted his hard bulge and put his T-shirt back down.
“You tease,” I said, punching him lightly in the stomach.
“Ow, cop, you punch hard,” he joked.
I hated when he called me that. Yes I work in law enforcement, but I’m no cop, trust me. He always loved listening to my stories about the prison and my training. Even though I was a secretary, I was trained at the academy and get law enforcement pay. He thinks it’s funny but Miranda and I never tell people this, as it gives them the wrong impression. We rarely use our handcuffing and self-defense skills on the job and mainly push paper all day, along with dealing with mouthy inmates and the occasional strip search or urinalysis when there are no other female C.O.s available. I arrange their releases for when they get out, so they’re mostly nice to me, but they have their moments. Trust me, it doesn’t make me a badass in any form of the word.
“Did you bring your handcuffs?” he asked.
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Let it go.”
“Never.”
The El Dorado had a very nice restaurant, and after eating some serious prime rib, we took to the boulevard to walk around. It was now dark and the glittering lights of the biggest little city in the world looked pretty under a clear, starlit night. It was warm with a slightly cool breeze blowing.
Riley grabbed my hand as we wandered into Harrah’s to do some gambling. I choked back a giggle at my memories of this place and hoped Riley couldn’t read it on my face and ask me about it. That was definitely a story that was going to forever stay between Miranda and me. Something for us to talk about in our old age and laugh about. I looked up as he led us through the massive lobby to a plush carpeted casino, loud with jangling slot machines, dinging alarms, and people yelling and laughing. Also heavy in the air was cigarette smoke, and I frowned as I remembered it was legal to smoke in casinos, then I remembered why I don’t like to gamble.
That, and I never have money to burn on it.
Riley went to the cashier’s window and slid some bills under the plexiglass partition. The cashier handed him back ten rolls of quarters. He smacked two into my palm and said, “Let’s have fun.”
I looked down at the quarters, then back into his smug face. “Big spender.”
He laughed and grabbed my hand. “Come on, beautiful, let’s go win more quarters.”
I shook my head and laughed.
We sat at the quarter slots for a couple of hours drinking. I forgot free drinks came with gambling, which sort of made up for the cigarette smoke that consistently lingered in the air, which I’m sure would never come out of my clothes. Riley sat at the machine next to me, and would occasionally look over at me and smile. His infectious grin always made me smile back, as I tried not to melt at the look in his beautiful eyes. When we would grow bored of one machine, we’d move on to the next.
“Oh, my God! I just won a hundred dollars!” I screamed out as I watched three cherries line up in a straight row of three. Shiny quarters began to gush down out of the machine and I stuck my hand under them as they came cascading down, clanking loudly into the metal tray beneath as they bounced off my palm.
Riley came over and hugged me. “Good job. We got our money back.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You mean I won your money back.”
He shook his head. “You can keep it.”
We decided to quit while we were ahead and left the casino, walking back out to the boulevard. There was quite the crowd out now. Everyone from college kids, military men, couples, and even some older people. I did notice Reno had a large homeless population and wondered at this as I looked into their faces and placed some of my many quarters into their cups and guitar cases. I was grateful I had a good job and a supportive family.
We wandered through a few more casinos and then decided to call it a night. Riley was mostly quiet during the evening and even in the elevator ride up to our room, he didn’t say too much. He was normally a quiet person anyway, wasn’t half as chatty as me, and I was used to being around Miranda, who clearly could not stand silence of any kind, so having so much quiet was hard on me. I tried not to fill it with stupid small talk, as I didn’t want to annoy him, but finally on the ride up in the elevator, I reached for his hand and pulled it up to my mouth and kissed it, as it was still clasped in mine.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, staring at him.
He looked down at me and smiled when I kissed his hand. “Nothing, nothing at all. Why?”
“You’re awfully quiet tonight.”
He measured me with a long stare, as if he wanted to say something, but then didn’t. He simply smiled and kissed my forehead.
The elevator dinged and we got out, padding down the green carpeted hallway and to our room. I noticed for the first time the fancy cream-colored sconces that lined the hallways and held the warm lights that gave the hall a dim glow. Riley put the card key in the door and it beeped our welcome.
He flipped the light on as I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and put some cold water on my face. I looked at my reflection and my cheeks looked flushed and my eyes bright. I’d never seen me look like this and I wondered if that was what love looked like.
Or extreme lust, I suppose.
I changed into a hot pink V-necked cotton Victoria’s Secret night shirt with the number 86 on the front and padded barefoot into the bedroom. Riley was sitting on the edge of the bed in just his jeans doing something with his phone and he looked so good. He looked up when he heard me come out and smiled.
“God, you look so hot in that.”
I looked down at myself and cocked my head slightly and slid some hair behind my ear. “Really?”
I sat next to him on the bed and he set his phone on the nightstand and stared at me as I sat there. I don’t know why I was feeling a bit awkward, we’d spent what felt like a hundred nights together already but I guess being in a new place will do that.
I stared back at him for a minute and said, “What’s on your mind, soldier?”
He sighed and brought his hand to my face. “I’m going to hate leaving you.”
I frowned and looked down. Taking a deep breath, I looked back up and said, “Are we back to that again?”
He shook his head and dropped his hand. “I’m sorry. I wish I could think of something else.”
I grinned. “I can help with that.” I slid my hand up his thigh and popped the snap of his jeans. “You going to let me tear your clothes off now?” I raked my eyes up and down his body. “Well… what’s left of them?”
He nodded as I ran my hand up his chest. I pushed him back gently onto the bed and began running soft kisses up his stomach, chest, then his neck. I caressed my hands over his shoulders and biceps, loving the feel of them. He was all man, all muscle, oozing masculinity and it constantly turned me on. I finally found his mouth and pressed my lips on his. I straddled his stomach and he slid both hands up my thighs and up to my sides, finding my breasts. I moaned as he softly ran his fingertips over my nipples. He continued to kiss me, his tongue mingling with mine.
I felt his hands slide back down my waist and he playfully threw me onto my back and wiggled out of his pants. I could see his hard length pressing to get out of his boxer briefs and it aroused me to see how much he wanted me. Pressing his warm body on top of mine, he kissed me again, running a hand through my hair and over my face. He broke the kiss and looked at me. “God, Cara, I want you so bad.”
I nodded and stared at him. “I want you, too.”
He sat up again and yanked my night sh
irt off, and then stripped me of my panties. His boxer briefs weren’t far behind, and as he climbed up the bed, I opened myself for him and as he lay on top of me kissing me, his hard arousal pressed into my thigh, driving me crazy with need and want. His hand gently grabbed my breast as his thumb rubbed slowly over my nipple. He ran measured kisses down my neck, my collarbone, the valley between my breasts, and finally to my right breast. His warm tongue licked and sucked at it and I almost came off the bed as a deep, dark heat settled between my legs, begging for him.
“Make love to me, Riley. Please,” I begged as I snatched a handful of his hair.
His tongue continued its delicious plunder of my breasts and I ran my hands down his back, raking my nails along his muscles, wanting to just grab him. I spread myself wider, hoping he’d get the hint, but his erection slid along my with my thigh, teasing me mercilessly.
“God, I want you,” he said again.
I groaned as I felt like I was going to come just from what he was doing to my nipples. “Please, please.”
I gasped as he plunged into me, moaning at the full feeling he delivered. He began to stroke into me slowly, then speeding up slightly, rubbing me in all the right ways. His mouth was still on my nipple, the other hand gently kneading the other one. I cried out when a wave of intense pleasure ripped through my body and clenched around him.
He continued to do what he was doing to my breasts, then kissed back up my neck then found my mouth again, wrapping his right arm under my neck as he stroked himself faster into me.
“Oh, God, what are you doing to me?” I groaned. The feeling was out of this world and I was quickly building up to another climax.
“Cara, oh, baby, I love you so much,” he said as we both crashed over the edge and rode our waves together.
It wasn’t until my head cleared that I realized what he had said. I wasn’t sure what to say back, and as his words settled into my head and true realization set in, I smiled a little but said nothing back. My ears and my head were as far as those words were going to go. There was no way I was going to let them penetrate my heart.
CHAPTER 11
We slept in late the next morning, as Riley had woken me up twice more to make love to me during the night. He hadn’t said the “L” word again and we didn’t talk about it.
After breakfast we went driving around the town again this time. We found a small area that had shops and restaurants and we parked and walked around. As we passed a pawn shop, I said, “Let’s go in here.”
He looked at me strange then smiled. “Why? Need more guns?”
I shook my head. Another damn cop joke! “I don’t have any guns.”
“Well, you should. Single girl living alone in California.”
“I will get one when Aiden is older and I can teach him how to use it. Right now, there’s more chance he’ll find it and hurt himself.”
He nodded as he pushed open a large glass door that had metal bars over the front of it. An obnoxiously loud bell chimed overhead and I headed straight for the counter where an older man with shaggy blonde hair wearing a Hawaiian shirt was sitting on a stool, looking at something in his hand.
He looked up when he saw us approach. “Hi, folks. Can I help you?”
I smiled and dug into the pocket of my white denim shorts. “How much can you give me for this?”
I could feel Riley’s eyes on me and I looked up at him. “What?” I asked.
He pointed to the object in my hand. “Is that your… wedding ring?”
I nodded. “Yep. Ugly, isn’t it?”
I didn’t think it was ugly, but it had lost its luster, no pun intended, after my ex had done what he’d done. If Aiden had been a girl, I would have saved it for him/her, but I didn’t think a boy would care about such things, and I could use the money.
The guy took the ring and looked at it. “I’ll give you seventy-five dollars.”
I almost choked on the piece of gum I was chewing. “You’re shitting me.”
He narrowed his eyes. “This is, what, a quarter carat diamond? Maybe if it was a princess cut I could give you more, but marquis cuts aren’t very popular.”
I nodded because I knew what he was saying was true, but I still wasn’t having it. “Yes but there’s an attached band with more diamonds in it. And isn’t gold worth a lot these days? The gold itself has to be worth more. My ex paid 800 bucks for that five years ago.” I smiled at him and batted my eyelashes. I could feel Riley watching me, but he said nothing.
The guy stared at me a few more minutes. “I’ll give you a hundred.”
“A hundred and twenty-five in cash,” I countered, my arms folded in mock defiance.
The man smiled, his ugly teeth on display. “Okay, little miss.”
He reached into his pocket and counted out the bills, which I shoved into the same pocket the ring had just vacated.
“Nice doing business with you!” I waved as I walked towards the front door of the pawn shop. I wanted out of there before he changed his mind. Plus it smelled bad in there from the smoldering cigar he had sitting on the counter in an ashtray.
Riley grabbed my hand as we started back down the sidewalk. “I can’t believe you did that.”
I looked up at him, confused. “What?”
“That ring meant nothing to you?” he asked. He did not sound accusing or judgmental, just curious and somewhat surprised.
“No. Not anymore.”
He paused for a few seconds, then said, “He really hurt you, didn’t he?”
I nodded. “Yes. But I’m over it now. It just sucks I have to see him every other weekend.”
“I can understand that,” he said. “I’m glad my ex and I never had kids.”
I looked up at him. “You should be. I love Aiden very much, but trust me, divorce is fifty times harder when there are kids involved. It’s like you’re never truly divorced.”
He frowned at that. “I see that.”
We walked in silence for a few minutes until we found a small mom-and-pop type café and we sauntered inside.
“Have a seat wherever you’d like, guys. Someone will be right with you.” A nice-looking young hostess wearing a short brown uniform waved her arm around the café and we sat in a squeaky red booth.
The same girl brought us two glasses of water and two menus. “Here you are.”
I looked over the menu and decided on a turkey club and set the menu down. I pulled the lemon out of my water and set it on a napkin and took a sip.
Riley looked at the lemon, then to me. “Why do you always do that?”
“I hate lemon in my water, it’s gross.”
He chuckled. “Then why don’t you ask for it without?”
“It’s not that serious. I can take it out.”
He shook his head and put his menu down. “You’re an interesting character, Cara Reid.”
“So are you, Sargent Riley Forrester.”
A waitress came by and took our orders and after she collected our menus and left, Riley looked at me and said, “So who has Aiden this weekend?”
This was the first time he had asked about Aiden or mentioned him without me talking about him first. “My mom and stepdad have him.”
“Your mom was okay with you coming away for the weekend with a guy she has never met?” He smiled wickedly at me.
“I told her I was with friends. Girls’ weekend,” I replied. Then I frowned at the look on his face. He almost looked… hurt.
“Oh.” He took a sip of water.
“I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong?” I cringed at how insecure I sounded.
He looked at me contemplatively for a few long seconds that made me uncomfortable. “Are you going to let me meet your family? I mean, I’ve only even seen Aiden once or twice.”
Why bother? You’re just going to leave me, I wanted to say, but I didn’t. “If you want to meet my mom, you can. If you want to meet my sister…” I trailed off, since he already knew my only sibling lived in Colorado, ironi
cally enough.
“I know, she lives in Colorado. And not just Colorado, but Colorado Springs, where I’m stationed.” His eyes twinkled as he said it.
I nodded because I could hear the double meaning in his words. The truth was, I knew I wouldn’t stay in California forever; I did want to move Aiden out of California and raise him elsewhere. The area I lived in wasn’t the greatest and was getting worse, and the areas that had the best schools I couldn’t afford to live in, being a single mom. I knew he’d have a better chance at a good education and that I could afford a house with a yard for him if I moved. Of course all this sounds great in theory, but seemed near impossible in practice. My ex would have a complete shit fit if I left the state.
“Well I’d still like to meet your parents,” he said.
I nodded, sipping water again. “Sure, that’s not a problem.”
“I don’t want to meet your ex, though,” he said seriously.
I laughed a little. “Don’t worry about it. I don’t really speak to him unless it’s absolutely necessary about Aiden.”
He studied me seriously and then said, “You really hate him, don’t you?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Don’t you hate your ex?”
He shook his head. “No, we don’t hate each other. We’re still friendly.”
I unwrapped the white paper napkin from around my silverware and began twisting it. “She must not have cheated on you.”
His eyebrows went up. “He cheated on you?” At my nod, he sighed. “I kind of wondered. People usually don’t get divorced when their kids are so little.”
I nodded again. “Yeah, it wasn’t easy, but I’m doing okay. Aiden will be okay.”
Riley seemed to be measuring his words carefully. “Is he still with the girl?”
“You mean my best friend?” I forced a smile. “Yep. Still happy as clams, I suppose.”
Riley normally had a very even affect. He didn’t shock easy and he wasn’t dramatic. He spoke quietly most of the time and the only aggressiveness I had ever seen him display was in the bedroom, so I laughed a little when he gasped and his eyes got big. Although, that answer usually elicited that response from everyone.
Patriotic Duty Page 7