Revelation: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series)

by Lynn, Rebecca

  “I know what move I wanna make, GC.” He stalked slowly toward her. “Are you sure you’re ready for it?”

  What the fuck did GC mean? As he moved forward, she readied herself. The best defense was a good offense so as he got closer she kicked at him, then kicked at him again until she ended up behind him with enough time to kick out the backs of his knees. He stumbled slightly, but maintained his balance turning to place a kick to her side.

  She grunted and a moment of concern flashed on his face. She growled and went at him with moves that backed him up several feet on the mat. Finally when she got close enough to deliver her last move, she slammed her hand into the side of his neck stunning him and then did a forceful turn while grabbing around his neck and throwing him to the ground.

  Once he hit the floor, she was on him, pinning him to the mat.

  The adrenaline was pumping like mad at this point and they were both breathing heavily.

  “I win,” she said with a grin in between her gulps for air.

  Although she was the one doing the pinning, she was questioning whether she had indeed won. His eyes were locked with hers and his stare pinned her even though she was the one on top.

  “Yes, you certainly did,” he murmured, also trying to control his breathing. “Congratulations.”

  She was currently straddling him with her hands on his shoulders. Slowly, as if not wanting to spook her, his hands came up to rest on the sides of her hips. His fingers began to create slow circles.

  She needed to get up, but couldn’t seem to break from his gaze or the feelings he was stirring up with his hands.

  The heat was kicking off of him and the realization that he was laying beneath her and between her legs settled into her psyche. She struggled to get up, but he stilled her with his hands on her waist, keeping her where she was.

  She wanted to grind into him. She only needed three or four hip rolls to bring herself to a sweet finish, she was that close. Seeing his chest and having her hands on his body was doing all sorts of things to her insides.

  “Detective,” she began to say.

  “Just let me enjoy this, okay? I don’t know when you’re ever gonna let me touch you again.” With ease, he completely took her by surprise and rolled them so he was on top. He gave her a sweet and innocent smirk that told her he had her just where he wanted her. She struggled and grappled with his hands, squirming to get away.

  “Don’t fight me right now, Em. I’m beggin’ you.”

  And he was. His voice sounded like he was in pain and he was bouncing his sexy brown eyes between her gaze and her lips. The warmth of his body heat made her want to crawl into him and snuggle. That along with the smell of his clean sweat and his very hard erection rubbing into her caused the sound of a small hitch in her breathing to come out of her mouth.

  “I don’t know what it is about you, GC, but I can’t seem to get you out of my head. And I don’t think I like it very much.” His brow was furrowed as he whispered the confession.

  Don’t let him get inside your head. You’re not the kind of woman he wants. You’re not the kind of woman any man wants. Don’t be an idiot here.

  “I don’t want you to be thinking about me either, Detective. So unless you want me to hurt you, I’d suggest letting me up.”

  “Come on. Aren’t you a little curious?” he murmured. “Don’t you want to see how it would be? It would be explosive. You feel it just like me.”

  She starting shaking her head ‘no’ before he was even finished talking. He kept looking at her and she eventually squeezed her eyes shut. “Stop calling me GC unless you plan on telling me what the hell it means. And the only thing I feel is a big lug on top of me who can’t seem to control his dick around a woman.”

  He paused. “Ooh. Say ‘dick’ again.”

  She sighed and rolled her eyes. He was such a guy.

  He chuckled. “And that’s not true. I can control my dick around any woman. Except for this one sweet little thing who always gets my juices flowin’.” He reached his hands up to cup her face. “Gorgeous Counselor.”

  It took her a second to realize he was telling her what ‘GC’ meant. She groaned, “You’re such a dork.” He knew that she would hate that nickname.

  “You’re always dressed to kill, so feminine and powerful…hotter than hell when you throw me around on a mat. A smart, sexy, sassy woman; a perfect cocktail for a very…potent…aphrodisiac,” he said, punctuating those last three words with a roll of his hips. “GC works better than ‘Gorgeous Counselor’, don’t you think? Otherwise it’s too many syllables.”

  She stared at him, momentarily ensnared by his words, his look, and his gloriously proud member pressing into its counterpoint on her body.

  “Are you scared of me, Em?” he whispered.

  It was that last question that put her over the edge and she pushed his chest off of her. “Get off me. You fuckin’ weigh a ton,” she grumbled, avoiding his eyes.

  He let her up but stayed seated on the mat watching her. Nonplussed by her words, he apparently decided to give her a reprieve.

  “So, you have me for an hour. What are you gonna do with me?” he grinned with a twinkle in his eye, looking like he was mentally rubbing his hands together in anticipation.

  She put her hands on her hips, trying not to let his previously spoken words latch into her brain. Setting her plan in motion, a small smile played on her lips.

  “Why am I the one who’s afraid right now?” His tone was dry.

  “What’s your work schedule for the rest of the day?”

  He cocked his head. “I’m off. I only came in for you.” His eyes glittered. “Why? Did you want me for more than an hour, Counselor?”

  “At one o’clock today I want you to meet me at the corner of West 61st and Amsterdam.” He looked like he was trying to figure out what the location was. She looked at her wristwatch and turned toward the girls’ locker room. “That means you have 60 minutes to get ready,” she called over her shoulder. Then she looked back to give him a cute smile and said, “And Detective? Wear more clothes this time.”

  With that, she entered the locker room.

  ……

  At five to one, Emily waited outside the West Side Academy for Detective Michael Callahan and thought through how the next hour might unfold.

  While growing up, Emily had spent most of her adolescent years hatching the very idea which had her waiting for the detective outside the impressive private high school on the West Side of Manhattan.

  Emily’s mind drifted back many years to when she and her best friend Taylor Hartwell were freshmen in high school. Taylor had been date raped by one of the football players at their school in the fall of that year. Since that life changing experience, Emily was passionately determined to work toward stopping abuse against women. The fact that she ended up in a relationship with an asshole of a man in law school always surprised her. He may not have abused her physically, but mentally he used her as a punching bag. She blamed herself for not leaving earlier and still wondered why she’d stayed for so long. It had almost been out of habit after a while. But the fact that she’d learned about self-respect from her family and Krav Maga, she knew she had to take a portion of the blame for their failed relationship given that she didn’t work very hard to fix it. In her opinion though, his shitty attitude toward women certainly made up the brunt of the dysfunction.

  Upon entering the local Judo and Krav Maga programs shortly after the incident with Taylor, the concept was certainly brought home that in society the responsibility for a woman’s physical welfare fell to the woman. However, as Emily got older, she became dissatisfied with the philosophy that women always had to be ‘reactive’ in situations where she felt men should take more responsibility. She felt strongly that the male population needed to take an active role in nipping their unhealthy behaviors in the bud, and what better way to do that than to start that training when they were young.

  She had spent the last year setting
into motion a mentoring program for boys ranging from 7th to 12th grades. Fortuitously, her background in education law and her close friendship with Taylor, who was now a counselor in the Boston school system, enabled her to write the curriculum for BoysToMENtoring, a program designed to be offered to boys in their middle/high school PE and health classes.

  Similar to other male mentoring programs in the country, the curriculum called upon men in the community to teach and mentor boys once a week in conflict/resolution, treatment of women, sexual abuse, and a myriad of other topics to combat abuse against women and turn boys into healthy well-adjusted men. The mentors would first go through stringent background checks and would be trained in three intensive sessions ahead of time.

  Right before moving, the curriculum had finally been written and approved and was now being piloted this fall in Taylor’s middle school where she was a counselor. When Emily knew she would be moving to New York, she began talks with various people involved in the New York school system to try out a version of the mentoring program for the fall in one of the Manhattan schools. Because her cousin Jonathan was a teacher of Business and Finance at West Side Academy, she had decided to start there. If it was a success, she hoped she would be able to convince others in the public school arena to try it out as well. Jonathan had already agreed to be one of her mentors when the time came, and Mark, her other cousin and Jonathan’s brother, was also going to be a mentor in the pilot program in Taylor’s school.

  Since most schools in New York started right after the Labor Day weekend, the school resource officer and the head guidance counselor at West Side Academy had graciously agreed to meet for an hour with her before the holiday weekend got under way. They wanted to discuss the final stages of implementation for the pilot program to begin in the latter part of the fall semester. Knowing it was the start of a holiday weekend, Emily was grateful they’d agreed to meet. They’d both said they were in town and thought it necessary to finalize the last minute questions in person.

  Other than Jonathan, she hadn’t told any of her friends in the City about it yet, wanting to see if the program would actually go through. Now, after months of emails and phone calls, Emily was certain of the program’s launch and could start asking the men she’d become friends with over the last couple of months to consider volunteering their time.

  Which is where Detective Michael Callahan came into the picture.

  She heard the distinct rumble of a motorcycle and watched as a bike wound through traffic and pulled up next to her at the curb. When the figure took off his helmet, she looked into the dark velvety eyes of the playboy himself.

  A Harley. Why was she not surprised? Damn, he looked good on it. She wanted a ride. She would be happy with the bike or him. She wasn’t picky.

  Wearing a pair of khaki colored Dockers that hugged him like a second skin along with a beat up t-shirt quoting one of Shakespeare’s plays, he was still in his combat boots, and unwrapped himself from around the bike while Emily took a calming breath.

  She herself wore a pair of gray wide leg slacks with black high heeled sandals and a dressy black tank top with a matching sweater. She began to take off her sweater, immediately feeling warm.

  “Hey.” He looked up at the school building. “When you said the address I knew the school was nearby, but – Did you want me to carry your books in between classes or something?” He chuckled and looked back at her. “You know my little brother came here, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “Are we meeting Jonathan or something?” Mike knew her cousin taught there.

  “Or something,” she responded.

  He leaned in to her and she tried to step back but he stopped her with his hand around her elbow. “What’s next on our little scavenger hunt, GC?” he whispered.

  “You’re about to find out, Detective Callahan.”

  ……

  Emily led Mike into the building where they were met by the school’s resource officer as soon as they walked in.

  “Holy shit, Cag! How the hell are ya?” The officer reached out his hand to shake the detective’s.

  “Hey, Mo! Good to see ya again, man.” They smiled at each other and gave one another the half hug men always gave while slapping each other’s backs.

  Emily raised an eyebrow then stepped forward and put out her hand.

  “Hi. Can I assume you’re Maurice Tatum?”

  “In the flesh. Emily?”

  She nodded. “It’s nice to finally meet you after so many months of emails,” she smiled.

  “I agree. Great to meet you,” he said warmly, his mocha colored skin making his bright white smile stand out even more. “I wasn’t expecting to see Cag today. What a pleasant surprise.”

  Emily turned to the detective for an explanation.

  “We trained in the academy together. Plus since Robbie came here, we obviously saw each other a bit,” he said referring to his younger brother who’d attended there. He then turned back to Maurice. “Emily thought she’d bring me along today.”

  “Good. I hope you’re gonna be involved. She’s done a phenomenal job with this program. Rene and I can’t wait to get it started up.”

  The detective nodded and smiled, though it was obvious to Emily that he had no idea what was going on.

  “Anything I can do to help,” he said then looked at Emily with a smirk.

  “How do you two know each other?” Maurice asked.

  Mike responded, “She kicked my ass,” just as Emily said, “Through mutual friends.”

  Maurice barked out a laugh and Mike chuckled with him. Emily just rolled her eyes in good humor. She was continually amazed that the detective kept offering up the information that she could and did beat him at hand to hand combat. He was a conundrum wrapped in an enigma.

  “So then I guess you already know that this woman is a weapon; not just mentally but physically as well.” Maurice’s eyes were twinkling.

  Emily looked at him in surprise. Maurice continued.

  “I’ve talked to Taylor a few times while we’ve been getting our ducks in a row. She shared that you were a force to be reckoned with. Krav Maga is not an easy practice.”

  “Ah,” Emily nodded in understanding.

  “And that’s no exaggeration.” The detective turned to look at Emily then murmured, “Every time I’m with her she brings me to my knees.”

  Uncomfortable, Emily looked back at Maurice. “Thanks so much for agreeing to meet today. I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I know everyone is anxious to get the holiday weekend underway. Is Rene here yet?” Emily asked, referring to the head guidance counselor at the school.

  “Yeah, she’s in her office. Come on back.”

  He led them down the administrative hallway and just as they entered the guidance wing, a pretty Latina forty something woman came out, all smiles.

  “Detective? What are you doing here?!” The attractive guidance counselor looked genuinely pleased to see Mike. Emily sighed. The guy was a chick magnet.

  “Hey Rene,” Mike said pulling her in for a quick hug. “Now that Robbie has graduated, I don’t see all you guys anymore.”

  “I know. What are you doing here?” she asked again. “We have to be in a meeting in a couple of minutes –”

  Mike turned to Emily just as Rene saw her behind him.

  “Oh, are you Emily?”

  “Yes,” she said putting out her hand with a smile. “Rene?”

  “Yes! So good to finally put a face to the voice and emails!” Unexpectedly, Rene bypassed Emily’s hand and pulled her in for a brief hug. “I’m sorry for being so forward but I feel like I know you already,” she laughed.

  Emily was taken aback, but not in a bad way. She had already liked Rene during their correspondence and meeting her only solidified the fact that they would indeed be great colleagues and friends.

  “Not at all,” Emily chuckled, returning the hug. When she stepped back, she continued. “And actually, I’m hoping the de
tective will be a part of the program which is why he’s here.” She glanced up at his features. “But I thought we could go over the highlights and logistics for him so we could bring him up to speed.”

  “Great! I didn’t know you guys knew each other! What’s the connection?”

  This time, Michael let her respond for both of them.

  “We actually met through Jonathan, and Ryann Thornton,” Emily said. Emily knew that Rene would understand who she was talking about. Ryann had taught at the school for years before beginning her job at the Institute, and since Jonathan had been friends with Ryann when they taught together, that’s how she and Ryann had met. Ayanna who was Ryann’s best friend then met Jonathan, and so it went. That’s pretty much how she met the crew of friends she now hung out with.

  “And Ryann’s dating my cousin, so…” Michael added.

  “Huh,” Rene smiled. “Small world. Well, let’s head back to the conference room.”

  Rene led them to the spacious room holding the large table.

  “Do any of you want some water? Coffee?” Rene asked.

  They accepted some water and the next fifteen minutes was given to Emily to explain the program and curriculum, the pilot one in Boston, and the format for how this one would begin at West Side Academy that fall.

  Mike sat listening intently and when Emily was done, he looked at her in a way Emily couldn’t quite figure out. As an attorney she was good at reading people. But she was confused by what she saw on his face. He looked…proud. She hadn’t been prepared for that.

  “You came up with all of this? Wrote the curriculum?”

  Feeling self-conscious, but trying not to show it, she simply nodded then added, “Taylor helped with a chunk of it as well.”

  “It’s incredible.”

  “Thank you,” she murmured. She looked over at Rene who was beaming.

  “It really is, Emily. I can’t wait to get started. I know you said Jonathan was already interested in mentoring, and now Michael. It’s probably good to –”