He muttered something in Spanish and turned away from the group, walking down the sidewalk to get some air.
“I’ve already had my psycho and I divorced him,” Tiffany said dryly, “so let’s hope the odds aren’t likely I’ll encounter another one.”
“Not likely,” Mo smiled. “And I’m glad you got rid of him.”
Tiffany began to speak but was interrupted as Mike finally came outside and joined the group.
“The investigators are gonna stay and finish up, so let’s break up this little party. I think we’ve all had enough excitement for the evening.” He looked over at Emily but didn’t move toward her. Their eyes burned into each other. Mike broke the eye contact first and turned to Jeremy. “Let’s head back to your place. I’d like to stop by the hospital to see how Kevin and his mom are doing. One of the guys from the 4th Precinct has already gone over to ask some questions. I’d like to be there.”
“Kevin’s still in surgery, FYI,” Tiffany said.
“And Joe sent over an attorney for them, so they’re covered,” Emily added.
Mike looked up in surprise at that. “Did you call him and arrange that?”
She nodded.
He nodded back. “Okay. I’d still like to check in on them.”
“Let’s go then,” Emily said.
He hesitated then nodded and they all started to head back to Jeremy and Ryann’s.
Janie looped her arm through Emily’s and pulled her back noticing Mike had already walked ahead with Jeremy and Luke.
Trying to ignore the hurt she felt, Emily distracted herself. “Things with Luke seem a little,” she paused searching for the right word, “charged.”
“He needs to mind his own business,” she grumbled. “Unless of course he wants to make me his business.” Janie looked ahead and focused on Luke’s back as he walked. “Ayanna thinks he has feelings for me,” she said quietly, a hint of hope in her tone.
“I think she may be right.”
“Well, then he can just do something about it,” she groused.
“I don’t think he knows what the ‘something’ is he should do.” She turned and smiled softly at her. “You might need to help him along with that.”
Janie blinked, processing her words. Then, “Enough about me. You and my brother need to talk.”
Emily sighed. “I’m sensing he doesn’t want to.” She looked ahead to him.
“You scared him, Em. That’s all it is. He just needs some time to process.”
She nodded, biting her lip. “I couldn’t help it. He went into that bedroom all by himself. I couldn’t watch him go in without any back up. I was terrified. He told me to wait outside and I couldn’t.”
“I, for one, am eternally grateful that you followed him in. And once my entire family finds out, they’ll want to adopt you and kiss the ground you walk on.”
“Do you think he’s mad because I overcame Strover? My last boyfriend thought I was too tough,” Emily said, still worrying her lip. “I wasn’t feminine enough.”
“Not feminine enough?” Emily said, looking at her in shock. “He obviously was blind. No, Em,” Janie said as if talking to a five year old. “He’s not mad that you were too tough. He was scared. You scared him. That’s what this is about. Mike’s not proud. He doesn’t care that you can fight better than most men. He loves that part of you. This is about fear. I’m sure for a few moments in there he thought he was going to lose you and now he’s trying to process that.”
She nodded. Well, if that was the case, she knew exactly how he felt because she’d felt the same way when she watched him walk into that bedroom without back up. She’d never been so scared in her life and she couldn’t not go in after him. She’d do it again in a heartbeat and he’d just have to get used to it.
She let go of a long sigh. It had already been a long night and she had a feeling it was only going to get longer.
……
Mike and Emily finally pulled into his parking garage at quarter after eleven in the evening having just left the hospital. Kevin made it through the surgery and his mom had gone through the questioning process. It seemed everyone’s assumptions had been spot on.
According to Susan Strover, she and Kevin had moved into Strover’s brownstone at the beginning of her marriage only to have her fall victim almost immediately to his possessive and controlling nature after they were married. He began accusing her of cheating and seeing other men.
After a series of injuries due to his physical abuse, Susan quit her job as a library assistant at the New York Public Library. On her last day at work, when her fellow colleagues asked why she was leaving, she claimed that she had an illness that she had been diagnosed with and needed time to recover. She cut off all ties from them and because she was an only child and both of her parents were deceased, there weren’t many people who followed up on her.
Strover’s behavior became more erratic and abusive physically, with threats toward Kevin. After several months, he’d changed the wiring in the house with hidden cameras and its phone system.
The story became more horrific when they discovered that Strover had begun locking Susan into the bedroom upstairs six months earlier. For the past half a year that particular abuse had been going on and she and Kevin didn’t know how to escape.
Both mother and son knew that cameras were recording their movements as well as the conversations they would have through the door of the locked room, so they were extremely secretive and quiet. Kevin was never able to unlock it and they were both reaching their wits’ end when Mike gave him his card and then got Kevin the throwaway phone. Susan shared that Kevin had whispered through the door just that afternoon that he had a plan. That plan was to lie in wait for Strover to get home and it was his surprise attack with the frying pan that precipitated the events of the evening.
And true to what Mike had already suspected about Strover’s former fiancé, Susan, unprompted by Mike, mentioned that the police should look into a missing woman in Chicago. She claimed that Strover had bragged about getting rid of his former fiancé and he would do the same to Susan if she didn’t comply with his demands. Those demands came during 18 months of physical, mental and sexual abuse. Many years of therapy and healing were ahead of her and Kevin, but they were now safe and Strover was in police custody looking at a very long time in prison.
Emily and Mike still hadn’t spoken since the incident in the brownstone. Although they’d been in the hospital together and had ridden Mike’s motorcycle to and from, they’d yet to really look at each other and talk.
She was desperate for them to reconnect, feeling like she did during the two weeks when they’d been apart, nauseous and empty. The butterflies fluttered in her stomach as she and Mike walked quietly up the stairs to his floor where he unlocked the door and let them in, closing it behind them.
Because she’d given her sweater over to Kevin to stop his bleeding, Ryann had lent her a warm jacket to wear for the evening and while on the bike. Emily took it off and ran her hands up and down her arms to warm herself.
Mike watched her while taking off his own jacket. “You’re cold,” he murmured. He sat on the sofa. “Come here.” He put his hand out.
Her lungs began to open more as she breathed again. They were the first words spoken between them since she’d lunged at Strover in that closet. She sighed in relief. They were talking. They just needed to talk.
She walked over and he pulled her down onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her, engulfing her in his warmth. Within seconds she was shaking with the residual energy from the evening finally leaving her body. She sighed and put her face in the crook of his neck. She felt him swallow and his body shudder.
“Mike,” she whispered.
“Not yet,” he said, his voice filled with anguish. He swallowed again. “I can’t talk yet.”
She reached a hand up and stroked his face. That movement broke his silence.
“I told you to wait outside, Em.”
“Yes, you could. You just chose not to.”
“No. To me there was no choice. I wouldn’t let you go in there without back up.”
“Then you should’ve gone to get Mo or Victor. A police officer who had a weapon.”
He was getting agitated and moved her head away from his neck so he had his hands on her face, forcing her to look at him.
“They were around the back and you were going in and you needed back up, so I went in after you. Done. I’m sorry you didn’t agree with my decision, but I would do it again and again.”
“That’s not the answer I wanna hear, Em,” he said in frustration, moving her off his lap to get up, where he paced the living room.
“That’s the only answer there will ever be, Mike. If the roles were reversed, you would’ve done the same thing.”
“That’s different, Em,” he growled through gritted teeth. “I’m a cop, for fuck’s sake. It’s my job to go in. It’s not yours.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, missing his warmth. “You know why you’re upset? Because you don’t think that a woman can protect just as much as a man can.”
He pointed his finger at her. “Don’t you dare. That has nothing to do with it and you know it. I’ve worked with tons of phenomenal female cops. That has nothing to do with it,” he repeated, walking the length of the living room.
“Then what does it have to do with?”
“I told you to stay outside,” he mumbled, pushing his fingers through his hair again.
“Well, sometimes I’m not gonna do what you tell me to do, Mike. Not when I think in that moment I need to do something different.”
“God, you make me crazy.” He looked to the ceiling and put his hands on his hips. “You could’ve been killed, Em.”
“And you could have too. You didn’t have a vest on this time.” She nearly lost it when she said those words.
He looked at her and paused.
“Did it ever occur to you that every day I’m gonna have to trust you to make the right decisions? You’re a cop, Mike. Who’s to say that I won’t getta another call down the line from Lacey saying that that vest of yours didn’t stop some bullet this time, huh? That instead of asking what hospital you’re in like I did the last time, I have to ask where the morgue is instead!” A sob escaped. “You don’t think that terrifies me? I know I scared you tonight, but you scared me too. You walked right into that bedroom with no knowledge of anyone there to help you, no vest to stop a bullet. Do you know what that did to me? And I’m gonna have to work on this fear every day with you out there fighting crazy ass people all the time.”
He looked at her, exhaustion and tension on his face. He let go of a loud exhalation which resembled a groan then he walked back to the sofa, sat down and pulled her into his lap again. Once he had her back in his arms, he spoke.
“I should’ve waited for backup. Or I should’ve called Victor over.”
She held him tightly as he talked.
“But don’t ever fuckin’ do that again,” he croaked into her neck, his voice tortured. His body was shaking and she gulped down the sobs that were now racking her body.
“I can’t promise that,” she cried. “Not if I think I can save you.”
“I’m supposed to save you,” he said beginning to kiss her face. “I’m the man,” he said. He sounded adorably disgruntled in the midst of the very serious moment.
“Yes, you are the man,” she said with a soft smile, touching his face. “But I-am-woman, hear-me-roar. I can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan. You do a great job of saving me. And I think I do a pretty good job of saving you, too. So why don’t we both just save each other,” she said, kissing his face.
“You scared me shitless.” He kissed her, then, “You were incredible when you charged in like that. I was so angry, so scared and at the same time I knew that if anyone could back me up, it would be you. God, Em. You didn’t even have a gun.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I love you. Please,” he begged but what he was begging for was still unclear. He just continued to hug her and kiss her, holding her tight.
“It’s okay. We’re okay.” She continued kissing his face, his tears, stroking his cheek.
“We make a pretty good team, don’t we?”
“The best, Detective. Hold me, Mike. Touch me. I just want to feel you right now.”
“Baby. You scared me so fuckin’ much,” he breathed out while touching her face, her arms, her back. “Please let’s not make this a regular occurrence. Please,” he begged.
“Okay. That I can promise,” she whispered. “I wanna feel you. I need to feel you.”
“Em,” he moaned into her mouth, their faces still wet from their tears as he kissed her face.
They clung to each other and began peeling off their clothes, their movements starting out slow and measured then becoming more aggressive as their desperation built. By the time they were completely naked he’d carried her to his bed and lay down with her there.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t talk about it for a while,” Mike began. Emily knew he was talking about the fact that they’d been quiet with one another after the incident. “I needed time and I’m sorry if I was a jerk.” He traced his right forefinger down the center of her body, from the little divot in the center of her collarbone down between her breasts to her belly button. His finger ended by resting lightly over her mound where he stroked back and forth.
“Your sister warned me,” she whispered, putting her fingers in his hair and gripping tufts of it. Her body burned for him.
“Yeah?” he said without looking at her. He was mesmerized by his finger’s journey over her sex. “What’d she say?”
Emily couldn’t think. She tingled all over and his finger only made her crazier. “That you needed time to process what’d happened. That I scared you.”
“You did,” he whispered then leaned his mouth down and softly kissed the side of her breast, sucking lightly on the skin.
“Please, Mike. Just lay here for a sec and hold me, okay?”
He did, holding her tight as they continued touching and kissing. She didn’t know if she could take it slowly that night. She needed him too much. Her fingers gripped at his hair.
He kissed over to her nipple and plucked it with his lips. “You make me feel like I’ve lost part of my mind,” he said sucking the nipple into his mouth. He scraped it once with his teeth then let it go. “And at the same time, like I’ve finally found myself.”
He moved himself so he was completely on top of her, nestled between her legs while she rubbed the soles of her feet over his thighs and ass. Resting his elbows on either side of her body, he reached his hands over to push her breasts together and began playing with both of her nipples while licking at the center of the globes that were pressed next to each other. He sucked gently as his fingers worked their magic and she began to squirm and whimper, pulling on his hair.
“Do you feel it too? As crazy as I feel when I’m not with you? I wanna make you lose your mind so you see what it feels like,” he taunted quietly, his voice still tortured.
His fingers applied more pressure to her nipples and she let out a moan, bucking her hips into his, seeking him to fill her.
He looked down at her, lust in his eyes coupled with the love she’d grown to see there.
“I love you. I’m sorry, too,” she sobbed out. “I’m sorry that I didn’t talk to you. But I can’t wait for you tonight. I need you.” She pushed into him again, opening her legs even more. “Come inside me, I’m waiting for you,” she begged.
“Ah, Em,” he groaned and within the next second, he pushed all the way in until he was seated deep inside. They stayed like that until her body adjusted and he dropped his head to hers. His fingers lightly twisted her nipples and her insides lit up.
“Mov
e,” she demanded. “You feel so good, Mike.” She pulled his face down to hers and kissed him, licking into his mouth and pulling his lower lip into hers to suck on it.
He groaned and pulled out only to slam back into her. He continued his finger movements on her nipples which only made her more frenzied. She pushed up into him trying to speed up his rhythm but he took control easily, holding her down with his hands on her breasts.
“Are you going crazy yet, Counselor?” He placed his lips on her neck and whispered into her ear. “Do you feel one iota of what I feel every day that I’m with you?”
His hips began moving hard and steady.
“Like you’re not fully alive until we’re connected this way? With me so fuckin’ deep inside you, your muscles pulling me in more and more? Your nipples screaming for me to touch them?” he said through clenched teeth.
They moved together, touching and loving, breaking down the wall that had been erected, desperately finding their way back to each other.
Sounds of sex filled the room, her breathing getting heavier and more erratic, her whimpers becoming louder, the slapping of their bodies creating a music all its own. “Do you feel it?” he groaned. “Your fingers in my hair pulling at me, telling me how much you love it when I do this to you. Making you scream and break apart. Coming inside you and watching you shatter as your muscles come around me.”
The bed shook with his thrusts, his hands still at her breasts, her yells becoming louder and louder. “Is that what you feel? Tell me that you feel it too, Em. Tell me.”
“I do. I do, Mike,” she gasped. “Ahhh – Goooodddd.” She began coming, feeling that ever glorious combination of pain and pleasure, that exquisite high that solidified their love every time.
“I do too, Em,” he yelled. “I do too.” He thrust three more times and stiffened with a yell, grinding so hard into her she didn’t think she’d ever make it off the mattress.
This was what she needed. This claiming. This reconnection. This love. This reminder that he belonged to her and she belonged to him. That in the midst of their sacrifices for each other, their arguments, their philosophical differences, they’d make it. They’d always come back to this perfect union of body, heart and soul.
Revelation: A Contemporary Erotic Romance (Iris Series) Page 37