by Jodi Linton
His commitment.
Teeth nipped at his earlobe. “Take me to your place, Cade. I want to see the bed where you fantasize about all the dirty shit you want to do to me.”
He let the Harley idle under a red light. “It’s nothing to brag about, but if that’s where you want to go, I’ll take you right now.”
He revved the engine and blew through the light as soon as it turned green, feeling like a damn king having her riding on his bike.
When the beige trailer he called home came into view, Cade made up his mind that once the drug buy was settled he’d get her the hell out of Dodge. Preferably somewhere he could lounge on the beach and drink cocktails while watching Em strut around in a red bikini.
He pulled the bike under a metal carport and kicked the clutch down. “This place is just temporary,” he grumbled, while swinging a leg off the bike. “Got to live and breathe the part while undercover.”
Soft lips touched the back of his neck. “Cade,” she whispered as she brushed a kiss under his jaw, “you’ve seen where I grew up.” Small fingers entwined with his. “Now be a gentleman and invite me in.”
“I’m no gentleman.”
A big, bright smile beamed back at him. “Thank goodness.”
They walked to the screen door, and Em fell into his side as he turned and unlocked it. Her red, bee-stung lips curved upward into a come-here-boy grin; her black leather pants rode her slender hips, and all he could comprehend was the sight of those sea-blue eyes baiting him to own her body. The tiny space held no bragging rights. A single green sofa shoved up against the wall, newspapers stacked a mile high, and empty beer cans tossed about the ratty-carpeted floor. His gut sank when her gaze dropped on the three packs of Marlboros sitting on top of a case file sprawled out on the kitchen counter.
Her hand slipped from his, and he hated the feeling of not having her by his side. “Is that a file about me?” She strolled toward the island before he could reel her back in. The need to lie swam up his throat, but he forced the urge back down. Her fingers made haste of flipping through the contents. Red-chipped nails skimmed across a gold bracelet dangling from her left wrist. “This is a report from the night of Wes’s murder,” she said on a shaky breath.
He scrubbed his chin. “It was the only piece of evidence I had to go on when I accepted the job from the police chief.”
“I assume the chief filled you in on the whole story, right?” She lifted a hand and shoved her hair aside, revealing an inch-long, flesh-colored scar he hadn’t noticed before on the right side of her temple. All the air in his lungs ballooned inside him. Em tapped her forehead, the faint line of her mouth looking nothing like the cute smile he’d grown to love. “The attempted rape, hearing the shot that killed Wes, then getting hit in the head and being left unconscious on the floor of the motel room?”
He wanted to reach for her, to comfort her, to tell her that he could take all the hurt away, and yet his feet were planted to the floor as if they’d been packed in cement. “No. I didn’t know the particulars. Just that Wes was found in a ditch, and you were linked to the crime.” Cade clenched and unclenched his fists, over and over, trying to suppress the fury boiling inside him. Roland, that fucker. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have…I wouldn’t have come on so strong. Tried to break you, Em.” He felt his nails dig into his palms. “This, this was never—”
“Part of the bargain?” she said, finishing his sentence, incorrectly though. “Did you know I stood across the street at his funeral and watched all the men in blue give their heartfelt condolences, but I couldn’t? I wouldn’t have been allowed.” Em paused and looked him in the eyes. “You were there…you got to say good-bye, am I right? My good-bye will be sentencing Cyrus Benedict to death.”
“Don’t go there, babe,” he said, his voice rough as gravel in his throat. “I was a motherfucker of a friend. Look at me, I’m still shitty…because I want this girl who was never mine to desire. She’s tough, loyal, sexy-as-fuck, and a much better person than I’ll ever be.”
The air stilled between them.
“Oh, God, Cade, please.” Em lifted her hand and covered her mouth. “I still miss him so much. What am I doing? What are we doing?”
Hearing the sadness in her voice when she spoke about Wes ate him up inside. Although if he were a better man, he wouldn’t be jealous over a relationship his deceased partner had had with Em. But he’d never been that good of a man. Not now, not ever. Unease settled in the pit of his stomach, because what if she didn’t carry the same feelings for him as he did for her? What if she considered him just a temporary fix?
A knot formed in his throat. “We all miss Wes.”
She looked back at him. “I-I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said… I know you knew him longer than me.” Her gaze lowered. “Sometimes I just wish I could’ve done more.”
He stepped into her and tipped her chin up, needing to lose himself in her soulful eyes. “Knowing Wes, there was nothing you could’ve done to stop him from trying to save your life. When that guy made up his mind, he was determined to follow through. He was prepared to die that night, and maybe in the end that gave him peace, knowing he at least fought to protect the woman he loved.”
“Why do I get the uneasy feeling you have a similar trait?”
“Is it that obvious?” he asked, quirking a brow.
“You wear your heart on your sleeve, rebel, even if you don’t want to admit it.”
He laughed. “Here I thought this whole time I had you pinned.”
Her wet lips ran the length of his jaw. “Kiss me already, Cade.” Fingernails scraped along the waistline of his jeans. “I need to feel you inside me. Help me forget the pain.”
This moment between them would forever be etched in his mind. She’d damaged him. Made it impossible for him to ever think or want another woman. Em was the end of the line.
He buried his face into the crook of her neck and allowed desire and lust to win him over. With her arms looped around his neck, he gripped her by the ass and fused their bodies together. She sighed, and his world spun on its head. As he carried her toward the bedroom, he felt powerful…relaxed. Vanilla and a hint of honey collided head on with the fantasy of Em naked and on her back. When he lowered her down onto the bed and brown curls loosely fell about her face, he began to feel a little helpless. Helpless to the damn need screaming inside him to protect her at all cost, even if it meant tossing away everything he’d worked so hard to gain…including his badge.
He shrugged off his shirt, then climbed between her long, slender legs. “I’ll give you every goddamn thing you’ll ever need,” he said, leaning down to kiss her on the nose. “Every want, Em. Every day, as long as you’ll have me around.”
She touched his cheek. “Good, because I decided it would be a cardinal sin not to have my fill of you.”
He looked amazing shirtless.
Em felt dizzy at the first touch of his mouth on her. The ache in her belly intensified when he roughly pinned both her arms above her head. Her pulse quickened as his gaze swept her entire body before moving between her thighs. He removed a hand from her wrist and unbuttoned her pants, yanking them down around her ankles before shucking the leather garment onto the floor.
He looked up at her and said, “The gun, too.”
Legs stripped bare, sporting only a black thong and her pistol, she bit into her bottom lip. “Trying to disarm me, Detective?”
“No, Em. I’m trying to fuck your brains out,” he grated at the apex of her thigh. Velcro ripped, sending a shiver along her hypersensitive skin. “No more gun,” Cade said and placed it on the nightstand. “No more obstacles.”
His brown eyes grew big and round…hungry. His knee shoved her legs farther apart as she lay back, soaking in the gorgeous image of him towering above. She rolled her hips, high on the tortured groan rippling from his chest. “I should’ve made clothing optional at the club a long time ago. Well, you know, when it came to sexy, cocky bikers that pushed my
buttons.”
Laughing, Cade pressed his mouth against her neck. “If I’d known you got your kicks out of seeing me shirtless, I’d have pulled the move sooner.” His hand slid underneath her back and fumbled a minute with the clasp of her bra before freeing her breasts. “You’re so damn soft. Such perfection should be worshiped,” he hissed through his teeth as his lips circled her already pert nipple. “Tell me how good my mouth feels. Would you like my tongue here?”
She gasped when he sucked harder, sending a pleasant shiver up from the tips of her toes into a spiraling flutter between her thighs. The rough underside of his tongue skated across her flushed flesh as he laid hot openmouthed kisses on her breasts.
“I’d dreamed about tongue fucking these gorgeous tits.”
She sighed and arched her back off the bed. “You and that filthy mouth could become problematic.”
A rich, throaty hum boomed deep within him. His tongue licked and his teeth tugged, gently biting down on her nipple. Heat rocked her, making every nerve ending in her body wild with lust. He slowly moved a hand up her inner thigh, so freaking slow. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. She wanted his touch so badly. Em latched her legs at his ankles and felt his hard length rub up and down her stomach, distracting the crazy thoughts swirling around inside her head.
“I like your hands on me, too. I like your filthy mouth growling in my ear. And I like your cock inside me.” His head lifted, the humor in his eyes replaced with a hunger she knew all too well. “That might be the best damn part”—she scraped her thumbnail along his bottom lip—“your cock.”
“Christ, woman.” He sucked on her nipple, shocking her to the core. Their moans were swallowed up in the hungry way their hands began to explore each other’s body. His fingers wrapped beneath the elastic band of her panties, and she rocked her hips forward, freeing herself to be stripped again. Silk fabric dragged down her sweaty thighs, and callused fingers rode her behind. “You remember what I told you in the diner bathroom?” He firmly planted a hand on her stomach and nipped at her inner thigh. “That I knew you would be stunning.” His thumb briskly swept across her clitoris, then vanished. “But I didn’t know how sweet you’d taste.”
Shit. She could waste away on his touch alone. “Are you trying to tease me again? Make me dizzy with frustration?”
“Like you did to me, naughty girl.” He looked her in the eyes and plucked at one of her nipples, earning himself a loud, pleasurable moan. “You haunted my dreams, my thoughts, forcing me to ease my own pain. That was a bad move, Em. Putting me in pain for something I couldn’t have. But I do now, don’t I?” The pad of his thumb spread her in the most sensitive spot, and she bowed her back, offering herself up to temptation. “That look on your face is enough to make me blow my load right now.”
She bit down on her lips, then plumped them into a pout. “Exactly how am I looking at you, Cade?”
He pushed a long finger inside her and pumped in and out, making her adrenaline crackle and pop like a fireworks show from the tips of her toes to the arch in her back. “Like you need a real man to own your body…to show you what pleasure really is.”
“A real man, you say?” She giggled. “But I have a naked biker in my bed. No, scratch that. A bossy detective who enjoys teasing me a little too damn much.”
“That smart mouth of yours makes me goddamn hard,” he growled. “You want my cock? You want it deep, Em? So damn deep you’ll beg to let me give you a fucking orgasm?” His mouth crashed over hers in a brutal fashion at the exact same time his hand cupped her sex and squeezed. Warmth rippled through her entire core like a tidal wave. She rubbed into his hand. Palming her tender nub, he crooked his finger higher, and her tight, wet walls spasmed in need. “You’d like that…wouldn’t you?”
Em writhed in the rumpled bedsheets, her fists tugging on the cotton. “I told you I never beg.” She tightened her thighs around his waist and crushed her exposed nipples to his bare chest. “But I’ll beg for you.”
He growled, pleased. “Fucking yeah, you will.”
Cade lowered his sculpted body down on hers, making her gasp when he nudged the hardness between his legs at her stomach. “No more small talk,” he warned into her neck, sending a shiver up along her spine. Then he grabbed a condom from the pocket of his jeans and tossed it on her belly. “Put it on.” He lifted up slightly and gave her room to explore the long dusty trail of hair running like an arrow toward his cock.
Damn, he was fucking sexy. With shaking fingers, she reached out and touched the black spiral ink outlining his washboard stomach. Hesitation pulled at her gut, knowing one rumble in the sheets was a fling, but twice put their connection to a totally new level. Heck, she wanted the connection. She wanted Cade no matter what was about to happen. He tapped her chin and nipped at her earlobe. “Do I look like a man who enjoys playing games? Now, don’t make me ask twice.”
Hearing such a direct order from a man should’ve pissed her off, especially since it’d been dictated by a hired biker. But her body reacted to his deep command, and Em secretly knew his bossy nature had turned her on. She strummed her fingers over his flat abdomen, enjoying every minute of the hissing rushing out past his lips. It excited her, knowing she wasn’t the only one affected in this little game of wills.
She reached to unfasten the button of his jeans. His lickable abs flexed beneath her fingertips as she worked them down his massive thighs. He released a tortured groan when she sank a hand inside his boxers, sliding her thumb across the head of his fully erect penis. She could get used to him. Used to the feel of him. Her breath shuddered in and out. “Fuck me, Cade. Now.”
One corner of his mouth lifted as he wedged his muscled thighs on either side of her body and wrapped a hand around his length. “You want to be fucked, huh?” He glanced at the condom. “Then you know what to do, Em. Let me own that sweet body of yours.”
She stole another glance at him pleasuring himself, getting off on the erotic display. Her thighs trembled, and her center grew hotter as she ripped the package open. With sweaty fingers, she rolled the latex down over the head of his big, hard erection, soaking in the low hum vibrating from his chest when she gently cupped his balls. “Yes, I want to be fucked. By you, only you.”
“Just me…always,” he rasped, and drove into her in one movement. His hips rotated above hers as he pulled out and slammed back in again, and again. Starbursts exploded behind her eyes as he pushed deeper inside. “Would you blow me on my bike?” he asked. With his teeth scaling the flushed flesh of her neck, he used his other hand to cup her bare breast. “Make me come with your hand while you rode bitch on my Harley?”
“Yes. I’m so close, Cade. Please.”
He parted her legs farther and sank deeper, the burn making her entire body soar. Her release sailed through her, and he caught the scream, claiming her mouth in an exchange she suddenly realized was way more than just sex. In that moment she wanted more, more of Cade, and more of them.
Cade sucked her swollen bottom lip through his teeth. “What did I tell you?” He increased the pace of his hip rolls and pumped feverishly, continuing the battle of turning this sexual encounter into more than a one-night stand. “Next time I’d make you ache for my cock.”
Struggling to gain some sort of control, she dug her nails into his flexed back muscles and felt herself shatter. “Oh God…yes, Cade.”
“That’s it, babe. Lose yourself with me.” As he made one final push, driving his hardness inside her, she did just that.
When they finally came up for air, she found herself looking into a peaceful gaze.
He swept a piece of hair off her forehead and kissed her there. “You’re so beautiful. Makes me want to go at it again.”
She had no doubt in her mind since she could feel him hardening again inside her. Instead of agreeing with his damn fine assessment, she played it safe and just gave him a sensible smile. “Let’s make deal, Mr. Sex God. How about we hit the sack and get some shut-eye, and if you�
�re a good boy, I might let you whisper your way back inside my pants.”
“I knew you were only using me for my cock.” He laughed and pulled her into his side. “Sleep tight, Em. When we wake, I won’t take it so easy on you,” he said, kissing her forehead.
Chapter Fifteen
She was playing a dangerous game by falling for a cop.The low murmur of the fan droned, waking Em in the wee morning hours. She turned on her side and stared at the toned, lean, tattooed body of a man slowly capturing her heart. He rolled and sleepily slung an arm over her breasts. The past couple of hours had been pure perfection. Never in a million years did she see herself laying trust in another cop, and yet here she was naked in Cade’s bed, finding comfort in the possessive way he held her. Like he could be the protector she’d been waiting for. Someone who actually made her feel like a woman, not just some criminal born to wreak havoc and never understand the true meaning of love.
Cade had changed her; he’d made her believe in something more than revenge for the first time in ten months. He showed her that it was okay to trust someone, even if that meant putting her heart on the line. But still one thought nagged her to no end. Why was a man who pledged to clean the streets of criminals like her so willing to get in bed with a criminal? There’s nothing sweet about me to make Cade want to stick around. He has to be a tad bit crazy, right? Because I sure as hell ain’t the chick to build a white-picket-fenced, suburban home with. Not that it mattered, because after tomorrow—once she became a real killer—she wouldn’t ever be acceptable dating material for a cop.
She scooted out from underneath his arm and slung her legs off the bed.
“You pulling a coward move and stepping out on me in the middle of the night?” a deep voice rumbled in the darkness, making her skin tingle in excitement and her nipples bead into round buds. They’d just screwed, and she wanted him to control her again. No, she wanted to control him.