God, she made it hard to think straight.
Callie enjoyed just the simple glide of her hands over his flesh, as she further explored his body. Coming to her knees behind him, she rested her cheek against his shoulder, as she slid her hands around to his chest. It was sheer pleasure to feel the bulge and tautness of every muscle. Quinton Gaines was a fine specimen of masculinity. Callie continued to explore as he worked on the buttons.
When he was moving too slow for her, she yanked him toward the bed so that he was resting on his back. Now, she could straddle him and slowly, one by one, unbutton the rest of his shirt. When she had them undone, she slid her palms across his chest, just to feel him shake. Callie reveled at the fact that he was surprised. Apparently, he didn't realize that she wanted him just as much as he wanted her.
Quinn didn't know what to think. Here was a completely naked woman, over his body, and he was helpless. He couldn’t even breathe, let alone think about his next move. For now, he was a willing captive and at her mercy.
Leaning in, Callie placed a few scorching kisses across his flesh. As she moved up his body to his face, she gently pushed a sun streaked curl lovingly from his forehead. When Callie smiled down at him, his intake of breath urged her to continue.
It was quite obvious that her hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they slid to the button on his jeans. In one quick flick of her delicate wrist, she had it undone.
It was as if the floodgate was open, and no one could turn back now.
Callie could feel what his zipper was containing, and a wave of heat rushed through her. His body was throbbing and waiting for her to discover the many pleasures he could offer. She was desperate to get him naked. Grabbing the jeans at his hips, she slowly lowered them down his long, strong legs, all the while trailing her nails across the sensitized flesh.
Once his pants hit the floor, he was wild for her.
“Baby, I need you,” he said, sliding off the bed to finish the job she had already started. He hooked his thumbs in his boxers, ripping them down, so he was fully exposed to her.
It was her turn to admire his body.
As Quinn climbed back onto the bed, he moved toward her like a large cat ready to pounce.
“Quinn,” she gasped, as he pulled her across the bed, so he was resting between her thighs.
“Just stay right there, Callie, and let me have you. I’m dying to taste you,” he whispered in the dimly lit room. “You’re like a feast for a starving man, and I don’t want to move too fast. I want to savor every inch, but I don’t know where to start.”
Quinn began touching her body everywhere with his lips. His brain was on overload, as he couldn’t get enough of her silky skin or scent. It was only making him more desperate for her. As he moved up her torso, he finally reached her lips. The kiss they shared exploded around them with the fire that was threatening to consume him. Quinn couldn’t stop the need, as he dove into her mouth, taking all she had to offer. It was so much more than just an exploration of tongue and teeth. It was a new journey, and he was going to cherish every moment of it for everything it was worth.
When she moaned, he went wild. The hold on his control was slipping, Quinn drank his fill from her mouth, and when satiated, he moved lower.
Quinn was like a kid in a candy story, and Callie was an endless supply of sweets to snack on. He could spend hours on the delicious curve of her breasts. The way she responded to his touch was maddening.
Callie arched into him so he could have even more access to her already aroused body. Just when she believed her brain couldn’t handle anymore, he moved above her to continue with his torment. This man was wicked and wonderful, all wrapped in one.
“You feel so damn good, baby,” he whispered hoarsely, as she slid her hand down to wrap her fingers around the length of him. Once she began stroking her soft palm over his heated flesh, working him to a fevered pitch, Quinn knew he was doomed.
“God, you’ll kill me doing that,” he added, sliding his own hand lower until he found her ready for him. He slid his fingers through the slickery wetness of her body, heated with what was to come.
As he was discovering all that she had to offer him, Callie bit off his name with a moan. “Quinn!” Callie didn't think she could take much more. The man’s hands were magic. Just then, Quinn slid lower down her body, leaning down to kiss her on that most sensitive of spots. At first contact, she shouted his name again. “Quinn, please!” she begged, but he continued to torture her with his tongue, making slow lazy circles as he held her hips completely still in his large hands.
“You taste so good, Callie, even better than I could have ever imagined. I can’t tell you what it does to me, seeing you in my bed, and knowing that I have all night to tease and taste every inch of your body,” he whispered, as he continued his torture. As he teased her with his tongue and lips, Quinn pushed her closer to release.
“Quinn!” She dug her nails into his shoulders, tripping over the edge as her entire body shook in the aftermath of his attention. When Callie opened her eyes, she saw him sitting between her legs, waiting for her to resurface. She was still hungry for him and wanted more. “I need you Quinn, and I want all of you.”
It was all she had to say.
“Good thing, baby, because I feel like I’m going to combust unless I bury myself deep inside you right now.” He pulled her toward him and lifted her hips. “I swear, baby, that I won’t hurt you. Do you trust me?”
Callie finally got a clear view of his engorged erection.
She gasped.
A part of her wanted to wantonly pull him into her body. She desperately wanted Quinn buried in her body.
She never wanted him free.
Callie had never wanted anything more in her life.
“I trust you, Quinn, or I wouldn’t be here with you,” she whispered.
That touched his heart.
He moved closer, poising himself to find his way deep within her body. “This may be uncomfortable for a second, baby,” he whispered lovingly to her, as his control rapidly slipped away. He leaned forward, sliding into Callie until he could go no further. At that angle, he was fully sheathed deep in the heat of her body. Nothing in his life had ever felt that damn good. If it were up to him, he’d never stop this intimacy.
“Oh my God, Quinn!” she gasped, as her body arched into his, allowing him to fill her beyond her wildest dreams. It was hard not to notice his involuntary shudder.
“Trust me, baby. We’re made for each other. You were meant to be with me,” he promised. Slowly, he began moving. When he slid almost completely out, and then buried himself once again, her breathless gasps drove him wild. Before long, the rhythm picked up, and both were lost in the act of mating and making love.
For Quinn, it didn't feel like their first time. Instead, it was like he finally found someone to reunite his soul. This felt so right, but he couldn’t find the words to tell her.
Callie matched him each and every stroke. Soon, she could feel herself getting ready to explode again. Her hand slipped off the sweat glistening on his arm.
“Quinn, I can’t hold on any longer.”
“It’s okay, baby, you can fall. I’m right behind you.”
She called out his name, and then the tumble into the bliss began. The only thing she could hear, over the explosion and her blood pounding in her head, was him calling her name. True to his words, he was tumbling right alongside her.
When Callie finally caught her breath, she ran her hands up and down Quinn’s shoulder. Like her own, there was the puckering of a wound that she knew too well. When he kissed her directly over the scar that was just below her left breast, she knew that they were going to talk.
“How did you get this?” he asked softly, already knowing it was a bullet wound. In fact, it looked just like the ones he carried from his past in Atlanta.
Callie didn’t know if she should tell him. She rarely spoke about the incident that almost cost her everything. Th
en, she realized that if they were going to have a chance together, she couldn’t keep him at arm’s length. Here, they just had the most intimate of encounters, and he deserved to know. “I was shot,” she replied.
“I can see that, baby, but how did you get shot?”
“It’s a long story, Quinn. Are you sure you want to hear it?” she asked, hoping he would say no.
“Yeah, I think it’s real important to know when a woman I’m having a relationship with has been shot, and why,” he said with a touch of hostility in his voice. Immediately, he regretted the tone he took with her. It just upset him that she was hurt, and he wasn’t there to keep her safe. From here on out, that was his duty in life.
She could sense his anger and wanted to smooth it out. “I’ll tell you, if you tell me,” she said, delicately running her fingers over the two puckered wounds on his shoulder and collarbone. “I know you only touched on the highlights.”
“Do you want me to go first, baby?” he asked, willing to share his past, in hopes that she would do the same.
“Yes, please.”
Quinn thought back to that day. “My partner and I arrived on scene. We were randomly assigned the murder and were just doing our jobs. I vaguely recall joking around as we pulled up. It was just another day.”
She left little kisses across his chest.
“As we’re standing over this dead gang member, a car rolls by. I should have been more alert, especially when it was driving so slowly. Then, I saw it, but it was way too late.”
Callie gently stroked his cheek, knowing how hard it had to be for him. Telling her story was going to be equally difficult.
“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement, and then I heard yelling. Before I could react, there’s a popping sound going off around us. At first, my brain thinks it’s a prank and fireworks, but then the cop kicked in. When I turned, it saved my life.”
She was so glad.
“When you work on the streets, you learn to wear your vest, and that morning, I did. I actually got out of the shower, and thought, ‘I better vest up’.”
“I’m glad you did, Quinn.” If he hadn’t, she would have missed this part of her journey.
“When I turned, the bullets went in under my vest at my shoulder. One hit my collarbone and shattered it. I had to be put back together again.” His hand absently ran over his old wounds. “But, I lived. That day, my partner didn't. He didn't put his vest on, and he lost his life next to that gang member.”
“I’m sorry, Quinn.”
He stared into her eyes. “So was I, for a very long time. It’s why I came home. I needed to heal. I sold everything and bought this house. I then spent the next six months living off my savings and fixing the place up. The table, armoire, and other woodworking projects helped me find inner peace.”
“I’m glad,” she answered. He truly deserved it, and she was now seeing how wrong she had been about him. Where he came across as a flirt and womanizer, she now saw the truth. Quinton Gaines was hiding under that to protect the wounds of his past.
Much like she was.
They were a matched set of broken souls.
“Anyway, I needed to get a job, and the sheriff was retiring. I ran in the election, not believing that I would win, but I did. Now, I’m responsible for the people here, but I never forget what led me home, Callie. I carry it forever.”
Her heart ached for him. Gently, she left two kisses across his scars, in hopes that it would heal him emotionally.
It gave him warmth after years of cold. “Your turn, baby,” he said softly.
The emotion she had been feeling drained from her face, and her eyes went blank. It was time to bear her soul.
Quinn could tell right away that she was going to struggle with this piece of her past.
Callie released the breath she was holding. “I was working a serial killer case for the FBI with Luke and Nate two years ago. We were so damn close that we could taste it. We had the killer narrowed down to three suspects, but he kept slipping through our fingers,” she said, trying to get her composure.
“Go on,” he urged.
“We finally got lucky and caught the animal in the act. Do you remember the Orchard Heights killings, just outside of Raleigh?”
“Hell yeah, I do. It was all over the news,” he replied. “That was you?” That astounded him. It was one of the grizzliest cases that he had ever heard in his career. The media was all over it, and yet, he never knew that the woman in his bed was responsible for the maniac’s capture.
“Yeah, it was the three of us,” she answered. “Well, after we bagged the killer, one of the other suspects decided that I was chasing him down because I had a personal interest in him.”
Oh Christ. His stomach knotted at her words.
“I earned myself a stalker, and he was an incredibly dangerous one too. Sometimes, when you play with the dregs of society, you bring home a little extra something at night,” she stated, trying to make a joke out of it all. It was the only way she could get through it.
“Son of a bitch,” he muttered, knowing where it was going. A stalker plus the bullet wound only meant one thing. Finally, he got why she was working in some tiny little town, far from where she should be.
Callie was hiding!
“Yeah, well this SOB decided to follow me around, take pictures of me, and fall in love. He stalked me for twelve weeks, and we didn't know who it was. They were the worst three months of my life, and I mean worst. We’re talking about that sick fear that you get when you never feel safe. He would send me the pictures he was taking. There were ones of me getting out of the shower, me naked, me…” She paused to take a breath. “Me with someone I was dating. He would leave them, and then call me everything he could come up with, from whore to slut. The scariest part was that he promised I would be punished for my cheatin’ ways.”
“Callie, I’m sorry.”
“I started praying that he would just go away, and then one day, he did. I got back that false sense of security, and that was my mistake. That’s when he struck. Like a true predator, he waited until my guard was down to hurt me.”
There was such a rage building in his belly. His poor, sweet Callie didn't deserve any of this.
“It gets worse,” she said. “You wanted to hear this Quinn, so here it is,” she added, fighting to get through it. “I was dating a really nice guy. He was in the Marines and made me laugh. He wasn’t the love of my life, but I figured it was safe to be with him. Like I said, my guard was down, and who would come after me with a big Marine at my side? We were just starting the relationship out, and it was nice. Maybe that’s why I agreed to go out with him because I was using him to feel safe.”
He wiped a tear from her cheek and didn't miss that she actually moved closer to his body, seeking protection from what she was about to say.
“For a while, Wesley allowed me to forget that I had a job that was so sick and perverse. No one likes to play in the minds of madmen, but some of us are born to do it. This was my fate, and I’ve always accepted it until that day.”
He kissed her delicately on the forehead. “I have you, baby.”
“We were out on a date, sitting in the park and minding our own business. The stalker took a high-powered rifle and shot Wesley in the chest, killing him. He died because I said I would go out with him. As a psychiatrist, I know it wasn’t my fault, but here,” she said, touching her heart, “here, I believed it was.”
This was too much, even for him.
“Callie, stop. I don’t need to hear this. I’m sorry that I brought it up. Please forget I asked,” he said, watching her wipe her eyes. There was no way he could make her relive this, especially since he knew that he only wanted to protect her. Quinn wanted to be the one who protectively wrapped himself around her.
“No, Quinn. I’ll finish it,” she said, sitting up. Like a small, scared child, she pulled the sheet around her body. “I watched that poor man die because he was unlucky enough to
ask me out on a date. I was aware that my stalker was going to kill me if I didn’t take precautions. Deep in my soul, I knew my time was limited. It was going to come down to him or me, and I braced for it.”
This entire thing was making him sick to his stomach. Bringing this up had marred the night. His incessant need to know, had made her relive things that she kept buried deep.
Damn it!
“Luke and Nate took me to the FBI firing range to brush up on my skills. Nate procured a permit to carry, and I started walking around with a weapon. I was a ticking time bomb, carrying a loaded gun, and ready to go off at any second. I stopped functioning because every moment was filled with fear.”
“Callie, I’m sorry.” Quinn wished that he never asked her about the scar. Yet again, he had treaded into a minefield.
“It took a while after Wesley died for me to go back to work, but eventually I managed. I was walking out of my office one day to meet with Nate and Luke to start profiling another case. Outside my door, I walked into a man in the hallway. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings, since I was digging in my purse for my cellphone. When I looked up, it was one of the men we were following on the Orchard case.” Callie tensed, starting to shake.
“I've got you,” he murmured in her ear, as he gently ran his fingers over her body.
“He pulled a gun, Quinn, but before he could put a bullet in my heart, Luke and Nate came around the corner. I couldn’t let them die, too, so I grabbed his wrist. It bought Nate time to pull his Glock.” Callie flinched, as she relived it, hearing the shot in her head. “The stalker pulled the trigger, and fortunately for me, grabbing his arm had lowered his hand enough that the bullet entered below my heart instead of through it.”
“My God,” said Quinn pulling her into his arms as she continued her story.
“So, I almost died outside my office in Luke and Nate’s laps. When help got there, I was covered in mine and the stalker’s blood.” Callie began crying.
There was some comfort in the fact that she was relaxed enough with him, to allow Quinn to hold her in his arms. Now, he understood why she was hesitant to be with anyone. It wasn’t him, but her battered soul.
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