Under the Lights

by Shannon Stacey

  “So why was Simon Ward willing to cough up a pretty substantial amount of money to see you get dunked?” he asked.

  “I had his Escalade towed during an emergency parking ban during my first blizzard with the Stewart Mills PD.” She laughed, and then told him the story. Even the chief had been surprised she had the nerve to do it, but she wasn’t going to pick and choose which laws she upheld based on how nice a vehicle the offender drove.

  All too soon, they were at the door. She lived over an insurance office, so there was a door at the street level to unlock. After the third time her frozen fingers fumbled the keys, he took them from her and unlocked it. He knew there was probably another door at the top of the stairs, but he didn’t push. If she wanted his help, she’d let him know.

  “Thanks for walking me home,” she said, reaching for the vest.

  He let her take it. “You okay to get up the stairs?”

  “Yeah.” She looked up at him. “You know how to make hot cocoa?”

  “Who doesn’t? You put a mug of water in the microwave and then dump the envelope in it.”

  Her laugh was shaky because of the shivering. “I have the gourmet kind with mini marshmallows. You want some?”

  “That sounds great.”

  “Good. You can make it while I take a hot shower.”

  “At your service, ma’am.” He took the vest back and, after making sure the first door locked behind them, followed her up the stairs. He unlocked that one for her, too, and followed her inside.

  Her apartment was nice, with cream paint and hardwood floors. The furniture was beige leather and looked comfortable, with a lot of darker colors added with pillows and lampshades and stuff. It wasn’t a placeholder apartment like he’d seen from some of his friends in the past. This was her home and it suited her. It was definitely neater than anything he’d ever achieved, which he’d expected, but it still managed to be cozy and welcoming.

  “Nice place.”

  “Thanks. Mugs are in the cabinet over the coffeemaker, and the box of hot cocoa is on the shelf above them. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  Of course she’d have all of her hot beverage supplies grouped together. He wanted to check to see if her boxed foods were grouped by primary ingredient or frequent usage and whether the magazines on the table were spread out in alphabetical order, but he didn’t. Even when he heard the shower kick on, he focused on the task at hand and resisted the urge to poke around her place.

  He listened for the water to shut off and managed to time it so he was just setting the mugs on the table when the bathroom door opened. If he’d made them too soon, all her mini marshmallows would have melted before she was done with her shower. He looked up and couldn’t hold back the chuckle.

  “That’s not going to work, Kelly.”

  —

  Kelly sighed and looked down at herself. “You can’t be serious.”

  She’d gone to great pains to make herself as unattractive as possible after her shower. The sweatpants were faded and baggy from her police academy days, and the matching sweatshirt she’d worn to paint her apartment when she moved in. Her bulky, white athletic socks were bunched around her ankles, and she’d pulled her wet hair into a messy knot at the back of her head. She wouldn’t even get a mug shot taken in the outfit.

  He stared at her for what seemed like forever and then shook his head. “I’m trying to imagine what you could do to be less attractive to me and I’m coming up with nothing.”

  “I have a T-shirt that’s worse than this sweatshirt, but it’s so thin now, I’m not sure it’s decent anymore.” She sat and took a sip of her hot cocoa before the mini marshmallows could melt, savoring the warmth that spread through her. “That would probably defeat the purpose.”

  “Wouldn’t matter,” he said. “It’s you that’s attractive, not the clothes. Which is good, when you think about it, since ideally the clothes come off at some point.”

  She laughed. “That’s very true.”

  They drank their hot chocolate, making small talk about the street fair. She confessed she didn’t even like pistachio bars, which made him feign outrage, and he confessed he felt bad about being the first to dunk her after she’d let his small legal infractions go. Then she mentioned the upcoming spaghetti dinner.

  “Why Wednesday night?” he asked.

  “Everybody knows Wednesday night is spaghetti night.”

  “Everybody meaning O’Rourke’s.”

  She shrugged. “Wednesday is spaghetti night. We don’t question it.”

  “Okay, then.”

  Kelly found herself taking smaller sips of her hot cocoa to drag out having Chase in her apartment. Even though she’d been trying to scare him off, she had to admit it was nice to be so comfortable with a man. Ratty sweats, bad hair and he was still looking at her across the table like she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

  It was surprisingly heady stuff and, instead of killing the mood, she’d only managed to make him seem sexier to her.

  Maybe she was looking at the problem of sex with Chase all wrong. She was afraid being Coach’s daughter and a female police officer required that she live up to to a higher standing, which meant sleeping with Chase could harm her reputation. Instead, maybe it meant she could have a little fling and people would just pretend it wasn’t happening.

  Somehow she thought it was the former, though. Nothing brought out those New England Puritan roots like a single woman having sex just for fun.

  “You are really thinking hard about something,” Chase said.

  “Yup.” She swirled the remaining cocoa in her mug, trying to mix in the sludge that had settled at the bottom.

  “Okay,” he said after a few seconds. “I actually wanted to know what you were thinking. Not making it a question was my idea of being sneaky about it.”

  She laughed, shaking her head. “You’re such a goof. But, to answer your sneaky non-question, I was thinking the same thing I’ve been thinking about since you drove back into town.”

  “Something along the lines of why the hell did we put a stop sign there?”

  “No. We put a stop sign there because we want people to stop at that intersection.” She set the mug down. “I had a crush on you in high school, but we’re different now. Very, very different. I can’t even begin to understand why, but I’m still attracted to you.”

  “I’m right here for the taking and, luckily, I don’t need much in the way of flattery.”

  “But it’s a bad idea.”

  “Maybe, but it’s a great bad idea.” When he stood up and started around the table toward her, she knew they were as good as in bed, because she was out of the will to resist him. “We’ve both had a rough go of it. What’s so bad about having a little fun together?”

  “It’s hard enough to get respect around here without sleeping with one of the prodigal golden boys.”

  “I wasn’t planning on hanging a banner on the parade float.”

  “You seem to have forgotten how Stewart Mills works.”

  He snorted, reaching for her hand. “It’s not that bad.”

  “Gretchen’s grandmother told Jen, Gretchen and me that you bought a box of condoms at the drugstore, so I guess I don’t need to ask if you have protection.”

  He froze, his eyes wide. “You’re kidding. Her grandmother? And she told all of you?”

  “Never underestimate the small-town grapevine. She also warned me you were up to no good.”

  Taking her hand, he pulled her to her feet. “Considering I haven’t seen her since high school, she’s remarkably correct on both counts. I bought a box of condoms, put a couple in my pocket and now I’m up to no good. So what are you going to do about it, Officer McDonnell?”

  “I’m not going to handcuff you, Sanders.”

  He pulled her hard up against his body,
and she wrapped her arms around his neck. “How about a little mutual frisking?”

  “The cheesy cop innuendoes might have gotten you out of a ticket—and they didn’t even do that, technically—but they’re not going to get you in my pants, as inviting as these pants might be.”

  “Oh, I think sweatpants are very sexy.” He slid his hand just under the waistband at her back. “I’m a fan of elastic.”

  Her skin heated under his touch, and she pulled up on the bottom of his T-shirt so she could return the favor. His ab muscles tightened when her palms skimmed over them, and he brushed his mouth over hers. Kelly caught his bottom lip between her teeth and chuckled when he moaned.

  Then he kissed her, his tongue dancing over hers until she relaxed against his body. Usually she didn’t have a lot of patience for the act, but Chase kissed with just the right blend of softness and hunger, and she thought she could happily spend hours just tasting his lips.

  His hands were under her sweatshirt, caressing her back, and she could feel the rough edges of his calluses. He was a man who worked with his hands, and the strength and hardness in them felt good.

  His mouth left hers and she would have mourned the loss of his kisses, but he nipped at the side of her jaw before moving to her neck. Her sweatshirt was bunching up under her arms, so she grabbed the hem and started tugging it up. Chase backed off enough that she could take it off, and then his mouth was on her breast.

  He tugged at her nipple and she hissed. “Do you like that?”

  She raked her nails up his back in response, dragging his T-shirt along. He took it from her, yanking it over his head so abruptly, she expected to hear tearing fabric. He flung it, and then turned his attention back to her breasts. First one and then the other was teased by his tongue until she couldn’t take it anymore.

  Grabbing a fistful of his hair, she dragged his face back to hers so she could kiss him again. His hands slid under the waist of her sweatpants, cupping her ass. When he pushed down, the loose elastic slid over her hips, and he kept pushing until she stepped out of them.

  His kisses grew more demanding as he ran his thumbs over her nipples. She touched as much of him as she could reach, from his hair to his back and chest and down over his abdominal muscles.

  It took a moment for Kelly to realize he’d slowly been backing her up, and she sucked in a breath when her back hit the wall and she realized his intention. “Chase?”

  He grinned and pulled a condom wrapper out of his pocket before shoving his shorts and boxer briefs down so he could step out of them. “What?”

  She’d been about to point out she had a bedroom with a perfectly good bed in it, but she changed her mind just in time. She could give him a tour of her perfectly good bed later. “Hurry up.”

  She heard the crinkle of the condom wrapper and seconds later, his hands and mouth were on her again. Hungrier this time. More demanding.

  Moaning, she threw back her head and bared her neck for his mouth. When she trailed her fingertips across his hips to the start of his lower back, the muscles twitched under her touch and made her smile. “Ticklish spot?”

  “I didn’t think so, but you have those fingernails and—” She ran them over the same spot, and his whole body jerked. “Okay, enough.”

  As if guessing it would take more than a stern voice to dissuade her from amusing herself, he grabbed her wrists and pinned them against the wall over her head. Heat flooded through her, but she didn’t resist.

  After a few more kisses, his thigh pressed between hers, the amusement was gone and all she wanted was for him to be inside her. It had been longer than she cared to admit since she’d had an orgasm with a man present, and she wanted one now.

  Finally, he released her wrists and draped her hands over his shoulders. Then he grinned as his hands began sliding down her back to the backs of her thighs. Guessing his intention, she tightened her grip just in time for him to hoist her up and brace her against the wall.

  “I’ve been thinking about this since the night I kissed you.” His voice was rough, and she knew he wanted this first orgasm to come as hard and as fast as she did.

  When he used the wall to hold her so he could reach between their bodies, she almost moaned in anticipation. And then he was sliding into her, slowly, as she released the breath she’d been holding.

  He was patient, moving his hips slowly to give her body time to adjust, and she ran her hand up the back of his neck into his hair. When she curled her fingers, tugging a little, he groaned. Then he began to move in earnest, every thrust a little deeper, and she gripped his shoulders.

  The angle was just right and, as he rocked his hips, she urged him on with her fingernails biting into his skin and his name on her lips. Faster and harder he drove into her, her shoulder blades pressed against the wall, until her muscles tightened and the orgasm hit. She raked him with her nails, arching her back until he had to slide his hands under her to hold her up.

  As the tremors eased, she ran her hands over his shoulders and forearms, loving the feel of those muscles on his body. “Oh, yes.”

  Chase groaned as he found his own release, and she tightened her fingers in his hair again as he thrust into her over and over until it had passed. Then he kissed her hard, their ragged breaths mingling between them.

  After a long moment, he reached between them to hold the condom while sliding free of her body, then slid to his knees, lowering her along with him, before rolling onto his back. Being stretched out on top of his body was pretty comfortable, and she was content to rest her head on his chest and listen to his heartbeat.

  Still breathing a little hard, he stroked her back. “When I can walk again, or at least crawl, you can show me that perfectly good bed of yours.”

  She turned her head to laugh into his shoulder. “Definitely. But not yet. I don’t know if I can get up.”

  “I hate to admit this, but it can’t be too long. I remember now why I don’t lie around on linoleum very often.”

  “Since we’re doing confessions, there was a second there when I was afraid your knees would give out.”

  “Trust me, so was I.”

  —

  An hour later, Chase would have given everything he owned—which admittedly wasn’t much, but his truck was fairly new—to stay in Kelly’s perfectly good bed and keep holding her until they fell asleep. It probably wouldn’t take very long.

  She was already in that lazy state of sliding in and out of sleep, and he probably should have gotten up and left a few minutes earlier. The heavier her head got on his arm and the softer her breathing grew, the more he wanted to wake up next to her in the morning.

  They’d already used the second condom, but there were ways around that. Some very fun ways, actually, that he’d like to explore with her in the future, whether they had condoms or not. But it had been a long day in the hot sun, capped off for her by repeated immersion in icy water, followed by a hot shower and several orgasms. It was no wonder she was almost asleep.

  He was growing increasingly drowsy himself, and he forced himself to slide his arm free. She made a moaning sound that would have turned him on again were he not exhausted, and burrowed deeper under the light blanket. But when he climbed off the bed and the mattress shifted, she rolled to face him, her eyes open.

  “You can stay.”

  “Tempting.”

  “Because you want more or because you’re too tired to walk?”

  He laughed and slapped her blanket-covered ass. “I’m not answering that. But maybe a little of both.”

  “I’ll be honest. I’m not really up on the rules of casual, friendly sex, but it’s really okay if you want to stay.”

  He frowned and clicked on the small lamp next to her armchair. “I might have to if I can’t find my clothes.”

  “They’re in the kitchen.”

  “Damn, that’s right.
Be right back.” He went into the kitchen and pulled his clothes on. Then he gathered hers to take into her bedroom.

  After setting them on the chair, he knelt on the side of the bed to give her a kiss good-bye. She had almost nodded off again, and she smiled drowsily. “You’re stubborn.”

  “You realize I have to go sneak into Coach’s house now, right?”

  She waved a hand. “I’m an adult.”

  He caught the hand in his and kissed her palm. “Yes, you are very much an adult. But since I’m the one sleeping under their roof, in your childhood room no less, and trying to remember where the squeaky floorboards are, I’m not sure I am.”

  “You are.” Her eyelids slid closed, and he knew she was losing the battle to stay awake.

  “Do you need your alarm set for the morning?”

  “It already is,” she muttered.

  He kissed her cheek and turned off lights as he walked through her apartment. He made sure the top door locked behind him, and then did the same for the street-level door, hoping like hell he hadn’t forgotten anything.

  Standing in the dark, chilly air, he took a deep breath. It had been a damn fine evening, and now he could only hope he made it back to Eagles Lane and into Kelly’s old bedroom without attracting attention. Since there weren’t any taxi services, he started walking.

  He wasn’t sure whether it counted as a walk of shame if he hadn’t actually slept and put on the same clothes but, all the same, it wasn’t a walk he’d expected to be making back in Stewart Mills.

  11

  Chase spent some time silently lecturing himself in the mirror before heading downstairs to face the McDonnells. It was kind of important he not look like a man who’d had amazing sex the night before, but it would take some effort to hide it.

  The kitchen was empty when he finally went down, so he poured himself a cup of coffee. He could hear movement and knew somebody was in the house. After plucking a spoon from the dish drainer, he added sugar and grabbed the milk from the fridge.

  “Good morning, Chase,” Mrs. McDonnell said when she walked in and saw him at the counter.