An Officer and a Gentle Woman
Page 12
The only thing that mattered to him was Alicia.
Alicia opened her eyes, and it took her several seconds to remember where she was. Then she saw the figure standing near the window and she remembered everything.
It was a jest of fate that this man had come into her life at its lowest point. What should have been a source of joy was therefore a mixed blessing. She wanted him with her, her reaction when she thought he had departed her life permanently had taught her that. But she also feared to lose him. She was about to be indicted for capital murder, and Lafferty was young, handsome and available.
No matter what he felt at the moment, he would not wait for her forever.
She looked at his bare back, wide at the shoulders, narrow at the hips, the wavy black hair curling at his nape. His jeans fit him like a second skin, and the patch of down just above his belt made her mouth go dry with longing.
She wanted to touch him so badly.
Her one experience of intimacy with him was seared into her memory, fixed there immutably like a cotillion flower pressed into a keepsake album. She recalled his skin, how it felt and tasted and smelled, its satin texture covering the taut muscles just beneath the surface. After that night in her kitchen Alicia had tossed in bed, sleepless with the memory. She had relived many times how it had felt to have him hold her, kiss her, touch her, and wished that they had been together, really together.
Maybe that chance was not gone forever.
She sat up abruptly and swung her bare legs over the side of the couch.
It had been so long since she’d been with Joe, since she had been with anyone. She had assumed that those feelings were dead, or nearly so. Whenever she’d felt an attraction to a man during the years Joe was ignoring her she had viciously suppressed it, acutely aware of what would happen to her and her children if The Chairman’s wife stepped out of line. Over tune that suppression had become a habit, then a way of life. But now Joe was gone, and this policeman who had put himself on the line for her had fanned long-dormant flames. And Alicia was more nervous about being with him than she cared to admit. But she was also determined to hang on to the one good thing that had happened to her in the past fifteen years: Detective Michael Lafferty.
She crossed the room, slipping her arms around his waist from behind and placing her warm cheek against his smooth back.
“Good morning,” she said.
He turned and faced her, holding her loosely, his hands on her shoulders. He was smiling slightly, and in the faint light his eyes looked very blue.
Lafferty stared. Her hair was hanging over one eye, and her blouse was buttoned wrong, but she looked so much better than she had the previous night that he was amazed. The dark circles under her hazel eyes had diminished, and the taut, drawn look around her mouth was almost gone.
“What is it?” she said, noticing his measuring gaze. “Do I look that bad?”
“You look beautiful.”
“Oh, please. Remind me to show you that bridge over in Brooklyn I’d like you to buy.”
“I mean it. The sleep did you good.”
She reached up and touched the corner of his mouth, which was bruised slightly.
“Did I do that?” she asked softly.
“Nah, I cut myself shaving.”
“Yesterday?”
“Alicia...”
“I smacked you pretty hard, Mike.” She stood on tiptoe and kissed the mark. Her tongue came out, and she licked his lips as his grip tightened.
“I tried to forget what happened in my kitchen that night,” she sighed.
“I tried, too,” he murmured, closing his eyes as she moved her mouth to his shoulder. She dragged her lips along his collarbone.
Lafferty couldn’t say anything. He was transfixed by the sensation of her mouth on his body. His hands moved to her hair, his fingers weaving through the silken strands.
“I love your hair,” he murmured. “The softness, the scent, like lilies. I can smell it in my dreams.” He bent his head and put his cheek against the silken mass, then turned her face up to kiss her.
His mouth was full and warm on hers, his touch gentle at first, then escalating until Alicia was hanging on him, barely able to stand without his support.
“I imagined what might have happened so many times,” Alicia whispered when his mouth left hers to caress her cheek, her throat, the hollow of her neck. “I imagined what it would be like to feel the weight of your body on mine, to know that you wanted me that much. To feel you inside m e...”
Lafferty groaned deeply and picked her up in one swift movement. He strode to the rug in front of the fireplace.
He had had enough of the sofa.
He let her down gently, putting one palm flat on the floor and lowering her with his other arm. As soon as she was down he enveloped her with his body; when she felt him hard against her she moaned and clutched him helplessly, instinctively pulling him into the cradle of her hips. He sought her mouth hungrily with his and she received him, sighing at his sound of satisfaction when his tongue found hers. Her fingers fluttered down his spine restlessly as he pressed her closer, kissing her deeply, evoking a wild response from her that she was not ashamed to give—this was what love should be like and never had been with Joe, even in the beginning.
Lafferty raised his head and released her long enough to reach for her blouse. His fingers fumbled, and he finally yanked on the cloth impatiently, spraying the floor with buttons. He shoved the material aside and drew his thumb along the line of her collarbone as she leaned toward him, eager for his touch. He stroked her throat and she arched back, exposing more of her flesh to his caress. With his forefinger he drew a line between her breasts, bending his head to lightly kiss each silk covered nipple. Alicia closed her eyes and sighed.
“So beautiful,” he murmured, cupping one breast and stroking the nipple with his thumb, feeling it rise to fullness as she pressed back against his hand. He laved the valley between her breasts with a hot tongue, then mouthed her breasts through the thin veil of her slip. Alicia’s eyes closed blissfully. He sucked gently at first, then more intensely, nipping and laving her until the silk was wet and she was whimpering, holding his head against her and sinking her fingers into his thick hair. When he finally raised his head to kiss her mouth again she met him with equal ardor, then sat and pulled the slip over her head. Her hands fell away as he knelt and took it from her, tossing it onto the floor.
Alicia flung her arms around his neck, and he lifted her into his lap, his mouth going back to her breasts, bare now, the nipples still erect and swollen from his recent attention. Alicia looked down at him as he made love to her—his expression intent, his eyes closed. He took a rigid peak between his lips as he ran a caressing hand up her slim leg. She sobbed and her head fell into the cradle of his arm.
“I want you so much,” she whispered, barely able to get the words out; in her entire life she had never felt so overwhelmed with longing.
She hid her hot face against his shoulder as he turned with her in his arms and let her sink back to the floor. His skin was like raw silk, redolent of soap and sweat, the blue veins in his upper arms heavy and prominent. She pressed her nose to his bicep and inhaled deeply, licking a line of freckles marching down his inner arm toward his elbow. He held himself up with one hand and watched as she moved her tongue to a flat nipple, then closed his eyes and bit his lip as she sucked gently, imitating what he had done to her. Her hair flowed over his free hand in a silken cascade as she used her mouth on him until he made a sound of frustration, pulling her under him in one swift movement.
She lay still as he kissed his way down her body to her navel and invaded it with his tongue. Then she ran her hands down his muscular arms, slick now with sweat, and gasped as he pressed his burning cheek to her belly.
Alicia abandoned herself to sensation, lifting her hips as he pulled off her panties and kissed her thighs. She tangled her fingers in his hair, seal-sleek and dark. His mouth moved everywhere, evoki
ng sensations she had never felt so intensely, making her wonder how she had lived half a life with Joe Walker for so long.
She moaned in disappointment when Lafferty sat up, but when she saw him reach for his belt she watched as he unbuckled it and dropped it on the blanket. Flickering firelight fractured his movements as he unzipped his fly and pulled his jeans and shorts off, kicking them out of the way as soon as they hit the floor. She drank in every inch of him as he moved, studying the broad shoulders and slim hips, the carved ridges where his legs joined the trunk of his body, the flexing tendons in his legs and the flat panels of muscle in his abdomen. He caught her staring, and she held out her arms. He bent immediately and enfolded her again, lying down to press his full length against her.
Her breath escaped abruptly when she felt his bare skin next to hers and the impact of his full arousal without the barrier of clothing. Then his mouth found hers and she was awash in sensation once again. She strained against him, running her hands down his body, dewed now with perspiration, feeling the tension in his taut muscles. Lafferty twined his limbs with hers, grunting when she reached down to touch him; when she began to stroke him he moaned and lifted her tight against him. She wound her legs around his hips and dug her heels into the hard muscles at the back of his thighs.
“I want to get so deep inside of you,” he said raggedly, his breath coming in harsh gasps against her ear, “that you won’t know where I stop and you begin.”
Alicia drew back to look at him. His eyes were heavy-lidded, smoky with sensual overload, gazing into hers. His mouth was swollen and very red from her kisses, the bruise she had given him a dark smudge on his lower lip. His face was flushed, and his damp hair fell boyishly over his forehead.
“I have longed for you, Mike,” she said. It came from her soul and it was true.
“And I’ve wanted you from the moment I first saw you,” he replied huskily. He kissed her, his mouth open and inviting, then kissed her neck, her shoulder, the indentation at her waist, leaving a wet trail behind him as he moved down her slim frame. She held his head against her, her body lifting off the floor and her legs falling apart in anticipation as he drew the flat of his hand across her stomach, seeking the mound below. When he touched her she sighed with deep satisfaction. He stroked her, inching lower, as she writhed with pleasure, and by the time he lifted her to his mouth she was more than ready.
Alicia’s nails dug into Lafferty’s scalp, then his damp shoulders, as he lost himself in exploration, pausing only when she gasped, “Please!”
He looked up, his mouth wet, his eyes cloudy and his expression dazed.
“Now. I can’t wait any longer.”
He obeyed immediately, lifting himself up, his palms flat on the floor as she wound her limbs around him like a spider monkey. His skin was hot and slick, and her hands slid up to grasp his shoulders tightly as he entered her. She groaned and clutched him, her sound of gratification lost in his.
Outside the rain continued to fall, lightly now as the storm waned, feathering the drenched trees with droplets. Drizzle pattered against the windowpanes as the two figures intertwined on the cabin floor moved in a rhythm as old as time.
Alicia woke first to find that it was midday and the rain had stopped. She looked at Lafferty, who was sprawled across her, facedown in the boneless sleep of satiation. His hair had dried into finger width curls at the nape of his neck and his back was scraped lightly from the scoring of her fingernails. She touched one of the wounds gently and he stirred. She withdrew the pressure and tried to slide out from under him, but as she crawled up to a kneeling position his hand closed around her ankle.
“Going somewhere, lady?” he murmured sleepily, his eyes still closed.
“I thought maybe I would take a shower.”
“Why? I’ve licked every inch of you clean.”
When Alicia didn’t answer, Lafferty opened one eye and saw that she was blushing furiously.
He grinned. “Oh, look. She’s embarrassed.”
Alicia picked up his jeans and threw them at him.
Lafferty ducked, then seized her and pulled her down with him. “Forgive me,” he said contritely, kissing her nose. “I promise not to tease you. It’s just that you take the bait so easily, and I love to see that look on your face.”
“What look?”
“That innocent, confused, ‘I’m not quite sure what’s going on’ look.”
“You make me sound like a slow twelve-year-old,” Alicia said disgustedly.
“In some ways you are twelve,” he replied seriously. “Not slow, but definitely twelve. And it is a miracle that all those years with Walker did not kill the kid in you.”
“Joe always said I was childish.”
“That is not what I meant, and you know it.” He put his tongue in her ear and his hand on her breast, but he was off balance and she slithered out of his grasp.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” she said firmly as he hit the floor, wearing an expression of comic despair. He rolled over and propped his chin in his hand as he watched her don her flimsy slip and walk over to the kitchenette.
“What are you doing?” he inquired.
“Looking for food,” she said.
“Forget it. I already checked, there’s nothing.”
Alicia shot him a superior smile. “That’s what you think. You don’t know about the breadbox drawer.”
“What’s that?”
“A stash for leftovers.” She opened a large drawer lined with metal under the half refrigerator and extracted the bin’s contents, ticking them off for Lafferty as he watched.
“One half bag of SuperSpuds potato chips, soggy,” she announced. “One box of Whippersnappers graham crackers, three crackers left, also soggy. And a complete, intact, unopened can of Krazy Kids Superheroes ravioli.”
“Great. That’s quite a menu. Who was your last tenant? Dennis the Menace?”
“My kids used to bring their friends here for sleep-overs. This must be the remains of what Maizie gave my son’s group the last time they used the place.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
“We could walk up to the house, and Maizie could make us breakfast.” She glanced at the ship’s clock on the fireplace mantel. “Lunch.”
“No thanks,” Lafferty said, sitting up and tossing the blanket aside. “I can just imagine the two of us sitting there munching omelettes under Maizie’s watchful eye when she knows full well what we’ve been doing down here.”
Alicia laughed delightedly. “Now who’s embarrassed?” she demanded in an amused tone.
“Yeah, laugh it up. I’ll tell you, she scares me. You should have seen the look she gave me when she answered the door last night and saw who it was. Lafferty the cop, the heartless, good-for-nothing flatfoot who abandoned poor Mrs. Walker to her tragic fate.”
“I’ve seen that look. It’s very effective with Joey,” Alicia said, smiling.
“It was having a considerable effect on me.” Lafferty stood and looked around for his pants.
“Well, something must have changed her mind. You arrived here in rain gear she supplied.”
“I told her I had good news for you. That’s when she broke out the slicker and the lantern.”
Alicia held up the chips with an inquiring look.
Lafferty shook his head.
She bent to pitch the bag into a plastic trash can and Lafferty watched her slip ride up her thighs, saw the outline of her breasts against the light. He forgot the search for his pants and joined her in the kitchen.
“Got something for you,” he said softly, as she turned into his arms. He lifted the slip above her waist and pulled her legs tightly around him.
The Whippersnappers fell from her hand.
“I really have to take a shower,” she said weakly, not even pretending to protest as he picked her up and earned her toward the bathroom.
“We can do that,” Lafferty said reasonably, setting her down in the stall and peeling off her slip.
“Oh, I think so,” Lafferty said, as a gush of warm water cascaded over them. He picked up a bar of soap and worked up a lather, rubbing the creamy foam on Alicia’s breasts and upper arms, working his way down her body to her knees.
“Hot enough for you?” he asked, as Alicia watched him avidly through a cloud of steam.
“I can make you drop that soap,” she whispered, reaching out and caressing him with slick, sudsy hands.
He dropped the soap.
“Told you,” she purred.
Lafferty lifted her up, propping her back against the wall. She hooked her arms around his neck and wound her coltish legs around his thighs.
“Tell me what you want,” Lafferty said into her ear, as water beaded on his hair and cascaded off his nose.
“You,” Alicia whispered, kissing his wet shoulder and guiding him into her. “You, you.”
He moaned as he felt her enclose him and he reached up blindly with one hand to shut off the water. Alicia clung to him, falling in with his cadence and feeling as complete as she had the last time he made love to her. They rushed headlong to a swift conclusion, winding up on the floor of the flooded shower stall in a puddle. The dripping of the shower head was the only sound except their steadily slowing breathing for about a minute.