Hot Cop: A Brother's Best Friend Romance

by Natasha L. Black

  “Hey,” I whispered when I bumped up against a bed frame, “I’m a police officer. My name is Laura. Are you okay?”

  “Y-yes,” a fearful voice said.

  “What’s your name?” I asked her.

  “B-becky,” she stuttered again.

  “Becky Simms,” I said, a rush of relief flowing through me momentarily. “I’ve been looking for you. It’s okay. Just keep quiet and hold on. I’m going to get us out of here.”

  I backed up to the low cot and felt around with my fingers, bending all the way forward to reach up and feel the legs and rails and springs. I found a sharp edge and started working my zip ties against it. I worked silently, pressing steadily against the sharp edge and rubbing the zip tie back and forth over it until it broke. I rubbed my freed wrists and then removed the ones at my ankles. I untied Becky and leaned in.

  “What about the other girl? Where is she?”

  “She got loose and went to run for help a while ago. The one guy was supposed to watch us but he fell asleep. That’s why they’re fighting,” she whispered.

  “Is there anywhere in here to hide?” I asked.

  “There’s a little closet over there in the corner.”

  “Go get in it, quietly as you can, and stay still until I say it’s safe to come out, okay?”

  She started to cry a little.

  “Hey, Becky, you can do this. You’re so smart. You left that earring for me to find. That’s how we knew you were alive. Now you just have to hang on a little bit longer. It’s almost over. Go,” I said softly.

  She moved quietly off the bed and I heard the soft click of a door. Confident she was concealed in the closet, I felt around for anything to use as a weapon. All I could find was a chest of drawers—it would be too noisy to search it—so I went back to the bed frame and broke off a spring. It was better than nothing as long as I wasn’t bringing a shank to a gunfight, I thought ruefully.

  The shouting grew louder, and there was the scrape of furniture like someone knocking over a chair. Then the sharp crack of two gunshots and an unmistakable thud of a body hitting the floor. I was trying to decide whether to hide so I could surprise him when the door crashed open.

  “Everything’s fucked up now. I can’t leave any of you alive.”

  26

  Brody

  It was possible I would lose my mind before I got to her. I’d found a woman I deeply cared about, for the second time in my life. I’d be a fool to let her get away. But she’d been kidnapped, hopefully stashed somewhere and not already dead. It made me sick to my stomach to think of it. The wind whipped cold from the east with a coming storm, turning a late September night chilly. The dark and the cold wind made it worse somehow, that she was out there in the clutches of a man who didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her.

  The girl from Overton had gotten away and luckily she had reached help. She told them where Becky was being held, so it was just a matter of time before we had them free. Carl and I, plus some of the Overton cops drove out that way as fast as we could. A quarter of a mile out, we stopped and went on foot to keep from alerting anyone we were coming. In a hostage situation, those blue and red lights tended to cause the bad guys to panic and do something stupid. We were creeping up the ridge, not a hundred yards off from the cabin when we heard two gunshots. I broke into a dead run. As I reached the door, another loud shot split the quiet.

  Without a firm plan, I burst in and saw Laura with a gun, standing over a body. She looked up and met my eyes. There was another body on the floor a few feet away.

  “Becky,” she called out, “it’s clear.”

  Other cops swarmed in, but I went straight to Laura. She let me take the gun from her hand and set it on the table and then pull her into my arms. She leaned her head on my shoulder for a minute and then pulled away. She went into the dark room and came back a minute later with Becky Simms in tow. I was glad the girl was safe, that we’d found both missing teenagers. Mainly I was so grateful that Laura was alive, and we’d gotten to her in time.

  Carl and I got the women into our car and drove them to the hospital to get checked out. I texted Damon that we were on our way, that there’d been a break in the case we were working. We took them in the staff entrance because a local TV van was already parked at the front entrance. A nurse rushed them into a curtained cubicle while Carl and I stood guard in the corridor. A few minutes passed before a doctor went in there. When he came out, I stopped him.

  “Are they okay?”

  “They have no life-threatening injuries. They are both well enough to give a statement, and the girl’s parents are coming in now.”

  The Simms family rushed in and crowded the cubicle. Carl and I retreated to the waiting room. Damon and his mom were no longer there—probably gone to ICU to see their dad or wait up there. I sat down, tried to figure out what I was going to say to Laura when she came out. I talked to the officers from Overton, and they assured me we’d get together on depositions the next day. I heard Laura’s voice. She was talking to Carl who had wandered over to see what took so long.

  “Then I just wrestled the gun away from him. He advanced on me, had verbalized intent to kill me, so I shot him. Then everybody came in thirty seconds too late to save anybody,” she laughed.

  I got up and went over to them. Carl made himself scarce, mumbling an excuse. I crowded her to the wall, grabbed her face and kissed her. There was nothing to say. Just this. Just her lips hot and eager under mine. Laura clasped her arms around me and held on as tightly as I held her, equal in passion, in need.

  Then a voice sounded from behind us.

  “What the fuck are you doing with my sister?”

  27

  Laura

  I broke away from Brody and looked at my brother, standing with his hands balled into fists at his sides looking pissed as I’d ever seen him.

  “This is not what I meant when I told you to take care of my sister,” he said hotly.

  “Shut up, Damon,” I said. “I’m a grown woman, and also I just shot a guy in self-defense and saved the Simms kid. Now is not the time to give me shit about what you think of my dating choices. How’s Dad?”

  “He’s awake, and the scans are good so far. They’re saying with therapy he can make a full recovery.”

  “Great, let’s go see him,” I said.

  I went to hug him but he backed away, stormed out. Brody started to go after him but I caught his arm.

  “Let him go cool off first,” I said with a sigh.

  Instead of arguing, which I expected, Brody took me in his arms again. “I was so scared I was going to lose you,” he said with his breath hot against my hair. “I’m done holding back with you, darlin’,”

  “Good,” I said.

  We took the elevators up to the ICU floor and Brody waited in the hallway while I went in and saw my father. He smiled up at me and squeezed my hand weakly. My mother asked me what had taken me so long, but I didn’t want to worry them. I maneuvered the conversation back to how my dad was feeling and she never seemed to notice. After I was satisfied that my dad was really alright, and my mom was settled comfortably in the chair next to his bed, I headed out.

  Brody pushed away from the wall and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “What do you say we go home?”

  “Sounds good.”

  My mind was still racing from everything that happened with my dad and with the kidnapping and the shooting. But when Brody had said he was done holding back, everything in my reeling mind latched on to that one point. Brody Peters was ready to be with me. For real.

  We got to his house—it seemed like days instead of just hours since I’d left there to get stuff for my mom and he had hugged me at the door. He pulled me inside and threw the deadbolt.

  “No interruptions this time. Your dad is doing well and he’s got good care. The case is solved. So it’s just you and me now,” he said, “that okay with you?”

  “That’s what I’ve wanted since I walked i
nto your office that first day looking for a job. Just you and me. But with no clothes on,” I quipped.

  “So let’s make that happen.”

  Then there was no more laughter because he pulled me into his arms and kissed me. “You’re not hurt or sore or anything are you?” He backed off, solicitous. I shook my head.

  “Well, there is this one thing that’s bothering me,” I said.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, and concern clouded his face, his forehead furrowed.

  “I haven’t been laid in days,” I teased.

  He shook his head, shoulders dropping in relief. “You are a pain in the ass, Vance. You scared me.”

  “So teach me a lesson, boss,” I said archly.

  “March that sweet ass to that bed right now and take off all your clothes.”

  I giggled and did what I was told. I stripped off my clothes and lay down on his big bed, totally naked. He didn’t even hesitate, just shucked his clothes and crawled over me, his arms holding him above me. He lowered his mouth to my collarbone and then slid his hot mouth down the slope of my breast, leaving me arching and panting. He sucked and tugged my taut nipples, ran his fingers all over my body from my scalp and throat to my stomach and the sensitive hollow between my legs. He groaned when he slid a finger in and found me wet for him. He sank two fingers in me to the knuckle and pumped in and out of me, while he sucked my nipple, scraped it with his teeth. In no time I came, thrashing on the bed.

  “You were so tense, so wound up. You made it too easy,” he said, licking my wetness off his fingers.

  “Well, I was chloroformed and held hostage, so my stress level was a little above average,” I said, shakily trying to snark back at him. He chuckled affectionately and kissed my forehead.

  “I love you, smart mouth and all.”

  My eyes got wide. I blinked at him. “You what?”

  “I love you. I have for a while now. I just felt guilty about it.”

  “Fuck ‘em all. Love is more important. Plus, I said it first.”

  “You took it back,” he pointed out.

  “Okay, I panicked. I didn’t want you to run for the hills.”

  He kissed me.

  “So if you really do love me, what are you waiting for?” I asked, heart thumping. I was so damn happy I wasn’t even sure I was making sense.

  “I’m not waiting for another damn thing.”

  Brody was as good as his word, kissing my neck, making me wriggle with pleasure and anticipation. I held him so tight, never wanting to let him go.

  “I’m glad you found me in that cabin.”

  “Yeah, after you shot the perp. You didn’t need me to ride in and save you.”

  “That doesn’t mean I don’t need you. I really really do,” I said, and kissed the corner of his mouth.

  “I need you too,” he said, taking over the kiss and stroking his tongue along mine and making me breathless with want.

  “I want you spread out beneath me, every inch of us touching when I come inside you,” he said. “I want it all.”

  “Yes,” I said happily, touching his handsome face, “I love you, Brody Peters.”

  “I like the sound of that. Almost as much as I like ‘oh God Brody just like that!’” he teased.

  “Then shut up and make me say it,” I challenged.

  His long, muscled body stretched out over mine, our legs and chests together, as he moved down and notched his throbbing cock between my thighs. He spread my legs and slid into the hilt, every long, thick inch of him stuffed into me. I arched my back, breathless, gasping. I was completely filled with him. My palms were flat on his back, my fingers splayed out, feeling those powerful muscles flexing as he levered himself over me, thrusting in and out with an intoxicating rhythm. His gaze was locked on mine, that gorgeous face serious and tense. I leaned up with effort and brushed my lips over his. He captured my lips, giving me a passionate but bumpy kiss as he pumped his cock into me, deeper and deeper. I couldn’t hold the kiss because I had to pant for air as the intensity of his lush rhythm ratcheted up, became demanding, fierce. I had to drop my hands to the sheets, twist my fingers up in the cotton fabric and hold on to withstand the onslaught of the thrusts that thundered through me, impaling me as I bucked off the bed. I came hard, thrashing my limbs, pinned down by his weight and by the heavy thickness penetrating me, still riding me, sweaty flesh slapping into mine, lewd and delicious. I leaned up on my elbows to watch, to see the filthy show of his cock pounding into me, that massive organ disappearing, consumed by my body. It looked impossible, like he’d split me in two, but my body stretched and spread to hold him, to grip him tight. It felt so good, even as my orgasm gave its last quivers, to feel him filling me and touching me in all those deepest places.

  I loosened my fingers from the sheets and held on to him as he drove into me, coming fiercely with a shout and spilling deep into me. I kissed him, tasting the salt of his sweat, and pulled him into my arms. I started to roll onto my side but he caught me.

  “No, I’m not done. I’ve wanted you a long time.”

  Brody hauled me back against him, his chest to my back, and I could feel that magnificent cock already hard again.

  “How is that possible?”

  “Wanting you so much,” he said, kissing the side of my neck and making me wriggle against him. His hand pinned me to him, flat on my stomach. I shivered at the restraint and rocked my hips back as an invitation. I spread my legs, draped one of them back over his, opening for him. He groaned, “God, yes, Laura. I want you like this, from behind.” I heard the growl in his voice, primitive and male. It lit me up and I felt fresh wetness between my legs. He charged forward, thrusting his huge cock into me all at once. I cried out at the impact, the force with which he pounded me, pinning me to him with one hand on my stomach and the other on my breast, worrying my nipple in the sexiest way possible. I came in a blaze, my orgasm gripping me and shaking me out just as I felt him explode inside me, the hot liquid pouring out of him and filling me. He kissed my spine, reached around and fondled my nipples, dipping his fingers between my legs and petting and stroking my clit until I shuddered with another climax so quick and so strong that I wept from it.

  “We should celebrate like this every time we solve a case,” he said, kissing my forehead.

  “It’s a deal,” I slurred, half asleep already.

  Epilogue

  Laura - One Year Later

  “The new stove looks great, Mom. Do you love it?”

  “Yeah. It’s so nice that it’ll preheat fast. And you wouldn’t believe how it does my mac and cheese without drying it out.”

  “Did you make me a cake?”

  “Of course I made you a birthday cake. Banana is your favorite, right?”

  “Mom!”

  “Ha. I thought I could get you with that one. Chocolate with cherry topping. Same cake every year.”

  “You’re the best.”

  “So are you. Now go sit down,” she said.

  I joined Damon and Brody at the table. My dad was sitting there, too, doing so much better. During his stroke rehab, the cardiologist and nephrologist had conferred and found a combination of medicines that worked better for him. He still had dialysis every week, but he was feeling so much better. It was a gift every day that he was doing so well.

  “I’ll help with the cake,” Brody said, getting up. I rolled my eyes.

  “Since when does he wait tables?” Damon asked.

  “I dunno,” I said. “I’m just glad you got over the whole me and Brody thing.”

  “It took a while. It was really weird for me. But seeing the two of you together, it just makes sense. Plus, at least I don’t have to work with you. I bet it’s hell for Clint down at the station with you and the boss making out all the time.”

  “We don’t do that on the job,” I said.

  “Whatever. You were kissing in the ER.”

  “I nearly died. I shot a guy. It was an extreme situation,” I reminded him, “and
it was last year!”

  He laughed, “It is so easy to wind you up about that. Hilarious.”

  “It’d be hilarious to tease you about a girlfriend. If you ever had one,” I shot back.

  Meanwhile, Brody was holding two plates of cake and staring at them like he didn’t know what they were.

  “It’s chocolate cake, Bro, just gimme one,” Damon said.

  “Give me a minute,” he said, eyeing the cake.

  “He never eats sugary stuff, so he has to pick the one that weighs a half-ounce less for himself,” Damon explained to me as if I didn’t already know that. I shook my head.

  Brody set a piece in front of Damon, cocked his head to one side and changed his mind, snatching it away just as Damon had his fork poised to take a bite.

  “What the hell?”

  Brody looked at both pieces again, turned, went back to the cabinet where Mom was serving, conferred with her, and then came back and gave me a plate.

  “Are you sure?” I teased.

  “Oh, yeah. I’m sure,” he said, grinning like a fool.

  “Don’t try and change your mind just when I wanna take a bite,” I warned. “I’ll jab you with the fork.”

  “I know. But I swear, I’m not changing my mind,” he said, still smiling.

  “Uh, can I have some cake now?” Damon asked.

  “Shut up,” Brody said, not sparing him a glance. “Let Laura try her birthday cake first.”

  Shrugging, I cut a bite with my fork, but something scraped against the side of the fork. I looked closer and scooped up a diamond ring. I looked at Brody, eyes popping out of my head. He laughed.