by Lea Griffith
“You’ll have to take it,” he whispered back, and his eyes flared in the lights from the buildings shining through the windows.
Fine, she thought. Never let it be said Daly Edwards didn’t go after what she wanted. A sharp pain pierced her heart. She hadn’t done it in the past, but this was a time for new beginnings. She rose on her haunches and reached for him.
So slowly she thought she’d die from the anticipation, Daly lowered herself onto his hard flesh until she was seated with him fully inside her. He grabbed her hips and curled his upward. There was a grimace on his face that she knew was caused by restraint.
“You want to pound into me, don’t you, Jeremiah?” She leaned into him and licked a path up his neck before biting his earlobe. “Go ahead. It’s yours. Nothing’s changed. Make me remember.”
He lifted his hands away from her and she pulled back, surprise curling through her.
“You started this,” he growled. “You can damn well finish it.”
So much he’d given her earlier. He’d taken her exactly where she needed to go. She could do this for him. She smiled, and his face went hard. Every muscle in his body tensed as he waited. This huge, gorgeous man was hers for the taking.
She lifted up using his shoulders as leverage, feeling every inch of him leave her body. Then she sank down on him so swiftly his breath rushed out, ruffling the hair around her face.
“Like that, do you?” she taunted. “You’ve never let me do this before. I wonder why?”
Daly didn’t give him time to answer, just repeated her action, rising off him time and time again to sink down slowly, then fast, then slowly again. His cheeks flushed and his hands clenched into fists on her thighs.
The storm built inside her but she watched every nuance of his expression, determining how close he was. His eyes locked on hers and she almost lost herself, increasing her pace until he smiled knowingly and she sank all the way down and rotated her hips.
His eyes closed and his breath released on a whoosh. It was intoxicating that she could bring this big man to his knees with her body. She wondered if she’d be able to ever hold his heart again.
Her eyes widened as the realization struck deep. She wanted his heart. She wanted everything Jeremiah Copeland was.
Did he want the same from her?
“I love you,” she said. “Damn you, Jeremiah Copeland, I’ve never stopped.”
His gaze met hers. He cursed and she had no idea how to take that—she was still stuck on what had just flown from her mouth. Reckless. Always she was so damn reckless. He took over then, pushing her back and coming over her to sink inside endlessly.
He wouldn’t release her gaze; he growled every time she closed her eyes. It was just so good having him inside her body.
“This isn’t a game, Daly Edwards,” he said harshly as he pressed inside on a long stroke.
“I know it isn’t,” she said softly and lifted her arms to pull him to her.
She let the tears go. He moved in and out of her body and in the process took over her heart. The intensity built, the flames going so high she wondered if she’d survive what barreled down on them.
“Say it,” he demanded as he pulled out and hovered at her body’s precipice.
She gazed at him, knowing she could deny him nothing in that moment. “I love you.”
“Come,” he commanded.
He sank deep and they both did just that, bodies straining against each other and shuddering in the aftermath of an intense, emotional release.
Jeremiah lowered his body to her side and pulled her into him. Interlocked, their bodies recognized the need for sleep, but still his cock flexed inside her and the muscles of her pussy reacted accordingly, squeezing and determined to never let him leave.
Long moments passed and fatigue caught up to her. He’d taken her twice tonight, both times explosive and mind-shattering. She needed sleep.
One thing, though, before the darkness claimed her. “Sex is emotion in motion.”
He snorted. “Too easy—Mae West.”
She fell asleep with a smile on her face and the sound of his laughter in her ear.
* * *
Copeland lay there watching her sleep and knew he wasn’t the same man he’d been before she entered the club tonight. Years ago she’d changed him irrevocably. She’d been the reason he struggled to go legitimate in all his business dealings.
Then his brother made a deal with a drug dealer, and Copeland had no choice but to free him from the bastard’s debt. Events had been set into motion that Copeland had never anticipated. And it cost him Daly. He couldn’t help but wonder if things were aligning to fuck him over again.
David had always tried so hard, but inevitably he made decisions that cost everybody around him. That he was now a district attorney meant nothing. If he’d called Copeland for help, shit must be bad. That he’d drawn Daly into it had no good ramifications. Copeland was worried.
He sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. A bright light flashed from the bedside table. He’d turned the ringer off on his phone.
“Yeah?”
“I just got back and we’ve got a little bit of an issue up here, Copeland.”
“What’s going on, Toby?”
“Cops,” Toby said and hung up.
Copeland gingerly got off the bed and dressed. He pulled the covers over Daly and within five minutes was upstairs.
“Copeland,” a feminine voice said as he headed to the bar, where a crowd had converged.
Copeland glanced around and met the bright, analytical gaze of Detective Savannah Cavanaugh. His scalp tightened, but he smiled as he held out his hand to the sultry brunette. “Savvy, what’s up?”
She shook his hand and led him away from the crowd. “Got a call earlier at the precinct about a woman being held against her will.”
Copeland met her gaze, and in it was a warning. “Here?”
She nodded and cocked her head. “That’s what the caller said. No names, just an address and a warning that the woman sounded like she was in trouble.”
“Description?” Copeland bit out.
“Caller said she was about five two, long brown hair, probably naked and screaming her head off,” Savannah said, and the tinge of warning flavored her voice now. “What’s going on, Jeremiah?”
“Naked isn’t unusual here, Savvy. Neither are screams. You can search the place. You know you’ve free rein here …” He trailed off. She did have free rein, everywhere except the room off the Black Dungeon.
“Oh no, Jeremiah, tell me no,” Savannah said with a wide-eyed gaze over his shoulder. “You’re going to hurt that poor girl again.”
Copeland felt the “poor girl” at his back long before she spoke. Her presence never failed to raise every hair on his body and make his heart beat faster.
“I’m not a girl, Officer—?”
Savannah stepped around Copeland and held out her hand. “Detective Cavanaugh.” There was a question for Daly in her voice, though her gaze never left Copeland.
“Daly Edwards,” his woman bit out between clenched teeth. She didn’t shake Savvy’s hand, and Copeland wanted to sigh.
Some women should never meet. He could have gone his entire life without these two being in the same room.
“Well, it’s so nice to meet you, Ms. Edwards. Would you be related to Judge Heyward Edwards?”
Daly raised an eyebrow. “Why are you here?”
“We got a call about a woman in danger. In fact, the woman the caller described could be you.”
Copeland reached for Daly’s hand and she sidestepped his movement. Fuck.
“Really? Well, I can tell you, I’ve had nothing but the most excellent of care since I walked in the doors. So if you were worried about me, you can leave.”
Savvy snorted. “Oh, I’m sure Copeland took nothing but the very best care of you, Ms. Edwards.”
Her emphasis on “very best care” had Copeland wincing.
“Grogan?” Sav
vy called. Her partner turned with a questioning glance. “Nothing to see here. Must’ve been a prank. Let’s move out.”
Grogan nodded, but Savvy wasn’t finished.
“Copeland? I thought you’d given up on her,” she said, really going out of her way to make sure Daly heard.
“Leave it alone, Savvy,” he warned.
She shrugged, nodded at Daly with a small grin, and turned to leave.
“Nothing like waking up to find the bed empty and then having to engage one of your women afterward.” Daly’s voice was whiplike and it sliced a line across his soul.
“She’s not my woman,” Copeland said with a sigh.
Daly kept her gaze directly on his. “But she was?”
He didn’t answer, knowing the answer would hurt her.
“Answer the question. If we don’t have honesty, we have nothing,” she said softly.
He nodded.
She closed her eyes and a shudder worked its way across her body. “Must be nice having an officer in your pocket.”
Her dig struck as intended, direct and without mercy.
He grabbed her shoulders. “What about you, Daly? Do I have you in my pocket?”
She was dressed in her coat, the edges of her red dress peeking beneath the hem, but he knew she was bare beneath it. He had her underwear in his pocket right now. He’d had her twice tonight but still went brick hard.
“Isn’t that where I’ve always been? You pull me out, play with me for a bit, and then shove me back.” Her tone was venom, but her eyes held so much pain.
He couldn’t undo the past. He’d had women after Daly. He’d thought to lose himself in them, but it had been a wasted effort. He’d played Savannah when she’d been a young, uninitiated sub. She’d never moved him, but he had fucked her.
And to have them meet this way was really shitty timing on the universe’s part.
“I think you have that backwards, Daly. I believe it’s me who gets played.” He caressed her cheek and rubbed a finger over her lips. Her eyes closed and his heart wrenched in his chest.
“I have to go. I’ve got work tomorrow.” Her words were harsh, and it was as if he’d never found peace in her body tonight. She might have been a stranger, for all the warmth she presently displayed.
Copeland stepped back and moved out of her way. “By all means.” He turned to Toby and said, “Follow her home.”
She flinched as she moved past him. “I don’t need you looking after me, Jeremiah. I don’t need anything from you.”
He was at her back so fast she didn’t have time to move away. He lowered his head to her ear. “But your body does. And Daly? You gave me the words tonight. Be angry I’ve had other women. Rail against me for that. But do not think to hold back from me that which you gave freely.”
He turned away from her then and made his way to his office. His heart screamed at him to go comfort her. Copeland rubbed his eyes and stopped. Things were happening fast for them. They were once again finding their way. Hiccups were to be expected. Before he could second-guess the action, he made his way outside. He found her easily, getting in her little Volvo and cranking the engine, waiting for it to warm up.
Toby stood near the car and glanced up as Copeland came to stop beside him. “I want to know where that call originated from and how they knew Savvy would be on duty. Find out, Toby. Find out quickly. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Copeland knocked on her driver’s side window. She ignored him. “Don’t make me break it, Daly. You know I will.”
She rolled down the window but still wouldn’t look at him. “What do you want, Jeremiah?”
“Everything,” he answered simply. “Now move over. I’m sleeping beside you tonight if I have to move heaven and hell to do so.”
Her shoulders slumped and Copeland rubbed his chest. How would he have acted if he’d met a man she had fucked while they’d been separated? He’d have gone insane. It didn’t matter that they’d been apart. Some things were irreversible. They owned each other and he’d given his body to others, while she … hadn’t.
After a long moment, she sighed and got out of the car. He followed her around, opened the passenger door, and she slid in.
Copeland walked back around the car, got in, and pulled away from the curb.
“You don’t have to do this. It’s two thirty in the morning. I acted like an ass …”
Copeland grabbed her hand and pulled it to his mouth. He brushed a kiss over her knuckles and settled it against his heart. “I understand, Day.”
“I promised myself I’d be okay,” she said quietly. “It’s a bit unrealistic, but knowing you’ve had others, that you moved on, rips me to shreds, Jeremiah. It makes my heart hurt.”
He let her words fall between them, knowing how difficult it was for her to reveal her insecurity. “I never moved on. You came to me last night to purge me from your life,” he said into her silence. He glanced at her, but she was looking out the window. “I tried to do the same, baby. You took everything good in me when you left and I tried to find it with other women. If I’d had any hope in those first months that you’d come back, I wouldn’t have taken them. But you took that hope when you left.”
She nodded and squeezed his hand. “I know. But it doesn’t stop the hurt.”
He said nothing, because in the end there was nothing to say. So Copeland did what he could do in the here and now. He took her home, put her to bed, and crawled in beside her, holding her close and watching over her as she slept.
If his eyes were mysteriously moist as he watched her, there was nobody to tell. The only person that mattered slept softly beside him. And she was the reason anyway.
Chapter 10
Daly sighed, long and loud, before she turned back to the reason she was in the courthouse today.
“Carrie, you cannot keep doing this. Judge Morrison is going to put you away in Little Sing Sing if you keep it up,” Daly said in a low voice.
“I. Don’t. Care,” the thirteen-year-old responded.
Carrie’s tone was defeated but defiant. Daly rubbed a hand over her forehead. The kid was up to her eyeballs in trouble. If not for Daly’s phone call to Judge Morrison, she would once again be in the youth detention center.
“Okay then, let’s brass-tacks it,” Daly bit out, continuing in spite of the confusion on the little redhead’s face. “I can’t keep doing this with you, Carrie. Your mother is not coming back and you’re going to end up in a cell with her if you continue breaking the damn law. What is your problem?”
Anger pierced Daly. Her day didn’t need a petulant child. It simply did not need this. Judge Morrison had revoked the kid’s probation immediately when she’d been arrested last Friday. Daly had been contacted, and as Carrie’s social worker in the Juvenile Justice system it had been her duty to find out what was going on with the child.
“You ran away from the youth home, Carrie. Why?”
“I just—”
Daly held up her hand. “Yeah, my bad. Wrong question. Let’s try this one—why did you immediately head to Wally World and steal a knife?”
“See, that’s the—”
Daly raised her other hand. Her head was pounding. “Okay, let me try once more. You had an opportunity to get your stuff together and instead of studying, doing homework, and all the other things kids are supposed to do, you ran away, stole a knife, and threatened a damn officer with it. What is going through your mind, Carrie?”
The girl’s lips compressed and twin flags of red dotted her cheeks. Her anger was palpable, and then her eyes watered. A single tear fell, then another and another.
“Carrie, I went out of my way to get you into that home. I called in so many favors I’m in debt to others now.” Daly sat down beside the girl and sighed. “You had a chance, and now this? I don’t understand. Help me understand.”
It was a plea. This child—well, young woman now—had been in the system since the age of three. In and out of foster homes, she was such a b
ehavior problem word had gotten around. The Department of Family and Children’s Services hadn’t been able to find her a home after her last stint in the youth detention center. Daly saw the child’s fear underneath all the bravado and it struck a chord in her. Carrie’s mom was gone, lost to drugs and now in prison. She was alone, and Daly knew what it was like to be without a mother. She also knew stubbornness, which Carrie had in spades. But the kid had a will to survive and Daly had gone to bat for her, finagling a way to her get into a girls’ home in Macon.
Carrie wiped her face and snorted. “You won’t listen. I keep trying to talk and you keep holding up your hand all fabulous-like and interrupting me. That’s not very polite, by the way,” she replied heatedly.
For the first since she’d woken up alone this morning, Daly smiled. “ ‘Fabulous-like’?”
The redhead huffed. “Yeah. It’s a thing. You should know, because you’ve done it all morning.”
“I’ve had a crap day already, Carrie. Finding out you messed up this way hasn’t improved it. If I want to act all fabulous-like, I think I’ve got dibs, yeah?”
Carried didn’t answer and refused to look at her. Daly sighed again.
“Officer Edwards?” Though she was a social worker with the DJJ, she was an officer of the court.
Daly held her hand up and walked toward her friend and also clerk of Juvenile Courts, Chelsea Green. “That’s me.”
“You’re taking our lovely Miss Carrie Broaddus today?”
Daly turned and gazed at the young lady who’d had more than her fair share of trouble in her short life. “Yes,” she responded sourly.
Carrie winced, and Daly shrugged. Life was hard all the way around, and she’d be damned if she’d coddle this girl. Daly had never been about false advertising.
She signed the papers and sighed the sigh of hundreds of pressed-upon social workers.
“Thanks, Chelsea. I owe you for the Clemmons case from last week,” she said as she waited for the clerk to wrap all the paperwork up.
Chelsea smiled and handed her a thick envelope. “Yes, you do. I’ll take supper at MacGuire’s Friday. You game?”