Officer out of Uniform (Lock and Key Book 2)

by Ranae Rose

  Sasha ran her fingers over Henry’s scars, feeling every ridge, every twist in the raised tissue that ran over his back. Now that she knew how he’d gotten them and what they meant to him, laying hands on them was different. Before, she’d seen them and known that they’d hurt him, once. Now, she felt them and knew that they still did.

  “Fuck.” His breath made her hair flutter when he swore.

  “What?” She looked up at his face, then down at his naked body. Was it too soon – was this hurting him?

  It’d been about 24 hours since their encounter with Randy Levinson, and she was sure the doctor wouldn’t have recommended sex so soon, if they’d asked.

  Of course, they hadn’t.

  “I wanted to put your legs up on my shoulders.”

  She tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a breathless gasp. “Oh, really?”

  “I’ve been thinking about it ever since last time we fucked.”

  “You mean fantasizing about it.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, that’ll give you some incentive to get better. Remember, if you go charging off into the face of danger again, you could get hurt. And wouldn’t it be a shame if another injury delayed us getting to live out your fantasy?”

  She wasn’t really joking – now that Henry had put the idea in her head, her core was clenching up tight. She was naked, and could feel the resulting dampness warming the folds of her pussy, warding off the chill of her apartment’s central air. She’d talked Henry into coming here after they’d left IHOP and visited Wolf at the vet clinic earlier that day.

  Hopefully Randy Levinson had no idea where they were. And even if he did, Sasha’s apartment was well within Cypress’s town boundaries – there was no forest stretching behind the building, just other homes. Of course, the best case scenario would be if Randy was lying dead somewhere.

  But if he was, why hadn’t the police found him?

  A nagging sense of uneasiness told Sasha that even if he was badly injured, he was still alive, and he probably hadn’t gotten far. A burst of shock hit her along with the memory of cutting him with her knife, carving red lines in his arms and face. The blood had welled up so fast, it’d dripped off of him like rain and stained her skin with spatter.

  “Hey, everything all right?”

  Sasha blinked up at Henry. “Yeah. I was just spacing out.”

  “Thinking about yesterday?”

  She nodded.

  His mouth turned down at the corners, leaving him looking suddenly angry, bitter.

  “I hate rehashing it over and over in my head,” she said. “Let’s forget about it, for now.”

  He must’ve been exhausted by the memories too, because he didn’t protest. Which was a huge relief – you didn’t just tell someone you loved them and then stay up all night keeping watch, listening to a police scanner and cleaning your Glock, which was what she’d feared he’d insist on doing.

  But no – when she ran her hands down his back, all the way to his hips, he didn’t say anything. She could practically see the previous day’s events swirling in the blacks of his eyes, but the way he kept his gaze riveted to her body anyway said that he really wanted to forget, for a while.

  She knelt, a hand slipping over the ridge of his hip bone and below. His balls were hot against her palm, and she played with them as she pressed her lips to the head of his dick. Whatever else his injuries had done, they clearly hadn’t affected his ability to want this.

  She took him deep, all at once, until the back of her throat ached and her tongue was flattened beneath the broad shaft of his cock. He tasted faintly salty, was so hard and hot that her mouth began to water. When he rocked his hips, she moaned and moved, running her tongue up and down his shaft, tracing the ridge that defined the edge of the head.

  His balls were still cradled in her hand, and she touched the soft skin behind them, rubbing in a circular motion while she gripped his thigh with her other hand. She liked holding onto him like that. It meant she could feel him getting all tense and hard, could feel how badly he wanted to come already. Knowing made her pussy tighten, made her even wetter than she’d been before.

  When she thought about how it always felt when he first thrust into her, a sharp burst of sensation flared inside her, so good it hurt. She moaned and held his balls a little tighter, exerted a little more pressure against that tender skin.

  He moved his hips again, rocking into her mouth. He went hard for a few strokes, then stopped, pulling out before she could react.

  Half a second later, he had her pressed onto her back on the bed. The weight of his body between her thighs made her want to moan again, and when his hard cock – still wet from being inside her mouth – brushed her inner thigh, she did exactly that.

  He pressed his face against her breasts, let his breath stream hot over their curves before he closed his mouth around a nipple. Instantly, it was diamond-hard against his tongue. It stayed that way as he sucked, bit it lightly, and sucked again. It was enough to drive her crazy.

  Then again, so was just about everything he did. She was pretty sure he’d blown a circuit in the pleasure center of her brain when he’d first locked her up in those cuffs, licked her pussy from behind and then fucked her the same way. Now, she was aching for him all the time, and when he laid hands on her getting off always felt imminent.

  Maybe it was a little shallow, but she couldn’t stand the thought of losing this – the sex. To experience absolute bliss with someone as perfect as Henry and then have it taken away forever… There were no words.

  Of course, it was far from her only worry, or her biggest one. But it was a very real fear. As much as she’d always appreciated the opposite sex, she knew that no one would ever compare to Henry, in bed or out. She’d meant it when she’d said she loved him – she loved him so much it hurt to think about. She ached physically at the thought of never being with him like this again, but the thought of losing him altogether hurt her heart, the intangible essence of her very being.

  When he raised his head from her breast and met her eyes, something inside her snapped.

  “That knife almost hit your axillary artery.” The words were tumbling out before she knew it. “Another millimeter, and you would’ve bled to death before I ever could’ve gotten you out of the woods.”

  He didn’t move, didn’t blink. “It didn’t, though. I’m fine. All that’ll come out of this in the end is another scar.”

  “It almost did, though. It could’ve. I thought of that then, you know.” She couldn’t help it, she shook. And she knew Henry felt it.

  “I got lucky. No sense in worrying about it now.”

  “Yeah, well…” He could’ve just as easily been unlucky – she could be sitting in her apartment alone right now, knowing she’d never see him again. “I’m afraid you won’t be lucky next time. I know you’re even more obsessed than ever with catching him now. Don’t try to deny it!”

  He didn’t, and his gaze seemed to say that he wouldn’t. “I’ll be back on the search as soon as I’m cleared to return to work. That should be soon.”

  The prison had deployed the PERT officers. She knew it was killing him that his friends Liam and Grey were searching Riley County while he was left out because the prison had forbidden him to go into work that day.

  “What if I lost you?” she asked. “What if you were gone, and I was left to know that no matter how much or how hard I thought about you, you wouldn’t be able to think of me. And all I’d have to hold onto would be memories that’d fade over time. I can’t stand to think about it.”

  She knew this was an absurd time to bring this up, but finally speaking her fears out loud felt empowering somehow. Like she was shedding light on a monster that’d been lurking in the shadows, feeding on secrecy and growing stronger.

  “The risk is just part of my job, Sasha. Always has been and always will be. If we’re going to be together, you’re going to have to deal with it.”

  The truth of his st
atement hit her where it hurt. Maybe it showed on her face, because he frowned.

  “I’m not trying to be an ass about it. And look – statistically, I’ll probably reach retirement age someday and be just fine. Randy Levinson is a freak of nature. Stuff like this doesn’t happen very often.”

  “Yeah, but when it does … you’re not afraid, are you?”

  “There’s no point in being afraid. You have to do what you have to do regardless.”

  “Yeah, but…” She knew that was true. Hell, she wasn’t an idiot. “What I mean is that you seem to like it. It’s not just a job to you – you want to catch him. More than you want anything else, it seems like, sometimes.”

  For a moment, he said nothing. Then he shrugged. “What can I say? I fucked up before. I survived when I shouldn’t have. I’m alive, and I need that to have meaning … I need to do something that means something. What was the point of it all if I don’t?”

  She shrugged. “Does everything have to have a point? Some people say everything happens for a reason. I don’t believe that.”

  “Don’t you?”

  “No! It doesn’t make any sense. Terrible things happen, and they’re just … terrible. That’s all. Nothing good comes out of them, or even if it does, it doesn’t negate the awfulness.”

  “Your face is all red. You look like you’re about to cry. What are you talking about, Sasha? I know you’re not talking about me.”

  CHAPTER 25

  She was not about to cry. But she was upset. Upset because Henry saw every opportunity to throw his life on the line as a chance to redeem himself. Why couldn’t he just accept that life was a gift? He’d survived, and that didn’t mean that he had to look for ways to throw his life away. It meant just the opposite.

  “You know how my dad died. It changed my entire life, and my mom’s – especially my mom’s. One day he was helping me write an essay on Catcher in the Rye for my sophomore English class and then he was gone.

  “He never showed up for dinner. And we never saw him again. It was such a waste … I can’t stand to think of your life being wasted the same way. And most of all, I can’t stand to think of losing you.

  “I know it’s not quite the same thing, but…”

  “Sasha… I’m sorry about all that. And I don’t intend to die any time soon – especially not now that I’ve got you. But you can be damned sure that if I do, it’s going to be for a reason. For fuck’s sake, Randy Levinson has killed at least half a dozen people, including a pregnant woman. This isn’t just me being crazy.”

  “I know. But that doesn’t make the idea of you being in danger any easier to bear.”

  His gaze was steady, and for the millionth time, she wished she could know that he’d be okay – that this craziness would pass and he’d come out on the other side alive.

  “Well.” He smiled. “If he couldn’t kill me at near point-blank range with a Blaser R8, what hope does he have?”

  “Blaser?”

  “That’s the rifle he had. He stole it from the warden’s home. It’s top of the line – a weapon most hunters would have wet dreams over.”

  “Oh.” She knew he was trying to lighten the mood, but she couldn’t bring herself to smile. “I guess he is a pretty crappy shot, isn’t he?” Thank God! She wasn’t sure how he’d missed when Henry had been running at him, but she’d never been more glad of anything in her life.

  “He won’t be getting any better, either, thanks to you and Wolf. He had one shoulder practically chewed off, and you fucked up his other arm with your little kitchen knife. He had his chance, and he blew it. He doesn’t even have the rifle anymore, anyway, so he won’t be doing any more snipering from a distance. His days are numbered, Sasha – we’ll catch him soon, and things will get back to normal around here.”

  His words took the edge off her fear. She wanted to believe them, wanted to soak them up and let her worry ebb away. But she couldn’t do that – couldn’t relax and trust that everything would be okay just because she wanted it to be.

  “You’re brave,” she said, “and I’m not. I think that’s the difference between us.”

  He snorted. “You’re not brave? If that’s true, then how exactly did you motivate yourself to pick a knife fight with a convicted murderer?”

  “I was motivated by fear.” That was the truth of it – she wasn’t brave, just so afraid that she could pass her desperate actions off as bravery. “I’m more afraid of losing you than I am of getting hurt myself.”

  “Then you’re wrong. There’s no difference between us. I’d rather get shot or stabbed a thousand times over than let anything happen to you.”

  “So we’re the same.” A hint of irony crept into her voice, because she could think of a million ways they were different. Anyone could see that they were: night and day, summer and winter. When she’d first met him, she’d figured that was okay. Opposites attract.

  “You don’t think so?” He seemed serious.

  She caved and laughed. “No. Come on. Do you, really?”

  “Yeah. You came here to get away from the town where you grew up. So did I. If we weren’t the same, at least in some ways, you’d still be living just west of Raleigh and I’d be back in Georgia.”

  She let that sink in, and had to admit there was some truth in it. “And neither one of us would be so paranoid about losing the other.”

  He nodded. “There is one huge difference between us, though…”

  She tried not to cringe as she braced herself for him to say something about her that involved the words ‘loud’ or ‘bossy’. She’d heard it all before. “What’s that?”

  “You look way better than me in a bikini. I’ll never be able to pull one off like you do. I just don’t have the figure.”

  She actually laughed. And while that didn’t take away her reasons to worry, it did banish the tension that’d crept into every corner of her body. Suddenly she realized that they hadn’t moved – her thighs were still open, and Henry was still between them. What an absurd position to have a mini-breakdown in. She had to admit though, it was nice to have him so close.

  As she met his eyes, the moment seemed to crystallize – for now everything was okay, and they were so close she could feel the heat of his breath. Voicing her fears seemed to have stripped away a little of their power. Whatever had happened over the past 24 hours, and whatever was to come, those things weren’t now. They were lucky to have this moment. The realization dawned on her and lit her up from the inside out, like a tiny sun.

  She kissed him.

  He kissed her back, lips hot against hers, tongue delving straight into her mouth. And then he slid closer, lowering himself on top of her, placing every hard muscle in direct contact with her body. A shiver of delight rippled through her, multiplied when he rocked his hips and the head of his cock pressed against her pussy.

  She rocked back, and all the desire that’d been put on hold during their argument came crashing back down on her. The pull of it was like a riptide, carrying her away before she even knew what was happening. Wriggling beneath him, she moved until the broad tip of his dick was just inside her, pushing past her folds and beginning to stretch her.

  He groaned. “Wait.”

  She didn’t want to, but she froze. “What?” God, she wanted to feel him farther inside her – all the way. It was all she could do to resist thrusting down with her hips, sliding down his shaft.

  “I’m not wearing a condom.”

  His words hit her like a ton of bricks. She’d forgotten – actually forgotten in the heat of the moment. That was a first. “Oh.”

  Slowly, agonizingly, he pulled back and out. “I didn’t bring any. Didn’t think. Do you have any here?”

  “No.” And why the hell didn’t she? Anger swept over her – anger at herself. She could still feel where he’d recently been inside her, if just barely. Now, her pussy was wet, her nipples were hard and she ached for him so badly it actually hurt.

  “I can go out and get
some.”

  “You know, I’m on the pill.” Since she’d never mentioned it before, she figured he hadn’t known. “We could forego the condoms now, if you want.”

  She tried to sound diplomatic, like she wasn’t dying to feel him slide bare and hot inside her – like she didn’t expect it to be the single most pleasurable experience of her life. She had no medical reason to need condoms, as long as she kept up with her pill, which she took religiously. So as long as he could say the same…

  “Really?” His eyes locked with hers, and the intensity she saw there took her breath away.

  Her entire body heated with anticipation. “I’d like to. I’m healthy, and thanks to my pill, we should be safe from pregnancy. What do you think?”

  He sighed as he raked his gaze over her body. “Best idea I’ve ever heard. I just…”

  “What?”

  He sucked in another breath, then laughed. “I hope I last. Right now, it feels like holding out might just kill me.”

  Her pussy gave an answering throb, shrinking tight. “If it helps to know, I don’t think it’s going to take long for me to come, either.”

  She laid a hand on his thigh and slid it up, until her fingertips were brushing his hipbone, then slipping into the crease where all his flat muscle arrowed into a sexy V shape.

  When she touched the stiff length of his shaft, he tensed and sighed again.

  Wrapping her fingers around it, she caressed the velvet-smooth skin, the perfect hardness. With every second that ticked by, she got even wetter, even crazier with anticipation. Feeling Henry inside her with nothing – absolutely nothing – between them was the most pleasurable thing she could imagine.

  He wrapped his arms around her and rocked her back onto the bed, settling between her thighs again.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist as he took his cock in his hand, guiding it to her pussy. One hard thrust and he was inside her, sliding more smoothly than ever, stretching her in a way that took every last bit of her breath away. The friction was different – all natural, all them. She could feel his heat, his smoothness. She’d never felt closer to anyone.