by Lucy Score
“A month,” he said, the words coming out rough.
“Two,” I countered. There was no way Connelly would be wrapping his investigation before the new year. Not if he was hellbent on ignoring the photographic proof of Callie’s injuries. I needed enough time to prove to the man that I was an asset to the department, not a lovesick family legacy.
“Six weeks,” Bowie offered. “Don’t ask for more, Cass. Because otherwise people will be real shocked when I propose to you on what they think is our first date.”
And now it was my turn to turn a shade of pink only seen on sunburnt summertimers. Touché, Mr. Sexypants. “You want to propose to me in six weeks?” I hissed.
“I’d rather do it in a month,” he said, flashing that Bodine smile that ladies had been swooning over since his kindergarten school picture.
“Six weeks of secrecy, subject to renegotiation. You will not propose. And we will have sex tonight,” I ticked off my terms. A sexually aggressive woman had taken over my brain. One who kept reminding me how it had felt to have Bowie almost inside me, his lean, hard body pressed up against mine.
That woman was not going home unsatisfied.
“Six weeks. Potential proposal after two months. And we are not.”
“Bowie, Bowie, Bowie.” I flexed my foot in his hand and gained two inches up his thigh. His gray eyes sharpened. I should stop playing. I was smarter and more experienced than I’d been at nineteen, but there was still a lingering doubt that I couldn’t handle the man. “If you want to make a go of this then don’t you think it’s important to find out how compatible we are in all areas?” I scraped the heel of my boot against his inner thigh and was rewarded with the flaring of his nostrils. We were staring each other down, waiting for one to cave.
Our waiter returned, took one look at our staring contest, and hurried away.
“I plan to give you everything you want, Cass, for the rest of my life. Just not tonight.”
“Why the hell not?”
45
Cassidy
“We’re not having sex on the first date,” Bowie reminded me, palming my very happy breasts under my sweater. He’d unhooked my bra one-handed like a champion lady undresser about four seconds after he’d pulled into the garage and three after he dragged me over into his lap.
His SUV windows were steamed up, and I couldn’t be sure, but we were generating enough heat to steam up the garage windows, too.
“I’m tired of you thinking you get to call all the shots,” I told him, biting his lower lip hard enough that he gasped in a breath.
“When I tell our grandkids about our first date, it’s not going to end with ‘and then your grandma put out.’”
“That’s a sexist statement. Why’s it bad if Grandma puts out, but not if Grandpa does?”
“Point taken,” he said, licking his way into my mouth and dazzling me with a kiss akin to fireworks. “I’ve waited a long time for you, Cassidy Tucker. I don’t mind waitin’ a little longer so you can make sure.”
“I’m sure I want you inside me,” I told him, biting at his jawline and neck.
He made a strangled noise.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Can a man die from not having sex with you?” Bowie wondered, fisting the long tail of my hair in his hand.
“What about after the second date?” I demanded, thrusting my hips against him so I could ride the ridge of his erection. “We could go for coffee right now. Boom. Second date.”
“You are fucking killing me, woman.”
“That’s a lot of years of pent-up frustration talking there,” I said, sliding my hand under his shirt and stroking it across the ridges of his abs. When my fingers dipped lower toward the waistband of his pants, he stopped me.
“Cassidy Ann. We’re waiting.”
“I’m tired of waiting.”
“I want you to be sure I’m the one for you.”
“We’re talking about sex here, Bow. Not a lifetime commitment.” I shifted against him again and watched his pupils dilate.
“It’s the same thing this time, Cass. I want a lifetime commitment out of you first.”
“How incredibly old-fashioned of you.” I rocked into him, and he groaned.
He squeezed my hips and kissed me until I couldn’t figure out where my mouth ended and his began.
“How about now?” I asked, leaning back against the steering wheel and opening the wrap tie of my dress.
“Oh, fuck.” His hands were on my bare breasts followed immediately by his mouth. I bucked against him as he licked and sucked and stroked. It was freezing cold outside, but in the car it was a tropical rainforest of lust.
“Come inside with me, Bowie,” I demanded.
He took another long pull on my nipple, and I nearly went over the edge right then and there. And then he did the unthinkable. He pulled my dress back in place and opened his door.
“I’m walking you to your door and then you’re going inside. When you’re sure that this is it for you, then we’ll see about the rest of it.”
“You are blackmailing me with sex!”
“I’m incentivizing you,” Bowie corrected. “It’s positive reinforcement.”
“You’re lucky I don’t have my service weapon with me or I’d positive reinforcement you right in the balls.”
He pressed a chaste kiss to my mouth and plopped me on the ground. “I swear to you I’ll make it worth your while,” he said, sliding out after me.
He adjusted himself to a more comfortable position in his pants. “You are so damn stubborn,” I complained. “We could be having orgasms right now!”
Bowie leaned in close enough for me to feel his hard-on against my belly. “I love you, Cassidy Ann. I fully intend to be the last man you sleep with. But I need you to be ready for that.”
My hormones were begging me to agree to anything if it meant that gorgeous man would plow himself into me raining orgasms down like a sex Tinker bell.
He loved me. Bowie Bodine admitted to loving me.
“What did you just say?” I whispered.
“You heard me. I love you.” He threaded his fingers into my hair and kissed me again until my insides were warm like caramel. “Always have. And you know when we make love, there’s no goin’ back.”
I most certainly did not know it. Sure, it would change our relationship. But we’d been friends for a decade or two. That wouldn’t go away just because we had sex and broke up. Would it? I took offense to him putting caveats like “forever” and “lifetime” on something that was so immediate. Not when we’d agreed to a six-week secret trial. I wanted him now. But he was rejecting me again.
“Then I guess this is goodnight,” I said stubbornly.
He leaned down and kissed the tip of my nose. “Goodnight, Cass. I love you.”
I wanted to punch him, to storm into my house and never speak to him again. I wanted to say it back.
“Goodnight,” I said and pushed out the garage door into the backyard. I jogged up the steps to my back door and let myself in without looking back.
Horny, frustrated, and grumpy, I listened to Bowie moving around in his bedroom on the other side of the wall. Imagining him stripping out of his clothes, standing there naked and staring at my wall.
I didn’t like how out of control he made me feel. I wanted to get it back. To hold the power.
I heard his shower come on and biting my lip, reached for my phone.
Me: There’s no shower cold enough.
He responded quickly.
Bowie: Agreed.
Me: There’s an easy solution to your predicament.
Bowie: What’s that?
I was a law enforcement officer. I had never sexted anyone in my life. There were too many ways it could go horribly wrong. But this was Bowie. I lay down on the bed and slid my free hand up the skirt of my dress. I snapped the picture and sent it.
I heard a thump on the other side of the wall and hoped he was hitting his head in frust
ration.
Bowie: Christ, Cass. Do you know how many times I thought of you while I touched myself?
Me: Tell me.
Bowie: Every time. Every fucking time. It’s always you.
Me: I’m one door away from you. The real thing. Waiting for you.
The water turned off next door, and I held my breath.
Bowie: I need this to be special for us. Not just some hormone-fueled fuck.
I got off the bed, slipped out of my dress, and struck my sexiest selfie pose in the mirror.
Me: So close. At least I can give you a visual to work with.
I attached the picture and sent it.
I heard another thump next door followed by footsteps. They stopped on the other side of the door that divided our places. I crossed to my side and waited.
“Go to bed, Cass,” he said quietly through the door.
“I don’t want perfect or forever. I want you, now,” I whispered.
“Baby, don’t do this to me,” he pleaded.
“Are you touching yourself?” I asked, hoping to God Jonah’s bedroom door at the front of the house was shut tight.
“Yes,” Bowie hissed.
He groaned low.
I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand not seeing him, not watching him. I flung the door open and there was Bowie. Fisting the cock he’d freed from his sweat pants. His eyes were hooded, his neck and jaw were tight. And that tight fist was moving up and down his shaft.
46
Bowie
Her eyes were wide and glassy. She was naked, needy, those subtle curves begging for my hands.
“I’m tryin’ to do the right thing, Cass,” I rasped. But I couldn’t stop fucking my hand and wishing it was her.
She didn’t say a word to me. Just slowly sank to her knees in front of me in the doorway.
She made the sexiest picture I’d ever seen in my entire life. Kneeling in front of me, offering herself to me.
“Cass,” I hissed at her. I wanted it to be perfect for her. Wine and candlelight and soft music.
But looking at her on her knees in front of me, those lips opening. I’d been stupid to think I could wait.
I needed her. I needed to be inside her. To know her. To possess her. To worship her.
“You said you’d give me anything,” she said quietly.
I nodded wordlessly. Yes, I had definitely said that. Who was I to deny Cassidy my dick when it was what she wanted? I was rationalizing, desperately, lightheadedly. But right now I couldn’t quite remember why it was important to wait.
Then she leaned forward and slicked her tongue over the tip, and I was a goner.
I shoved my hands into her hair and holding her on my cock, I crossed the threshold, shutting the door behind me.
I’d crossed the line, committed the crime. I couldn’t say no to her.
I gripped her hair, those long, honey tresses that I’d obsessed over for years, and guided her down my shaft.
Groaning, I leaned back against the door.
Her mouth. Her fucking mouth. It was paradise.
She worked me wet and eager, taking me to the back of her throat like this had been a fantasy for her, too.
I could feel it building already and knew I was in danger of losing all control. I’d fuck her mouth and then I’d come, releasing it all over her lips, her neck, her breasts. I’d mark her as mine. If she couldn’t give me the words yet, I’d find another way to claim her.
God. I stopped her. Holding her head still as my cock throbbed in her mouth.
I was one second away from coming and as appealing as that visual was, the first time I came with Cassidy was going to be buried deep inside her.
Pulling her gently by the hair, I backed her mouth off of my erection.
She whimpered in protest, and I fucking loved that sound. I wanted to take her to the bed, to lay her across that mattress and seduce every damn inch of her. But I wouldn’t survive the ten feet. Instead, I lowered myself to her, half collapsing on her.
“Touch me,” she begged. “Please, Bowie.”
I’d imagined her saying those exact words in that exact tone for more years than was healthy. It broke me. My fantasy colliding with my reality. I didn’t have any control anymore. I couldn’t stop myself as I shoved her back down on the floor and buried my face between her legs. I couldn’t not taste her.
I slid my tongue through her folds, and her entire body tensed. It was her turn to grip my hair. She tasted like something I’d never have enough of no matter how many times I sampled her.
“Open your legs,” I ordered. When she let her knees fall open to the side, I rewarded her with two fingers plunged deep into her center.
She bucked up off the floor, her stomach muscles tense. I didn’t give her a second to relax and get used to it. Using my tongue and mouth, I licked at her. Finding that sensitive bud, I lavished it with attention.
Cassidy’s fingers yanked at my hair, stinging my scalp, and I fucking loved it.
“Bowie, I’m—”
She lit up from the inside out as an orgasm snuck up on her and dragged her under the surface. Her walls closed rhythmically around my fingers, and I realized I’d never felt anything sexier in my life. Making Cassidy come. It was my new mission in life.
I fucked her with my mouth and fingers through the orgasm. She sobbed my name over and over again. And I knew she loved me. It had never been like this for me. There’d never been a connection, an obsession like this before.
I wanted to do it again and again, all night long until dawn broke.
But more, I wanted the words from her. We’d loved each other since forever, and I needed to hear her say it. Needed her to recognize what it meant. That this was it. Us. Together. Forever.
With her tremors fading, I climbed back up her body and found her breasts.
“How do you know how to touch me?” she whispered, trembling beneath me.
The floor was hard under her, and I wished I’d picked a softer place to fuck her senseless.
“I know you, Cassidy. I love you.”
“How do you know?” she demanded.
I sucked her nipple into my mouth and worshipped it with long pulls.
She bucked her hips against me, begging for more. My cock pleaded with me to take her.
“Because I’ve never not loved you,” I told her, nuzzling her breast.
“I need you, Bowie.”
“I know, baby. But I need you to say the words first.” I abandoned her breasts and used my leverage to my advantage.
She was pinned beneath me, legs open. My dick throbbed against her very center. We’d been here before and I was determined that before we went any further I’d get what I needed.
“I’m scared.”
Her words froze me in place, one thrust away from everything I’d ever wanted.
“Baby, look at me.”
Reluctantly she obliged.
“Cass, honey. You’ve been it for me since you were about sixteen years old. There’s never been anyone else in my heart. I’m not going to hurt you. Let me love you.”
“What if—”
“What if it doesn’t work out? What if we fall out of love? What if one of us changes and the other doesn’t catch up?”
She nodded, eyes serious as her body thrummed under mine.
“What if we don’t try?” I countered.
She closed her eyes.
“Cass, we have to give ourselves this shot. Have you ever felt this way about anyone else?”
She shook her head back and forth on the floor, and my hips gave a slight thrust. Two inches into her perfection.
“You’re not playing fair, Bowie.”
“I know it.”
She took a long shaky breath and opened her eyes. “I love you, Bowie Bodine.”
Another fantasy come to life and again, it was better than I’d ever imagined. My Cassidy. My girl. The woman I was going to marry and spend my life with. Saying the words I’d dreamed of hea
ring from those lips.
“You’re not saying that so I’ll have sex with you, are you?” I teased.
She cupped my face in her hands. “No, Bowie.” And then she kissed me hard on the mouth. I thrust into her, buried to the hilt, and swallowed her cries.
“Yes, yes, yes,” she chanted.
Finally, the blood pounding in my head shouted. It was better and more and everything. My dreams, my fantasies were pale replicas of a reality so fierce I’d never go back to the way things were before I’d been inside of her.
I was where I was meant to be. Joined with Cassidy. I held there, fully sheathed, memorizing the feel of her. Feeling the rightness of it all.
And when I started to move, when she joined me, it was like we’d been doing this dance since forever.
Her breasts were flattened against my chest. I dug my toes into the hardwood beneath us, driving myself into her slowly, surely.
She wrapped her legs around my waist, taking everything I could give her. Her hips met me thrust for thrust. I relished the feel of her nails carving crescents into my shoulders. She buried her face in my neck.
We’d been meant for each other. And I had a lot of lost time to make up for.
I drove into her, each thrust harder, faster until we were sweating and gasping for breath. My orgasm hovered at the base of my spine, and I tried to wish it away. I wasn’t ready to stop, to finish. I wanted this time to last forever.
“Bowie,” she gasped against my neck. “Bowie, you’re making me—ah!”
I felt her close around me. Felt her slick walls tremble over my own flesh. Better than the fantasy. Better than I ever imagined. So much more.
My release rocketed up from my balls through my shaft, and I pinned her to the floor as I poured the first jet of come into her. We came together. I emptied myself into her like I was sacrificing my soul. She took it all, sobbing those words over and over again in my ear, as her body throbbed around me.