Arouse (4 page)

“
Y
ou shouldn’t walk
home like that,” she announced.

“Like what?”

“Wet and hard.”

He laughed, and his cock pushed more firmly against her bottom. Damn, she was a sweet handful. “Well, if you’re kicking me out, I guess it’s still dark out. No neighbors left to shock.”

She was the only neighbor who had shocked him tonight.

Kami was quiet, and once she’d come ’round from her trip to space after coming so hard in the bathtub, Jeff had sensed she was retreating to some weird place in her mind.

He knew because he was halfway there himself.

He should get up. He should put on his wet shorts and scale his fence and never look back. Chalk tonight up to full moon fever.

Except there’d been no moon tonight. Only the soft glow of her skin.

And the insane fantasy of being with her coming to life.

“Who says I’m kicking you out?” She matched her palm with his. Hers delicate against his massive handspan. “If you vault over the fence again, you could expose your tender bits to a very dangerous situation.”

“Dangerous, huh?”

Even more dangerous than the situation in front of you?

He was incapable of sustaining a relationship, and, even knowing Kami such a short time, he knew she deserved more than what he had to offer. That she would want more than what his body could offer.

She’d want his heart.

With that, the space in his chest where his heart should be contracted. Burying his face in her silky hair one last time, and giving her hand a gentle squeeze, he made the decision to get up and leave. It was for the best.

“Don’t go, Jeff.”

Aw, fuck. An arrow straight to the—general chest region where his heart should be.

“Kami. You don’t know what you’re asking.”

She laughed and rolled out from under his arm; he missed her immediately.

“I do. I know exactly what I mean when I ask that.”

That’s what I was afraid of.

“When I say that, I mean that there’s no sleeping on the sofa. No me putting your shorts in the dryer so you can walk home around the front. No sleeping on a cramped daybed in my office.” She’d propped her head up on her hand, and the motion caused her robe to gape open a little. The heavy cotton was no less arousing than the teasey little floral number she’d been in earlier.

Jeff moved to push the lapels closed. There was only so much a man could take.

And then she said, “I mean, I want you in my bed for whatever’s left of tonight.”

Rolling to his back, he balled up his fists and rubbed at his eyes. That, that was more than he could take.

Oh, he could take her, easily. They could fuck until dawn—and beyond. And they’d both enjoy it. Hell, they’d both probably be half dead afterward, but they’d be content.

Except for that voice that would tell him
you shouldn’t have done that. Shouldn’t have gotten that sweet girl mixed up in your life.

He grabbed for one delicate hand that roamed a little too far south and traced too-tempting patterns on his stomach. He’d shucked his boxers earlier, not wanting to ruin her sheets, and she was perilously close to the top of the towel he’d tucked around his waist.

“Jeff, please. I know my mind. I want this. I want you.” Their fingers laced together and rested low on his abdomen. Her voice was low. Somber. “I’m so sorry for that poor woman on that domestic call tonight, but I’m a little bit grateful because, well, first of all, because I hope that jackass is gonna fry and never hurt her again.”

“Bloodthirsty, eh?” Hearing her condemn the perp with such vehemence was refreshing. But it was unrealistic. Even though the officers on duty had a confession and bagged evidence, chances are, the guy would walk.

But there was something else in her tone, something—coupled with her reaction earlier to him reassuring her there had been no kids involved—told him she had some deep hurts. Being with him wouldn’t help heal those old wounds. Would probably just bring them back up, stinging, to the surface.

Working in lost and found wasn’t as dangerous as vice, say, or SWAT—but he wasn’t a desk jockey, no matter how heavy his case load. Just last month he’d paired with AFD Search and Rescue on the floods and had damn near become a vic himself, despite all of his training.

It was easier getting up and going to work every morning knowing there wasn’t someone he was leaving behind, worrying about him. Sure, accidents happened, and he could just as easily meet his maker if he tripped on a garden hose, but—

“Now it’s your turn to stop thinking, Jeff,” she whispered, and snuggled in close. Maybe they could just stay like this. Maybe it could be easy from here on out. Not messy. Unless messy involved more of that hand-shower action they’d seen earlier.

He just
hmmm
ed his response to that. He could no more turn off his brain right now than stop breathing.

“It’s just that I—I finally have the courage to tell someone again that I need them.”

Hell. Hell and damn. This was messy—and not the sexy kind. He didn’t deserve easy and carefree. Or Kami. And she certainly shouldn’t get tangled up in needing him.

“I can’t…” How to say this? “I can’t do forever. And I think you might be the forever kind of girl, Kami.”

She stiffened against him but didn’t pull away. Oh, that got her hackles up, shit. “Don’t tell me what I am. I am not asking for a gold band, Jeff Arndt. I’m asking for you to sleep over—do I need to spell it out?—for you to put your cock inside me.”

“Damn, Kami. I’m trying to tell you you’re something special. I shouldn’t—”

“Shouldn’t what?” she prompted when he stuttered to a stop.

“Never mind.” He was evading, but he couldn’t let her bear the burdens he carried. Shouldn’t allow her to lose one more person she loved. Not that she loved him.

Crap. This is why he didn’t date. Didn’t do the emotional thing.

As if he’d spoken aloud, she said, “I’ve lost too much in my life to not know when something extraordinary comes along. And I’m not just talking about the things you did to me in the bathtub.” She was back to stroking his abdomen again, and her touch soothed as much as it stimulated. “I can’t explain it. It certainly doesn’t make any sense.”

She’d lost him there. “It doesn’t?” Seemed to make sense to him. They had explosive chemistry. Hell, when she’d just been a voice on the other side of the fence, she’d turned him on. Once he’d finally gotten his hands on her…

“Jeff. Think about it. I’m me, and you—well, my God you’re you…”

“And what is that supposed to mean?”

“No, don’t start with that offended macho pride business.” She rubbed her hand down over his erection as if to prove a point. “I only meant that we don’t match.”

Oh, he bet they’d match pretty well. Maybe it was her hand resting on his cock, her breast pillowed against his ribcage causing all his blood to vacate his brain, but he was having a difficult time following. “I don’t even know what you’re saying.”

She sighed a long, feminine sigh and flipped her hand around in the air as if to illustrate her point. “Oh, you know. When you walk down the street and see a couple and think, ‘My goodness, how did those two ever—’”

“You think about random couples fucking?”

“No. Well. Yes,” she amended. Dang, that was sexy. “But that’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“I do?”

“You do. Don’t be obtuse. You’re—just look at you—and I’m—”

“Stop.” He’d finally caught on to her train of thought, and he wasn’t having it. At all. He flipped her over on her back and rose up over her. “Don’t look away. Let me tell you what I see when I see you…”

He waited until she made eye contact with him to continue.

He waited a good count of fifteen Mississippi before she finally looked him in the eye.

“I see a woman who, every night, makes me want to go out on my back stairs—damn uncomfortable concrete after a day on my feet running all over creation. Makes me wanna sit there, just hoping I’ll hear the turn of the deadbolt and see her in a flash of light so bright it blinds me.”

Kami squirmed a little and started to turn away, then looked him straight in the eye and said, “Whelp, I guess that explains it. You’re night blind and would never even look my direction in the light of day.”

“You’re the light, Kami.” The admission came tumbling forth before he could reckon the cost, but it was the truth. He’d never spoken truer words.

“Oh, please, Jeff.”

“Oh please, nothing.” He tried to not be a little offended. That the one time he’d initiated a tender moment, she’d brushed it away. But there was a lot going on in that head of hers, and he knew when she reacted that way, it wasn’t in response to him. It was in response to a line of hurt.

That made him ache. To know someone—or a series of someones—had done something to make this magnificent woman in front of him feel less than.

“It’s not what you look at that matters—though I like looking, a lot, make no doubt about that. It’s what you see. And I see you. All of you.”

“How can you—we don’t really know anything about each other, and…” She heaved a sigh, and though he knew she wanted to look anywhere but in his eyes, she didn’t break her gaze.

Jeff wondered what she saw in his eyes. Wondered what it was that finally turned hers soft. Yielding. Accepting?

She laughed then, and it was a sound that made him nervous as much as it made him want to smile like a fool.

“I don’t even know your favorite color, Jeff,” she continued.

“My favorite—?”

“Your favorite color,” she repeated. As if that explained everything.

Compelled to answer her the only way he knew how, he touched her lips with his. Lightly. A soft brush that in no way mirrored the blazing-hot episode in the tub. It was a kiss that sealed whatever tentative truce they’d called.

“What,” she said softly, breathlessly, “was that?”

“I’m showing you.” He kissed her again, biting at her lower lip and soothing the sting with his tongue. “This is my favorite color.”

“Be serious.”

He rolled them, bringing her up and over him so that she was sitting astride him. In control of what came next. He sensed she needed that, and he was more than happy to oblige.

“And this…” Her robe was held in place only by that one little tie, so he nudged one side over to expose her breast—okay, so he’d still keep a little bit of control.

“Jeff!”

“I am serious.” Circling her with the pad of his thumb, he teased her until her nipple was dark pink, almost red—perfect. “Wait, this is my favorite color.”

“Maybe you should stick around, then, since it’s your favorite.” She shrugged off her robe, keen on the game he was playing, giving her enthusiastic consent with a shake of her shoulders. “You know… see a little more of it.”

He arced up, capturing her other breast between his lips, drawing deep until he heard her moan, felt her start to glide over him.

“Okay, maybe just a little more foolin’ around.”

Kami sat up straight, dislodging her breasts from his hold. “‘Foolin’ around’?” She mimicked his accent perfectly, and the slow sounds sounded comical coming from her lips.

“Yeah—you know. Like after a date in the front seat of the car. Maybe a little necking at the movies? Foolin’ around.”

“I don’t know about Texas,” she said, toying with his own nipples as she spoke. Holy God, he loved her hands on him. “But where I come from, we don’t call blacking out after an orgasm just ‘foolin’ around.’”

He shrugged. What could he say to that?

She cocked her head and gave him a wry little smile.

“I guess it’s true that everything’s bigger in Texas, though.” She waggled her brows and reached behind her to grasp his cock through the towel.

He loved this playful side of her—though her grip on him was anything but playful. Hell, he might come all over her hand before it got good.

And it was good. They could do this. They could fool around—or fuck—and work everything else out later. And if fucking was all there ever was, well, what was so wrong with that? They were two grown-ass people. If that was the arrangement they both agreed to—

“You’re thinking again, officer.”

“Detective,” he corrected absently.

“Dick-tective?” Kami gave his shaft a little squeeze, and he swore he saw fireworks.

He rolled them over and somehow managed to dislodge his towel without strangling them both. When he notched himself between her thighs, she was wet and ready. God, the feel of her.

“So responsive,” he murmured, and bent for another kiss.

“Is that your pro—ah,” she shrieked when he started rocking back and forth between her slick folds. “Is that your professional opinion?”

Kami tried and failed to keep a straight face; she dissolved into laughter beneath him. Which should’ve been disconcerting, since he was putting the moves to her. Instead, it only heightened the sensation of skin gliding on skin.

Plus, it made her tits bounce.

“I’ll need to conduct a thorough investigation, ma’am.”

“Oooh,” she purred. “I love it when you ma’am me.”

“In that case, ma’am,” he said with an exaggerated drawl, “I’ll need to take a closer look at the evidence.” He kissed his way down her body, making
mm-hmm
noises as he went. Paying particular attention to her large breasts, but never quite giving her nipples the attention they wanted. He licked at one and blew a hot breath across it. Her full body quivered. “Yes, yes, responsive here.”

Her stomach, lit by the glow of her bedside lamp, was washed in pale peach. She tried to move his head back up to her breasts, but he wouldn’t be swayed. Every part of her deserved attention. And so he gave her little love bites he hoped would leave a slight mark. Remind her that she was built to be adored.

Kami squirmed away as he found a particularly sensitive spot where thigh met body.
Not so fast
. He had plans for her sweet cunt now that she was unwrapped.

“Now see here, ma’am—” She groaned when his fingers parted her and skimmed up and down her center, circling endlessly before Jeff eased his middle finger inside her tight, wet heat. “You have the right to remain silent…”