Broken Toy [Suncoast Society] (Siren Publishing Sensations) (23 page)

Reaching out, she touched his arm. “We can be just Bill and Gabe tonight, if that’s what you need.”

He seemed to ponder it for a moment. “I’m not sure what I’m going to need, except I’m not too stubborn to admit I know I’m going to welcome having you with me tonight. I know you’ll understand.”

She nodded and watched as he turned and headed back toward the house, getting a fresh pair of booties and gloves from the deputy at the door.

Tightly clutching the key in her hand, she returned to her car.

He lived in another quiet neighborhood in eastern Port Charlotte. Not the newest or fanciest, but she didn’t count a single house with bars on the windows within a mile of his address.

His yard wasn’t elaborately landscaped, but it was well kept, the grass weed-free and recently mowed.

Suppressing her nerves, she unlocked the front door and quickly disarmed the alarm, taking a moment to find the hallway light switch.

The house was neat, tidy. Lived in, but not as stark and bare as her own condo.

On the entry wall hung several pictures, a few of Bill and a woman. From the looks of them, they were several years old.

His wife?

She felt a little uncomfortable studying them without Bill there to provide narration. Turning back to the front door, she brought her things in and locked the door, finding the living room where she set her stuff on the couch.

Three bedrooms, two baths. One of the bedrooms was a home office and workout room, with a treadmill and desk. The other a guest bedroom. The master bedroom was obviously where he spent a lot of time, not messy, but not feeling unused like the guest room.

On the wall hung a wedding picture. Yes, the woman in the other pictures had to be Ella. In this one, they both looked younger still, Bill smiling down at her, her beaming face glowing back at him.

Can I make him that happy?

She hoped she could.

She wanted to.

It was after nine when he returned home. He headed straight for the shower. She first debated leaving him alone, then decided not to. Stripping, she stepped in with him.

He said nothing. But he turned to her, pulled her into his arms, and let out a ragged sigh.

She rested her head against his chest as he held her, more tightly still, as if clutching onto her like a life preserver in a stormy sea.

In a way, she guessed maybe he was.

It took him several minutes to speak. When he did, his voice sounded soft, full of pain. “This is why I know I don’t want kids now. I’m too old for them anyway. And bad things can happen to them.”

“How many?”

“Three. And his ex-wife, and her mother and father.”

She didn’t have a response, so she just held him even more tightly.

It took another few minutes for him to speak again. “I don’t know how you do what you do. You see horrible stuff all the time. I know this is my job, but it never makes it easier. You are a tougher woman than I am.” He let out a ragged laugh. “You know what I mean.”

She looked up at him, found him staring down at her. “We’re all tough in the ways we need to be.”

He cupped her cheek in his hand and leaned in, kissing her. It took on a sudden, frantic feel, his breath coming faster, harder as his lips bruised hers.

She sensed what he needed. Something she herself knew had been missing from her life too many damn nights.

A distraction.

When he lifted his head to take a breath, she whispered, “Would you like to fuck me, Sir?”

He froze only a moment before kissing her again, hard and deep, a groan escaping him as his cock suddenly hardened between them.

Then he turned her around, a hand between her shoulders pushing her against the wall where she braced herself.

Then his cock was inside her, hard and fast and fierce. She reveled in the feel of it, knowing in this way, at least, she could give him comfort, take his mind away from what he’d seen. Not anything close to the subspace she was quickly growing to need, but maybe helping him a little.

Meeting every thrust, she threw her head back. “That’s it, Sir. Fuck me hard.”

He let out a hoarse cry as he plunged his cock deep into her pussy one last time, falling still and resting his head against her shoulders while trying to catch his breath.

Leaving her still horny and wanting, but happy.

Then he surprised her, kissing her and hooking his left arm around her, his hand cupping her right breast, while his right arm wrapped around her hip and his fingers found her clit.

“Your turn, sweetheart,” he muttered, his voice still deep rumbling. “You come for me now.”

He pinched her nipple with his fingers as his other hand sped up between her legs, her clit swollen and aching for release.

She was just about there when she realized he could see her back. Her scars.

Emotional vapor lock set in, tensing her whole body.

Apparently, he sensed it. “What’s wrong? Am I hurting you?”

“I…no, not that. I’m fine. Don’t stop.”

He did stop. In fact, he turned her around. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

In the face of what he’d just been through, she didn’t want to admit it. “My brain tried to break through, sorry. Nothing you did.”

He studied her as if trying to decide if she was telling him the full truth. Nodding, he gently pushed her against the wall. “Okay.” He sank to his knees, his hands spreading her legs as far apart as she could get them in the tub. Then he used his thumbs to part her labia and covered her clit with his mouth.

“Ahh…” She couldn’t think, could barely breathe. He knew how to use his tongue and lips, that was for sure. And now with her back safely against the wall, she could focus on nothing but those sweetly agonizing sensations washing through her and robbing her of the ability to form words. She braced her hands against his shoulders and held on.

Two fingers, then three slid into her wet cunt as he licked and sucked her clit. The first explosion felt that much sweeter when the walls of her pussy clamped down around his fingers. She thought it would overwhelm her, too much, too intense. When she tried to push his head away, he caught her wrist with his free hand and pinned it against the wall.

That triggered the second explosion.

“Mmm-hmm,” he mumbled, the vibrations strumming through her clit and into her core. Apparently he liked getting that reaction out of her, because she lost track of how long he knelt there making her come, how many orgasms he forced out of her before the water started going cold.

Only then did he sit back on his heels with a pleased smile on his face. She noticed his cock had hardened again, too. “Okay, so maybe something can make me feel a little toppy tonight.” He stood and kissed her, hard, a fist in her wet hair holding her head in place. “Did you eat?”

She nodded, her voice still shaky, “Yes, Sir.”

“Good girl. When we get out of here, get dried off, and go heat my dinner, please.” He forced her head to the side, where he nipped up her neck to her earlobe. He’d quickly learned the effect that had on her. “When I finish eating, I’m going to take you to bed and fuck your brains again out before we go to sleep. How does that sound?”

“Good, Sir.”

He bit her again, harder this time, making her clit throb and pulling a needy cry from her. “That’s my good girl.” He let her go so suddenly she nearly fell over and had to grab hold of him for balance. “You all right?” he asked.

The playfully evil smile on his face told her he was damn well aware of what he’d just done to her.

And that it was giving him a needed distraction made her determined to keep that smile on his face. “Yes, Sir.”

“Good girl.” He patted her on the ass. “I’ll be right out.”

* * * *

Bill tried to focus on the sweetly out-of-focus look Gabe wore. Yes, it’d been one of the worst days of his career. One of the kind he hoped he never had to go through again.

On the rare nights like this when he was with Ella, she’d done the same thing, instinctively knowing what he needed and when. Immediately after, he needed a distraction, just like this, powerful enough to turn his thoughts far away from what he’d seen.

Later, when he could process it better, he would come to grips with the day’s events.

But for now, the best medicine was Gabe and losing himself in her. He also wasn’t an idiot. She’d forgotten about her scars in her initial worry about him and his mindset.

For that, he knew he had fallen irretrievably in love with her. She’d frozen up when his focus returned to her and she realized he could clearly see her scars.

That was something he hoped he’d be able to help her overcome with time.

Not tonight. He wasn’t in a good mindset to do that tonight. Tonight he was content to let her take charge, despite her not realizing that was exactly what she’d done by offering herself to him.

Tonight he was eager to assuage his own scarred soul by letting hers tend to him.

And he couldn’t love her more for it if he tried.

The task force was nearly ready to start arresting their suspects that next weekend, meaning Bill and Gabe would miss their Saturday dinner with their friends. They opted to take Wednesday off, giving them time alone together, but not screwing up their prep work for the operations.

In a way, Gabe dreaded the upcoming arrests because it meant a shift to a long-distance relationship. Even though it was only a couple of hours away, knowing she couldn’t just hop in a car and quickly be at his house, or see him sitting across a conference table from her at work, twisted her heart in an unpleasant way.

Bill had gone up to Sarasota and spent Tuesday night with Gabe. Over breakfast Wednesday morning, they were trying to decide what to do for the day when Gabe came up with a comment out of left field that left her mouth before she was able to stop it.

“How do you know we’ll be compatible outside of the bedroom?” she asked.

“Instead of looking for excuses why this relationship won’t work, how about looking for the things that will and do work?”

“I’m serious,” she said. “I want to know there’s going to be more to this than just in bed.” She realized how that sounded. “I mean, bed’s great. But I need more than that.”

“Okay, fine.” He leaned against the counter. “What do you want to do, then?”

“I want to go to a gun range.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Really?”

“Yeah. Why? What’s wrong with that?”

The lopsided smirk he wore made her alternately want to kiss him and slap it off his face. “Nothing’s wrong with it,” he said. “I just don’t meet too many women whose idea of a romantic date is a trip to the gun range.”

She smiled. “Well, aren’t you a lucky boy, then? I won’t even make you buy my targets or ammunition.”

He stepped forward, so close she had to look up into his face. “Maybe I want to buy your targets and ammo.” He dropped his voice. “Maybe you need to make some concessions every once in a while and let me do things I want to do for you without fighting me about it. Or are you too scared to do that? You can always code if you don’t like it, but there’s no logical reason for you to fight me on this one. Your choice.”

She knew what he was doing. He was challenging her in more ways than one. There was still that sharp edge of their dynamic working its way through, and he knew she knew the last thing she wanted to do was code for something that didn’t involve sex or impact play.

More surprisingly, she realized she didn’t mind. “Okay,” she agreed. “Fine. You can buy my targets and ammo. Sir,” she added.

He grinned as he pulled her in for a hug. “Now was that so hard?”

“You might change your mind when you see the price of 9mm ammo.”

He kissed the side of her neck. “I’m going to wear you down eventually. You realize that, right? I’m going to show you this is right for both of us.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” she mumbled against his chest.

He made her look at him again. “You don’t have to let Maria live rent-free in your head any longer. Hell, you don’t have to let her live there even if she was paying her own way. You have to make a choice to get rid of all that crap and be happy because it’s the right thing to do. You’re a strong, intelligent woman with a good head on your shoulders. You don’t need that old bat’s voice in your head. It’s only holding you back at this point.”

“There you go using logic again,” she tried to joke.

“Yes, me and that damned devil logic. Evil stuff. Might actually make you happy.”

“I don’t know if I
know
how to be happy,” she admitted before she even realized the words were out of her mouth.

He took her hands in his and held them pressed against his chest. “I know it’s hard for you,” he said. “But can you trust me at least this much? I know what happy feels like. I had happy, and then I had it ripped right out of me. So when I say
this
feels good, feels
happy
, believe me. I know both ends of the spectrum. This is what it’s supposed to feel like.”