She’s been prepared to win the bet. Leaning back, she grabbed several tissues from the box she’d set on the floor behind the recliner. She set them on top of his cock, a little more forcefully than necessary. She wanted to touch him, but didn’t dare. The size and strength of him scared her.
Ty slid his hand over hers, pressing it against him. He was semihard and warm.
“It doesn’t bite, Phil.”
She looked up to find his dark green eyes on her. She smiled sheepishly and pulled her hand away. “I hope not.”
As he cleaned himself up, Phil grabbed her shirt and vest and quickly dressed.
As if he were discussing the weather, Ty asked, “Was that your first orgasm?”
Phil choked as she buttoned the last button of her vest.
Ty laughed. “I knew it!”
She came around to face him and stood with her hands on her hips. “How?”
“By the shocked look on your face.”
Glancing down, she bit her lip. Ty stood and reached out to touch her shoulder. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
Ashamed? She frowned. That wasn’t what she felt. She was still reeling from the force of the orgasm, yet she felt strangely unsatisfied.
Her hands dropped from buttoning her jacket. She’d gone further then she imagined she could and with no embarrassing scenes. Cocking her head, she looked at Ty. She wanted some more of him.
Ty’s eyes traveled her face, as if searching the thoughts that rattled around in her brain. “Do you want more?”
She felt the heat rise in her cheeks. He smiled and traced a fingertip across her collarbone. Swallowing hard, she wanted to nod yes, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Ty bent his head to her hair and inhaled. “You smell good.” Slipping his hand behind her neck, he held her gaze captive with his eyes. “I won’t hurt you, Phil.”
She swallowed hard.
“I know what stop means.”
She licked her dry lips. He was willing to let her call the shots, to go as far as she was comfortable going. Her blood revved and her pussy twitched.
She wanted to feel the hard power of him against her, but she also knew she would be in total control. He was giving her the perfect opening.
Stripping the vest off and setting it aside, Phil nodded. She was amazed at how easily, in spite of her past, she enjoyed playing the sexy siren role. This time she was no sniveling ninny allowing a few assholes to demoralize her. No, Ty was many things, but he wasn’t a bully when it came to sex.
Sex with Ty, she instinctively knew, even on her limited level, was a good thing. She wanted to
feel
. Even if it was just a taste.
“Same rules apply, Lieutenant. With an exception this time.
I
can touch you.” She pushed him back into the chair.
He nodded and she swallowed hard. He was still naked. She couldn’t help a glance down at his belly. His cock twitched and began to refill. Excitement shot through her veins.
Before she straddled the chair, she walked away to put another CD into the stereo. She hit the play button and the soft jazz riffs eased out into the room. She turned to face Ty. This time she wasn’t coy.
Sauntering slowly toward him, she smiled seductively when she stopped in front of him. Slowly, she eased herself onto his lap. He surged against her sensitive nether lips. Her breath hitched in her throat, her oxygen thinned, the raw power of him almost unnerved her.
His woodsy scent mingling with the lingering scent of his semen amplified under the heat of their two bodies. It turned her on more than any other scent she could recall.
In a slow grind, she slid across Ty’s rejuvenated cock. The heat and the fullness of him excited her. Her nether lips swelled and for one brief second she considered just sliding the thin fabric of her panties over and allowing him access.
She hesitated. As much as she wanted to, she wasn’t ready.
Ty’s knuckles glowed white as he grasped the armrests, perspiration beaded his forehead.
“Zorn, I’m going to write you up for this.”
She nipped at his corded neck and brushed her full heavy breasts across his chest. “Under what section? Seducing a superior?”
“Yes.”
“If I’m going to be disciplined, make it a
bad
report.”
She licked his neck, tasting the saltiness. He groaned, pushing his hips up into her. Moaning, Phil pulled back enough to look at his tense face, the green of his eyes glittering with passion.
“Did you like that?” he hoarsely asked.
She nodded.
He rubbed her there again and Phil nearly swooned. He felt so good. The ache in her sex was becoming unbearable. Just let him in, she told herself, just to feel the head of him. An inch wouldn’t hurt, would it?
She threw her head back, exposing her throat, and moaned, the sound feline.
It was too much for Ty. He dug his hands into her thick hair and sank his teeth into her throat. They surged against each other on impact. Phil felt her control slip and the only thing she wanted at that moment was Ty deep inside of her.
Her back arched and her breasts pressed into his bare chest. Ty slipped one hand around her waist and stood, taking her with him. He sprawled them down onto the floor, taking the brunt of the impact.
His lips burned hot against her throat, his teeth biting, his lips sucking. She arched against him again, her back coming off the floor.
Her long legs wrapped around his waist and Ty groaned.
“You don’t play fair, Zorn.”
“I never said I would, sir.” She nipped at his bottom lip. He jerked away.
He growled and sunk his teeth into the curve of her shoulder. “Tell me what you want,” he said hoarsely against her skin.
“Don’t hurt me,” she whispered.
“Never,” he said, his teeth laving her jugular.
Electric shards of excitement zipped through her. His touch ignited a sleeping tiger, and while she was fascinated by it, it also terrified her. She pushed him over, rolling on top of him. Entwining her fingers through his, she raised his hands over his head, holding him captive. She liked being on top and she liked the power she wielded over Ty, even if it was only through sex.
She dipped her mouth to his and again he jerked away. “Why don’t you like your mouth touched?”
The question caught him off guard. His eyes widened, then narrowed. “I’m not into intimacy.”
She ground her mound against his full erection. “And this isn’t intimate?”
“It’s not the same.”
Kyle Thompson’s seduction flashed back. There was no kissing, no caressing; in her mind, it wasn’t even sex. She was simply an outlet for his ejaculation.
A sudden ridiculous truth hit her sideways. “I’ve never been kissed by a man.” Or a boy, not even a dry peck on the cheek from her father. She slapped her hand over her mouth. She hadn’t meant to say it out loud.
Ty’s face flashed surprise and…something else? Pity?
In that instant the spell was broken; she felt like a fraud, a little girl trying on Mommy’s shoes and finding the heels too high to stand in.
She rolled off him and stood up. She didn’t want his pity, and if he didn’t want her to kiss him that was fine, too. She didn’t need it, either.
Phil sat for a long time in the same recliner where Ty had. All traces of him were gone, except the tissues in the trash. Curled up in a fetal position, she couldn’t shake her feelings of foolishness.
Was she a pity fuck? Did he feel like he had to work through her sexual issues to get her on track with her job? At least he wouldn’t report her failure to report to the PD shrink. If he did, she’d have her walking papers before she could explain why she hadn’t released that information.
She pulled a throw from the nearby sofa and wrapped it around her body. Shivering, she remembered his hot gaze, his hot caresses, and his unwavering word that he would stop. Her mood smoothed. Maybe she was overreacting. Maybe Ty wanted more from her than her full focus on the case. She smiled. Maybe he wasn’t as big an ass as she first pegged him for.
Yawning, Phil chucked the throw and made her regular rounds of securing the house before she padded down the hall to her bedroom.
She set her alarm for 10:00. With the lives of three women at stake, she couldn’t in all good conscience take a day off. There was plenty of paperwork and research she could do. She wanted to look at the employee files with a fresh eye. Maybe the guys missed something. She’d also submit her request for her father’s files.
It wasn’t until after the first light fingers of dawn filtered through her window that sleep found Phil.
As Phil poured over the employee files at her old desk in IA, voices from the hallway drifted in. Who the heck was coming in on Sunday?
“I’ll meet you in interrogation two, Lieutenant. Your rep should be here shortly,” a familiar voice said from the far hallway. Captain Dettmer?
“What can’t wait until tomorrow?” Ty’s deep voice asked. He didn’t sound happy.
Ty? Rep? Here? On a Sunday?
What the hell was going on?
Phil stood as Captain Joe Dettmer breezed into the squad room. His eyes immediately locked on her startled ones.
“What the hell are you doing here, Zorn?”
“Work, sir.”
“Why here and not downstairs at your task force office?”
“Faster computers, and, well, I have a formal request of you.”
“What is it?”
She hadn’t planned on asking him face-to-face. It wasn’t protocol, but what the hell. “I’d like to view my father’s sealed IA file.”
The old cop’s bushy eyebrows slammed together in thought. Dettmer was old school; he went by the book and he took no prisoners. He and her father were cut from the same cloth. Two of the few who refused to succumb to the corruption that riddled law enforcement these days. She respected the hell out of him and was grateful he still stopped by occasionally to see how her mom was holding up.
“Mom sends her regards.” A lie, but hey, maybe it would sweeten the pot.
“How is Vivian these days? I haven’t seen her in a few months.”
She swallowed a spurt of anger. How was her mother? As well as anyone whose husband was hung out to dry by a band of lying bastard cops covering their own asses could be. Especially since the man she loved, unable to bear the shame of it all, ate a shotgun.
“She’s holding up as best she can.” Another lie. The woman teetered on the brink on insanity. Phil had stopped trying to get through to her years ago. For years she played the good daughter role with her weekly visits, but they consisted of her mother rocking back and forth in the rocking chair her father bought when Phil was born and staring blankly at the wall. Now? She had to force herself. Guilt clung to her like a wet coat. She vowed to be a better daughter.
“Put your request in writing and I’ll consider it.” He moved to turn away, but stopped and turned back to her. “Give your mother my love, and tell her I promise to stop by this week.”
He started past her when another man walked in, one she’d had many occasions to go up against over the years. Sergeant Miguel “Ponch” Torres. Their eyes met; his narrowed to slits and he continued down the hall to the interrogation rooms.
“What’s going on, sir?” she called to her captain.
He slowed his gate and stopped. When he turned, she read contempt in his eyes. “Looks like we might have a rogue cop on our hands. And you might be interested in this one.”
Warning bells sounded. She knew who was down the hall. “Looks like your lieu crossed the line last night.”
Her skin chilled. “What do you mean?”
“Does the name ‘Scott Mason’ ring a bell?”
Her skin constricted. “I know of him.”
Dettmer nodded. “I know you do. Jamerson threatened to kill him last night.”
Some of the tension rolled from her tight shoulders. “The guy was acting like an asshole. It was a figment of speech.”
Dettmer smiled, the gesture ugly. “It was more than that. Mason’s body was found this morning in the Dumpster behind Klub Kashmir.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“A
re you telling me you’ve hauled Lieutenant Jamerson in as a suspect?”
Dettmer nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
The blood drained to Phil’s toes, causing them to tingle. Ty was a lot of things…but a murderer….? “Do you have a witness?”
“The body’s still warm, with lots of people who witnessed his threats.”
Phil’s brain wracked for answers. “Time of death?”
“Coroner puts it sometime between three and eight
A
.
M
.”
Her brain quickly processed the time Ty left her house. Her guess was it was sometime around 4:30.
Shit.
“Would you mind, sir, if I sat in on the interview?”
He considered her request for a long moment. “Fine. Maybe you can read between the lines since you’ve been working with the man and have the experience.”
“Exactly what I thought.”
As they started for the interrogation room, Dettmer added, “I brought in Tony Mossa.”
Oh, shit.
She’d met Tony. He wasn’t nicknamed “Hardcore” for nothing. He always got what he wanted from cops who thought they were unshakable. She’d taken several seminars from him and he was tops. Phil swallowed hard. Come what may, she believed in her heart Ty was not a murderer.
But had he gone back to the club and run into Scott?
“What’s Jamerson saying?”
“Nada. Said he’ll only talk to his rep.”
Smart move. Otherwise he could incriminate himself.
Sweet Mary! Was she really rooting for Ty to keep his mouth shut? She wasn’t in IA anymore, but still…. She didn’t want to see him go down for something he didn’t do. Although he had the time and the means, she doubted a motive. Her gut told her Ty was not a murderer. That thought sobered her. She’d always believed in the system, except when it came to her father, and in his case a conspiracy took him down. Heads were going to roll when she was done, no doubt about it. But for now, she needed to concentrate on Ty.
When she walked into the room, his eyes widened for a scant second and then narrowed. She knew what he thought.
Ty worked his jaw. The backstabbing bitch. He should have known the minute she could dig her claws into his back, she would. He straightened in the rigid chair.