Officer in Pursuit (28 page)

When she walked out of her bedroom and
into the living room wearing the blue bikini, she took his breath
away. First and foremost because she was so beautiful, but also
because it was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen her wear. Normally,
her clothing was demure…

But God, if anyone had a body made for
a bikini, she did.

He sat frozen on the couch and didn’t
move, afraid any motion would draw attention to the insta-boner
he’d sprung as soon as he’d laid eyes on her.

“You look great,” he said, trying to
sound admiring, but not like he was about to burst out of his
pants.

“Thanks.” Her smile melted away
another layer of his self-control, threatening to expose him for
what he was: a horny, shameless bastard.

He dragged his gaze away from her
cleavage and stared at her bandaged hand, then the dressing at her
hairline. Those things didn’t detract from her hotness, but they
did make him feel guilty. Just when he was working himself up into
a good self-shaming lather, she came nearer and nearer, until she
was standing so close that he could practically feel her body
heat.

It shouldn’t have been possible, but
his dick got even harder.

Then she put her arms around his neck
and pulled him close, so his face was pressed against the cleavage
her bikini top showed off.

Jesus. There was no hope of being
chivalrous now.

He laid his hands on her waist and
held her there, tracing the curve of one hipbone. Her breasts were
soft and he could feel her heart beating. It made him feel
alive.

“It fits,” she said. “Now help me take
it off.”

His cock twitched, and in that moment,
he’d never hated anything more than he hated his jeans. They
restrained him painfully, now that she’d set him on fire with her
words.

“I can’t untie the knot with just one
hand,” she said.

He gladly slipped his hands behind her
back and pulled at the knot over her spine, untangling the tied
strap that kept her top molded to her body. Her nipples were poking
against the silky fabric, and when the knot finally unraveled all
the way, the cups sprang out of place, revealing the perfect curves
she’d pressed against his face moments before.

He couldn’t resist pulling her close
again, returning to his original position. This time, he could
tease her nipples with his mouth, press kisses against her smooth
skin.

God, she looked good. And felt good.
He was a genius for suggesting the bikini.

And yet, when her bandaged hand bumped
his arm, the feel of gauze against his skin made him
worry.

She didn’t think she
had
to sleep with him,
did she? That he would be mad, or lose interest, if she didn’t? The
things she’d told him over the past 24 hours cast her thought
processes in a new light, and thinking that she might be trying to
anticipate his wrath, like she’d had to do with Brad, made him
sick. Immediately, he straightened, pulling away from her body and
meeting her eyes.

“You sure you’re up to this?” he
asked. “Don’t feel pressured. We can just go to sleep, if you’re
not ready yet.”

She frowned. “So much for seducing you
with my new bikini. I thought it was working, too.”

“It is. Hell…” He took her good hand
in his and laid it against his thigh, where his dick was trapped,
hard and aching. “It’s about killing me. But that’s not the point.
The night before last, you were in the hospital. I don’t want to do
this if it’ll hurt you, or you don’t feel ready.”

He didn’t know everything about what
Brad had done to her, how he’d scared her. Threatened her. And he
didn’t want to do anything to bring that fear back.

“I instigated this because
I
am
ready,” she
said. “I want it. I want you.”

He paused to let her words sink in, to
search her eyes for any sign of doubt.

“You have no idea how good it feels to
hear that.” He laid his hands on her hips again, rubbed circles
against the small of her back. “Let’s go back to the bed
though.”

Before they went, he swept her hair
aside and finished removing her bikini top, leaving it on the couch
cushion.

Once they were in her room, he eased
her onto the edge of the bed and peeled the bottom half of the
swimsuit off her, revealing her soft, pale and pink skin, her dark
hair. The sight of her naked had him tearing at his jeans button,
unable to stand the restraint anymore.

When he was naked, he felt like a new
man. His clothes lay forgotten on the floor as he wrapped his arms
around Kerry, pulling her into his lap.

Even the sensation of her hip pressing
against his erection felt unbearably good, like something out of a
wet dream.

“How do you want to do this?” he
asked. “I’ll feel better about it if you choose a way that’ll be
comfortable for you.”

She pressed her lips against the side
of his neck and exhaled slowly. “Any way that doesn’t put pressure
on my arm.”

“So no handstands then. You’re hard to
please.”

“More like no hands and knees,” she
said, laughing, “and no handcuffs.”

The mental images her words inspired
hit him like a ton of bricks. “Were we going to do those
things?”

“I’d kind of hoped. Someday, I
mean.”

“I knew it – I knew the uniform would
help me with the ladies at some point. It’s just hard to find
excuses to wear it around in social situations, you
know?”

She laughed again. “You mean to tell
me it’s never helped before?”

“Like I’d bring it up now if it had.
And like I said, I can’t exactly stroll the beach in uniform. It
looks like I’m trying too hard. So, I’m left to fall back on my
incredible physique.”

“It must be hard for you.” She
smirked.

“Yeah well, don’t take this the wrong
way, but hanging out with you and your friends does wonders to keep
other women away. Before Liam and Henry and I met you three, we
were a lot more likely to be approached by females when we were
hanging out together.”

“That makes sense,” she said,
“considering that the reason we met is because Sasha conspired to
make it happen the second we first saw you three
together.”

“See what I mean? We were irresistible
until you started intimidating all the other females.”

“You really think anyone sees me as
intimidating?”

“As someone who’s been on the
receiving end of your mysterious looks and slightly cold shoulders,
yeah, I do. Do you have any idea how many times you would’ve
crushed my soul if I was a more sensitive man?”

“No.”

“So many times.” He groaned. “I was
starting to think you’d never realize how irresistible and perfect
for you I am.”

She laughed, the corners of her eyes
crinkling. “I always thought you looked irresistible. And I have to
admit, you seem pretty great. I just wasn’t sure how perfect I was
for you, or anyone.”

He wrapped his arms more tightly
around her, pulling her more closely against him, until he could
feel her heartbeat again.

“
Come on,” he said. “You’re
perfect for me. It’s your jackass ex-husband that’s the problem,
not you. And he’s not enough to keep me away.”

“Well, it’d be enough to keep most
guys away, I’m sure.”

He drew in a deep lungful of air,
savoring the scent of her hair. It smelled like sand and saltwater,
with hints of some fruity shampoo. Hearing the note of doubt in her
voice, he sighed.

“You seem to keep forgetting what I
told you about me being a badass,” he said. “Do I need to stay in
uniform 24/7 to remind you? I could wear my PERT gear – I assume
you haven’t forgotten about me being a member of the highly badass
Prison Emergency Response Team.”

She laughed. “Be my guest, if that’s
what you want to do. But no, it’s not necessary. You’re clearly the
badass you claim to be.”

“All right then – if you really
believe me, I don’t want to hear anymore crap about you expecting
me to run in the opposite direction just because you happen to have
your own personal psychopath. It might deter a lesser man, but not
me. And it’ll be over soon – he’ll be gone. Then it’ll be just us,
and I swear, Riley County will have hit its limit on violent
psychopaths for the next decade.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck
and tipped her head back, meeting his eyes. “Okay. You’d better be
right.”

He was. He had to be. He’d spent most
of the summer trudging through fields and pine forests in his PERT
gear, searching for a pair of escaped convicts while the body count
mounted. It’d been a clusterfuck of a summer, but at least it’d
prepared him for dealing with Kerry being targeted by her
ex-husband.

After the past few months, he knew:
anything could happen. Even here, in Riley County, to people he
cared about.

It was a fact he was powerless to
change but fully ready to react to, and so he pushed his worries
away. Right now, he had it good. And that was what he was going to
focus on.

Kerry’s skin was smooth and still
smelled like coconut, from the sunblock she’d worn at the beach. He
ran his hands all over her, cupping every curve as he pressed his
lips against her neck. Something like awe struck him when she moved
against him, pressing her pussy against the bare shaft of his
dick.

Anything could happen – even this,
which was something he’d been longing for all summer. Now that he
knew why Kerry had been so gun-shy with him, he realized how lucky
he was to have her in his arms. It was a wonder she hadn’t sworn
off men completely, unwilling to risk being victimized by another
asshole like her ex.

It was obvious that no one had ever
treated her well before she’d started over in North Carolina. She
was always tallying and calculating what she thought she owed
people in return for their love, like she’d lose it if she didn’t
earn it. And she clearly carried around a list of reasons why she
thought Grey might want to turn his back on her.

Did she have a list like that for
everyone in her life?

The thought was sad as
hell.

He wanted to show her not just how
much he cared about her, but why he did – why she deserved it. He
wasn’t sure how, but he wanted to just the same.

She shifted in his lap, slipping a leg
on either side of him and sitting that way, straddling him. The
position put her pussy right up against his shaft and paralyzed him
with lust for a split second.

He groaned. The sight of her sitting
like that – with legs spread and wrapped around his hips, her pussy
lips kissing his dick – was the best thing he’d ever seen. He took
a mental image he knew he’d flash back to again and again. Then he
rocked back onto the bed, lying on his back, careful not to
unbalance her from where she sat, straddling his hips.

He could reach the bedside stand from
where he was lying. He did it, grabbing the box of condoms they’d
put a dent in and tearing a fresh one from the strip.

He rolled it over his dick, his gaze
glued to her breasts. He’d be able to watch them bounce this way –
he could already see it, in his mind’s eye.

“No handstands or handcuffs,” he said,
placing a hand on her hip and squeezing the smooth, round curve of
her ass. “Think this’ll work?”

She was staring down at his hard cock,
and he could’ve sworn he could actually feel the weight of her
gaze.

“Yes.” She met his eyes as she laid
her hand – her good one – on his dick.

She was rising up a little higher on
her knees, putting a gap between him and her pussy. A gap he
planned to plow right through on his way into her hot, tight
body.

He laid a hand over hers and helped
her guide the head of his dick to her lips. Then he thrust up,
sliding into her.

It was like standing with one foot on
earth and one in heaven. He was still alive – had never felt more
alive – but the feeling was practically supernatural. Pleasure
gripped him like a vise, made his balls draw up tight and close
against his body. God, somehow, sliding inside her always felt even
better than he thought it would.

She sucked in a breath, braced herself
with a hand against his belly.

“You all right?”

He was halfway inside her, the rest of
his shaft gleaming wet from where her pussy had pressed against
it.

“Yes.” Her reply was more breath than
words, and she drew even tighter around him, her nails scraping his
abs.

He pushed the rest of the way in, and
she gasped.

The sound made it impossible to stay
still, but he went slow, watching her as he thrust into her. Her
entire beautiful body moved with him, and he couldn’t tear his eyes
away.

He couldn’t keep his hands off her,
either. Besides the view, that was the best thing about this
position: how easy it was to touch her, teasing her nipples, her
clit. Touching everything in between.