Oxygen Deprived (Kilgore Fire Book 3) (15 page)

Downy snorted, Raphael’s eyes came to me, but no emotion whatsoever showed on his face.

“He’s not a cop exactly,” Downy hedged. “And I didn’t want you to know about him. He’s not exactly an upstanding citizen that I want you getting all neighborly with.”

“Hmm,” I said, giving my nod to Drew, who dropped his gun. “Must be why he’s got a gun pointed at Drew’s head. Got it. See you soon, bro.”

Then I hung up, ignoring the curse that came from Downy’s end of the line.

“Put them down!” Officer Meek, my ex’s lover, screamed.

Her weapon was pointed at Drew, though, not Raphael.

The other officer had his gun out, but not pointed anywhere.

He was obviously the smart one of the partnership.

“Drew, he says he’s with the FBI. Put it away,” I said softly.

“You first,” Drew said to Raphael.

“Same time,” Raphael challenged.

They nodded and both dropped the weapons at the exact same time, but neither one of them was letting their guard down.

“On the ground!” Officer Meek spat.

Raphael turned his glare to the woman.

“Lady,” he growled. “I’m getting on the ground over my dead body. I suggest you back the fuck off and stop pointing that gun with two children less than a foot away from me.”

“He’s with the FBI,” I said louder this time so Officer Meek, the whoring adulteress, could hear me.

She ignored me, walking forward so that she now had Raphael in her line of site.

“Show me your hands,” she ordered.

Then something happened, so quick that I couldn’t even assimilate the move before Officer Meek was down on the ground, her arm behind her back.

“That’s why you never come too close to a trained individual. You don’t want to give them the opportunity to get their hands on you,” Raphael chastised.

It would be inappropriate to laugh, correct?

I did anyway, though.

Discreetly.

I mean, the bitch deserved it.

“Excuse me,” the other officer that was now on the scene interrupted. “But there’s a man in here crying about his head being blown off. Do you think I should call that in?”

I blinked, surprised.

Firstly, because the man with his head blown off was still alive. Secondly, because the police officer was asking us if he should call it in.

“Of course you should call it in, dim wit,” I muttered under my breath. “Yes, I think that’s for the best,” I said more loudly.

The officer nodded.

“Got it,” he picked up the mic on his shoulder and called it in.

“What in the hell are they teaching
at your police academy?” Raphael asked, letting Officer Meek
, the cheater, go.

She ripped her arm back and stood hastily, backing up several paces.

She no longer had her gun, though.

Raphael had somehow gotten that without me seeing it.

And I wanted to hug him.

Drew might not like that too much, though.

Especially with the way he kept glancing down at my yoga pants and tank top, eyes hot, and not in a good way.

I was momentarily surprised that I didn’t need a jacket, and in fact, wasn’t even cold.

Then I shook my head.

That was Good ‘ol East Texas weather for you, though.

Hot one day, snowing the next.

“Listen,” I started. “I…”

That was when my brother showed up, his face mutinous as he stepped out of his city-issued SUV.

He took a quick cursory glance around, then pointed at the house.

“Aspen, go inside,” he ordered quietly.

This was one of those times that I knew not to argue.

I could tell by the look on my brother’s face, as well as the way he was practically vibrating with anger, that it wouldn’t be in my best interest to argue. Not to mention he’d used my real name.

So, like a good little girl, I went inside.

But I watched from the front window.

The child in Attie’s arms was taken away from her by the paramedics that showed up, a striking red head and a blonde that looked super cute in their uniforms.

They took the child to their ambulance and shut the doors, leaving moments later with a police escort.

The man in the car was the next to be transferred, this one by two large men, both out of shape and not caring in the least that the man was screaming.

I was fairly sure they sedated him before they’d even gotten him into the back of the ambulance. Mostly because one second I could hear him screaming, and the next I couldn’t.

Mostly, though, my eyes stayed on Drew.

He looked…odd.

That was the only way I could explain it.

His eyes were wild, and his body was strung so tight that I was sure he was going to snap at any moment.

And when he said something to his daughter, and she started to argue, he said a few short words to her that had her freezing. Then nodding and complying with whatever he’d said to her.

She walked stiffly to the truck Drew had bought for her, and with a police escort, she was gone, too.

I’d have watched more, but Raphael said something to Drew, which caused him to turn to the window that I was looking out of.

He shook his head at me once, and I guessed that meant that he didn’t want me watching out the window, so I sighed and stepped back.

Right into an eight-dollar puddle of melted ice cream

“Damn it all to hell,” I grumbled morosely, dropping down on my knees to tip the bowl up while catching as much as the melted goodness as I could. “This was the perfect end to one fucked up night.”

I’m not saying I hate you. All I’m saying is that if you were hit by a bus, I’d be the one driving the bus.

-Aspen’s secret thoughts

Drew

My body was still vibrating with anger as I stopped at Aspen’s front door.

“Listen, Constance,” I sighed. “I had nothing to do with what happened today, and I don’t know what else you want me to say here.”

I tapped my foot with impatience, ready to get off the phone with the woman.

“What I want you to say is that this’ll never happen again!” Constance said shrilly. “Or she won’t be coming back to your house.”

I ground my teeth together and refrained from saying what I really wanted to say.

Instead I went with what I knew wouldn’t set her off on another tirade.

“I will ensure you, to the best of my ability, that this will never happen again if I can help it,” I promised her, telling the truth.

However, I couldn’t promise that Attie would never be in trouble again.

I wasn’t psychic, and I couldn’t be with her twenty-four hours a day.

I also had no control over fate.

Something which I’d had slammed into my face tonight.

“Fine,” Constance said. “Make sure you get to the field by ten in the morning. Her soccer game is at eleven.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Yes, Constance.”

She sniffed and hung up, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

I’d called to check on Attie, but just like me, she was able to deal with her problems and go to sleep.

I’d always been good at compartmentalizing things and so was Attie.

What I wasn’t good at compartmentalizing was my feelings for the woman that I could see through the window.

She was laying on her bed, which was directly in the line of site from the front door I’d just come through.

She hadn’t heard me, otherwise she wouldn’t still be swinging her hips to the sound of the music that was coming from the speakers next to the TV.

She was up on her knees in the bed, her front plastered to the bed, ass in the air.

Her Kindle was propped up against a pillow, and her arms were resting under her chin, one lone finger out and tapping the screen to turn the pages on it as she read.

I could see the outline of her panties through her tight yoga pants.

They were the type that barely covered the ass cheeks, and in the position she was in, they resembled more of a thong.

I clenched my fists, my mind going back to earlier in the night when I heard her call my name in such desperation that my heart was hammering the moment the words had left her lips.

I’d woken up to find her gone, and the scream had come again, this time even more frightening than the last.

Then I’d barreled out the door, my gun in my hand and my heart in my throat, to find not just my woman in danger, but my daughter as well.

And let’s just say the next five minutes, after seeing that, had not been the best of my life.

In fact, I was fairly sure that out of all my experiences, that one was at the top of the list of my life’s worst experiences, which included even the night I’d nearly died when I was seventeen.

Then it’d only been me that could die.

What was infinitely worse, though, was seeing two of the most important people in my world on the business end of a gun.

That’d been eye opening to say the least.

“I just had
sexxxxxxxx,
” Aspen sang loudly. To what song, I didn’t know, seeing as I had never listened to that song before. “She let me put my penis…”

She kept singing, snapping me out of my contemplation of life and how short it may be.

I walked up behind her, no longer able to resist those hip movements.

Once I reached her, I stilled her hips with both of my hands on her ass, causing her to freeze in place.

Her head snapped sideways as her hips started to drop, but I held her in place and made eye contact with her, letting her know with only the look in my eyes that I wanted her to stay exactly where she was.

She got the message. Loud and clear.

I took her calmness as acceptance and started to remove her pants, grabbing the waistband and pulling down slowly, exposing her beautiful ass cheeks one slow inch at a time.

She shifted restlessly, causing me to pull them down faster than I intended to.

I smacked her ass.

“Stay still,” I ordered her.

I needed to be in control right then.

Badly.

Because if I couldn’t control it, if I let myself slip just a little bit, I could hurt her. And I didn’t want to hurt her.

I wanted her to scream, but not in pain.

Well, at least not only in pain.

A little bit of pain was inevitable. I wasn’t built like most men.

I had a cock that hurt…but I also had enough experience that would make it pleasurable as well.

I’d make Aspen crave that burn…and she’d take everything I had to give and more.

“Okay,” came Aspen’s whispered reply.

She didn’t stop moving her hips, though.

It was more than obvious to me that she was anticipating this.

Especially when I got her panties down around her knees and saw the wetness that was already glistening on the lips of her sex.

“What kind of book were you reading, baby?” I rumbled, leaning forward and letting my nose skim the cheek of her ass as I inhaled deeply.

Her pussy smelled divine, and my cock hardened in my pants.

“I-ummm….” she hesitated. “It’s a romance.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked
. “What kind of romance. Read me the last page you were on.”

She shook her head. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” I asked, letting my tongue snake out and lick her.

She shuddered the instant my tongue touched the lips of her sex, pushing back against my mouth, urging me to do more.

“Still,” I urged again, slapping the outside of her thigh with the flat of my hand.

She jumped, gasping, and said,
“Jesus.”

She didn’t pull away, though.

Didn’t tell me to settle down…which she
should
have done.

No, what she did do, was encourage me.

She urged me on with her moans as she leaned her head further into the pillow, completely burying her face. Her hands gripped the comforter like her life depended on it, telling me without words that she liked what my tongue was doing to her.

I stiffened my tongue, running it from her clit to the entrance of her pussy, then sank it inside of her as deep as I could manage.

Her taste exploded on my tongue, and my cock, which had only been erect before, was now throbbing uncontrollably.

I would’ve spent a lot longer than a few long minutes getting her ready for me, but then her breath came out in shallow pants, and her voice cracked as she said, “I was reading erotica…and picturing you doing the things to me that were being done to the heroine.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked her. “I think I saw some new toys in a box. You want me to grab them?”

I wasn’t going to grab them.

This time was going to be fast.

Next time, though, I’d stretch it out.

Show her how good I could make her feel and how many times I could make her come.

“Condoms?” I asked her.

“Top drawer.”

I reached forward for the drawer as I undid my belt, followed by the button of my jeans.

Once undone, I let both my pants and underwear fall to the floor where I shoved them, and stepped out of them altogether.

My hand found the condoms, and I ripped one off and quickly tore it open, removing the condom and slicking it down over my cock.

This time the thing fit, and I was grateful.

I planned to do her rough, and I didn’t want to have to sit there worrying about whether the condom was coming off or not.

“You get my size, baby?” I questioned her, letting the length of my condom-covered cock work up and down the length of her sex, coating my dick in her juices.

She shook her head.

“Yes, sort of,” she groaned. “The owner of the company that sent the box to me sent some more…in the right size this time.”

I licked my lips, grasping the length of my cock and slapping it down again on her pussy.

Her entrance gaped open slightly as it seemed to clutch at me, and I smiled.

“You want me inside of you?” I asked her roughly.

She nodded her head, pushing back slightly.

I grasped her hips.

“Aspen,” I moaned gruffly.

“Yeah?” She pushed her hips backwards at me, urging me forward.

I let the tip of my cock sink inside her slightly, then said, “I’m divorced,” before slamming home.