Authors: Tessa Bailey
Tags: #police, #Romantic Suspense, #brazen, #line of duty, #erotic, #new york, #Contemporary Romance
talk about her.”
“Okay,” she agreed, before trying a
different tack. “My brother and I were
nothing alike, but we found little things
in common. We both liked the old-
school version of Tetris. Our tournament
lasted five years.” She painted a bow tie
on her kitten, remembering the hours
they’d spent in the boarding school
recreation hall clutching those controls.
“When our ancient Nintendo went belly-
up, we pooled our allowance, bought
one on eBay, and picked up right where
we left off. I was winning when the
tournament ended.”
“Why did the tournament end?”
“It just did.” She wasn’t ready to say
the rest out loud yet, and his nod told her
he sensed it. “Playing Tetris…it was the
only time we talked. I wished we’d
played more, especially when we got
older. When we got too cool.”
Bowen was silent a moment. “With
my
sister…things
are
more
complicated.” He tossed the paintbrush
down and lit a cigarette. “She’s just too
stubborn to see I’m doing what’s best for
her.”
“What about what’s best for you?”
When confused eyes flashed to her, she
shook her head. Hadn’t anyone ever
asked him that before? “I’m sorry, I’ll
leave it alone.”
He blew a long, slow cloud of smoke
toward the open window. “Tell me what
happened to your brother, Ladybug.”
His low, ominous tone dared her to
give him anything less than the truth.
“Someone killed him. They never found
out
who,”
she
added
quickly.
Uncomfortable with his scrutiny, she got
down on her knees and continued
painting the bottom half of her cat. She
tried to ignore him when he came up
behind her, but his calloused hand slid
into her hair, tilting her head back so she
looked up at him from her kneeling
position.
Cigarette still clamped between his
teeth, he nonetheless spoke very
precisely. “I don’t like seeing you upset.
It makes me want to go out and do
something about it.”
Surely he wasn’t offering what she
thought he was offering. After only
knowing her for a few days? “You
can’t.”
“Oh no?” He reached over to the side
table on her left and stubbed out his
cigarette in a ceramic ashtray. “You’d
be surprised what you can do when
you’re numb.”
“You’re not numb,” she whispered,
rotating around to face him on her knees.
Their provocative position became
apparent to her. And she was fairly
certain he’d just offered to
kill
for her.
Unbelievably, her opinion of him hadn’t
changed with that fact, even if his
expression told her he’d expected it to.
He looked rubbed raw. Full of
trepidation…
hunger
.
Her gaze dropped to the fly of his
jeans and her breath caught when she
saw the enormous swell pushing against
his zipper, inches from her mouth. Her
stomach fluttered and contracted at the
sight, as if she’d just free-fallen from a
great height. Between her legs, a telltale
pulse jumped to life, warmth pooling
instantly.
“Obviously I’m not numb with you, am
I?” Features strained, Bowen pulled
lightly on the strands of her hair still
wrapped in his fist. “Get off your
knees
,
Sera.”
She made no move to stand. Pain.
There was so much pain in his voice.
She wanted to take it away and appease
her own curiosity in the process.
“Look.” He sounded a little desperate
now. “Earlier in the hallway, you had
your legs wrapped around my waist.
Then I almost fucked you through the
wall of the guest room.” Another
halfhearted tug at her hair. “The last
seven hours, I watched you sleep in
nothing but a bra and those ridiculous
tights or whatever you call them. I’m just
strung a little tight where you’re
concerned. Would you,
please
, just stand
the hell up?”
Giving in to an impulse, she leaned
forward and nuzzled her cheek against
his erection, before planting hot,
openmouthed kisses along the bulge.
“
Jesus Christ
.” He pressed closer
with his hips. “You have to
stop
.”
Sera was beyond listening. Her
fingers unsnapped his jeans and lowered
the zipper before he made a more solid
attempt to stop her. Seconds later, she’d
freed his heavy arousal. The first time
she gripped him in her hand, he hissed a
vile curse. Paying close attention to his
face, she stroked him up and down,
running a thumb over the head with each
upward stroke, the way she’d seen him
do last night in the stairwell.
“You want to jerk me off, baby?
Fine.” Sweat had started appearing on
his forehead. “But don’t you dare put me
in that innocent little mouth. I’m warning
you, I won’t be able to keep myself from
fucking it until you know what I taste
like.”
The tingle between her legs graduated
to a relentless ache. If he thought his
warning would stop her, it had the
opposite effect. Knowing he teetered on
the edge of losing control because of her
made her feel bold. Defiant.
Drunk on the feeling, she leaned
forward and licked the underside of
Bowen’s erection, root to tip. Then she
lowered her mouth over the hard flesh as
far as she could.
And sucked.
Holy, holy shit. I’m going to die.
Please, for the love of God, just let
her finish me off first.
Thoughts, warnings, that conflicted
with the indescribable pleasure he was
getting from Sera’s mouth tried to
bombard him. He blocked them as best
he could, but some of them made it
through. He’d meant what he said to her.
The day had been jam-packed full of
sexual frustration, something he’d never
dealt with, not
ever
, and now her
perfect
fucking mouth
threatened to cut the
strings holding his control in place.
With her head in his hands, the
monstrous urge to thrust into the heat of
her mouth battered his conscience. He
could hear words falling from his lips
that made no sense, belonged to no
particular language. Or maybe he’d just
been saving them for her, stored in some
corner of his mind. A language solely
reserved for Sera. That theory made him
feel like slightly less of an asshole. It
reminded him she was special. Not some
girl he could prop against the wall and
push too deep.
This could be her first time on her
knees for a man, and he wouldn’t fuck it
up. No, it
was
her first time. He could
see it in the gorgeous brown eyes that
watched him, making sure she did it
right.
Reassure her. I need to reassure
her.
“Anything, everything, all of it. It’s
perfect, sweetheart. You’re so fucking
perfect.”
At least, that’s what he
thought
he
said. It might have come out sounding
more like Swahili. Oh God, oh
God
, it
didn’t feel like her first time. She was
sucking him so hard, he felt his soul
dislodge and settle into a new spot. How
could she look up at him so innocently,
when her mouth worked him like the
baddest girl he’d ever met? The contrast
was blowing his mind, shooting him into
a different realm. He wouldn’t lie to
himself anymore. His no-virgin rule
obviously hadn’t been created with Sera
in mind. Not a single one of his rules
had. Her lack of experience turned him
on. It meant all those moments could,
would
, belong to him. No one else. Sure,
that made him a greedy bastard, but he
was beyond help.
She slowed down a little, letting him
slide in deeper than he’d gone before. A
strangled noise escaped him, abdomen
tight, thighs quaking. His hands moved of
their own accord, tangling in her hair.
“Baby, baby, please. Can you take a
little more? Just a lit—
ahhh fuck
.”
He almost came then and there,
without warning, but managed to reel
himself back as much as possible. Not
much longer and he’d lose it, though.
She’d started making little humming
noises in the back of her throat, shooting
vibrating heat straight into his belly, his
balls. Her hands joined the party then,
both
of them, riding his slick cock in
time with her mouth.
The rush started, the dizzying buildup.
He’d never gotten there so fast. How
unfair was that when for the first time, he
didn’t want it to end? “I’m going to
come, Sera. Take me out of your mouth.”
More painful words were never spoken.
But the pain never came because she
took him
deep
. Her hands slid around to
his ass, fingernails digging into his flesh,
tugging him close as her mouth pulled,
licked, sucked.
His control evaporated with the
oncoming
release,
consciousness
narrowing down to her mouth. Acting on
their own, his hands tightened in her
hair. Hard. His hips rolled, meeting
every stroke of her mouth. “You going to
let me come in that virgin mouth? You
going to make me a god?”
She scraped him with her teeth and his
world exploded. He expected her to stop
him once his climax struck, but
Jesus
Christ
, she didn’t. Her mouth pulled on
him in greedy strokes, taking everything
he had to give. A sound of enjoyment left
her throat to ripple over his cock,
shooting him into another dimension.
He didn’t remember dropping to the
floor or drawing her up against him, but
he’d gotten there somehow. Deep
breaths expanded his chest under her
cheek. How could she feel so fragile
against him when she’d just shaken him
up so thoroughly? The frantic need to
look into her eyes hit him hard. With a
still-trembling hand, he tilted her chin
up.
And felt like he’d been cold-cocked.
Lust. It expanded her pupils and
blocked out all the beautiful chocolate
brown. Her face flushed red, lips
swollen and parted. Her nipples were
sharp points pressing against her thin
shirt; her thighs squeezed together on and
off, on and off. The sight was so
goddamn stunning, it sent his already-
pounding heart into overdrive. It filled
him with wild determination, purpose.
Give her pleasure. Give her relief.
When he wedged his hips between her
thighs, she moaned so loudly, so
impatiently, he couldn’t help but match
it. Her pain equaled his pain. Her
pleasure, his pleasure.
She was mine before.
Mine
doesn’t
even begin to cover it now.
He ran a hand down between their
bodies and cupped her pussy, growling
when he found the material of her tights
damp. “Ah, sweetheart. Did you get wet
while sucking me off?” Using the heel of
his hand, he ground circles into her heat,
his dick getting hard again from
watching her hips writhe. “You have any
idea how good you are with that mouth?”
He leaned down and kissed her gently,
knowing it would frustrate her into
deepening it. She did.
Fuck yes
, she did.
“Those lips are the best fuck I’ve ever
had. But not for long. Isn’t that right,
Sera? We both know it’s only a matter of
time before I’m pounding the purity right
out of you.”
Without waiting for a response, he
yanked the tights down her legs and
threw them across the room. He said a
prayer of thanks when she ripped her
shirt over her head, revealing a black
bra and tiny matching panties.
Jesus
. He