Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic) (22 page)

“Nope. You move too much.”

She wiggled suggestively and stole another inch off his cock. “Like that?”

“Exactly.”

“What if I ask?”

“I’m listening.”

“Den, fuck my ass…” She bit her lip and moaned. “Plee-ease?”

She should have never asked for that as he pulled away then rocked back and embedded his full length to the hilt.

“Ohsweetjesus!” She jerked and shuddered.

“Is that what you want?”

She didn’t speak just moaned hoarsely.

“I asked you a question.”

She still didn’t respond and he removed his hand from her cunt so he could smack her slit with it.

“Fuck!” She grabbed his arms and her nails bit the skin.

“I am fucking you.” He punted inward and their hips clapped together roughly.

“Uh-huh…” He looked over at her face, and noticed her eyes were scrunched closed and her teeth clenched from agonizing pleasure.

“Can you come like this?” he asked.

“Ah hah.” She nodded drunkenly but never opened her eyes.

“Wanna jump off of a bridge with me?” he asked, wondering if she even was able to understand a word that came out of his mouth. Or if she would agree to any damn thing he said right now.

That was a major turn on, to have this woman so gone that she couldn’t even think.

“Wh-aa?” She popped her lids open and looked at him.

He chuckled. “Nothing.” When he smacked her cunt with his hand again, she writhed and wailed, her juices ran between them and coated his balls.

“Shit!” He pulled out of her, quicksilver fast, but even then, he barely staved off his orgasm.

Den flicked the condom off and thrust back inside her, only this time he was back within the well-travelled depths of her cunt.

Sidonie screamed, but he aborted the sound with his hand. He knew how she got down and there was no need to have a knock at the door this weekend, too. When he delved back into her, there was no reason to hold back and he felt the trickle of semen eke into the clutching clasp of her cunt.

“You. Fuck. Like. A. Beast.” She huffed and puffed for breath as she tossed her arm over her eyes.

When he rolled over and looked down at the satisfied grin on her face, his heart raced.

Damn.

The next day, he went to work and wondered what Sidonie was doing. Yet again, he found himself distracted and all he wanted was to get off so he could play cops and robbers with her. Maybe he’d get lucky and she would cook something else for him to eat.

He was going to have to start going to the gym if he kept dating Sidonie.

Dating?

But there was nothing else he could think of that fit.

She was more than a friend. Less than a wife.

More than a lover. Less than a fiancé.

He spent the morning on a car chase that took him into Beauford County and he had to call for back up from the local officers to get the guy off of the back roads there.

The report on that one took ages, as he had to call in reinforcements from outside of his district. The worst part was it took him so long that he arrived back home late.

But when he got there, Sidonie was waiting for him.

All she wore was his half of his uniform, the top half at that, the shirt he’d taken off the night before unbuttoned to reveal a thick strip of skin and she twirled a spare set of cuffs around her fingers. He remembered that movie and he had no problem reenacting an inside man with her.

“How was work?” she asked.

“Long enough that I was ready to run as soon as it was late enough to.”

“I made dinner if you’re feeling… a bit hungry…”

“Oh, yeah. I could eat.” He winked and undid the heavy duty leather belt.

Her eyes twinkled as he dropped the clothes from the door to the sofa where she waited. He ate, but he imagined his meal wasn’t what she imagined when she slaved over pots and pans that day, he’d bet on it.

Healing and Heartbreak

After a lusty weekend with Den, Sidonie felt as if she had burned both ends of the candle and maybe the middle, too. She was exhausted and even that was a sorry description for how she felt at the moment.

By Tuesday night, she was face down in her bed by the time the kids went upstairs for the evening. They had an extended bedtime due to their ages, and lights out usually was by ten thirty. The next morning seemed interminably slow as she was with the development team.

They were smart, but she had never met an odder bunch of geeks in her life. After lunch, they chit chatted about a nothing really.

The drone testing in Canada was interesting, but not enough to distract her and she found her mind wandering off in every direction.

Really one direction.

Den.

Then she heard one of the techs, Elisha, gasp.

“What?”

“I just got a message from my son.” Elisha’s son was a state trooper and whenever something bad happened that might show up on the news, he usually sent her a message to let her know that he was all right.

“He’s all right?”

“Yeah. But it looks like a local officer was shot and run over this morning.”

“Oh, that sounds bad.” No way was it Den.

He was fine. She was just freaking out for no reason. But she pulled out her phone and sent a message. It’s just to check up on him.

Hey, hon. Heard that someone got hurt. Are you okay?

The cursor blinked as she waited for him to reply.

He’s probably busy.

He’s just fine, Sid, stop fretting.

But after twenty minutes, Sidonie piped back into the conversation.

“Hey Elisha, did your son mention who it was?”

“No. But they usually don’t release the name until the next of kin has been notified.”

“Any chance he would know?”

“Probably. If not, he should be able to find out.” Elisha started texting immediately.

Sidonie bit her thumb nail, one tiny shred at a time, until there was nothing left but the quick and a ruined cuticle.

Ten minutes later, Elisha’s phone chimed. “I don’t know him, but Eric said the officer is a… Dennis McTavish?” She shrugged.

Sidonie gasped just before her vision went black. She heard the chatter of several voices, but she couldn’t see a thing.

Open your eyes.

Open your eyes.

“Sid! Can you hear me?”

“Huh?”

“Are you okay?”

No. She wasn’t.

“Uh, I’m fine. I have to go. Now.”

“What?”

“You can make do without me. Send me an e-mail when you have a prototype.”

She walked outside and realized, she had no idea where she was even headed. Elisha said he was at the hospital, but she didn’t know where. New Hanover was the most likely option, but not the only one.

When she hopped into the SUV, the phone rang. “Is this Sidonie Clark?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Anna Benson at New Hanover.”

“Uh, okay.”

“We have a patient here that has been calling your name since the anesthesia wore off.”

“Den?”

“Sounds like it. His parents have been contacted, and they are on their way up now, but I thought that a friendly face might help him out.”

“I’m on the way.”

When she hung up the phone, she realized something. First, she had to pick up the kids. Secondly, she was supposed to take care of the carpool. Thirdly, she had no idea how long she could stay. Sidonie dropped her head on the steering wheel as her mind went over the possibilities.

Her fingers flew and she listened as the phone rang.

“Hey, Moo Moo!” Mimi called out.

“Hey, Meem. I need the biggest favor I have ever asked for in my life.”

“Sure.”

“You might not want to agree before you know what it is.”

“Moo Moo, I don’t have a bunch of money and you know it. No firstborn child to offer up. We’re a different blood type so I can’t give you a kidney. So anything else is fair game at this point.”

Sidonie chuckled. “Den was shot and I need to go to the hospital. But the kids have to be picked up for the carpool and I don’t want to leave stuff hanging.”

“So, you need me to pick ’em up and drop ’em off at the game then home? I can do that.”

“I can call Charles, but he won’t be here in time. Plus, I’ll need you to stay at my place with them tonight. I should be fine for tomorrow.” Or so she hoped. But she would cross that bridge when she got to it.

“That’s fine. But you know my car is too small for the pool right?”

“Yeah. Wanna switch?”

“All right, that works for me.”

Fifteen minutes later, she had packed a bag and called in an order for Italian to be delivered at eight-thirty before she handed her keys off to Mimi.

She could probably stay long enough for his parents to arrive and be back by the next evening.

Fuck, she had to call her boss. Devlin Brenner would have to wait until she knew what was happening.

The entire ride was spent sobbing and railing at the asshole that would hurt him. She devised torture methods that would make Guantanamo look like a stay at the Hilton.

She cursed and cried until her eyelids were swollen enough to make them half shut.

A half hour later, she parked in the visitor’s lot at the medical center and slid of sunglasses on. She walked inside, greeted by the scent of antiseptic and despair, despite the cheerful atmosphere and bright paint.

“I’m Sidonie Clark, here to see Dennis McTavish?”

The receptionist clicked away and a moment later, she looked up. “Hi, Ms. Clark, he’s on the third floor in room three seventeen.”

Sidonie rushed to the elevator and jabbed the button several times.

“I know, slow right?” A woman Sidonie hadn’t even noticed stood next to her.

She nodded, but didn’t speak back. Her throat was too raw to do anything more than that.

“Would you like a hug?”

Sidonie nodded and the tiny elderly woman wrapped her arms around her.

A few moments later, the elevator emitted a ding and the doors opened. Sidonie motioned the lady in, but the woman nodded. “I’m not waiting for it. I’m headed home.”

The question must have been written on her face as the woman replied to the very thought that crossed her mind.

“Why did I wait, deary? It looked like you needed me to.” The woman winked and wandered off without another word.

She clicked the button for the third floor and remembered the when Den stood next to her that first night.

“Please, Lord, take care of him for me,” she whispered as the car moved with agonizing slowness.

When it opened and she was spat out onto the floor proper, there was a flurry of activity. Nurses walked at a quick clip from one place to the next. Doctors meandered with tablets under one arm and didn’t look left or right, as if removed from the very place they were.

She checked the placard on the wall to see what direction she was supposed to head for and went to the left. When she arrived, she took a breath and opened the door.

“I already told you! I don’t want a fucking sponge bath!”

It was Den, but this didn’t sound anything like the man that she knew.

“Well, at least the volume tells me you’re alive.”

“Sidonie?” he asked as she stepped into view.

Her heart began racing at the sight of him, but for the first time, the adrenaline had nothing to do with arousal and everything to do with fear.

He looked terrible. His hair stuck out in odd patches, there were bandages everywhere that she looked. He had on a hospital gown, but even that couldn’t conceal the fact that he was scraped from head to probably his toes.

“God, you look terrible,” she said.

“Yeah, well… feel terrible, too.”

“Your parents should be on the way.”

“I told them not to call.” Den huffed.

“Why not?”

“You don’t know my parents. My mom’s going to get here and cry for two days and my father is going to ask me if I want to take over the farm.”

“So?”

“I’m a cop, Sidonie. I’ll die being a cop.”

She knew he meant it.

Just like she knew that arguing with him was going to do either of them little good. “Well, you’re good at it, I know from personal experience.”

“Can you sit down? I can’t take anymore hovering.” His voice was low and worn.

“Okay.” She took the plush chair next to him. “Are you hungry or thirsty?”

“Not really.”

“When was the last time you ate?”

“Last night.” He sighed.