Tipsy (13 page)

He studied me. “You aren’t going to be
visiting any more places like that.”

“
Says who?” I asked, lifting
my eyebrows. Surely he wasn’t trying to boss me around.

“
Says me.”

My gaze slipped away from his glare and
down to the little ring in his lip. It was so close… I could just
lean forward and—

He made a sound deep in his throat and
took my face in his hands, forcing my gaze up. “Stop
that.”

“
I’ve never kissed anyone
with a lip piercing.”

“
I’m your first,
huh?”

I nodded. “Is that part of your
cover?”

He brushed a thumb across my bottom
lip. “Yeah.”

“
I like it.” I admitted,
looking at it once again.

“
Do you now?” he asked,
smiling slightly.

“
Does it hurt?”

“
It’s very painful,” he
said, a sly look coming into his eyes. “You should kiss it. Make it
better.”

I reached up and pulled his hands away
from my face and leaned forward. My chest brushed against his as I
tentatively drew the silver ring between my lips. My tongue swept
across the skin, lavishing the area with warm moisture, and he
groaned.

Feeling a little bolder I rocked
forward, the area between my legs rubbing against his jeans, and
tugged a little harder on the ring as I slipped my tongue through
the center.

Blue gripped my hips and squeezed,
holding me against him, causing this needy, throbbing sensation
within the folds of my vagina.

After I kissed and played with the
piercing, I untangled my tongue and pulled back, but he seized
forward and caught me up in a full-on kiss. His arms locked around
me and he rolled, pinning me to the mattress, the pillows at my
back.

The weight of his body pinned me down
as his lips ravished my mouth and his knee worked its way up
between my thighs. I gripped his biceps, wrapping my hands around
them and holding on, my hips squirming around looking for something
I knew he could give me.

When his jean-clad knee connected right
at my center, the hard pressure of him made me cry out, but the
sound was swallowed with another sweeping kiss. His hand shoved
between us and covered my breast. The nipple hardened and rose up
to meet him, begging for more attention.

I didn’t know how he kissed me so
thoroughly and groped me at the same time, but it was so insanely
pleasurable that all thought fled from my brain. All I could think
about was more. I wanted more. And less.

More of him. Less of the clothes
between us.

Blue ripped away his mouth, panting. He
pushed himself up, keeping his weight off me with both his arms. “I
should go.”

“
Yeah,” I agreed.

Neither of us moved.

He stared at me for a few more moments,
his eyes seeming to take in every last detail of my face before he
slowly started to lower himself back down. It was almost like he
was warning me that he was coming. Like I would push him off or try
to get away.

I wasn’t going anywhere. I wanted his
lips on mine like a little kid wanted an ice cream cone.

I kept my eyes open, watching him, not
wanting to miss a single thing about his expression. I enjoyed the
way his pupils dilated with desire and his nostrils flared out just
ever so slightly. I enjoyed the way his biceps shook on either side
of my head as if keeping himself from touching me was the hardest
thing he’d ever done. He stopped short, just centimeters separating
our lips as he stared into my eyes.

My stomach was doing some crazy
gymnastics, vaulting around inside my middle like I’d just gone on
a roller coaster ride with fifty loops and curves. If my heart beat
any more erratically, I might go into cardiac arrest.

And then he closed the distance. His
lips brushed over mine; the contact was nothing short of jolting.
It was like I hadn’t just spent the last ten minutes making out
with him like a horny teenager. It was as if I had never kissed him
at all.

Every single thing about him washed
over me. I felt like I was standing on top of a cliff, ready to
dive off. Anxious, delicious desire curled tightly around me,
winding me up so tight that I was afraid I might snap.

I dug my fingers into the blankets,
twisting the soft fabric around my hands and gripping it tightly,
hoping it would keep me grounded.

But nothing could keep me from getting
lost in Blue.

It was as if I were Alice in Wonderland
and he was the hole I fell through.

His lips didn’t lift one time. The kiss
was continuous; it went on forever. It wasn’t demanding. It wasn’t
the kind that made my hips gyrate beneath him. It was something
that went beyond the search for an epic orgasm. It was the kind of
kiss that went further than my desire. It went deeper than my
vagina. Something about the way his lips lingered on mine, softly
caressing me with his tongue, made the beating of my heart slow to
a lazy, lethargic thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

When our lips finally stopped touching,
he looked at me once more. My vision was slightly skewed. I
blinked, bringing him and his amazing azure eyes back into
focus.

“
Come on,” he said, his
voice whisper soft. “I want you to lock the door behind
me.”

Even after he moved off the bed, I lay
there and stared up at the ceiling. I wasn’t sure my heart rate
would ever be the same again. How in the hell was I supposed to not
want him, to not be angry at his jerk-face ways when he freaking
kissed me like that?

Blue did not play fair.

Even still, when he offered his hand as
I pushed up off the bed, I accepted.

After putting the knit cap back onto
his head, I followed him out of the bedroom and down the stairs
into my darkened living room. The soft glow of the nightlight in
the stairwell was the only illumination by the front
door.

Blue turned to me, nothing but a shape
in the dark. “Promise me you’ll stay out of that bar.”

“
I already told you I
would,” I said, exasperated.

“
Lay low for a while,” he
said. I could feel his stare. “Unfortunately you’ve been connected
with my new identity.”

“
Should I call you
Gray?”

“
You don’t have to call me
anything because you won’t see me again.”

My stomach sank. My heart rate sped up.
Disappointment was an ugly kind of feeling. “If you planned to
never see me again, why did you come here at all?” I said,
irritation seeping into my tone. When was he going to stop doing
this to me? When was he going to stop getting under my skin,
working his way into my chest… only to deny me what I truly
wanted.

Damn. It was too late to take that
thought back. I couldn’t even convince myself of that lie. I wanted
Blue; nothing was going to change that. It was very apparent that
he was like my own personal brand of drug.

He heaved a great sigh and stepped
forward. I stepped back. His hands dropped to his waist. “I told
you. I can’t stand the thought of you… hating me.”

Oh, I didn’t hate him. But I wanted
to.

“
So you thought making out
with me and then taking off into the night would make me less
mad?”

“
This isn’t forever,” he
whispered, stepping forward. “Eventually this case will be
over.”

“
So?”

“
So then maybe you and
I…”

“
Are you asking me to wait
for you?”

He was silent a long moment. He sighed
heavily. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“
So you expect me to sit
around here for God knows how long and wonder if you’re making out
with some random chick in a seedy bar across town? You expect me to
wonder day after day if you’re hurt or if your cover was blown and
someone wants to kill you?”

To his credit, he didn’t try to talk
his way out of that one. He didn’t try to deny what he did was
dangerous and if he had to make out with some girl, he would. If
he’d tried to deny it, I would have lost some respect for him
because he would have been lying.

“
I get it,” he said
eventually, not making another move toward me. I ached for him. I
ached for that minimal distance between us to be gone. I ached for
those moments spent up in my bedroom when I was in his arms. He
turned and grabbed the door handle. But he didn’t pull it
open.

His voice was quiet, but it carried all
the way to my ears.

“
I wouldn’t wait for me
either. But, I just… I want you to know something.”

“
What?” my voice was
hoarse.

“
This isn’t me choosing my
job over you. I don’t have a choice. Not really. I have to do this.
I’m already in too deep.”

Silence fell like a thick blanket over
the room. Yet neither of us moved.

His words pierced my chest. My heart
returned to that slow rhythm of thumping he inspired.

“
If I had it to do all over
again…” he said, still keeping his back to me. “That night after
our first date, I wouldn’t take the assignment. I would have told
them no. I would have chosen you.”

All the air in my lungs whooshed out of
me.

“
Lock this door,” he said,
slipping outside into the deep cover of night.

I stared at the spot he just
vacated, hearing his words for the second time that night.
I would have chosen you.
A
soft knock on the other side of the door brought me back to reality
and I rushed forward and threw the locks.

Only then did I hear his footsteps
retreat down the stairs.

I leaned against the door and brought
my fingers up to my lips. Telling him I wasn’t going to wait for
him had been nothing but my stupid, stubborn pride. What Blue
didn’t seem to realize was that I didn’t have a choice, either. Not
really. Like him, I was already in too deep.

12

Blue

I pulled up to my new “home” and let
out a sigh. The place was a dump. Not that I was expecting anything
more, but I had been hoping.

The house was the size of a small
shoebox. A brick square with a dilapidated roof. It boasted one
door and exactly two small windows at the front. There was no
driveway, so I parked at the curb and walked through the definitely
not mowed grass. A set of partially crumbling concrete steps led to
the faded and chipping black door. I used my key to unlock the joke
of a lock and walked inside.

It smelled stale in here, like the air
hadn’t moved since nineteen fifty. I felt around for the light on
the wall and flicked it when my hand ran over the switch. Dim
lighting flooded the room from the single bulb that looked like
someone literally just shoved a glass bulb into the
ceiling.

There was a saggy, green plaid couch in
the center of the room. A brown wooden coffee table, littered with
empty beer bottles, and a leather armchair with a hole in the back
set off to the side.

The only nice thing in the room was the
TV. Druggies loved their technology. And they also loved video
games. A fifty-inch flat screen sat on the black entertainment
center directly across from the couch, and beside it sat an
Xbox.

Maybe the place wouldn’t be so bad
after all.

I walked through the door to my right
and into a tiny kitchen. The cabinets were pea green, the
countertops were laminate made to look like wood, and the
fruit-themed wallpaper was peeling off the walls. The fridge was
white and appeared to be new. I pulled it open and was hit with the
new fridge smell. The inside was clean and cool, with all the
appropriate bachelor food: ham, turkey, cheese, mayo, and
beer.

I looked around a bit more and found a
cabinet filled with a few other staples, like coffee and chips.
After my tour of the kitchen, I walked back through the living room
and into the bedroom. There was a queen-sized bed with clean white
sheets and an old-fashioned quilt covering the top.

The sink in the bathroom was pink. It
made me think of Julie and her razor. I hadn’t wanted to leave her
tonight. When I looked around this place and realized what I gave
up to come here, I thought about punching myself in the
head.

I heard the front door open and close
swiftly and my body went on alert. I creeped out of the bathroom
and peered into the living room, my gaze colliding with
Slater.

“
What the hell are you doing
here?”

“
Thought I’d stop by and
welcome you to the neighborhood,” he said.

“
You live around
here?”

“
A couple blocks
over.”

“
Your house as nice as
mine?”

He snorted. “Your bathroom sink
pink?”

I grinned. “I swear it’s like an old
lady decorated this place in like the thirties.”

Slater grunted and made himself
comfortable in my leather chair. That left me with the plaid green
monster.