I needed to win. Needed to take him over the edge. With the echoes of my own release still trembling through my core, I bore down on him.
“Damn it, Angelina,” he snarled.
Sweat slicked my skin and his. His eyes were wild as my thighs gripped him harder, his fingers digging into my hips. He knew what I was doing and let me have my way. I rode hard, making my muscles burn. Then suddenly Nash curled into a sit-up, and with a look of agonized ecstasy, he went rigid under me.
I felt him come, felt the first hot spurt of his orgasm deep within me. It was endless. Inevitable. Perfect.
We both collapsed, my head resting on his shoulder, his fingers now gentle as they stroked my hair.
This wasn’t what I’d been looking for. This wasn’t what I’d thought I’d needed. But the body didn’t lie. I wasn’t capable of feeling this kind of connection to a man if there wasn’t something essential, elemental there to build on.
“Let’s have all our fights like this,” Nash panted.
“Neither one of us will be able to walk after a week,” I predicted.
“Thank you,” he said after a long beat of silence.
“For what?” I asked, shifting to look up at him.
“For taking a chance on me. For being with me now. We can worry about after later.”
“After?” I repeated, stroking my hand over his chest.
“Do we have a deal?” he prodded.
The man was still inside me.
“Fine. Deal.”
“High-five?” he offered, grinning.
THIRTY-SEVEN
A HOLE IN THE WALL
Nash
Istrolled into the station with a spring in my step and a dozen chocolate éclairs. Piper trotted along next to me, her new favorite toy—one of Lina’s socks—clamped in her teeth.
I had my own souvenirs. Shallow scratch marks lined my back like tiger stripes. And there was the tiny, purple love bite that was mostly hidden by the collar of my shirt.
“Mornin’…Chief?” Bertle’s greeting sounded more like a question.
“Mornin’，” I returned. I slid the bakery box onto the counter next to the coffee maker.
Piper started her customary sniffing lap around the bullpen.
“Did you do something with your…face?” Tashi asked, looking concerned.
I ran a hand over my now smooth jaw. “I shaved. Why?”
“You look different.”
“Different good or different ‘dear God, please grow the hair back to cover up the ugly’？”
She looked at me as if I’d rode in on a unicorn preceded by a marching band of leprechauns.
“You’re not makin’ me feel good about my grooming, Bannerjee.”
“Different good,” she said quickly.
Grave wasted no time in breaking into the box of éclairs.
“How’d it go with our overnight guests?” I asked him.
“They bitched and moaned until Dilton’s wife showed up and posted bail,” Grave reported. “You pressin’ charges?”
“If Dilton doesn’t go quietly, I will.”
Grave nodded. “We’ve got him dead to rights on three cases and we’ve only gone back eight weeks. Affidavits are on your desk. If he don’t go quietly, he’s a bigger idiot than we gave him credit for.”
I was both glad to have the proof we needed to build our case and pissed off that I’d given him the opportunity to abuse his power. There was no telling what kind of damage he’d already done behind the badge. But it ended here.
Grave gave me a closer look. “Why’s your face look like you got laid? Is that a hickey on your neck?”
“Shut up and eat your éclair.”
I spent an hour buzzing through paperwork, including the incident report from the night before and the three affidavits from Dilton’s victims. His presence on the force was only a formality at this point. He was never going to wear a badge again. I’d see to that.
I topped off my coffee, took a lap around the bullpen, and then scratched out a quick letter to my dad.
When I got back to my office, I found Piper passed out cold in the dog bed under my desk. I reached for my phone and snapped a picture of her, then opened my text messages.
There was nothing from Lina, which I’d expected.
I’d taken advantage of her sated, walls-down state to get what I wanted. A commitment. At least a temporary one. Now that I’d had her, all of her, I wasn’t letting go. I just had to hang on tight and wait for her to catch up.
I fired off the picture of Piper and followed it up with a text.
Me: Still freaking out? Or are you still in bed too exhausted from orgasms to move?
I held my breath, then blew it out when those three telltale dots appeared below my message.
Lina: What did you do to me? I tried to go for a run and my legs wouldn’t work.
I grinned, my anxious ego immediately soothed.
Me: Hopper just told me my face looks like I got laid.
Lina: Justice said I was glowing and Stef asked me if I got one of those placenta facials.
Me: Hope you weren’t planning on keeping this a secret.
Lina: Is that even possible in this town?
Me: Nope. Which is why I’m taking you out to dinner tonight.
If I asked, it would give her too much time to think. The more she felt and the less she thought, the better.
Lina: “Out to dinner” as in no nudity and orgasms?
Me: Yes. Unless you’re planning to get us arrested on our first date.
Lina: sigh How quickly the thrill fades. What next? Game night?
My exhausted cock flexed behind my zipper. Twelve hours ago, my main concern had been whether I could perform at all. Now I had to worry about overuse.
Me: I can think of a few games I’d like to play with you.
Lina: Since you’re taking me to dinner instead of fucking me senseless, I can only assume you mean charades or checkers.
Me: Be ready at 7. Wear something that makes it hard for me to stop thinking about what you’ve got on underneath.
With that business taken care of, I moved on to the next item on my list.
“I knew it!”
Busted. Sloane stood in the doorway of the library break room, arms crossed and a triumphant grin on her pretty face. She was wearing a different pair of glasses today. These had bright blue tortoise-shell frames.
Piper retreated behind my back, unsure of what to do with the gloating woman blocking the exit.
“Knew what?” I asked, giving the sage-green paint a stir. The dent in the wall was going to need more than a coat of paint, but until I patched the drywall, paint would at least make it less noticeable.
“You, Chief Morgan, scuffed my wall with table sex!”
I shot her an irritated look. “Jesus, Sloane. Keep your voice down. This is a library.”
She closed the door and then regained her victorious stance. “I knew there was something up with you two last night. My sex radar never fails!”
“Lina didn’t…mention anything?” I asked casually.
Sloane took pity on me. “Didn’t have to. She left here walking funny and looking all dazed and feverish. Even without my glasses, I could tell.”
I turned my attention back to the gouge in the wall so she wouldn’t see my manly pride on display. “Maybe she had a stomach bug.”