Page 34 of Homicide in Water Creek

“King, I’ve wanted you to make love to me since I was seventeen. Shut up and do it.”

He laughed his deep, sexy, panty-dropping laugh as he yanked the sweatshirt over her head. Her breasts, unencumbered by the bra she’d taken off before they climbed into bed, fell free, and he went stock-still as he gazed at them.

Lying back on the mattress, she grabbed his hand. “You gotta breathe, King.”

“I’m afraid to.” He lay down beside her and ran his fingers over the bare skin of her belly. “I’m afraid to breathe and break the spell over us right now. If I breathe, we move to the next moment, and that means this one is over.”

She grasped his hand and nodded. “I promise you the next moment is worth letting go of this one.”

When his lips met hers, what followed was a mash-up of moans, nips, and caresses unlike anything they’d shared before. This was a new life for them to grasp.

“You had me at hello, baby,” King whispered, staring into her eyes as his hand slid up and down her ribs.

“You’re starting to sound like a country song,” she teased, reaching up to unbutton his shirt.

He laughed for a breath, then stopped. “Wait, stop.” He grabbed her hands.

“I’m feeling a bit exposed here, Sheriff King.”

He nodded, eyes closed, Adam’s apple bouncing as he swallowed. “I just want to make this last all night.”

“King, we might not have all night. We could be interrupted at any time, and I don’t know about you, but I’m already sexually frustrated enough for both of us.”

King snorted but couldn’t contain the laughter that slipped from his lips. As though her words were a wake-up call, he quickly stripped off the shirt, leaving only his T-shirt and jeans. His erection strained against his zipper, drawing her attention. It was her turn to swallow, and he tipped her chin up, his gaze holding hers. “As slow as you need to take it.”

Without taking her eyes off his, she unbuttoned his jeans and worked them down to his knees. He stripped them off, leaving only his boxer briefs and shirt. When he pulled off his T-shirt, she ran her hands across his chest. The lantern in the corner revealed the scars of his life in law enforcement.

“The vest didn’t stop the bullet?” she asked, running a finger along a thin scar on his side.

“It did, but they had to reinflate my lung. That one nearly killed me, Jacks, but you know all about that, don’t you?”

She lay back, her breasts distracting him for a moment until he hooked his fingers in the waistband of her panties and tugged them low enough to reveal the scar across her lower abdomen. He froze, his eyes closing as his fingers ran along the foot-long, jagged scar.

“Good God, Jacks. This is… You shouldn’t be here.”

“But I am, so make love to me, please,” she begged, grasping his face and pressing her lips to his.

This time, a naughty laugh escaped. “I do love hearing you beg, Jacks.” Then his lips left hers to tease a nipple into a peak of quivering flesh. She arched into his tongue, forcing the nipple into his mouth where he suckled it roughly, his hand massaging her other breast until she filled the room with a moan. He bucked against her, his boxers barely containing his erection. Kissing his way to her stomach, his deft fingers made her panties disappear.

He drank all of her in for half a breath before his hand cupped her mound, his eyes clouded with lust, love, and longing. “You’re stunning. Every part of you.”

Then he dragged his lips along each thigh, the sensation raising goosebumps on her skin and drawing his name on a moan. “King,” she whispered, arching her hips the closer he got to her center.

“Yes, Jacks?” he asked just as his lips captured the prize. His hands reached for hers, and she twined her fingers in his as his tongue flicked across her swollen bud. Soon, she was spiraling to a place where nothing mattered but how they made each other feel. When she came down from the high of her first orgasm in almost a year, King was already teasing her nipples back into hardened peaks.

He moved back to her mouth to whisper against her lips. “I wanted to follow you there, but I wasn’t inside you.”

That was all she needed to hear. Swiftly, Jacks pulled his boxers off, then took him in her hand to stroke his velvety soft skin, the tip wet with need. Swirling her finger over the tip, she dipped her head and tasted him, loving how he bucked at the sudden, unexpected warmth surrounding him.

Groaning, he fisted the bedsheets in his hands, allowing her a bit of fun before he spoke. “You have to stop. I can’t hold back much longer.”

“Then don’t. I’ve waited almost a decade for this. Don’t make me wait any longer.”

King laid a tender kiss of acceptance on her lips, his tongue dancing against hers in love and trust. “I don’t want to hurt you,” he whispered.

“You won’t. You’d never hurt me.”

He lay back, lifting her left leg over him, but she collapsed, unable to hold herself up on her right knee. He caught her, pulling her against his shoulder. “I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall.”