Copping To It (9 page)

Jed nodded and pursed his lips. “Good idea.
Best to beat the traffic if you’re going to make it downtown at a
decent hour.”

Claire gasped at the same time Ty tensed. As
Jed moved closer, Ty extended his arm in front of Claire. “Get
behind me,” he said softly. To Jed he said, “How did you know she
lives downtown?”

Jed smirked. “I’ve been there. Several
times. After she reported on Hoyt, he wanted me to pay her a little
visit. Go through her stuff. You might say I’ve gotten to know
Claire Fullerton quite intimately in many ways, including what
fascinates her the most.”

Next to him, Claire took a step forward.
“You’ve been in my house? Through my stuff? You bastard!”

“Claire,” Ty clipped out. He urged her
behind him again. “Not now.” Although she shifted restlessly next
to him, she quieted when he asked, “What is it, exactly, that
fascinates her?”

“Don’t you know?
Officer.
”

Somehow he wasn’t surprised. Ty scanned the
area for an ambush.

Jed shook his head. “I’m alone.”

“Ty —” Claire began.

Once again, Ty pressed her behind him. She
resisted slightly and he cursed, knowing that if he told her to
run, she probably wouldn’t. Because she wouldn’t want to leave him
alone and risk him being hurt.

“So what now?” Ty asked.

Cocking a brow, Jed smiled. “What now? You
mean, you don’t know?”

“Enlighten me.”

Jed shrugged. “Sure.” He stepped closer
until only a few feet separated them. “
Now
I want you to
return the favor.”

“What favor?”

“Several favors, actually. One, I haven’t
blown the whistle on you. Two, I got the two of you back together
again.”

Yes, but why? “What do you want? Money?
Drugs? Immunity?”

Jed’s face grew silent and serious. His gaze
narrowed, and his mouth flattened into a grim line. “I want Brad
Hoyt to stay in jail. I want him ousted as the leader of the Demon
Guardians. And I want you to make sure that happens.”

So Ty’s instincts about Jed had been right,
after all. He fought the temptation to relax. He couldn’t. Not yet.
Not until Claire was safe. “Why?”

“When you first showed up here, you asked
about Paul Hathaway. It caught my attention,” Jed said.

“Why?”

“Let’s just say I was quite…disturbed when I
heard what Hoyt had done to him, cop or not.”

Something about Jed’s tone made him want to
dig deeper while at the same time he didn’t want to cause the man
any more pain. Instinctively, he knew that’s what digging deeper
would do. But it was obvious Jed was speaking the truth. Paul had
meant something to both of them and that just might be enough to
give them the advantage against Hoyt. “So Hoyt…You going to be the
one that helps bring him down? And if so, why not just come to me a
long time ago? Why all the game playing?”

“I needed Hoyt away from here. It was sheer
luck he got picked up in that raid, but his lawyer’s already
working on his release. As for why I waited until this weekend to
say something? First, I needed to make sure you were willing to go
all the way when it came to being initiated. If you weren’t, then
you weren’t someone I was going to rely on. Not for something as
important as avenging Paul. Second?” He smirked. “When I saw Ms.
Fullerton hanging around, I knew she’d truly test how far you’d be
willing to go to maintain your cover.” His gaze shifted to Claire.
“He was willing to go pretty far,” he taunted, “wasn’t he? So far
that I’ve now got you both on tape, admitting your prior
relationship.”

He visibly jerked, causing Jed to laugh.

“That’s right. You might’ve swept the room
for bugs, but you didn’t sweep her. I planted a listening device on
her and recorded the transmission. Easy listening, I tell you, but
I won’t share it with Hoyt or anyone else unless you give me reason
to.”

Beside him, Claire winced and Ty couldn’t
stop the low growl that erupted from this throat. “I can’t promise
you immunity,” he gritted out.

“Not what I’m asking for. So long as you
play fair and do everything you can to bring Hoyt down, it’ll stay
our little secret. I can’t promise I won’t take it out now and
then, though. You two are pretty…stimulating.”

Before either one of them could respond, Jed
turned and walked away. At the corner of the building, he looked
over his shoulder. “You can thank me later, by the way.”

With that, he was gone.

It took a minute before Ty’s muscles began
to loosen. When Jed didn’t return, he looked at Claire and lifted
his hands to rub her arms. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “You?”

“I’m okay now.” He ran his hands lightly
over her shirt until he found the miniscule transmitter Jed had
planted on the back of her right shoulder. Ty cursed and crushed it
beneath one shoe. “Let’s get out of here.”

They climbed into his Jeep. Soon they were
on the main road and heading for Claire’s place. As the wind
whipped their hair around, Ty glanced at Claire, who had her head
tilted back against the seat. He reached out, took her hand, and
squeezed it. She returned the gesture. “So are you going to tell
me?” he asked.

She studied their joined hands before
sighing. “You want to know what he saw in my house to connect me
with you? How he knew you fascinated me?” She tentatively peeked up
at him, and he smiled reassuringly.

“Did he see the picture of us together?”
They’d posed for only one picture, when they’d gone into the city
and walked the water by the Bay Bridge. He’d asked a woman to snap
the picture with Claire’s camera and the notion that she’d kept it
close to her pleased him. Of course, given her previous coverage of
the Guardians, he probably shouldn’t have had the picture taken,
for the very reason it connected the two of them. He hadn’t even
considered the possibility that one of the Guardians might break
into her home, but he supposed it was just another example of how
being with Claire fried his brain.

To his surprise, Claire shook her head. “It
wasn’t a picture he saw. At least I don’t think so. It was probably
something I had — I had up on my refrigerator.”

He frowned. “What?”

“Your first name on a piece of paper. Along
with a drawing. A replica of your tattoo. The one on your right
bicep.”

“My Celtic knot?” Sure, the symbol was
distinctive enough for Jed to recognize, especially with his name
on the same piece of paper. But why…?

“It’s silly, I know, but after you left, I
missed you. I — I wanted part of you with me, and I thought, well,
if I replicated part of you on me, we’d always be together. And I
like the design. It’s pretty.” She lifted her chin, as if defying
him to laugh or make fun of her.

That was the last thing he wanted to do. He
lifted his hand from hers and gripped the steering wheel tightly.
He was overcome by an emotion that threatened to blindside him, so
he slowed the Jeep and pulled over to the side of the road.

She watched him with obvious trepidation.
“Ty? Are you mad?”

His answer was to pull her into his arms and
kiss her. It wasn’t enough. Hands shaking, he unbuttoned her shirt
and rubbed her breasts, relishing her gasps and moans. Then, acting
with near desperation, he stripped her the rest of the way, freed
his cock from his pants, then lifted her onto his lap. It was
awkward and a tight fit given the confines of the car, even after
he threw his seat as far back as it could go. The steering wheel
was probably digging into her back. But he didn’t stop. Couldn’t
stop. He needed her. Needed to be in her. Needed to —

“Ty!” She screamed when he pulled her down
at the same time he thrust his hips upwards, his dick going deep.
Penetration instantly calmed him. Wrapping his arms around her, he
buried his face in the crook of her neck and simply held her.

Hesitantly, her hands lifted to stroke his
hair and made soothing noises. It was because he was shaking, he
realized. His entire body was vibrating like a divining rod.

“Just give me a minute. I need a minute,” he
gasped.

“It’s okay. I’m here. We have more than
minute. Far more than a minute.”

He pulled back, wanting there to be no
misunderstandings this time. “I want forever. And I want you to get
that tattoo. So when I can’t be with you, I still will be. Just
like you said.”

“Yes,” she softly said, her eyes filling
with tears. “To both. To the tattoo. And to forever. But I warn
you, it’s going to be tough keeping up with me. I really am both
good and bad. Are you sure you’re up for it?”

He bounced her on top of him, and the
friction of his dick within the warm, humid walls of her body made
them both breathless. So he kept on doing it. And even after he’d
hurled her into an explosive release, even after he’d spent himself
inside her, he was still hard. She laughed and so did he, the
combined sounds filled with joy.

“I guess that answers my question,” she
said. “Now kiss me and do me again.”

“Gladly, baby girl. Gladly.”

Do you want to win an e-copy of Novella #2
in Ava's erotic cop series?

Here are the rules:

1) Simply leave a review for Copping To It
on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

2) Email the author at [email protected] to
notify her you wrote a review and give her your pen name or screen
name for that review.

3) Remember that if you bought this story
through Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple, etc. you can
still leave a review on Amazon so long as you have an Amazon
account.  

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

All reviews received by February 15, 2011,
will be entered into a drawing to receive a free copy of Novella #2
in e-format (PDF, Kindle, or ePub)

A total of 5 copies are up for grabs. Make
sure you email Ava otherwise she'll have no way to send you your
e-book if you win!  Contest closes on February 15, 2011,
midnight.  Winners will be notified by email.  Release of
Novella #2 is planned for February 15, 2011.  

 Thank you for your support!  

Ava Meyers is a former criminal prosecutor
who enjoys exploring the light and dark sides of humanity.
 Her erotica novels are steamy but also infused with that most
essential element of life — love.

You can find more about
Ava Meyers at
www.avameyers.com
.

Ava also writes paranormal romantic suspense
and romantic suspense under the name Virna DePaul.
 www.virnadepaul.com

Please read an excerpt of
Virna
DePaul’s
upcoming paranormal romantic suspense novel
Chosen
By Blood (Book 1 in the Para-Ops Novels)
(Berkley Publishing -
May 2011 - available for pre-order now on Amazon.com):

A firm knock interrupted them. Muscles pumped as if
for battle, Knox slowly stood. He didn’t turn, not even when Mahone
called for his visitor to come in.

“I came as soon as I—”

It didn’t matter that he was in Mahone’s office,
that Mahone was watching him, or that he and Mahone had just been
discussing something as important as his clan.

He hadn’t been in the same room with her in years,
but his body’s reaction to her presence was the same as it always
was: instantaneous.

Her scent hit him like a sledgehammer and was
followed by a wave of longing so intense it almost felled him. His
skin prickled and his fangs ached as he fought to keep them
sheathed. He couldn’t stop the hardening of his dick, however, or
the urge he had to grab her and transport her to the Dome. To his
bed. To someplace where duty and time dissolved, and he could just
be with her.

She didn’t gasp or take a breath. Her words simply
stopped. Something rare crystallized inside him.

Had she gotten over him? Had she found someone
else?

Another emotion—pure, undiluted rage—filled him at
the thought of her with another. It made everything else, every
other emotion he’d ever felt, seem innocuous. Made him want to rip
off his clothes—the luxurious symbols of civility that he normally
loved—and make her see him as he truly was—primal, lethal, and
fucking ready to prove to her that she was his, once and for
all.

Instead, he took a deep breath and willed himself to
calm. He opened his mind. Just a hair. Just enough to sense the
desire buried beneath her resolve. Enough to dismiss that foreign
emotion of fear and tamp down his rage.

When he was assured of his control, Knox slowly
turned and faced the human female he’d wanted to bite from the
moment he’d seen her. She was dressed conservatively in a white
oxford shirt and navy blue pants, her auburn hair pulled back into
a tight ponytail. Taller than most females, she was neither
delicate nor bulky. While most would consider her average in looks
and sex appeal, Knox saw what most didn’t.

He saw the strength in her supple body.

He saw her courage, her compassion, and her
integrity.

And at that moment, he saw the fiery sensuality that
flared in her eyes before she banked it and stared at him with a
practiced look of mild curiosity.

Felicia had always tried to hide her attraction to
him, but she’d always failed. Nevertheless, he’d abided by her
wishes and kept his distance.

But not anymore.

Not-the-fuck-anymore.

He didn’t speak the words, but given the way her
eyes widened, she’d guessed at his thoughts. Knox dipped his head
in a courtly bow. “Hello, Felicia. Imagine running into you
here.”

END OF EXCERPT

Please read an excerpt of
Lawful
Escort
, a novel by erotic romance and erotica author
Tina
Folsom
: