Damaged Goods (Don't Call Me Hero Book 2) (3 page)

BOOK: Damaged Goods (Don't Call Me Hero Book 2)
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“So all the people I arrest,” I chuckled.

“I suppose so,” she said, looking thoughtful.

I could have remarked that it wouldn’t have been the first time she’d gotten a release for someone I’d arrested, but I kept those comments to myself. Hers was a complicated familial situation. I knew enough not to bring up the topic of her father despite my burning curiosity to know how he was getting on. She’d told me he had resigned as mayor and had returned the funds he’d embezzled from the city, but that told me nothing of how the people of Embarrass interacted with him at the grocery store.

But I didn’t want to spoil our official first date with such serious conversation topics. I’d save those for the second date.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

 

At the end of the evening, we stood outside of Julia’s apartment door. She had offered to drop me off at my place on the way back from the park, but I hadn’t been ready for the evening to end. I had my arms clasped loosely around her waist while my mouth slowly explored hers. She tasted sweet like the white wine we’d had with dinner. When she bit down on my lower lip, I couldn’t help the groan that slipped out of my mouth. I felt her smile against me, knowing she’d always had the upper hand when it came to being intimate. I was just trying to keep up.

She pulled away from the kiss, but stayed close enough to tuck an errant lock of hair behind my ear. “I have to thank you for today,” she said in that low rasp that I would never get tired of hearing. “If you had told me this morning I’d actually enjoy playing miniature golf, I would have called you a liar.”

“It must have been the company,” I grinned.

“Or maybe it was all that winning I did,” she countered with a smirk.

I leaned in for another lingering kiss, ready to erase the cocky, triumphant look from her face, but she rested her palms flat against my clavicle and gently pushed me back. “I warned you earlier. I’m not in the habit of doing more than kissing on a first date.”

I blinked, not quite trusting that I’d heard her correctly. “You were being serious about that?”

“Quite.” She folded her arms across her chest and her lips pressed together. “Thank you again for a lovely evening, Cassidy. Do be safe on your way home.”

The door to her apartment shut with her inside, and I stood—dumbstruck—out in the hallway. I stared at the door and the gunmetal 8C that hung at eye level. I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t that I had been expecting sex, but I certainly hadn’t anticipated being sent away so soon or so easily. She’d said she’d enjoyed our date, but her dismissal indicated I’d blown it.

I could hear the sounds of mumbled conversations and television sets coming from adjacent apartments, but nothing from the apartment directly in front of me. After a long, uncomfortable moment, I turned on my heel to head toward the elevator. The night was still early, and I contemplated calling Rich or one of my other friends to meet up at our usual bar—until I heard the sound of a door opening.

“Giving up so easily?” Julia’s musical tone mocked me.

“Oh, thank God,” I breathed.

Strong hands fisted in the front of my shirt and roughly pulled until I had no choice but to tumble into Julia’s apartment. The door slammed behind me, and a wave of pain cascaded down my back as I found myself being forcefully pressed against the backside of the door.

“I’m a little disappointed, Miss Miller,” she remarked. “I thought you’d be more persistent.”

I bit my lower lip. It was ludicrous, but every time she addressed me with such authority and formality, my legs turned to Jello. It made me wish I were back on active duty already so she could call me Officer or Detective Miller like when we’d first met.

“You like making me work for it, don’t you?” I posed.

“Is that a real question?”

I shook my head. “No.”

My eyes swept around the interior of her apartment. I had yet to see the inside of her new place. The front room was spacious with an open floor plan. A large panel of floor-to-ceiling windows provided a stunning view of the city skyline. The floors were a dark wood, but most everything else in the apartment was some shade of white with a few metallic accents. I didn’t recognize any of the furniture as being from her grandparents’ mansion in Embarrass, not that I’d taken full inventory.

I spied a few large potted plants—red rose bushes—that perfumed the air with their distinct scent.

“Are those from your grandparents’ house?” I asked.

One of the first moments I’d begun to see Julia as mortal and not the Ice Queen everyone in Embarrass believed her to be was when she’d taught me how to prune the roses in her backyard.

She nodded. “I thought it important to bring a piece of my home with me.”

“Charming,” I remarked.

“That’s my line, dear.”

“Don’t worry.” I flicked my tongue against the outer shell of her ear. “In a few minutes you won’t be able to form complete sentences.”

If possible, she leaned even more heavily into me. Her chest pressed against mine and she continued to clench the front of my shirt in her balled up hands. “You sound awfully sure of yourself.”

I shrugged. “It’s not being cocky if it’s true.”

“Bedroom,” came her one-worded directive.

She released the front of my shirt and grabbed one of my hands instead. It was a good thing I was young and elastic as she jerked me down a hallway, presumably in the direction of her bedroom. I inelegantly stumbled behind her, my toes nearly clipping the backs of her heels.

She dropped my arm when we reached her bedroom. The room was larger than my own, but not by much. It was significantly smaller than her bedroom at the mansion, but elegantly decorated in the white and black theme found elsewhere in the apartment. The furniture was wooden and stained a rich, dark color. The head of the queen-sized bed was covered in those useless decorative pillows. Soft off-white carpeting sank beneath my feet. It would be a welcomed detail once the temperatures plummeted in winter.

Julia sat down on the end of the bed and crossed one leg over the other. Her stiletto-covered foot began to bounce. “Strip.”

“What?”

“Did I stutter, Miss Miller?” She shrewdly regarded me beneath thick eyelashes. “Or is there something about my request that has you puzzled?”

“It sounded more like a command than a request,” I observed.

The tip of her tongue appeared between her red lips, and she slowly swabbed it across her full, lower lip. “And here I thought you were adept at taking orders, Marine.”

The new title had me arching my eyebrows.

“How about a game instead?” she proposed. “The rules are simple enough—I remove an item of clothing, and you have to return the favor. A little tit-for-tat, if you will.”

“Or tit for tit,” I snorted at my own joke.

She reached for the hidden, side zipper of her dress. The sound of metal teeth being released echoed in my ears. “Just make sure you don’t fall behind,” she throatily warned.

I abandoned all of my stand-up material. My eager hands went to the front of my jeans, and I unfastened the top button. The zipper followed.

Still seated on the edge of the bed, Julia inched the bottom hem of her dress up her smooth, nylon-free thighs. The action showcased her olive-toned legs, but it also provided enough room that she was able to slip out of the top half of her dress. She peeled away the soft fabric until it bunched at her waist. Beneath the light grey dress she wore a nude bra whose demi cups hugged her pert breasts. My eyes went immediately to the tops of her breasts and to her femininely muscled abdomen.

My silk sleeveless shirt had small, difficult buttons up the front. I loosened the top two, which gave me room to pull the garment over my head without having to toil with the remaining buttons. I shook out my curls until they fell softly against my bare shoulders.

Julia’s fingers reached under the skirt of her fitted dress, and with a little maneuvering, she was able to pull her underwear off while the bottom half of her dress remained in place. The beige, lacy undergarment was discarded onto the floor.

“Your turn,” she husked.

I closed my eyes and shook my head hard. “Oh. Right.” I’d gotten distracted already.

I licked my lips and continued to disrobe. I stepped out of my ballet flats and shimmied the tight denim of my skinny jeans over my hips and down my legs until I stood before her in only my bra and underwear.

Julia’s heated stare silently regarded my near-naked body. But although she unabashedly inspected me, it didn’t make me feel self-conscious. I knew she liked what she saw. I had been blessed with natural high metabolism, and after leaving the military, I had continued to work hard to maintain my fitness even though the police academy hadn’t required the same physical discipline as being a soldier had. A decade of military service had filled out my lean, nearly gangly teenage body into the sinewy, strong woman who now stood before her.

“Come here, Marine,” she beckoned to me.

I took a few steps forward. I’d always been good at following instructions.

“On your knees.”

I dropped down in front of her and settled between her splayed thighs. I was thankful for the plush carpeting beneath my kneecaps that provided a semblance of cushion, certainly more than if the floor had been hardwood.

My hands immediately gripped her bare thighs. I ran my palms up and down the smooth, muscled skin, gently squeezing her flesh. Each time my hands slid up her legs, it pushed the bottom hem of her dress higher and higher up her thighs until her naked sex came into view.

I didn’t require additional instructions.

I pushed the skirt of her dress higher up her thighs, and her legs parted wider for me. I ducked my head and licked the entire length of her slit, pausing to circle her clit with the tip of my tongue. Her early arousal was heavy on my tongue, and I greedily breathed in her heady scent. I heard her quiet sigh when I took her clit into my mouth. One hand fell to the top of my head and the other to my right shoulder in encouragement. Her red lips parted and perfect white teeth gleamed.

She palmed her breasts over the material of her bra and squeezed. I watched her fingers spread to take a hardened nipple between her pointer and index fingers. She manipulated her own nipples to stiff peaks and quietly groaned as she continued to pinch the sensitive buds over her bra.

The muscles in her legs tensed and twitched. I held her still with solid hands resting on the tops of her thighs as I worshiped at her altar. She released a loud breath when I slid one slender finger between her folds and twisted inside her. A second finger joined the first, but I didn’t move them. I let her enjoy the fluttering of my tongue against her clit while my fingers filled her. The quiet sighs and moans that reached my ears spurred me on.

Eventually she grew impatient with my light touch, like I knew she would. Her grip on the back of my head tightened, and she began to move her hips, simulating my fingers moving inside of her, until I had no choice but to fuck her back. Her hips wouldn’t stop. Her stomach became almost concave as she writhed on the bed. Her hips rolled and bucked, never ceasing in their undulating motion.

She fell backwards onto the bedspread, and I moved with her. I rose to my feet in one fluid motion, my mouth and my fingers never losing contact. Her backside lifted off the bed and her thighs gripped my ribcage as I sank my fingers deeper and harder into her. Each time I bottomed out I heard the air escape her lungs.

With her back arched off the bed and her shoulders pinned flat against the mattress, she was at the mercy of my plunging fingers and eager mouth. I manipulated her sensitive clit, rolling it back and forth with my tongue while I repeatedly drove my first and middle fingers inside her.

“Oh, God,” she moaned. “Oh my God.”

I could feel the wetness pooling between my thighs just from the moans and words of praise tumbling from her lush mouth.

Her thighs seized tighter around my ribcage as she continued to cling to me. I curled my fingers inside of her and rubbed the spongy area of her G-spot.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she chanted between clenched teeth.

Julia released an unexpected howl of pleasure. The noise was such a surprise, I nearly stopped fucking her. But I had the good sense to continue moving my fingers and licking her clit until her orgasm subsided.

The pressure on my ribs alleviated as she eased her thighs apart and came to recline on her back on top of the mattress. She draped one arm over her eyes while I stood expectantly at the end of the bed, waiting for her assessment.

“Good God, I needed that,” she approved.

I allowed myself a cocky smile.

She moaned in satisfaction and covered her face with both hands. While she continued to bask in the afterglow of orgasm, I leaned over the bottom of the mattress and lightly lapped at her exposed clit.

BOOK: Damaged Goods (Don't Call Me Hero Book 2)
10.19Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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