Detecting Desires (2 page)

The constant pounding at my door dragged me from bed.
It was 2AM, not that I was sleeping. I was beating myself up for acting like such an airhead at work, and the batteries in BOB had died, leaving me frustrated and even more annoyed. BOB was my battery operated boyfriend, and after the way I had been turning to mush around Riley, I thought I might need to take him out for a spin just to take the edge off. Obviously, I was destined to be horny and alone. Or so I thought.

“Hey,
Lexie,” Riley stood, leaning heavily against my doorjamb, “I thought you could use this.” He wreaked of tequila and was clearly drunk. “God, you have such pretty eyes.”

“So do you,” I responded, pulling my robe tighter around my waist.
“How much did you have to drink? Did you drive here?”

“Just a little bit.
And no, I took a cab.” He reached into his pocket and fished out my cell phone. “You left this at work. ‘Cause if you didn’t, I wouldn’t have known where you lived. And I could have called to tell you you left your phone instead of just showing up.”

“You came all thi
s way just to bring me my phone?”

“Uh-huh,” he gave me a huge lopsided smile, “okay, goodnight.” He staggered backward away from my apartment.

“Michael,” I called, going into the hallway and grabbing his arm, “why don’
t you come in? The last thing you need to do is wander the streets. What would Holowitz think if he has to bail you out of the drunk tank in the morning?”

“Good idea.”
He let me lead him inside my apartment and onto the couch. “You’ve got a lovely place,” he was staring wide-eyed at the room. “I used to have a place kinda like this, except the walls were beige and the couch was brown.”

“How about I make you some coffee?” I poured the water and put a dark roast cup into the machine to brew.
A minute later, I carefully put the mug on the table in front of Riley. “Drink some coffee, Detective.”

“Michael,” he insisted.
He picked up the cup and took a long sip before putting it down. “Did I interrupt anything?” His fingers found the sleeve of my robe and he played absently with the material.

“Not at all.
I was just trying to fall asleep.”

He looked apologetic.
“I should go. Unless,” his eyes traveled up the silk robe, from the belt around my waist, to my breasts, stopping at my lips, and eventually settling on my eyes, “you want to do something else.” My breath caught in my throat. My lips had gone dry and my tongue immediately moistened them. Riley was drunk. Was this taking advantage? Didn’t men do it all the time, I justified.

“Like what?” I asked, studying his blue eyes, his perfectly formed grapefruit red lips, and wanting nothing more than to run my hands along his shoulders, his torso, and downward.

He scooted closer, so close I felt his warm breath against my neck as he gently nibbled on my earlobe. I tilted my head to the side to give him better access and his lips moved to my neck. Finding my pulse point, he sucked gently and a slight moan escaped my lips. The stubble on his cheek brushed against my chin as he pulled back and then placed his lips on mine.

He tasted of tequila as his tongue gently urged my lips apart and slipped into my mouth.
I heard a faint groan coming from the back of his throat, and he eased me flat against the couch cushion. “Lexie,” he whispered, breaking the kiss, “aren’t you impatient?”

Glancing down, my hands had a mind of their own and had unbuttoned his shirt and were working on his belt.
“Sorry,” I replied, swallowing. “I just thought…”

“I like a girl who knows exactly what she wants.”
His eyes burned with lust, and the look caused my stomach to flip. Even though we had done nothing but kiss a little, I could feel the heat beginning to pool between my legs. “Just give me a second to catch up,” he remarked playfully. His eyes turned devilish, and he tugged on my robe’s belt. It immediately came undone, almost as quickly as I was, and the silk fell to the sides. “Better than what I expected,” he said appreciatively, leaning down to place a trail of kisses across my neck and collar. Thankfully, I was wearing a pair of lace trimmed panties and a cami. It wasn’t the sexiest lingerie, but it was preferable to the ratty t-shirt and shorts I had slept in the night before.

“Oh,” I moaned, as his hand caressed my left breast and he suckled the right through the
material. My nipples were taut and I arched up into him, wanting him to remove the cloth barrier that was in our way. “Michael,” my voice was ragged, filled with desire and need. He stopped momentarily, and I sat up. He pulled my top over my head and found my lips once more. Our tongues did battle as I tugged his unbuttoned shirt down to his elbows, and he released the grasp he had on my face long enough to shed some of his clothing as well.

“Now where was I?” he asked playfully, his eyes dancing in the dim light.
He pushed me back on the couch and alternated between nipping and licking along my cleavage, my breasts, and my nipples. I squirmed underneath him, being overtaken by desire and wanting to feel him inside of me, wanting the release I hadn’t had in far too long. Finally, he bit the skin covering my ribs, and I jerked from the sudden jolt of pain that had caught me off guard. He smirked evilly.

“Turnabout is fair play,” I purred, deciding my own needs could be fulfilled only after I made him experience the writhing, ready-to-explode feeling that he had caused me.
Pushing him backward, I straddled his lap, sensitive and aware to the feel of the rough denim against the barely there cotton of my panties. My hips rocked automatically, wanting to ease the burning desire that had been building since the day we met. He let out a groan at the sudden pressure, and I felt his erection rub against my opening. If only we didn’t have the few layers of material blocking our ability to join together. Oh shit, rational thought suddenly flickered on inside my brain. “Do you have a condom?”    

“Fuck.
I wasn’t planning on…this.” He rubbed his eyes, sobering from the alcohol and our making out. “You don’t have any in your apartment?”

“News flash, even though I worked for vice, it doesn’t mean I entertain men frequently.
I’ve been having a dry spell lately.” I felt his hand leave my ass, and he circled around to my thigh and brushed against the sopping wet cotton at my crotch.

“I think the dry spell’s over.”
He grinned. “And I’m sure between the two of us, we can come up with something else to do in the meantime.” A single digit slipped underneath the fabric of my panties and brushed against my lower lips, causing a delightful shiver.

“Well, when you put it that way.” I locked onto his lips, and o
ur tongues found a rhythmic caress as he teased my opening and occasionally brushed against my clit.  “Oh, god,” I cried, not willing to let him get the upper hand just yet, no matter how much I wanted it. “Stop. You’re still wearing too many articles of clothing for this to be mutually fun.”

“Oh, I’m having loads of fun.” His eyes were clouded with desire.
“The noises you’re making are making me so fucking hard.” His hips bucked as I began trailing kisses down his neck, along the cords to his shoulder, back to his pectoral muscles. My mouth lavished his chest in kisses as my fingers deftly traced the deep crevices outlining his abdominal muscles. He was in amazing shape. He wasn’t bulky like a body builder. He was trim and lean, but his muscles were all well pronounced and ended in a deep V at the waistband of his jeans. I playfully nipped at his nipple and his hips jerked again. And I felt his restrained cock twitch upward.

My fingers found the way to his opened belt, and I undid the button of his jeans, slowly tugging on the zipper.
“This can’t be comfortable,” I said, pulling it all the way down and reaching inside to set his imprisoned manhood free. I extricated him from his pants, and he picked me up off his lap and tugged his jeans down, leaving only his now-tented boxer briefs in place. From what I could tell, he probably made the guys in the locker room envious.

Pushing me
back into a horizontal position, he removed my panties and pressed his palm against my center. “You’re so wet,” he sounded amazed. Carefully, he slipped a finger inside, and I let out an exhale at the pleasurable invasion. “And you’re insanely tight.” He pumped that single digit inside of me a couple more times before pulling out and popping it into his mouth to taste my juices. The sight made me even hotter. He stroked my clit and my hips bucked wildly. He began placing kisses along my stomach, heading south at an achingly slow pace when both of our phones rang.

The sud
den intrusion caused me to jump into a seated position. Reaching for my newly returned cell phone, I saw it was the precinct.

“Duty calls,” he muttered, standing up and reaching for his discarded jeans as I attempted a level of modesty and quickly pulled the robe around me before reaching for my underwear.
He met my eyes. “This was fun. Perhaps next time, we ought to be better prepared, so it will be even more fun.” Before I could slip back into my panties, he leaned down and kissed me hard on the mouth as he pushed two fingers inside and created a frenzied rhythm until my muffled cries were joined by my inner walls clenching spasmically around his fingers. He slowed his pace until the aftershocks from my orgasm had subsided. He pulled back from the kiss, and removed his fingers, leaving me feeling empty. He pressed his lips to my forehead as I took some deep breaths, my heart rate slowly returning to normal. “But there’s no reason why we should both suffer in the interim.” He grabbed his shirt and buttoned it as I remained in a gelatinous state on the couch. “I’ll see you at work.” 

I arrived at work almost an hour later.
The voicemail message had said to come in, and given that it was the middle of the night, an hour was a reasonable timeframe. I wasn’t sure how I was going to react to seeing Michael after what had just transpired in my apartment. Honestly, I was beginning to wonder if any of it was even real. Could I have dreamt the entire thing?

“
Lexie,” Kemper said, “we’ve got reports of a hold-up at Tenth and Albemarle. The detectives are on scene, but there have been two more calls, one at an apartment that we canvassed, and the other took place two floors above. Until Holowitz’s dream team can tear themselves away from the hold-up, they want us lowly officers to maintain the two other crime scenes.”

“Great,” I muttered unenthusiastically.

“Let’s get going. I need back-up to ride along.” I followed Kemper from the building and out to the black and white cruiser he was assigned. “What were you doing when you got the call? You look way too awake for four a.m.”

“I might have been dreaming.
I’m not entirely sure. But the wide awake thing tends to happen when the super fails to fix the hot water in your shower,” I pointed out.

Kemper drove through nonexistent traffic and we made it to the scene in ten minutes.
A few cruisers were out front and as we went upstairs, I offered to take the seventh floor if he kept watch outside the fifth floor apartment. The responding officers were in charge of taking statements and talking to the victim’s, the neighbors, and making sure no evidence grew legs and walked away. I was there to keep all the nosy looky-loos away.

Leaning against the wall, I fielded some radio chatter on the scene, the victims, suspects, and what was allegedly stolen.
It was grunt work, but most police work tended to be. My mind wandered and my eyes threatened to close. I shifted my weight onto my other leg, and crossed my arms, hoping not to fall asleep.

“Does anyone have a twen
ty on Riley?” I heard Holowitz ask over the radio. Hmm, apparently he hadn’t arrived at work yet. Although since he was slightly inebriated and probably in need of rectifying the condition he left my apartment in, maybe he had gone home to sober up and take care of other matters. I listened, but no one had any idea where he was.

After spending the next thirty minutes keeping watch outside one of the two tossed apartments, a man approached.
“Office Sarcone?” a cop I didn’t recognize asked.

“That would be me.
How can I help you, sir?”

“I’m with the crime lab.
The responding officer requested I print the place.” He showed me his identification and badge. “Can I begin?”

I radioed for verification before letting the crime scene investigator into the apartment.
He got to work and we chitchatted for a time as he spread black powder and placed tape over the fingerprints. “I heard the owner was at the station for questioning. She came home to find some stranger in her apartment. Thankfully no one got hurt,” I told him.

“The amount of burglaries lately has been insane.
From the scuttlebutt I’ve heard, it’s some new gang’s initiation method. Granted, I’m thankful it’s not randomly popping people, but still,” he shook his head, “shouldn’t America’s youth have better things to do with their time, like play gory zombie-killing video games and smoke pot behind the school gym. At least that’s what we did as kids.”

I giggled.
“And yet you still became a police officer.”

“Crime tech,” he clarified.
“Completely different. I can be a video game loving dork, and as long as I lay off the illegal substances, the department seems happy with my work.”

“Nice.”

He was just shutting his briefcase, having properly labeled the samples and tagged and numbered everything, when Detective Preston arrived. She nodded to the tech as he packed up his belongings and left the building. “Sarcone, I’ve got it from here. Did you notice anyone suspicious or did anyone try to enter the apartment while you were here?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Okay, go back to the station.
Holowitz has added the three burglaries from tonight, and he’s devised a new plan of attack.”

“Yes, ma’am.”
I turned to leave.

“
Sarcone,” she called, “Riley is back at the precinct, make sure you tell him to pop in and see Holowitz before he tries to sneak out and avoid the briefing.” I nodded and continued down the hallway to see if Kemper was ready to leave.

~*~

“Hey, Lexie, can you do me a favor?” Kemper asked. I had just finished pulling a double after being called to work in the middle of the night and then staying on for my regular shift. I wasn’t in the mood to do anyone any favors.

“What is it?” I asked, wishing I
could just tell him no.

“Can you copy your notes from
Holowitz’s debrief? Since this thing just keeps getting bigger, Hawking and I got asked to assist.”

“Here,” I hit print and pointed to the community printer across the room, “help
yourself. Just so you know, it’s pointless really. The detectives just want us to work on their paperwork and keep all the files in order. We aren’t doing any actual police work. We’d be better off going out on our normal tours than pulling desk duty.”

“Are you complaining,
Sarcone?” Riley asked from behind me. I had no idea he was there. Not that it should matter. Ever since he left my apartment in the middle of the night, he was giving me the cold shoulder. He hadn’t even offered a friendly smile, let alone a single word that wasn’t work related. Maybe he realized we shouldn’t be involved. We worked together, and maybe this was just a huge mistake. “Because I’ve got a box of old cases that needs to be assessed for similar MOs. Can you get right on that?”

“I’m off the clock,” I growled, annoyed for being made to feel like an idiot.

“You’re a cop.
There is no clock.” I spun in my chair and caught the slightest amused glint in his sparkling blue eyes. “The box is on my desk. You should get started.” He sauntered away, leaving me no choice whatsoever.

“Asshole,” I whispered to his retreating back.
This is exactly what I get for giving a guy a chance. None of them were worth it. I was ranting to myself as I pulled the chair out from under his desk and opened the file box. As promised were a stack of files, but there was one other item inside the box. Glancing around, I plucked the sticky note off the smaller box.

“Thought these might come in handy next time” was scrawled on the paper that had been attached to a box of condoms.
I was sure I was beet red as I quickly shoved the lid back on the file box and dragged it to my desk. Once there, I carefully looked around before opening my bottom drawer and tossing the condoms inside. At least I hadn’t dreamt the entire thing.

Resigned to doing actual police work, I called in Officers Kemper and Hawking to be my reinforcements and together the three of us managed to find two old cases that fit the descriptions of our current crime spree.
At least it was a start.