Dirty Kiss (29 page)

I rocked gently, carrying my climax along its course, slowing my body. It seemed as if Jae had spent his entire spill. Bending over Jae’s heat-flushed back, I kissed at his shoulder, rubbing at his strong neck with trembling fingers as he fought for breath. I was about to pull free of his body when he reached back and put his hand on my leg.

“Stay, just for a little bit. Please,” Jae finally gasped, his voice harsh and rough. His breath staggered in his chest, unable to fall back into a steady rhythm. Weak-boned, he lay under my heavier weight, obviously enjoying being pressed into the mattress. The feel of him under me was a comfort, and I relaxed into the feeling before pulling him over onto his side.

“I’m too heavy for you,” I groaned, leaving another kiss on his back. “Here, let me get a towel.”

He complained softly when I reluctantly pulled away, but I assured Jae I’d be right back. I disposed of the condom, flushing it down the toilet, and came back with a damp cloth to clean off Jae’s trembling body. He lay on his side, letting me bathe him, and smirked when I hooked the balled-up cloth over my head like a basketball, landing it in the laundry basket by the door. Crawling onto the bed, I fit against him. Neither of us wanted to let go, and the bed creaked with the movements of our tired bodies. My heart pounded when I turned his face toward mine, and I kissed him, lingering in the taste of his mouth.

“I like this too much. It scares me,” Jae whispered. “You scare me sometimes because I want you so much.”

“This is a scary thing,” I agreed, curling up against my lover’s long, warm body. Stroking at my back, Jae leaned in and gave me a gentle, sweet kiss that left us both breathless. He rested his cheek on my chest and wrapped his arms around my waist. “If it makes you feel better, you scare me too.”

I woke
up with the taste of Jae-Min in my mouth. Sadly, I seemed to be lacking the feel of him on my body. Moving was an excruciating lesson that taught me that even my tongue appeared to have bruises on it and my hair could hurt. I blinked my eyes open and then promptly closed them again when the light set my corneas on fire.

“What time?” My voice sounded distant, lost under the white noise captured in my ears. Neko sat on the windowsill, chittering at the birds, a low clicking noise that fought with the buzz in my head. The light began to hurt, stabbing triangles of pain digging into my brain. Blinking brought tears, and the world swam, blurring back into thick swaths of color. Jae turned into a splotch of black and golden pale, a stark wave against the red ocean of sheets and dark wood.

His vowels were rounder again, stretched from speaking Korean. I decided I liked the sound of it, a burble, like tea being poured into a cup. Swallowing the melt, I nearly choked on the sliver of ice, saved only by Jae’s fingers working on my throat.

“Sorry,” I repeated. There was a fuzzy memory of hot kisses and then Jae’s sinful mouth on my nipple. After that, everything went black. I had a feeling there was a lot I had to apologize for. I risked opening my eyes and found Jae sitting on the bed next to me.

One of my old shirts swallowed his slender frame, and the marbled purple spots on his throat were turning yellow around the edges. I tried lifting my hand up to trace one of the bites, but my arm refused to obey me. His face turned to a watery gold as my eyes went wonky, and blinking only seemed to make things worse.

“Kiss,” I demanded, using my apparent uselessness to secure some affection.

“No, not until you brush your teeth.” He laughed, refusing me. “Come on, I’ll help you up. You probably need to pee, too. Scarlet’s coming to get me. I need clothes, and she wants to shop. Are you going to be all right if I leave you?”

I am not susceptible to the power of suggestion. My dick had had other things on its mind until that moment, and suddenly the bathroom looked like heaven. Shakily, I got to my feet. Jae’s height hindered me a bit, his long legs tangling in mine as I slid off the bed when my knees gave out.

“I’m okay. Have fun shopping,” I said reassuringly, and Jae rolled his eyes at me. He waited until I waved him off before closing the door behind him. My arm ached after I was done brushing my teeth, but a shower was a necessity.

Splatters of purple and red covered my temple and worked down one cheek. Mike teased me about being pretty, but I’d not take home any dog show prizes in the condition I was in. A trail of dried blood, smeared from a thin slice over my right eyebrow, matted the hair at my temple. My mouth was slightly puffy, and I rubbed at my lower lip, feeling the bite of Jae’s teeth on it.

Turning the showerhead on to full, I didn’t wait until the water turned hot before stepping in. The icy shock bit into the cuts on my back, growing warmer until steam covered my body and pushed the pain on my skin into my frazzled nerve endings. After drying off, I pulled on a pair of jeans and picked at the scab on my forehead. My house had a cat in it, and one of my favorite T-shirts was gone, but it made me smile. I’d never thought missing clothes from my dresser could bring a flicker of something bright to my heart. I finished dressing and headed downstairs.

I was working on getting information when the house’s peaceful silence was shattered by Claudia coming through the front door.

“You finally dragged your sorry ass out of bed,” she greeted me warmly, almost as if I were one of her sons. “’Bout time. You’ve got some things to sign.”

“Love you too.” Mumbling, I sipped at the cup of coffee I’d made myself, grateful for the jolt. Its black bitterness mingled with the mint of my toothpaste, and I swallowed, watching Claudia over the cup. I signed off on the papers she put in front of me, drinking half of my coffee as I read the contracts. The paper on the bottom caught my eye, and I waved it under Claudia’s nose. “What’s this?”

“Insurance payout for your car. They were quick. I’m surprised they’re still going to cover you.” She sniffed, pulling herself up to get herself a cup. Back in less than a minute, she stood over me, placing a hand on her wide hip. The bright red flowers of her dress were as vivid as the bruises on my face, and I turned my head before my eyes were burnt out from the color. “They sure gave you a lot of money for pieces of scrap metal.”

“It was a good car.” The amount was ridiculous, but then, the insurance company hadn’t seen the car before it had become tinsel all over the road and the front of my building. “Did the rental company drop off a car for me?”

“One of those blocky SUV things that rich people drive with no sense.” Claudia sat down, the couch creaking under her. “It’s in the carport. I put a big sign on it that says, ‘This is
not
Cole McGinnis’s car. Please do not blow up’.”

“Well, you said please. That’ll make all the difference.” I nodded. “Thanks, Claudia. For helping Jae and, well, for everything.”

“Boy’s easy to take care of. Very pleasant and polite. You could learn something from him.”

“That’s what you think.” I snorted. “He’s about as easy to take care of as a hedgehog with a toothache. Did they give you the keys? Or is it like an Easter egg hunt?”

“Giving you keys to that car is possibly the stupidest thing I could do in my life.” She dug them out of her purse, slinging them across the table in a skittering glide. “You going to do something equally stupid?”

“I’ll leave Jae a note for when he comes home so he doesn’t worry.” I grabbed the keys from the table and leaned over to kiss Claudia on the cheek. “Don’t wait up for me, Ma. I’m going to go see a man about a dead Korean hooker.”

“You taking Bobby?” she yelled at me before I could close the door behind me. “You’ll need someone with you when you do this stupid thing you want to do.”

“Nope.” I grinned at the scowl wrinkling her round face. “He can go find his own dead hooker.”

The
laptop and some digging gave me Brian Park’s address and a few personal tidbits. Park graduated from USC and was the third son of a prominent Korean family, mostly doctors and engineers, but a lawyer wasn’t anything to sneeze at. He had a juvenile record, sealed against my prying. No amount of finagling proper channels would get around the seal, but there were ways to get to the information if I really wanted it.

Bobby was taking care of that for me. Cops still liked him. Some even admired him for his silence during his years on the force. I didn’t have that kind of popularity. Hell, I was pretty sure a few of Ben’s friends used my face for target practice.

Ben.

I pulled the SUV into a shady parking lot and sighed, wanting to force my mind from wandering around the memory of my partner. The steering wheel dimpled my forehead, gouging into the bruises on the side of my face, and I laughed, remembering Ben teasing me when I would rest my head in the unmarked we shared.

“Can’t steer with your nose, McGinnis,” he’d say, flicking a fingertip across his own nose. “You need one like this.”

His Italian father’s blood gave him hawkish features, dark eyebrows, and a strong profile as well as a booming laugh. He’d known I was gay before he met me. I’d never hidden it, and no one gossips like a cop. Ben crowed over my cockiness, poking at my arrogant confidence when he told me I should just keep my mouth shut.

“No one needs to know your business, Cole,” Ben once told me over a beer after a hard night’s work. “If you’re different, no one wants to hear it. They can ignore anything if it’s not in front of their faces. You’re better off just keeping your mouth shut.”

I disagreed with him, sure in my rights as a person that I should be able to love anyone I wanted. Ben must have thought otherwise. I’d never know. His reasons for trying to kill me had died with him.

“Fuck that.” I shoved Ben back into the closet where he belonged. Wiping at my face, I jumped when my cell phone chirped at me, then danced across the passenger seat as I chased it with clumsy fingers. Flicking it open, I answered, hoping Bobby would have something for me.

“Hey, Princess,” he drawled, and I heard Claudia in the background admonishing someone for not wiping their feet. “Funny thing. I’m at your house, and you’re not here. I thought we agreed that you weren’t going to go gallivanting off without me.”

“You agreed to it,” I responded, flipping open my case notebook and finding a pen in the backpack I’d slung on the seat. “Do you have anything else on Park that I need to know? I’m heading to his place right now.”

“Anything I can say to get your ass back here?” More commotion crept around the edges of his voice. Then a riot of laughter prevented me from hearing anything else he said.

“What the hell’s going on over there?” I asked, pointedly ignoring his question. “Sounds like you’re having a party. If you are, don’t break the good china.”

“It’s like a bad joke over here: a black woman, a Filipino transvestite, and a Korean ex-stripper walk into a gay man’s house. All that’s missing is a priest and a talking dog.” The noise grew softer, and I heard the screen door close, its peculiar snick as the door latch caught. “I’m serious, Cole. You shouldn’t be out there wandering around alone.”

“I’m fine. My eyesight’s clear, and I’ve stopped hallucinating, except for the little pink lizards, but I hear that’s normal. Bobby, for the last damned time, what the hell did you get?”