Justice for Boone: Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes, Book 6 (16 page)

When Hayden came back to herself, she felt Boone still kneeling behind her. One wet hand was gripping her hip tightly, and the other was caressing and gently rubbing her soaking wet folds. She felt him kiss her ass. “Fucking beautiful.”

He stood up and she heard him tear open a condom wrapper. “Put your legs closer together now, Hay.” She did as he requested and Hayden felt Boone’s hardness push up against her core. He dipped his knees and his length slid along her folds, coating himself with her juices. Boone didn’t waste any more time. The bulbous head of his cock entered her, then pushed inside her with one long, steady thrust.

Hayden came up on her toes in her shoes. “Oh! Boone!” It burned a bit as it had been a long time since she’d had anything other than her slender vibrator inside her, but the burn slowly changed to a full feeling that made her feel consumed by the man standing behind her.

Boone held still and leaned over her on the bed. Hayden could feel his weight along her back and suddenly she wished she was naked so she could feel him skin to skin.

“Am I hurting you?” Boone’s voice was low in her ear. He took her hands in his and laced their fingers together, keeping them on the bed.

“N-no. It’s just…you’re big.”

“I am. And you’re not. But you feel fucking awesome, Hay.”

“Yeah, you feel good too,” she admitted.

Boone pulled out slightly, then pushed back in. Hayden flexed her inner muscles against him and he groaned. “Yeah, that feels amazing. Do it again.”

She did, and got the same result. He pulled away and came back inside her slower this time. He did it again, and again. Hayden squirmed and tried to push against him as he thrust into her the next time.

“In a hurry?”

“Boone, come on.”

“Oh, we’ll come all right.”

Hayden rolled her eyes, knowing he wouldn’t see her. “Please, I’m okay. Fuck me.”

“I am.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I might not have taken my time tasting every inch of your body, but I
will
take my time in this and make it good for you.”

“Boone,” Hayden whined, trying to push against him as he once again came back inside her slowly and methodically. She wondered what it would take for him to lose that iron control.

“Yes, Hayden?”

She remembered then what he’d told her earlier. If he wanted her to beg, she’d gladly do it if it would make him hurry up. “Please.”

“Please what?”

Hayden could hear the smile in his voice. “Please, fuck me. I want to feel you pounding into me like you said you would. Your fingers felt great, but your cock feels even better.” She heard the hitch in his breathing this time. Bingo.

He thrust into her harder and didn’t wait before pulling back out and doing it again. Hayden groaned. “Yessssss.”

Boone released her hands and put his own on her back. “Lean over further, sweetheart.”

Hayden did as he asked immediately. Her position put her ass higher up in the air. Boone grasped her hips and pulled her into him as he thrust in that time. They both groaned.

“God, you feel so good. So tight around me. So wet. I can feel your wetness against my balls. You’re soaking me.”

“Faster, Boone. Please.” It should’ve felt weird to be fully dressed when Boone was naked, but all she could think about was how he felt inside her. All thoughts of being embarrassed or how she was supposed to be frigid left her mind. Boone and his cock were the only things on her mind at the moment.

He went faster. He snuck one hand under her and brushed her clit as he thrust in. “Yeah, Hayden. Yeah.”

They worked in tandem this time. When Boone pulled out, Hayden pressed herself against the bed; when he pushed back into her, she pushed toward him, making his thrusts harder and faster. The sounds of her ass slapping against him were loud in the room. He continued to strum her bundle of nerves until he could tell she was close.

“Do it. Come for me, Hay. I want to feel you squeeze me dry.”

When Hayden wailed in relief at her release, Boone held himself still inside her, reveling in the feel of her inner muscles contracting against his hard flesh. He enjoyed it for a beat, then thrust in and out of her as fast as he dared and still not hurt her. All it took was four thrusts and he exploded.

Boone couldn’t hold back the long groan, as it felt as though he’d emptied every ounce of fluid he had in his body into the condom. He rested his forehead on Hayden’s back for a moment, before pulling upright.

Boone eased out of Hayden’s body, enjoying the hell out of the groan that left her mouth as he popped free. He put a heavy hand on her back. “Stay put for just a second, Hay. Okay? I’ll be right back.”

“Mmmmm.”

Boone smiled at Hayden’s lack of response. He felt like she sounded, but he couldn’t collapse on the bed until he took care of her. He went into his bathroom and got rid of the condom. He turned on the water, more glad than he could say for his expensive water heater. He wet a washcloth in the warm water and headed back out into his bedroom, smiling.

Hayden hadn’t moved an inch. He stood there for a beat admiring the view. She was sexy as all get out—and all his. Her head was against the mattress and her arms were resting on the bed over her shoulders. Her ass was in the air and her legs in the sexy hose and heels were on display.

Amazingly, Boone felt his dick stir. Jesus, he was forty, not sixteen.

He went over to Hayden and touched her back, making sure she knew he was there. “Let me clean you up, then we’ll make you more comfortable, okay?”

Boone watched as Hayden nodded. He put the warm cloth against her folds and almost laughed out loud as she came back to life. She pushed her chest up from the bed and turned her head to look at him. “Uh, I can do that.”

“Nuh uh. I’ve got it. Relax.”

Hayden put her hands back on the mattress, but she certainly wasn’t relaxing.

Boone ignored the thought that he wanted to clean her up with his tongue, which would end in another round of fucking, so instead finished up with the warm washcloth. He dropped it on the floor, deciding to deal with it in the morning, and helped Hayden stand upright and off the stool. “Arms up, sweetheart.”

Boone couldn’t believe Hayden was being as docile as she was, but he wasn’t going to question it. He lifted her sexy dress up and over her body, leaving her standing there in nothing but her bra and thigh highs. “Holy fuck, Hay. I should’ve done you this way.”

She giggled at him, actually giggled, then lightly smacked him on the shoulder. “Boone!”

He reached behind her and deftly undid the hooks on her bra, and watched as she lowered her arms and let it fall to the floor. She had marks under her breasts where the underwire had pushed in on her all night. Without thought, he brought his hands up and massaged her breasts. “That has to hurt.”

Hayden sighed in relief. “Well, it doesn’t feel good, but after wearing a bulletproof vest all day, this is nothing. Besides, I’d say it was worth it the way you were eyeballing my tits all night.”

Boone laughed. She never said what he expected her to. “True. Feel better?”

When Hayden nodded, he knelt at her feet again. He unbuckled her shoes and carefully put them to the side so they wouldn’t trip over them when they got out of bed in the morning. She put her hands on his shoulders and he knew she watched as he took the first stocking in his hands and rolled it down her well-toned leg. She lifted her foot when he got to the bottom and then he did the same to the other one. Again, she held on to him as she lifted her foot so he could remove the delicate hose.

Finally, they were both completely naked. Boone stood up and wrapped his arms around Hayden’s back. One hand rested on the right side of her waist, and the other he put on her left shoulder blade. His fingers wrapped around to the front of her body, and he held on tightly. Hayden wrapped both hands around his shoulders and leaned the side of her head against his as he snuggled into her. They stood like that, their bodies as close as two humans could be to one another, and reveled in the closeness and intimacy.

Hayden felt cocooned in Boone’s arms and even though she was smaller than he was, she hoped he felt the same kind of comfort in her arms as she did in his.

Finally, Boone pulled his head back. “You need to use the bathroom?”

Hayden shook her head, so Boone pulled back the comforter and the top sheet and gestured for Hayden to crawl in. She did and he followed. He turned off the light on the side of the bed and pulled her into him. He lay on his back and she snuggled into his side, her head resting on his shoulder and one arm over his stomach.

“You gonna sleep okay without Ellie?”

Boone felt Hayden burrow her head into his shoulder and groan. “I’m so embarrassed you know about her.”

He smiled. “It’s not a big deal.”

“It is to me.”

“Tell me about her?”

Boone wasn’t sure she would, but after a long moment, he heard her say in a soft voice, “When I was four, I received a baby doll—I called her Molly—in the mail for my birthday. I’m not even sure now who it was from. It might have been mom’s sister, but I have no idea. Anyway, I loved that thing. I carried it everywhere. Dad hated it. I mean, he
really
hated it. He’d rather I played with the trucks and balls he got me. One day, Molly was gone. I cried for days. I know it irritated my dad because he kept telling me to get over it already. To man up.”

“He said that to you? To man up?” Boone asked incredulously. “At
four
?”

Hayden nodded and continued. “Yeah. Anyway, Mom came home with this ridiculously ugly stuffed elephant to take the place of Molly. Dad allowed it because an elephant wasn’t as girly and weak as a doll. Since Molly had disappeared when I was sleeping, I made sure that wasn’t going to happen with Ellie. I’ve slept with her every day since.”

“What happened to your doll?”

Hayden shrugged. “Dad threw it out. He despised it.”

Boone was pissed for her, but tried to stay relaxed. “It makes sense that Ellie became a security blanket of sorts for you.”

“Yeah. And I know it’s not normal for me to still have the thing, much less to still be sleeping with it. Hayden, the tough-as-nails cop sleeping with a fucking stuffed animal…but it makes me feel…” Her voice trailed off.

“Secure,” Boone answered for her.

He felt her nod against him. “Yeah. I guess. I feel like Linus with his blanket though.”

Boone kissed the top of Hayden’s head and held her closer to him. “It’s cute as all fuck. I don’t care. Whatever it takes for you to feel safe and comforted is what
I
care about. If that means you’re sleeping with a stuffed animal when you’re eighty, and thus
we’re
sleeping with a stuffed animal when we’re eighty, so be it.” Boone felt Hayden’s arm jerk against him for a moment, as if surprised by his understanding, and he smiled as she turned her head and kissed the top of his shoulder tenderly. She didn’t say anything, but the light kiss said it all.

They lay together in silence and Boone knew the moment Hayden fell asleep. Her arm became dead weight on his stomach and she started breathing deeply through her nose. He smiled and kissed the top of her head. Sexy as hell and cute as fuck. It was a combination that definitely worked for him.

H
ayden had never been
good at “morning afters,” but Boone didn’t give her a chance to feel weird. She’d woken up to his hands running over her body, and he’d spent forty-five minutes doing just what he’d said he’d do—worshiping her. When Hayden didn’t think she’d be able to stand one more second of his lips on her skin and not have him inside her, he’d taken pity on her and made slow, sweet love to her. They’d both exploded and lain there dozing until Boone finally roused enough to get up.

He’d kissed her on the forehead, said he’d get up and shower and find her something to wear, and when he was done in the bathroom, he’d get her up. Hayden had gone into the bathroom later and realized he’d somehow found a size large—instead of the XXL he wore—T-shirt and a pair of running shorts that would work until she could get her own clothes. The shorts obviously were his, but since they had a drawstring, she could tighten them enough so they wouldn’t fall off.

She’d showered, blushing at the love bites she’d found on various parts of her body, and gotten dressed. Boone didn’t have a hair dryer, so she’d simply combed her hair and put it up in a ponytail. She’d gone downstairs, expecting to feel weird about what they’d done, but found, to her relief, that they were comfortable with each other.

She and Boone had eaten a leisurely breakfast, with Boone explaining that his employees were responsible for the cows that morning, and he’d driven her home. He’d kissed her passionately, his hands roaming her body, when he’d dropped her off, and they’d promised to get together again soon.

Thirty minutes later, she’d received a text from Boone.

Miss you.

Hayden smiled.

Ditto
she’d texted back.

You working tomorrow?

Yeah.

A couple minutes went by before Boone texted her again.

Any chance you’d take pity on an old cow farmer and let him spend the night with you tonight?

What time you getting here?

Hayden felt giddy. It was silly, but she really liked Boone and was thrilled he seemed to like her back.

Probably after dinner. I’ve got a heifer who’s going to drop her calf anytime now. I want to make sure she’s okay.

Sounds good. See you then.

He hadn’t answered, but Hayden wasn’t worried. She spent the day cleaning her apartment and making sure it looked all right. She didn’t think Boone would care, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

Around eight, Boone knocked on the door and the second Hayden let him in, she was in his arms and he was urging her down the hall to her room.

“You eaten?” he asked in between kisses.

“Yeah, you?”

“Uh huh. But I could eat something else.” Hayden knew exactly what he meant because of the lecherous gleam in his eye.

Boone eased Hayden’s shirt up her body and dropped it as they continued to her room.

“What time do you have to be in in the morning?” Boone said as he used one finger to slide her bra strap off a shoulder.

“Eight.”

“Okay, good. We’ve got all night, and I have plans for this gorgeous body.”

Those were the last words they’d spoken for a long while.

T
he last three
weeks had been idyllic for Hayden. Most nights she either spent out at the farm with Boone, or he came to her. It wasn’t until the week before that Hayden clued into some of the things Boone had been doing for her and called him on it.

They’d been standing in her kitchen and Boone was doing the dishes from dinner.

“You need to stop it, Boone.”

He didn’t even flinch, just methodically kept putting the dishes into her little dishwasher. “What do you mean? Stop what?”

“This. The dishes. My laundry. Making dinner. Picking me up and dropping me off at work, giving me massages, rubbing my feet…all of it!”

Boone calmly dried his hands on a towel hanging off the fridge, and then put it back and leaned against the counter when he was done. He crossed his feet at the ankles and looked at her. “So you’d prefer if I sat at your table and watched you cook or didn’t bother putting your clothes in with mine when I washed them?”

“Well, no, but—”

“And do you hate it when I rub your feet? Are my massages that horrible?”

“You know that’s not it.”

“Then what’s the problem, sweetheart?”

Hayden struggled to put into words what she wanted to say. “I can take care of myself.”

“And?”

“And you’re not letting me.”

Boone had taken a deep breath and pushed off the counter and came to her. “So when you met with all my employees and told them what to do if they saw Dana…that wasn’t
you
taking care of
me
?”

Hayden opened her mouth to respond but he continued before she could.

“And when I came in the house after losing that calf, and you ran me a bath, and let me hold you all night long because I was devastated…I shouldn’t have let you do that either?”

“Boone—”

“It’s called being in a relationship, Hay. We take care of each other. Of course we can take care of ourselves. We’re adults. But when you’re in a relationship, you do things for the other person because you want to. Because it makes you feel good. Because you
like
them. Do you enjoy looking out for me?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah. And I like looking out for you too. Especially since it seems to me you haven’t had that. So let me…okay? If I do something truly out of your comfort zone, let me know and I’ll curb it. But, Hayden,” Boone leaned down and kissed her forehead and looked her in the eye, “I’ve never felt this way about someone before. It makes me feel good to take care of you, in bed and out. Okay?”

She’d nodded, and that night he’d shown her just how well he could take care of her, both in the shower and in her bed.

In appreciation, Hayden learned that she didn’t mind getting up close and personal with Boone’s cock after all…and taking care of him right back. Going down on him would never be something she loved, but seeing how much pleasure he got out of it, and knowing she was responsible for making him lose some of his tightly held control, made it that much more enjoyable…especially when he reciprocated and made her lose all sense of who and where she was.

They hadn’t heard much from Dana, but Hayden suspected she was the one responsible for the petty shit she’d been dealing with. One morning she’d gone to leave for work, only to find all four of her tires were flat. Another night, there had been a pizza delivery man at her door every thirty minutes for five straight hours. The pranks were petty and amateurish. They weren’t life threatening, but they were definitely annoying. She’d taken note of each one and put it in a thickening file at work labeled simply, “Dana.”

Hayden grabbed the mail from her box and put it under her arm as she unlocked her door and went inside. She dumped it on the kitchen counter as she went to change. She came back after showering, wearing her fat pants and an oversized T-shirt Boone had left at her place. It had a longhorn steer on the front with the words “Hatcher Farms” over the top and his website underneath. It was soft and well-worn from many washes, and Hayden loved it. It was definitely going to be living in her drawers, with the
Think Chicken
shirt, instead of his from here on out.

She opened the fridge and took out a bottled water as she contemplated what to eat for dinner. Hayden wasn’t in the mood to cook, as usual, so she popped a microwave meal in and set the timer. She shuffled through her mail as she waited for her dinner to be done.

There was a medium-sized yellow envelope in with the mail, with no return address. Her name and address were handwritten on the front. Hayden opened it and dumped out the contents onto the counter—and froze.

Staring up at her were at least a dozen pictures of herself and Boone, except in every single picture, her face had been scratched out until it wasn’t recognizable anymore.

There was no note with the pictures, but Hayden knew who they were from.

Fucking hell.

The last time either of them had suspected Dana’s handiwork was when a gate at the back side of his property had been propped open. At least a dozen cows had wandered over to the neighboring property and had to be rounded up. It wasn’t a huge deal, luckily the owner of the farm next door was an upstanding and understanding man, but if there were any calves born from the heifers’ time with the neighbor bulls, they couldn’t be sold. Boone would take a hit from having to wait to breed those cows again.

They both suspected Dana, but there had been no proof. Hayden had even asked the crime scene techs to come out and take a look at the gate, but they hadn’t been able to pick up any fingerprints other than Boone’s and those of one of the hands, who was responsible for that section of fence. And the cameras that had been installed hadn’t operated correctly that night. Boone was dealing with the security company that had improperly installed them, and they’d promised to get them up and running again, correctly this time. He was pissed that they hadn’t worked when he’d really needed them to. The owner was apologetic and had refunded half of the cost of the system because of his employee’s mistake.

But this. This was different. Hayden looked at the pictures strewn on her counter as if they were blood stains spreading across the surface. The pictures proved Dana was still pissed, and honestly, Hayden could see why, especially since Dana still considered Boone “hers.” In the pictures, she and Boone were kissing. Hayden could see his hand on her breast in one, and most of the time in the others his hands were on her ass or lower back. And Hayden’s hands were all over Boone in the photos as well.

They would’ve been sexy if they weren’t creepy—and of course, if Hayden’s face hadn’t been obliterated in every single one. Dana had obviously been following them for some time, letting her anger increase over their blossoming relationship. She probably hoped their growing feelings for each other would fizzle out, but since it was obvious they were flourishing as a couple instead, Dana had felt the need to do something drastic.

Without touching the pictures, and ignoring the dinging of the microwave announcing that the dinner was ready, Hayden called Juan, who she knew was on duty.

Juan arrived with Scott, another deputy who worked at their station.

“There’s nothing we can do, Hayden,” Juan told her regretfully. “You know as well as I do, this isn’t breaking the law.”

Hayden paced back and forth in her small kitchen. “Yeah, but
you
know as well as I do it’s only a matter of time before Dana snaps and does something crazy. We’ve
seen
this time and time again.”

“He’s a guy, Yates. I’m not sure what the problem is. She’ll get over it eventually; in the meantime, he can suck it up and deal.” Scott’s tone was dismissive and bored.

Hayden turned to Scott and got right up into his face. “Have you ever been to a crime scene and seen someone’s head blown off?”

Scott took a step back from an extremely pissed off Hayden. “Uh—”

“What about a car wreck where a man’s body was smushed into tiny pieces because his brakes failed or he swerved into oncoming traffic?”

“Look, Yates—”

Hayden again cut him off, on a roll. “Just because Boone is the most masculine man I’ve ever seen in my life, doesn’t mean a woman who feels jilted, even when she wasn’t, can’t hurt him…
especially
when he’s too honorable to fight back. She can blow his head off as easy as
that
.” Hayden snapped her fingers in Scott’s face and didn’t back down when he flinched.

“And it’s not
him
she’s targeting right now either. It’s not
his
face that’s been scratched out in every single picture, it’s
mine
. Don’t ever say that someone will ‘get over it’ when it gets to this point.” Hayden threw her hand out at the defaced pictures on her counter. “This woman is crazy. A fucking piece of paper isn’t going to keep Boone, or me, safe. The only thing that’ll keep us safe is documenting every single one of her bat-shit crazy actions, and hoping that one will definitively lead back to her and she can be arrested for violating that fucking piece of paper.”

“Easy, Yates,” Juan said, putting a supportive hand on her back.

Hayden turned to Juan. “You know I’m right, Juan. You
know
it. She’s escalating. It’s textbook.”

“I do know it,” Juan said. “That’s why I’m going to package up these pictures and bring them in. We’ll get them processed. In the meantime, keep an eye on your six, and on Hatcher’s too. Got it?”

Hayden turned to glare at Scott and said in a calmer voice, which was all the more effective because she wasn’t screaming, “From that first call when she broke into Boone’s house, then lied to the cops about him hitting her, to vandalism, to drugging me while I was out enjoying a night with my boyfriend. Then my tires, the fence, the damn pizza deliveries…oh and don’t forget the dead
cat
on my doorstep. Textbook escalation, Scott. Next time, don’t be a flippant ass to someone who says they’re being stalked and are concerned about their safety, or that of someone close to them, when they come to you for help.”

“I’m sorry, Yates,” Scott told her, sounding contrite. “You’re absolutely right. I’ve seen domestics where the woman is guilty before. Not a lot, but some. I was out of line.”

“Damn straight,” Hayden nodded, not quite willing to forgive the other deputy yet.

“Keep me in the loop, yeah?” she told Juan, nodding at the pictures he was picking up with gloves and putting into a plastic bag.

“Of course.”

“Thanks.”

Hayden waited until they left and paced, debating what she should do. Finally, she snatched up her phone and texted Boone.

You up?

They hadn’t planned on meeting that night because Hayden worked late, and had to get into work early the next morning. But she then had three full days off and they were planning on holing up at the farm. She’d been looking forward to hanging with Boone while he went about his regular farm day, but more importantly spending as much time as possible with him in his tub, and shower, and bed.