Razor's Edge: Men in Blue, Book 2 (28 page)

“You don’t know? Or you won’t say?” Anger rose in her, born of betrayal. Didn’t they trust her after all?

“We can’t afford to influence your thinking, baby.” JRad covered for them all. “Come on. We’ll drive you to the station. Let the detectives ask you their questions. Their way. You may know more than you think.”

“Promise you won’t leave me alone?” She peeked over her shoulder to where Razor sat on the floor. “If someone is out there…”

“I’ll stay with you the whole time. I swear.” He rose, crossing to her side. “Nothing will happen to you in our house.”

She deflated, settling into his open arms, soaking in the strength of his embrace. “Okay. I have faith in you, James. In all of you. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

Isabella whimpered as she rubbed her arm. Taking pain pills which would muddle her thinking and dull her senses had seemed like a bad idea when she needed to remain on high alert. Despite the reassurance of the cops she’d come to adore, she couldn’t put herself totally at ease around all the strangers who bustled through the station.

So each time Razor had handed her medication from his post in the corner, she’d faked swallowing the capsules then hoarded them in her pocket. More than twelve hours later, her pants bulged like a chipmunk’s cheek. When she’d consented to this, she’d had no idea how many different people would pepper her with questions.

For the most part, she hadn’t minded. Except after repeating her answers to the basic inquiries time after time, she’d started to burn out. That didn’t include the emotional drain of her perpetual embarrassment. She’d suffered when her replies revealed the bareness of her upbringing and the dysfunction of her marriage.

The lowlight of the day had come when they arranged for a doctor to confirm her virginity to support her claims around the horrid images she’d surrendered as evidence. She cringed, remembering her mortification as she’d huddled under the paper gown. Razor had held her hand through the entire ordeal.

“Isabella?” The grey-haired detective working with her tilted his head.

“I’m sorry.” She checked the ID at his hip. “Could you repeat the question, Detective Roberts?”

“Joe, I think she’s had enough.” Razor’s palms settled onto her shoulders, his fingers massaging with light pressure. “We’re not going to get anything more today.”

“I think you’re right, rookie.” The detective stretched his hand across the cheap plastic table to shake hers. “Thank you for cooperating, Ms. Buchanan. It’s been a pleasure meeting you. If you remember anything else…”

“I’ll let you know.” She finished for him.

“You really have been here too long.” The kind-faced cop shook his head. “Razor and his squad will escort you home. They’ll take good care of you.”

“I know.” Her genuine smile overcame her weariness. “They’ve done a great job so far, sir.”

As if on cue, the door to the interrogation room opened. She flinched into Razor’s waiting clutch, relaxing when she recognized Matt and Clint. They must have supervised from behind the one-way glass. Unknown stares had burned into her all day as she revealed some fairly personal business.

Maybe that’s what had her so disconcerted.

She accepted Razor’s hand as he guided her from the room, through an endless tangle of hallways to the backseat of a patrol car. He settled her in the crook of his arm for the ride to his apartment. The simple space felt more like home after two days than Malcolm’s mansion had after two years.

What would she do when this mess had blown over or they were booted from
Dance With Me
and Razor moved on to his next assignment? Would the attraction zinging between them persist or did his endorphins dictate this kind of response on each new case?

She sat up straighter as she wondered.

“What’s wrong, Izzy?”

“Did last night disqualify us from the competition?” With everything else that had happened since, she hadn’t considered the possibility.

“Nah.” Razor stroked her bangs off her forehead. He kissed the bare skin there. “I checked with the network this morning. I guess they played the footage from our dress rehearsal for people to vote on. There’s no way we’ll be eliminated this week. Besides, an on-air shooting is great for their freaking ratings.”

Her eyebrow arched at his caustic tone. She bet someone had received one hell of an earful after making that comment. His concern moved her. She flicked her eyes toward the two men in the front seat. They did a commendable job of feigning disinterest.

If their presence bothered Razor, he didn’t show it. He groaned as he used his knuckles beneath her chin to angle her jaw into position. Then he swooped in, nibbling at her mouth. He tasted like the jelly donut he’d stolen from the desk of one of his friends. Delicious.

His left hand curled around her waist as his arm slid into the gap she’d left between the seat and her back. His palm stroked her thigh, causing her to sigh. She shifted her legs to provide him better access. What would he do with the opportunity?

The heat of his touch brought her alive, forced her to experience more than the exhaustion and pain dissolving her strength.

She loved it. She craved it. She needed more.

Her hips rose, grinding into his roaming hand.

“What the…” He stiffened beside her, yanking his lips and tongue away as though burned.

“Why did you stop?” Had she done something to discourage him? She froze, afraid to make things worse.

“Izzy!” When he threaded his fingers into her pocket, she understood his outrage. “You didn’t take any of these? All day? Christ. You sat there and suffered for twelve fucking hours? No wonder you look like shit.”

“Gee, thanks.” She had an iota of vanity remaining.

“Razor, take it easy.” Matt warned from the front seat. “I wouldn’t have altered my reasoning capability either. Think about it a minute. She’s no dummy.”

Harsh breaths reverberated through the car for a solid thirty seconds before James calmed. His forehead touched hers. “I’m so sorry. I should have noticed. I’m angry at myself, not you, princess.”

“I did what I had to. That’s all.” She relished the freedom and easy companionship allowing her to press a gentle kiss to his parted lips. “I’ll take them tonight. I promise.”

“You amaze me, Izzy.”

He returned her affection with interest in a caress of lips that stole her breath. Their exchange escalated until everything outside the two of them ceased to exist. She couldn’t say how long they made out, exploring and feeding the magnetism welding them together. Long before she was ready to stop, Clint blasted them with cold air, which gusted through the open door.

Her nipples pebbled against Razor’s heaving ribs.

“Get a room, kids. We’re here.”

James panted in the silence before scooting from the car. It relieved her to see their exchange affected him as much as it did her. Weak-kneed from the arousal coursing through her, she didn’t resist when he lifted her into his arms. Instead, she drew a meandering squiggle across the cords of his neck as he carried her up the stairs, which he took two at a time.

JRad opened the door when they approached, ushering them inside. “Things were quiet in here today. The apartment’s clean.”

“Thanks.”

She hardly recognized Razor’s growl.

Jeremy grinned, surveying them both, unable to miss the color staining their cheeks or their swollen lips. “Seems like you’re in a hurry. I’ll hit the road. Have a good night.”

He winked then disappeared.

Razor set her on her feet long enough to lock the door behind their friend. When he hesitated with his back to her, she grew nervous. Uncertainty rushed in to occupy the chasm between them. Why had he stopped touching her?

The universe made sense when they met skin on skin.

Isabella drew a fortifying breath. She laid her hand on his shoulder. He twitched beneath the tentative contact, his hands fisting at his sides. Instinct erased her confusion, her pain and the reluctance bred by her inexperience.

“Come to bed with me? Hold me?” She approached him, resting her cheek between his powerful shoulders. Her arms wrapped around his waist. The good one slid higher to allow her to caress his chest. The other lingered above the band of his jeans. Her fingers teased his flexed abdomen, tracing the valleys between his defined muscles. “Touch me?”

“I don’t know if I can, Izzy.” His honest response broke through gritted teeth. “I want you more than my next breath. You’re not ready…”

“Don’t you think
I
should decide when I’m ready?” She didn’t know where she found the courage for her unskilled seduction, but she rotated her hand until her fingers dipped beneath the denim to cup his erection.

The hard-on encased in cotton she expected turned out to be hot, velvety bare cock instead. They gasped together.

“You’re so thick.” She whispered in awe as she recalled how he’d throbbed in her fist the other night and the taste of his come in her mouth yesterday. “Long and salty.”

He groaned, but remained frozen like the gorgeous marble statue in the center of her favorite garden fountain while she toyed with his shaft. She daubed the bead of fluid seeping from the tip over the head of his cock with one fingertip.

“I want to know what it’s like to make love to a real man. I’d be honored if you’d be my first.” When he didn’t respond, she blanched. Her hand retracted. “Unless… I mean… That’s if you’re interested.”

“I’m not interested in being your first, Isabella.”

Air whooshed from her lungs as she stumbled back a pace. He turned, his arms banding around her, preventing her from tumbling to the carpet.

“I want to be your only.”

Chapter Nineteen

Isabella couldn’t deny the fire blazing in Razor’s eyes as he walked her to his bedroom. He flung open the door, flipping the switch to illuminate the scene he’d set inside with the soft wash from his bedside lamp. His sweet efforts had her turning to him once more, adoration radiating from every pore.

A whimper escaped her chest when he evaded her seeking lips again. Frustration prodded her. “What? What now? I’m not married anymore, James.”

“You were
never
married to that piece of shit. He used you. He conned you. Nothing more.”

“Then I don’t understand.” She glanced away from the intensity of his gaze.

“Look, this was a bad idea. When we left this morning… I don’t know. As usual, I didn’t think things through. I didn’t expect to be at the station all day. You’re hurting. You just lost one of the only people you cared for in the world, even if he didn’t deserve your friendship.” Razor knocked his skull on the doorjamb three times in quick succession. “I want you. Desperately. Please don’t doubt that, princess. But you should have more than this. You deserve something special. Someone extraordinary.”

He gestured to the cheap bottle of wine sans glasses and the flowers, which looked suspiciously like the bushes in his complex’s landscaping, overflowing a chipped coffee mug. A handful of petals dotted the neat but mismatched bedding he’d turned down.

“Nothing could mean more to me than your thoughtfulness.” She stood on tiptoes, tugging his hair until he met her gaze. “I’ve had fancy things. They don’t matter without emotion. And I can’t imagine anything more special than the magic consuming me when I’m with you.”

“Izzy—”

She silenced him with a kiss. Talking became unnecessary when they communicated on a primal level more effective than words. Here, they were in tune. When he’d calmed, sipping from her proffered lips, she pled her case.

“Please give me what only you can. I’ll try my best to be everything you need.”

“You already are, princess.”

Her trembling fingers caressed his cheeks as she bracketed his face in her palms, urging him nearer. When his lips hovered a hairsbreadth from connecting with hers, she whispered, “Show me how to love you.”

Razor groaned into her mouth. He nudged her hoodie from her shoulders, careful to avoid scraping the area surrounding her bandage. They both paused to wince when he revealed the dark bruises there.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” He deposited a trail of butterfly kisses beside the tender area while his broad hand glided over her ass. “We can wait as long as you need to.”

“I’ve waited my whole life for this moment.” She grasped the hem of her tank top, shimmying it up her torso to reveal her belly and her bubblegum pink bra to his appreciative stare.

“God, yes. You’re so damn pretty, Izzy.” Razor sank to his knees before her. He licked along the protrusion of her hip bone, a fraction of an inch above the top of her pants. His fingers tucked inside the waistband to ease the light fabric lower until it pooled at her feet. “I can’t say no when I want you so bad. No matter how much I should.”

She blushed when he nuzzled the crotch of her matching panties, drawing the scent of her obvious arousal into the depths of his lungs with a huge inhalation. His hand clenched on her hips, his fingers squeezing her ass as he moaned.

“I swear I’ll make this good for you.” He ran his hands down her thighs, her knees, her calves until he lifted one foot at a time from the puddle of fabric. The socks were swept from her feet beneath the pressure of his wondrous hands. He stood, taking her fingers in a gentle grasp as he led her to his bed. “Not this time. Not today. Always.”

Isabella sighed. She rubbed the aching peaks of her breasts through the delicate material of her bra while he drew the covers to the foot of the bed. She’d lost the ability to speak beneath the weight of both her emotional and physical desires—needs he promised to fulfill.

Razor had to touch her soon or she’d do it herself.

When he turned, he groaned. “You’re sexy. Stunning.”

She bit her lip as she considered all the times she’d tried to tempt Malcolm and failed. What if she couldn’t satisfy James?

“I’ll wipe out all the bad memories lingering in your eyes. Love you until all you remember is the heat, the pleasure…our desire.” He placed one hand on her spine, nudging her forward. “Nothing before now matters.”

“For either of us.” She kissed him as she passed, unable to forsake the opportunity to taste him again before she climbed onto his bed, kneeling with her ass on her heels. “This is
our
first time.”