For the first time since I’d started sleeping in the back of the bookshop, I climbed into my cot and slept like a baby. I sank hard into strange dreams of faceless men chasing me through the shadows as I shrieked for help. No matter which way I turned, I ran further into danger.

I woke with a start, looking around in near panic, disoriented by the dark and the loud pounding that seemed to be coming from everywhere. As the frenzy of the dream faded away, I was able to remember where I was. The bookshop that was slowly eating me alive. And someone was hammering on the door.

I checked my phone. It was three in the morning. Groaning, I got out of bed and shuffled out into the main part of the bookstore just as whoever was out there banged on the door again, making me jump and slap my hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. I padded to the door slowly, trying to see who was out there.

Officer Scott’s face appeared in the glass.

I froze halfway across the sales floor. My body reacted on its own, a flood of warmth starting just below my stomach and stirring between my legs. My skin tingled. My cheeks flooded with heat.

He saw me standing there in my shorts and nightshirt and motioned for me to open the door.

I’d done a little more reading about this man after our tryst in the park. I knew how dangerous he was, how people tended to die around him at an alarming rate, how he’d once been married to a woman who ended up divorcing him after several domestic violence calls. He was bad news, in other words, and I had enough of my own trouble to last three lifetimes. I didn’t need to take on his as well.

But I couldn’t deny how much I’d loved having his hands on me. And I liked that he was trouble. It was something you could smell on him. A thing you could taste as soon as he stuck his tongue in your mouth.

My mind was still going on with its arguments against letting this dirty cop inside the bookstore while my body was carrying me across the floor and opening the door. Nothing good could come of this, my mind decided, and I agreed. But who said I wanted something good?

He came inside, his spicy, masculine smell nearly knocking me off my feet, and locked the door behind him. He was dressed in street clothes.

“I told you I’d be back,” he said. He took me by the back of my neck and brought me to him, pressing his lips onto mine and kissing hard, his tongue entering my mouth while I moaned and collapsed against him. After a few steamy seconds, he pulled his head back, leaving me breathless. I tried to lean into his lips again, but he held me back.

“Get on your knees,” he commanded.

I dropped to the floor without argument, running my hands down his body, from his chest, over the bulging crotch of his pants, and to his firm, muscular legs. I looked up at him as he unzipped his pants, pulling out his long, thick cock. He took the back of my head again and directed my willing mouth towards him. He moaned as I started to suck on him, moving my tongue around the head first, and then gently down the shaft. His skin was warm and salty. I pushed him as far into my mouth as he would go, sucking hard.

Moaning, he held me steady while he pumped his hips into my face, working his cock deep into my throat. He was so goddamned big. I was doing my best but it felt like he was trying to choke me to death. His hips pressed harder into my face and I gagged.

Chuckling, he pulled out of my mouth, leaving me gasping on the floor. “You’ll get better at it, Angela.”

As he helped me to my feet, I couldn’t get over how much the air sizzled when he was around. I knew how much trouble he was and I couldn’t stop myself from wanting him. He kissed me gently, ending the kiss by sucking hard on my bottom lip while I dropped my hands to his cock and closed my fist around it.

“Do you want to fuck in that little bed of yours?” he asked, and smiled that dangerous smile that drenched my panties more they already were. The itch between my legs was unbearable. I needed him down there, inside me. I wanted him so fiercely it hurt.

I nodded. “Yes.”

He pulled my nightshirt over my head. I wasn’t wearing a bra. He pushed the shorts off my hips, letting them fall to my ankles. I stepped out of them, now completely naked. He turned me around and got me moving in the direction of the storeroom with a smack to the ass. I went inside and sat down on my cot. He stripped off his clothes and joined me, the cot straining under our weight. He pushed me onto my back, his fingers already between my legs and stroking fast.

“You’re ready for me,” he whispered.

“Fuck me as hard as you did in the park,” I said, opening my legs wider, giving him as much access as he would take.

He smiled and dropped his long, heavy body on top of mine, the cot straining even more. He moved his hips between my legs, that gorgeous cock pressing my lips open. I lifted my ass and he entered me. I moaned with the thrill of having him inside me again, filling me up as every nerve fired from an overload of bliss. He moved over me, our bodies rubbing together, his cock burying itself into me up to the hilt. I screamed his name and slid my hands down his back to his ass, squeezing those powerful muscles as he thrust rhythmically.

I came in a flurry of heat, his grunting in my ear and hips plunging between my shivering legs, still exhausted from the park. My face felt flushed as blood rushed to my cheeks and made them tingle. I begged him to keep going, my voice breathy and guttural as his cock lit me on fire from the inside. All those nerves prickling along my walls as he thrust in and then out again. I closed my teeth on his shoulder, biting as hard as I could. His hips jumped, his dick jamming into me as light flashed before my eyes, the pleasure so intense and painful for an instant, I couldn’t breathe or think.

A deep, sensual growl rumbled in his chest, turning me on more than I already was. I lifted my hips as he pushed himself into me as deep as he would go, his growling getting louder as his muscles strained hard. He came with a shuddering movement of his hips, and I moaned his name again, still shivering from the aftereffects of my own orgasm.

He relaxed into me, his body smashing me into the cot, which had held up surprisingly well under our rabid fucking. My legs were as useless as overcooked spaghetti and I couldn’t quite catch my breath. But I also couldn’t wipe the smile from my face, like the head of his dick had magically unlocked something wonderful hiding deep inside me.

“I patrol this neighborhood,” he whispered, his words rumbling into my chest. “I can drop by all the time.”

I ran my hands up his back, loving how warm and solid he was. I hadn’t even known this man existed yesterday, and now I couldn’t imagine wanting to fuck anyone else.

“We should probably just leave each other the hell alone,” I replied, grinning up at the ceiling in the dark, my muscles ringing with all the pleasure they’ve had over the last few hours. “My life is completely fucked and so is yours.”

He chuckled low in his throat. “Then what do we have to lose? It’s sex, plain and simple. I’m not looking for a girlfriend.”

“Am I going to end up dead like that witness?” I asked, only half joking. What if that drug kingpin, who’d left the city after the case against him fell apart, came back? Would I be in danger? I found I didn’t care. After a lifetime of following the rules and waiting for my turn, now I wanted what felt good. A life full of careful decision making hadn’t earned me jack shit.

He didn’t laugh this time. “Smarter, more dangerous people have wanted me dead and failed. But this isn’t about him. It’s about you. And me. You liked the park, right?” He lifted his head to see me nod. “And tonight?” I nodded again. “Then I’ll be back tomorrow. If you don’t want more, just don’t answer the door.”

He stood from the cot and put his clothes on while I watched. I followed him out to the sales floor and locked the door after he disappeared into the night, leaving me standing completely naked behind the glass, my thighs sticky and shivering from the hot strength of him, my mouth raw from his kiss.

I gathered my night clothes from the ground and went back to my cot in the storeroom. I tossed them into a pile on the floor and got back in bed. My sheets smelled like him, my dirty, bad boy cop. I could feel the imprint of his fingertips all over my body. I didn’t care about the risks. I wanted him. When he came tomorrow night, I knew I’d welcome him with open arms. And legs. I was getting hot just thinking about it.

I nestled into my pillow, still grinning, and fell right back to sleep. This time, only sweet dreams came for me.