Nicholas
I walk into the lobby of Emerson’s apartment building and immediately the doorman eyes me curiously. It wasn’t the same man who witnessed me leaving this morning after my heated hallway encounter with a gorgeous girl. This one is older and much more observant; his eyes follow me carefully as I move in closer. “Good evening sir, may I help you?”
“I’m here to pick up Ms. Mansfield for the evening,” I say confidently. He continues to watch me and I walk over toward the panels of buzzers and hit number twelve. Just as her voice rings out through the intercom, my phone begins to vibrate on my hip.
“I’ll buzz you up, Nic,” she says just as the buzzer sounds and the door toward the elevator that will take me up to her floor opens, allowing me to enter.
“Vaughn,” I say into my phone as I tap floor six and wait for the doors to close behind me.
“We have a call about a body found in the lower garage of Trevor Tower.” I lean back against the wall of the elevator, a feeling of disappointment hitting me. “Gunshot wound to the head, a second to the shoulder. The entrances of both appear to be from the back. The Captain needs you on the scene.” The elevator doors slide open and I step out, pausing once they slide closed behind me.
The door leading to the woman I’ve been dying to see since the moment I left here earlier this morning is only a few feet away. “I’m about twenty minutes out,” I tell Richards before ending the call. The truth is it’s more like five, but there was no way I was leaving here without seeing Emerson first.
My legs are moving before I have a second to register it and my hand is fisted before me as I knock on the door of her apartment. My heart feels like it is hammering in my chest. The moment the door opens, I step forward and hook her around the waist, pulling her body against me. My lips are crashing against hers; for a few seconds, I forget the interruption I’d gotten only moments ago.
Much like earlier in the day, the silk material of her dress feels terrific beneath the palm of my hand as I gently trace over the contour of her hip.
“Wow,” she mumbles, “that's some hello.”
I smile against her lips, unable to hide my excitement as I lean back just enough to see her face. “It’s hello and goodbye.” Her head tilts carefully to the side, a look of confusion covering her beautiful features. “I hate to do this, but I just got a call. I have to investigate a scene.”
I don’t miss the disappointment in her eyes; believe me, I understand because I feel it too. “Okay,” she offers hesitantly and instantly I hate how agreeable she is. I want to hear her tell me she wants, no, she needs me to stay.
I don’t attempt to move, only continue to hold her close. “I don’t know how long this is gonna take. It could be an hour, it could be four.”
“I understand.”
Don’t, I want to tell her.
“I wanna come back here.” I lift my hand and comb my fingertips through the hair that hangs loosely around her face. “We could order in and just talk if that’s what you wanna do, but I still wanna see you.” She nods and I find myself grateful that she is just as eager for my return. I pull my phone from my pocket and pass it to her. “Put your number in.”
I take the chance to look her over, admiring the long sexy dress she chose to wear and the way it conforms to her body, showing off the shape of her slender waist and perfect hips. Fuck, leaving was going to be hard.
“Here you go,” she says, regaining my attention as she passes my phone back to me. For a few passing seconds, we do nothing but stare at each other. I can almost see the same struggle in her eyes that I feel.
“I better go,” I say though I reach out to grip her hip once more and pull her body to mine. “But you should know that it’s almost impossible to get my legs to walk in the opposite direction. The only thing I truly want to do is go back to this morning, to that moment I had your body pressed up against the wall, and you made that sound when you felt just what you were doing to me.”
I love that look in a woman eyes, that moment they become so turned on they temporarily lose track of the words they want to speak. The way their eyes dilate, or their chest begins to rise and fall, only bringing attention to their breasts. Fuck, there was nothing else like it. That conquering feeling when I know they feel what I’m touching nearly brings me to my knees.
I don’t give her the chance to say anything in return. I didn’t need her to because her body language says what I am desperate to know. I lean in and kiss her thoroughly enough to hold her over until I’m able to get back here. When I step back and she continues to keep her eyes closed, I get that empowering feeling all over again.
I begin to walk backward just as she starts to open her eyes. “By the way Em,” I use the nickname I heard Gianna call her so many times the night before, “you look fucking beautiful standing there in that dress, your cheeks flushed with the arousal you feel.” She tucks her chin to her chest in what I assume is embarrassment. “Can’t wait until later when I’m able to make you feel that way all over again.”
Just as the elevator doors slide open, she lifts her chin and her eyes meet mine. A smile covers her mouth just before she bites her lower lip and I step inside and hit the button to close the doors before me. A feeling of extreme frustration washes over me when what I just left behind hits me.
* * *
I left the crime scene after three hours of going over every detail again and again. It appeared to be gang-related. The man’s tattoos were those of a gang we’ve been watching for some time. There were no signs of a scuffle, just a straight shot to the shoulder and one to the back of the head. We’ve had a string of gang-related murders in the area over the last few months.
After hours of analyzing and questioning any witnesses who may have seen anything helpful to solve this crime, I was wiped. What my body wanted to do was go home and climb into the shower before calling it a night, but my mind wouldn’t let me.
My night should have been filled with the company of a green-eyed beauty. By now we’d have already shared dinner, maybe a few drinks. I would have taken her back to her place, or hell, even mine, where I’d give her the chance to keep things casual, though I presume she wouldn’t. I could sense the way her body reacted to my touch that she isn’t a woman who wants to remain simple acquaintances.
I walk the half a block to my car, and once I climb inside, I pull out my phone and bring up Emerson's number.
Nicholas: Did you wait for me?
After I hit send, I wait for her response. With each passing second, I grow even more anxious. Just as I’m about to send a second message, my phone vibrates, and an image fills the screen.
“Fuck me,” I mumble as I turn my phone from one side to the other trying to gain the best angle. “Is that lace?” I am sitting in my car in the dark talking to myself, but fuck, I will own that shit. I am not ashamed to look a little crazy. Not when I have this image now embedded in my mind.
Emerson: I was just about to give up on you and satisfy this ache I feel all on my own.
A sound escapes me that resembles a weep as another image comes through of her tiny hand slipping just beneath the waistband of the sexiest fucking pair of lace panties I’ve ever seen.
I hit the phone icon, and the call connects to my Bluetooth as I start my car and throw it in drive.
“What, no more texting?” Her words sound breathless and I wonder where the hell this sexy little vixen came from.
“Can’t type and drive, baby,” I say as I turn the corner and punch the gas. “You waiting for me, or are you touching yourself?”
When she moans my foot slips off the gas and I grip my steering wheel tighter.
“You’re gonna cause a wreck, Emerson.”
“Are you having difficulty concentrating?”
“Any man would with those sounds filling his ear.” The streets of Chicago had never before seemed so long. “You can warm up all you want, but you should know that I’ll be taking over once I get there.”
“That’s what I’m hoping.”
“You sure that’s what you want, Em?” If she says no at this point, I swear to god I’ll fucking cry. “I need you to consider very carefully that the moment you allow me inside your body, I will be revisiting, often. Whenever the opportunity prevails, I’ll be making you scream out my name.”
“Sounds yummy.”
I roll past her apartment building slowly as I search for the first available parking space. “Where the hell did the shy girl I left only a few hours ago go?”
“She got turned on for the second time in a row and then left alone again to allow that arousal to build to dangerous heights.”
“Remind me to turn you on often.”
“Something tells me that would take minimal effort.” I can almost see the smile on her lips. “The code is four, one, six, two, and Nic, hurry up. I’m not sure how much longer I can wait.”
Then the call ends and I practically sprint toward the entrance of her apartment building. My hands shake with all the adrenaline coursing through me as I attempt to punch in the code on the keypad near the doors.
It takes three attempts, but the moment that door opens I feel my legs begin to shake.