Chapter 11
I like my force like I like my coffee. Dark.
-Coffee Cup
Tai
My day was shit.
I was tired. I was hungry, and my eyelids felt like they were lined with glass.
My eyes bulged as I read over the email I’d just received from my brother.
I replied quickly with a, “What the fuck is this?”
A word document that was on Mia’s computer. Just thought you’d want to see it, was my brother’s quick reply.
I’m a country girl, looking for a God-fearing, country boy who loves to get dirty but doesn’t hate getting cleaned up, either. I’m not interested in partying and staying out all night, unless it’s wrapped up in a blanket, standing in front of a bonfire with a beer in my hand. I need a man that’s not offended by my mouth, because when my Dallas Cowboys are losing, I tend to lose control of it.
I’m a simple girl at heart that loves being on horseback, four wheeling and reading. And by reading, I mean binge reading many, many books a week. I love reading. I love to get lost in a fictional character’s world. I need a man that’s willing to let me be me, but who’s also willing to whisk me out of that fictional world and demand I spend time with him. I need somebody to be my other half. Be the Johnny to my June. The peanut butter to my jelly. The cheese to my macaroni.
If you think that’s you, I’d love to meet you.
Sincerely, a book nerd, country girl searching for her country boy.
I dropped my phone onto the pillow next to my face, tired as hell from the day’s events.
Too tired to deal with that shit.
A fucking personal ad?
What was I?
Chopped liver?
She’d just sent me a text, for crying out loud.
My stomach tried to eat itself again, and I was reminded for the fourth time in less than five minutes why my day had sucked.
Fires were becoming more and more frequent lately, and the strange thing was that after each fire, a reporter had recounted the facts in the events that’d taken place in the newspaper before we’d even told the next of kin.
It was getting out of hand, and the brass was taking it out on us since it was obvious one of us had been talking…but the scary thing was that none of us would.
And now I had to think about that singles ad that my brother had just sent me.
How he’d gotten it, I didn’t know. But I was damn sure going to find out.
I just had to get a few z’s, first.
I woke up less than fifty minutes later with another call.
I trudged down the stairs, skipping the fire pole in fear of falling flat on my face from two stories above seeing as I couldn’t feel my fuckin’ arms and walked over to my bunker gear.
I was glad I wasn’t on the medic truck and required to actively think right then.
I didn’t think that I could think.
“Yo,” Drew said. “I need you to drive. Something’s going on with my hand, and I don’t know what’s wrong with it,” he said, opening and closing his fist.
“It’s broken, you dumb shit,” PD said as he walked up behind me as I looked at Drew blankly.
“It’s not broken, fucker. It’s probably just sprained, is all,” Drew shot back.
“Sprained from too much jacking off,” PD countered. “Since it’s obvious your wife hasn’t been giving it to you lately.”
I scrubbed my eyes and stepped into my bunker gear, totally disregarding the two idiots still fighting.
Mainly because I was busy trying not to think about the state of my own wrist.
I’d been doing a lot of one-on-one action with myself since I’d met Mia, and I wasn’t very proud of the fact. So to have the two idiots at my back reminding me of that fact wasn’t sitting well with me.
Then, to make matters worse, I pulled out of the station and immediately ran over the curb as I was turning.
“One gallon on Tai!” The cruel motherfuckers at my back and sides crowed loudly.
I winced.
My head was killing me.
“I’m not buying a fucking thing unless it’s Blue Bell,” I said. “I’ve totally and completely boycotted all other ice cream.”
The boys grunted in acknowledgement. They all know that there has been a shortage of our favorite ice cream since it was so popular.
“That’s why we have a tally board hanging up next to the fridge,” Bowe said.
I shrugged.
I’d buy the ice cream.
It was a good morale booster.
When someone was driving the engine, if they hit the curb, they bought a gallon of ice cream. It was as simple as that.
They ribbed back and forth, talking about the merits of having ice cream over having good ice cream.
The conversation carried us all the way to the patient’s address.
“Shit,” Bowe said from the seat beside me. “This is going to suck.”
My brows furrowed as I pulled the big engine up to the curb and got out.
“Why?” I asked once he joined me.
The neighborhood we were in wasn’t the best. In fact, I would qualify it as one of the lower income housing areas in the city. It wasn’t the worst, but it definitely wasn’t The Point on the golf course, either.
“They said it’s a water rescue, and I don’t see any water at all,” he said. “And there’re no pools in this subdivision. It’s against city code.”
We walked forward, stopping when the frantic woman that opened the door started screaming.
“Ma’am,” I said in my most authoritative voice I could scrounge up. It came out sounding more croakish due to my tiredness, however. “Ma’am, please settle down and tell us what’s going on.”
The woman was in her early forties with graying brown hair, and a cigarette hanging out one side of her mouth.
“You’re never going to believe it if I tell you. Just come in and look,” she urged, pulling my hand and forcing me to walk behind her.
Her hand felt leathery, and I wanted to pull my hand back.
However, she had what seemed like a death grip on me, and her nails were about the size of a small pocket knife. I feared for my life if I pulled my hand away from her.
So I endured the touch, following behind the woman.
But I did pull my hand away once we reached the living room.
It was one of those ones that was sunken. Each way into the living room you had to go down three stairs to get to it. And the entire ‘sunken’ part of the living room was filled with water.
The leak was very obviously coming from upstairs.
“Ma’am,” I said, my eyes on the man who was busy flipping through the channels from his seat on the sofa in the middle of the water. “Is there actually an emergency here?”
If she said that no one was hurt, I was going to push her into the water.
“He can’t get out,” she said. “He can’t swim.”
I looked down at the carpet that was clearly visible through the two feet of water in their living room.
“You’re joking, right?” I asked.
“No, I’m not joking! I’m being a hundred percent serious!” She cried. “There’s too much water there. I’d drown if I went to him. I’m so high right now that I don’t think I could get past the mote.”
The mote.
Right.
The woman was obviously on drugs.
I turned to PD, and he nodded.
“They’re outside,” he answered without me having to say anything.
“Get them inside then,” I said.
Then I turned and left, the headache that had started now beginning to pound worse, as I hurried out of the smoke infested house.
Un-fucking-believable.
***
Four hours later, I was well and truly exhausted.
I’d had less than four hours of sleep in the last forty-eight hours, and Mia still hadn’t replied to my text that I’d sent hours earlier.
I looked down at my phone, seeing the stupid box right under my message saying ‘read.’
I reread my text message to make sure I hadn’t said anything offensive.
Me: So I hear you’re looking for a single man…and here I am, offering myself on a silver platter.
That wasn’t offensive…was it?
Instead of worrying myself to death about it, though, I decided to go home in case she might actually answer me later on in the day.
I was too tired to deal with her anyway.
The only thing that could persuade me to go anywhere but to bed would be Mia’s naked body laying suggestively across my bed, and I didn’t see that happening any time soon.
I practically fell into bed when I arrived home and only woke once when I heard what sounded like a door opening and closing.
My brother came over from time to time to get away from his hoard of bad asses, so I wasn’t too worried about it.
And I should’ve been.
Hours later, when I woke up, it was to the smell of dinner cooking.
And that definitely meant it wasn’t my brother.
My brother didn’t do things like that for me.
If I was lucky, he’d replace the beer he drank…and usually that never happened either.
Then again, I didn’t do that for him, so I guessed we were even.
I rolled over onto my back and groaned, extending my arms up over my head in the most orgasmic stretch I’d ever felt.
My back popped along my spine, and I let out a huge, relieved breath.
“That sounded like it hurt,” Mia’s soft voice interrupted my stretch.
I opened one eye partially and stared at her.
“What’re you doin’ here,” I mumbled, staring blurrily at her. “And how’d you get in?”
My voice sounded like I’d swallowed some steel chains for my last meal, rusty as it was from disuse.
My eyes fell closed without my permission, and it was becoming harder and harder to open them again.
The sight of her in a short, black skirt that was flowy around her hips was burned on my retinas, however, making it impossible not to see her even with my eyes closed.
I was still angry with her, and it was really hard to stay mad about some personal ad when she wore skirts like the one she had on.
I reached for the comforter that’d fallen nearly all the way off the bed and would’ve gotten it over my now rock hard erection had Mia not dropped down on the bed next to me.
I groaned.
“What’s your problem?” She asked. “You’ve been asleep for well over eight hours now, and I know exactly how long you’ve been here because I was waiting for you when you got home, but you closed and locked the door before I could get to your front porch. And then you wouldn’t answer the door.” She hesitated. “The only thing that saved you from me was the fact that I could see you through your blinds.”
I didn’t bother to look at the blinds.
I never shut them.
I didn’t need to.
I had no neighbors.
And anyone brave enough to look through the blinds wouldn’t get to see much.
I didn’t sleep in the nude, and most of the time I kept it so cold in the house that I had to use a massive blanket at night.
Today was an exception, seeing as I hadn’t bothered to turn down the thermostat on my way to collapsing on the bed.
I’d been so dead to the world that it was almost comical.
“Sorry,” I said, licking my lips.
My left hand was busy trying to contain my cock, and my right one was directly next to her foot…or her hand.
I couldn’t tell.
I just knew it was something warm.
I moved my hand until I caught her foot with my hand and squeezed it in apology.
“You’ve been busy, from what Jack tells me,” she continued.
Couldn’t she see that I was still tired?
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“Winter told me yesterday that Jack’s glued to the police radio when you’re on shift. I think that’s sweet,” she chattered.
I tried to peel my eye open, but it just wouldn’t do it.
“Yeah,” I grunted.
“After I got the key from Jack, I came straight over. Made dinner and cleaned the house while I was waiting for you to wake up. And watched a movie. And sorted through your papers and threw the really old ones into the recycle bin,” she continued.
“Hmm,” I was detrimentally close to falling asleep again.
If she’d just shut up for a few seconds at a time, I’d be back to sleep easily.
“Are you even listening to me?” She teased.
“No,” I answered. “And, you won’t get me up unless you take your clothes off.”
I said things when I was sleepy.
Some people said inappropriate things when they were drunk. Or under the influence of drugs.
Me, it happened when I was sleepy.
I never would’ve said that if I hadn’t been so tired.
And honestly, I hadn’t even realized I’d said it until I felt her heat go away.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I was joking.”
I didn’t open my eyes, though.
However, if I would have, I would’ve seen Mia stripping her shirt from her shoulders, followed shortly by her skirt.
In fact, it wouldn’t have startled me at all had I known she was coming.
But I didn’t.
Which was why when she laid her naked body down on top of mine, I froze.
I don’t know if I thought it was a dream or if I was actually awake, but I wasn’t one to ever waste good opportunities.
My hands drifted down her sides, fingernails digging slightly into the soft skin at her hips.
Her hand was busy, too.
One hand wrapped around my bicep, and the other was placed gently on my jaw.
“Are you awake now?” She teased.
I shook my head.
“No, I think I’m dreaming,” I admitted.
Why else would she have given into my every desire?
She chuckled.
“Oh, you’re not dreaming. Why don’t you open your eyes and see?” She suggested.
I shook my head.
“No, thank you,” I said.
What if I did and woke up with her gone?
How embarrassing would it be to wake up fully to find out that I almost came in my boxer briefs like some adolescent child?
She licked my lips, and she started rubbing the hot seam of her sex along the length of my cock.
And suddenly I was very, very, awake.
My eyes snapped open, and any possibility of this being a dream was destroyed.
“What are you doing?” I asked warily.
My hands went back to her hips, and I started to push her away.
She wrapped her fingers around my neck, holding on and not letting go.
“I’m taking up my offerings,” she said. “You did offer yourself…twice, might I add.”
I blinked.
“When?” I asked, thinking back to what I’d said earlier to her.
I had, technically, offered myself on the proverbial silver platter. However, I hadn’t meant she had to have sex with me to keep me.
She frowned and started to push herself up in alarm.
“You’re not serious?” she asked warily.
I saw that she was going to bolt, and I did the only thing I could do to keep her there.
I rolled over, placing her body under mine and pinning her there with my arms, legs and body weight.
She gasped as the new position put us in a bit different of a predicament.
This time the positions were switched, and it wasn’t her body weight pressing down on my dick, it was mine pressing into her soft, welcoming lips. Her bare, welcoming lips.
We were lucky I had on underwear, otherwise this would all be a different conversation.
She swallowed, her eyes now squeezed tightly shut.
“I misread, I guess, and I’m sorry,” she apologized.
I didn’t say anything and instead studied her face.
She had her hair up in a cute ponytail that rode high on her head. Pieces of the ponytail had fallen down to frame her face, and the top part was sticking straight up due to the shortness of her front bangs.
When I didn’t answer, she finally opened her eyes.
I could see the indecision there…the fear that I’d rejected her.
And I needed to set her straight, because to be honest, I’d never reject her.
I wanted her so bad that I’d give up sleep for the next year if she’d just let me have her.
“Look at me,” I ordered.
Her eyes that had slipped away to look at the wall above my headboard finally moved back to mine.
Then, once I had her full attention, I moved my hand up to her chin, rubbed her cheek with my thumb, then slowly lowered my head.
My mouth hovered over hers for a few long seconds.
I waited for her to make the final move, and she did.
Our lips met in the softest, sweetest kiss I’d ever experienced.
Her lips tasted like cherries.
Sweet, succulent cherries.
I nipped her bottom lip, and she gasped, allowing me to sweep my tongue inside her mouth.
We both groaned the moment our tongues met.
Her arms wrapped more tightly around my neck, and I let my weight press more fully into her.
Her legs parted even further, and my aching cock found a home against the sweet heat of her.
“You’re so hot,” I whispered against her neck.
She shuddered, arching her back, making her chest rub deliciously along mine.
Her nipples were pebbled, practically begging me to place my fingers on them.
And I did…along with my mouth.
I moved down her body, pausing at her collarbone to let my lips trail along the delicate curve.
She hissed when I nipped it gently with my teeth, making her draw in a ragged breath.
I let my fingers trail along her side, drawing goosebumps in their wake on her soft skin.
Her hands found purchase in my hair as I finally moved to her nipple, ringing my tongue around the dusky areola.
Her fingers tightened, and I smiled before pulling the entire tip of her breast in my mouth, sucking hard and dragging a moan from between her lips.
Her legs were moving restlessly along my sides, and I grabbed one and lifted it up high, exposing her pussy.
I let her nipple go with a soft suck and switched to the other side, pushing her leg up and out while I ground my hardened cock down into her.
She was panting, her breaths coming faster and faster.
Her urgency was spurring mine on, and suddenly there wasn’t anything I wanted more in the world than to be inside of her.
“You’re sure?” I asked gruffly, pulling back so I could see her face clearly.
She bit her lip, but the nod of her head had my heartbeat accelerating and my dick pulsing with need.
I reached over to the side table to switch on the light so I could see her more clearly.
There was no way I was doing her for the first time with only the dim light of the afternoon sun to light my way.
Once I was up on my knees, I finally took my first good look at her body.
I knew she had a good one.
Hell, it was hard not to tell, even with all the baggy clothes she wore.
She was sexy in her scrubs…but, my God, was she gorgeous naked and lying sprawled out before me.
I growled and leaned forward, planting one fist into the bed to hold me up.
She bit her lip.
She was so beautiful with her hair splayed around her head in a messy halo.
And her eyes were bottomless pools of delight that made me want to sink into her gaze and never find my way out.
“Sure?” I asked one more time.
Because once I started, there’d be no stopping me until I had it all. Her heart. Her pussy. Her fucking everything.
If she had it to give, I wanted it.
And I’d do nothing less for her.
She nodded, letting her lip go as she did.
I lifted my free arm and touched the middle of her breast bone, then slowly dragged it down the center of her body until I got to the apex of her thighs.
She stopped breathing for one long moment while I took my time getting to her clit.
But when I did, her body looked like I’d touched it with a live wire.
Her back bowed, her toes curled. She gasped in a halting breath, and her eyes closed.
I swirled one blunt finger in her wetness, then trailed it back up the seam of her sex to her clit.
Circling it once more, I watched as a blush started at the tops of her breasts, then moved upwards until it encompassed her entire face.
It was charming.
But my eyes were inevitably drawn back down to her clit, and the way my bronze work-roughened finger stood out against the pink of her pussy.
“So pretty,” I said, dragging my knuckles down the seam of her sex and coating them with the wetness that seemed to be practically pouring out of her now.
Her eyes opened when I pulled my hand back, and she watched with avid fascination as I slowly pulled my underwear down until my cock and balls popped free.
I had to suppress a sigh of relief as my cock finally got to breathe from its earlier cramped position.
“Jesus,” Mia said breathily. “Where have you been hiding that?”
I snorted and pushed my underwear down until they were around my knees, and then came back forward until we were touching once again.
This time my cock had no cloth barrier to contend with, meaning that I felt the full effect of her sex against my length.
The heat of her was so great that I literally felt like I was burning from the outside in.
“Oh, please,” Mia cried. “Please.”
I thrust my hips, allowing my cock to become coated thoroughly with her juices before I lined my cock up with her sex.
Then came back to my head and pulled away as if I’d been burned.
That was just what she needed to deal with right then was the consequences of our coupling.
“Condom!” I spat. “Motherfucker.”
“No,” she cried, her limbs falling to the bed like a rag doll. “Please. Hurry and find one.”
I got up, my dick leading the way, and walked straight to my dresser in the corner of the room.
It’d been a while since I’d needed condoms at my house.
I hadn’t had a girl at my place for a very, very long time.
In fact, I wasn’t so sure that one had ever been at my new place in Kilgore.
Frantically, I searched through my dresser where I kept all my random bits and pieces that came from my pockets at the end of the day.
My eye caught the movement on the bed and I about swallowed my tongue when I saw Mia’s hand working at her clit, rubbing in slow circles.
“Shit,” I said, reaching down to grab a hold of my dick.
I squeezed slightly too hard, praying that I’d hold onto my release long enough to get inside of her.
My eyes lit on a condom in the bottom of the drawer, and I seized it with eager fingers.
“Got one,” I said, ripping into the package and holding the latex at the tip of my dick.
With jerky movements, I slipped it down over my cock, thankful that it was at least a big one instead of the regular size.
I didn’t even bat an eye at the fact that it was pink.
If my memory served me right, I’d gotten it at a bachelor party as a party favor/gag gift.
Mia didn’t care, either, as she widened her legs, exposing the puffy lips of her pussy to my waiting gaze.
“Hurry,” she said. “I’m dying.”
I laughed huskily.
“I doubt that, honey. Nobody ever died of horniness,” I said.
Her head thrashed against the pillow as I lined my sheathed cock up with her entrance, and slowly pushed myself inside.
She was tight.
Really tight.
And the sight of her pussy opening up for my hard cock was the most magnificent sight I’d ever seen.
She looked filled to the brink, and I thanked God that she’d been ready, otherwise I very well might’ve hurt her as I pushed my length inside.
“You okay?” I asked once I was partially in.
It was nothing new to me for women to have to work up to taking me.
I wasn’t a small man.
In fact, I was on the larger side of large. Almost at the point of being too large.
I’d learned, over time, that slow and easy always won the race…and that extended to me and the bedroom.
“Yeah,” she said breathlessly. “More.”
I gave her more, one slow inch at a time.
“Yes,” she hissed out, eyes squeezing shut.
With one final push, I was buried to the hilt inside of her, staring down at her in amazement.
I placed my hand down on her lower belly, holding her down as I withdrew nearly all the way, then roughly thrust back inside.
She arched again, causing me to freeze.
“No, don’t stop. God, I’m close…so freakin’ close,” she urged.
I started back up again, letting myself loose on her.
She took as well as she received, and soon we were in a near punishing rhythm as we both took from each other.
Our bodies writhed as our skin slid over each other’s.
“I think I’m going to…” she clamped down on me so hard that I knew she was coming. There was no way I couldn’t tell.
Her pussy rippled, and my elbows buckled at the way she pulsed around me.
It took everything I had to keep my weight off of her as I finally let myself go, dropping my head to her collarbone and pounding away inside of her.
It took me three thrusts.
Three.
And I was there.
Coming so hard that I feared the integrity of the condom.
I needn’t have worried, though, as I pulled out of her long moments later, noting that the condom was still fully intact.
I pulled it off of my cock and dropped it into the bedside table’s trashcan.
Then I gave up on trying to hold my weight and dropped to my side directly next to her before pulling her pliable body into my arms.
“Thank you,” she breathed, still slightly breathless.
I tightened my arms around her shoulders.
“Can I apply for your single’s ad?” I asked.
“Your brother told me what he showed you…” she said, looking up at me. “That was for Masen…not me.”
I raised a brow at her.
“So you’re telling me I can’t have you?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“You’ve had me since we first met, and you know it,” she countered.
I did know it.
I’d felt the connection just as easily as she did.
And we’d both been denying it…now there was no denying. There was just us. And everything that’d been behind our walls were now broken down and at our feet, surrounding us.
I doubted either of us would ever be able to get our walls back up again.
She moved forward and placed a kiss on the ink on my chest…the tattoo of my sister’s name.
“You hungry?” She asked.
I thought about it.
No, I wasn’t really.
But I needed to get up or I’d never sleep tonight.
And she’d gone to all that trouble to cook.
“Famished,” I lied.
She patted me on the side and then disengaged from my arms, sitting up and walking to her clothes.
She bent over, giving me the perfect view of her pussy, and my dick started to stir.
She pushed her feet into her panties, pulling them up and over her hips.
I hadn’t watched her taking them off earlier, but now I was admiring them.
And I couldn’t wait to take them off of her again.