October 16, 2017
It’s Monday night, and Alex and I spent the better part of the day keeping things simple by checking fishing licenses and pulling over a car traveling at an ungodly rate of speed. We’re stuck at a standstill with the Richardson case until we get results from the lab.
When we drop off a drunk transient found passed out by the Harbor at the Granite Harbor Police station, Alex runs to Hello, Good-Pie and picks up lunch, and I leave the divorce papers at the courthouse.
I drop her at her house while I run home, shower, and grab some extra clothes and a toothbrush.
I pull into the driveway at the Malcomb Place as the police cruiser waves and pulls out.
Rookie jumps out of the truck and takes in all the familiar scents.
I knock on the door. This feels weird. Like a first date or something. I’m nervous.
“Hey.”
“Hey, yourself,” she says as she hands me a glass of wine. “I hope you like red.”
“Red works.” I follow her in and set down my bag. “Rookie, come.” I call into the darkness.
He comes to the door and runs to Alex. She kneels in front of him and grabs his face in her hands.
“And you know what I got for you today, buddy? A big bone. I hope that’s all right.” She looks up at me with her soft brown eyes.
“You know he’s a trained killing machine, right?” I smile.
He’s not. It just sounds better.
Alex stands and places her hands on her hips. God, she looks good in a long-sleeved, button-down plaid shirt and leggings. Her hair is tied back into a ponytail with a few strands of hair falling in her face.
“I can tell.” She gives Rookie one last pat before she tells me she bought him a bed, which is already next to the fireplace.
“Huge storm moving in tonight.” I take a spot at the bar that overlooks the kitchen and face Alex. “What are you making?”
“Fish tacos. My mother’s recipe.”
“You miss home, don’t you?”
“I miss my family and my cat, Larry.” She stalls. “But I think I’d miss you and Rookie if I were on the West Coast.” Her voice is barely a whisper, and her eyes meet mine.
I think she’s wondering if she just said that out loud.
Right now, take her to the bedroom, slam the door, and don’t come out until morning—after she’s good and tired from the lovemaking we’ve done.
“Can you make a fire?”
I pause. “Are you sure? I mean, I know that—”
“Yeah, it’s fine. It’s the big ones that get me. Don’t ask me to go to a bonfire, but I can take a small fire in a fireplace. A controlled burn.” Alex winks at me.
I make a fire, and rain starts. Rookie is already passed out on his bed, his legs twitching every now and then.
We eat dinner, and I can’t believe how good the tacos are. “I’ve had fish tacos before, but these are really good.”
A button on Alex’s shirt comes undone; it exposes part of her breast, a side view, and I’m not in the least bit complaining. I’ve been able to touch those. Put them in my mouth. Devour them, yet this view of them makes me more turned on than ever.
I don’t know why I say this—call it the gentleman in me—“Your button came undone.” I point to it.
Alex looks down. “Oh.” But she doesn’t fix it. She sets her wine glass down and goes to take the dishes to the kitchen.
“Nope, I got it. You cooked. I’ll do the dishes.” I stand and come over to her side of the table, leaning in and grabbing her plate.
Alex touches my arm. “Just put them in the sink. I’ll do them tomorrow.”
“Again, no. I’ll do them.”
She smiles. “Whatever, Warden Young.”
With the dishes done, I join her on the couch by the fire as the rain pours down.
“Wow, this is beautiful.” She stares out the wall of windows.
Lightning appears over the ocean, followed by a rumble of thunder.
Rookie’s head immediately pops up.
“It’s okay, boy. You’re fine. Just thunder,” I say.
I set the wine glass down on the coffee table and take Alex’s glass from her. I reach back and pull her hair tie from her hair, as it falls down her back. I scoot closer to her.
Her eyes are hooded, and she’s biting her lip, staring up at me.
I pull her over on top of me; her middle is centered on me, so she can really feel me harden underneath her.
I unbutton her top and expose a black lace bra that’s providing too much material between us. Carefully, I pull the shirt from her shoulders and drop it to the floor.
Alex takes her leggings off, leaving her standing in front of me with just her black bra and black panties.
Fuck. She’s so goddamn hot.
She gets down on her knees, unbuttons my jeans, and helps me to pull both my jeans and boxers off. She sits back down on top of me, and I groan as I feel her wetness through her panties against me.
What I wouldn’t give to slide her panties aside and put myself inside her. With one hand, I reach back and unhook her bra, which causes her breasts to pop free.
I feel her start to move against me. Pushing my hand up to her chest and then up to her neck, I use my other hand to cup her breast and then quickly realize I need her in my mouth. I move her further up on me and put a breast into my mouth, followed by the other, giving each one full attention. Her nipple hardens in my mouth.
I hear her sigh when my mouth wraps around her.
“Look at me, Alexandra.” My voice is hoarse.
She opens her eyes and stares back at me.
“I need you to sit up just a little bit.”
She does, creating a space between my hardness and her middle, and when she does this, I slide my finger through her panties and pull her lips apart so that her center is resting on me. But she doesn’t get off that easy. I use my finger to feel her wetness.
Alex leans forward and whispers in my ear, “Please don’t. You’re going to make me come before I’m ready.”
I ease my finger out of her panties and push us both off the couch. With her wrapped around me, I carry her to the bedroom.
Our eyes meet.
“I need this,” she whispers.
I need her. I want to say that, but maybe it’s too soon. I want to give her what she needs. But more, I want to give her everything she needs.
I lay her down on the bed. Her legs are open for me. Wide. Her hands fall above her head.
The rain pounds against the windows. Thunder rumbles. The fire burns.
I ease myself on top of her as she pulls her mouth up to mine, and we collide. I try to tell her through this kiss that it’s the last kiss I want to give another, that I want to spend the rest of my life kissing her and only her, making love to only her. My tongue searches her mouth for answers, ones that I’m not sure she’s ready to give. I’ll take what she gives. I’ll take all of it.
I reach for my pants on the floor to find the condom and quickly put it on.
It’s almost too much. I ease into her at first, and she gasps and then sighs as I stare into her eyes.
“Is this all right?”
“Yes,” she hisses.
I push into her but realize I need to stop. “I have to slow down, Alex. This feels way too fucking good.”
She holds me in place and tightens around me. “Is this too much, Warden Young?”
I groan in her ear. “Yes,” I say as I try to think of a murdered moose. Dead puppies.
We stay here, unmoving, me inside her, for seconds.
“Are you ready?” She begins to move, and I almost lose my shit.
“Oh, sorry,” she says.
Placing her hands on my chest, she starts to move again. I watch her watching me.
“I want to watch you come, Alex.”
Dead moose.
Dead puppies.
Slaughtered deer.
With ease, I slide in and out. In and out. Her sweet voice of resistance tries to counter what she’s feeling. And I watch as she falls to pieces in front of me. Calling my name. Enraptured in me. I pull myself up to her as she yells, and I put my tongue in her mouth.
Once I know she’s satisfied, I turn her around and then slip myself inside her again.
She gasps, “God, Eli.”
“I’m sorry.” I sit back on my knees and allow her to loosen around me. “Is that better?”
She nods as I reach around, place both hands on her breasts, and pull myself in and out. I watch as her little hips move.
Oh my God.
She calls my name again.
I reach down with one hand, put two fingers against her center, and move them. Not quick, not hard, just enough pressure. We both come together, loud, against the thunder, against the rain, the fire, and the world.
The rain still falling, her naked body against mine, we listen.
“What’s your favorite color, Eli?” she asks. Her head on my chest, she slides her hand up and down my chest.
“Blue.”
The rain falls.
“What was your mom’s name?”
“Rebecca.”
The rain falls.
“Steak or chicken?”
“Steak.”
Thunder explodes. She jumps, and I pull her close.
She stares up at me. “Are storms heavier in the east? Louder? More rain?”
I laugh and pull her to me, kissing the top of her head. Yeah, I can do this for the rest of my life. “I don’t know.”
“Have you been to California?”
“I haven’t.”
“Really?”
“No. I hate to fly. Seems like a far car ride.”
She stops and looks up at me. “You’re scared of flying? You get bad guys for a living, and you’re scared to fly?”
I shrug. “Think it’s a control thing.”
“So, if you had a choice to fly in a plane, take a bullet to the leg, or hold a deadly snake, which would you choose?”
“I’ve been shot in the leg.”
She closes her eyes. “What?”
“It was a pellet gun, and Ryan, Ethan, Aaron, and I were twelve. I’d take my chances with the snake.”
“Oh my God. Why?”
“Animals are instinctual. They’re protecting themselves. They aren’t vicious.”
“Yeah, but they’re fast. One bite could make your heart stop,” Alex says in an Australian accent.
I laugh and pull her tighter around me, just to make sure this isn’t a dream and she isn’t going anywhere.
She’s leaving, Eli. Remember that. Her home is on a different coast.
“What’s your biggest fear?” I ask.
“Shouldn’t we have had this conversation before sex?” Alex laughs.
“We do things differently in Maine. Sex first, talk later.”
There’s a pause.
“Probably snakes.”
“Yeah? Why?”
“I guess it’s the way they move. They’re sneaky. Quiet.”
“They aren’t sneaky. They just don’t know how to be loud.”
She moves her head so that she’s looking at me. “I forget I’m dealing with a game warden. The referee between animals and humans,” she whispers. “I like that about you, Eli.”
“There are a lot of things I like about you, Alexandra.” I try to make light of the situation, only because I’ve never felt like this for a woman and it’s starting to get under my skin.
“I really like you, Eli.”
Instinctively, I pull her to me, kiss her with all I have, and make love to her again.