Doc

by Dahlia West, Caleb

  “You sure?” she asked pointedly.

  Caleb wasn’t sure if she meant she’d take the couch or something else entirely. Neither was an option. “I’m sure,” he insisted. She shrugged and slipped into his bedroom. She closed the door behind her and he sat on the couch to take off his boots. It was odd having someone else here, someone else to think about. He considered turning on the television, but decided against it. He was too wound up to watch anything, too off-balance with someone else in the house. He heard the water from the shower turn on and guessed she’d found the bathroom even though he hadn’t given her much of a tour. She really didn’t need one, though. The house was self-explanatory. It was everything he needed and nothing else.

  He flopped onto the couch, stared at the ceiling, and wondered for about the tenth time what in the hell he’d been thinking inviting her here. He hadn’t thought it through; it had just happened. He hadn’t gotten over the sight of that asshole’s hands on her, the crack on her forehead where he’d hit her with the door. Caleb’s instinct had been to keep her near him where he could protect her. He wondered who would protect her from him, but then thought better of it. She didn’t need to be protected from him. He barely knew her. He was just offering her a place to crash, a place to shower and—

  He sat up suddenly, realizing that he’d failed spectacularly in the hospitality department. There were no towels in the bathroom. He jumped up and opened the small linen closet by the bedroom door. He pulled out a clean towel but then stood awkwardly at the door to his own bedroom. The water was off now. He regretted extending her the invitation. He’d wanted to rescind it right after he’d made it, but everyone, including the other RCPD officers called to the Rainbow, had been staring at them. He’d just wanted to get out of there and away from their intense scrutiny. He hadn’t really considered the logistics of having someone else in his house. He could at least give her the towel, let her spend the night. They could hammer out some better arrangement in the morning.

  He knocked, prepared to wait, but the reply was instant.

  “It’s open.”

  Caleb turned the knob, expecting to see her back in her clothes. Or, he supposed, she could’ve slipped on one of his old shirts from the closet. He realized he wouldn’t have minded. But instead she stood beside his bed, naked. Her long, damp hair was loose and hung past her shoulders, almost but not quite covering her breasts. Dusky, hard nipples peeked out from between the glistening strands.

  He tightened his grip on the offered towel. Izzy shrugged. “I left my suitcase in the car,” she told him. “I didn’t feel like getting it.”

  “You could’ve asked me.”

  She had the corner of his bed sheet in her hand, but dropped it. “I’m sorry,” she told him. “I didn’t think you’d mind. Do you?”

  “Izzy,” he said darkly, warning her. That wasn’t what he meant and she knew it.

  “Do you mind me being wet in your bed, Caleb?”

  “Izzy.”

  “Izzy?” she repeated. “Does that mean we’re friends now?”

  Chapter 18

  Izzy watched him, fully aware that this was the moment things had gone from flirty to serious. She had been enjoying teasing him up to this point, but she was equally glad they were finally getting somewhere. Caleb Barnes played it pretty close to the vest but there was no denying the look of hunger in his eyes as they traveled over her body. She could’ve borrowed one of his shirts, of course. In fact, she might do just that—afterward. But there was no point in putting something on that she longed to take off. Now she just needed to get him naked. She’d been fantasizing about it for days and if he hadn’t come to her, she would have found him on the couch in the next room and stayed until she’d seen—and felt—every glorious inch of him.

  As it turned out, it wouldn’t take nearly that much effort. At her question about the status of their relationship, he dropped the towel he’d been holding. It landed on the floor seconds before Izzy landed on the bed with Caleb on top of her. She grabbed the waistband of his jeans and pulled him close as his mouth found hers. She plunged her tongue into its depths, savoring the salty, male taste of him. She wondered what other parts of him tasted like. Well, she hoped she’d be in town long enough to figure that out. His calloused hand ran across her breast and she sucked in a breath. She didn’t mind the rough feel of him. She’d been expecting it from a man like him. Caleb clearly didn’t know much about being soft, and certainly his erection pressing into her mound was proof of that. Fine with her. She didn’t need it soft.

  Her hands found his fly and she yanked it open. Slipping her hand inside, she found the rock hard part of him that she longed for. Caleb’s lips pressed hers, the scruff of his unshaved face scraping her skin. His jeans came down over his hips and she kicked them down to his ankles with her foot. He shook himself out of them and came back to her, naked from the waist down. His hard shaft was beautiful in the moonlight from the window.

  Izzy grabbed his shirt and pulled it off over his head. Before she could marvel at the perfect male specimen hovering above her, he closed in on her, blocking her view. His mouth found her again, but on her nipple this time. She gasped and ran her fingers through his short, dark hair. He bit, licked, and sucked her into a frenzy. She reciprocated with her hand on his shaft, rubbing the long length of it.

  His hand found her slit and rubbed her. She knew she was wet everywhere at this point. His fingers were heavenly, firm and strong as he parted her and dipped inside. She felt the stretch and burn of being filled.

  “Caleb,” she whispered into his ear as he licked her nipple. He didn’t answer her so she tightened her grip on his hair. He paused and looked up at her. “Condom,” she demanded.

  He grinned at her. “Already?”

  She licked her lips while nodding because she was out of breath.

  He smirked at her. “No self-control,” he teased, but he got to his knees and opened the nightstand drawer.

  His fingers paled in comparison to being filled by his cock. Izzy arched her back in a silent plea for more attention. He complied but switched to the other, neglected nipple. As he thrust inside her, his teeth pressed into her skin. The warring sensations were incredible.

  Caleb lifted her slightly off the bed to get inside her completely. His arms seemed as though they could hold her forever like that. Part of her realized she wouldn’t mind that. As he worked her inside and out, her wet hair fell over both of them. Her flesh tingled and flushed, battling the cool air of the bedroom and the warmth of his skin. A heaviness settled in her lower belly and she knew she was so very close. She pulled at his hips, taking him all the way in. The head of his cock brushed her clit as he pulled out and plunged back in.

  He was confident and constant, like a freight train bearing down on her. No part of him was unsure of how this should go or how it should end for both of them. Izzy felt herself going over the edge and she clung to him. He stilled on top of her, allowing her to feel the full force of her orgasm. She squeezed him tightly and closed her eyes as it washed over her. Seconds after she peaked, he began driving inside her again. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and held on.

  When he finally collapsed on top of her, she smiled at the ceiling and ran her fingertips along his back. Not a bad way to fall asleep, she mused. Caleb, though, didn’t seem to agree. He pulled out of her and pushed himself off the bed. It was decidedly colder in the room without him close. She watched as he tossed the condom into the trashcan beside the bed. For a moment, he sat silently on the side of the bed, as if he couldn’t decide what to do now. She remained silent, letting him make up his own mind. After a while, she half-expected him to get up, take his clothes and leave her with a towel. To her surprise—and delight—he lifted his legs back into the bed and lay down next to her.

  He didn’t touch her, which was disappointing, but at least he was there. Instead of putting something on, she simply pulled the sheet up over her breasts and snuggled into Caleb’s lar
ge bed. After a few moments, her eyes fluttered closed.

  Chapter 19

  Caleb woke in the dark and it took a moment for him to remember that there was someone, a female someone, lying next to him. Or there was supposed to be. But when he reached behind himself and ran his hand along the mattress, he felt nothing. He turned to look and found the other side of the bed empty. He sat up and rubbed his face with one hand. He was surprised he’d slept so well with another person in his bed; then again he was surprised he hadn’t heard her leave, either. He glanced over at the bathroom but the door was wide open and it was dark inside. He knew she hadn’t left the house entirely. He would have heard the front door open.

  Throwing back the sheets, he searched for his briefs, found them on the floor along with a scattered pile of his clothes. He dressed in the dark, not bothering with a shirt and headed toward the living room. He wished he could put off the pending awkward exchange for a few hours more. Surely most people waited until sunrise to face the person they’d slept with but shouldn’t have. He wasn’t sure what to expect from her, frankly, and he was uncomfortable at the thought of a dramatic scene. Though when he considered Izzy for a moment, he decided she probably wouldn’t be that difficult. She seemed too practical to get upset with him.

  He crossed the darkened living room and headed toward the lighted kitchen. He found her at the table, laptop out and headphones on. Beside her on the floor was her open suitcase. She’d retrieved it from her car and gotten dressed in fresh clothes. He marveled at the fact that he hadn’t heard her go outside. Her back was to him but she seemed to sense his presence because she turned around. She gave him a half smile and pulled off the headphones.

  At a loss for what would pass for conversation at this point, Caleb glanced at her computer screen. “You’re working? At three o’clock in the morning?”

  She shrugged. “Skips don’t catch themselves. Well, sometimes they do,” she amended. “If they’re dumb enough. We had a guy, a flasher, get released. He missed his court appointment, then showed up outside the police station the next day, naked except for a pair of rubber rain boots.”

  Caleb laughed and turned on the coffee maker. He probably couldn’t go back to sleep now. And it seemed…rude maybe?… to leave her to putter around his house alone. He couldn’t exactly kick her out in the middle of the night. “Who’s we?” he asked as he got a mug out of the cabinet. He closed it before he realized he’d need two. He was really fucking bad at this.

  “My dad,” she replied. “He was a tracer. Taught me the job.”

  “Where is he now? Why isn’t he with you on this one?”

  Izzy frowned and pushed her laptop away. “He died,” she told him.

  Caleb grimaced, feeling guilty for asking. He wasn’t all that great at conversation, he supposed. “Sorry.” He thought about Izzy, chasing a suspect all the way from Denver and straight into the Badlands Buzzards clubhouse. “Did…how… was it… the job?” he asked delicately.

  To his relief, she shook her head. “Heart attack. He died in his favorite chair in front of the television.”

  “Oh.” This seemed a lot better to Caleb than the alternative, but it still probably sucked, depending on what kind of father he’d been. “Sorry,” he repeated. “So, you do this job alone? Izzy, that’s fucking dangerous.”

  Instead of arguing, as he’d expected her to do, she nodded in agreement, surprising him. “Yeah,” she said. “Money’s running low,” she confided. “The best payouts are the toughest takedowns. Psychos, usually. Tough to hunt them on my own. I mostly stick to non-violent offenders.”

  “So, why are you after this guy? This murderer? Especially when he’s got one percenter connections?”

  She shifted in her chair and tapped her fingers on the surface of the table. “Money. The payoff will be big. If I catch this guy, I’m set for most of the rest of next year. If I’m careful about my expenses. It’s one more year hunting.”

  Caleb considered this as he filled a mug. “What’s after hunting?” he finally asked.

  She frowned and wrinkled her nose. She reached out and nudged the digital camera lying on the table.

  “Your back-up piece,” he recalled.

  She nodded. “Pretty soon I’ll have to fill in the gaps with private detective work, I suppose.”

  Caleb picked up both filled mugs and crossed the small kitchen. “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad. Assuming you can get the license.”

  “I can,” she assured him. “But dick work is mostly that. Dick work.”

  “I don’t get it.”

  She sighed. “Most private detectives end up sitting outside shitholes like the Rainbow, waiting to take a money shot of some asshole cheating on their spouse. It’s not… I don’t know. It’s just less…” She waved her hand, searching for the right word.

  “Honorable,” Caleb said suddenly, as it popped into his head.

  A slow grin spread across her face. Caleb’s fingers tightened on the mugs he was holding as his cock jumped behind his zipper. It might not have been the smartest idea, bringing Izzy home and fucking the hell out of her, but his cock didn’t seem to agree. He set his mug down on the table and started to hand her the other one. Then he stopped. “How do you like it?” he asked, realizing that he’d forgotten to find out. Damn. Having someone else around was definitely outside his comfort zone.

  She continued grinning at him. “I think you know.”

  Caleb’s cock jerked again and he glowered at her. “Izzy,” he said, warning her off. Then he remembered her asking if that meant they were friends. They were something, all right. Had been something, at least, when he’d had her underneath him, wet all over—some places more so than others. The memory would keep him warm in the coming months, at least.

  She smirked at him. “Black is fine,” she finally said. “I don’t need it to be sweet.”

  Caleb left that comment alone and set the mug down in front of her. “So, you’ve been doing this all your life?” he asked, to change the subject.

  She nodded. “It’s who I am.” She gazed at him over her mug. “What about you? First the Army, then the force. Looks like you’re always protecting and serving somehow.”

  He pulled out a chair and slid into it. “In my own way, I guess.”

  “How’d you fuck it up?”

  In truth he wasn’t all that surprised at the question. Izzy seemed to have a way of cutting through the bullshit. It was like she didn’t have the time or any interest in playing games or even in being overly polite. He supposed that made sense. Practical job, practical girl. As much as he didn’t like talking about himself, he kind of admired her style.

  He held his mug in both hands but the heat didn’t warm him much. His fuckups weren’t lapses of judgment the way other people’s were. They weren’t simple mistakes made based on instinct or bad information. His failures went deeper than that, he knew. “I get caught up,” he said quietly. “I forget real people are involved. Vulnerable people. Innocent people.” It was the first time he admitted it to himself out loud. “This time it was a woman and her kid. I put them at risk. I mean, they were already at risk,” he amended. But it sounded too much like he was making excuses for himself. “They would’ve ended up hurt. Or dead. Eventually,” he told Izzy. “But I didn’t help the situation. I tried to put their abuser away. But the system glitched, and he got out instead. He was never supposed to be out.”

  Izzy sighed and took a sip of her coffee. “Ah, the system,” she said. “I try not to think too hard about what happens after I bring them in. Too many of them get out way too early. As long as more stay locked up than get let out, I guess I can live with it. But I don’t have to like it.”

  Caleb nodded to the open laptop. A program was up that he didn’t recognize. He couldn’t really decipher what he was seeing on the screen. “What are you doing?” he asked her.

  “Getting to know the illustrious Badlands Buzzards. The people involved, how they run their business. That kin
d of thing.”

  Caleb groaned. “Would I sleep better not knowing how you were doing that?”

  She grinned at him. Caleb groaned again. She probably thought it was another rebuke, but it wasn’t. The woman was too much temptation wrapped in a fitted T-shirt and gym shorts that were more than halfway up her thighs. Her long, dark hair had dried and it was cascading around her shoulders and down her back. Caleb had never had a woman in his kitchen. Certainly not a woman who looked like this. And definitely not a woman he’d fucked just a few hours ago… and couldn’t wait to again. Somehow his “It’s not you, it’s me” speech had derailed before it even left the station.

  He opened his mouth to begin the dreaded let down. He’d had her once. That was enough. More than enough. He shouldn’t have needed it so badly the first time. Not when he’d just come off a road trip to Sioux Falls. It was in everyone’s best interest to go back to business as usual.

  “Izzy—”

  “I’m not getting anywhere with this,” she said suddenly, indicating the laptop. She turned her coffee mug in her hands. “You up for a really early breakfast?”

  Caught off guard, he hesitated. “Yeah,” he told her. She grinned at him again and Caleb took a slow, deep breath.

  Caleb watched, somewhat appreciatively he’d admit, as she wiggled out of her gym shorts. She had on cute little black underwear that looked like shorts themselves. They were lacy and he could see her creamy white skin through the dark fabric. He gripped his mug until his knuckles turned white. She slipped on a clean pair of jeans and closed the suitcase.

  “I’ll let you drive,” she told him, glancing at him over her shoulder as she used a rubber band to tie up her loose hair. Caleb found himself disappointed. He liked it loose. “But only because I need to use the computer. Don’t get attached,” she said, handing him the keys.