Depends on Who's Asking

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  I watched as she unzipped the zipper, being careful of the bulge, and reached inside.

  My hand on her thong was pulled free and she used the distraction of having her hand on my dick to reverse our positions.

  I let her go completely when she moved, pressing me against the wall this time.

  She leaned forward, pressing herself against me like a cat, and slowly started to slide down the length of my body.

  Before she could get to my waist, my phone rang and I lazily glanced at my damn watch on my wrist, the stupid fucking watch that my mother had begged me to wear because it was ‘safe,’ and my blood ran cold.

  Brad.

  Brad was calling me.

  What the fuck was Brad calling me for?

  I felt sick to my stomach as I pulled away from her as if she was burning my skin.

  “No!” she cried out, her hands pulling me in close.

  I responded to the despair in her cry.

  Viciously, I pulled away, but I didn’t leave.

  Nope.

  I couldn’t.

  Not then, and definitely not with the raging erection that was practically driving my every thought right now.

  Grabbing hold of her wrist, I tugged her quickly into the first room I found, the men’s bathroom, and slammed the door closed.

  Seeing that there wasn’t a lock, I had no choice but to continue to tug her into the handicap stall and lock that door.

  Without waiting for her to say a word, I started to unbutton my jeans.

  She watched, eyes wide, as I unbuttoned, unzipped, and pressed them down slightly so that my cock could slip free.

  Her eyes settled on my dick, fully engorged and dying for her.

  “Looks kind of painful,” she admitted.

  It was.

  My dick was so hard that it was a mottled purple. And let’s not even begin to talk about how much I’d wanted her over the past week. How hard it’d been to stay away, even though every single cell in my body was withering and dying to be inside of her.

  “Not too bad,” I lied. “Take your panties off. That one time was fun and all, just pulling them to the side, but I’d rather be able to fuck you later and not have to worry about my dick chafing.”

  “Later? Not right now?” she whispered.

  My eyes met hers. “Now and later.”

  Because even if I had to sneak in to do it, I’d be staying with her tonight.

  Just for tonight.

  At least, that was what I kept telling myself.

  More likely, I’d cave. I’d do the stupid, selfish thing and choose to make my heart happy. And not keep her safe.

  “Take them off,” I urged again.

  Seeing that I was more than serious, she reached up underneath her skirt and slowly pulled her panties down the length of her legs.

  When they fell freely to the tops of her feet, she bent down and pulled them off, stepping out of them one by one before holding the panties out to me.

  I reached forward and took them, bunching them in my fist and feeling them soaked just before I shoved them into my pocket.

  “Turn around and put your hands on the wall,” I ordered.

  She presented me with her back just as I heard the bathroom door open and the sound of two male voices rushing inside.

  “They’re pulling out the beer. Thank fucking God,” an unfamiliar voice said as I stalked my way toward Carolina.

  She looked at me warily over her shoulder, but I pressed my finger to my lips and silently told her to be quiet as I urged her to fully face the wall again.

  She did, her forehead pressing against the soft blue painted wall, and then bent over slightly to give me a better angle for what she knew was coming.

  “Think they’re doing a gift exchange or something, too. Why else would they tell us to bring a gift?”

  Now that voice I did know.

  It was one of Carolina’s brothers.

  I wasn’t sure which one, but I knew it was one of them.

  What I also knew was that Carolina was immediately standing up as if to say ‘oh hell no.’

  But I anticipated her movement before she could take one step in the direction of the door.

  Snagging her around the hips, I pulled her back to me, then yanked her skirt out from between us.

  The moment that my dick pressed against her bare pussy, she stilled.

  I could feel her heart rate skyrocketing, her pulse beating like a drum against the side of my face where it was pressed into her neck.

  Her legs started to tremble, and her hands moved to my arm as if she could actually push me away.

  But she never did more than dig her fingernails into the soft skin, digging in deep.

  Dropping one of my hands down to the front of her pubic bone, I maneuvered my cock into the crevice between her lips and started to slowly rock back and forth, allowing my hand to hold my cock in place at the front.

  She threw her head back onto my shoulder, exposing her throat.

  I skimmed my mouth up and down the length of her exposed throat, my lips stopping at the pulse point right below her ear.

  “…really don’t want to be here.” I heard the water turn on, then her brother start to laugh as I changed my angle and slowly slipped inside of her tight heat. “Could just hang out in here. Bring the beer. Then at least I’d be away from the Christmas songs. I’m so tired of hearing them.”

  Right when she would’ve gasped, I pressed my hand to her mouth—the one that’d been holding my cock in place—that was slick with her juices.

  I’d have to clean her up later.

  But for now, this felt too damn good to stop what I was doing.

  Her gasping would bring their attention to us.

  Already the sound of her juicy pussy was filling the small stall that we were stuck inside.

  If the two men outside the door weren’t so far away and had stopped talking for a few seconds, they could hear what we were doing.

  The urinal beside the stall next to ours flushed, followed by a second man washing his hands.

  Seconds after that the door to the bathroom opened and closed, finally allowing me to fuck her a little bit harder than the soft, shallow thrusts I’d been giving her.

  I removed my hand from her mouth and was just about to whisper into her ear about how hot she felt around my cock when the door to the bathroom opened a second time.

  What sounded like a single man entered, went to the urinals, and started doing his business.

  I left my hand off her mouth but didn’t slow my thrusts.

  Honestly, I didn’t think that I could.

  She felt too fucking good for me to stop. She was tight and wet, and the taboo of the situation had my balls drawing up before I could stop it.

  When I realized my release was imminent, I found her little clit and started to circle it in the slow, wide circles that she liked. Not actually touching her clit, but the skin around it, since she was so sensitive.

  It didn’t take her but three swirls of my finger before she was burying her face into my arm and biting down a little harder than she’d ever done before. Her pussy clamped down hard on my cock, fisting it so hard that I had to squeeze my eyes shut in order not to see stars.

  When I would’ve slowed on her clit due to my own orgasm taking over, she put her hand on mine and encouraged me to continue.

  It was good that she moved my hand for me because I was too far gone, swirling down the deep dark well of my own release.

  My belly clenched and my hand that was on her hip tightened hard.

  So hard, in fact, that she’d likely have bruises tomorrow.

  If I got to see those bruises? I’d be fucking lost all over again.

  Having my mark on her would be fan-fucking-tastic.

  It might’ve been caveman of me, but I also hoped that later someone would see the beard burn on her neck, or the small hickey I’d left on her shoulder. That someone would know that she was taken.

  It was
long seconds after my orgasm finally wrung me dry that I felt her sag in my arms.

  I grunted and caught her before her legs could go out from underneath her altogether.

  I turned so that my mouth was close to her ear.

  “You okay?” I asked, knowing we still had company in the bathroom.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  Waiting until she was standing up on steady legs, I finally pulled out of her and let her skirt drop.

  Eyes on her, I slowly tucked my cock back into my pants and zipped as I watched her clean herself up with some toilet paper.

  Watching her flip her skirt up and place her high-heeled foot onto the toilet seat had my cock once again filling with blood.

  But it was the sight of my release leaking down her leg that had me really fucking wanting more.

  Just as I was about to reach for her, to have her all over again, the most annoying sound in the world bleated from my phone.

  CHAPTER 13

  Not All exes are bad. Look at me. I’m someone’s ex.

  -Carolina’s secret thoughts

  SAINT

  “Fuck!” I growled out, pissed as all hell that a SWAT call dropped, choosing that exact moment to go off.

  It took everything I had to walk away.

  I exited the stall, completely forgetting that I’d never heard the door close behind whoever had come in earlier.

  I wasn’t prepared to find a man leaning against the counter, his arms crossed over his chest, as he waited for me to come out.

  He’d needed the only stall in the room that there was, and Carolina and I happened to be using it.

  Shit.

  My eyes met Louis’ and he raised them at me as he saw Carolina walking out close to my heels.

  His eyes went from me to Carolina and back.

  “Listen, Caro,” Louis said. “I’ve had to take a shit for near on five minutes now, and these protein shakes are downright brutal to my system. You should probably use the women’s room from now on.”

  Carolina squeaked and covered her face as Louis passed us by.

  “Call was canceled,” Louis yelled as he passed us and locked the door.

  I washed my hands at the sink, Carolina taking the one directly next to me.

  That’s when Louis started to blow the bathroom up, uncaring who was still in it.

  “That’s so gross,” Carolina gagged.

  “I’m telling you. It’s the protein.” He paused. “It smells like sex in here.”

  Carolina covered her mouth and nose with her clean hand. “No.” She sounded like she was holding her breath. “It smells like something died in your ass.”

  Louis’ laughter followed us out of the bathroom, but not before Louis got the last word in.

  “You left your underwear on the floor in here. You might want to come back in later and pick them up. I’ll kick them behind the toilet for you when I’m done. You sure have changed from the granny panties you used to wear in high school. And wow, you used to hate the color—”

  The door closed behind his jeering, cutting him off mid-sentence.

  That’s when Carolina cursed all over again upon seeing her brother, who obviously hadn’t made it that far from the bathroom that he’d used earlier, leaning against the wall about five feet down from the door.

  “Son of a bitch,” Carolina grumbled as she pressed her head into the spot between my shoulder blades. “This is going to be everywhere by the end of this party. We just let the gossip girl of my generation know in the bathroom, and my brother is going to fuckin’ throw a hissy fit.”

  I couldn’t help the small smile that lit up my face.

  The smile that died when Connor spotted us and marched his way toward us.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Connor bellowed. “What were you doing in that bathroom?”

  “I needed help with my skirt,” Carolina lied. “And he was there, but then it got stuck on my shirt and the bathroom was right there and…”

  So Carolina was bad at lying.

  Good to know.

  Connor looked at her with disgust.

  “Who are you?” Connor asked me.

  He knew who I was, just as I knew who he was.

  Now that I could see his face, I knew exactly which brother he was.

  “Saint Nicholson,” Carolina said. “And he works with you, so you probably know who he is. Don’t be a dick.”

  Connor’s mouth twitched as if his words amused himself.

  “You’re really named Saint Nicholson?” the other man that had likely gone into the bathroom with him earlier asked.

  He was another baby cop like Connor.

  They must’ve met in the academy or something.

  They were both dressed alike, and both looking at me with not a small amount of hostility.

  Carolina’s hand found mine and the cop next to Connor narrowed his eyes.

  I couldn’t stop myself from squeezing her hand and pulling her into me.

  My arm went around her shoulder and Connor’s eyes narrowed right along with his friend’s.

  “Colby,” Carolina said. “Why would I introduce you to him as ‘Saint Nicholson’ if that wasn’t really his name?”

  Carolina’s words had my mouth tipping up at the edges in a smile.

  The door behind us opened and a waft of noxious air followed Louis out.

  “Yo, Colby Wolby,” Louis said as he pushed past them, all but shouldering Colby bodily out of the way and putting distance between Colby and me. “Let’s go, you two. We’re about to do the white elephant game.”

  “Do you want me to go with you?” she asked, tugging lightly on my hand.

  It was in that moment that I realized I’d been kidding myself.

  I couldn’t make the decision for Carolina. I had to tell her everything and let her decide for herself.

  Which was why I tightened my grip on her hand and said, “If you’ll follow me after the way I’ve treated you the last couple of days.”

  She smiled at me softly. “You will tell me everything after we get home tonight.”

  The thought of going home or anywhere with her sounded like my idea of heaven.

  “Yeah,” I said. “I don’t really know what a white elephant exchange is, and the entire team and their wives make me really uncomfortable.”

  Carolina rolled her eyes. “They’re a lot to get used to. But they’re lovable, and the greatest group to have at your back when you need it. Let’s go.”

  The SWAT team had decided to do a white elephant exchange at the Christmas party, and honestly, I couldn’t say that I was all that excited about it.

  I did, however, buy a present.

  It was supposed to be funny, and I’d had to rely on Amazon telling me it was funny to really know if it was funny or not.

  When we arrived at where the SWAT team had gathered, I pulled Carolina down with me into a seat that was, sadly, right next to Louis and his wife, Calloway.

  Carolina immediately leaned over and started to talk to Calloway, which reminded me that the lot of them had all been known as the first-generation SWAT kids.

  Rowen, Derek, Ares, Louis, Calloway, Booth, Bourne, Samuel Adams, Sierra and Carolina had all been children of the original Kilgore Police Department SWAT team—Luke, Downy, Nico, Bennett, Miller, Foster, and Michael.

  Sometimes, when I was around the kids, or hell, even the adults, I felt like I was on the outside looking in.

  The other men on the team generally seemed to just understand each other better. Louis, Derek, Booth, Bourne, and Samuel could practically talk to each other through telepathy.

  “Carolina!” Ares called out, clapping her hands. Then her eyes widened into what resembled saucers. “Are you two together?”

  Her eyes bounced from me to Carolina and back again.

  Carolina looked at me, almost as if she was unsure what to say.

  I rolled my eyes. “It’s been brewing for a while. Yes, we’re together.”

&nbs
p; Ares squealed and clapped her hands.

  “Now, if you just get pregnant like me, we’ll have our babies at the same time, and we’ll raise them to be best friends like we all talked about.” Ares fist pumped the air.

  Louis groaned. “Y’all are such fuckin’ weirdos. You, Sierra, Calloway, and Carolina always used to talk about having babies together. It was annoying as fuck then, and it’s annoying as fuck now.”

  Calloway pinched her man on the arm.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong,” Calloway drawled. “But isn’t everyone here pregnant, has a newborn already, or in a seriously committed relationship? That’s how you get babies at the same time, dummy.”

  Almost every eye turned to us.

  They were right.

  We were the only ones left that would complete the circle.

  I swallowed hard, thinking about what we’d done in the bathroom about fifteen minutes ago, and what we’d done for ten out of the twelve days that we were quarantined.

  We’d talked about it but decided subconsciously to ignore the possibility of pregnancy.

  And, the really weird thing was, I kind of hoped that she was.

  I wished that she would get pregnant just so I could stop second-guessing every fucking decision I made.

  I needed something to anchor me.

  That sounded like the perfect thing to make that happen.

  “Let’s get this show on the road. Everyone heard of the white elephant gift exchange?” Derek asked as he pulled a gift from behind him and placed it on the table.

  Mine was already there, along with a few others.

  Soon the entire table was filled up with the presents, and Derek was passing out numbers to the twelve of us on the SWAT team.

  “No,” Malachi said. “Never done white elephant before.”

  “Derek will hand out numbers. Whoever has number one gets to pick a gift, open it, and that’s it. The second person can either choose to take the gift that number one opened or open his own. Number three can take either person one or person two’s gift or open his own. And so on,” Derek said as he opened his number. “Number twelve, bitches. Oh, yeah!”

  I opened my number and laid it on my left leg nearest Carolina. She glanced down at it and looked over at me. “One’s actually the best. You can see all the presents get opened, and then you get to choose which one you want if your gift was stolen at the end.”