Phoebe: Book One of Broken Girls Series

by J. A. Hornbuckle

  “More like four or five, I think,” I added.

  Detective Bell opened his notebook again. “His parole officer hasn’t contacted you with the address of where he’s living?”

  “No. Was he supposed to?”

  Carmen was the one who answered as Detective Bell continued to make notes. “Yes, he was. But I know those folks have more on their plate than they can handle.” Her eyes moved back to Bell. “Cut backs, you know?”

  “Yep. Everybody’s feeling the crunch of after Prop 125 failed,” he mumbled before closing the notebook again. As soon as he had it tucked back in his pocket, Trusdale came back in the house and nodded firmly to his partner.

  Carmen exhaled on an audible sigh as she gave me a shaky grin while squeezing my fingers.

  “Okay then,” Bell said rising to his feet. “My boss is initiating the EPO, but you need to file the paperwork ASAP. You can get most of the forms online. Fill ‘em out and get them submitted to the clerk by,” he glanced at his watch and frowned. “Too late for today, but do it first thing tomorrow morning. I think the clerk’s office opens by 8.00.”

  While Bell was speaking, Detective Trusdale went to the kitchen while slipping on a pair of gloves, just like the ones I used at the hospital. The sound of paper crinkling told me he was gathering up miniature wooden closet and all its wrappings.

  Squeezing my hand again, Carmen leaned towards me. “They’re going to take box and the packaging with them as evidence, okay?”

  I blinked and opened my mouth to answer but Detective Bell began talking before I could.

  “Since that crap was sent here instead of your place, I’m guessing the guy doesn’t know where you live. Even so, do you have somewhere else you can stay until Judge Garfalo holds a hearing and approves the OP?”

  My mind blanked for a moment because all I wanted was my apartment and to be held by Ryker until I could forget all about the day, about Sloane and his threats of vengeance.

  When I didn’t answer, Carmen came to my rescue. “She has more than enough places she can go.” She stood, making me rise to my feet too. “Thanks, Tim. Jeff. I’ll put together what I have and we’ll do the filing tomorrow morning, first thing.”

  “Always nice to see you, Carmen,” Detective Trusdale returned, holding a large, plastic bag in one hand as he stripped off his gloves and shoved them into his coat pocket. “Though, wish it could be under different circumstances.”

  Carmen saw them to the door as I stood on shaking legs, only giving the departing duo a small wave. And while I was glad they were finally gone, I didn’t wasn’t sure about what needed to happen next.

  Much less how to tell Ryker the doings of my day since we still hadn’t had the tit-for-tat conversation.

  Turning back to me, Carmen propped a hand on a hip as she studied me while I refolded the afghan. “Need to let you know, a Protection Order doesn’t mean Sloan can’t get to you. It just provides a legal trail, if or when he tries something else in order to mess with you. In the meantime, I’d suggest you get a handgun and learn how to use it.”

  Carmen’s words shot through me, shredding the vibe of safety the detectives had built in their visit. “I can’t, Carmen. There’s no way I could ever shoot someone.”

  Her brows came together and I didn’t know if her expression meant she was deep in thought or pissed at my firm reply. “What about tasers or a stun gun? Pepper spray? You couldn’t have anything against using a can of aerosol to prevent someone from attacking you!”

  I shrugged before snagging the handle of the cup to take it into the kitchen. Could I do that? Use a device, a weapon sure to stop or injure another person, someone intent on hurting me, just enough so I could get away and find help?

  In all honesty, I wasn’t sure.

  *.*.*.*.*

  Ryker thought something about his girl was off from the moment he picked her up for their movie date. She was quiet, but not the in the ‘ice-princess’ way she’d behaved after he’d returned from New Mexico.

  This was different.

  More of a skittish, hyper-aware kind of deal.

  He asked about it a couple of times and, after receiving her very feminine replies of, “Nothing’s wrong, Ryker,” he’d taken a different route to determine what was going on, making her seem so…distant.

  “What’d you get up to today, mi cariña?”

  He flexed the hand holding hers, their elbows pressed together on the console, her gaze remaining fixed at whatever she saw out her passenger side window.

  Although she did respond. “Nothing much. Paid some bills, cleaned the apartment,” sounding more like herself. But unlike previous times, his girl didn’t ask him about his day.

  Ryker let it go as he parked in one of Grantham’s parking structures, winding his way upward past the ‘reserved’ slots until he finally found an open place. He considered taking a moment to quiz her again but thought pressing her too much might make her angry. And while Phoebe with a mad-on was a sight to behold, he wasn’t willing to deal with the aftermath of it.

  The woman could definitely hold a grudge.

  So he left her to it as they watched the latest action flick Grantham’s Cineplex had on offer, just lightly slinging an arm around her shoulders, but he wondered at how deeply she snuggled against his side. Almost as if she was burying herself into him. So close, he had to blow a few of her stray hairs away from his mouth.

  Afterward, he suggested they pick up some fast-food and take it back to her place. It was on the way back to the apartment complex she finally initiated a conversation for the first time that evening.

  “The place where you work,” she began, turning her face away from the window to look his way. “They do security stuff, right?”

  Ryker inhaled deeply, his nose filling with the smell of crisp fries and juicy burgers even as he tried to determine the ‘why’ of her question. “Yeah, we do. Both in personal bodyguards and monitoring equipment. Whatever’s needed.”

  “Do you think you could get one for me? And install it?”

  Holy shit! As well as a fervent, confused…what da fuck?

  Something had definitely gone down and Ryker turned from the road to glance at her, seeing she was pale in the light of the dashboard, her eyes wide and unblinking. “Uh. Yeah, I could, baby. I mean, I will. If that’s what you need.”

  “Good,” was all she returned as her face went back to the side window. “Can you do it tomorrow?

  He swallowed as he tried to frame all his questions into just one. “What makes you think you need one installed so fast?”

  Although he abso-fucking-lutely knew he could and would do it.

  Simply because she asked.

  Phoebe shrugged, unaware of the hell of his thoughts as he tried to imagine all the reasons behind her request while he waited for her answer. Keeping her gaze outward into the dark night, he didn’t have long to wait. “A girl can’t be too careful, you know?”

  It was only later, after she’d picked at her food as he’d made short work of his, after they’d cleaned up all the mess of their meal and Ryker was practically at his wit’s end in determining what the fuck was going on that had her asking him to secure her pad. But she didn’t explain, instead coming directly to where he stood, she simply wrapped herself around him tightly.

  Without a thought, Ryker’s arms engulfed her, bringing her tightly into his chest. There was something about the hold they held, even pressed from chest to knees, that didn’t make him think of physical pleasure but of protection.

  Had one of her girls had trouble? Scared her so much Phoebe felt she needed a system in her own place?

  “I want you to spend the night, Ryker.” she murmured against his shirt, her voice small and breathy. “But is it all right if we don’t…”

  Yeah. He knew what she meant even if she didn’t complete the thought. He’d figured sooner or later there would come a time when they’d go to bed and just sleep. At least for a few nights. And although she hadn’t
come right out and said it, Ryker didn’t think she’d asked due to her monthly visitor. But because of something she didn’t want to tell him, yet that freaked his beautiful girl right the fuck out. “Of course, mi vida, mi bella cariña.”

  And it wasn’t until later, a long time later when Ryker attempted to find his sleep in the all the blazing, bright lights of her bedroom she’d asked to remain on, he vowed to tame all the demons holding his Phoebe captive.

  After she told him what the hell they were, that is.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The next morning, Ryker awoke to find his nose deeply buried in Phoebe’s neck, her hair providing a shade for his eyes. A covering and shadow, not only against all the lights she’d deliberately left burning in her room, but at the sunlight peeking through the mini-blinds as well.

  And as he came further awake, delighting in the floral scent of her hair, he found himself again wrapped around her back, a palm filled with the heavy fulsomeness of her closest boob, his morning wood trapped and softly rubbing against the globes of her beautifully-crafted, round ass.

  She’d asked him if they could go to bed without sex and he’d agreed.

  But she hadn’t asked shit-all about what could be done in the light of a new day.

  Ryker shifted closer, using his mouth on the skin beneath his lips, as his fingers instinctively found her nipple and his hips began to move with a purpose. Causing her half-awakened self to wiggle, pressing herself further against him, her back arching as she squirmed, seating her breast deeper into his palm.

  So he played, delighting in the feel of her soft skin underneath his fingers as they pinched and circled, drew random circles all along the alabaster skin he could see over her shoulder.

  “Ryker,” she moaned her hips and breath beginning to hitch as he worked her, sliding the hand at her breast lower, much, much lower until his fingers found the top of her womanly niche.

  Only to discover her wet and swollen.

  Phoebe’s head curled away from him even as her buttocks surged forward towards his undulating manipulations. “Yesss…” she breathed on such a note of sultry delight, his cock flexed on her fleshy, well-developed butt.

  “Need you, babe,” he growled as he ground himself against her.

  She reared her hair flying as she pressed back against his shoulder. “Hurry, honey.”

  Disengaging, Ryker tried to remember where he’d dropped his trousers the night before, intent on getting to the last remaining prophylactic in his wallet. If they kept going at it like this, he needed to invest in the largest carton of condoms on offer at the warehouse store. Pulling the square bit of foil out, he made quick work using just one hand to unwrap it, slithering it onto his length with a mighty shove.

  Then pulled his eyes away from her wiggling form to see what was happening beneath his hand.

  Because something sure as shit wasn’t right.

  Where normally he’d feel the latex grip and hold around helmet of his cock, he felt only air.

  And the slightly chilly air of her room.

  Rolling fully over onto his back, Ryker stared down at himself to find the last of his available protection ripped and hanging off his hard-on in tatters.

  She went up on an elbow and looked at him over her shoulder. “Is something wrong?”

  “Uhm…you could say that,” he mumbled stripping the ruined plastic off and tossing over the edge of the bed in fury. The fact was, only seconds before, everything was tooling along wonderfully: his girl coming awake and in the mood, his cock sweetly aching with the need to take said girl and provide them both a resolution to their morning passion was the stuff of he’d imagined on more than one occasion.

  But to have the whole of it cancelled because he’d gotten too enthusiastic while covering himself?

  Oh fuck to the no!

  She twisted until she was propped on her elbows, following his gaze until she saw his uncovered dick still propped in his fist. She frowned and glanced up at him before dropping her eyes back down again to his still rock-hard member in confusion.

  “The condom broke, baby.”

  She sighed and he couldn’t help the way his own breath copied hers. Although it was the disappointment in her sweet voice that filled the void, the quiet between them. “That’s a shame.”

  No shit, he thought as his fist tightened around his tight, pulsating length.

  “Isn’t there anything else we can do?”

  He blinked again wondering why he hadn’t considered other doings, positions and things they could get up to in the whole of what was beating in his heated body.

  Because, yeah.

  He could think of a lot ‘busy’ he was willing to do with her, all without the need of any sort of protection. “Sit on my face, cariña.”

  Shooting straight into a sitting position and clutching the sheet to her chest, Phoebe squeaked out an aghast, “What?” before his ears even registered the words popping out of his mouth unheeded.

  Fuck! It was too early in the morning for him to watch what he said. And now, in order for him to finish what they’d started, he had to work on not shocking the hell out of her with his bald suggestions!

  An act he was more than determined to finish.

  He just needed to elicit a little damage control, since he’d obviously scared her with straight talk. With that in mind, he let go of his throbbing member and turned to cuddle her, resting his head on her stomach.

  “We can have fun without a condom, baby,” he advised in between kisses on the sheet covering the silken skin of her belly. “Lots of fun.” He moved his hands to either side of her hips and rubbed lightly, hating she used the covers of the bed as a shield, as a barrier against him.

  Her body relaxed in inches, giving him a rich, deep thrill as he detected her physical acquiescence.

  “Your fingers,” she whispered, shifting her legs and settling her ass further into the mattress after a couple of minutes.

  He kissed the material beneath his face and caressed her waist, sliding her fabric blockade down in miniscule moves. “What if…?”

  Ryker heard her swallow as her fingers let go of the sheet and slid through his hair, threading deep. “What if I used my mouth instead of my fingers?”

  His girl entire body turned to stone at his words. “You-your mouth?”

  He dropped his chin onto the bunched material at her waist and resolutely stared into her face, completely trying (and failing) to ignore the wicked delight of her now naked, pink-crested breasts. “Yeah. Would you like that? Having my mouth on you?”

  Dios, he’d thought about it, had reveled in the sexy imaginings of using his tongue on her. Hadn’t she?

  “You mean, down there?” From her tight, thread-like whisper he realized they weren’t yet all the way on the same page.

  He bit his tongue to hold back a grin as he moved his hips and rubbed his painful, beating cock into the bed, knowing he was gonna have to talk her into what he wanted, so fucking needed to do. “Uh-huh, cariña. I want to taste you between those luscious thighs.”

  Her eyes went unfocused and seeing it, Ryker wasted no time in pulling the remaining tangle of sheet and comforter off and away. Along the way, he took a moment to admire the pearls of her nipples, jutting out sharply with only the thought of what he’d described what his plans entailed.

  Once he had her uncovered, Ryker used his hands to slide her down until her back was on the bed, her head again resting on a pillow. “Just like always, if I do something you don’t enjoy, let me know and I’ll stop, baby, okay?”

  Crouching on his knees next to her, Ryker waited (with bated breath) until she nodded her acceptance before he moved into place.

  *.*.*.*.*

  Oh.

  My.

  God.

  If there had been any doubt in my mind about Ryker being a sex-god, as soon as his hot lips met my sex, there in the morning after one of the worst days of my life, they were obliterated. Because what the man could do with h
is mouth…and, dear god, his tongue was nothing short of heaven.

  True, I’d been horribly disappointed when he’d stopped the things of before because the condom ripped. But with his face firmly wedged into my crevasse, my legs in the air, each of them propped up and splayed out by a hand on the underside of my legs, I was…lost.

  Lost in a miasma of the delight in the heated feel of his mouth on my nether lips, the thrill of his twirling tongue and so far gone every time he suckled my swollen clit, I couldn’t think straight. Much less, take in enough air to speak a coherent thought.

  So I moaned.

  Moaned long, low and loud as I tried to move myself, to shift into a position to bring him into better contact with my aching, desirous flesh. He had me half-way there and I needed completion.

  “You like this, baby?” he murmured against my quivering oh-so swollen, secreted pink place.

  I raised my head to look down my body to where his head resided with dizziness and eyes that couldn’t seem to focus. And while I watched, Ryker slid two fingers inside, fingers facing upward, in order to rub the place, that amazing specific spot deep within me on purposeful, firm strokes. Causing me to arch my back and drop my head back into the pillow as waves of sensual, erotic pleasure throbbed within me.

  “Is this what you need, baby?”

  I needed to reply, needed to let him know he was playing my body perfectly and to encourage his efforts. But, honest to god, I couldn’t come up with anything in English with which to communicate. So what came up and out of my throat was a mewl, a soft almost scream of pleasure I only hoped he could interpret.

  His mouth dipped back to lick, to suck. And as his mouth went back to work his magic…I succumbed to the pleasure.

  So much so, I lost it.

  Lost it to the point where I shoved both hands into his hair, pulling him into my core as I flexed, tensing hard with my thighs in order to fully feel all the sensations washing, beating against me as my orgasm hit. One that slammed against me in a totally different way than the others I’d found beneath his fingers alone, or even each time he’d filled me. What I felt was sharper, more concentrated before it exploded in a cacophony of shimmering sparks which, honest to all that is holy, seemed to last for-freaking-ever.