by Hazel Parker
“Sure,” I said.
I rose from the crime scene and followed Burke to the living room. I wanted to hold his hand, show my affection in some fashion, but if this talk had anything to do with what I thought it did, I decided erring on the side of distance for now was best. Verbal intimacy, physical distance.
He took a slow, grunting seat on the couch. Though he looked handsome and young, he sounded like an old man when he sat. For what he’d done, though, I was happy to let him do whatever he damn well pleased.
“Well,” he said, “aren’t you glad that’s over with.”
“Understatement,” I said with a tired laugh. “I can’t believe you knew to come and rescue me.”
“I didn’t, not in that I knew something was going to happen, at least. But I knew you were looking for me at the hotel, and I followed you back here, trying to work up the courage to say something.”
“Mission accomplished?” I said.
We both shared a laugh. Suffice to say, it was not quite how we imagined getting to “saying something.”
“But seriously. Thank you for saving me. I…I was a dead woman without you.”
“Don’t thank me. I was just—”
I held a hand up and found myself scooting closer to him.
“Don’t say you were just doing your job,” I said. “Even if you were, your job is ferociously dangerous, far more frightening than anything I would ever want to deal with. And I think you did way more than that. You could have waited to trap me in. For a man that dangerous, I could see you using me as bait.”
There was something that flashed across Burke’s face that suggested that might have been a possibility, or at least something under consideration at one point. But he said nothing more to it.
“Well, Snake aside, which is no easy thing…”
Burke chuckled. He looked so much lighter and relaxed with that man gone.
“It’s just surreal. He’s the reason DOM stayed in business for so long. And now…well, I’ll have to make a call to Scott and Liam it is all said and done.”
Before I had the chance to ask further questions, he turned back to me.
“I know we’ve had a rough go. But let’s just lay it out and face whatever we have to. I’ve felt an enormous attraction to you since the minute I saw you, Emily Lorne.”
The way he said my full name…it sent shivers down my spine.
“When you said you were having twins, I freaked out a bit. I’m not proud of it, I’ll admit that. But I think part of it was just…I think I’ve wanted a family this whole time, and I got scared that it was so real. Not just one kid, but two kids. Like, there’s an element there of…it was so sudden.”
Who was this Burke, speaking so freely and honestly? Gone was the stoic mask that hid his true feelings and emotions, replaced by nothing but honesty and freshness.
It was kind of beautiful.
“I shouldn’t have flipped on you. And I know that that reflects the kind of emotional drama that you don’t need in your life. But I’m here to tell you now that with that man gone and my head cleared, I know what I want. When I was in the hospital, dealing with gunshot wounds, do you know who I thought of? You.”
My heart skipped a beat. I felt warm in my stomach.
“Emily, you’re the person I thought of. I may have even fantasized about some things.”
The very word “fantasized” alone made me think about all the dirty, naughty things we might be doing very soon. Like, very soon. Even with my place a hot mess—maybe because my place was a hot mess—I was especially aroused.
“So I can only speak for me, but I want to give us a shot. I want to see where this goes. I want to try. Tell me what you think.”
And with that, Burke leaned forward, clasping his hands together. The intensity of his gaze…oh, man.
And, I happened to notice, the distance between us was closing rather rapidly.
“You know, I came to the hotel tonight because I’ve been thinking about you all week,” I confessed. “When you left the workplace on Monday, I just…your reaction was different. It made me realize I wasn’t really listening to myself. I was listening to what I thought was best. But now I know that you would do anything for the kids and, well, now for me. I know I haven’t been the greatest communicator, but I’m willing to change that.”
The gap closed between us again, this time deliberately. Burke looked at me with intense eyes. I opened my mouth to say something, but it felt like this might have been a spot where the less was said, the better.
His hands moved from his lap to mine. He moved them up my body until he had both around my hips. For a second, he and I just looked at each other, the intensity of the moment all but driving us to silence.
And then he pulled me in.
Chapter 24: Burke
I pulled her in for a kiss.
And when I did, I realized something that sounded so corny but was unequivocally true.
Whatever I had felt during my dreams, whatever feelings I’d had when I’d fucked her in my hospital-induced hallucinations, paled in comparison to the real thing. For all the shit we’d been through to get to this point, there was nothing more special than to kiss her after a near-death experience.
And for all that I’d been through in my life, to call a kiss with a woman “special” was something I never thought I’d fucking say. But when it came to Emily Lorne, that was really how I felt. All the rationalizations, all the justifications, all the half-lies I had told myself so I wouldn’t get hurt gradually faded away. No longer did I fear closeness with Emily; now I craved it.
But just because I valued that emotional intimacy and closeness didn’t mean that I’d forgotten what it meant to be a dom. And as our kiss lasted longer and our actions became more erotic, that side of me slowly began to awaken. And although Emily probably had an idea of what a dom is, she had no idea what she was in for.
I was about to rock Emily’s world. Add in the fact that I’d waited too damn long for this moment, and it was practically a foregone conclusion that I was about to make Emily see stars.
I grabbed her ass as our kiss went on and on. But that wasn’t enough for me. I pinned her against the wall and bit into her neck, causing her to gasp and moan my name. Her hand slid down to my pants and tried to dig in, not quite reaching my junk but sending the message all the same. I brought my hips up a bit and pulled back, and she dug her hands all the way in. As soon as she had a grip on my cock, her stroking began in full, causing me to moan quietly and bite back into her neck.
I let her have some fun before I pulled her back to her spare bedroom.
By now, the dom in me had fully awakened. I was now grabbing her and controlling her as I damn well pleased, and she loved every second of it. I turned her around when we got inside the room, I grabbed her breasts. I’d been waiting forever to touch them in real life, and somehow, it surpassed whatever I had felt in my dreams.
After I’d had my fun with those, I took one hand, slid it down her pants, and started rubbing her wet pussy. Her breath hitched, she backed her ass into me, and she moaned my name repeatedly. Oh, how fucking hot it was to hear “Burke” stretched out.
She finally turned around in a whirl, devouring me with a kiss, trying to push me back, presumably so she could go down on me. But I was a dom. I set the pace for how things went.
And that started by making sure she came first.
“Nice try,” I growled.
I then lifted her off the ground, moved forward a couple feet, and tossed her on the bed. I pounced on her before she had even landed from her first bounce, pulling up her shirt and kissing her exposed skin while I worked to remove her pants and underwear. I sat up only to get those removed, leaving her naked from the waist down.
“Oh, fuck, Burke—”
I didn’t let her finish whatever she was going to say. It wasn’t as important as making sure that she orgasmed.
I pressed my lips hard into her pussy, tasting her sweet, sweet juices. Holy fu
ck, how bad I had wanted this moment! I thought I’d had a turning point in Mexico, but I had somehow undersold how good this moment would feel.
To be with Emily, to be controlling her, to be doing things my way as I always liked to… .
I wrapped my hands under her thighs and pressed down on her hips, preventing her from moving while I ate her out. She tried to squirm out, but the harder she moved, the harder I pressed down so she couldn’t do anything. It was so fucking hot how she begged me to let her move.
Of course, if I did, she wouldn’t be feeling as good as she was now. So really, it was a sort of win-win for us. I kept her in place. The tension of feeling pinned accelerated her orgasm. What wasn’t to like?
She ran her fingers over my scalp and tightened her grip as she inhaled sharply and exhaled slowly. I could feel her clit starting to swell. It was tempting to go slow and tease her out, but that was never my preferred style for a first encounter. Maybe later, we would, but for now, the goal was to show her how quickly I could get her from kissing to orgasm.
And I was damn well sure, no matter what her past was, I was going to be the fastest but also the best she had ever had.
Sure enough, it only took probably two, maybe three minutes before she started moaning about how close she was to orgasm. That just told me to keep doing what I was doing, so I closed my eyes and focused my tongue on pressing harder, darting faster, and just otherwise having my way with her clit. Her whole body started to shake; even my hands pinning her hips down could not contain her shaking.
“Oh, Burke, yes…”
Nothing mattered but making her come. Nothing.
“Right there.”
She was mine. She was exactly where I wanted her to be. Under my spell.
And coming.
“Fuck!”
There it was. Shaking so violent, trembling so aggressive, I gave up trying to hold her down—no, I chose to let her free. The pinning had served its purpose. She thrashed about a little more, all the while my face remaining glued to her pussy, pressing her further and further into orgasm. I felt like I was riding a bull trying to shake me off.
“Oh my God, OK stop!”
Finally, I acquiesced. I stopped and sat back, proud of my accomplishments. Emily lay face down on the bed, trying to catch her breath, her body still trembling, like little currents of electricity shooting through it.
“Holy fuck, Burke,” she said.
I rose to my feet, standing proud in admiration. Aside from my belt being unbuckled, I actually hadn’t gotten any of my clothing off. Something told me that would change momentarily. I knew Emily wouldn’t be able to resist.
“Why the fuck did this take so long?”
I shrugged.
“Better late than never.”
There was a lot more to it than that, obviously. But I wasn’t about to disrupt the moment with a soliloquy about how far we’d come. That could come when we weren’t trying to make the other come.
“Oh, fuck, you’d better get naked now.”
“I would be delighted,” I said as I removed my shirt.
“Fuck, you’re sexy.”
I snorted. I did my part. I really didn’t think I did anything special fitness-wise, but I suppose it was a sorry state for most men that I was considered as good in shape as I was.
“I do a few crunches here and there,” I said as I tossed my shirt to the ground.
“Oh yeah?” she said. “Why don’t you do one now so you can take those boxers off?”
I smirked and did as commanded. My cock, by now so stiff a mere jerk could probably get it to explode, sprung out. Emily actually gasped.
“I don’t know how that’s going to fit in me,” she said. “But I suppose we’ll give it a try.”
“Oh, don’t be dramatic,” I said. “The only dramatic thing that’s going to happen is the ensuing orgasms.”
I climbed up over to Emily. Instinct told me to put a condom on, but I thankfully never hesitated and realized the absurdity of that notion on two levels, anyway.
One, Emily was pregnant. So there was no “pregnancy risk” because that “risk” had been realized. I suppose she could have had some STDs, but by this point in the game, I feel like that would have come up.
Two, and most importantly, I knew this wouldn’t be the last time we had sex. We’d have many more moments. There was trust and commitment and intimacy. We weren’t going to fuck around with anyone but the other.
“Oh, fuck, I’m so horny just imagining you inside me,” Emily said. “The anticipation is killing me.”
I arched an eyebrow and slid right inside her.
And wouldn’t you fucking know it, once again, it somehow felt better than the dream I’d had. And like I said, that was a damn good dream, so it wasn’t like I was extrapolating some quick fantasy into something bigger.
“Oh, fuck,” I murmured.
Pussy always felt good. But there was something about Emily in particular that left me a bit speechless. I didn’t know how to fucking describe it other than to say it was the best damn pussy I’d ever had wrapped around me. Sure, I’d had my fair share of women in the past, but I could say none felt as good as Emily.
And not just in the physical sense, either.
And from there, I just lost myself in Emily.
There was something about this woman that made me not just focused on how tight and warm she felt, but on how together I felt with her. I knew from the moment I’d come back after finally killing Snake that she’d be mine, but sometimes, the dom mindset could be a curse. The belief that I could make anyone mine sometimes led to me taking women that weren’t the most ideal. Fortunately, that same mindset also led to me dumping them before things got too rushed, but it wasn’t always an enjoyable ride.
But with Emily, it felt like I didn’t need to be dom. I wanted to, and so I would, but I could just be with her. It felt natural. It felt fucking right to be with her.
And so, regardless of the position, regardless of how fast or slow I fucked her, I always felt connected to her. I suppose this must have been what Scott and Liam had felt at different points, but it didn’t matter if they did or didn’t.
I just knew Emily Lorne would be mine.
I made her come at least twice more, that much I was aware of. The first was when I was on top of her and had just started. Maybe the initial burst of pleasure got to her? I was happy either way so long as she came. The second came when I took her doggy style. Both times, the way she said my name…oh, fuck yes.
I finally came into her when she was on top and I had pulled her close into me, slamming my hips up into her. I bit down into her traps when I came, for it happened with such a force of pleasure that I had not anticipated it. I mean, I definitely had felt the orgasm arriving, but to say I had anticipated how good it felt was just not true.
And when I finished, my body felt like it could just give out. Not just from this sex. From everything.
From years of being a DOM agent and putting my life on the line.
From years of searching for Snake and finally having killed him.
From years of wondering if I would ever find the right woman for me—and then finally doing so.
Yeah, it wasn’t just the post-coitus feeling that I had right now. It was the post-everything. Fuck, I was tired.
“That felt amazing, Burke,” she said, slowly lifting up and leaving me with another grunt as my already-finished cock had one last brush against her pussy. “I think I’m going to keep you around.”
“I think I’m going to keep coming around,” I said as she went into the bathroom to clean up.
A minute later, she emerged with a towel, which she tossed over to me. I took it and wiped myself down, then let the towel drop to the floor, my naked body still spread out over the bed. If Emily thought it was dirty, I’d hire a fucking maid. All I cared about was just having a moment of peace.
For the first time in, essentially, my entire adult life, I felt like I didn’t ha
ve anywhere to be or anything to do. I was truly free. There were no lingering questions, no leftover missions, no forgotten duties. I had done it all.
I could finally be.
Emily curled up to me, pressing her breasts into my side while she wrapped an arm around me. I closed my eyes and smiled.
“If you can fuck me like that every time, you can take me anytime,” Emily said with a laugh.
I chuckled.
I fucking chuckled.
I didn’t do that very often, but I guess that was a sign of being free. Felt really damn good.
“I think I will,” I said. “In fact, if you don’t mind, I think I’m going to take you whenever I want.”
“You could most certainly do that.”
There was something left unsaid to that. For now, I just cuddled her. But fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long for that unsaid thing to be said.
“Am I crazy for asking if you want to be around for more than just sex?”
“Yes,” I deadpanned, “but only because I’ve already said as much for the last several days.”
Emily had to laugh at that.
“I guess it just seems surreal to me right now, you know?” she said. “Like first, I was so convinced you’d say yes. Then I was so convinced you’d say no. Then I was convinced you were an asshole. And now…I’m not sure what I’m convinced of.”
“Well, let me put it this way,” I said. “I’m not moving back north; one, it’s fucking cold, and two, you’re here. The biggest obstacle to me staying out of work is now gone. So…give it time. You’ll be convinced.”
“You sure?”
I smiled, leaned over, and kissed her.
“I’ll put it this way,” I said. “I’m not missing out on these kids. So whatever happens to us, you know I’ll always be around for them.”
Emily leaned over to kiss me again and cuddled me tight. Yeah, I had a feeling this one was going to be lasting.
Chapter 25: Emily
Eight Months Later
I sat up in the middle of the night.
I felt it.
Burke lay to my left, blissfully asleep. He had no idea. But he sure would soon enough.
