Tempting Calm Waters

by Samantha Wolfe

  "Warren has no idea about our investigation, babe," he said with certainty. "You were in no shape last night to be questioned about what happened, and I didn't mention it. I told him that you and I struck up a relationship after meeting at your sister's apartment building, and you used your detective skills to hunt me down at R&C's office a few days later." He grimaced. "But I couldn't leave out the part about us going to Désir Dangereux since it was where you ran afoul of Nadasdy and Vinnie. I don't know if that will affect your job, but shockingly Warren didn't seem too concerned about it, so I'm hopeful nothing will come of it."

  I let out a sigh of relief as he continued.

  "After they dragged Nadasdy off kicking and screaming to jail, and everything was wrapped up, I brought you home, got us both cleaned up, and stayed to make sure you were okay," -he arched a brow and gave me a disapproving look- "since you stubbornly refused to go to the hospital to get checked out. And that brings us to right now," -his eyes began to burn with lust- "with your luscious little body against mine."

  He shifted closer, his already semi-erect cock growing harder against my hip. He leaned down and nipped at my lips, then kissed me with a fierce and intense passion that turned my brain to mush. When he pulled back, I was left reeling and blown away by the realization that the one memory from last night that I wanted to keep, was very much true and needed to be acknowledged. Astonishingly, I wasn't even afraid. I guess my brush with death, and this man's willingness to die for me, put everything in perspective.

  "You left part of the story out," I told him in a whisper.

  "Did I?" His gaze was suddenly focused intently on mine. "And what part is that?" he asked in a low sexy drawl that made my heart flutter.

  "The part where you said you loved me," I replied.

  His head jerked back an inch or two in surprise and he gaped at me. I guess he didn't expect me to be so frank about it. Neither did I. It wasn't that long ago that I'd been terrified of the very idea of love.

  "I do," he finally said, his response sincere and vehement. "I love you, Lu."

  I'd never heard those words from a man before until Scott, and the warmth they had bursting to life inside me was like nothing I'd ever felt before. It filled my heart up to the brim and made my heart sing with joy.

  "Good," I said waveringly as happy tears pricked my eyes. I reached up to lay my hand on his cheek. "Because I love you too."

  The most brilliant smile I'd ever seen lit up his gorgeous face. Then he closed his eyes for a moment, as if savoring my declaration, and I suddenly suspected he'd never been told those words from a woman before. This was new for us both, and I found joy in the thought that we had this in common, that we could share this first with each other.

  Scott's eyes opened again, and his expression turned soft and unbelievably tender.

  "Lu," he murmured as he laid his hand over mine.

  "Scotty," I whispered back, then frowned as I realized I owed him an apology.

  "What's wrong, baby?" he asked worriedly.

  "I'm sorry I said those horrible things to you in the club last night." My eyes pricked with tears as guilt pressed down on me. "Nadasdy manipulated some of the truth, but I'm the one who chose to believe her instead of talking to you about it first. I'm the one who did that background check behind your back and then threw it in your face."

  "Oh, babe," he said reassuringly. "It's already been forgotten."

  "But I should have known bet-"

  "But nothing, Lu," he interrupted me firmly. "I know you were afraid and didn't mean it."

  I opened my mouth to apologize again, but he shut me up with another drugging kiss that made me forget whatever I'd been about to say.

  "No more apologies, and no more guilt, Lu," he said sternly. "It's in the past, and all I care about right now is our future together."

  Our future together? I really liked the sound of that.

  He grinned wickedly. "Well, that and getting you naked," he added in a low sensual tone.

  I really like the sound of that too. "Then what are you waiting for, mi Rey?" I asked suggestively.

  His answering growl and lust maddened eyes had things low in my pelvis clenching and throbbing with need. He began eagerly pulling off my clothes with an enthusiasm that had me grinning at him. Within moments, he had us both naked. His hands and lips were all over me then, touching, and biting, and teasing. He leaned down as if to kiss me, but then paused with a pensive expression.

  "I've never done this before," Scott murmured quietly.

  "Done what?" I asked in confusion.

  "I've never made love to anyone." His voice held an almost awed quality to it.

  "Neither have I," I whispered, so very happy to share this new experience with him too.

  He smiled softly and leaned down once more. His mouth was just millimeters away from mine when he paused yet again. I nearly groaned in frustration.

  "I hope you don't expect me to give up being a kinky motherfucker after this," Scott announced wryly with that infuriatingly sexy smirk of his. "Because that's going to be a big no-go for me."

  I arched a brow and shot a narrow-eyed glare at him.

  "What?" he asked with fained innocence. "I have a reputation to uphold."

  "Cálla y bésame," I growled at him. Shut up, and kiss me.

  "Sí, mi Reina," he rumbled out, his eyes dark with molten desire. Yes, my queen. The man got off on hearing me speak Spanish just as much as I loved hearing him speak it too.

  His lips finally found mine with a searing blistering heat that I felt all the way down to my toes as he kissed me into oblivion. Wow. I'd never had a kiss like this in all my thirty-two years, and it was so worth the wait. When he pulled away, I wanted him so damn much that it was all I could do to remember to breathe. He growled as he rolled me underneath his hard body, then pulled one of my legs up over his hip as his cock nudged at my entrance. Yes. I needed to feel him deep inside me, to be one with me. I'd never wanted a man more than I wanted Scott in this moment.

  "I don't want to use a condom for this," he said in a strained voice. "I'm clean. Please tell me you are too." His gorgeous eyes were pleading and irresistible, even if I wanted to deny him this.

  "I am," I answered in desperation. "And I'm on the pill. Please, Scotty. I need you now."

  "Need you too," he groaned, and then he was pressing slowly into me.

  The feel of his bare cock slipping inside my warmth was like nothing I'd ever felt before. I could feel the heat of velvet skin over steely hardness as he filled me up. I could feel every decadent inch of him fitting inside me like he was made for me, and I for him. I latched my fingers into his soft chestnut hair and moaned with sweet delight, and he swallowed it down with another breath-stealing kiss as he reached the end of me.

  He began to thrust in and out with unhurried movements, his tongue and cock moving in perfect synchronicity as his pelvis rubbed just right against my clit. He growled and groaned into my mouth, murmuring tender words of love and affection between kisses. His words fed my desire and hastened my ascent toward bliss. His arms went around my shoulders and crushed my breasts against his chest as he buried his face against my neck. He quickened his pace, and I flew higher and higher and higher, the tension winding tighter and tighter. Scott's thrusts turned urgent and desperate, his breath stuttering in his chest as he powered into me with abandon.

  "I love you!" Scott cried out with one last powerful stroke that finally pushed us both over the edge.

  I screamed his name as a cresting wave of euphoria like I'd never known before burst free from my core. My pussy clamped down hard, and swept Scott right along with me into ecstasy. He arched up and shuddered above me with his own shout of pleasure as he exploded inside me, his cock jumping and jerking as the scalding wash of heat from his release flooded my convulsing body.

  We flew apart together in a long and poignant moment that seemed to last forever until we both came back down in a sweaty and sated pile of tangled limbs. Th
en I wrapped my arms around him and held him close as I fought to catch my breath, before finally managing to whisper softly in his ear, "I love you too."

  EPILOGUE

  ____________________

  Scott

  Two years later...

  "Scotty," Lu whimpered softly as I uncuffed her wrists from the headboard. Her entire body was languid and relaxed now from a multitude of orgasms as she lay sprawled on her back across our bed. I grinned down at her, preening in smug male satisfaction because it was all my doing. Oh yeah, two years in and I could still rock my woman's world.

  I reached out and carefully pulled the clamps from her perfect dusky nipples, smirking as she writhed and mewled in pleasure/pain. I tossed them on the nightstand and turned back to Lu. I lifted her knees up and spread them apart, then reached down between her legs to grip the flanged end of the shiny stainless steel butt plug with my fingers. I slowly eased it out of her tight little ass as she gasped and moaned, her body quaking with yet another aftershock.

  I took a moment to stare adoringly at her well-used and always tight little pussy, my semen already leaking from her luscious body. That's right. She was mine. She'd always be mine. Fuck, I really wanted to mark her with my cum again.

  "We're going to be late if you keep staring at my pussy like that for much longer," she murmured as she smiled dreamily up at me, her eyes flicking down to my already hardening cock. Who could blame him for perking up again, when she looked like a fucking porno come to life with her curvy and petite body draped across the comforter, and her long dark hair fanned out over my pillow.

  "Well, maybe if it wasn't so goddamn irresistible, babe," I replied unapologetically. Now it was her turn to look smug as she smiled lazily up at me.

  When Lu got home to our penthouse a little over an hour ago, I had no intention of letting my inner kinky motherfucker out, but when she'd given me that look as she walked past me to go up to our room, I was helpless to resist her. She knew I would never turn down an opportunity to get down and dirty with my woman.

  "I'll get in the shower while you take a few minutes to recover, babe," I said, my voice turning warm and tender. Fuck, I loved this woman with all my heart.

  "Okay," she replied, her eyes softening with affection.

  I turned and headed toward the bathroom, noting the time on the wall clock. Good, we still had plenty of time.

  As I neared the doorway, Lu called out behind me with warm affection and amusement in her sexy voice, "Love your dick!"

  "Love your pussy!" I answered back over my shoulder with a wide shit-eating grin on my face as I walked into the bathroom. I took a few minutes to clean the butt plug, then hopped into the shower feeling like the luckiest motherfucker on earth.

  When I came back out to get dressed, I found Lu snuggled under the covers with Sugar curled up next to her on top of the comforter. Lu was absently trailing her fingers through the soft cream-colored fur of the cat's back. They both looked relaxed and content. Sugar was purring so loud that I could hear her across the room, her big startlingly blue eyes soft and adoring as she stared at Lu.

  A year ago, when Lu moved in with me, the two of them were like oil and water. There was a lot of posturing and glaring between them for weeks and weeks until the day my cat turned into a fucking traitor. Now the two of them were tight, and I think if Sugar was given the choice between saving my life or Lu's, I'd be the one left holding the short end of the stick.

  Lu climbed out of the bed and walked across the room. She eyed my naked body with very obvious appreciation and trailed her fingertips down my bicep on her way past me. I got a good eyeful of her sweet ass and the red hand prints I'd put there as she sauntered into the bathroom.

  I approached the bed and reached down to pet Sugar. The second my fingers touched her fur, she leaped to her feet and took off with a dismissive flick of her rusty-orange tail. I frowned after her as she hopped down off the bed and disappeared into the bathroom with Lu. See? A fucking traitor. I shook my head with a disgusted snort and went to the closet to get dressed. Then I headed downstairs to my office to get a few things done while Lu got cleaned up.

  The last two years had been the best of my life. Lu and I had slipped into being a couple like it was the easiest and most natural thing in the world. Her life as a vice cop and mine as a P.I. and security specialist had seamlessly fit together to become something I could no longer live without. We were a team facing the world together, and I couldn't fathom a future without her in it anymore. All those misguided years thinking that a relationship was a joke and a trap because of my parent's fucked-up marriage, had been soundly erased by this incredible woman and the love we shared. Nope, I was never letting Lu go. I thanked my lucky stars every single day to have her in my life, and that those two lunatics from Désir Dangereux didn't get their way two years ago.

  Nadasdy ended up being the craziest piece of work out of the two of them. She confessed to using her skills as a psychiatrist to brainwash Vinnie systematically into being her slave, controlling his access to the opiates he was addicted to and grooming him to become a killer. They'd honed their skills in that abandoned building on several poor homeless women before moving on to seducing and snagging their victims from Désir Dangereux, and killing them in their own homes. They'd taken Lu there only because her apartment building's security was too tight for them to get a drugged Lu inside unnoticed. Thank God, because there was no way I could have sneaked Calder and Pete into Lu's apartment without them being seen. Thanks to them, I still had my girl and my life. Needless to say, I was glad that Vinnie was dead, and that crazy psycho bitch was rotting away in prison. They would never hurt anyone again.

  I'd been working for a while when my personal laptop suddenly pinged with the sound of a notification for a video call. I grinned, knowing it could only be one person, and accepted the call.

  "Hey," I said in greeting as Calder's familiar image appeared on the screen.

  "Hey, yourself," he replied with a warm smile. He was sitting in his own home office with a contented and casual ease that was now his norm, compared to the hardened and brooding man he'd been before reconnecting with Ella. "I thought you could use a little pep talk for tonight."

  "Thanks, brother, but I'm good to go," I told him confidently. There were a lot of things in life to be unsure about, but this sure as hell wasn't one of them.

  "Have you given any thought to how your family will react to this?"

  A bittersweet feeling fell over me. "Ethan and Rory will be thrilled." My brothers had unsurprisingly accepted Lu because they just wanted me to be happy.

  He nodded, then frowned worriedly. "And your parents?" he prompted.

  "Can go fuck themselves," I growled out vehemently.

  Sylvia and Wilson Conrad had yet to be accepting of my relationship with Lu, and didn't treat her any better than they treated me, which really yanked my chain. Veiled insults and passive-aggressive insinuations that our relationship wouldn't last were the usual bullshit we had to deal with even after two goddamn years, so we avoided them like the plague. I didn't give two fucks what they thought about this.

  Calder nodded with grim satisfaction. He didn't think much of my parents either, and had never hidden that fact. His solidarity meant a lot to me.

  "And Lu's family?" he asked.

  "They'll understand," I answered with a small smile.

  Lu's family was a whole other story. Her mother and sister had welcomed me immediately with open arms. Her father had been a little harder to crack, but I'd eventually won him over too. Her family's ready acceptance of me, even with my sullied past, was a foreign concept that still bewildered me, and made me feel even more resentment toward my own parents.

  "Dad?" Violet's voice called out somewhere out of view of Calder's video camera.

  Calder turned to look to the right and smiled softly. "What do you need, kid?"

  "Are you talking to Uncle Scott?"

  He nodded and waved her toward him. "Come o
n in."

  A second later, Violet came into view and plopped herself in the office chair next to her father. She was getting so tall, and at thirteen, she was looking more and more like a young woman every day. I fucking hated it, but not near as much as Calder did. I pitied any guy she brought home to her father in the near future, because he was already screwed. And I'd back Calder up in a heartbeat if any punk kid hurt Violet.

  "Hi, Uncle Scott," Violet greeted me enthusiastically as bounced in her chair with excitement. "Is tonight the night?"

  "It sure is, kid," I said with a wide grin.

  "Are you nervous?" she asked with wide-eyed giddiness.

  "Nah." I waved a dismissive hand at her. "I'm good."

  "Not even a little?"

  "Nope, I got this." I wasn't lying at all. Shocking, I know.

  "Cal?" Ella's voice called out next, before the tall willowy blond came into view.

  In her arms was a chubby little baby with soft almost black hair and big crystalline blue eyes just like her father. The six-month old little girl was the newest addition to Calder's family, Lily Rennen, who'd been a complete and welcome surprise when they found out they were pregnant with her.

  Lu and I'd been on the fence about starting a family of our own, but after spending so much time with the charismatic Violet and the utterly adorable Lily, I was beginning to come around. And I suspected Lu was too, considering the longing looks that I kept catching her giving the baby. The idea of another Lu running around in the world sounded pretty damn good to me.

  Ella glanced at the computer and smiled brightly at me. "Oh, hi Scott," she said as she handed Lily to her big sister, who took her immediately and began pressing kisses all over the cooing baby's cheeks as she cuddled her close. Violet adored her baby sister and doted on her constantly.

  "Hey, Ella," I greeted her warmly.