by Carter Blake
She hasn’t gotten away from it, that much is obvious.
But I want to help her to do just that. And I don’t exactly know why. It goes beyond the call of duty, beyond my oath to serve and protect. But for right now, I’m going to blame my need to find out her secrets on my job, because I can.
“What are your plans for the evening, Addison?”
She turns around to meet my gaze, and I see that both camera bags are zipped up and slung onto her shoulder. She’s ready to bolt out of here the first chance she gets.
“Oh, uh…” She stumbles over her words. “I suppose I’ll work on some edits from a shoot I did the other night, and maybe go through a few of the shots from today.”
“So, you’re going to go home and work some more, that’s what you’re saying.” I flash her a grin, one workaholic to another.
For the first time, she smiles back at me. It’s not a full-fledged, happy-to-see-me kind of smile, but it’s a smile all the same, and it transforms her features from undeniably gorgeous to unable-to-handle hot.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”
I pull my phone from my back pocket to check the time. “Okay, so I’ll pick you up in an hour and a half. Just let me know where.”
Addison stares at me, not understanding. “Pardon?”
“You just worked all day. You can’t work all night, too. Besides, you’ve been stuck in a car with me all day—your words, not mine—and I need to prove to you I’m not always an asshole.”
“I can’t…I mean, I—” Her eyes flit to the doorway, and I realize she seems to be searching for an escape route. “You don’t have to prove anything to me, Dominic.”
I might have let it go at that and let her walk out the door without pushing the issue, if she hadn’t said my name. But my full name on her tongue, so sweet and seductive, is addictive as any drug I ever came across in my wild and unruly youth. I need to hear it again. “Maybe I don’t have to, but I want to.”
Hesitancy fills her gaze, mixed with…what is that? Fear? It sure looks like fear to me.
“What will we do if you pick me up?”
I see her question for what it is—progress. “Baseball. I usually head over to the batting cages every Thursday night just to blow off some steam. I’ll buy us some coffees beforehand, if you’d like, and we can either toss the ball around with some of the other people there, or we can do our own thing. It doesn’t matter to me.”
For a moment, I don’t think she’s going to answer. “I’ve never played baseball.”
“You’ve never—” What kind of self-respecting American has never played baseball? “Not even as a kid?” I don’t try to hide my utter disbelief.
“We weren’t that kind of family, I guess.”
Her embarrassment only encourages me. “Well, Princess, your luck is turning around. Go home, get yourself a bite to eat, a drink, or whatever it is you do when you get home from work, then get ready. Because I’m about to introduce you to America’s favorite fucking pastime.”
She laughs, and I relish in the beauty of the sound, vowing to make her do it again before the night is over. “Oh my, the language, Chief Kerr.”
Finally. A glimmer of a sense of humor. More progress. “It’s Dominic. And we’re off the clock, Addison. All bets are off. Like I said, get ready.”
Chapter 5
ADDISON
It takes every ounce of courage I have to give Dominic my address. Not only is he the first person I’ve allowed to know where I live since I ran away from my father a few years ago, but he’s also the first person I’ve purposely seen beyond a professional capacity in the same timeframe.
I’ve spent the last hour bouncing back and forth between even going through with seeing him tonight and calling him to tell him I’ve changed my mind. But by the time his black SUV pulls into the driveway, and he texts me to let me know it is, indeed, him, there’s no time left to second-guess my decision.
Now, though, as I sit here in the bleachers with a coffee in my hand—he’d picked it up on the way over to my place, and remembered exactly how I liked it—I’m actually glad I chose to come.
“Get your ass over here, Kent!”
I laugh at Dominic, who’s standing just inside the batting cage, and I shake my head. There’s no way in hell I’m getting up there in front of a bunch of people I don’t know and swinging a baseball bat, only to catch nothing but air and be laughed off the home plate.
“Not happening!”
Dominic drops the bat he’s holding and jogs toward me, making me laugh again. If nothing else, he’s definitely persistent.
“I said come and swing the damn bat,” he chuckles, sliding onto the bleacher beside me.
His hip and thigh push up against mine, and I breathe in, suddenly aware of the heat emanating from his body in waves. I feel the sudden shift between us before I glance up to meet his gaze.
Even with the sheen of sweat glistening on his forehead from the physical exertion of running and playing the game, his chest doesn’t heave. Neither of us moves for a long moment, and I realize then that he’s holding his breath, too. Simultaneously, we both breathe out slowly, as though doing it together will help steady the axis of our world that’s been tipped to the side. I’m still mesmerized by the steel grayish blue of his eyes when I feel his fingers graze over the skin just above my knee.
“I said come and play the game,” Dominic says softly, but no amusement or demand is in his instruction. “I’ll show you how.”
“But those people—”
“Ain’t nobody here but you and I, Princess.”
He runs his thumb just a bit higher, dragging it along my thigh. I can’t breathe. Or speak. Instead, I just nod. Jesus Christ, he could be asking me to run away with him to his island getaway on Bora Bora and I would submit. As long as his fingers stay on me, teasing my senses, I’ll do whatever he asks of me.
Dominic Kerr is dangerous.
And just when I thought I’d had all the dangerousness I could handle.
“I thought you said you’d never played baseball?” Dominic asks, glancing over at me as he pulls his SUV out of the parking lot and heads back toward my place. “You could’ve fooled me.”
“I swear, I haven’t.” I laugh, holding my hands up in surrender once my seatbelt is buckled in. “Must have something to do with the excellent teacher I had.”
I didn’t realize how dark it is outside. The stadium lights at the batting cages stave off any remnants of nighttime, allowing the brightness of the daytime to go on indefinitely. Now, with only the glow of the dashboard lights, everything feels so much more…intimate.
And it had definitely been intimate enough as he “taught” me how to play baseball. With his arms locked securely around me, his hands enveloping mine at the base of the bat, and his obvious arousal wedged tightly against my rear as he thoroughly showed me the proper stance at the home plate, it’d been a wonder I’d hit the fucking baseball at all.
“You did good, Addison,” he praises softly. “Real good.”
“Thank you for bringing me along tonight. I know I wasn’t too thrilled about it in the—”
“It was no problem. I had a good time.”
“Me, too.” I realize I’m desperately willing him to reach for my hand, just a gentle little gesture that confirms in my mind that I’m not crazy. That I’m not reading this whole thing the wrong way.
But he doesn’t. Instead, his fingers tap in time to the music playing so low on the radio that I can’t hear which song it even is.
There’s complete silence between us as we drive back to my place, and each second of it drives me further and further into a mental frenzy. Is he aware of the physical tension I feel between us? Of the sensual tingling that buzzes through my veins as my body recalls the feel of his body against mine? Does he feel it, too? Is he losing his goddamn mind the way I am right now?
Dominic pulls his SUV into the driveway and throws it into park. Both his hands
are firmly on the steering wheel, and even in only the glow of the dash lights, I can see that his knuckles are white with the pressure of his grip. He’s staring at his fingers intently, straight ahead. The dashboard glow reflects back in his eyes, and I begin to wonder if I’ve actually done something wrong. Maybe I should’ve said more on the way home, or maybe I—
“I have a question for you, Addison.” His voice is a low growl, and there’s a faint hint of unsteadiness to it.
I turn to him. “Y-yes?”
“Am I still an asshole?”
His question takes me by surprise. “What? No! Of course not. I just—”
Dominic tears his seatbelt off and pushes the center console away in one fluid movement, lunging forward to crush his lips against mine as though seeking out a lifeline in a life-threatening situation.
A startled yelp escapes my throat, but it’s muffled by his mouth on mine. It quickly turns into a moan as the desperate heat of his kiss renders me unable to comprehend anything else around me.
Ain’t nobody here but me and you, he’d said. Right now, he couldn’t be more right.
I feel his hand grope against my hip, then past it, and the passenger seat jerks back. It startles me, and I gasp into his mouth. He holds me firmly, assuring my safety, and I melt into him as he presses himself against me as much as the awkward position will allow.
Reclined as far back as the seat will go, Dominic’s body has room to pin me right where he wants me. And that’s fine, because I have no intention of protesting. His tongue explores me with such hot, feverish desire that I can feel the liquid heat pooling within me, and I moan again, begging for him to take me, possess me…own me.
I can feel his hardness as he pushes his hips against me in an attempt to get as close as possible. “You are…fucking gorgeous…” His teeth nip down my jaw, and a whimper of submission falls from my lips.
If this is what it feels like to be possessed by someone, I don’t want to be anything but.
“Oh God, Dominic…”
“I fucking love hearing my name on that sexy little mouth of yours.”
I gasp when his teeth graze my collarbone. “Oh, Dominic, I want—”
My cell phone in my jacket pocket rings shrilly between us, causing us both to go completely still.
“You don’t need to answer it,” he breathes against my skin, and I instinctively tilt my head to give him more access.
I’m panting, barely able to breathe, but I have to answer that phone.
Because I know what it means.
No one—no one—has that phone number, except for Dominic, and he only got it a few hours ago.
My heart’s pounding out of my chest now, and it’s not just because of how irrevocably turned on I am by the man on top of me. I reach a hand up to push him away gently, retrieving the phone with my other. His eyes are dark, unreadable, and he watches me with an intensity that makes me second-guess my decision to stop him.
I want him to devour me, and the predatory gleam in his eyes tells me that he would, in a heartbeat.
I hope the apology in my own eyes is evident, and I lift the phone up, flip it open, and…just listen.
The fragile walls of my world crash down around me as I hear the words on the other end of the line.
“Hello, Addy. Miss me?”
Chapter 6
DOMINIC
I’m as surprised as she is by my sudden lack of restraint. One minute my hands are on the steering wheel and I’m replaying in my mind what it felt like to press my ever-hardening erection into her back as I showed her how to swing the baseball bat, and the next I’m on her like a wildcat attacking its next meal.
Just the short drive to her place had been long enough to allow my mind the time needed to conjure up a series of very illicit, very dirty things I’d love to do to her. And now, it’s no holds barred from here on out.
I’ve had a taste of Addison Kent, and I’ve acquired an addiction to that sweet, intoxicating flavor in a matter of seconds.
The sound of her phone ringing drags me back to the conscious here and now, enough to cause me to still my groping hands and grinding hips. It never occurs to me she would actually answer the fucking thing. But as her hand comes up between us and I finally see the look in her eyes, beyond the haze of my sexual desperation for her, I see something else.
Fear.
Immediately, I know that fear is not because of me. She was just as into our kiss as I was, so it’s not that. I startled her, but she doesn’t fear me. Even though, maybe she should.
I want to ask her who it is, but she answers too quickly. Even in the dim glow of the SUV’s interior, I can see the color drain from her face as she holds the phone up to her ear, obviously listening to whoever is on the other end of the call.
“How?” is the only response she chokes out, and it makes my eyes narrow.
Addison’s eyes suddenly grow wide, and she snaps her head from one side to the other, searching the darkness beyond the light of the headlights that stretches across into the trees that line the backyard.
Then, she snaps the phone shut, leaving her gaze trained outside the window into the darkness that surrounds us. “You should go, Chief Kerr.”
Oh, now I’m Chief Kerr. “What’s going on?” I ask, my voice low.
Addison is very still, and when I reach out and gently pull her chin toward me, I can see the mental precipice she’s standing on, ready to careen over the edge into a sea of tears. But she says nothing.
“Tell me, Addison.”
She swallows hard. “Someone is after me.”
“Who?” I ask a little too forcefully, and a little too quickly.
She flinches. “My father.”
My poker face is in place now, but inside every ounce of my being is clenched and screaming for answers. “Tell me why, Princess,” I demand in as soft a tone as I can muster.
Addison sighs, and I begin to think she’s not going to tell me anything. Finally, she stares blankly out the windshield. “He killed my mother,” she states, turning to meet my gaze. “In front of me.”
Any ounce of strength I feel is immediately sucked from me. I knew it. I fucking knew there was something that had murdered the brightness of those pretty green eyes.
“I took off after he went to jail for it, and he blames me and my testimony for his incarceration.”
“Addison, you—”
“I testified against him, and he still got out last year. For overcrowding, maybe? Good behavior? I don’t even really know how he did it, but he got out. Got to love the fucking justice system.”
Between her painful tone and the fact that I am the fucking justice system, something sears through my chest to my heart. It might not have been me that let her down, but something within me knows that I have to do something to make this right. “He won’t get to you, Addison. I swear it. I won’t let him.”
She blinks a few times, then laughs. It’s a hollow, sad sound to my ears. “Sorry, Chief, but you’re a little late to the game. Especially seeing as he just advised me that I shouldn’t be making out with a police officer in my driveway.”
Any remnant of the ache between my legs quickly dissipates at her comment. I’ve been wasting time making her talk, and he’s out there, watching us? “Addison, shit! Why the fuck didn’t you—”
I swallow my initial response. The last thing she needs is an interrogation and a scolding. Instead, I finally lean all the way back into the driver’s seat and reach underneath my seat, pulling out the handgun I have holstered under there. “I’m calling for backup.”
“You’ll never find him, Dominic. This is a game of cat and mouse. And it doesn’t include you.”
She sounds so empty and resigned to the fact, like it’s inevitable.
If it was anyone else, it might piss me off. But her surety of the outcome breaks my heart. “If it includes you, it includes me.” I keep my eyes locked on hers as I flick the safety off and check to make sure the gun’s loaded.
It always is, but tonight there’s no room for mistakes. “Now, you think we can go into your place long enough to get you some things? If not, we’ll just go.”
“Go where?” She whirls around in her seat then, obviously thinking she hears something outside.
Well, that answers my question.
I reach across in front of Addison and punch down the lock on her door. Our faces are so close, I see her lips twitch slightly as her breath hitches. I graze my lips over hers tenderly, an unspoken promise. But just in case that’s not enough, I whisper, “You’re safe now, Princess. I promise.”
Chapter 7
ADDISON
I believe him. It shocks the hell out of me, but I do.
When I took the freelance job with SKB Productions to do the photography for the precinct documentary, I never thought about the reasons why I accepted the assignment, other than the money. But, now, feeling the heat and softness of Dominic’s lips and hearing his promise of safety, I wonder if I subconsciously sought out the protection of the police department, even just for a few days.
I’m not sure if that’s what was really so appealing about the job, but I do know one thing for certain.
I never planned on falling for Chief Dominic Kerr. Especially not so damn fast.
“Where are we going?” I ask again. My heart is pounding in my chest, and not just from the vivid memory of his lips on mine. I fear he may be expecting me to make a formal statement at the station.
“My place.”
I didn’t expect that. “Dominic, I can’t—”
“Don’t argue with me. There’s a man watching you at your apartment. He’s hunting you down, Addison, with the intention of doing you harm. Do you honestly think I’m going to just drop you off and bid you goodnight? Not a fucking chance. You hear me?” He weaves through traffic with the expert precision of a race car driver.
