by Marla Monroe
“Does this feel like I’m attracted to you?” He placed her hand on his jeans where his hard cock throbbed against her hand.
“Men get hard at the drop of a hat.” Charlotte dismissed it and tried to pull her hand away from his crotch.
“Let’s just say you dropped your hat and I’m responding to it because you turn me on, Charlie.”
“If you were really attracted to me, you wouldn’t have acted the ass you have toward me for the last six weeks,” she said, snatching her hand back.
He stepped back away from the Jeep. She jerked open the door and climbed in. When she would have slammed the door shut, he stopped her.
“I didn’t think you were my type at first. I’ve changed my mind.”
“Yeah, well, maybe I’ve changed my mind, too,” she said with a frown and a pointed look at where his hand held her door open.
He smiled and moved it. She slammed the door and started the Jeep. He didn’t move but remained where he was as she backed out of the drive and drove off. She watched him in her rear-view mirror until she couldn’t see him in more. Her stomach continued to do somersaults and cartwheels even once she was home alone. Why after all of these years did she finally respond to someone and it had to be Baxter?
Chapter Two
“I’m going to tell Jack I’m not going. He and Baxter can go alone this time,” Nina said.
“No, you’re not either. You’re going with them like you planned. I’m fine, Nina.” Charlotte shook her head. “He won’t be back.”
“Charlotte, he came to your house at midnight and banged on your door till you had to call the police. I don’t see him stopping.”
“I have a restraining order against him now. What could you do if you were here? Help me call the police?” Charlotte asked.
“Don’t be sarcastic, Charlotte. This is serious,” Nina said.
“I’m being serious. You can’t stay with me. I won’t let you even if you did stay home from the ride.”
“Who’s staying home from the ride?” Jack asked as he and Baxter walked into the living room.
“I am. Unless Charlotte comes with us. I’m not leaving her here alone with some crazy guy stalking her.”
“What in the hell is going on?” Baxter demanded.
Charlotte jumped and looked at Nina and Jack for help. They both looked just as startled.
“Nothing.”
“Nina?” Baxter asked without taking his eyes off Charlotte.
“That guy who was bothering her a few weeks ago is still bothering her. He was at her house the other night banging on her door after midnight.”
“Why didn’t you say something about it?” Baxter asked, directing his stare at her now.
“I didn’t figure it was anyone’s business but mine. I took care of it,” Charlotte said, glaring back at him.
“How did you take care of it?” he asked.
“I called the police and let them handle it, and then I got a restraining order against him.” She grinned a smug smile at him.
“Have you heard from him since then?”
“No, and I don’t expect to. The police were really nice about threatening him for me.” She smiled and batted her eyelashes at him.
“I think she needs to come with us, so she won’t be at home alone,” Nina said.
“Who said anything about being alone?” Charlotte asked, looking pointedly at Baxter.
“So, you’ve decided to start dating again?” he asked, taking a step closer to her.
“Maybe.” She glared at Nina. Obviously, her friend had been talking out of turn about what she was and wasn’t doing.
“Don’t look at Nina like that. She didn’t say anything. I overheard you talking to her the other day,” Baxter told her.
“Look, I’m not going on some bike ride with the three of you. I have things I want to do next weekend. Riding on the back of a bike is not one of them.”
“Suit yourself,” Baxter said and turned and stomped off.
Charlotte sighed and grabbed her purse. “I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you at work tomorrow, Nina.”
She closed the front door behind her and jumped in her Jeep. She took the long way home, thinking about what was up with Baxter and how he’d been around her lately. First, he ignored her and was barely civil. Then he kissed her and said he was attracted to her, and now he didn’t seem to care one way or the other. Charlotte was confused.
Her driveway lay covered in leaves. She needed to rake next weekend. She was hoping that most of the leaves would have fallen by then, but figured she still had another month of raking left on the trees. The mess on her drive had to go though. She pulled all the way into her carport and unlocked the door to the house to change into a pair of work jeans and long-sleeve shirt. She would sweep off the sidewalk and drive if nothing else. She had another hour of sunlight. It seemed like fall had come early this year to her, but maybe it was just the depressed feeling in the air.
When she came back out, Neal was standing by her car with his hands in the pockets of his jeans.
“What are you doing here, Neal? You know I have a restraining order against you. You’re not supposed to be anywhere close to me,” she said, backing toward the door.
“Don’t go inside yet. Let me explain. I love you, Charlotte. You never gave me a chance to prove it to you,” he told her. “You barely went out with me long enough for me to show you.”
“I’m sorry if you are, but I’m not in love with you, so you don’t need to prove anything to me. You just need to leave me alone.”
“I can’t do that. You don’t understand how it feels.”
“Look, you need to leave, Neal. I’m calling the police now.” She stepped backward, reaching for the door handle behind her back.
As soon as she found it, she opened the door and hurried through it, closing it behind her. She looked out the curtained window, and he was gone. She didn’t know whether to call the police or not. In the end, she chose not to since he’d gone. She didn’t get her drive swept off, but she could do that along with the raking the next weekend. Right now, she needed a nice hot bath.
Charlotte climbed the stairs of her small three-bedroom house and stripped out of her clothes. She pinned her hair up on top of her head and ran a hot bath. It didn’t take long for her to relax once she sank below the water in the big claw-foot bathtub she’d rescued from a demolition outside of town last year. It had taken most of her savings to renovate it and the bathroom, but she loved it.
The warm water soon had her eyes closing and her mind wandering. She thought about Baxter and why he had been hot toward her one week and indifferent the next. It didn’t make sense.
I wasn’t exactly receptive to him when he approached me though, was I?
She thought about the kiss and how he’d taken over her mouth as if he’d owned it. It had overwhelmed her. She hadn’t expected the kiss to begin with, and then to have him so completely control her had scared her for a second. Maybe she should have been a little less harsh in pulling back. She had probably hurt his feelings. Men had such tender feelings to be so hardheaded.
Charlotte closed her eyes and wondered what it would be like to have sex with Baxter. Would he be just as controlling in bed? The thought excited her now that she wasn’t scared anymore. He had taken her by surprise before. She knew what to expect now. He was a rough man. She got that. He had been undercover in a gang as well as other assignments, according to Nina.
Should she try to approach him when they got back from their bike trip? He’d be relaxed and not so intense. Then again, she liked that he focused entirely on her when he talked to her. Would he be that way in bed, as well? She sure hoped so. Maybe she’d never find out now that she’d turned him down. Maybe she’d had her one chance and blown it. Maybe she should just take Neal up on his offer.
* * * *
Baxter climbed into the shower and let the hot water run over his face and head. He couldn’t figure Charlotte out. She had wante
d him, he was sure of it, but she acted so aloof to him. It could be that she wasn’t sure what she wanted. Or it could be you’re just reading more into her reactions than is really there. She just might not be into you, Baxter. Look at yourself, man. You look like a freak.
He turned around and let the water play over his back and ass. It felt good. They’d worked on his house some that afternoon, and he was nasty from climbing around in the attic running wires for the sound system he’d installed.
When Nina had moved in with Jack, she had sold her house to him. He would be living next door to his best friends. It was a win-win situation for both of them. She needed to sell the house, and he needed a house to live in. They worked out a deal, and now he had a home for the first time in his life.
Baxter had been an orphan and grew up in foster homes, and then joined the police force as soon as they would let him. He joined the ATF—alcohol, tobacco, and firearm and explosives—and ended up undercover almost immediately because at the time, they needed someone who looked like him. He’d been undercover in one sting or another ever since. His home had been anything from a rented hotel room to a swanky apartment to a bed in a crack house. Until now, he’d never really had a family either. Nina and Jack were his new family.
His thoughts turned to Charlotte again. He wanted her, and he couldn’t get his body to understand that it might not get what it wanted this time. She had responded so sweetly to him though.
He looked down at his swollen dick and shook his head. It never failed that when he thought about her, his cock got hard. Hell, someone could just mention her name and he got hard. He grasped his shaft at the base and squeezed. Then he pumped his hand up and down until a drop of precum pearled at the end of his dick. He spread it over the mushroom cap and then squeezed again.
He could imagine her lying between his legs with one hand on his balls and the other wrapped around his cock. She’d lick along the rim and then delve inside the slit to capture another drop of his cum. Baxter squeezed and tugged on his cock as he thought of her hot mouth licking up and down his stalk like a candy cane. She would roll his balls in one hand and tug on his cock with the other.
Cum boiled in his balls as she licked up and down his dick, paying close attention to the slit in the top for any dew it produced. He would wrap her long hair in one hand and pull on it to tell her he wanted her to go down on him all the way, and she would. She would take his cock to the back of her throat and swallow around him. Lightning flashed in his spine as his balls drew up. She would laugh at the feel of his balls contracting in her hand, and her laughter would tickle his dick until he shoved it back down her throat again. She’d moan around him, and he’d lose it with that moan. Cum would erupt from his cock to coat her throat in it.
He stood on tiptoes as he pumped his cock with his hand while he squeezed his balls in the other. When he came, it was massive, but nothing like he imagined it would be with her. Cum filled his hand and splattered on the wall in front of him. Baxter growled, then settled down, and leaned one hand against the shower wall to regain his balance and breath.
Shaking his head, he turned around and began cleaning up. This wasn’t helping him any. He was still hard. Nothing would help but the real deal. He needed Charlotte. Somehow, he was going to convince her to give him a try.
The ringing of his cell phone in the room had him cursing as he shut off the shower and climbed out to grab a towel. He dried his hands and picked up his phone. It was Daves, his old lieutenant. He’d been working with him on developing scenarios for training new undercover agents.
“Hello, Daves.”
“How are you coming on that last case I gave you?” the other man asked.
“Got it almost finished. Should be able to send it all to you by Thursday.”
“Can you come to Dallas on Friday to go over the details with me? We want to get this one started as soon as possible,” Daves told him.
“Sorry, going on a weekend bike ride. I’ll call you Thursday after I send it, and we can talk about it while you read through it. If you have any questions, you can email them, and I’ll answer what I can with my phone.”
“Guess that’s the best I can get.”
“Yep, sorry. My first long ride in nearly four months. I’m not missing it,” Baxter said.
“No problem. I’ll talk to you Thursday, then.”
Baxter hung up and tossed the phone on the counter, then snagged the towel again to dry off. As soon as he was dry, he dressed in a fresh pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. Jack was cooking hamburgers on the grill. They were going to be finalizing the details for the weekend ride. He wished Charlotte had agreed to come, but he wasn’t going to ask her. Nina already had, and she’d said no—emphatically.
He walked next door to the backyard and grabbed a beer out of the cooler. Jack was nowhere to be found, but the grill was going, just without the hamburgers on it. He figured they were probably fucking. He shook his head. They went at it like rabbits. He couldn’t help but smile. He could go in there right now and watch, and they were happy with him doing it. He hadn’t felt the urge lately for some reason.
About fifteen minutes later, Jack joined him with a shit-eating grin on his face. Yep, they’d been fucking. He smiled.
“You look like the cat that ate Nina,” he said.
“Probably because I did.” Jack opened the grill and dropped on the hamburger patties.
“Have you checked your screws in your playroom yet?” Jack asked him.
“Yeah, they hold me up fine. I don’t think I have to worry about it.”
Jack nodded and closed the lid of the grill. He popped the top on the beer Baxter handed him and took a swallow before setting it aside.
“Nina is worried about Charlotte. She said that Charlotte is making it out to be nothing, but that Neal is really weird. She said he kept telling her he wanted to prove how much he loved her if she would just give him the chance.”
“Want me to find him and warn him off?” Baxter asked. He was up for the task.
“No, not yet. If it comes to it, we’ll both put the fear of God into him. I’m just not sure how to keep Nina from worrying about her the entire weekend,” Jack said.
“Keep her flat on her back, and she’ll have something else to think about,” Baxter suggested with a grin.
“Oh, I plan on doing that.”
“Doing what?” Nina asked as she walked outside with a plate to put the hamburgers on once they were done.
“Keeping my dick inside that sweet pussy of yours, baby.”
“Jack!” She blushed and slapped his arm.
“What?” he asked.
“Baxter, did you get your wire run? When can I come over and listen to your new system?” Nina asked.
“Got it run and mostly hooked up but have a few more connections to make before it’s ready. I’ll try to have it done by Wednesday for you to come over,” he told her.
“Great!”
They sat around outside while the burgers cooked talking about the two houses and what they were doing to them. Then they went inside to eat and discuss the weekend coming up. They had decided on connecting rooms and already booked the rooms at the town where they would be spending the night.
Jack and Baxter both had checked several times to be sure there were no major gangs in the area. They’d each gotten new leathers with nothing on the backs. It would be the first time either of them had ridden in the new leathers. Jack had been riding without one until Baxter was able to ride with him.
“So, we’re leaving Saturday morning at six, and we’re planning on being back Sunday night around five. That should give you plenty of time to get ready for work the next day, Nina,” Jack said.
“I’m not worried. All I really will do is check on Charlotte and lay out my clothes for the next day. That’s plenty of time,” she agreed.
“How many stops are there?” she asked again.
“There are between eight and ten stops a day, but you cho
ose which ones you want to take. I figure we’ll go by your bladder,” Jack said with a straight face.
Nina hit him. “That’s really funny.”
“Hey, it works out about right, though, with when we need gas, and when we need to stop for something to eat or drink.”
Baxter shook his head and wondered if he would ever find his soul mate. Nina and Jack were obviously each other’s. He longed to have what they had. The idea of someone to share his home and wake up to every morning sounded damn good to him. For a while, he thought it might be Charlotte, but she’d backed away from him. If she wasn’t comfortable with him, then it would never work. Trust was important in a D/s relationship. He had to have her trust. Right then, he wasn’t sure she trusted anyone.
Chapter Three
Thursday afternoon, Charlotte and Nina walked out of the office to their cars in the employee parking lot. Nina made it to hers first and waved at Charlotte as she climbed in her Pathfinder. Charlotte approached her Jeep and was just about to unlock the door with her clicker when Neal walked out from around the other side toward her.
“Don’t scream. I just want to talk.”
“Neal, you’re not supposed to be here. You need to leave now. I’m going to call the police.” She slid her hand inside her purse.
Neal stalked toward her and put his hand up as if he were going to take her purse from her. Suddenly, Nina’s Pathfinder appeared beside Charlotte.
“Get in, Charlotte. Hurry,” Nina cried out through the open window.
“No!” Neal lunged for her, but Charlotte was already in the car and closing the door by the time he made it.
He managed to grab at her neck but had to let go when the window began rolling up. He yelled curses at Nina as they drove off. Nina was on the phone with Jack even as they careened toward the side of town where Jack’s store was.
“Are you okay, Charlotte?” she was asking between Jack’s instructions.
