“I guess you’re right. It looks like your lawyer’s here.” He turned away from me and I stood, determined not to let his rejection sting.
I turned to the lawyer, an older man with sharp eyes and a kind smile.
“I’m Otis Lowry, Miss Wallace. I’m here to help.” He took my hand in a warm, dry palm and I shook it, feeling as though it might have been made from rice paper. His eyes were intelligent and his voice calm.
He led me into a private room and told me what he was going to do next. He would file for a bail hearing and try to get Eric out. He asked if I had anything to put up as Eric’s bond and told him I had few assets. He told me we’d figure something out but I doubted anything would come of it. If Eric were kept in jail he’d ruin his chances of graduating, of getting into a good school. I wanted to give up but Grant came in and told the lawyer he could speak with Eric now.
Grant left with the lawyer and David came back. Unfortunately, he found me in tears again, my head resting on my arms on the table I sat at. So much for that tough-girl act I was trying to perfect! I found a tissue in my purse and wiped my face for the second time that day before holding my head high and meeting David’s unwavering gaze. It was such a shame he was such a dick! He was absolutely beautiful.
“Look, David,” I finally said to the man just staring at me without a single word to break the ice. “Eric is a good kid. Isn’t there some way to prove he didn’t do anything wrong? Video footage or something?”
“The power went out at the factory just before everything went down. There wasn’t a backup supply to power the cameras out there.” His look said it was too convenient. I had to agree but that didn’t mean Eric was involved in drug dealing.
“Oh. Well. Isn’t there any other way?” I tried not to beg but the stunned look in his eye said I must have failed.
“Not, uh, not right now, no.”
“It’s that stupid Mark’s fault! Or his father’s rather! Can’t you people do anything about that man? Arrest him already?”
“Now, you wouldn’t want us arresting anyone without cause now would you, Miss Wallace? Not when you’re sitting here asking me to find a way to let your brother go.” His hard eyes drilled into mine and my infuriation skyrocketed!
“Dammit!” The word was out before I could call it back. I shoved my fist into my mouth and closed my eyes.
“Maybe... maybe there is something we can do.” I heard the hesitation in his voice, but his words made me hopeful.
I glanced up, pulled my fist from my mouth, and straightened up. “Maybe?”
His eyes raked over me, my clothes bedraggled, my face more than likely a mottled mess, but I saw a fire burn in his eyes.
Neither of us said it outright, but the words had a meaning. A meaning I hadn’t quite registered until now. Did he mean, was he trying to imply there was something beyond the norm that would see Eric stay out of a jail? The real question was, would I do it?
I blinked, my pulse raced, and my lips parted as he sat down beside me. The heat in his eyes, the way he looked at me, told me that I had to make a decision and make it fast. Sleep with him to keep my brother out of jail, if that was at all possible now, or throw it all away and take my chances.
David infuriated me, he was so hard and unbending, but right now, something had broken through those walls of his. Was it only want? With my eyes locked on his I watched him sit down carefully, as though he were afraid I’d bolt, and I began to wonder about this whole ludicrous situation. Would this man, this cop sworn to protect his town, really make this kind of an offer? Had I misunderstood?
His eyes fell to the area around my lips as the tension in the room increased, the hunger there making my body tingle in response despite my recent dislike. I responded to him, despite my brain’s screams to run away. He drew me as he had from the moment I’d met him. Yeah, he was breaking some rules, likely his own rules, but something had made it worth it. I’d made it worth it. I moved closer, my lips parted.
David
I stared across at the little bundle of fury and outrage sitting at the table with me and completely lost my train of thought. She’d been a distraction for both Grant and me since she’d arrived, but she’d been cheerful every time before, almost timid even. Now, though, she had this momma-bear ferocity about her and I liked it. I really liked it.
A million thoughts zipped through my mind as she stared at me, her face going from fierce to heartbroken to hopeful in quick succession. Grant and I had plans for the man responsible for the drugs in our town, we’d been working on it for months, but I couldn’t tell her that. It was a secret mission and though I wanted to tell her we’d soon have that bastard sitting in a six by six cell, I couldn’t.
Something changed as we spoke; something shifted in my chest and moved down my abdomen, before it circled lower, spreading heat.
“Maybe?” The word came out breathless, excitement making her throat tight.
I hadn’t meant for this exchange to go this way. I’d planned to go to the chief again, to demand he let Eric go, but somehow Toni had changed the tone in the room. With a few words, with one breathless word, it all changed. I wanted to know what it was like to have those full, sweet, pink lips wrapped around my cock. I wanted to know what it felt like to have her legs around my waist as she breathed her ecstasy into my ear, her breath warm against my neck.
“Maybe, Toni.” I wasn’t even sure what I was agreeing to, all I could think about was her lips and those incredibly beautiful eyes of hers. I didn’t realize I’d moved, I hadn’t planned it, but one minute she was sitting across from me, and the next she was in my lap, nestled into my crotch as she kissed me hard and deep.
Her legs were straight out behind me, her arms wrapped around my neck as my hands plunged beneath the waistband of her worn jeans, grasping hot bare skin that felt like silk. I moaned into her mouth as I felt her breasts press into my chest, and she opened her lips, our tongues intertwined.
Her breathing was just as erratic as mine as I pressed her against the ridge in my pants, my fingers digging into the globes of her ass. I needed her. I needed to be inside of her. I stood, cradling her body against mine as I walked to the nearest wall and pressed her against it.
Desire surged through me, made me forget where I was, and what I was supposed to be doing. All I knew was the delectable taste of Toni, the gut-wrenchingly good sensation of her against me. And the way her tongue swiped against mine, sucking at it before she let it go. I knew she’d be like this, hot, eager, so ready for me to take her.
I know she thinks I hate her, but the reality couldn’t be any further from the truth. Grant and I had no secrets from each other and he couldn’t understand why I was so adamantly against her. He knew the reason why I had to keep her at a distance now, we’d talked about it before I went to pick her up. She consumed me from the first moment I laid eyes on her and right now that was dangerous. She was a distraction I could not afford to have if we wanted to put that bastard drug dealer behind bars for good.
I forgot all of that though the moment that soft little ‘maybe’ had slipped from her lips. Lips made for kissing, for sucking my cock. I groaned as the image flitted through my brain once more and pressed into the heat between her thighs. She was so hot, and even through her jeans I could feel how damp she was. She wanted it, and she wanted it just as much as I did.
“David, I... oh.”
Grant walked into the room, but that didn’t stop me. Beneath me, Toni stilled, her face turned to look at him, but I pulled her back to my lips. I could see the panic in her eyes as I dared her to let me kiss her some more. Would she catch on? Would she figure out that we came as a duo?
I heard Grant settle into one of the chairs behind us as Toni stared into my eyes, shock making her tense. We’d been caught by the other man she’d kissed last week. We’d been caught on the verge of the best fuck of her life, maybe even mine. What would she do now? I waited, a dirty smile twisting my lips.
“I dare
you,” I whispered against her cheek before I moved back to her lips and pressed mine to hers.
6
Toni
It had all changed when he sat down beside me. His proximity meant I could smell his cologne, feel his body heat, sense him. He’d looked at me and before I knew it, I was sitting in his lap, straddling him as my mouth devoured his. Oh, he kissed me alright, he kissed me like I’ve never been kissed before, but I did the same.
I felt a prickle of guilt because I’d been kissing Grant only the week before, but there was something about David that drew me in. Grant was a slow-burn of desire, a gentle need that built into something more. David was an inferno burning hot and fast.
I’ve dreamed about them both, fantasized about them both, but the reality surpassed both. Grant had filled me with desire, slow and full. David filled me with raw need, hot and explosive. Two different men, fulfilling totally different needs. I wrapped myself around him, no longer offering myself for my brother’s release, I just wanted whatever he’d give me.
Him, David. The man I’d hated only seconds before. God, it was all so wrong, but I couldn’t stop myself. I needed it; I needed his hands down my pants, rocking me into that ridge between my thighs. I needed his tongue stroking at mine as I sucked him into my mouth. I needed to feel the strength of his broad shoulders and the way he made something inside me answer wildly every time he groaned.
He seemed lost, but totally in control, as if he never did this sort of thing but he was alright with it. My pulse raced in my ears as I ground into him, my body on fire, filled with an ache I knew only he could alleviate. When he groaned again and pulled me up to press me against the wall, I knew he could fulfill every single fantasy I’d ever had, and then some.
My hands wrapped around his neck and I held on to him tightly as he rocked into my core, over and over again, pressing his hard cock against my denim-covered opening. I heard myself sigh into his mouth, I felt how tight my nipples were as they pressed into his chest, how liquid my center felt, and knew I wasn’t going to ever say no to him. He could have whatever he fucking well wanted from me.
Until Grant walked into the room.
I froze, unsure of what to do. He’d caught me kissing his partner! Well, a lot more than kissing was going on and David seemed unwilling to stop. I looked into David’s eyes as Grant sat down, which shocked me a whole lot more. I shot a glance behind David to see curiosity and so much more burning in Grant’s eyes.
“I dare you.” David drew my full attention back to him. His lips found mine, and I was gone.
Just like that.
Grant could watch, if that was his thing. I really could not say no to David. He tasted far too good, he felt too perfect against me.
The memory of my dreams, of both men in bed with me, came back to me and I wondered if that was a possibility here. That’s when I pushed away, shocked at my own thoughts. Sure, I’m a modern girl; I don’t see a problem with a girl having some fun of her own, but me? This just wasn’t me. At all.
“I’ve, shit, what am I doing?” I ran my hand through my hair as reality set in cold and unforgiving. I stared into David’s mocking eyes, no comfort from that quarter either.
I knew you couldn’t keep up, those eyes taunted me. I knew you couldn’t play our game. I could only back away, falling into a chair Grant placed behind me, just in time. I don’t know if he saw denial there, shock, or fear, but David’s gaze changed. The mocking disappeared, replaced with a cold detachment.
David’s gaze flicked over to Grant, while I bent my head, not able to look either in the eye. What had I been doing? I berated myself. Had I really fallen to this level? I wanted to run out of the station but Eric was here, somewhere. Where was his lawyer, anyway?
I looked behind me, a sudden fear that perhaps the older man was also a witness to my moment of madness making my face burn hotter. That was all I needed, for the town to get wind of my delinquent tendencies with two super fucking hot cops. Bad words raced through my mind, even the ones I never said out loud. A whole slew of them.
Shame was burning a hole in my stomach, a hole that seemed to spread as I sat there, waiting for one of them to speak. I’d just offered myself to a cop, a cop, in exchange for my brother’s freedom. That was bribery, wasn’t it? Please, just let me sink into the floor now.
“What is happening then?” David finally said something and I couldn’t help but jump at the sound of his voice, a thin steel edge slicing down my spine. Were they going to arrest me now? What was going to happen?
“Eric’s being processed. He’ll be out in an hour or so.” Grant’s voice had sunshine hiding in it, a smile. I felt the burning hole recede a bit. Or was it amusement at my expense?
I felt like one of those silly girls I used to surreptitiously sneer at. The ones that wore the low-cut shirts and bleached their hair, layering makeup onto their faces to attract a man. Had I just tried to use my, ahem, sex, to get my way? My head sank lower. What happened to being a woman with an ambitious attitude? It fucked off when I went into heat for a man I actually hated? More than anything, I was really starting to hate myself.
I stood, taking a deep breath as I turned to face the two men that had just witnessed my supreme moment of weakness.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just find my brother’s lawyer.” Maybe they’d just let me off, maybe they would let it all go. I stood there, my hands clasped gently in front of me, pretending I was robed in a designer suit, rather than frayed jeans and a university sweatshirt, my head regally angled and my eyes staring at a point on the wall between them.
I didn’t look at either man—the one I’d been kissing, or his partner who I’d been kissing a week ago. I just waited for their response.
“Uh, ma’am,” I heard Grant say, that laughter more evident now, “the lawyer is currently with your brother, processing him out of the system.”
“Oh. And where might I find him afterward?” The words hadn’t sunk in yet, and I continued to stare at the wall. I could feel my jaw starting to ache, my back teeth were clenched together so hard.
“Well, they’ll both be in front of the jail in about an hour, I reckon.” Grant ran a hand through his dark hair, his grin spreading to his eyes. I could only see this out of the corner of my eyes, and it finally started to sink in.
Processing him out.
“Wait, what? Outside of the jail?” I dropped the Queen Elizabeth routine and turned to Grant, studiously ignoring David.
“Yeah, it seems what David and I couldn’t do, your lawyer could. Good choice.” He was a picture of happiness as he stared down at me, his eyes asking me questions I wasn’t ready to answer.
I looked down at my nails, short so I could type unimpeded. I didn’t own a single bottle of nail polish. There were many reasons for it. Typing, lack of money, lack of time. I rarely did anything for myself. I devoted all of our extra income to Eric, and lately, he’d drained all of that plus some. It was going to be Toaster Pastries instead of Pop Tarts for the next few months. I was also going to be eating a lot of generic macaroni and cheese when Eric wasn’t around too. I’d told him I’d had my dinner, as I fed him a normal meal. That’s what you did for those you cared for. He was only a teenager after all.
“Barbara recommended him, I can’t take credit for that. So, what does this mean? He’s off the hook? We can stop the program?” I looked up at Grant as I sank back down into the chair I had moved from.
“No, it means the chief has decided to listen to us all for a change and things go back to how they were. Eric has to finish the program now that he’s in it, but the rest of this will disappear. You can take him home tonight.”
Relief made me sag in place.
“Thank goodness!” It came out in a breath of air, the world finally settling back into something that seemed almost sane.
“Now we just have to decide what to do about you,” David piped up, and the world tilted on its axis once again. I looked at him and I could feel how wide
my eyes were.
“Me?” I squeaked out, terrified. Would David be such a dick? Would he arrest me?
“Well, you have an hour to kill. We’re off-duty now. Want to get something to eat?” Just like that, the world tilted back to normal again.
“Uh no, I think I’ll just wait for him in my car, if that’s alright.” I stood, gathering my bag as I did so. “I’ll just, uh, yeah, I’ll wait in the car. If that’s alright with you?”
The amusement was back in his eyes and for a moment I couldn’t decide if I wanted to slap him or kiss him. Instead, I raised my left eyebrow, waiting.
“Nope, that’s good. We’ll see you later, Miss Toni.” His eyes said it was a promise.
I all but ran from the office, wanting to just escape the men, the room, and the situation. As I settled into the seat of my car I thought about my screaming fit earlier. Why had our parents made that stupid decision that killed them? I should be looking at those two men with open invitation; I should be partying, celebrating my new job, real adulthood. Instead, I had had to skip all of that. I had also just made a fool of myself.
What must they think of me?
I let my head sink to the steering wheel again, tears pricking my eyes once more.
It was all just too hard!
Grant
“So?” I asked as Toni scurried from the room, her entire demeanor telling me she was running for her life. Usually, that one word was enough to get all of the information I required out of my best friend. This time, he just stood stroking his chin with his forefinger, his teeth clenched.
“What?” He finally asked, his gaze still on her retreating figure.
“What happened? You were on her like green on grass!” I couldn’t keep the excitement out of my voice. David had broken his own rules!
Dirty Cops Next Door Page 5
