Not that there was much of a sex life.
I’d only had sex with one man. Not that I hadn’t tried to have it more.
Last year I’d tried to have a one night stand.
Needless to say, it hadn’t gone very well, and I now refused to even contemplate having any type of sex that didn’t have me at least knowing the man’s last name and some of his likes and dislikes.
Mainly, for instance, whether he only liked to have anal sex.
Sure, I’d contemplated the act before, but I sure as fuck wouldn’t be doing it with someone I didn’t love and trust.
I ended that night all worked up with nothing to show for it. However, I’d learned a valuable lesson.
Don’t be a slut.
It was that simple.
And I’d broken that rule when I’d chosen to try to get back in the saddle, so to speak.
Bright flashing lights outside my front window had me placing the magazine on the coffee table, and peeking out through the living room blinds.
My eyes widened at the sight of three police cars outside my house.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized they were working on arresting someone in a large red pickup, and not going to a house.
I’d chosen this neighborhood carefully.
I wanted what was best for my little girl. Somewhere where she could play outside and I wouldn’t have to worry about her getting run over by someone.
This neighborhood, the realtor had assured me, was a great one for kids to play in.
There was a community playground the next street over, and a large duck pond one street beyond that.
What had sold me, though, was the fact that the driveways were all flat, as were the streets.
Before, I hadn’t had a place where Rowen could go ride her bike. Now, I did.
I had a lawn she could play on. A backyard I could put a jungle gym in, and a hot tub for the times where mommy needed a little bit of relax time.
Such as right now.
I watched until they led a young woman from the red truck to one of the police cars.
The lights obscured the faces of all involved, and decided now would be a good time to get in the hot tub.
Dropping my fingers from the blinds, I walked to my bedroom and started stripping off my clothes.
I slipped into a tankini, making sure my boobs were fully covered, then I exited my bedroom and grabbed a towel off the couch.
Leaving the sliding glass door open, I walked outside to my patio and flipped the lid back on the hot tub.
Then all the way off until it rested on its side next to the spa.
I’d just submerged myself up to my neck when a commotion had my curiosity raging again.
Thankful that it was a mild September night, I got out without grabbing my towel, and walked to the side yard where my large eight foot privacy fence enclosed the backyard from the front yard.
Undoing the latch on the gate, I opened it and peaked outside, eyes widening when I saw a man that’d been standing at the back of the truck they’d pulled over take off. Directly to my backyard.
He didn’t use the gate, though. Instead, he went for the top of the fence, not realizing that the gate was open.
When he got to the top, I somehow found the metal rake I’d been using that afternoon in my hand, and I swung it in an arc over my head.
It hit the man just as he swung both legs over the fence.
He teetered on the edge of the fence before he fell forward, hitting the ground with a loud thump.
I winced in sympathy, dropping the rake to the side and peeking at the man in worry. But only until a large male body hit me like a battering ram.
I fell flat on my back with a harsh thump.
My breath left me when a large man dressed in black straddled my belly, holding me down just with the power of his legs.
My eyes must’ve resembled something close to dinner plates when I finally got my breath back.
A powerful light shined in my face, and I heard the man on top of me hiss.
I gasped for air, closing my eyes tightly shut to block out the blinding light.
“Shit,” an all too familiar voice said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you.”
“I got the perp,” another voice said, then I heard the sound of a body being dragged across the grass.
“It’s okay,” I wheezed. “But it’d be awesome if you could stop shining that light in my eyes.”
The light was removed from my eyes quickly, then placed on the ground by our bodies. The body, however, didn’t waver.
Luke still straddled me, but my arms that had been pinned above my head were now free, and I’d moved them to rest on his powerfully muscled thighs.
His eyes were on my chest. My wet chest. My exposed, wet chest.
I gasped and covered my exposed breast, accidentally brushing across a large erection with my hand in the process.
The hissing happened again, and suddenly I was free.
Pulling my tankini over to cover my boob, I stood without the aid of the hand he offered me, and looked around in dumfounded silence.
“What the hell?” I asked again.
“Sorry. We had a couple of tweakers get pulled over when they tried to make a drug deal about two miles down the road. We got a tip that they came to the house two doors down from you. They were in the process of leaving when we showed. I didn’t think he’d run. You were lucky he didn’t hurt you,” Luke mumbled, not bothering to hide the adjustment of his cock with his hand.
I blushed and turned, walking to the patio and grabbing my towel.
I thought I heard a sigh when I covered up with it, but I could’ve been mistaken.
“That’s okay, really it is. You just scared me is all,” I said as I walked into the house.
I needed to check on Rowen after all the commotion that had just happened.
Luke followed me, not asking if he could come in. Just taking the initiative and walking in without the invitation.
“Nice place,” he said, looking around.
I nodded. “I thought so. Although, I didn’t buy it. I’m renting it for the time being to see if I like the place.”
He nodded, stopping in the kitchen when I continued down the hallway. “I’ll be back in a few.”
Rowen was sound asleep when I went to check on her.
The girl could sleep through just about anything. Unless it was the silence of the power going out. Then she was wide-awake.
I made a pit stop in my room for a pair of sweat pants and a tank top, feeling lucky that I’d just washed my clothes. Otherwise I would’ve been wearing ones that were a little more tight and shabby looking.
I’d been wearing much the same clothes since I’d graduated college, refusing to buy more because I’d gained a size and I knew it.
I hated going shopping when I knew I no longer fit into what used to be pre-Rowen clothes.
I found Luke at my front door, letting Downy and a blonde man in that I’d never seen before.
Shaking my head, I padded into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee.
The smell of the brew brought them into the kitchen, and I smiled at Downy before looking at the blonde curiously.
He was tall like Luke, but leaner. Almost as if he ran a lot, keeping his muscles slim and trimmed compared to Luke’s sheer brutishness.
This new guy was more the type I seemed to lean toward in my dating history, but the man had nothing on Luke.
My eyes strayed towards Luke’s lower body.
He was wearing black tactical pants with a big belt around his waist.
The belt held his gun, a pair of shiny, silver handcuffs, a baton, flashlight, radio, pepper spray, and a few other things that I was insanely curious about.
I’d have to ask him sometime what they were. Maybe when I could get my mind off the fact that he still had an erection.
That seemed to be growing.
My eyes bugged out and shot up to his face.
He was staring at me intently, watching me check him out.
Face flaming, I busied myself taking out coffee cups, wondering how my Friday night had turned from relaxing to entertaining three police officers.
“Reese,” Luke said, calling my attention back to him. “This is James Allen. He’s another officer with the KPD and a member of the SWAT team.”
My eyes moved from Luke to the new man, James, and I smiled. “Nice to meet you.”
He nodded. “You took that hit like a champ. I’ve been on the receiving end of one of those during training. I’m surprised you can still breathe.”
I giggled. “Me and my sister used to fight like that all the time. I can’t say that I’m used to somebody Luke’s size taking me down, but at least I knew how to fall, right? It was definitely a humbling experience. He was just telling me the other day that I’d never know what was out there, and I should be more observant.”
Luke chuckled at my expense, and I stuck my tongue out at him, which only caused him to outright laugh this time. Which elicited raised brows from his fellow officers.
He laughed until I thrust a cup of black coffee in his direction, and I watched the column of Luke’s neck work as he took a careful sip.
Why was his jaw so sexy and appealing to me?
Then I got a load of the coffee cup I’d given him, and I wanted to burst into laughter.
It was my favorite, and surprisingly, I’d gotten it from my sister for Christmas.
It was plain and simple.
White ceramic with black lettering declaring, ‘I like to fuck,’ in bold, black letters.
I wondered, secretly, if that was true.
He was a very attractive man, and I bet he was a beast in the bedroom.
That’s about when the other two started to pay attention to the cup.
But before they could start teasing him about it, the silence was breached by their radios.
All three of theirs went off at once, causing them all to move fast.
“Gotta go, Reese. Thanks for the coffee.” He said before rushing out the door just as quickly as he’d arrived.
Well shit.
Taking the coffees to the sink, I dumped them out, locked up, and went back to my hot tub.
I couldn’t get Luke’s face, nor his erection, out of my thoughts for a long, long time.
Chapter 6
No, ma’am. You cannot feel my baton.
-Luke to a perp
Luke
“You killed my husband!” The woman screamed from the side of the road.
A young patrol officer, by the name of Wednesday Carmine, had the young woman by the shoulders, trying her hardest to keep her back from barreling towards me.
Downy stepped in, grasping the woman around the middle and taking her to the opposite side of the crime scene, shutting her into his cruiser.
I gave him a thankful nod, and turned my attention back to the chief who was staring at the scene unblinkingly.
I closed my eyes, bile rising up my throat.
“Tell me what happened,” the chief ordered softly.
The Chief looked tired, and I didn’t blame him one bit. He’d been called in after only getting off a few hours before. We’d all been putting in quite a bit of overtime lately, seeing as we were short in every department.
Then my mind turned back to the scene. The horrible fucking scene.
I’d killed him, but how the fuck was I supposed to know that was a fake goddamned gun?
“I’m not a fucking mind reader or precognitive. I can’t look through the gun he was holding in his hands and see that it was plastic! All I saw was the black gun pointed at my face and I reacted,” I explained, much more calmly than I felt.
“The gun?” The Chief asked.
I nodded, pointing to the weapon that was still lying next to the man’s dead body.
“I told him to drop it. I fucking told him!” I ground out.
The chief raised his hand in a calming gesture. “I know. Now. From the beginning, tell me what happened.”
I lifted my hands, scrubbing my head with my tired fingers.
“I arrived on scene with Downy. We’d gotten a report from a neighbor that a man had a gun pointed at his wife in the front yard. When we got here, he did indeed have a gun,” I sighed. “Downy and I both ordered him to put it down. When he refused, the wife ran forward and got in his face. When he pushed her away, he turned the gun on us, and I fired.”
The chief’s muttered, “fuck” didn’t really make me feel any better, either.
We both knew it was about to become a shit storm of mass proportions.
And two hours later, when I found myself in a meeting discussing the event, I was anything but better.
“Officer Roberts,” The IA (Internal Affairs) bitch asked. “Can you tell us why you didn’t use your Taser?”
I suppressed my growl of frustration.
“I’m an officer of the law. I’ve been an officer for six years. On the Kilgore PD for five of those. I was a Marine for nine years. I’ve been on the end of a gun more times than I can count. And none of those times did I ever think of pulling a Taser. First off, when I have a gun pointed at me, I’m not going to Taser him; I wouldn’t be within range. Secondly, a Taser makes muscles contract. If I shoot him with the Taser and his finger’s on the trigger, there’s a very high possibility that he’ll get a shot off before I can take him down,” I explained through clenched teeth.
The woman came off as quite a bitch.
I’d never seen her before, and I didn’t care to see her ever again.
I doubted she’d ever been in the field as an officer of the law. Any right minded officer wouldn’t have bothered asking a stupid question like the one she’d just asked.
I really wanted to go the fuck home.
I’d had a bad fucking night, and this was the last thing I wanted to do was sit in a meeting with an IA, the chief of police, the fire chief, the two first responders, Downy, and myself.
“And why didn’t you shoot him in the leg or arm? Surely you could have done something…anything better than what you did,” the IA asked.
My fists clenched, and I saw Downy wince. He knew my temper just as well as anyone, and this bitch was getting on everyone’s last nerve.
“Have you ever shot a gun before, Ms. Dion?” I asked calmly.
She nodded. “Yes, I have.”
She sounded offended that I’d asked, but fuck her.
“When you’re shooting at a target, are there legs on the target?” I asked.
She blinked, thinking about it. “No.”
I nodded. “Right. Well, the reason that is, is because when you’re in a situation where you’re shooting at a live person, most likely due to a volatile situation, you aim for the biggest part of the body. That’s center mass. The reason being is that I could miss. Or wherever I shot them at, say the leg, will only pissed them off and they’ll shoot me anyways. Which was what I was trying to avoid.”
Ms. Dion nodded her head at my explanation. “Okay, well that’s all I have for you tonight. You may go. Y’all too,” she said, pointing to Downy, as well as the first responders, Tai Stoker and Drew Dillon. Both firefighters with the Kilgore Fire Department.
“Don’t go far, Roberts. I want to speak with you after we get done,” the Chief ordered tiredly.
I nodded, walking out with Dillon and Tai, I barely managed to control the urge to slam the door like a temperamental child.
Barely.
I only just managed to make it into the hallway before the metal trashcan in the middle of the hallway, kicking it with such force that trash spewed like confetti.
The bull pen turned to witness the act, surprise evident on all of their faces.
It was a sight to behold, me getting mad.
I wasn’t one to lose my temper in front of others, so if it happened in a room full of my colleagues and people I respected, it was big, and they knew it.
“I love
d the part where she asked me why I didn’t get the body off the street faster,” Tai said, flabbergasted.
I’d liked that one, too.
In Texas, paramedics weren’t allowed to pronounce someone ‘dead.’ They had to have the Justice of The Peace come out and pronounce the person dead. From there, he’d take them to the mortuary, or morgue.
Paramedics, although capable, weren’t supposed to pronounce death.
They could say that the patient had injuries ‘incompatible with life,’ but they couldn’t do the actual pronouncing.
Drew snorted. “My favorite part was where she asked why there wasn’t any EMS on scene. How many times has the chief drilled into our heads, ‘scene safety?’ It’s at least every other shift.”
They also wouldn’t stay on scene if they were of no use.
They couldn’t do anything. Not if they wanted to uphold the integrity of the crime scene.
Downy rumbled his agreement, but I left, not really wanting to be around anyone at that moment.
I knew I was about to be put on administrative leave pending investigation. I also knew an appointment with the force’s psychiatrist was on the agenda, too.
It’d at least be paid leave, if nothing else.
When Drew and Dillon hung a left out the front doors of the station, Downy followed me to my office, and sat in the chair across from my desk.
He didn’t say anything, and I was grateful.
An hour later, I was dotting my last ‘i’ on the report when I realized that it was nearly thirty minutes after school let out.
“Fuck!” I said, standing up and rounding the desk. “I forgot Katerina.”
Downy stood at my uttered oath, and he nodded. “I’ll tell the chief what you’re doing.”
“Thank you,” I said hastily, practically running out the door.
Why hadn’t they called?
My question was answered minutes later when I pulled up in front of the school, parking in the fire lane, and found my girl playing hop-scotch with a smaller brown haired girl that looked exactly like her mother in the fenced off playground.
Reese was sitting on the bench in the playground, watching her two charges with a small smile on her face.
A little bit of my anxiety over the day seemed to release at the sight of the two innocent girls. Their outlook on life. How a simple game of hop-scotch made them so happy.
Center Mass Page 4
