“Connor,” he groaned. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take with you. One minute you’re hot and the next you are cold. If you want me just say so. It makes my head hurt trying to figure you— oooh!”
His words turned into a moan at the feel of my tongue licking up the center of his chest. Standing once more, I flicked my tongue over his left nipple. His flesh was salty from all that sweat.
“Connor.” He combed his fingers through my short hair. “I need to take a shower.”
“Not yet,” I said against his skin and took his other nipple between my teeth.
“But I’m all sweaty,” he remarked. “You hate that.”
I glanced up at him and smirked. “That was because I’ve never seen you sweaty and glistening beneath the sun before.”
“But…fuck!” He grunted when I cupped him between his legs. I caressed him through the soft worn material of his jeans. His hands came down on top of mine unexpectedly, and he yanked my head back away from his nipple. “Connor, I can’t do this with you if tomorrow you’re going to return to pretending Mac doesn’t exist. After we fuck or something I immediately return to being Officer MacKenzie. I want to be your Mac, at all times.”
“You can’t be Mac at work,” I reminded him.
“Then no can do.”
He started to pull away, but I held him by the arms to keep him in place. “That’s not what I meant.” I closed my eyes briefly and took a deep breath. “What I mean is that if we’re going to do this, engage in a personal relationship, the only way it can work given our work relationship is if I don’t treat you any differently than the others. In fact, in some cases, I may have to be harder on you than the others just to avoid being called out for favoritism. Do you get that?”
“I always understood that,” he answered. “I didn’t expect to be treated differently because I’m sleeping with the captain. What I expect, however, is to be acknowledged by you. Don’t overlook me or make me feel like shit because you don’t want to deal with what’s between us. I hate when you ignore me or try to find ways of not having to talk to me. I’m not stupid, Connor. You assign my shifts to keep me out of your way.”
I hated the hurt look in his eyes he was trying to shield from me. “Hey, I only did it because it was driving me nuts having you so close to me.” I cupped his chin and turned his face toward me. “I’m going to be honest with you, Mac. What we are about to start is not ideal. Things can get ugly fast. I couldn’t agree to a relationship between us not knowing if later you would file a sexual harassment claim. I had to get to know you.”
“And what do you think now? Would I do something like that after actively pursuing you?”
“I don’t think so.” And I hoped I was right. “I’ll let you go shower and then you can come back over and help me finish up dinner. We’ll have dinner, just the two of us since Paulie won’t be home for another few hours. We’ll talk more about us and after…”
“After?” His lips curled up in a smile.
“After I may be persuaded to let you ‘reciprocate’ I think you called it?”
If I’d thought I was making a mistake, his wide grin and the pure joy in his eyes pushed away the last of my doubts. When the time came I would just have to face the music. A relationship between us couldn’t be hidden for long around the police station.
Chapter Fifteen
Dinner between Mac and me was a pretentious affair of torturing ourselves when we both knew what we wanted. He returned after his shower, bringing in a little too much Old Spice with him. He wore a pair of jeans that looked almost brand new and a shirt he had taken the time to iron. I was impressed and had felt compelled to dress up a little for him too. I was getting old but was far from dead yet. I had at least twenty good years left in me, and if Mac wanted them I’d give them to him.
I returned from my bedroom to the kitchen where I had left him in charge of ensuring nothing got burned. I was pleasantly surprised he hadn’t let our dinner go to ruin as would have most likely happened with Paulie. He had even set the table and not using the plastic plates my lazy brother would reach for either.
Throughout dinner, we spoke mostly about work, especially the case involving the Bonito Babe as she was now dubbed at the workplace. It wasn’t a term I especially liked, but it had caught on and seemed to be here to stay. The most important thing was that everyone knew who it referred to.
I brought Mac up to date about the investigation. He’d found a goldmine in that house which had given us a huge lead on the killer. The test we ran had confirmed the powdered substance was indeed meth. A total of fifty thousand in cash had been pulled out of the floor. The money hadn’t been the goldmine though. That was the fingerprint scan we had run and found prints matching a felon in our system. Released from drug traffic charges just nine months ago, Freddie Soto would be lucky if he ever saw the light of day again. Detective Johnson and his team were checking for his whereabouts, but no one had seen him in the past week. I had contacted the neighboring precincts to update them on the suspect we sought.
“What if he’s not the mastermind behind this?” Mac asked when we were finished with dinner but reluctant to end the conversation.
“I doubt he is,” I answered. “The masterminds rarely do the street work themselves. They hire people to do it for them. But, regardless, we’ll make him talk. Either way, he’ll be going to prison for a long time if he cannot explain how his set of prints ended up on a bag of money in the house of a woman who was murdered.”
“Hmm.”
I noticed him staring at me as though in thought.
“What?”
“You love what you do, don’t you?”
I nodded. “Always have. I was contemplating retiring early but thought better of it.”
“Why?”
I clasped my hands in my lap. “I lost a friend of mine in the line of duty. It was perhaps one of the worst shootouts we’ve ever had in this town. I was with him when it happened. One bullet through the brain, and he was gone. For a long time, it bothered me, remembering the unseeing eyes staring back at me in shock. In his last seconds, that’s what he felt, shocked. I should have comforted him.”
I was pulled out of the dark memories by Mac getting out of his chair and walking around the table toward me. Without a word, he pulled me to my feet and hugged me. Paulie and I hugged often. Paulie was a hugger and would not respect my personal space. Raising him, I had learned to accept that. None of my partners before Mac had been the hugging type, or to be fair to them, maybe I never inspired them to be. For once, I wondered if I had played a bigger role in my divorce than I had originally thought.
Regardless, with Mac, he broke down my barriers, not because he asked and I gave consent, but because he somehow understood my silent pleas to be touched and loved. Even when I acted like I didn’t need it.
He didn’t offer words of comfort like everyone else did, assuring me I couldn’t have done anything. He just held me while I allowed myself, for the first time since my friend’s death, to unburden myself on someone else. I didn’t cry. It would take a lot out of me to cry, but my whole body felt like it was buckling under the pressure of the grief I never allowed myself. His arms kept me together.
“Connor,” he said after a while.
“Hmm?”
“Tell me you don’t think I’m like your ex,” he said. “You know I’d never fuck anyone else if we’re in a relationship, right?”
“I hope to God that’s true,” I told him, “because I’m trusting you, Mac. I rarely trust people in my private life, but I’m trusting you.”
He loosened his hold on me so I could raise my head to look at him. “Good. And you didn’t have to spend all that money at the auction either. Even if Miller had bought me he would have received nothing more than the service I gave you today.”
I smiled at him. “But you’re not through yet. You have one more task to fulfill.”
He smiled back and checked his watch. “You ha
ve me for four more hours only. What do you plan to do to me?”
“It’s more of what I want you to do to me.”
He reached for a dish on the table. “Then we better clean up quickly so I don’t waste any of our precious time.”
I took the dish from him and replaced it on the table. “They can wait. I can’t. Let’s go to my bedroom.”
“Are you sure?”
Rather than responding with words, I kissed him, showing him how certain I was that I had better use for his hands than to wash up my dishes. He returned my kiss, roaming my back with his hands. I squeezed him to me, enjoying his muscles against mine.
“Bedroom,” I reminded him before things got too hot and heavy for us to reach our destination.
We stripped on our way up the stairs, and by the time we entered the bedroom and I slammed the door shut behind us, we were both left wearing our boxers alone. I didn’t hesitate to hook my fingers in the waistband and remove the last item of clothing.
“Come here.”
I approached him, and he got down on his knees. I held my breath waiting for his mouth to settle over my cock, but the little tease diverted his attention to my abdomen. He trailed hot kisses that left me frustrated until he finally enclosed his lips around my cock. He moved slowly, no hands, his mouth sliding down and then up before he repeated the motions.
I wanted fast, but he had other ideas- other frustrating but fulfilling ideas. He rose to his feet and motioned for me to get onto the bed. While he removed his boxers, I reached the night table and removed the lube and condom from the top drawer. He snuck up behind me as I was kneeling on the bed upright, my back to him. He wrapped his hands around me and caressed my chest. I twisted my head back to kiss him.
“Are you sure?” he asked, rubbing my cock.
“I thought you wanted this,” I told him with a grin. “To be able to brag how you fucked the captain.”
He kissed my shoulder. “No bragging, man. Just want to make you feel even half of what I do when you’re inside me.”
I smiled weakly at him, not bothering to vocalize that with him saying sweet shit like that I was already halfway there. He slipped the condom on and gestured for me to lie on my stomach. I didn’t bottom very often because it all boiled down to trust for me. There was a sense of vulnerability in offering myself up to another man like this. Funny enough, I didn’t feel that vulnerability with Mac. I felt powerful that he wanted to possess me with such need.
He straddled my thighs and trailed kisses over my back just as he had done to my abdomen earlier. Running his tongue down my spine, he didn’t stop when he reached the swell of my ass. He pried them apart and delved his tongue down my crack. I moaned at his tongue lazily rubbing over my puckered hole. My eyes closed and my breathing turned ragged as I raised my hips to give him better access. He moistened the area with his tongue, sliding the tip into the opening.
Coating his fingers with lube, he slipped one inside me. I relaxed which was hard to do considering the turmoil of emotions sweeping through me.
“You’re so tight. I don’t want to hurt you,” he remarked, kissing my back as he worked his fingers in and out of my ass.
“Keep that up and I’ll be ready for you,” I groaned, resting my head on my arms. I could already feel the difference as I loosened up under the twisting motion of his two fingers that now filled me.
He took his time, ensuring that I was properly lubed and stretched with his fingers. He nearly drove me mad with the need to feel his cock inside me. I pressed my hips back then withdrew, pumping my hips as I sought more of what his fingers alone could not give me. Fuck, I’d had no idea how I missed this. Richard had been the diva who loved getting his hole fucked. He had delighted in it which had pleased my insatiable need for sex and to appease him. He had little interest in giving back.
“Mac, do it now,” I growled at him.
“On your back,” he told me as he lubed his cock. I hesitated, preferring to be on my knees. It was so less personal. Sensing my hesitation, he added. “I want to see you when I am inside you.”
I groaned but did what he suggested and turned over onto my back, legs spread. He moved between them and with a hand twisted in my hair kissed me hard. He was panting almost as hard as I was. He kissed the side of my neck and licked my nipples as he guided the tip of his cock to my hole. I breathed deeply, relaxing as he started filling me. I felt myself stretching to accommodate his girth. He filled me inch by inch, withdrawing only to thrust a little deeper. Still, he continued to lick my nipples while his hips pumped with an unhurried gait.
“Fuck!” I grunted when he was completely buried inside me.
“Yeah, fuck is just about right,” he returned. “This feels so good. Do you know how long I’ve been thinking about this?”
I tugged his head down to kiss him. “Well, I had to make you work for it, hon.” I batted my lashes at him in fake coyness.
He chuckled and buried his head in my neck, not moving. “Is it weird that I just want to feel you like this for now? Just me inside you. Sorry, I can tell you don’t do emotional. I don’t mean to weird you out.”
I ran my hands down his back to grab handfuls of his ass and squeeze. “You’re fine, Mac.” I squeezed his buns again. “So damn fine. Now move that sexy ass of yours and show me what you’ve got. Or do you want us to reverse position?”
“Not this time, Captain.”
I was about to scowl at him for the Captain comment when he pulled back and slid deep inside me again. I lost all coherent thought and kept my mouth shut so I didn’t become a babbling mess, repeating how good it felt to be fucked by him.
He lay fully on top of me, and I wrapped my arms around him. One of his hands slipped beneath me to hold me by the neck. Staring into my eyes, he slow-fucked me into oblivion. I did become a babbling mess of ‘fuck me’ and ‘yes, yes’ as though there could ever be a possibility of ‘no’ in what he was making me feel. Every so often he would kiss me which never interfered with what his lower body was doing.
With both my legs in the air, he placed his hands on the bed, his arms hooking my legs and keeping them in position. I couldn’t resist cupping his ass, squeezing and slapping them as he picked up the pace. His strokes were deep and hit the right spot. My hand itched to inch between our bodies and take my cock to help myself to reach my orgasm, but his rhythm was too perfect for me to interrupt him.
His breathing deepened in my ear. He panted, his breath hitching a bit to let me know he was near his climax. His thrusts drove deeper, harder as he searched for his release in my body.
“Fuck!” I cried, taken completely by surprise when his cock hit my prostate again. “Mac!” I grunted his name as he continued to thrust harder, deeper, leading me to a pinnacle I’d never experienced while bottoming. The climax hit me hard, curling my toes which was something I would have laughed at if anyone else had expressed that sentiment. I exploded, the friction of his body rubbing against my cock the only thing I needed after all to find my release.
I vaguely heard his own grunt as he plunged into me one more time to achieve his own climax. His arms trembled, and I allowed my feet to fall to the bed. I was a mess of cum which would have sent me scurrying to the bathroom for a washup immediately. The moment was too perfect to waste. I released Mac’s ass not even aware until then that I still had his buns in a death-like grip. I ran my hands up his back to his shoulders and pulled him down on me. He allowed himself to fall on my chest, and I caught him a little breathlessly. He might not be as heavy as me, but he weighed a lot.
“Connor?”
“Hmm?”
“We’re not going to pretend tomorrow that this didn’t happen, are we?”
I opened my eyes and stared into his uncertain green ones. I stopped fighting it then, the attraction and everything else he made me feel that I wasn’t too keen on naming. Hooking my arm behind his head, I brought his mouth closer to mine.
“No more pretenses. I’ve marked you as mine
. I’m trusting you, Mac. Don’t let me down.”
“I won’t.”
I hoped to God not.
Chapter Sixteen
“I’m telling you, they are sleeping together.”
“What makes you think that?”
“The Captain’s been smiling more than usual. He's less snappish too. Just watch the way he looks at MacKenzie when he walks into the room.”
“Well, it was kind of obvious MacKenzie had the hots for him, but I don’t know, man. The Captain is too professional to sleep with any of us.”
A scoff. “MacKenzie is young and bound to be a good lay. Even saints have their limits, and apparently, the Captain has found his.”
I allowed the door to shut with a thud behind me, and the two male police officers spun around. Their guilty faces flushed, Powers looking terrified that they had been caught discussing my affair with Mac. I had known this would happen even as careful as Mac and I were about our relationship. We were almost never alone together, and I believed we handled each other well. Professional at work and passionate beneath the sheets when our schedules permitted. I had been tempted to schedule him based on my time, so we could be together more often but decided that professional ethics wouldn’t have me doing that.
“Powers, I’m sure you didn’t hand in your full report yesterday,” I reminded him. "Now would be a good time to finish up instead of gossiping.”
The younger man immediately made a beeline for the door, and his gossip companion followed. “Yes, sir. Right on it.”
I shook my head and continued to the coffee machine to refill my coffee cup. The door opened, and I glanced up. Miller, who was back on street duty, entered.
“Careful, Captain,” Miller smirked at me. “You’re about to cause a mess.”
“Shit,” I cursed. The cup had almost run over. Miller had copped an attitude of late that I didn’t like in the least. He always smiled, but his eyes were malicious like the way he was looking at me now. “Where’s Mac- Officer MacKenzie?” Both men were supposed to be working with Detective Johnson today, covering an area where they had gotten a tip that Soto had last been seen.
Marking What's Mine (A Marksman's Tale Book 1) Page 9
