Internal Affair
Page 10
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Parker approached the kitchen with trepidation. She’d awoken in Daire’s warm and comfy bed without his body still nestled against hers, even though the dark and the clock told her it was the middle of the night. They’d fallen asleep wrapped in each other’s arms, exhausted from their crazy day and mind-blowing sex.
It was the first time she’d ever made love without discomfort, and she now knew the pain of her past experience had nothing to do with size or fit and everything to do with the level of arousal her partner wrung from her. Being with Daire left her wet and wild. Fitting his large cock into her pussy had been delightfully easy. Being on top had helped as well, and he’d been the first man who’d been confident enough to hand her the reins of control.
Finding him gone from the bed, however, had set off all kinds of alarm bells, sending her heartbeat into overdrive. She’d gotten up, ears straining for any signs of trouble. After slipping on Daire’s shirt, a clichéd move that nevertheless comforted her and heated her blood in equal measure, she’d crept downstairs. She’d also been kicking herself for leaving her gun in her purse in the living room. But there was no need for alarm. She hadn’t found Daire wrestling with an intruder. Instead, he seemed to be wrestling with another problem entirely.
She called his name softly so as not to startle him. “Daire?”
He whipped his head around from the kitchen window where he’d been checking the lock. A fierce look lit his face until he realized it was her. Then his features relaxed into a guilty-looking smile. “Sorry, did I wake you?”
Parker padded into the kitchen, tucking her hair behind her ears, a sheepish grin of her own breaking out. “No, I don’t think so. I was worried when you weren’t still in bed. Is everything all right?”
Daire glanced at the door that led to the yard. “Um, yeah, everything’s fine. Why don’t you head back to bed? I need to check a few things down here.”
Parker looked at the keypad mounted on the wall beside the door. As near as she could tell, the system was up and running. If she could see it clearly, then so could Daire. What did he need to check? She moved closer to him. “Are you okay?”
Daire shrugged, and still his gaze slid to the door. “I’m fine.”
But he blew out a breath and ran both sets of fingers through his already tousled hair. It made him look years younger than his actual age and pressed all kinds of maternal buttons. She wanted to pull him into her arms and soothe away his obvious worry.
He hung his head, gaze fixed on the floor between them. “Actually, I’m not okay. I can’t go back to sleep until I’ve checked all of the windows and doors.” He sounded embarrassed, which just increased her worry and need to comfort him.
She took a step closer and dipped her head to try to catch his eye. “The alarm’s on. I can see that it is. Even if everyone missed locking a door or window, they’re all wired, right?”
Daire’s chest rose and fell on a deep breath. “Yeah.” He lifted his head so she didn’t have to contort herself to see his expression. He looked resigned and pained, even. “It’s a checking behavior thing. You know, obsessive compulsive disorder? I know intellectually that everything is locked and the alarm is set, but I have to check anyway or I’ll just keep worrying about it for the rest of the night.”
She’d kind of figured that was what was going on with him. While she didn’t have an OCD problem herself, she understood the basics and wasn’t about to try to talk him into ignoring the impulse. Right now, he needed her support, and if that meant checking and rechecking every window and door, then that’s what they’d do.
She gave him an encouraging smile. “Okay, I get it. What still needs to be checked?”
“What?” He frowned. “No, you don’t have to do it. I’ll be done soon and come join you in bed.” He reached out and stroked his palm down her hip. “Seeing you wearing my shirt is hot as hell.”
Glad that his OCD hadn’t robbed him of his interest in her, she stepped up and wrapped her arms around his naked waist. She hugged him hard, and the ridge of his cock pressed past the jeans he wore. He hadn’t bothered with the snap. It wouldn’t take much effort to reach between them and lower the zipper. Her pussy quivered at the idea of dropping to her knees and taking his cock into her mouth. Except he probably wouldn’t be able to truly let go and enjoin himself until he’d done his checking.
With reluctance she pulled away. “I want to do this together.”
His inner struggle showed on his face as he worked through her offer. Finally, he nodded his assent. “The back door is next.”
Parker trailed Daire as he performed his ritual. He touched the locks of each door and window downstairs and up and scrutinized the indicator lights for both keypads. She suspected he repeated checks he’d already made because of her interruption, yet said nothing. She didn’t want to disturb him again and knew she’d gain nothing by doing so except send him back to square one. No amount of rational discussion would break through his checking behavior. Being here for him, giving him silent, nonjudgmental support mattered more. Maybe, if things progressed with them, she’d encourage him to get professional help. For tonight, helping him do what he needed to go back to sleep would have to be enough.
It pleased her when he took her hand and held it all throughout his journey. When they finished up in his room, he whirled her into his arms and into a slow, deep kiss. “Thanks,” he almost sighed into her mouth once they’d come up for air. “I know that must seem crazy, but I need to do it.”
“I understand.” She really did. “Is that something you’ve always done or did it come out of your parents’ deaths?”
His hand made lazy circles against the small of her back. “The latter.” He chuckled. “Would you believe I was once a carefree kind of guy? My parents were such steady people, always looking out for their boys. They raised us in the most secure environment a kid could have. Whatever arguments they had, they did in private, and they never let us know if money was tight or some other problem bothered them. They just quietly handled everything.”
He took her by the hands and gently tugged her to the bed. Propping himself against the headboard, he settled her effortlessly onto his lap. She hadn’t had a chance to really appreciate before how strong he was. She hooked one arm around his neck and stroked her fingers down one of his arms. The bulge of his muscles told her he worked out regularly and strenuously. She felt like a waif in comparison even though she also worked to stay fit and strong. The glint in his eye told her he enjoyed the touching. The hard ridge pressing against her bottom likewise encouraged her to continue.
He didn’t stay passive, either. He did some stroking of his own, raising the hem of his shirt that she wore until his palm rested against her naked hip. “Anyway,” he continued, “I had trouble sleeping after the murders. I used to wake up with my heart in my throat after a nightmare and go check on the boys. I was terrified that whoever had killed Mom and Dad would come after my brothers, too. I’d check to make sure they still slept peacefully in their beds, then go down and check around to reassure myself no one had broken in. Even after I put in the alarm system, I still kept waking up. Pretty soon, it was a nightly occurrence and I couldn’t go back to sleep unless I ran through the perimeter check in a methodical way. Crazy, huh?”
The vulnerability in his eyes when he looked at her broke her heart.
“No, not crazy. I bet I would have reacted the same way.” She shrugged her shoulders. “In my own way, I’m no different.”
He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t you wonder why I joined the rat squad?”
His expression turned into a frown. “Don’t call it that. You’re no rat.”
“Most cops would argue differently.” He opened his mouth, but she overrode him. “Anyway, I chase down dirty cops because I saw what they do first hand as a child. My parents have an import/export business in Chinatown. Nothing really big, just trinkets really. I used to hang out there a
fter school as a child because there wasn’t anyone who could watch me.”
She trailed her fingertips over to his chest and played with his chest hair. “One day, a couple of men came in. They were wearing plain clothes but flashed a badge. My father told my mother to go into the back of the store and to take me. Later, though, my father had a bruised face and I overheard him and my mother talking about how they had to pay to avoid trouble. I didn’t understand at the time what was going on. Later, I came to realize they’d been paying protection money to cops.”
Daire’s grip tightened. “Did they ever file a complaint?”
She shook her head. “Of course not. They were immigrants, not stupid. They knew if they told the wrong person, they’d be in worse trouble. Eventually, somehow, those cops were discovered and prosecuted. The payments stopped and life went on.”
She shifted, pulling out of his embrace so that she could straddle his lap. “The image of my father’s face and the fear in my parents’ voices when they discussed what to do stayed with me. It pissed me off, to be blunt. By the time I was old enough to really appreciate what had happened, I vowed to protect other people. I made a plan to join the force to go into internal affairs. I never wavered from that plan.”
As she spoke, she unbuttoned the shirt she wore. Daire’s gaze tracked her fingers’ movement. When she bared herself completely, his Adam’s apple jumped up and down on a hard swallow. Leaning forward, she traced her tongue around one flat nipple, then across his chest to do the same to the other one. His breath exploded over her head.
“So, you see why I understand your compulsion.”
“Not sure it’s the same thing,” he said in a strangled voice. “But I’m not inclined to argue the point with you at the moment.”
She smiled against his skin and continued her journey with her tongue down to his ridged abs. With the snap to his jeans undone, she managed to lick the very tip of his cock that now stood at attention. When she reached to tug the pants out of the way, she found his hands already doing so. She helped him shimmy out of them before lunging for his cock again. She wasted no time in wrapping her lips around it and taking him into her mouth.
Daire grunted, and his hips bucked slightly before he placed his hands on her head. Instead of pushing it down farther onto his rod, however, he tried to pull her head back up.
“You don’t have to do this.” The groan he uttered immediately afterward belayed the sentiment. “I’m too big. I don’t want to gag you.”
In way of an answer, Parker pushed more of him into her mouth. He was big, marvelously so, and deep throating had never been something she’d achieved even with smaller guys. Still, she intended to do the best she could for him. As she sucked, she laved the underneath of his cock with her tongue. She wrapped her fist around the bottom of his shaft and cupped his tight balls with her other hand. Multitasking had always come easy to her. She had no trouble coordinating her hands and lips and tongue in an effort to ratchet up his pleasure.
Daire’s protests morphed into words of encouragement. His body shook and his fingers curled into her hair. When he started gasping, she redoubled her efforts, stroking his cock and massaging his balls in time to her head bobbing up and down. She took him as deep as she could toward the back of her throat and swallowed. At the same time, her tongue waggled against the part of his shaft right beneath the head. Then ever so slightly she bit him.
With a shout, Daire reared up and doubled over, his abdomen pressing against the top of her head. His fingertips dug into her skull and his thighs bobbed against her breasts. Cum jettisoned out and down her throat, and she greedily swallowed every drop, enormously pleased to make him lose control so fast and so hard. He sat gasping for long seconds after the last of his cum spurted. Parker kept his softening cock in her mouth, lapping gently at it until he slowly lifted her head off. She let out a squeal when he flipped her onto her back.
He straddled her, and the look he shot her made her insides quiver. “My turn.”
He didn’t say anything more, he didn’t need to, before taking her mouth in a quick kiss. She would have protested the shortness of it if he hadn’t proceeded to do to her exactly what she’d done to him. He spent far more time on her breasts, though, sucking the already hard points enough to make her gasp and wiggle. When he trailed kisses to her abdomen, she shook and moaned. As he licked his way through her folds to latch onto her clit, she begged and pleaded.
Then he sent her screaming over the edge.
Chapter Seven
Although Daire had no prior experience, he figured when a woman spent the night in a man’s bed rocking his world, the least he owed her was breakfast. Cooking had been Ronan’s domain, thank God, but Daire had picked up enough of the essentials that he could put together a decent meal of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. With Parker in the shower, he had plenty of time to accomplish the task before she came down and tried to do it herself.
He smiled at the sound of the water running. The plumbing in this old house would alert him to when she finished. In the meantime, he found he liked the idea of a woman in his house, using his shampoo, wearing his clothes. Last night, it had been hot to see her standing there in his shirt. Even his embarrassment at having been caught performing his ritual hadn’t been able to kill the fire in his blood. And she’d proven what a wonderful woman she truly was by not only not judging him but actually helping him do it. Having her by his side while he checked everything had actually helped to reduce the number of times he checked the locks.
Best of all, he had slept the rest of the night away without bad dreams or the need to get up again. Having Parker in his arms did him good, no doubt about it. The only thing that troubled him this morning was the worry that having him in her arms might not be good for her at all. Doubt crept in and needled him. He shoved it aside and got out the eggs and bacon instead. There’d be plenty of time to obsess about his relationship with Parker later. Now, he needed to concentrate on feeding her. After breakfast, the two of them would have to also figure out where they went from here in the investigation.
The sound of the doorbell caused him to freeze in front of the refrigerator. A visitor on a Sunday morning was outside the norm. He knew it couldn’t be any of his family, because, knowing Parker was with him, they’d have called or texted first. Slowly, he made his way through the dining/living area, grabbing the extra gun he kept in his mother’s old baker’s hutch on his way. Although it made little sense for anyone to announce their arrival if they intended harm, he wasn’t about to take any chances with Parker in the house.
He peeked through the curtains of the front window and frowned at the sight of the commissioner standing on the stoop. What the hell? Daire stuck the gun in the back of his waistband before turning off the alarm and opening the door. “Good morning, sir.”
Finnegan smiled back at him. “What ever happened to Uncle James?”
Daire tried to return the jovial expression. “It kind of went out the window when you became the police commissioner, sir.”
“Fair enough, although here and now, I’d rather drop the formality if it’s all the same to you.” He paused. “Can I come in?”
“Oh, right, sorry.”
Daire stepped aside to let the other man pass. Unease crept into his belly. He couldn’t even remember the last time his father’s old friend had made a social call. This didn’t bode well. As he shut the door, his gaze flew automatically up the stairs. He couldn’t hear the water running anymore. Parker must have finished up her shower, but where was she now and had she heard the bell ring? Not that there was anything wrong with Finnegan seeing her there, but for some reason, his protective instincts had just gone into hyper drive.
Daire followed his visitor into the living room, and when the other man sat on the couch, he sat in one of the wing chairs opposite it. “Would you like some coffee?” The question popped out of his mouth automatically even though the last thing he wanted was to prolong this unusual visit.
Ice formed in Daire’s gut. “Please just say whatever it is out straight. I’m not a kid anymore, Uncle James.
The commissioner smiled grimly back at him. “No, you’re not and neither are your brothers. But from where I’m sitting, you’re the head of the family now, a position that was forced on you too early in life.” He sighed again and looked away. “I’ve tried to shield you. Maybe I shouldn’t have. After the murders, things were so damned crazy. We were all mad with grief, and when the rumors started flying…” He shook his head again.
Daire stayed perfectly still. This was the most this or any other man had said to him about his father’s rumored involvement with the mob. Why now?
“I heard what happened yesterday.”
Of course. That’s why now. “Detective Li and I are fine, sir. It’s not even clear what happened or for what reason.” At that moment, the floorboards above them squeaked. Both of them looked up.
“Is she here?”
Daire’s back stiffened, ready to take offense at the question. He made himself settle down. He and Parker had every right to do as they pleased together. “Yes. I had her stay just as a precaution.”
“Hmm.” Another long pause. “You know what they call her?”
Something in Finnegan’s tone got his hackles back up. “Who?”
The commissioner shrugged. “People. You know, on the force. The Chinese bulldog.”
Okay, now Daire’s hackles were like porcupine quills and ready to launch at the nearest target, which was Finnegan. “That’s offensive.”
The other man gave him a pointed look. “That’s how people are. I shouldn’t have to tell you that. Anyway, they mean it as a kind of compliment. She latches onto things and won’t let them go. And, I expect, she sleeps the sleep of the righteous.”