by Aiden Bates
The pink in Kaleb’s ears intensified. “Well, I was, ah…you remember I told you I have a hard time keeping the words on the page in order sometimes. Was thinking maybe you’d be up for reading it to me. If you’re not too tired or anything, I mean.”
I reached up to brush my fingertips against the stubble on his jawline. “I’d love to, Kaleb. We’re pretty nocturnal these days anyway. Come on—I think a bedtime story is exactly what we need right now.”
In Nick and Harper’s baby room, Kaleb and I pushed the mattresses together, settling the pillows against each other so I could lie comfortably across his chest. I held the book in my fingers, cracking it open and pinning the pages back with my thumbs as I found the page for chapter one.
For the next few hours, I cuddled against Kaleb, reading him the first three chapters of Wild and Free with my cheek against his chest. I used his heartbeat to keep a rhythm going, only occasionally broken by a pause to read Josh’s annotations. Usually, they left us both laughing.
But as I turned to chapter four, Kaleb reached up to gently pull the book from my hands.
“Something wrong?” I asked.
“Nah. I was just thinking…” Kaleb’s chest rumbled against my cheek. “You know, if your heat is over, you’re not ovulating anymore, and…”
I smiled softly, running my palm down his chest over the thin fabric of his t-shirt. “Omega biology 101, yeah.”
“And if you’re pregnant…” Kaleb’s eyes closed, a wry smile curling one corner of his lips. “Well, it ain’t like you can get more pregnant.”
My hand trailed lower, up over the buckle of Kaleb’s belt and down to the bulge rising against the zipper of his jeans.
Fuck. He was hard. Thick and hot and ready for me. And since what he was suggesting was entirely true…
I shifted beneath his arm, rolling on top of him to straddle his hips. Squeezing my knees tight against him, I folded my body over his, lowering my lips against his in a hot, searing kiss.
“Can’t believe you got hard thinking about Wild and Free,” I teased, flicking my tongue against his lower lip as I pulled away.
Kaleb only grinned. “Oh, sunshine. I got hard to the sound of your voice. Wild and Free was the last thing I was thinking about.”
He wrapped a hand around the back of my head, fingers curling greedily in my hair as he pulled my lips back to his once more. My own cock was beginning to stiffen too, throbbing hard as Kaleb tossed the book away to take me into his arms.
Wild and Free could wait.
17
Derek
“Oh, no,” Kaleb said as I reached for the buckle of his jeans. “I’m done with you bottoming from the top.”
Kaleb rolled us, pinning me down by my wrists and crushing my mouth beneath his. From our new position, I was beginning to see Kaleb from a whole new light. He was right—the first two times we’d been intimate together, he’d been on bottom. Helpless to my wicked ways and lustful needs. But now that it was my body pinned against the mattress and Kaleb’s looming over me, I could fully see how dominant he could really be. He kissed me like he was trying to devour me. Desperate, hungry, feral. Kaleb was no longer the man who laid back and enjoyed himself—he was the aggressor, wolfish and demanding.
The clothes we were wearing were cast aside as quickly as we could get them off our bodies. I tugged Kaleb’s shirt over his head. He tore my pants off me, tossing them aside with a growl. Clothes only came between us. Stopped us from being as close as we could possibly be. And in that moment, the only thing that Kaleb seemed happy to have coming between us was, well.
Me.
“Should have done this a long time ago,” Kaleb rasped in my ear before he took it between his teeth. “Should have had you the moment you first showed up.”
“Yeah? And then where would we be?”
Kaleb’s eyes glinted deviously. “You’d have a baby in your belly and I’d be a much happier man, for one.”
“Is that so—oh!” I gasped as Kaleb kissed down my bare chest, wrapping his lips around my cock and sucking on it something fierce. Kaleb King didn’t do anything halfway—least of all sucking cock. He swallowed my dick up greedily, taking it all the way to the back of his throat then gulping it down until I nearly cried out from the sheer sensation of it all.
He sucked me hard and sweet, ravishing me in a way I’d never felt before. Our first time together could have been written off as blowing off steam. Maybe even our second. But this? This was need, raw and unbridled, with an undercurrent of emotion driving it onward like a horse racing to a gallop beneath the crack of a whip.
“Please,” I whimpered and Kaleb finally pulled off of me, panting and sticking his tongue out to flick up along my tip.
“Please what?” He lapped at the precum that practically poured from my cockhead, taking long, measured licks at the underside of my dick until I could have cried for the sheer wanting that was coursing through my veins.
“Take me, Kaleb. Fuck me.”
He crawled up toward me, animalistic and unhinged. His cock slapped down against mine, his hips rutting against me as he trapped our dicks between our bodies, stroking them with the friction that our abs made.
“You sure you want it?”
I laughed. “Kaleb King, if you don’t fuck me now, I think I’ll go crazy with wanting it.”
He smirked, then pressed a kiss to my lips. “That’s what I like to hear.”
Kaleb took his cock in his fist, repositioning it sharply between the curves of my ass cheeks. I could feel my lubrication kicking in already—despite the fact that I was no longer in heat, it hadn’t slowed up one bit. If anything, I was wetter than ever. With past boyfriends, sometimes I’d needed a full hour of foreplay. Sometimes even lube. But with Kaleb…it was like my body knew exactly what was good for it. Exactly what it needed. No mental gymnastics or getting in the mood necessary.
I only needed to be in the same room as Kaleb King, and just like that, he could have brought me to my knees with nothing more than the right look.
Kaleb pressed into me with a hard, firm thrust, stretching my hole to accommodate just his tip at first, then another inch—then another. My whole body was tense, from my shoulders to my abs all the way to my toes, curling as I crossed my legs to pull him in deeper. I wanted all of him—and all of him was exactly what I got. His arms wrapped around me, cradling me like I was something precious and delicate. The movements of his hips, though—those suggested that I was anything but.
It was love-making, and it was fucking. The coolness of his breath as he let out a pleasured hiss against my cheek and the heat of his body like he was burning up with a fever that only I could cure. He was in the air I breathed as I gasped for him, desperately drawing in his scent with every breath. He was the earth itself, shifting against me. Tectonic plates crashing together in a dance that only we knew the steps to.
I could feel my orgasm rising up in me, first in my tip, then in my balls, then shooting all the way through my body, right down to the final tendrils of every nerve. It wracked me clear through, leaving me spasming up against him like waves against a rocky cliff in a storm—but even as it passed, Kaleb held firm. His kisses were my entire world for a moment. His cock, my universe in the next. He fucked me like a whore—like a lover—like a husband—like a soul mate. Every infinity of everything I could ever be for a man, Kaleb made me feel all at once, until the intensity became too much and suddenly, I was nothing. The black velvet of our combined pleasure wrapped around us like a starless night, and I lost myself in it.
As he came inside me, the world beyond our mattress stopped existing. It was only him. His heart beat. His moans. The hot rush of his cum, filling me to the brim then spilling out of me, onto the sheets beneath us. The electricity of his touch, drawing up the hairs on my arms like static, sending a shiver down my spine like he was lightning and I’d just been struck.
When our bodies finally stilled, we were covered in sweat. I met his eyes, hazel i
rises a swirl of every color I could imagine.
Suddenly, we were laughing. About what, I didn’t know. But his lips were on mine and my fingers were in his hair, our bodies pressed as closely together as any bodies had ever been.
We collapsed, spent, turning on our sides just so we could keep staring at each other like that. He was as gorgeous when he was laughing as he was when he was asleep. Even more so, maybe—because now, I knew that it was the ecstasy of being with me that had put that smile on his lips.
“You know…” Kaleb reached over to touch my face, staring at me like he could hardly believe I was real. “I’m gonna sound like a fucking teenager here but…”
“You’d really like to turn on Family Guy or play a couple of matches on Call of Duty?” I teased.
Kaleb laughed. “Shut up, I’m trying to have a moment here.”
I smiled, shifting a little deeper into my pillow as I relished the feel of his fingers against my cheek. “Okay, okay. Go on, then.”
Kaleb drew in a deep breath. “I think I’m falling for you, Derek. Is that…okay?”
I rolled my lips between my teeth, my eyes watering as I tried to fight back a laugh so loud, it would have woken up the entire house and the neighbors besides. “What do you mean, is that okay? You’re the cop here, Kaleb—you know there’s no such thing as the Feelings Police.”
Kaleb furrowed his brow. “I’m just—ugh. Even if you’re not gonna have a baby. Even if everything just keeps movin’ on between us like normal…I really care about you, you handsome idiot. I want to see where this goes. I want…”
Kaleb’s words failed him. Luckily, mine didn’t do the same to me.
“I’m falling for you, too—you handsome idiot.” I smiled softly as I echoed his words. “But…remember, we’ve only known each other for a little while, right? I think if this is something you’re serious about…we should get to know each other a little better. Don’t you think?”
Kaleb sighed, closing his eyes and nodding. “I’m not trying to rush this. I just…I don’t want you goin’ on thinking that I’m seeing this as some kinda fling. You want us to be honest with each other, don’t you?”
“Of course. Always.”
“Good. Then I’m tellin’ you, you’ve got me good right now. My brain all flooded with thoughts of you constantly and my heart all twisted up beneath your sweet little fingers.”
I pressed my palm against his, sizing my hand up to Kaleb’s broad, slightly larger one.
“Not that little,” I told him, brushing my fingertips against his. “You’ve just got big hands, is all. Among other things.”
Kaleb hissed slightly as my free hand dipped lower, cupping the heat of his balls and squeezing them gently.
“Keep that up and you’re going to have me going all over again,” he warned. “Tryin’ to have a…a serious conversation with you here, Derek.”
“And you’re doing an excellent job of it.” My eyes twinkled with delight. “Your self-restraint is impeccable, Detective King.”
“Mm. Startin’ to like when you call me that.” Kaleb wrapped his arm around me, pulling me a little closer. “But when all of this is over…I’m takin’ you on a proper date, dammit. Appetizers, cloth napkins, wine—”
“Unless I’m pregnant.”
“Unless you’re pregnant,” Kaleb allowed. “Then I’m buying you a house, setting you up in it, and you’ll never have to worry about anything ever again.”
I laughed. “That’s an awful tall order, Detective.”
“It’s what I want to do, sunshine. As long as it’s what you want too, anyway.”
“Mm.” I hummed with pleasure, nuzzling my way against Kaleb’s collarbone. “Wonder what’s next, then.”
“Between us? I just told you, didn’t I?”
I laughed. “No, I mean in this case. I think I’ve got a good idea about what’s next between you and I now, actually.”
“Hmm. Well…we keep digging up connections. Get our hands all muddy with the dirty little secrets of everyone connected to this case. Public documents, private ones—whatever we can get hold of. Once we can prove all these fuckers are working together, get enough info to pin whatever it is that’s being done on whoever’s doing it… I’ve got some FBI contacts in DC that would be very interested in this. If we’ve got enough of a case, we’ll turn it over to them and they’ll take it from there.”
My smile faded from my lips by half. “Not to make this all about me or anything…but…”
“What about you? Right. Of course. We’ve got your name to clear, too.” Kaleb’s chest rumbled as he considered it. “I wish I could tell you that I knew for sure that we could wipe your slate clean, sunshine. But if we’re being honest… I can’t promise you that.”
I nodded, feeling my chest knot up at the thought. “I understand. I appreciate that more than an empty promise anyway.”
“But.” Kaleb laid a kiss on my temple, steady and firm. “I can promise you that I’ll keep you safe. No matter who’s after you, no matter what happens. For now…I just hope that can be enough.”
“You’re always enough.” I traced his collarbone with the tip of my nose, kissing it over and over again. “You’re always, always enough.”
I closed my eyes, willing myself to trust in Kaleb’s promise. I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t offer me something that he couldn’t give. If he said that he would keep me safe, he would.
But as I drifted off, that nagging uncertainty wouldn’t let itself be banished from my mind. If Kaleb was wrong—if I was pregnant…
I didn’t want my baby to be born in a prison cell.
I could only hope that Kaleb’s promise was really one that he could keep.
18
Kaleb
Two weeks later, Derek and I still hadn’t pulled our mattresses apart. Like every other morning for the past two weeks, that morning I woke up with Derek Stillwell in my arms.
“Morning breath!” Derek protested with a sleepy laugh as I pressed my lips against his.
I drew back, laughter in my eyes. “Is it really that bad? I can go brush my teeth first, if you insist…”
“Not yours, idiot. Mine.”
I only smiled, a quick twitch of my arm pulling his body even tighter against mine. “I’m not a man afraid of all that many things, sunshine. Least of all, your breath in the mornings.”
To prove it, I kissed him again—and again, and again.
“Someone’s especially frisky this morning.” Derek wiggled against me, working his hand down my side to squeeze my hip bone.
I drew in a quick, sharp breath as he plunged his hand lower still, taking my cock in his fist at the base. Busted. I’d woken up hard, which was becoming more and more frequent the longer I spent near him. The man was like my own personal Viagra—no chemicals or pharmaceutical companies needed.
“Keep doing that and I’ll show you exactly how frisky I can—”
I paused, my ears perking up to three sharp, heavy knocks on the front door. Loud enough, I could even hear them from our room.
Cop knocks if I’d ever heard ‘em. And being a cop myself…I’d heard them an awful lot.
Fuck.
“Stay here,” I told Derek, stealing a final kiss before I leapt out of bed. “And be quiet.”
I found my jeans tangled where we’d left them the night before, right next to the doorway. Derek had barely let me get the door shut behind me before he’d started tugging them off of me. With a shake, I sorted out the legs and stepped into them, not pausing to do up my belt until I had the door shut again and had made my way down the hall.
Harper was half a step behind me. He came barreling out of his room with the same knowing look in his eyes—he’d dealt with enough cops himself, he knew the knock as well as I did.
“No point in pretending that we’re not here,” he said with a sigh. “Both our cars are out front.”
“Once more unto the breach, then.”
We nodded
at each other as we went to the door, opening it side by side.
“Morning, Detective Thomas.” I forced a smile as I recognized Ansel’s buzz cut and furrowed brow. “How’s your day goin’?”
“Looks like I got an earlier start than you boys,” Ansel said with a laugh. “I’m real sorry for waking you up. You two just roll out of bed?”
Harper shrugged. “Somethin’ like that. How can we help you today, Detective?”
Ansel held up a piece of paper, obviously printed off the station’s shoddy copier. As I laid eyes on it though, my heart skipped a beat.
Ink-streaked and discolored as it was, I knew that face well. Very well, in fact—I’d just kissed it and told it to be quiet the minute before we’d opened the door.
“You boys seen this young man around lately? He might’ve tried to make contact with you, dropped by, asked you for your help?”
Harper and I exchanged our best dumb hick looks, then shook our heads.
“Handsome guy,” I admitted. “Wouldn’t mind if he came round askin’ for me, if you know what I mean.”
I nudged Harper, grinning like we were two teenagers in a football locker room. Harper, playing his part exquisitely, only rolled his eyes.
“I’m a taken man now,” he explained to Ansel, returning my nudge in the ribs with one of his own “But nah—if someone like that had shown up around here, this horndog would’ve never let me hear the end of it.”
“Ah…well, I don’t know about that, boys.” Ansel rubbed the back of his neck, obviously uncomfortable. “This young man here is a wanted criminal. Not exactly the kind of guy either of you would do well to be taking ‘round on dates, if you catch my drift.”
“Wanted?” I blinked, raising my eyebrows in surprise. “For somethin’ other than being good-lookin’ then, I s’pose.”
Ansel took the bait perfectly. A good thing, too—we needed to know what his story was. Figure out what he knew—or what he thought he knew.
