Detecting Desires (3 page)

Over the course of the next week, Michael Riley had been busy.
We’d all been busy working on identifying and disbanding the gang responsible for the string of robberies plaguing the neighborhood. But still, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was actually busy or just too busy for me. I played it cool, one of the things I wasn’t sure I could do, and focused on work. I didn’t go out of my way to see him, speak to him, or acknowledge anything that he said or did. This was our job, and I was sure the brass would frown upon inter-departmental romance.

Frank, the undercover officer I had met, had just entered the precinct.
He looked a bit rough, with a black eye and obvious signs that he’d been in a fight. He went straight to Holowitz’s desk and began laying out everything he knew on the gang. An hour later, we were all called to the roll call room for another briefing.

“The gang responsible, V7T, has doubled its membership in the last month,”
Holowitz began. “It’s come to our attention these little shitheads aren’t our typical gangbangers. They’re run by a motley crew of sixteen to twenty year old punks who have been knocking over convenience stores, liquor stores, and ransacking apartments in the hopes of hitting a big score. The bigger their score the more impressed their leader, Alfonso Sigfried, is. To incentivize these miscreants, he’s been trading smack for money, jewelry, and other pawnable items.”

“It’
s not so much a gang as drug dealing on trade,” Preston joined in. She rolled her eyes. “Just when I think I’ve seen it all.”

“Our guy doesn’t like to deal with cash for whatever the reason.
But we’ve got some nearby pawn shops on our radar. We’re going to try to set up a sting operation. Frank’s been on the inside, and he heard of a huge score the other night. One of these wannabe badasses hit an apartment and now has twenty tablets he’s passed along to Sigfried,” Holowitz concluded.

“We’re dividing up into teams.
One detective with one officer. We’ll use the unmarked cars and monitor the activity at the pawn shops.” Preston stood and pointed to a blown-up mugshot of Sigfried. “This is our guy. Make sure you remember what he looks like. Are there any questions?” No one said a word. “Fine, I’ll take Kemper and this pawn shop,” she said, pointing to the map.

“I’ve got Hawking and the shop in the southeast,”
Holowitz said, not pleased that someone else had taken over his briefing. He liked to be in charge. Of course, that left Detective Riley with only one option.

“Guess we’re partnered together,” he said, sounding resigned to this unfortunate turn of events.
Seriously, what was this guy’s problem? First we’re hot and heavy and then he acts like he doesn’t even know me, and then just as I’m about to give up on the entire sordid affair, he leaves a box of condoms and a note, and now he was acting like he couldn’t stand to be around me.

Not bothering to respond, I grabbed a printout of
Sigfried’s photo from the table and followed Riley out the door. Silently, he led me to one of the unmarked Mustang’s the police department had recently procured and I got inside. Only after we had pulled away from the precinct and were two blocks away did he speak.

“Are you mad about something?” he asked.

“Me?
No.” I stared out the window.

“You seem mad.
The other night, well I mean, we had to get to work, and I had to go home and change and try to sober up. Tequila, it’s the devil’s elixir. I don’t normally just dine and dash, but…”

I turned and stared at him.
He drove one handed with his right hand on the wheel, making the muscles in his forearm bunch as he turned the car right down the next street. “I’m not a detective, so maybe you can help me with something.”

“Anything, babe,” he shot me a smile.

“One minute you’re all over me and the next you don’t even know who I am.
Is there a reason for that?” I stopped, horrified. “Oh my god, are you in a relationship with someone?”

“No.”
He laughed. He actually laughed at me. “But when we’re at work,” he shook his head, “let’s just say I’m not everyone’s favorite person, and I don’t want our fun to hurt your reputation.”

“My reputation?”
I scoffed. “What reputation? I worked vice for fuck’s sake. Even I know what the guys say in the locker room about me. It’s not true. It’s sexist. But that’s just how this job is. I’m not worried about that.”

“That’s not what I meant,
” he shot me a look, “Preston and I used to be a thing. It’s in the past, but I have no desire to rub her face in any of my new…” he faltered for a word.

“Conquests?”
I icily asked.

“I don’t think of you like that.
I don’t know how to think of you. But I do think about you,” his voice sounded deep and sexy when he said that. And my mind flashed to an image of him in the shower, steam rising around his toned, naked body. Stop, I scolded myself. “Would you,” he stuttered slightly, “I don’t know, maybe, like to go on an actual date sometime?” For someone as attractive as he was, he lacked being suave. I guess when you were a detective who looked like that, you probably didn’t have to ask girls out, what with all the badge bunnies at the bars and everything.

“It sounds like a great way to get to know you.
But I must warn you, I don’t have sex on a first date.”

“Okay, we’ll have sex and then go out on a date.” He smirked and I hid my smile away.
There was a one in a million chance that this wouldn’t end horribly wrong. He was a bad boy. He was unbelievably sexy, a little wild, and a professional badass. This was the exact type of guy mothers’ warn their daughters about and yet I was drawn to him, knowing he’d probably break my heart. But if I could think of him in a purely carnal, physical sense, without any emotional attachment, we could have a fabulous time together.

“Sounds like a decent plan,” I responded as he parked the car near the pawn shop and we began our reconnaissance.

The only problem with sting operations was they tended to last forever.
Michael and I had played twenty questions back and forth for awhile, and he had attempted to get to know me. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel like I was that exciting. I told him about my family, the pets I had growing up, where I went to school, my best friend, and my uncertainty about taking the detective’s exam.

“You’d be great,” he encouraged.
He spoke about his brothers. One was a detective in Philadelphia and the other was just down the road at a nearby precinct. They had dreams of leadership and were planning on vying for a lieutenant or captain position one day. “I don’t know. I was never as driven as they are. Sometimes I think I must have been adopted. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a painter, and then I wanted to be a race car driver, and I think before it was all said and done I had come up with the worst possibility of all.”

“Which is?”

“Firefighter.” He chuckled. “My dad still holds a grudge over the fire department’s hockey win over the police department from fifteen years ago. To him, that idea was worse than saying I was going to become an assassin for hire. Which I had proudly announced when I was ten after watching the movie,
The Jackal.
”

“But let me guess, you watched
Die Hard
afterward and decided to be the next John McClane.”

“Nice Bruce Willis reference,” he complimented.
He reached out and gently brushed a lock of my hair out of my eyes that had come loose from my bun. I shut my eyes as his thumb caressed my temple, my cheek, my jaw. “You’re breathtaking.”

I opened my eyes and caught his sultry look.
Throwing one last look out the windshield, I scooted over in the seat and kissed him.

Giving head wasn’t one of my favorite sexual activities, but since one of us had to maintain a visua
l on the pawn shop and I felt I should return the favor Michael had bestowed upon me the other evening, I found myself kneeling on the floorboard of the Ford Mustang and leaning across the console as I deftly unzipped the fly of his jeans and fished his half-hard erection free. In the event we had to spring to action, the bare minimum of clothing was being removed or undone.

“
Lexie,” he moaned as I cupped his balls through the fabric of his boxer briefs and gently massaged them while giving his penis a few strong pumps as he continued to harden, “you know you don’t have to. Ahh,” he thrust upward as I licked the head, tracing around the crown, and sliding him into my mouth. Pulling back with the perfect amount of suction, I stopped momentarily to see his mouth fall open and his eyes close as he relished in the sensation I was creating for him. This fact was intoxicating and a total turn-on for me.

“Keep those eyes open, Detective,” I teased.
“You’re still on the job. At least while I’m too preoccupied working this job.” His hand tangled in my hair, but since I had it pinned in a bun, he ended up grasping my bound hair as I continued to work magic with my lips, tongue, and teeth.

His rock-hard dick was the perfect mix of sweet and salty, and the sounds h
e emitted were driving me wild, encouraging me to continue. Reminding myself to breathe through my nose, I attempted to take as much of his long, full girth into my mouth, sliding him deeper as I suppressed my gag reflex as he slid toward the back of my throat. He was fighting the urge to thrust, and I could feel the muscles in his thighs bunching under my palms. I continued to bob up and down as he fought to remain still and let me be in control.

“Stop.
I’m going to,” he was holding his release back, tugging against my bun as warning that I should stop now if I didn’t want him to come in my mouth.

Instead, I sucked harder, lapping against the underside of his penis, feeling the vein throb
and gently adding the faintest scrape of my teeth to increase his sensation and send him over the edge. Unable to stop himself, he thrust once, and I felt the sticky warmth at the back of my throat. Licking him clean, I righted myself on the seat. “Fuck,” he sighed, sated. “That was so fucking incredible.” He kissed me hard, dipping his tongue into my mouth and tasting himself. “Right about now, I wish I hadn’t quit smoking.” He was letting out contented sighs and was leaning as close to me as he could with the center console in the way. His head rested against the crook of my neck and he continued to plant soft, gentle kisses against my warmed skin.

After ten minutes of sitting in silence with his face buried i
n my neck, he recovered from his post-orgasmic haze and readjusted his pants, making certain the zipper was up.  

“Don’t you dare tell any of the guys at the precinct about this,” I threatened.
“Surveillance assignments are always rumored to be full of crazy sexual escapades, but I’d prefer if everyone still believed that was only urban legend.”

“Scout’s honor,” he teased.
He met my eyes, looking sincere and serious in his admiration. “Lexie, I think I could fall--”

“Isn’t that our guy?” I asked, looking away and spotting movement near the pawn shop.

Begrudgingly, he broke eye contact and looked outside.
“Yes. It is.” His focus shifted back to our assignment.

We watched from our position in the car as
Sigfried made his way down the street and entered the pawn shop. Riley opened the car door, checking the small of his back to make sure his gun was still holstered underneath his jacket and his cuffs were hanging, concealed from passersby.

“Should I radio for back-up?” I asked.

“Yes. Call it in, and I’m going to see if I can’t catch our guy red-handed with some stolen items. If I need your help, I’ll let you know.” Strutting toward the shop, I watched as he walked away.

Picking up the radio, I called in the
request for back-up and waited. Within two minutes, Holowitz and Hawking pulled up next to us. Holowitz got out of the car and Hawking looked at me and shrugged. We were just officers. This was a game for detectives only. Before anything else could happen, a few black and whites rolled up and the uniformed policemen got out and helped Riley wrestle the now-handcuffed Sigfried into the back of one of the cars.

“We could have done that,” Hawking mouthed to me.

“I know,” I shouted back, even though I didn’t think he could hear me through the double set of closed windows. We got out of the cars and assisted in taking the store owner’s statement, threatening to bring him up on accessory charges for trafficking in the sale of stolen goods, and by the end, we seemed to have a pretty solid case.

~*~

With Sigfried’s arrest, the spree of home invasions declined. Of course there were still going to be robberies, but not nearly as many as there had been. I hadn’t felt like I had done much to contribute to the case, but all three detectives, even Holowitz, congratulated me, Hawking, and Kemper for a job well-done.

“How about we actually go on that date now?” Riley asked as I packed up my belongings for the day.
“It seems we aren’t working together anymore, so there’s not much reason why we can’t be seen together.”

“Just not in the precinct, right?”
I asked, still wondering what his motivation for any of this was. Preston had already gone home, and unless he had other spurned ex-lovers nearby, it shouldn’t be an issue at all.

“Probably not, but I was thinking a romantic dinner, tablecloths, candlelight.
We can take it slow now that we’ve taken the edge off.” He smirked slyly.

“Sure, but my rule still holds true.”
It sounded ridiculous, but if he wanted to wine and dine me then there would be no hanky-panky. Like he said, we had taken the edge off, only now I knew just how delectable he tasted and how skilled his hands were. I imagined the rest of him was equally skilled. The edge wasn’t off, at least not for this double-edged sword.

“I’ll pick you up around eight,” he promised.

Leaving work, I went home and showered, dressed in a little black number, and gave myself a pep talk about not being slutty.
I’d been slutty enough today. I think my slutty quota was used up for the rest of the year. I laughed at the absurdity and waited impatiently for eight o’clock.