Skin Deep (7 page)

“I have a condition,” she said as he walked her to the kitchen door with the stroller.

“Anything.”

“Read Troy’s journal.” Her eyes plead with him.

That familiar bile rose in his throat. He resisted the urge to frown at her request. It was a journal. How bad could it be if it meant having the two of them with him under the same roof every night?

“Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll read the journal. You and Toby move in with me until I’m recalled, at which point you’ll decide if you’re going to stay as a house sitter, or my wife.”

Her nose wrinkled, but she held out her hand. “Deal.”

He took it and pulled her to him. “Deal,” he murmured as his mouth covered hers.

* * * *

Erin picked up her tea mug and sat down on Hotch’s overstuffed brown couch. His furniture was straight out of bachelor pad living. She sighed wearily as she leaned back, listening to the sounds of Hotch putting his son to bed in his brand new bedroom.

Her mom hadn’t taken the news so well. Erin had reasoned with her that living on base nearby was better than if she’d moved out of State next week. There’d been grumbling. There’d been a complete lack of help in getting the laundry done and Erin’s things packed away. It had been the same when Erin had gone off to college. Her mother seemed to think that by ignoring the problem, it would somehow go away. Or maybe it was that by not contributing, she felt she wasn’t condoning it. Or maybe it was hurt because she’d made Erin the same offer, but Erin was moving in with Hotch instead. She also knew her mother well enough to sense that she wouldn’t come between Erin and Hotch in trying to make a family.

Hotch came back to the living room. He took her mug and set it aside, then leaned over the couch to buss her lips. He sank down on the seat beside her without breaking contact with her mouth. Settling near her, he then kissed her in earnest.

She broke away. “He’s not asleep yet. He could cry at any moment.”

Hotch nuzzled her neck. “He’s out. I swear.” He cupped her jaw and turned her face back to his.

“If you’re sure.”

Erin dragged him down, shifting under him as she laid back. His lips brushed hers, playfully rubbing the side of his nose against hers.

“We don’t have to have sex,” he murmured. “There’s no pressure.”

“Hotch. I
want
to have sex. Often.”

“Thank God!” he growled.

Their mouths met in a fury of parted lips and heated breath. Erin reached around his shoulders and grabbed fistfuls of shirt, trying to wrench it up his body and over his head.

He wormed out of it as she pulled, then grabbing her hips, he scooted backward off the couch.

“Where’re you going?” she asked propping herself up on her elbows.

“Nowhere.”

He pushed up her top and nuzzled her belly. Erin inhaled sharply, watching him unbuckle and loosen her jeans. He tugged at them hard enough that she laughed and dug her fingers into the couch.

“Lift your hips.”

She did as he asked and he stripped her jeans off her legs. She mentally cheered herself for shaving and changing into some pretty underwear that morning. She’d hoped this would happen, but she hadn’t been sure how he’d play it. Fortunately for her, Hotch was all man, complete with a deep-seated craving for sex.

Hotch kissed her belly button, pulling her decorative piercing into his mouth for a gentle tug while his tongue teased the tiny “o” it adorned. Erin shivered. She sifted her fingers through his hair. Her pussy pulled deep, a slow ache beginning to build and burn between her legs.

He moved lower, nudging her legs farther open. His tongue tracked the crease between her thigh and her panty line. Moisture seeped from her. They hadn’t done anything like this before. Their two previous encounters had been rough and urgent. She didn’t know what to make of this leisurely sampling.

When he covered her cunt with his open mouth and breathed hot air onto her through the satin, Erin gave up trying to categorize it. She moaned, her head falling back as she closed her eyes, wanting to absorb every detail of his seduction.

She heard a soft
snick
, followed by the touch of thin cold metal at her hip. She caught her bottom lip beneath her teeth when he sawed through her panties at first one side, then the other. Hotch peeled back the material.

“There we go,” he murmured appreciatively.

Every nerve waited for his first touch. His lips brushed her pussy, kissing her. He suckled one side into his mouth, his tongue flickering against her heated flesh. He repeated the kiss to the other side and then dipped his tongue at the very top where her labia joined.

Erin squirmed. Her fingers tightened in his hair.

“Not yet, baby. I’m still getting to know you,” he whispered. His finger touched her lower, swiping upward. “So wet.”

She cracked her eyelids to see him bring the tip of his finger to his mouth, run the moisture over his full bottom lip, and then lick it off. Erin whimpered. She wanted to kick herself for the pathetic sound, but it seemed to be exactly what he’d been hoping for. He smiled wickedly, then all at once, Hotch thumbed open her folds as far as he could and ate at her like a starving man.

Her cry went unchecked as her thighs trembled and her hips rocked up, offering her body to him, however he wanted to take it. His head moved under her hands and half the eroticism was in watching that silky warm texture moving where she wanted him most.

His whiskers prickled her needy pussy, the promise of pain and the guarantee of pleasure commingled on her wet flesh. His tongue teased her clit. He slipped two digits high and hard inside her. Erin barely remembered to turn her face into the couch cushions as she screamed, hips thrusting up.

He didn’t stop there. Hotch calmly continued to lick and suckle, even after she came. Erin tossed her head. She’d thought in coming, it would be over. They’d go to his room—their room—and fuck. But Hotch seemed to enjoy himself where he was, invested in tonguing every fold, and effectively reawakening her cunt.

“Hotch.” She meant to tell him to stop, but she couldn’t bring herself to. Every lash of his tongue on her clit shocked pleasure through the tiny nub and thrilled a place deep in her pelvis.

His lips clamped on her bud as his fingers jammed deep, rubbing a place inside her pussy that made her skin flame and her ears ring. Sense left her as her body came alive beneath him, and she held on, riding the tides of pleasure that swept over her. Every muscle in her body tightened. Erin sobbed wantonly into another explosive orgasm.

“I’ll take care of it,” Hotch said, climbing to his feet.

“Take care of what?” Erin’s ears stopped ringing, and she became aware of Toby crying in the next room. She sat up with a start.

“It’s okay. I’ve got it covered. I’ll meet you in bed in a few minutes.” His boyish grin stayed with her as she gathered their clothes and darted down the hall to the master bedroom.

The water in the bathroom sink turned off. Hotch was drying his hands and face as she scurried passed. He gave her a gentle swat to the ass and ducked into Toby’s room.

Erin cleaned herself up and removed the rest of her clothing. She could hear Hotch over the baby monitor. The sound of his off-tune baritone singing a lullaby made her smile. She reached across the bed and turned it up to listen.

With a sigh of contentment, Erin went back to the bathroom to search for condoms and brought them back to the room. She curled up beside the monitor and decided to close her eyes for a moment until he came back.

Toby cooed. Hotch murmured back, telling Toby how smart his comments were, how insightful. Toby babbled some more, and Hotch agreed that it was indeed past his bedtime, and he promised to put Toby down right away.

Erin turned the volume down again, listening to the rumble and pitch of their voices. She inhaled deeply, evenly until everything faded away.

Hotch took off his pants and shorts and climbed into bed beside Erin. It had taken longer than he expected to put Toby back to sleep. Apparently, Toby hadn’t been the only one exhausted. Erin lay on her side facing away from him. She was naked, and uncovered. Hotch filled his eyes with her, enjoying every curve and dip of her body.

His gaze flicked over her shoulder and he saw the box of condoms he’d purchased the day before, on the lamp table nearest her. His grin widened. Who was he to disappoint, he mused.

He stroked over her shoulder, down her relaxed arm to where it bent away from her and her waist tucked neatly. He followed the line to the rise of her hip, stopped there, and dropped kisses on her shoulder and neck.

Erin sighed in her sleep and rolled back against him, her body at an open angle for his hungry gaze. He didn’t think there’d been created a more perfect woman than this one. He didn’t deserve her, but for some reason, she’d been sent to him on loan for the next week. He intended to make use of every moment he had with her. Fortunately, she hadn’t been shy about wanting to have sex with him too. Thank God for sexual freedom.

Still, he felt funny about touching her in her sleep. Only thing to fix that was to touch her into wakefulness. Hotch cupped her pussy, the strip of crinkling hairs tickled his palm as he moved up her body. His gaze had already locked on to her full, proud breasts, but getting there was half the pleasure and he didn’t want to rush it.

Her belly hollowed as he teased her piercing. Her breathing changed and her muscles had a barely perceptible tension that they hadn’t moments before. She was awake, now, although she kept her eyes closed. From palm to fingertips, he drew a path between her breasts, being sure to apply the edge of his nails. Erin’s nipples drew tight.

His mouth watered, but he circled her breasts in smaller and smaller passes until he came to the peak. Erin stopped pretending. She snaked an arm around his neck and dragged him down. She arched her neck, reaching for him, her mouth easily finding his.

Hotch thumbed the tip in reward, and she trembled against him. Erin rolled onto her back. He needed more. Needed to taste her, feel her wordless pleas on his tongue. He parted her lips and delved inside. She responded, and when her hands clutched his ass, he knew taking it slow had just become a lot more complicated.

Trailing kisses from her mouth to her cheek, jaw, neck, he traveled downward to his prize. He teased himself with her nipple, rubbing his lips with it back and forth until he couldn’t resist the temptation to taste her. He captured it, holding it between his teeth as he suckled.

Hotch’s fingers teased her pussy lips open. He slipped in a finger and began a casual figure eight around her already sensitive clit.

“Hotch, I’m going to kill you slowly if you don’t stop playing with me and start fucking me,” she said on a groan.

“That’s a first,” he murmured, coming off her nipple.

“At the risk of sounding like a guy, would you just get on and ride me? I don’t think I can stand any more foreplay.”

Hotch laughed but he grabbed the condoms and fitted one on. He positioned himself between her legs, and in one swift move, penetrated her. Her sudden involuntary cry of pleasure echoed his. Already her cunt clenched around him with a fine shiver. Erin bit her bottom lip, and when her eyes opened again, they were hazy green.

They’d fucked before, but it had been in a rush or in the dark both times. This time he wanted to savor the moment, every sigh she gave, every second she lost her cool veneer to pleasure made tiny changes of her facial expressions.

He’d been reading Nebraska’s journal, just as she’d asked him too. He wondered if she knew how much information about her there’d been, between the lines. Nebraska had said she closed her eyes when she made love. Nebraska had a romantic idea about how Erin gave everything she had, as though it were the reason she didn’t open them during sex.

Hotch had different ideas. It may have been arrogant to assume he knew her better than Nebraska, but Hotch didn’t see what Nebraska saw. He saw Erin hiding. Not only did he want sex with him to be different for her than it was with Nebraska, but selfishly Hotch wanted her to remember his face as he fucked her. It was possessive and primitive, but that was exactly how she made him feel.

“Open your eyes, Erin.”

She did, but she seemed confused. He’d stopped moving, but as her eyes opened, he began to thrust. Her eyes slid shut again.

“Keep them open. Nebraska’s journal said you close your eyes during sex. I’m not Nebraska. I want to make sure you remember that.”

Her brow knit together. “I know you’re not him.”

He pulled out and thrust in, hard. She made a soft noise. “Is that a problem?”

“No,” she breathed.

He bent down, talking huskily into her ear. “But you miss him. Do you miss the way he fucked you, Erin?”

He winced when he said it. The words sounded mean. He
felt
mean. This was Nebraska’s girl. His intended wife. Erin belonged to a dead man, and Hotch was screwing her anyway because he couldn’t help himself. He wanted her so bad his chest hurt. The more he learned about her, the more he knew she was the one who could devastate him. He hated that weakness and hated that she would always belong to another man. A better man. A man Hotch could never be.