Snatched (25 page)

S
till s
he wished she could take the sex back. T
ake back t
he kisses, the intimacy…all of it. Because it had been nothing but a ruse, a means to an end. And she was nothing but collateral damage.

She'd called the hospital and spoken with staff several times to make sure he had survived, that he was recovering. But anger had kept her from reaching out any more than that. She didn't like being used, didn't like having her feelings manipulated.

Renewed anger made her reach for the vacuum again and
she began her cleaning
jag in an attempt to exhaust herself, to push thoughts from her mind.

She'd just turned the corner
wall between the living room and dining area
, ready to change
the vacuum's
settings for the hardwood flooring in her dinette area when the doorbell rang.

She looked over at the wall clock; it was a little after
four
. She wasn't expecting anyone and she didn't particularly want any visitors.

She walked to the intercom, hit the button
and
asked who it was.

The answering voice made her heart
jump
.

What the hell was he doing here?

She rested her head against the intercom, refusing to answer, suddenly exhausted. He had no right to push his way into her life, not while she was struggling to
put
it
back
together.

The buzz of the intercom sounded louder, more insistent.
She clicked the button.

"We have nothing to say, so please just go." She
heard the desperation in her voice.

Another buzz.
Then
another. And another.

It was apparent now he wasn't going away until she let him in.

She hit the other buzzer that would allow him into the building. She counted the seconds in her head, the allotment of time for him to call the elevator, wait for it to open, push the button to her
floor,
get off and
walk to her door.

It took less than three minutes.

Even when she heard
the
knock, she didn't immediately open the door, adding a few seconds
to the moment she would actually see him.

She took a breath to steady her emotions and opened the door
,
all the while telling
herself she could
get through
this.

But no preparation could steady her nerves
n
or stop her heart
from
racing.
She didn't feel like she
was
breathing.
The nervousness pushed down the anger.

He stood just outside her door. But he wasn't the man she'd seen weeks ago.

The man in front of her was a total stranger, from his face,
to
his demeanor, to his clothes even. And yet some things were the same. The five o'clock shadow
along the jaw line
(didn't he ever shave
?
)
, the eyes that seemed to bore into
her
,
sensual
lips that…
She refused to think about those lips.
About the feel of his body.

She was used to seeing him in his denim jacket. She had thrown it away weeks ago. Right now, he had on
a black windbreaker over black jeans. Rugged, but still not like the man she'd thought she knew.

No,
t
his man wasn't Dele.
He wasn't the man she had come to trust nor the man she had made love to.

This man was someone named Eric, a
Los Angeles
police officer. At least that was what she had been told…but not by him.

"Please let me in so we can talk, Nailah."

She shook her head.

"No. T
here's nothing you have to say to me, Dele…
or
whatever
you're calling yourself today
. I've been through hell and I don't need any reminders
of those horrible days
. I'm trying
to pick up where my life
stopped
and go on from there. Please let me do that."

He hesitated
and for a moment she thought he was going to
turn to leave.

She saw the moment when he decided to buckle down. A furrow of his brow. Something she'd seen him do before. Something familiar.

"I promise that after I
've
had my say you won'
t have to see me again.
A
t least give me ten minutes."

Up until that moment, she had blocked his way. Now she stepped back to allow him entry into her condo.

She closed the door behind her and looked at him looking around at her home.

"Very nice," he said as he turned back to her.

"Yeah, well I'm not really one for hotel rooms."

He smiled slightly and this for some reason brought back the anger.

"Oh,
you think it wa
s funny dragging me around
the city, forcing me
to
sleep in
roach motels, making me act like your whore?"

The smile left. "I would have spared you that if I could have…"

"Well, I hope that it was worth it."

"If you w
ant to really know, many of the gang
died during the fight
,
including Rez. They can't hurt anybody else. Those who weren't killed are going to prison. So yes, in a way, it was worth it. You have to understand, I couldn't come clean to you without risking your life, without undoing months of undercover work. I hate what happened to you, but it didn't have to happen…"

She knew that he was right. If she hadn't reacted so irrationally that day, none of this would have happened.

"OK, part of this is my fault. I can admit
that. But…"

"…but what?" he asked, taking a step, closing the space between them.

"You took your undercover duties to the extreme. You didn't have to
…
pretend that you wanted me. Just use me to get off and…"

He grabbed her by either shoulder, his head shaking.

"No, it was never like that Nailah, never. I wanted you so much and I did overstep boundaries. But I thought I might not ever see you again and I wanted to be with you.
And even if you don't want to hear this, I still want to be with you. After everything that's happened, I'm so glad you threw that piece of meat at me otherwise I would have never met you.
"

His hands had tightened on her shoulders as he spoke. His eyes darkened, like Dele's. And she felt all of the anger, the regret just slip away.

Because she still wanted him too.

She didn't have to say it; he just seemed to know.

"So how are we going to do this?" she asked
softly
.

"Like this," he said
as he pulled her to him and
move
d in. The kiss was warm, insistent, even desperate. As though he sought to impress
to
her the truth of his words.

And she let him talk to her with his kiss, with the tongue that sought hers.

When he pulled back, dark brown eyes were almost black and hooded. His bottom lip glistened with her saliva. His breathing was deep, more irregular and she remembered his injuries from weeks ago.

"Are you able…I mean after all you've been through."

Another smile
, this one dazzling.

"I've gotten a clean bill of health
from the doctor
.
A
lmost
back to
my old self. But be gentle with me
, just in case
."

She returned the smile as her fingers worked down the zipper of his windbreaker
and pushed it off his shoulders revealing a plain white tee beneath. The jacket dropped to the floor.

"So is this standard police garb?"

"You should see me in my police blues," he said teasingly,
then bent
to
nibble an
ear lobe.
She drew in breath, enjoying the touch. Feeling
a warm moisture gather
between her thighs.

His mouth moved down the nape of her neck, past the collar of her over shirt that she had thrown on in anticipation of a day of cleaning. Hardly sexy en
ough but he didn't seem to mind as he pushed down to the edge of her bra, l
icked
flesh
where one breast
flowed a little over the cup.

She drew in breath as he helped her out of her shirt, out of the bra. As he fastened those warm…no, actually hot…lips over a nipple and licked at it, teased it.

She started to call out his name, but the name didn't belong to this man.

But for some reason, she missed that other man. She would get used to making love to Eric in days to come and after awhile Dele wou
ld slowly fade into her memory and become just another s
omeone from her past.

But right now, her new lover Eric was bending, moving his lips down the sensitive flesh of her stomach, down to the edge of her jeans. His nimble fingers unfastened the button, pulled down the zipper. Pulled the material
down
over her hips; she found it hard to just stand as her legs were now liquid.

When he had exposed her triangle, he simply slipped a tongue between her thighs, touched her clitoris, began tormenting it.

If he didn't stop she was going to come.
While
standing. She didn't think she had ever done that before.

Just when she thought she couldn't take the sweet pain anymore, he abruptly stood and took her hand.

"
C'mon," he said breathlessly as he led her to her sofa.

He sat and pulled her down on his lap. There he undressed her totally, then shifted her to unbuckle and unzip his jeans.

Without any ceremony or further foreplay, he pulled her wet crevice down on his already stiff pole making her gasp with surprise.

A hand worked a breast while another one encircled her waist. He thrust upward, his thighs meeting the back of her own, his penis pushing deeper into her, his motion unrelenting, needful.

This time she did call out his name.

"Eric!"

He responded to his name by shifting her back toward his chest,
allowing
his mouth
to touch
her ear.

"I love the way you say my name," he whispered and she had to fight from coming just from the timbre of his voice.

His callused fingers squeezed a nipple, circled it, the motion in time with each thrust. She was wet around him; he was hard in her. A meeting of bodies, a chance to renew their acquaintance.

She closed her eyes and let the various sensations merge, guide her upward on a crest of
pleasure, every nerve in her body screaming.

His thrusting was more insistent, more desperate as he sought more than a climax. More like a beginning for the both of them.

He planted a soft kiss on her neck and that small motion pushed her over the edge. The walls spasmed tightly around him, made her draw for breath.

Within seconds, he was calling out her name. She liked the way he said it, put emphasis on both syllables.

It took several minutes for them to recover.

She started to lift up off of him, but he held her fast.

He pulled her back.

"I just want to sit h
ere
a moment," he breathed into her ear. "I missed you so much."

She no longer could deny that she missed him too, and she told him so.

As she felt him stiffening again, as her walls
began
trembling in anticipation, she made a suggestion,

"After this,
I can make us a pitcher of
sangria
. Then maybe we can walk over to this place called Ruby's. She makes the best rib tips."

He laughed seductively, his mouth still at her ear.
He nipped
at her
lobe.

"Umm
, I've really come to appreciate rib tips."

And then they started again.

THE END

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