Unauthorized Obsession (Unauthorized Series Book 3) (20 page)

When they finished eating, Zane took their plates and washed them quickly in the sink. He held out his hand for her and pulled her out of her chair. “Now, sleep.”

She nodded, although she was no longer sure that was what she wanted the most. Food had energized her, and made her think of other things.

Zane pulled her through the living room, past the dogs who were lounging companionably, down the hallway and to his bedroom. He let go of her hand and walked to a large wooden dresser on the far wall. “I probably have some boxer shorts and a T-shirt you can sleep in. They’ll be too big for you but comfortable. Is that okay?”

Kara didn’t answer. An impulse struck her so hard she couldn’t resist it. She stepped out of her shoes, pulled her shirt over her head and dropped it on the floor, un-clasped her bra and dropped it also, then shrugged out of her pants, until finally she stood in only her underwear. She didn’t have a gun on her to shed also, thank God. She didn’t need it right here, right now. She was safe.

“I can sleep like this,” she said huskily, praying that when he turned around his reaction would be good. She wanted him. She’d wanted him for weeks and now was the time. There was nothing she could think of that would make her feel better or ease her mind more than lovemaking with Zane. Even if he didn’t love her back, he didn’t need to love her to
make
love to her.

He turned around and his eyes grew wide as he took her in. Desire crossed his face and she let out a sigh of relief. He strode to her quickly and took her in his arms. “God you are beautiful. Like an angel from heaven,” he breathed as he bent his head to the right and kissed her lightly. Kara felt her heart clench almost painfully. He always knew the exact right thing to say to make her feel good, to appease her fears, to make her feel wanted and special.

She brought her hands up to his neck and ran her fingers through his hair as they kissed, softly at first, but with more and more heat. He ran his hands up and down her body, seeming to want to feel her everywhere at once. One hand dropped to her backside as the other reached gently for her breast. Electric shocks ran through her as he explored and caressed and touched and tweaked. His thumb rubbed roughly over her taut nipple and she moaned. It felt so good. Every action he took erased a little piece of the horror that had been their last two days. Her body cried out for more, more, more, and her mind stepped aside to let it take over.

Zane backed her up slowly to the bed. It met her thighs and she sat down heavily, her lips parting from his with a sad sigh. He leaned forward to push her back but she stopped him. She plucked at his shirt and looked up at him expectantly. He tore the shirt over his head in an instant, leaving Kara staring at his muscled abdomen. The sight of it made her mouth water. She ran her fingers over it happily, delighting in the silky sensation of his skin. God she just wanted to touch him everywhere. She looked up at him to find him watching her avidly, a hungry look in his eye. She stared at him, and felt her fingers fumbling with the top button of his jeans. He slid his fingers under hers and undid everything, dropping his pants to the floor, revealing silver boxers.

Still staring into his eyes, Kara let her fingers walk their way around his body, then into the waistband of his shorts. She slid the boxers down slowly, an inch at a time, as he watched her, his gaze burning her with its passion. The boxers dropped to the floor and she finally looked down. His erection strained out from his body, hard and proud and spilling any secrets its owner might have been keeping about the intensity of his desire. She took it gently in her hands and he moaned lightly at the touch, his hands curled lightly at his sides. “That’s so fucking hot,” he rasped and his words made Kara want to do anything and everything possible to hear him say that again.

Something caught her eye. A twisted mass of white scars on the outside of his left hip. She ran her fingers over it lightly. “Shrapnel,” he said gruffly, then touched the scar on his arm. “Here too.” Kara looked up at it and felt guilt try to worm its way into her psyche. No! She wouldn’t let it. She dropped her fingers and focused back on what she’d been about to do.

She leaned forward and kissed the very end of his cock lightly, all guilt searing out of her brain as she did so. “Oh God Kara, if you do that again this will all be over in an instant. I can’t fucking take it,” he moaned.

“That’s okay,” she said. “We can go again, right?”

He looked at her through one slitted eye. “Well I’m not exactly eighteen anymore, but yeah, I think I could manage it. But are you sure you don't want something more,” he said, bending suddenly and catching her mouth again. “I want you to come,” he breathed against her lips. “You didn’t last time, and now it’s all I can think about.”

His pressure on her lips leaned her backwards and she collapsed onto the bed. He followed her, kissing her hard, then soft, then hard again, till she could feel every sensation traveling straight down her body to her core. She scooted backwards on the bed to make it easier for him, and he followed. She remembered last time. Remembered the delicious and surprising sensation of an orgasm from only residual touch and the memory made her sex throb in anticipation.

She spoke without thinking. “But I did come. In my pants. I didn’t tell you because I was embarrassed.”

He stopped kissing her for a second and pulled back to look at her. Kara blinked her eyes and waited to see what he would say. Her lips felt swollen and her cheeks brush-burned from his two days worth of beard growth.

“That’s so fucking hot,” he told her again and her body flushed with heat. “I wish you had pants on just so I could make you come in them again,” he growled at her, nudging her legs apart with his knee.

Kara bit her lower lip and relaxed her legs, letting him open her up. He could do what he wanted with her. He could even put her pants back on. Instead, he moved down slightly over her body, dropping his face between her legs. Kara sucked in a breath. She could feel his whiskers tickling her inner thighs, and each touch made her tense her muscles as delicious sensations shot the short distance to her throbbing clitoris. He pulled aside her panties and his mouth dropped directly to her most sensitive area. Kara shot almost straight up off the bed at the sensation. Oh God. He could give as good as he got. She let her head drop back to the bed and moaned, her upper half writhing in pure pleasure as her lower half tried to stay still to receive more of it. He licked as lightly as possible, running his tongue so it just barely touched her. Kara thought she would scream from the blissful sensation. Who taught him how to do that? Had he taken a class? Every thought that didn’t have to do with her own impending orgasm was driven from her mind. She was nothing but pure ecstasy in motion. She felt herself being driven to heights she’d never reached before, with a man or not. She gasped, feeling as if she were about to explode.

Something snapped in half inside her and waves of exquisite pleasure began to pulsate through her body, starting in her womb. She’d never felt anything as good as this. “Oh God, Zane!” she cried, biting back the words that threatened to follow.
I love you.
Zane never moved or deviated, he just continued his attentions until she pulled back, unable to take one more second of it. She curled slightly to the side and panted hard, her body limp and spent like a rag doll.

***

Zane waited for Kara to come back to reality, his eyes crawling over her flushed and overheated body. That looked like it had been a hard orgasm. The kind you write home about.

“Was that as good as it looked?” he asked with a grin when she finally turned her eyes to him.

“Better,” she said with a small smile.

His grin widened. She sure knew how to stroke an ego. He liked that in a woman. Strike that, he loved that in a woman. He loved everything about her that he knew so far. Except maybe the dangers of her job.

“That’s good,” he drawled, the fires of his own desire still raging high and hot. He kissed her, noting that she wasn’t squeamish about tasting herself on his tongue at all. He loved that too.

“That wasn’t even the main course,” he told her, finally pulling off her underwear and throwing them on the floor with everything else.

She raised an eyebrow at him weakly. “Oh yeah?”

“Just an appetizer, beautiful. I’ve got so much more planned for you. Most of it later, after you get some sleep. But there’s one more course I think you’ll want before you close your eyes.”

Kara giggled into her hand and Zane smiled. “A little too heavy on the food analogies?”

She nodded and he bent forward to catch her lip in his teeth. He’d never seen her look more beautiful than she did at that moment, with her color high, her skin flushed, and her body his to enjoy. He kissed her thoroughly, then knelt forward to grab a condom out of the night stand drawer. She watched him open it and put it on, her eyes engaged and satisfied. Hopefully he could burst through that satisfaction and then take her right back there. His cock jumped in his hand as he thought about entering her, fully becoming her lover.

He kissed her until she squirmed against him and thrust her hips upward. “Zane,” she breathed against his lips and he smiled. That was what he had been waiting for. He nudged her legs wider and entered her slowly; he had all the time in the world. She gasped at the intrusion and he pushed slightly farther inside. She felt wet, hot, and tight as hell and he loved it all. Loved her. He bit the words back before they could spill out of him. He meant them, but now wasn’t the time to tell her. She might not believe it. And he wanted her to believe it. To know what she did to him. To know and understand how completely her presence had turned his life upside down and made him believe in love again. She would never cheat on him. He didn’t know how he knew that but he did. It wasn’t in her nature.

He thrust again, dismayed at how quickly tension built up inside him. He wanted this to last. He set a slow, languorous pace and watched Kara’s head move against the mattress as she met each of his thrusts with a hip raise. He was pushing towards that edge too quickly, so he closed his eyes, hoping that not being able to see her lusciousness would help him hold back for longer.

She moaned lightly and breathed his name again. It was no good. Just the sounds she made drove him to the brink. He opened his eyes and saw her writhing and panting again. He knew that look.

He dropped his thumb to the spot where his tongue had been, but just as softly as before. Kara gasped and jumped, then cried out again. The pitch and tempo of her cries told him she was coming again and he smiled happily. He couldn’t think of anything that made him feel better than her being satisfied. Propped up on one hand, the other between them, he thrust harder, paying special attention to make sure she liked it. She did and he thrust harder still, doing his best to keep the pressure with his thumb as gentle as possible.

Her hands gripped the sheets, clawing and clenching and she cried out, his name on her lips again. He couldn’t hold back for one more second. But he didn’t need to. He followed her over that edge and lost himself in her for a few precious, beautiful moments.

They slept, curled together like lovers. Eventually, Kara opened her eyes in a fully dark bedroom and looked around, finding a glowing alarm clock in the corner of the room. 3:40 AM. She'd been asleep for over fifteen hours and she felt like it probably was finally enough. Her dreams had varied, some horrible where she relived the ordeal at her house, first being taped up, then shooting Seth over and over again. But then they morphed to some version of the scene in Zane’s bedroom and she felt her emotions smooth out and calm down, her heart lurch back into its normal rhythm, her skin tingle with desire.

Zane’s arm was over her waist, and he was breathing deeply and heavily behind her. The touch was comforting, soothing. She moved forward slightly to take pressure off of one hip and felt Zane move with her and kiss the back of her neck.

“Are you awake?” she whispered.

“Yeah, I woke up about an hour ago.”

“Oh!” Kara cried. “What were you doing?”

“Just thinking.”

Kara lay quietly for a few minutes but she had to know. “What are you thinking about?”

“You. Us. How I’m going to make you come in your pants later.”

Kara felt her face flush hot in the dark bedroom, and she was glad he couldn’t see it. “Oh God,” she let out. “Don't make me regret telling you that.”

Zane snuggled closer to her and caressed her stomach lightly. “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to embarrass you. I think it’s hot.” He was silent for a second and then he spoke again. “Will it make you feel better if I tell you something?”

“Maybe,” Kara said her curiosity piqued.

“I love you.”

Kara stiffened and pure emotion shot through her body. Had she heard right? He loved her? Kara's world overloaded and tears prickled behind her eyes. She’d never been so happy in her life. She lay with her head on the pillow and her arm over his, soaking up the pure joy and bliss she felt at his words.

Zane spoke again, hesitantly. She thought he sounded nervous, the first time he’d sounded that way since he'd asked her out. “So, uh, are you cool with ditching all your other boyfriends and maybe just hanging out with me then?”

Kara laughed and turned around to face him, holding his face in her hands. “You know I love you too, right?” Zane let out a breath against her cheek. “Oh thank God, I thought you were about to run out the door.”

Kara shook her head and grinned at him. “I’m not running anywhere. You’ll never get rid of me now that you said the "L" word.”

Zane kissed her softly. “What "L" word? Lick? Lather? … Labia?”

Kara burst out laughing. “Don't say
that
word. Besides, you said it wrong.”

Zane laughed with her. “Did I?”

“I don't know,” Kara said, shaking her head.

“Want some breakfast?”

“At four in the morning?”

“When else?” Zane said and pulled her out of bed to the kitchen. He whipped up a hearty breakfast of steak and eggs and then talked her into an early morning walk around the quiet subdivision; the dogs needed to get out.

Zane kept up a steady pattern of teasing tenderness that Kara enjoyed immensely. She wondered how many days he could take off work to just hang out with her.

When they returned to the house, Zane quickly did the dishes, and then sat down in the living room with her. “Today is for relaxing,” he declared as he turned on Netflix. Kara snuggled into him and decided she couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday. With her new love and nothing pressing to do.

Zane's phone buzzed after two episodes of "Breaking Bad." Kara almost didn’t want him to answer it because of a strange feeling she had that whoever it was would ruin their quiet morning.

“It’s from Kensi,” he said and Kara held her breath.
She knew it.

“Did I tell you that she wants me to meet Zaina this week?”

Kara shook her head. “Does that mean…?”

“Yeah, thanks to you. You didn’t have to do that, you know?”

“I did, Zane. It was my fault that you didn’t make it.”

Zane shook his head slowly. “Not your fault. Not your fault at all. But thank you for going to court for me.”

“You’re welcome,” Kara whispered, thinking it couldn’t compare to what he had done for her.

Zane looked at his phone again. “She says she is talking to her dad and she's almost positive he’s been responsible for some of the issues we’ve had. She’s having her lawyer draft up something granting me visitation rights right now.”

“It sounds like she wants to get back together with you,” Kara said, her heart sinking.

Zane snorted. “That would never happen. Besides, that’s not what she wants at all. If it was, why would she tell me to bring you?”

Kara sat up quickly. “She what?”

Zane turned the phone so that she could see the text message. “Bring your girlfriend tomorrow. She was nice.”

Kara smiled and curled back up into Zane’s chest. It occurred to her that their lives were very 3-D, colorful, and complicated, especially now that there was a child in the mix. And she couldn’t be happier. As long as she had Zane with her, they could make it through anything.

<<<< Epilogue >>>>

Sgt. Aria Gale sat in Assistant Chief Foley’s office, waiting for him to come back into his office. She’d had a busy weekend, just the way she liked them. The more she uncovered about Seth Howell, the more she couldn’t believe he had managed to make it into the police department, and the gladder she was that Kara had been able to get the better of him. He had been a real nut case, that one, and she knew he would have just graduated to worse and worse crimes if he had had the chance. She still had weeks of work to do in order to close the investigation and tie everything together. But she’d done the most important thing a few hours ago; finished up her report on the justified nature of the shooting. Kara would be cleared to come back to work as soon as she wanted to.

Assistant Chief Foley strolled back into the room and gave her a distracted smile. “Aria, I’m going to need you to hand off your caseload to Gagne. I have an important assignment for you and it may take a few weeks.”

Aria goggled at him. Hand off her caseload? There was no way! Gagne was good, but he couldn’t take what she'd been working on for months and make any appreciable progress on it.

Chief Foley held up his hands. “Calm down, I wouldn't ask you to do this if it wasn't incredibly important. You've heard of Fiore Savoy, I assume?”

Aria nodded mutely. Of course she had. Everyone had heard of him. She even had four or five open cases that probably were his handiwork. He was the worst criminal in the history of Westwood Harbor.

“And his son? Coleton? Have you heard of him?”

“I thought his son wasn't a criminal.”

“He’s not. He’s turning state's evidence on his father, but there have been multiple attempts on his life over the past month. He has to come back into Westwood Harbor in order to testify and we need someone to shadow him. Someone to protect him."

“And you want me to do it? What about Gagne? If he can take over my caseload then he can do this.”

Chief Foley shook his head. "Coleton isn’t too happy about this. And he's had run-ins with Gagne before. I've handpicked you as our best possible chance to get him to comply with round-the-clock protection. We'll put you two in a safe house until he can testify. He has to testify, or Fiore walks free."

Aria shook her head, irritation filling her. She had to give up her cases and babysit a criminal's son? In a safe house.

Awesome.
Not.

A knock sounded on the door and Chief Foley said, "It's open." A man walked in, a sour look on his face. He was tall, with dark hair and brooding eyes, and a slight cleft to his chin. He looked at Chief Foley with as much frustration as Aria felt. Was this Coleton Savoy?

Before he could speak, his eyes fell on Aria and she saw several emotions sprint across his face. The first was recognition, then confusion, then anger, and then finally, something that looked very much like desire.

His mouth worked. "Ava?" he finally said, his face a mess of contradictions.

Aria pulled back, horrified as the name of her betraying twin sister spilled out of the man's mouth.

<<< The End >>>

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About the Author

Lisa became a full time author in the summer of 2014, fulfilling a childhood dream. She lives in the Inland Pacific Northwest, and is married with 2 sons. She is a U.S. Army veteran, plus former paramedic, 911 calltaker/police radio dispatcher, and volunteer firefighter. Her husband is also a veteran, and a retired police officer. Connect with her on her facebook page at
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