At first, all she could do was stare, hands frozen on his chest.

He was even more muscular than he'd been before. Age had thickened his muscles, layered more firm flesh over his strong bones. His skin was a light golden tan and darker on his arms.

The width of his shoulders was highlighted by a tattoo that scrolled below his collarbones, words written in dark ink. It hadn't been there last time she'd seen him shirtless.

Paratus et fidelis. The Latin electives she'd taken in college were enough to let her translate silently in her mind. Ready and faithful. A good tattoo for a police officer. She'd be willing to bet he'd gotten it sometime since joining the force.

And below all that, his c.o.c.k was hard, straining the khaki shorts that rode low on his hips, beneath a trail of body hair. Her body succ.u.mbed to a collective shiver, and she reached for the bulge that'd pressed against her belly during their kiss in the kitchen.

It was tempting to let her fingers linger there, to run a thumb up the hard line of that long length, stiff beneath his clothing. But what she really wanted was to feel him bare.

Undoing his b.u.t.ton and zipper, she tucked her fingertips into the waistband of his underwear, pulling the lightweight black fabric down until he was uncovered.

The head of his d.i.c.k rose free and he flexed his hips, thrusting it higher and making it easier for her to slide his clothing down. Then he pulled it off all of it and knelt in front of her on the bed.

She inhaled deeply, trying to keep whatever breath she could in her lungs. He was all muscle and light golden tan skin, swirled with reddish-golden hair. The only dark places were his tattoos, and they made the rest of him seem that much more golden in contrast. She could feel his gaze on her, but hers gravitated to the stiff flesh between his thighs.

His c.o.c.k was straight and thick perfectly enticing, just as she remembered. It'd been the first one she'd ever touched, and the experience she'd gained since then made her appreciate it even more. The sight of it standing tall above his b.a.l.l.s already tight against his body set off an aching, empty clenching in her core.

He reached for the shorts he'd thrown on the bed and pulled his wallet from one of the pockets. Unfolding it, he retrieved a condom from inside.

"Don't put that on just yet," she said.

Her mouth watered, and she leaned in close, sure of what she wanted to do.

Years ago, before he'd actually put any part of himself inside her, he'd gone down on her. Slowly and intensely, making love to her p.u.s.s.y with his tongue until she'd come against his open mouth. He'd given her pleasure that had made her wet for something she'd never experienced, and that had made the pain that'd followed minimal. She hadn't forgotten, and now, it was time to return the favor.

"Hold on." Before she could kneel, he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

She was about to ask what was wrong when he slid his hands down her back, and she understood.

In just a few seconds, he stripped her of her bra and panties.

"Jesus," he said afterward, then groaned, his gaze riveted to her body.

She made to move again, but he placed his hands on her hips. "Let me touch you."

He ran his hands slowly over her body, as if memorizing the feel of her. Every bit of her he touched tingled and pebbled, goose b.u.mps racing over the surface of her skin and turning her nipples to aching points. He rubbed them when he reached her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, making them swell even more.

She could feel the strength of his hands, and the reserve he exercised in touching her so gently. It was impossible not to think of the things his hands had held, besides her body: tools that had left him with callouses, guns and the badge he donned every time he put on his uniform. Tasers and batons tools designed to hurt, bruise and break. Still, he had a soft touch, and he wielded it expertly.

There was no telling how he'd retained such fluid gentleness through the long years of hard manual work. Whatever his secret, it must've been the same one that allowed him to care about the people he'd sworn to protect and serve, even though he'd experienced things as bad and worse himself and had never been helped.

"You're gorgeous, Belle." He ma.s.saged her nipples with his thumbs, leaning in and brushing her neck with his lips. "I could spend a whole day and night just touching you just looking at you."

"I could say the same about you, except Well, there's something else I really want to do."

He pressed a kiss against the pulse point in the hollow of her neck before straightening and pulling his hands from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

She missed his touch, but her mouth was watering all the same.

"Not like I've ever been able to say no to you. What is it?"

She knelt on the bedspread, lowering her head and placing her hands on his thighs with unmistakable intent.

He tensed and sucked in a hard breath before her lips even touched the crown of his c.o.c.k. And when they did, he swore.

"Can't even tell you how many times I've thought about what it'd feel like if you sucked me, Belle. f.u.c.k..."

She took her time sliding down his shaft, her lips tight around it and her tongue tracing every hard inch. It was hot in her mouth, thickly veined.

He put his hands in her hair and gripped tight, rocking his hips and generating wet friction between her tongue, lips and his d.i.c.k.

She moaned, as much out of surprise as pleasure. Feeling her scalp tighten beneath his knuckles, feeling the tremor in his hips it was a rush, pure and simple.

She couldn't quite take him all the way, but she managed to get close. The deeper she took him, the more tense he became, breathing out loud as she slid up and down.

He wasn't really controlling her with his hands, just holding on, hovering on the edge of domination. When she tasted a hint of salty heat, he used his grip to guide her back, farther and farther until the tip of his d.i.c.k brushed her lips and he was free.

"That was so d.a.m.n good." He tipped her head back until her gaze met his.

Maybe it was her position that made it seem that way, but his eyes looked darker than she'd ever seen them, misted by l.u.s.t and longing.

A full-body tightening struck her, and she gasped.

"Lie back so I can eat your p.u.s.s.y. I've missed the taste."

The idea made her shiver with antic.i.p.ation, but she shook her head. She could still feel the solid weight of his shaft against her tongue, and she couldn't wait any longer to feel it inside her.

"I want you inside me," she said. "I don't want to wait not even for that."

He sighed, his eyes fluttering shut for just a second and his lips moving, swearing silently. "If that's what you want."

He picked up the condom he'd laid on the bedspread, tore its package and started rolling it down over his d.i.c.k before she could blink.

His fingers slid down the sides of his shaft, stroking the transparent sleeve flat against his erection. He stopped when he got to the base, his fingertips touching dark golden hair.

It was mesmerizing the fat shaft standing tall, in line with the trail of hair that striped his torso as his fingers worked over the stiff flesh.

"Come here." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his lap.

Her thighs split over his knees, opening wide as she straddled him. He held her steady with an arm and gripped his d.i.c.k with his free hand, angling it so that the head b.u.mped her c.l.i.t, then slipped below.

She was so wet that he slid, parting her p.u.s.s.y lips in just a second, then pressing against her entrance, poised to fill her.

Sucking in a breath, she set her hands on his shoulders and squeezed. Antic.i.p.ation made her lightheaded, and she barely bit back a moan of impatience.

He nudged inside her, just barely, before letting go of his d.i.c.k and placing a hand on her hip instead.

"Ready, Princess?" He squeezed.

She squeezed back, her nails biting into his shoulders.

CHAPTER 12.

He thrust, entering her in one sure, deep stroke. Her body stretched and ached, but the thrill of pleasure was so much deeper and stronger than the shock.

Moaning, she slid her arms around his neck and leaned against his chest, saying his name.

He rocked below her, not missing a beat. The whole bed shifted beneath them, the mattress b.u.mping softly against the wall. She'd have to fix that later so she didn't bother her neighbors next time, and the next, and the next...

With him so deep inside her and his heart beating strong and fast against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, it was easy to imagine doing this with him every chance she got. Either that, or to simply never let it end.

The ache in her p.u.s.s.y had faded, but he still stretched her with every stroke, leaving her full and then even fuller as he slid home, pressing his groin tightly against hers. She squeezed her eyes shut, closing out the rest of the world. Every now and then, her core seized up, her inner walls tightening around his shaft.

When he stopped, she wanted to moan.

Instead, she complied when he pried her from around his neck and laid her back on the bed, remaining inside her the entire time. Still on his knees and with her on her back in front of him, he lifted her legs onto his shoulders.

She felt the difference immediately: the way his hard c.o.c.k pressed against a breathtaking spot, making her head spin. When he thrust, she couldn't keep quiet. Every stroke drove out a hard breath, a moan. The friction between the top of his shaft and that sweet spot was mind-blowing, and since she couldn't reach him, she gripped fistfuls of the comforter.

His thrusts shook her, driving her shoulders into the bedclothes, but he held her fast by her legs, his palms clamped over her thighs. The invasion was so deep and the pleasure so intense that she felt more a part of him than herself, and then her p.u.s.s.y shrank so tight around him that the feeling doubled.

Her climax rushed through her in pulses, its peaks punctuated by his thrusts. She cried out and arched her back, bearing down with her thighs against his chest and her shoulders against the bed. Her sounds were wordless, but he groaned her name and gripped her thighs tighter, slamming into her.

All the breath rushed out of her lungs and her eyetooth caught her lip. She tasted a hint of blood, a coppery ghost that haunted the fringes of her senses, overshadowed by bliss.

After several moments of holding her in its thrall, the pleasure faded, leaving her breathless and plagued by tremors in her thighs and shoulders.

Jackson reined in the fierceness of his last several thrusts, stilling himself and slowly lowering her legs from his shoulders and pulling out of her body.

She let her thighs ease apart, slipping open as she lay flat on the bed.

He was between them in a moment, covering her body with his and bracing himself with his arms on the mattress as he lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed her deeply, simultaneously pressing his c.o.c.k against her swollen p.u.s.s.y lips and pushing into her again.

Her p.u.s.s.y clenched, a last, frenzied contraction striking her and making her gasp, ruining the kiss.

It took a second for her eyes to focus, but when they did she saw the tiny smear of red on his lip her blood.

She lifted a hand to wipe it away, but he was oblivious. When she rubbed the pad of her thumb over his mouth, he kissed it and then caught it between his teeth.

Her hand tingled beneath the pressure, and she caught the flash of white beyond his lips. He let go as he rocked into her again and she tipped her head back, shutting her eyes and focusing solely on the sensation of him deep in her body, mining pleasure from dark, lonely places she hadn't allowed anyone to touch in a long time.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, holding him tight.

A subdued groan rumbled deep in his chest, and she felt the vibrations in her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

"Gonna come, Belle." He put a hand in her hair, gathering her even closer. "Kiss me."

He crushed his mouth against hers before she could react, his lips hot and his tongue searching for hers, then sliding along its length when he found it.

He began thrusting with deliberate force, moaning into her mouth. Then he lost his rhythm, his hips moving so rapidly that the slap of his skin meeting hers stung and her p.u.s.s.y clenched, so sensitive that she cried out too.

The kiss was over. He bowed his head, groaning, and cradled her skull with one hand as his other grasped her shoulder. Each stroke was harder than the last, until he stopped.

For a few seconds, neither of them moved. Then he pulled his hand gently from her hair and retreated even more slowly from her body.

She let her limbs fall from around him as he climbed out from the cradle of her thighs to lie stretched on the bed beside her.

She took a few seconds to study his body the flush below his collarbones, bordering his tattoo, and the way his chest rose and fell while his c.o.c.k remained hard. Then he caught her gaze, and she couldn't look away.

He touched her lip like she'd touched his.

"Little bit of blood," he said. "You okay?"

"Yes." She took his hand and pulled it to her chest, where she held it over her pounding heart, her fingers brushing the dark ink that spiraled all the way to his wrist.

"Well worth the wait," he said.

"Yeah, it was."

And they'd waited so, so long.

"Do you want me to go?" His gaze was unwavering. "Or"

"You can stay if you want to." She still couldn't look away. The thought of him leaving made her chest feel hollow. As they'd come together, so had the past and present. She felt close to him, and she didn't want him to leave. Not yet. "I hope you do."

He reached over the side of the bed never letting go of her hand and grabbed his shorts, then fished his phone from the pocket.

She a.s.sumed he was setting an alarm. It took only seconds, then his attention was back on her.

"I need to get rid of this." He dropped his gaze to his d.i.c.k, which had barely begun to soften. The condom was full. "Bathroom?"

"Right across the hall. The only other door."

She watched his a.s.s as he stood and left the room. It was all round, tight muscle, dusted with the same reddish-gold hair as his legs and chest. Perfect.

He didn't waste any time, and when he got back, he shut off the lights on his way to her bed.

"Not disrupting your beauty routine or anything, am I?" He paused, halfway under the covers beside her.