Filed to story: The Mindf*ck Series Read Online Free
The blender gets forgotten as he reaches me, and I tilt my head back, giving him access just as he bends forward and kisses me long and hard and deep and… There aren’t enough words to explain how each kiss gets closer to touching my soul.
I almost think it can knock away some of the blackness there, maybe even spread around some light.
His arms come around me, pinning me to him as he lifts me, giving him a better angle on my mouth instead of having to bend over so far.
The guy is just too tall and I’m just too short.
I grin against his lips as my legs come up to wrap around his waist. The only reason I break the kiss is to absorb some of the normalcy of the situation, revel in each second of it.
“So we’ve made it to the level where you just walk around in your boxers in front of me?”
He winks while sliding me onto a countertop, and I frown as I release him with my legs as he backs away. When he turns around to put his back to me, I take notice of some scars I never noticed the last time I had him naked.
“What are these?” I ask before I think about it.
My fingers immediately dart out to touch one semi-circular scar near his shoulder, and I grimace. I hate for people to touch my scars, and here I am touching his.
He doesn’t flinch away the way I do as my finger skims over the marred surface.
“Bullet did that two years ago. Just barely missed the damn vest. Half an inch over, and I’d have had a bruise instead of having a bullet removed. A rookie cleared the scene and missed a guy who had a gun, hiding in a closet. He shot through the door, and I was one of the ones hit.”
Another scar is jagged and long, moving from his other shoulder blade to his spine. When my fingers skate across it, he backs into my touch. I wish I could let him touch mine. Maybe he could pull away the painful memories laced inside the scar tissue.
“That one is from a knife.” That answer has me swallowing down a painful knot. “It was when I was fresh in the field and the guy I was arresting had a friend that came out of nowhere. He caught me off guard.”
“They only get you when you can’t see them coming,” I say quietly, feeling a twinge of pride. “Because you’re too strong for them.”
He chuckles while turning back around. My breath hitches when he grabs my hips and jerks me against him, standing firmly between my legs as all our best parts line up.
“I like that you think that way,” he says, grinning as he toys with the hem of my shorts.
I run my hands over the muscles in his arms. He flexes on purpose, and I roll my eyes playfully while looking back into his eyes. “You are strong. You’re intimidating. People don’t see you as weak, so they strike when you’re most vulnerable.”
“The guy shooting from the closet was shooting blindly,” he points out.
“So you’re not big and strong?” I ask, then burst out laughing when he lifts me up and starts walking with me.
“Strong enough to handle you,” he quips, then slaps my ass with one hand.
“I bet I could take you,” I say jokingly, but wondering if I really could or not.
“I’ll let you show me your fighting skills later,” he says before kissing me again and moving toward a room.
I decide I don’t want to know if I can take him or not. I just want to pretend like I’m a normal girl with a normal guy in our normal relationship for one normal night.
***
The sun is creeping up, and I’ve laughed so much my sides hurt. Neither of us has slept. We’ve eaten a couple of times, had a lot of sex, and laughed more than I’ve ever laughed, but sleep hasn’t been high on the list of priorities.
I think we’re both afraid to close our eyes and lose this fleeting moment of perfection.
Now I’m sprawled across the couch as he tells me about his very happy childhood that isn’t filled with dark memories.
My eyes flit around the room, taking in all the pictures of this alleged family he only speaks about in the past tense.
“So what happened? Or is that none of my business?” I ask him, lifting my head up to peer at him.
His smile slowly falls, and I hate myself for asking.
“Never mind. I shouldn’t have-“
“It’s okay, Lana. Stop apologizing for trying to get to know me,” he says, grinning again. He brushes my hair away from my face before resting his hand on my shoulder. “I like you wanting to know more about me than my condom preference.”
I snort. Actually snort.
Kill me now.
It just makes him laugh again.
Shaking my head, I shrug. “I know I can’t seem to tell you much about my past, so it’s not fair for me to ask about yours,” I say on a sad sigh, killing the light moment again.
His face grows serious, and his hand starts running up and down my back as I lay my head down on his chest.
“Tell me what you want to when you’re ready,” he finally says, kissing the top of my head. “I get that not all pasts are as easy as mine was. As for my parents… My mom got a little wild in her mid-thirties, and she divorced a good man in pursuit of wild sex and rich men. Things were fine until then. I never actually knew my real dad, other than knowing he was in the military. He sent a few pictures to me with letters, as though I wanted to see his face. My stepdad was always my true father, in my opinion. He came into the picture when I was two and raised me like his own.”
I run my fingers along his chest.
“Any exes I should be worried about?”
He strangles on air before laughing. “No. Not at all. All the relationships have ended on really bad terms. I sort of suck at being a boyfriend since I’m married to my job.”
He groans while running his hand through my hair, and I lift my head, staring into his eyes.
“Just don’t let me fuck this up, because I kinda like you,” he says, smirking at me.
Gah. All I do is grin like an idiot no matter what he says. “I kinda like you too.”
He thumbs my lower lip, settling in more comfortably while pulling me over on top of him completely. Despite the firm body, he’s surprisingly comfortable.
“What about you? Any exes I should worry about?” he asks, studying my face.
He studies all my expressions. Fortunately I’ve trained against them. But this is one question I can answer honestly.
“I’ve only ever had one truly serious relationship, and I would rather set him on fire than speak to him ever again. Other than that, nothing serious since then, and that was over ten years ago. The rest have been…experiments?”
Okay, I need to shut my mouth because I’m talking too much.
“Experiments?” he asks, reminding me to learn when to stop.
“Wrong word. Um… Hopeless and pointless attempts at having something, then learning no spark was there.”
Good recovery, Lana.
“There’s a spark here,” he says reverently, still running his hands over my bare back.
Smiling, I nod. “There’s definitely a spark.”
He pulls me forward, running his lips along mine. Just as I decide to deepen the kiss, he gets a call.
Cursing, he snatches his phone from the floor. It’s stayed in whatever room we’ve been in all night.
“Bennett here.”
The phone is so loud that I hear the woman on the other end.
“Hey, we have a list of people to look into, but a couple of guys popped. There was one custodial service outsourced to all the apartment buildings. While we looked into them, we dismissed them quickly. When I called them and asked for a list of all payroll employees, I reminded them they were impeding a federal investigation if they didn’t also include the occasional under-the-table gigs. The list miraculously got a lot longer. Two names have priors that make these guys look good for it.”
So I might have been right?
“We’ll meet up in two hours and make a trip out to Boston. Bring all the names on that list, and we’ll go through them on the flight over.”
And that’s all the time we have.
I can see by the look in his eyes that he hates this too.
He covers the mouth of the phone as the girl curses him for being too good at his job.
“If I get him, we’ll have more time together for a little while,” he says, frowning as he studies my face.