Perfect Alignment (11 page)

When Caleb opened the door, he studied her. She wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he seemed to approve. He gave a quick grin, a hug, then turned and tugged her into the house. “I’m helping Richard cook. Taryn’s in the backyard. Go keep her company.”

“Aye, aye, Sir!”

He swatted her on the butt as she strode past him and out into the backyard. A week ago that would have shot fire through her body, but now, it only brought a smile. She had her own hot guy to play with. Besides, a week ago, he wouldn’t have done it. Interesting that he had now.

Taryn was kneeling next to a patch of dirt.

Emma frowned. “Are you gardening?”

Taryn sighed. “Yes. Supposedly. I have no idea what I’m doing, but yeah. That’s the idea.”

Sitting down in the grass, Emma laughed. “Then why are you doing it?”

“I don’t know, it just seemed like the thing to do. I have a house now. And husbands who mow the lawn and take out the garbage. I thought I’d, you know…” She gestured vaguely over the disturbed earth.

“Ah, I see.” Trying not to laugh, Emma leaned back on her hands. “Are you planting flowers or vegetables?”

“I hadn’t gotten that far. I was getting the dirt ready. I read a thing on the internet that said how you should prepare the spot. But I was thinking vegetables. And herbs. I thought Richard might like to have some fresh stuff.” She reached in and pulled out a few weeds and added them to her small pile.

“Sounds like a plan,” Emma said.

“It’s kind of annoying, though.”

“What.”

“This. It’s like…work.”

Their eyes met and they both lost it, laughing until they were lying back on the grass, holding their sides.

Emma managed to stop long enough to gasp, “But at least there are no people to deal with.” Which only set them off again.

Finally, Taryn wiped her hands together and stood. “Come on, I need to get cleaned up, and you need to tell me how your trip was.”

They trooped into the house. Music came from the kitchen and she saw the boys standing over the stove, Caleb’s arm around Richard’s waist as he did something with a pot. Their affection was so easy, like with her parents. She had to stifle a laugh at the idea of sharing that comparison with her boss.

Taryn jumped into the shower while Emma brought her up to speed. Again, Taryn demanded more details and Emma teased, but didn’t follow through. She offered to blow-dry her friend’s hair for her, and Taryn accepted. They bantered back and forth until Emma had told her everything. Mostly.

She’d never been very specific with her friend about the goings on at the club she went to, although now that she’d begun to see Caleb in a more commanding light, she wondered if that was a conversation they should have. But she was tired of analyzing her sex life and desires for now, let alone those of her friend.

“So, let me make sure I have this right,” Taryn shouted just as Emma turned off the blow-dryer. She rolled her eyes and continued at a normal volume. “You don’t want to start a serious relationship. He doesn’t want to start a serious relationship. But you want to keep seeing each other, exclusively, for the foreseeable future.”

Emma thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I guess that sums it up pretty nicely.”

Taryn nodded. “Awesome.” She took a deep breath. “Come on, let’s go see what those wonderful smells are all about.”

Not hearing any sarcasm in the other woman’s tone, Emma decided her best bet was to take the comment at face value, and followed her down the hall.

****

After shift, Drew took his third shower of the day. He’d had one before shift, and one in the middle, after chasing an idiot burglar through the alleys and into the trash bin the dumbass had decided to hide in. Hell, he still wasn’t sure he didn’t stink. He hoped not, because Emma had called and he’d invited her over. He put on a little more speed than usual to get home, wanting to get there before she did so she wouldn’t have to sit around and wait.

He reached the house and was both relieved and disappointed to see that she wasn’t there. Fine, it would give him time to take another shower. Somehow he felt his own shower would get him more clean than the one at work. But he’d just unlocked the door and set his keys on the side table when he heard the engine. Leaning against the jamb, he watched the Mustang approach. He wondered what she normally drove, instead of the rental. Shit, maybe she didn’t even have a car. And then he just stopped thinking as she got out, came toward him. Her jeans were tight, her t-shirt snug and her toes bare but for the bright-pink paint she hadn’t sported last time he’d seen her.

He wanted to eat her up.

When she reached the top step, she paused.

He stared at her. The nearly black hair was thick and straight, just past her shoulders, with a little bit of bang that focused his attentions on her eyes. Those eyes. How could her brown be so much more compelling than those he saw in the mirror every single day? He didn’t know, but it was very true. He wanted to drown in the liquid heat of her brand of brown eyes.

He grasped her hips, pulled her forward. Pulled her into him. His lips met hers and she opened for him easily, eagerly. After what could have been a minute or thirty, he came up for breath. “Would you like to come in?” he asked.

She laughed. “Yeah, thanks, I’d like that.”

He pulled her up the stairs and to the bedroom, but she laughed again. “How was your day?”

“Smelly. Yours?” He gripped the hem of her t-shirt and pulled it up. She raised her arms but made no other move to undress. Fine, he could handle it all on his own.

“No speeding tickets on the trip home?” he asked.

“It was tempting, but no. I decided to wait for the cop who I know could give me what I wanted.”

Emma’s wide smile undid him. He took her mouth again, abandoning her pants to spear his fingers through her silky hair. She met his kiss boldly, and when her arms came up around him to grip his shoulders, he was done thinking. Without leaving her lips, he finished the job with her jeans. Now she helped, shrugging out of the pants, moving in synch with him to bare his body as well. When they were both naked, he tumbled them to the bed.

He left her mouth only to move down to her breasts. Fuck, her glorious breasts. He sucked one nipple into his mouth, hard, while teasing the other with his fingers, softly.

“Drew, oh god, Drew.”

He worked her nipple with his teeth, then suckled, before switching to the other. Her own fingers came up to soothe the abandoned breast, so he moved his free hand down to her core. Found her wet and grasping. She was always so eager, so ready for him. He knelt up so he could reach the bedside table. Her hand grasped his cock while he fumbled for a condom. He handed it to her, knelt up over her waist so she could reach him easily. Watched her face as her hands smoothed the rubber down his shaft. She looked hungry. And pleased. When she’d finished the task, she met his eyes. Smiled and reached her hands out for him. He slid his legs down, dropped into her embrace and met her lips for the kiss she offered. So good, every inch of her felt so damn good.

Her hips arched into his and he broke the kiss, braced his forearms beside her head, his hands finding their way into her hair again.

“Guide me in,” he said, his lips barely above hers.

She reached down and grasped him, gave a little squeeze.

He groaned. Her answering smile wasn’t teasing so much as happy. She lined him up and he inched forward, through her clutching palm and into her. The contrast was amazing, moving through her delicate fingers into her wet heat. He pushed forward until she had to move her hand. She took his balls instead and he groaned again, dropped his forehead to hers.

“I’m glad you came by.” The words slipped out and were too close to
I missed you
for comfort. She gave a little chuckle, but her hands came up to frame his face. Slowly, he eased out of her, back in, bringing his lips to hers and matching the rhythm with his tongue. When her hands grasped his hair, tried to urge him on, he took her fingers with his so they clasped hands, and he continued his slow assault. Her heels dug into the mattress and she lifted to meet him, but he maintained his pace.

When her gasps became frantic, her fingers gripping his tight, and the blood in his veins boiled, he broke the kiss, threw back his head and gasped his release. She bucked under him, gripped him tight as the orgasm washed through her. He rolled off, disposed of the condom and was pulling her into his side before she’d managed to blink her eyes open.

“Mmm.” She smiled into his chest, traced her finger along the tattoo on his opposite arm. “You haven’t told me about this. Does it mean anything in particular?”

“Not really. It’s Celtic, which is my ancestry. Mostly I guess I just thought it was manly. It was my college graduation present to myself. Just before I joined the academy.”

She laughed. “It is certainly manly. And hot.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

They drifted for a bit, not quite sleeping. He just enjoyed having her in his arms. Eventually he roused enough to ask her about her drive home. She told him about dinner and he told her about having to drag his suspect out of a dumpster.

“Eww. Your job is disgusting sometimes. But I guess that’s better than dangerous.”

He hugged her close and kissed her temple. “My job is rarely dangerous. I’ve never even had to pull my gun.”

“Good. I hope it stays that way.”

He squeezed her ass and tried not to think about the fact that assholes with guns weren’t his biggest job concern. Not when he had to worry about being outed for his sexual lifestyle and losing his job. That was a much more likely life ender than getting killed on the job. Which made his actions when ticketing Emma all the crazier. But holding her in his arms, he couldn’t bring himself to regret it.

He nuzzled her neck until she giggled, then launched into round two. He’d had plenty of time between showers to think up plans for their scene. The fact that he’d launched them into straight sex rather than starting the scene was something he decided not to think about, and hoped she hadn’t really noticed.

****

Emma returned the rental car, the official end to her little vacation. Her first summer class began and her hours at the coffee shop picked up as she covered the shifts of others who were on vacation, as planned. It didn’t leave a lot of time to go to Drew’s, but they managed a couple of times a week. Which was still a lot more than she was used to playing, so she figured it was all good.

Since they weren’t really dating, she’d been a little worried that he’d kick her out in the middle of the night or be weird about the next morning, but that hadn’t happened. There was no awkwardness. Sometimes he stayed in Dom mode while they ate, but not always. Like that first time at his house, they would curl up on the couch and watch a movie or sports if they ended up with more time than they could possibly spend having sex.

One thing that was confusing was their phone calls. What had started out as calls to set up their get-togethers had gotten longer and longer. They’d actually had phone sex once, a first for her, but mostly the conversations were more mundane. And yet enjoyable. They talked on the phone more than they did in each other’s presence, actually, since when they were together they were usually having sex or watching TV. Unless they were eating. He still liked to interrogate her while she ate.

He’d told her about his family, the brother he hardly ever saw, the parents he saw only out of a sense of duty that he couldn’t quite shake. There was no particular love there, something she had a very hard time getting. She could only assume the feelings, or rather, the lack thereof, were reciprocated, even though she just couldn’t understand parents not loving their children. She knew it was possible, it just didn’t make sense to her.

She’d told him about her own family after he’d insisted. Afraid she’d hurt him with her tales of love, she’d had to be drawn out, but eventually he’d gotten her to spill. What could she do? She loved her family, missed her brother. While there was the huge part of her that was focusing on her last year on her own, there was always, without question, her intention to be home. Eventually. Just not quite right now.

For now, she was going to meet his friend, Toby. Technically, it was their first non-play date, even though they weren’t dating. She knew that the only reason he was introducing her to his friend was because he wanted them to play together. What she wasn’t sure was if he wanted the threesome because she’d expressed an interest in one, because his friend needed some play time, or some other reason. And she supposed it didn’t really matter, as long as they were all fully on board with the plan.

She checked the clock as she turned off the highway. They were going sailing and Drew had promised that nothing needed to happen that day. They both had two days off, and Toby was going to be in town for a week. Drew was giving them this chance to get to know each other a little bit and decide if they wanted to try something.

She was nervous and had almost broken down and talked to Taryn about what she was thinking of doing. It wasn’t that she’d never contemplated a threesome before. It was that she’d never considered one with people she actually knew. In the past it had always been theoretical and she’d never found anyone she thought it would work with.

Part of her nervousness was wondering if she would be attracted to Toby enough to make it work. Or that he would be attracted to her enough to want to go through with it. Then of course there was the worry about the encounter itself. If there was an encounter.

She wasn’t really concerned about the sex. She trusted herself and Drew well enough to figure they could make the most of any situation, no matter what it was. It was the emotions she was worried about. Toby was still in a somewhat delicate emotional state, according to Drew. And who could blame him? Not her. She was just worried she’d do something to mess him up more, or somehow mess with his relationship with Drew. Or her relationship with Drew.

There was no denying they had a relationship, even if it wasn’t what she’d typically use that word for. They were exclusive, planned their time together and had lots of sex. They just acknowledged that there was no long-term future in store for them. Which made it all the more important that the time they did have together go well. She didn’t want to risk that, so she was going to be very careful, very certain, before moving forward with the idea of a threesome.