Unauthorized Return (Unauthorized Series Book 4) (11 page)

Coleton's groans trailed off and his hands fell from her hair. Aria pulled back, releasing his swiftly-softening member, wanting to watch what he did next. He opened his eyes and smiled at her, then collapsed onto the couch next to her.

Warmth and contentedness spread through Aria.

Coleton kissed her, tenderly on the lips. "That was amazing," he said, pulling her into his arms.

She smiled and leaned into him. It had been amazing.

"It's hard to believe you're really out here with me. I kept thinking it was all a vivid dream up until a few moments ago. What made you change your mind?"

Aria thought hard how to answer that. "I wanted to respond when you kissed me."

Coleton dipped his chin. "I know you did. That's partially why I did it."

Aria laughed and looked up at him. "Awfully sure of yourself, aren't you?"

Coleton's soft smile undid her. "Sometimes."

Aria laid her head on his chest. "I thought about it all day yesterday, and I finally decided that those rules and laws were enacted to protect female witnesses from male police officers, and that you didn't need protection from me. That you had kissed me first and that our situation here wouldn't be compromised in any way by anything that happened between us. The ethical line is still there, and it still bothers me a bit, but I was willing to blur it if you were. It was worth it to shed that emotional baggage I've been dealing with for the last two years."

"Rules? Laws?" Coleton repeated dully.

"Yeah, the rules and laws against a police officer sleeping with a witness."

Coleton slapped himself on the forehead. "Of course! And now you are in danger of losing your job, aren't you?" Guilt sat heavy in his voice.

Aria looked at him. "Not if you don't tell anyone and we aren't discovered, I'm not."

Coleton shook his head no, his face stricken. "Of course I won't. But we can't do anything more. I won't touch you again, I swear," he said, pulling the blanket from the ground and thrusting it at her.

Aria sat back, perplexed. This wasn't what she wanted at all. She'd made her decision and she was ready to stand by it. If it meant losing her job, so be it. She didn't want to lose her job in disgrace, but anything was better than the self-imposed exile she'd been living under for the last two years, using her job as a shield from life. Using her position and her anger as a shield from people and relationships.

Truth be told, all day yesterday, she had thought hard about what would happen if she did lose her job - how she would handle it. If it would be a good thing or a bad thing. If she were honest with herself - and she had spent a great deal of time yesterday being brutally, viciously honest with herself - the only reason she was a police officer was because her parents had been in law enforcement. She was good at it. Of course she was - she had been raised to be a cop, but if she hadn't been steered towards law enforcement, she would have ended up on a farm somewhere, raising horses, growing strawberries and zucchini in a giant garden behind a 100 year old farm house. Having her own horse had been her only dream as a child and adolescent, but the dream had slowly been squashed under the ever-growing weight of books and academics as she got older.

She had always known her parents expected her to be a cop of some sort. It was in their every action and word towards her. She had been the aggressive one, the bold one, the strong and active one, while Ava had tended more towards sweetness and homemaking. Their parents had never once pushed Ava towards law enforcement, and that should tell her something.

Aria noticed the thought of Ava didn't make her heart hurt like it usually did. She smiled at Coleton, wondering if she had him to thank for that too. She wondered what he would say if she told him the only thing keeping her secure in her job right now was her desire to make sure he made it through the trial of his father safely. After that, she didn't know what would happen. She might march into Chief Powell's office and turn in her badge and gun.

She twined her fingers in Coleton's and tugged him closer to her. "What if I want you to touch me," she purred at him, watching his face to gauge his reaction. They still had three more days in this place, and the time would be a lot more fun if they could spend most of it naked.

Coleton's eyes turned soft and sad. "I don't ever want to be the reason you get hurt. It would destroy me if you lost your job because of me."

Aria leaned forward and bit him on the shoulder, causing him to jump. Then she raised herself and swung one leg over him, straddling him. She was rewarded with the sight of his cock jumping to attention almost immediately, even though his face was still dubious.

She leaned close to him and whispered, "Then keep your big mouth shut."

His face lost some of its concern and one of his hands snuck around to grasp her ass. "You think I have a big mouth?" he said.

"I think you have a big dick," she responded keeping her tone confrontational, wanting him to match her aggression.

His head snapped up and his arms closed around her, crushing her to him. "You wreck my shop and my house and now my heart, but how can I run from what gives me life?" he crooned, then fell upon her lips. He did match her aggression, biting at her, sucking her tongue, roughly running his thumb over her nipple and she loved it, biting back and clawing at him, thrusting her hips at him and feeling his cock grow between them.

"Another," she begged, knowing it would push her over the edge.

He didn't slow for an instant, pushing and pulling at her, thrusting his hips up so she raised into the air, then growled, "Roar, lion of the heart, and tear me open!"

Aria tangled her fingers in his hair and pulled, then covered his mouth with hers again, her cheeks burning from the brush of his stubble. "What does that mean?" she moaned, wanting to understand, wanting to hear him speak forever.

"It means I'm going to fuck you until you scream," he told her, his hands plunging into her hair, pulling lightly, his skin burning under her thighs.

"Oh God, yes, I want you to," Aria panted between kisses. "Do you have a condom?"

Coleton's hands dropped to her waist and he lifted her off of him. He crossed the room in two long strides and found his pants in the corner where he had placed them the night before. She watched him root around in his pocket to find his wallet, a bit dazed at his swift exit. He returned, holding a condom in his hand.

"I have one," he told her, ripping it open.

"Boy scout," she accused him with a grin.

He grinned back. "At least one of us is prepared," he said with a wink.

She laughed and motioned for him to sit back down where he had been. He did and Aria threw a leg over him again, pressing her body against him, kissing him again with unabashed fervor.

She felt his hands between them, rolling on the condom, then his grip was on her waist, lifting her gently, and positioning her until she felt the tip of his cock at her very entrance. She gasped as he lowered her onto him, slowly, deliberately. It was so much. Too much. She felt stretched to her absolute limit and didn't know how much more she could take as he brought her down, down, impaling her on him.

"Oh God," she moaned as he filled her completely.

"Yes," he rasped back, his voice harsh and rough. "You feel so good. So tight. I've wanted to do this for days."

"Since you thought I was Ava?" she teased, gasping as he thrust into her harder, taking her breath away.

"No," he growled. "Since that day outside the bank when you made it very clear to me that you were in charge of you, and me. Right then, I wanted to pull you into a kiss and see if you kicked my ass for it, or if you melted against me."

Aria fell silent. They'd known each other for an hour. He'd wanted her even then? Even when she was being the queen bitch? Coleton's hands moved on her waist, lifting her. His hips raising to spear his masculinity into her regained her full attention. She felt tension building within her again. She moaned lightly and clung to his neck.

"I want you to come again for me, Aria," he whispered into her ear. "I want you to come hard and then I'm going to make you come one more time after that."

Aria held on for the ride, almost convinced he could do it. She pressed her legs together and crushed her mound against him as he pounded into her from beneath.

"That's it," he urged her. He dropped his thumb to the very top of her sex and pressed lightly. Aria gasped and a sharp noise escaped her lips. She pressed her mouth harder against his neck, trying not to cry out. Trying to contain her passion so the neighbors didn't hear.

Aria felt a clench start deep inside her and pleasure spread out from her core. Oh God, this one was just as powerful as the first one. She clung tightly to Coleton's neck as he encouraged her, lifting her, thrusting into her, caressing her. Aria squeezed her eyes shut as her senses exploded into a thousand tiny pieces flung to the far corners of the room.

"Yes baby, come for me, come all over me," he called quietly.

Aria collapsed onto him as he slowed his pace and tempo, his hands lightly running down her back, raising goose bumps.

"I can't do it again," she panted. "Two is enough."

"You can do it again. I'm not going to stop until you do. You need to make up for lost time," he told her, steel in his voice.

"You'll kill me," she said, trying to drop onto the couch, exhausted.

Holding on to the base of the condom, Coleton pulled out of her and let her drop to the couch. He raised himself above her and began to kiss her tenderly, stroking her hair and her cheek, then finally bringing his hands lightly down her body. She could feel his cock, thick and hard as ever, resting lightly on her thigh.

Aria's body heated again in spite of her protestations. "Take me, Coleton, I don't think I can come again, but I want to feel you inside me."

"You can come again," he said simply. "You will come again."

He knelt between her legs and took his cock in his hand. Aria watched the unselfconscious gesture and wondered at it. He looked so strong and marvelous, so exquisitely masculine that her brain felt numb with desire for him. She felt blood flow to her core again, burning her from the inside.

He pressed his sheathed cock along down the moist heart of her, making her jump as it grazed her clitoris, then easing it into her swollen warmth. Aria sighed in pleasure. She didn't need an orgasm to enjoy this. She lifted her hips slightly and gave way to the sensation, enjoying being a woman and being taken, owned if only momentarily, by a man. She had no frame of reference, no way of knowing, but she imagined that she liked being a woman much better than she would ever like being a man. She liked being soft and yielding, giving herself over completely, body, mind, and soul, to someone stronger and bigger than her.

Coleton's hips thrust sweetly into her and she met them as best she could. She arched her back under him and writhed in his languorous movement. She watched his face as he gritted his teeth and tried to stave off his own orgasm.
Sweet.

He dropped a thumb to her clitoris and pressed experimentally, then drug his harsh skin across her most sensitive spot, lightly, just barely touching, just barely there, like the wings of a hummingbird kissing her.

Aria gasped as a jolt of lightning went through her. She felt her body clench again and she couldn't believe it. She
could
come again. She ground her hips against him and moaned, "Yes Coleton, yes."

She opened her eyes long enough to see him smile triumphantly. She didn't even have the energy to mess with him. He deserved to feel triumphant. He was doing the impossible.

Coleton's speed and tempo increased, and Aria found herself blinded by the sensations, by the pure, unending rightness of it all. It had been ages since she'd felt so good, given herself over so completely to anything.

Aria felt the sensations beginning in the very center of her being, the clenching, then releasing, and spreading of lightness and bliss. "Coleton," she gasped, clinging to him as he moved deep within her, his breath hot in her ear.

Finally Aria was gripped by a rush of sensation so intense she lost herself within it. Dimly, she was aware of Coleton bucking within her and convulsing lightly against her as his own shuddering release wracked him. He dropped himself to his elbows and lightly, tenderly kissed her on her jaw, murmuring to her, words she couldn't understand, words she couldn't even decipher in her state of absolute contentment.

The world moved past them, outside of the apartment walls.

They slept.

Two days later, Monday morning faded into Monday afternoon and Aria felt increasingly frantic. The time had passed in an unrestrained bliss, feeling like the best days of her life. Feeling like the summer between high school and college when there had been nothing to do but hang out with her friends and enjoy herself.

They ate, they slept, they played spades, and they made love, exploring each other's bodies and the pleasure they could give and receive in every way possible.

But tomorrow was the day they reentered the world outside of the four walls of the tiny apartment. Aria hadn't tried to call back to the police station since her one disastrous attempt. She felt slightly sick when she thought about trying to explain why to Assistant Chief Harrison if he wasn't dirty, wasn't a danger to her and Coleton. She finally decided that she would say the phone had been destroyed, dropped out of the car or something and she hadn't felt comfortable trying to call him any other way.

But worse than that, she began to think of all the ways that Coleton's father could have someone get to him the next day. They had to get from the apartment to the court house. Then they had to get from wherever they parked the car into the court house. Then they had to make it down the hall to the courtroom itself. Someone could shoot Coleton from a moving car, or from the roof of a building, or just walk up to him on the street.

Once inside the courthouse, there were metal detectors, but that was never foolproof. There would be cops everywhere, but people had still been murdered inside courthouses. She could think of dozens of cases where exactly that had happened.

The thought of losing Coleton made her feel faint. She'd never been one to swoon or faint in her life, but the entire affair seemed so insurmountable. Anything could happen the next day and she knew they were woefully unprepared for it.

She paced around the tiny apartment as Coleton watched her, silently.

"What are you going to wear tomorrow?" she asked him, a harsh edge to her voice for the first time in days.

"Jeans and a shirt. It's all I have."

"Do you have a jacket?"

"Yes, I bought one."

Aria found a backpack she had brought with them the first day and rummaged through it. She pulled out a heavy piece of clothing and shook it at him. "You'll need to wear this under your shirt."

Coleton wrinkled his nose and sat on the couch, seemingly unconcerned. "Is that a bullet proof vest?"

Aria nodded and tossed it his way. "Try it on."

Coleton stood and did as he was asked. "It's too small," he said. "Is it really necessary?"

Aria came close and pulled the Velcro out to as far as it would go. "Yes it's necessary. This one will have to do until I can get you another one."

Coleton nodded and took it off slowly. Finally some of her urgency seem to be seeping into his demeanor. He reached out and grasped her hand and pulled her close. "You seem upset," he said.

"Well aren't you?" she snapped at him then immediately regretted it. "I'm sorry, I'm just nervous. I don't know what to expect tomorrow and I'm scared that somehow your dad is going to get the upper hand."

Coleton gazed at her, fire in his eyes. "I'm not," he said.

"You're not?" she breathed.

He ran his thumb across her lower lip and then kissed her gently, once. "No. I know that you are better than him. I know that you can outsmart him. It's going to work. I know it."

Aria shook her head. "There's so much we haven't thought of. So much could go wrong."

Coleton sat back on the couch and spread his arms wide along the back cushions, his stance relaxed. "That's true. But that's always true."

"No poems," she warned him.

He shrugged and watched her, his eyes dancing. "I promise nothing," he said, but didn't speak again.

Aria shook her head. He was exasperating sometimes. She ran into the kitchen and began opening drawers. "Are you sure we don't have any paper?" she called out.

Coleton came slowly into the room. "I'm sure. I've been through every drawer in here and we didn't bring any with us."

Aria looked around the room for anything they could write on. "Do we at least have a pen?" she said.

"Nope."

She turned on him. "We're going to have to go to the store."

"Is that a good idea?"

"Well no, I don't want to go to the store, but we have to have something to write on. We need to flesh out our plan to get you in there safely tomorrow."

Coleton stared at her, his eyes far away. Finally he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her back into the living room. He grasped the TV tray by its edges and pulled it away from the wall.

"Will this do?" he said. Aria walked past him to look at what he was presenting to her. All she saw was the slanted back of the ancient TV.

He noticed her confusion and reached out a hand to rub a finger to the dust of one corner. "I wiped all the dust off the top of the TV, but there's still all of this. Can you use it?"

Aria smiled and her heart felt lighter. She reached out her own finger and drew a mini courthouse in the dust, then drew the streets around it.

"Yes, this is perfect," she said, then pressed her lips to his for a quick kiss. He smiled down at her and she saw something deep and heartfelt in his eyes. She looked away quickly. She didn't want to know what it meant. Not when both of their futures were so precarious.

***

Coleton watched Aria spell out her plan and marveled at the simplicity of it. He didn't know when she had worked it out, seeing as how he kept her quite busy over the last few days, but it was genius. She was concerned someone would try to ambush them on the way in but she was also concerned the regular parking lot would be watched, so they were going to park in the employee lot of the diner next door and use the cover of trees to reach the back entrance. He could see how it was their best option.

Then she laid out a plan B in case plan A didn't work. He watched her cool blue eyes as she assessed his reactions and questions, and reworked the plan as she thought necessary. He listened to the natural leadership in her voice and marveled at her competency. He couldn't have felt safer if he were going with a presidential entourage.

Not that he felt completely safe. He knew that Aria could get him safely into the courtroom and his father could still have someone blow his brains out, vest or no vest, while he walked up to the stand to testify. Somehow, his father had that kind of influence on people. He'd seen it done before.

Coleton willed the image out of his mind. Tomorrow was tomorrow. For now he would enjoy what could very well be his last night of passion with Sergeant Aria Gale. He knew that everything could change once they entered back into the real world. Even if he managed to live another day, the police chief could still assign some other police officer to him tomorrow, or Aria could have a change of heart - anything.

Not that he could think of anything more awful than Aria not wanting him anymore. She was the most amazing woman he had ever met in his life and they fit together like puzzle pieces. Fear gripped his heart at the thought of their few days of bliss ending. But he knew it was likely. And it destroyed him. He kept the damage locked deep inside himself though, wanting nothing to blur the last night he had with Aria.