Chapter 9
NINE
Kennedy was trying to sleep.
Trying.
Heaven knows she was trying.
And failing miserably.
Turning from one side to the other, she pulled her blankets up and then kicked them down.
No matter what position she could find, it didn’t matter.
She was exhausted.
Bone tired.
She just couldn’t fall asleep.
Her mind was churning.
Her gut was too.
Neither made it easy to relax.
Even worse, she kept thinking about what had happened earlier.
What had almost happened.
Turning to the other side, she looked at the clock radio on her nightstand.
The device was a workhorse. It had been her alarm for almost six years.
She didn’t have to lift her head to know what the brass plaque on the top of it said.
JUST TELL THE TRUTH - Professor Hammish
She’d gotten the alarm clock at the awards banquet for the Center City Community College’s Journalism School.
Professor Hammish had been a tiny man with a huge name. His presence was that of a giant. He spoke like Gandalf. Wise and gray. He looked like Mister Noodle from the little videos with Elmo. He didn’t pull his punches and he’d left her verbally bruised from time to time.
Nothing like what Victor Rhames had pulled earlier.
No, Professor Hammish was a man driven to create reporters worth their salt.
He believed in the press.
He believed in the truth.
And if he thought one of his students was giving their work less than their whole self in the process, he didn’t let it go. He went after them.
Thankfully Kennedy had only had a couple of run-ins with the man.
When it happened, she knew she’d deserved it.
He was the reason why she continued to look for the story beyond the surface.
He was the reason why she balked so much at Victor’s cowardice.
The thinly veiled threats?
The accusations hidden in rumor?
She didn’t believe in them.
Peddling rumors? That was beneath the press.
Beneath what it should be.
And if Victor kept it up, she’d find another job.
She’d move to another station.
There had to be someplace for a reporter like her in a company which was more interested in real news.
Kennedy punched her pillow and frowned when it didn’t punch back.
Ugh. She was exhausted.
She just couldn’t wind down.
Holding her pillow tight against the side of her head, she reached out and plucked her phone from its charger only to stare at the screen.
2:32 AM
Groaning, she rolled onto her back, her phone falling to her chest.
The bare ceiling over her head was almost pitch black in the darkness, but she could still see the edges of the faux tin ceiling panels in the hint of moonlight coming through her windows.
The only thing that would get her to sleep was exertion.
Getting her body as tired as her mind was.
Kennedy closed her eyes and sighed.
The third floor of the converted factory building had a gym for residents.
She could roll out of bed, trudge her stupid butt over to the dresser and pull out her workout clothes.
Then again, she sighed, she could just go downstairs in what she was wearing. Her tank top and pair of novelty boxers were cover enough.
All she would really need were socks, her sneakers, and a towel from the hall closet.
Working out was the last thing she wanted to do, but she needed sleep.
After her confrontation with Victor Rhames she knew she needed to be on her best, no matter what.
Professor Hammish didn’t graduate slackers.
“Ugh!”
Sliding to the edge of the bed, she dropped her feet to the ground and with a push of her hands against the tangled covers, she was on her feet. Kennedy grabbed socks from her drawer and a towel from the closet and had just sat down on the couch to put on her socks when someone knocked at her door.
Narrowing her gaze at the red numbers emblazoned on the microwave screen across the room she sighed
2:36 AM
The last time someone had pounded on her door at that hour, it was one of her college classmates who lived down the hall in their rat trap of a building to tell her that one of their mutual friends had fallen down the stairs drunk and split open his head.
Nothing good happened at that early morning hour, but still, she got up on her feet worried that the building just might be burning down around her and maybe, just maybe she should go and see what was going on.
She pulled the door open a moment later to find Detective Walker Ashley outside the hall.
“You?”
Her shock registered on his face, but it was the raised eyebrow he gave her that made her narrow her own eyes.
“What?”
He dropped his chin, his eyes on hers in an open challenge. “Did you even look before you opened the door, Kennedy?”
“No.” Her shoulders sagged, and she shook her head. “I didn’t.”
“Why not?”
She raised a brow at that, her chin drawing back up as she openly challenged him. “The security on this building is impeccable. Why wouldn’t I- Wait! How did you get in here?”
Walker’s hand lifted, holding his badge into the light for her to see. “You’d be surprised where this gets me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Apparently,” she quipped, “it gets you into my apartment.”
Kennedy stepped back and away so the door was cleared, but there was a long pause before Walker stepped inside.
She shut the door behind him and locked it tight.
When she turned around, she saw him glaring at the deadbolt and the chain lock on the door.
“There are better locks. Better precautions. Better-”
Kennedy stretched midway through his next admonishment, but when she finished, she realized that he’d just stopped talking mid-word.
She followed the angle of his gaze and found that it was fixed on her chest.
Lowering her arms she saw that her tank top wasn’t doing anything to hide the way her nipples tightened just from having him around.
For a moment, she considered folding her arms across her chest, but she didn’t.
He could look his fill.
After all he was the one who was responsible for her physical reaction. “It’s your fault, so you can suffer through it.”
“My fault?” The edge in his laugh only made her mistake even more frustrating.
“I can’t believe I just said that out loud.”
His eyes fixed on her own as he nodded. “I bet that you’re exhausted. It’s probably the only time you, Kennedy Heart, ever misspeak.”
She rolled her eyes at herself. “Yeah, well, let’s hope so, since most of what I say is recorded. Hmm?”
This time they laughed together.
“I wasn’t sure if I should stop by.”
She heard the hesitation in his voice and found it almost endearing. Except-
“You flashed your badge to come up the elevator anyway?”
Walker shrugged, but his smile said he wasn’t exactly repentant. “I wanted to see you.”
Her brows lifted at that and so did her chin, tipping her head back. “And you knew where I lived because-”
“Police database. Not exactly kosher and could get me in a shit ton of trouble, but I figured you weren’t going to show back up at my place and-”
“Walker?”
His eyes flared again, and dark sparks shone at the edges of her vision.
“Yeah?”
Kennedy stepped up to him, her bare toes brushing over the tips of his boots. One hand snaked around the back of his neck, the other flattening against the muscled expanse of his chest. “Shut up and kiss me.”
“Thank. Fuck.”
His hands dove into her hair and his mouth met hers as his fingers worked her hair tie loose.
Tongue.
She’d never thought that Frenching was anything to write home about, but the way Walker stroked her tongue with his… damn.
Kennedy was a convert.
What was it about the way he covered her mouth with his and swept his tongue against hers? The taste of his tongue, the rough scratch of it made her hunger for more.
But how could she ask for it?
She couldn’t speak and really, she didn’t want him to stop what he was doing.
She wanted more.
Walker tugged on her hair and with a gasp, she found herself staring up at her high ceiling as his mouth fixed against her neck. The pressure he placed there was going to leave a mark, right where everyone could see.
Did she care?
Hell no!
She liked it.
“Keep it up and I’ll leave a mark on you too.”
He lifted his head and the look he nailed her with had her knees quivering along with the other parts of her body. “Deal.”
With a quick shift, Walker slid his hands down to her butt and lifted her right off the ground.
Instinct took over and she wrapped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist.
Walker took them through the open doorway and into her bedroom. It didn’t take long before he laid her down on the bed, and before she could brace herself to keep her eyes on him or cast off a quip in his direction, Walker Ashley grabbed the waistband on her boxers and pulled.
Wow.
That took her breath away.
And the look on his face… goodness.
Walker licked his lips and flicked his gaze up to hers for a hot moment. “I made you a promise earlier.”
Oh, yeah.
That.
“Yes,” she agreed, her body heating up in anticipation, “you certainly did.”
With a smirk on his face, he leaned over and hooked his fingers in the thin elastic straps of her bikini panties and tugged them over her hips.
It wasn’t as fast or hard as what he’d done with her sleep shorts, but it had its own appeal.
She got her elbows on the bed and looked down as he peeled her panties over her mons, revealing the auburn curls beneath.
“Fiery,” his tone matched his smile. “I like it.”
He lowered them down past her knees and then her ankles. Where it went from there she didn’t know. She couldn’t feel them anymore or see them from where she was.
“Now, I need you closer.”
Kennedy was dying to say something cool and self-assured. Or even a little sexy.
But in reality, she was stunned by everything about him.
Especially the way he wanted her.
With his eyes fixed on her, he got down on one knee and then the other.
Kennedy drew in a deep breath as he dipped his chin and got his first good look at her.
She licked her lips when she saw him lick his, and when he put his hands on the insides of her knees and spread her legs wide, she swore her whole body stilled.
Including her heart.
“I’m going to remember this moment.” Walker lifted his eyes to meet hers, her half-bare body between them.
She swallowed and nodded when her voice failed her.
“I want you to know that I meant every damn word of that promise.” His indrawn breath seemed to darken his gaze.
“You…” her voice spilled out in starts and stops, “you don’t… have to.”
His smile was almost a leer.
On any other man it would have been cringe-worthy. On Walker? It was damn sexy.
“I’ve never… I mean, no one’s…”
His hands slid up her thighs and stopped a few inches from her pussy. She felt his thumbs rub softly against her skin. “No one?”
His hands traveled up and over her thighs and dipped back between them again, holding her open to him.
“No one,” she confirmed. “So, I don’t know… I don’t know if I’ll like it.”
The look he gave her was almost a wounded one. “Really?”
She managed a shrug. “I don’t know.”
He leaned forward and stopped when his chest was almost touching her there. His mouth a few inches shy of her belly button. “You’ll more than like it, Kennedy. I’m about to make you love what my mouth can do to you.”
She couldn’t speak, but her body did.
She shivered from head to toe.
Her flesh heated and her nipples tightened even more, making her loose tank top tent above her breasts.
And down there, between her legs…
She was beyond wet.
And that had never happened before, either.
Walker moved back and looked down at her again.
It almost killed her that she couldn’t see what he could. She’d never really given much thought to how she looked down there, but suddenly she wished she could see herself through his eyes.
When he spoke, it was like he knew the questions in her head. “You’re so pretty and pink, Kennedy Heart.”
Yeah?
“And all mine.”
He dipped his head down and moved his hands at the same time.
She felt something brush against her folds and then it happened again.
Warm. Rough.
His fingertips?
Her hips shifted on the bed and he lifted his gaze to hers.
“You’re so sweetly sensitive.”
The moonlight in the room shone silver on his dark hair. And his eyes, staring up at her?
Dear Heavens, he looked hungry.
His fingers moved over her folds again and again and her arms weakened, lowering her down to the mattress.
And that’s when she felt it.
The subtle touch of his breath.
“Oh god.”
“Walker.” He spoke and the feeling of his voice against her flesh made her moan. “My name… is Walker.”
“S…sure.” She swallowed hard and gasped out his name. “Walker.”
“That’s right, baby. Remember that when you’re moaning.”
She realized that she might just be delirious with anticipation, because she couldn’t manage to give him a taste of his own words.
And for her?
That was… That was…
“Oh god.”
It took her a second to register what she was feeling.
His tongue.
Oh god, it had to be his tongue.
Thick.
Wet.
And the texture… Oh Heavens.
He spread her open, massaged the slick folds of her sex.
Top to bottom.
Or maybe it was bottom to top.
She couldn’t quite figure it out. Her brain wasn’t doing its normal job.
But she could feel.
“How…”
He was there, touching her.
Tasting her.
She felt his breath.
His tongue.
And the vibrations of his voice.
Her hands… grasped. Fisted in the sheets.
Her feet flexed.
Her toes curled.
And then something touched her clit and she laughed. Or cried.
It was the honest truth that she had no idea what she was doing anymore.
All of her attention was on what he was doing to her.
And it was incredible.
His tongue felt incredibly wide with how it stroked her and talented as… “Fuck!”
How many times was he going to…
No, she didn’t want to know.
She just wanted him to keep using that talent on her.
His tongue swept over her clit and her back arched, almost sitting up, but when his tongue slipped back down, she sank back against the sheets. Walker pulled her strings like a puppeteer, and she didn’t give a shit.
And then, his tongue.
Bless that tongue.
He thrust it inside her and her world shifted on its axis.
Over and over, he slid his tongue inside of her sex and she felt her orgasm building.
Her thighs tried to squeeze closed, but he held her open. She tried to buck off of the mattress, but he held her down.
He had her at his mercy and heaven help her, she liked it.
A lot.
More than a lot.
She was barely holding onto her sanity and for a moment she started to wonder if it was worth it if she could just keep feeling like this for a little while longer.
The feeling of his tongue against her, inside of her, was world changing and just when she thought she was getting a grasp on what he was doing to her, he closed his mouth over her clit and she lost what was left of her mind.
Her shout filled the room and she swore she heard it bounce off of the ceiling to echo around the room. Bliss rolled over her again and again and still she could feel his mouth against her, but this time…
This time she was the one giving and Walker was taking. Lapping at her folds. Drinking from her.
And she’d never felt so damn good.
She woke when the pink light of dawn was just beginning to fill the room. Curling into herself, she felt a delicious tingle radiate from her center out and then she stretched but stopped short when she felt something at her back.
No, not something.
Someone.
An arm snaked around her waist and pulled her back, flush against him.
“Walker.” She whispered his name as if she was afraid that he’d disappear if she startled him.
“Good,” she felt a kiss on the back of her neck, “you remembered my name.”
Kennedy looked down and saw that she still had her tank top on, but from the heated press of his skin against hers she knew that she was still bare from the waist down.
She felt his laughter against the back of her neck.
“You fell asleep on me.”
Her brow furrowed and her nose scrunched up.
How embarrassing!
He moved his hand from her waist to her thigh, skimming her flesh close enough to her sex that she waited for him to touch her.
“I came through as promised, hmm?”
He nuzzled the back of her neck, sending shivers down her back.
“Yeah,” she blushed, just remembering the way it felt to have those lips between her legs.
She shivered again.
“You’re thinking about it.”
Yeah. It wasn’t a question. It was a statement.
She could tell him not to be so conceited, but he had a reason to be.
“You certainly know what you’re doing down there.”
“Down there?” He moved away from her back, but before she could press back against him, his hand moved to her hip and turned her on her back. “You certainly have a way with words, gorgeous.”
Instead of shooting a comment back at him, she looked up into his eyes and did something neither one of them expected.
She apologized.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry?” He definitely looked confused.
She wished that she was.
“I’m sorry I fell asleep.”
Walker shifted on the bed and brushed her hair back from her face. “I’m not. You were tired. Sleep was good.”
“But you…”
“But I…” He grinned at her and she couldn’t believe he was so low key about it. “Didn’t get myself off?”
She nodded.
“That wasn’t the point.”
She turned a little further toward him. “But shouldn’t it be?”
He shook his head. “Who the hell have you been with?”
Affronted. That’s the immediate feeling that rocketed through her. What the hell did he… oh.
Thank heavens he continued to speak.
“Not the right people if they want tit for tat.” He grinned and she smiled back at his words. “Sex isn’t about a trade like that. If it was, then I think there would always be someone making up for what was missing the time before and it would become more of a chore than a pleasure.”
She lowered her eyes as she processed his words. Before, at least the few times that she’d had more than one experience with something, it was always a matter of her partner expecting her to do things. To make things more exciting and they certainly weren’t any help in the area. It had never felt… equal.
Not a damn bit.
“So you just laid down and went to sleep?” Her eyes searched his for the truth.
Smiling, he smoothed his hand up her thigh and brushed his fingers across her curls. “Kind of.”
He continued the gentle stroke of his hand over and over.
“I held you close. Your amazing ass was the perfect cushion for the part of me that needed a soft spot to lean against. But feeling your soft skin against me probably kept me awake longer than if I’d just laid down beside you, but it was worth every minute of that exquisite torture.”
Kennedy looked at him and saw that he’d mostly undressed before falling asleep in her bed. He still had a t-shirt on but below, he just had his boxer briefs instead of his slacks.
With a quick glance up at his face, she looked back down, and her hand followed along.
It was easy to see him beneath the soft grey cotton he wore.
“Is this what they mean by being a shower instead of a grower?”
She smiled at her own silliness. At first, she only grazed his length with the tips of her fingers. “I guess I was thinking you’d be commando,” she admitted, “but I think I like this better.”
As his cock hardened beneath the fabric, his voice tightened a bit. “You’ve been thinking about my underwear? Or lack there of?”
Her hand paused as she looked up at him. “You mean to tell me that you didn’t think about what I wear under my clothes?”
Once the question was out, she worried that she shouldn’t have asked it at all. What if he said he didn’t think about it, about her, like that?
She moved her fingers along his length again and saw it thicken even more beneath the cotton fabric.
“Oh, I thought about it. A lot.” He cleared his throat, and she felt his cock push against her fingers. “I guess I didn’t think about you doing the same.”
Kennedy trailed her fingertips up and over the head of his cock and smiled when the fabric darkened a little at the tip.
“I’m a liberated woman in the modern age, Detective. I do a lot of things that you might not consider lady-like.”
She turned her hand and rubbed the pad of her thumb over the tip of his cock and felt her skin grown wet, both on her finger and between her legs.
Smiling, she reached for his waistband.
His hand grabbed her wrist and held her still.
Kennedy lifted her gaze to his face and saw the hot look in his eyes and the thinned line of his lips pressed together.
It looked like he was waiting for her attention before he spoke.
“I’ll admit that you surprised me, Kennedy, but it wasn’t a bad thing. And you being a lady of the modern age? I don’t doubt that. You do what you want and I like that. Probably more than I should. It’s not easy to see you shove microphones in the faces of criminals.”
“Ah,” she interrupted, “alleged criminals.”
She almost laughed at the muscle that ticked in his jaw at her words.
“In the face of criminals,” he reiterated. “But no matter what you do, you’ll always be a lady.”
Kennedy felt her face flame with heat and something inside her opened up, leaving her naked in a way she’d never felt before. “Yeah? Really?”
He nodded, his eyes fixed on hers. “Really. You’re all woman, Kennedy, don’t forget that. Ever.”
As a reporter, she’d found her worth. As a woman she’d always been hesitant.
Unsure.
But at the moment.
Hearing his words echoing in her ears, she felt… more than she was.
Or maybe, she’d finally felt like herself.
And that, she was discovering, was everything.
Smiling, she got up on her knees and with a quick lift of her arms she tossed her tank top on the floor. “Your shirt, Detective Ashley. Take it off.”
She’d confused him. Or maybe it was a surprise.
And the smile he gave her? Priceless.
Walker Ashley sat up on her bed and reached a hand over his head and pulled his t-shirt off one-handed with an ease that she admired.
Leaning toward him, she helped get his boxer briefs off and cast them to the ground at the foot of her bed.
When she sat back up, she found her eyes fixed on him.
Maybe he was both a shower and a grower. His cock was thick and long, longer than she’d felt when she’d teased him through the cotton underwear he’d been wearing.
She whistled softly before she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and grimaced. “I don’t have… I mean, I could put in an Instacart order for some-”
Walker leaned over the edge of the bed and came back with a condom held lightly between his fingers. “I’ve been keeping a couple in my wallet just in case.”
“I bet you were an Eagle Scout, weren’t you?”
He shrugged as he ripped open the packet and handed it to her. “Roan was the dedicated one. I just went along because I wanted to hang out with my brother. Still, I do have the badges and the knot tying skills to go with them.”
She blushed at the images that his words put in her head, but she wasn’t about to sidetrack things by asking questions about those skills he had. Instead, she straddled his thighs and when she had his legs trapped between hers, she rolled the condom down over his shaft.
Walker took hold of her hips and drew her closer until his cock touched her curls and his mouth could reach her lips.
They kissed, each taking their turns as the aggressor. Tongues swept in and retreated to give room to the other.
Her hands on his chest and shoulders.
His hands on her hips and breasts.
And when she lowered herself down, he helped line himself up, and then he was there, his head pressed between her folds and her slick heat was ready to accept him.
Walker set his hands on her hips and her hands wrapped around his wrists. The two of them found the right angle to fit their bodies together.
Kennedy opened her heavy-lidded eyes to look into his and what she saw there was a man who wanted her as much as she wanted him.
She was in heaven before he was even fully seated inside her and when he started to move, she felt like she was flying.