Chapter Six #2
When I woke, Emma was on her side with one arm tucked under her pillow.
“How long have you been awake?” I asked.
“Long enough to confirm you snore.”
“I don’t snore.”
“You absolutely snore.” Her smile was wide and unguarded. “I don’t mind.”
Kissing her crossed my mind, but if I did now, with her hair fanned across the pillow and her T-shirt riding up, I wasn’t going to stop. I pushed myself up and headed for the kitchen instead.
She appeared ten minutes later, grabbed an apple, and ate it standing at the counter. Neither of us mentioned the night before.
We spent most of the day working. She traced shell company structures while I cross-referenced the access logs Alice had flagged. She’d talk through the logic, and I’d catch the gaps. We’d argue until one of us conceded. She won more than I did, and I liked that more than I should have.
“That doesn’t make sense,” Emma said. She stopped typing and leaned closer to her screen.
“What?”
“Two of these shell companies. The money doesn’t all disappear offshore. Some of it ends up at legitimate veteran service providers. Real organizations doing real work, not the ones the money was intended for.”
“Are you sure these organizations are legit?”
“On the surface, they are, and the numbers they’re reporting line up with the charities’ federal documentation too.”
“Why would a fraud operation send money to real charities?”
“I have no idea, but I’m flagging it for Alice.”
When she rolled her shoulders, I reached over and squeezed her neck. She leaned in and closed her eyes.
“You’re good at that,” she said when I dug in and released the tension in her muscles.
I raised my eyebrows, not that she could see me. “I’m good at a lot of things.”
One eye opened. “You’re relentless.”
“You’re smiling.”
She smirked. “I’m grimacing.”
“Sure, you are.”
“You’re right. Have I mentioned how attractive I find tenacity?”
“In that case…” I stood and continued the massage, focusing on her shoulders. The combination of my hands on her and the sounds she made went straight to my cock.
“The pain isn’t as bad, and I’m tired of waking up foggy,” she said when I held a pill out before she got in bed. “But, thanks.”
“Let me know if you change your mind,” I said, turning to leave the room.
“Are you, uh, you know…?”
“Putting the pill back in the bottle?” I winked, and she grinned.
“Yeah, that.”
“One second, sweetheart.”
When I returned to the bedroom, Emma was in the same T-shirt and shorts from the night before. I toed my boots off and lay on the bed. When she got in next to me, I set the phone on the nightstand.
“Do you always sleep fully dressed?” she asked.
“I do not.”
“So why are you now?”
I raised a brow as she settled on her right side so we were facing each other.
“Emma.” Her name came out as a growl as much as a warning.
“I’m suggesting you might be more comfortable if you slept the way you usually do.”
“I’m saving us both from what else might happen if I did. Now, roll over so I can hold you.”
When she did, I fitted myself behind her and traced a slow line across her stomach.
“You’re tickling me,” she said.
“Yeah? Should I stop?” My hand drifted to where her shorts met bare skin.
She rolled onto her back. When I started to pull my arm away, she caught my wrist and put my hand where it had been, except lower.
I kissed her, then cupped her through her shorts. Her spine arched, and she made the same sound she had earlier when I was working her shoulders.
“Does that feel good, Emma?” I dragged my tongue up her neck to her ear.
“It could feel better.”
I got on my knees and hooked my fingers under the elastic of her shorts.
She lifted her hips without hesitation, and I slid them down her legs and tossed them aside.
I kissed the inside of her knee, then her inner thigh, spread her thighs wider, and pressed my mouth to her.
She was wet and warm, and the taste of her made me groan.
Her hips jerked, and I pinned them to the mattress while I worked her with my tongue.
She gripped the sheet with both fists. I flattened my tongue and dragged it slowly from bottom to top, then circled where she needed me most. Her back arched off the bed. I did it again, slower, and she swore under her breath.
I slid one finger inside her while keeping my mouth where it was. She clenched around me and gripped my hair as an orgasm ripped through her. I added a second finger to keep it going and kissed my way up to her lips.
When she reached for my belt, I caught her hand.
Her eyes flew open. “Why can’t I touch you?”
“Because if you do, I’ll want to bury my cock deep inside you.”
“I’m not opposed to that.”
“Which means my weight on you, or yours on me. Your ribs take the hit either way.”
A glare replaced her grin, and I kissed her knuckles. “I’m not going anywhere. We have time.”
“I don’t want time. I want you.”
“You have me.”
“Coleman,” she said as my hand coaxed a second climax from her.
I wanted to tell her what it did to me when she used my real name. Instead, I eased her to her side, pulled her into my chest, and laced her fingers with mine.
“You’re poking me.”
I rocked my hips and ground my hardness against her ass. “You love it.”
“You’re right.”
I pressed my mouth to her shoulder, and even after she nodded off, I stayed awake.
I was staring at the ceiling, wondering what would happen when we caught whoever was after her. Whether she’d go home to Georgetown and this would become a thing that happened once under pressure. Whether I’d let her go the way I’d let her go at the wedding.
Her hand tightened on my arm. “Coleman?”
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“You’re squeezing me.”
She was right. With each question running in my head, I’d squeezed harder.
“I’ll sleep in the other room,” I said.
She glanced over her shoulder. “Only if I go with you.”
“Emma, don’t—”
She reached up and touched two fingers to my lips. “After you gave me not one but two of the best orgasms of my life, you think I’ll let you sleep anywhere but with me?”
That got a grin out of both of us.
“Two of the best, huh?”
“The very best.”
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
“Promise?”
We both smiled, and five minutes later, I was out.