18. Emma
I really have to pee, but there’s a naked man holding on to my body too tightly for me to move. “Wake up, Dom.” I grunt and then breathe a little easier when he lets go of the grip he has on my stomach.
By the time I make it back to the bedroom after brushing my teeth and taking care of business, he is watching me from under the blanket.
“What are you doing?” he asks when I open the drawer I’ve started to leave clothes in.
“Getting dressed.” I point out the window with my eyes. “I have to run before work. I need the cardio.”
“I’ve got cardio for you.” Dom winks at me and I huff at the terrible pickup line.
Still, I shut the drawer and bite my lip. “Does that ever actually work?”
Dom leans over the edge of the bed and grabs my hand. “I don’t know. I’ll tell you after I tie you up.”
With a smile, I let him pull me onto the bed. “You still haven’t done that, you know.”
“Tsk. I need to buy a new rope, probably. One that won’t leave a bruise on your arms.” He kisses my hand. “Or your legs.” His hand moves down the outside of my thigh, sending a shiver through that side of my body.
Dom kisses my neck, giving me a reason to arch my back so that his body touches mine. When I do, I feel his hard length pressing into my stomach.
“Do you want it fast or slow, Emma?” His voice brushes against my skin, and I can’t concentrate on anything other than the way he makes me feel. Electricity dances along my spine and I can’t do anything until he pulls back and presses a soft kiss to my lips.
“Yes,” I say.
“That’s not an answer.” He laughs, moving his hands up and down my skin, making it impossible to form a coherent thought.
“Yes.”
Dom wraps one hand around my neck, pressing just tight enough that I feel him without cutting off my ability to breathe. “I’ll just have to give you everything, now, won’t I?”
A mew. I let out a mew, like a kitten, and then I tilt my head as far back as I can manage with his hand wrapped around my neck and give him exactly what he wants.
“Look at me, Emma.” I open my eyes to see him staring down at me with his tongue touching his top lip. “Perfect.”
He keeps one hand on my neck but moves the other down and uses it to brush his cock against my core.
“I hope you’re ready because I can’t wait.”
“Now,” I order breathlessly. “Just… now.”
Dom gives me what I want, thrusting into my body with one quick move that leaves me completely full and climaxing. To be fair, it isn’t just his dick that does the trick. He also has his palm pressed against my clit, adding to the pressure and sensations that he’s learned drive me crazy.
But as I scream with pleasure, nothing else matters except the fact that I’ve completely come apart with one thrust.
When I finally have the strength to open my eyes, Dom’s feral smile is the first thing I see.
“My turn.”
He pulls out of my body and turns me over so that I’m on my stomach, and he pulls a pillow from the edge of the bed.
Knowing what he wants, I lift up, and he puts it under my stomach, offering the leverage and angle that we both need.
“Perfect.” He slides a hand over my back, and then he is thrusting inside me again.
Deeper and faster than he had before.
Like I knew he would, Dom gives me everything I want and all the things I need but can’t put a word to.
When his hands clench my hips, for a moment I see white. He hits a spot inside my body that I didn’t know existed, and suddenly I’m not in my body anymore.
I see him there, moving with my body until there is nothing else. Only the connection between us, and I can’t think of anything except the sensation of his body filling mine.
“That was the best kind of cardio.” I kiss him again and then roll over so that I can get out of bed and jump in the shower.
“Emma, I have to tell you something.”
Before I can ask him what, both of our phones start ringing.
“It can wait,” Dom says hurriedly while he answers his phone, and all sorts of chaos breaks out.
Ten minutes later we both walk into the police department, and I rush to the locker room to change into my uniform. All thoughts of what Dom and I had been doing before the call vanish with the sight of every single officer that works in Birch rushing around.
“What do you think happened?” I ask Amie when the door to the women’s locker room shuts behind me. She must have come back from her vacation early, since I hadn’t expected to see her at work again before I go to the academy.
“I got the same call you did,” is all she says as she shrugs into her Kevlar vest. “Thank you for coming to cover dispatch with Poppy, though.” She smiles at me while I pull on my BPD shirt. “I know it’s like throwing you into the deep end.”
“It’s nothing,” I tell her honestly. “This is gonna be my life, and I’m ready for it.”
Amie walks out after one more smile, leaving me to put on my shoes and rush to the dispatch room.
“Grab that station,” Poppy orders. “It’s going crazy.”
“What happened?” I log into the computer and take advantage of the brief lack of the phone ringing.
“One of the pest management businesses caught fire, and they’re having trouble containing it. It’s all hands on deck, and we’ve got multiple other cities offering fire support.”
For the next three hours, we work side by side and answer every single call that comes in. I help a panicked mother get to the hospital after she finds out her husband has been injured in the fire.
“Thank you so much,” she gushes, then hangs up the call.
But there’s no time to rest as I pick up call after call of non-emergent needs, clearing the lines so that our guys can breathe and handle what needs to be done. For over an hour, we don’t stop. The lines keep ringing, and there’s barely time to catch my breath, let alone get up to use the bathroom.
This. This is what I wanted to do.
What I need to do with my life.
This is my purpose.
When the last engine returns to the station and the last officer signs off from the scene, I take the first deep breath.
“That was crazy.” Wiping my forehead, I realize that at some point, I must have started sweating.
“Stress response,” Poppy says quietly as she offers me a paper towel. “I sweat when I’m stressed, too.”
I’ve barely pulled the paper towel out of my shirt from wiping my armpits before the door to dispatch opens and Dom walks in with a dirt-streaked face. The new detective, Logan Pierce, follows him in, and Poppy freezes.
“Get out,” she bites out icily. “Right now.”
Dom stops, looking at her like he’s afraid she’ll hit him if he so much as breathes in her direction. “What did I do?” He doesn’t take another step into the room, even though his eyes seek me out.
“She’s talking to me.” Logan sighs. “Come on, Poppy. I made a mistake. I just came to check on you.”
“You didn’t make a mistake,” Poppy counters. “You sabotaged my date last night, and you know it. I know it. Hell, half the town knows it. Go. Before I put you on all the shit calls for a month just because I can.”
“I already get all the shit calls,” Logan points out. “I’m the low man on the totem pole. But I’ll go. For now. Are you okay, though? I wanted to check on you after the rush.” His voice changes, and his features soften when he is talking to her, and my heart melts for the man.
“I’m fine. Everything’s fine. Now go.” Poppy points at the door, and Logan walks out, but not without looking back more than once.
Dom stares at me with his lips pressed together and wide eyes, but he doesn’t say a word.
“I’m hungry,” I tell him bluntly. “I didn’t get to have breakfast. Will you grab me something?”
He nods. “You in dispatch all day today?”
“Yeah.” I pull out my phone and check the schedule that the chief gave me at the start of the week. “Until this afternoon. But my stomach is gonna eat itself if I don’t get something soon.”
“Too much cardio.” Dom winks and then walks out with a wave. “I’ll grab you some tacos.”
“It’s not even noon,” Poppy says when he is gone. “How’s he gonna get you tacos? Nowhere good is open.”
I snort. “That man isn’t gonna buy me tacos. He’s gonna call his mom and I bet she’s going to bring enough food to feed an army because that’s what I’d do if I were in his shoes.”
Not even a half hour passes before the entrance to the station opens and Alta walks in with her purse. Behind her marches in Bee, Vi, Alice, and another brown-haired woman who has to be the elusive Delia Ortiz.
“Buzz me in, mija,” Alta orders through the glass. “Me and the girls brought food.” She doesn’t even falter as she carries everything into the building.
Poppy hits the green button that unlocks the door so fast that my head spins. “That’s a lot of food,” she whispers.
“She’s a mom,” I explain needlessly. “I’m sure Dom told her that everyone is hungry.” I get up and hug Alta when she is done holding the door for the girls to carry in all the food. “Thank you so much.”
“De nada, mija. Dominic called and said that you are all hungry after helping with the fire call. I brought enough for everyone.”
I look at Poppy over my shoulder. “Told you.”
“Yeah, you did.”
Dom pops into the doorway with a plate full of food and a smile on his face almost as soon as his mom walks away.
“Thank you, Dom.” I grab one of the tortillas and roll it up, immediately shoving it into my mouth. “I think I’m hangry.”
“I’m about ten stages past hangry.” Poppy laughs.
Dom leaves after giving me a wink, and Poppy sighs dreamily. “I miss the days of young love.”
“You’re not old,” I counter.
We sit back down, both taking some of the massive amount of food that Dom brought in.
“No,” Poppy agrees. “I’m not old. Just don’t believe in love like I used to.”
There’s a sad wistfulness in her voice, and I know she’s hiding the whole story. “What happened with you and Logan? I’ve never seen you snap like that at anyone, and he seemed like he’d stand here and let you stab him with a pencil if it meant you were paying attention to him. Did he really ruin your date last night?”
I cross my legs in my chair and wait for story time to start, because there has to be a story there. Every time I see Logan in the office, he hovers around dispatch. And Poppy does her absolute best to ignore him. Plus, being in dispatch is like being part of a secret club inside the police department. Secret being the operative word because dispatchers know everything about everyone without trying.
And I’ve heard more than a few rumors about how Logan keeps following Poppy from job to job. Which either makes him a stalker and I should avoid him at all costs, or he’s doing something romantic for her. I can’t make up my mind on which until I know the details.
“Oh, Emma.” Poppy shakes her head. “There’s not enough alcohol or food in the entire world for me to tell you that story. And we can’t even drink right now because we’re at work, so I really shouldn’t.”
Her red curls disappear behind her computer before popping up over the monitor like she’s a puppet. “Screw it. I’ll tell you. Logan was my childhood sweetheart. Not even high school or middle school. I mean my childhood. We started kindergarten together, and I told my mother that I would marry him one day. That was our first day of school. Our very first day of school. There wasn’t anyone else. For either one of us. And then he changed. The future we planned together went up in smoke when he joined the military. I got hurt, and he ran away. He lied to me. Over and over again, and he broke every single promise he ever made. He left me.”
Her eyes are shining with unshed tears, and I immediately feel bad for even asking.
“Now he’s just a giant pain in my ass who won’t go away.”
I glance over at the door, hoping that no one is there listening in on our conversation. She shared something extremely private, and while I thought there was a story there, I honestly didn’t think it was something like that.
“Don’t worry,” she says with a sad smile. “There’s food involved. No one’s gonna come up front for a while. Not only that, but most of those guys know we have a history. They won’t snoop.”
“I’m sorry, Poppy.” My chest starts to ache, and I rub the dull throbbing muscle in an attempt to ease the throbbing. “That’s freaking terrible.”
“Yeah, it was.” She smiles, despite the emotional confession. “But you know what’s not terrible? These tacos.” She lifts one up and shakes it gently, being careful not to spill the insides. Her smile dips slightly. “I hope you never go through anything like that with Dom. Deployments change who they are. Whether they want to admit it or not.”
I know all too well what can happen overseas.
“My brother died over there.” I don’t actually need to tell her, I’m sure. “Everyone knows about Danny. I was only sixteen when it happened. They went overseas, and up until my mother answered the door for the notification detail, I was going to join the Marine Corps too.”
Honestly, I don’t know why I’m telling her any of this. I kept it a secret for so long.
“My mom answered the door, and everything in our lives changed. They brought his body home, and we got to put him into the ground. And I swore to myself that I wouldn’t put my family through that. I wouldn’t put myself through that.” My throat feels suddenly smaller than it had a few minutes before, and if I still had food in my mouth, I’m pretty sure that I’d be choking to death.
“I’m just glad that part of our lives is over,” I tell her. “It’s not my place, or anyone else’s for that matter, to tell you what to do about Logan. I know I’m a terrible person to get advice from because I don’t even know what I’m doing next week.”
“You’re starting the rest of your life.” Poppy smiles as the phone starts to ring again. “That’s what you’re doing.”
She’s right.
But our conversation stays with me all day. The pain I saw on both her and Logan’s faces isn’t something I think I’ll be forgetting anytime soon.
Dom’s holding my hand as soon as we’re out of the PD later. “Want to go on a date with me?”
He’s watching me with an expectant grin, and I can’t help getting caught up in the moment. “Sure. As long as we get to play naked games when it’s done.”