Chapter 9 Rafferty
RAFFERTY
The bed shifted just as I was starting to rise to the surface. I blinked a few times until my eyes focused on Jesse’s face.
Jesus, he was pretty.
“Mornin’,” I said, yawning through half of it.
“Merry Christmas,” he said, his smile a little too much like trouble for me to fully trust it.
I moaned into a stretch. “It is Christmas, isn’t it?”
“Last I checked,” he said, smirking. Like maybe he’d gotten up to something while I was sleeping.
Probably not a good sign that I couldn’t wait to find out what he’d done.
“You been up long?” I asked, my voice still gravely as I took in the way the early sun lit up his curls.
“For a bit.”
“I should be happy you kept your promise about not killing me in my sleep then,” I said as I wrapped a curl around my finger and gave it a tug.
Jesse sent me a sharp grin, then shifted his eyes downward. I followed the movement, finally clocking the knife in his hand, right at my throat. I released his hair then tried and failed to hide my smile.
On a professional level—and only a professional level—I was slightly embarrassed that he’d managed to get the drop on me. On a personal level, my cock was thrilled with this turn of events.
Eh. If he wanted me dead, I’d be bleeding out already.
“I did say that you’d be awake and looking right at me.”
“Mm.” I distracted him with a lewd perusal of his hot, compact muscles. Prison really did do a body good. “That you did.”
“Then why are you smiling at me?” he asked, smiling right back.
I looked down, and he followed my line of sight to the knife that was now in my hand.
“Son of a bitch.” He shook his head, then muttered, “Yeah, that’s getting added to the spank bank.”
“I see you found where I hid one of the knives.”
“The planter on the back porch was an inspired choice,” he said, shivering. “Though it is fucking cold outside.”
I shifted, looking out the window. “Damn. That snow is still coming down pretty hard.”
We’d only seen this amount of snow in this part of Texas, maybe one or two times in the last hundred years. I reached over and checked my phone. The cell service was still down.
“I do love a white Christmas,” Jesse said, gesturing at my phone, “but both cell and Wi-Fi are still down.”
I sent him a very serious frown. “You went into my phone?”
“You really should change your settings.”
Of course he’d pick the lock on your professional life.
Narrowing my eyes, I followed the instinct honed by years of detective work and thumbed over to my photographs.
Holy. Fucking. Jackpot.
“I’m not erasing these,” I said, locking my phone and putting it back on the nightstand.
“Call it a Christmas present from me.”
I used the knife to tap the end of his nose. “You are trouble.”
“I know. It’s a gift.” He thumbed his ripe nipple, grinning at me. “We should get you some water. You’re bound to be a little dehydrated after all that vodka.”
I examined the sharp kitchen knife, then flipped it and held the dull side of the blade against his throat.
“There’s more than one way to hydrate.” I sent him a predatory look and watched his pupils expand. “Pull down your pants.”
Jesse sucked in a breath at the gentle order, then shoved the bottoms down past his ass and cock to mid-thigh. It’s a good thing he decided against killing me.
With a deep, satisfied rumble, I attacked his nipple until he went breathless, then trailed kisses down his chest and belly, keeping the knife at his throat. Nuzzling into the patch of pubic hair, I inhaled deeply before taking his sleepy cock into my mouth.
Mm. Yummy boy.
Yesterday, I’d practically drooled over his chilled bits after I’d worked him out of his jeans.
Nothing I liked better than nursing a petite, pretty dick.
The sucking sounds, the tease of not quite enough pressure, finally working it over with my tongue until it stiffened and… mmph. So. Fucking. Good.
Jesse let out a moan as he grew half-hard, and I pulled away.
“You okay?” I asked, worried I’d gone too fast. “That sounded painful, not pleasurable.”
“Oh, it’s pleasurable. I just had a rough night,” he admitted with a grimace as he gingerly touched his fingertips to his stitches. “Between the sore muscles and the underwater nightmares, I kept waking up.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, sweeping my hand over his hip. “We don’t have to—”
He waved off my concern. “I’m tired, Detective. Not dead. Just…go back to that teasing…sucking thing you were doing.”
I winked at him and palmed his nuts. “Happy to oblige.”
Starting again, I delicately kissed his length, rolling my lips over my teeth to gently nom on his cockhead, slowly sucking him into my mouth as I cupped his balls in one hand and returned the blunt edge of the knife to his throat.
“Yesss.” Jesse’s hips swayed. “Nurse me, Daddy.”
I chuckled before softening the suction to just this side of cock warming, eliciting a complaint, then a sigh. I released his balls to run my hand over his hips, his thighs, his chest. Took him apart with the kind of cozy domination I specialized in.
God, his nipples were so sensitive. The barest feather of a touch set off goose bumps and a tiny pearl of precum followed by desperate pleas for me to suck him just a little harder.
Jesse Travis may have been a stone-cold killer, but in my hands, he was putty.
Finally, when he was begging for more and thrusting his hips, I set aside the knife and rolled his nipples while sucking him until he was hitting the back of my throat and arching off the bed, moaning my name.
“Coming…” he choked out, delirious.
With one last thrust, his bitter heat flooded my mouth, and I drank him down until he cried out for mercy. I rolled away with a satisfied grin, and he righted his pajamas before pushing me back against the pillows.
“If I had any patience left, I would tease you and make you wait an eternity to come,” he groused, yanking down my sweats.
“Baby boy, you can do whatever you want to my body,” I said, crossing my arms behind my head as I laid back.
He rolled his eyes, pulling the sweats the rest of the way off, eyes sparkling as he nosed my cock, his hands greedy as they ran through my chest hair.
It’d been a while since someone had so baldly appreciated me.
“Jesus, how did my poor ass ever manage this beast?” Jesse murmured, then swallowed me down as best he could, his lips stretching obscenely around my girth.
I looked down at him, grinning as he worked me over. Pulling away, he swiped at his swollen lips. “Fuck my mouth, Detective.”
As much as I wanted to play it cool, making him come had me on a sharper edge than I’d realized. I uncrossed my arms and gripped the back of his head, forcing my cock to the back of his throat again and again.
His eyes locked with mine as I snapped my hips, and that was game over. My orgasm barreled down my spine with zero warning. I shouted, blowing so hard he gagged on the torrent of cum.
I tried to pull away, but he kept after me, like he wanted—needed—every fucking drop. He held my gaze as he took down the last of what I had to offer, then slowly pulled off me and tugged my sweats back up. He collapsed next to me, both of us completely fucked out for several breaths.
Finally, he tucked in against my heated body, and I was once again his snuggly big spoon.
Merry Christmas, indeed.
We swam in and out of sleep for a while, cozy and warm and trying to forget that the world was just outside our door. At least I tried to forget.
I had no idea what was going on in his head.
My physical needs finally forced me out of bed and into the bathroom, where I left the door open. Jesse shifted, and I felt his eyes on me as I pissed, then washed my hands and brushed my teeth.
I heard his devious chuckle and bit back a grin, rinsing out my mouth as I waited for his next move. I could tell by the way he strutted into the bathroom that he had the knife on him, so I shot out my hand, disarming him with a painless wrist break, then caught the knife before it hit the ground.
Muscle memory was a helluva thing.
Knife in hand, I gave my mouth one more rinse, then arched my brow at him in the mirror.
His expression was a combination of amusement and murder, and fuck if that didn’t get my blood pumping.
I’d left the knife out in the open as a test, though in truth I didn’t know if this constituted a pass or fail. Pretty sure it was going to lead to more orgasms either way.
“How do you like your eggs?” I asked. “There’s bacon, too.”
“Then fry ‘em up in the bacon grease. Over hard, please.”
I tsked and went to the kitchen, where I began putting together a hearty breakfast. Soon, Jesse joined me with a lazy smile.
“Smells fucking delicious,” he said, drifting over to the coffee maker.
He poured two mugs, setting one beside me as I flipped our eggs. The knife was sitting on the counter, and I knew he was going to reach for it before he did.
When his sneaky hand drifted over the counter, I shifted just enough to smack his knuckles with the greasy spatula.
“No touchy,” I growled through a bemused smile.
“Fine.” He pouted, then stole a piece of bacon instead.
Fair.
We sat at the tiny kitchen table, which had a great view of the cove through the picture windows. The snow had stopped but still lay in drifts on the ground.
“Feels like we’ve been dropped onto an alien planet,” he said, cutting up his eggs and bacon together.
“It really does,” I murmured, all too aware of how fleeting this moment was.
There was a bittersweetness to the scene outside. My grandfather would’ve loved this.
Jesse shifted in his chair. “Do you think we should try to go out to the main road and see what’s happening up there?”
“I don’t have the clothing for that,” I admitted. “I didn’t believe the weatherman when he said there was a chance of snow. But we still have electricity, so we can turn on the radio and see what they’re saying.”
That we had both water and electricity was a minor miracle.
Jesse looked around. “Where’s the radio?”
I stood and grabbed the tiny ancient box on top of the refrigerator, then plugged it in and set it on the table between us. He watched as I extended and manipulated the antenna, finally landing on a fuzzy station out of San Angelo.
“Looks like the worst of it will be over by midnight or so, folks. All major highways in the Texas Hill Country will remain closed at least until noon, and local law enforcement is asking people to stay off the road except in emergencies. But get this, Dana,” the weatherman said to the DJ.
“The high on Tuesday will be sixty-five.”
“You know what they say about Texas weather, George.”
I snapped off the radio. “Hopefully, by tomorrow morning, we’ll be able to get you in touch with the Rangers.” I sent him a shit-eating grin. “In the meantime, I don’t mind having a little fun with you. Provided you stop trying to stab me.”
“I make no promises,” he said, delicately wiping the smirk on his lips. “Though I might need some Advil or something before we go after it again.”
He curled forward and arched back, grimacing with the stretch.
“Shit, you should’ve said something sooner.” I leaned in, cupping his face. “I think I have some eight-hundred-milligram ibuprofen from the time I strained my back. Gimme a sec.”
His chest rose quickly at my touch, which should’ve been a warning. Another one of those fiery flags I was determined to ignore.
I got up and went to the bathroom, returning seconds later with the pill and a glass of water.
“Sorry I didn’t offer this to you last night,” I said, handing them to him.
“Ugh. Worst host ever,” he cracked, then swallowed the pill with some water. “That’s okay. We were occupied.”
“No apologies for that.”
Tapping the table, he asked, “Is there anything else to do here?”
I grimaced. “I’d planned on drinking, but I don’t think my system can handle any more vodka.”
He laughed as I considered what there was to do—aside from the obvious. A few moments later, I smiled, remembering a happy childhood memory.
“How does a round of Rummikub sound?”
Should I be playing board games with the state’s star witness?
Probably not, but then again, I shouldn’t know what his cum tastes like, so…
Besides, it was Christmas.
His brows met in the middle. “I don’t know what that is.”
I leaned forward, popping my brows. “Then you’re in for a treat.”