24. Kioni
Kioni
The click of the handcuffs signals the end of this draining day.
“He took my kids away from me,” the man on the other end of the handcuffs sobs.
“Attempting to murder the judge was not the answer to getting them back,” I clip.
“The court system is so fucked,” Ryker scoffs once we get the mentally broken father in the back of a police car.
“Now is not the time, Ryk. Wait until we are away from the people who just had a gun aimed at their heads first before you say how fucked up they are.”
His grandmother raised him after his mother never came back to pick him up.
Said she wanted to live her life without having to worry about taking care of a child.
What a bitch. His father was finally able to come back into the picture, but he died in a car accident shortly after.
He was a broken child, but I kept his pieces together.
“If we hurry, we can catch the last half of Sam’s class. To…decompress,” I tell him once we are inside our cruiser.
“To decompress what? Your need to fuck her brains out?”
I snort and undo my vest. The days are more intense when the SWAT team gets called out. I can only handle the boring shit for so long before I need an adrenaline rush.
“I don’t get to be with her as much like this,” I explain, motioning up and down my body.
“Fuck it,” he mumbles, turning on our sirens and lights, speeding towards the station.
“Thanks,” I laugh.
He maneuvers around the traffic and stopped vehicles in front of us with expertise.
This will never get old. How we managed to get our badges and car is beyond me.
It has to be our toxic need to be better than everyone else.
We get to the station in almost record time and I jog towards the gym.
Calmness blankets me when she comes into my vision.
I almost missed her. She’s on her final cool-down stretches of the night.
I don’t bother changing before I grab a mat and spread it out next to hers.
“Sorry I’m late, Red,” I whisper, mirroring her pose.
She smiles at me with rosy cheeks. “I didn’t realize you enjoyed yoga this much,” she teases, glancing at me sideways.
“Oh, I enjoy it very much. My instructor is pretty fucking awesome.”
She pinches her lips together to stop herself from grinning too big.
“I can stay after. For you.”
I swallow and inhale slowly, trying not to show how badly she affects me.
“Get the instructor all to myself. I’d like that.” I wink and her cheeks redden more.
My eyes snag on Ryker leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, watching the interaction. I give him a knowing grin, and he turns, walking to the lockers to change. That fucker is going to stay too. Just to irk me. The little brother I never wanted, but am sure damn glad I have.
“Be right back,” I tell Sam before leaving to get changed, too. The gym is empty, except for Ryker when I walk back in. He has on his headphones and is working his abs on the power tower.
“I think I should stay after so you can be my instructor,” she blurts out, her eyes trailing over my body.
“That would be fun. I could lift you instead of weights,” I joke.
She cocks her head and looks me over, and I know what she’s thinking. I’m not bulky or as showy as the men here, but that doesn’t mean I’m not just as strong. I squat and tell her, “Come on.”
“What? No.”
“Well, now I have to do it so I can take your doubts away.”
She crosses her arms, and I snatch her up and drape her across my shoulders. She squeals and I turn towards the mirror. “Ki!” she laughs. I fix my form, then squat with her in tow.
Her mouth drops, and I do it again before placing her back on her feet.
“Okay…I definitely need to work out with you,” she laughs, poking her biceps.
“You are perfect the way you are, Red.”
I glimpse Ryker’s hidden grin in the mirror’s reflection. He needs someone who makes him as happy as Sam makes me. She’ll appear in his life one of these days, just like Sam did mine.
We return to our mats and go over each pose she did with the rest of the crew, but when it’s time for our closing stretches, I turn to face her and she does the same.
“What?” she asks when I can’t seem to take my eyes off hers.
“Just wondering when you’re going to kiss me again,” I admit foolishly.
She averts her eyes, and I worry I’ve crossed a line. “Red—”
“What if kissing me puts you in danger?”
I furrow my brows at her question and realize she’s talking about masked me.
“Someone shot at me today,” I tell her. “And that wasn’t the first time this week. You can kiss me whenever you fucking want and I’ll accept all the bullets that come with it.”
“Whenever I want,” she repeats.
I’m fucking blushing now. Since when do I blush?
Our hands brush and a bolt of need and desire rush through me.
Calm the fuck down, Ki. She doesn’t even realize she’s as straight as a country back road in West Virginia yet.
She closes her eyes to take her final long inhale and exhale, but mine remain on her face.
If I can make her mine, it will be my greatest accomplishment.
I’d hold her up like a trophy. First place motherfuckers.
“How come you didn’t join us, Ryker?” Sam asks, grabbing her water bottle.
“I’m not the one needing decompressed,” he replies.
She looks at him funny and goes to take a drink, but the cap falls off and water pours over her, drenching her top. I pat and rub her back when she can’t stop coughing.
“That wouldn’t be the first time I almost drowned,” she rasps, and I have to hold back a laugh.
The shit-eating grin Ryker is giving the floor tells me this is his doing. Might as well finish what he was trying to start.
“I have a shirt you can wear in my locker.”
I don’t bother asking her if she wants it.
Instead, I just grab her hand and pull her to the locker room.
It’s just a plain black t-shirt, but it smells like me, and the thought of her wearing my clothes and smelling like me…
fuuuck. I snatch it out of my locker and hand it to her.
She glances around and turns to face the opposite direction to peel off her wet top and bra.
I bite my knuckles. I’d rather get tased than go through the torture of having my girl half naked in front of me and not being able to do anything about it.
Turn around. Turn around. I get the faintest glimpse of her nipples when she turns, still tugging my shirt over her chest.
She grabs the neckline and pulls my shirt over her nose. Before I can ask what’s wrong, she inhales, making an “Mmm” sound.
“It smells like you,” she states, her eyes shining with the smile I cannot see.
“Red,” I warn.
She pops her nose back out of my t-shirt but keeps a fistful still in her hand at her chest.
“Right now,” she breathes.
“Right now?”
She nibbles her lower lip, and I step into her, walking her backwards until her back hits the lockers.
“Say it,” I demand.
“Kiss me, Kioni.”
Her words come out in a plea, and I cup both sides of her face and smash my lips to hers.
She deepens the kiss, and every flick of her tongue over mine has my mind and body going crazy.
Fuck baby steps. She feels too good. I drop my hands to her ass and lift her.
Her legs wrap around my waist and her ankles lock behind me.
“Tell me to stop.”
She shakes her head and cups my face the way I did hers.
“No red,” she says before sealing her lips to mine again.
I remove a hand from her ass and snake it up her body until it’s wrapped around her throat.
Her thighs are like boa constrictors, tightening when I squeeze harder.
I turn her face away from mine and kiss up her neck, rubbing my thumb over her pulse.
She moans and the fucking door opens. I kiss her one last time before I place her on her feet and step backwards, panting and horny as fuck.
Neither one of us say a word as the woman walks by us, unaware of the tension she walked through.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” I tell her, extending my hand towards her.
She grabs her wet clothing off the floor and threads her fingers through mine.
Ryker looks thoroughly proud of himself when we walk out.
Yeah, yeah, I owe you one. I tell him with my eyes.
I stop by her driver’s side door and wait until she unlocks it before opening it for her.
She gives me a wicked smile and presses her lips to mine in a quick but tender kiss before getting into her car.
“You said whenever I want,” she defends.
“Mmm. But what about me?”
“What would you do if I said you could kiss me whenever you wanted?”
“I would make you fucking mine, Red. But I know this,” I point back and forth between us. “seems fun for you right now. Tell me when the fun has become permanent and not a forgotten page in a misprinted book that is supposed to be there, but the story went on without it.”
“I understand,” she whispers. I almost have her door shut, and she pushes it back open. “Just one more? For the road?”
I bite back my laugh. “Anything for you.” I lean into her car and kiss her goodbye again, attempting to pour everything I feel into one kiss. “Get home safe.”