Tipsy (Take It Off #5)(32)
Author: Cambria Hebert

After I deposited the knife in the sink and screwed on the lid, I turned, extending the brew to Blue. He took it and set it on the counter beside us and drew me into a hug, locking his arms around me.

My cheek fit perfectly in the little indentation between his pecs, and I dipped my fingers into the waistband of his jeans. Something shifted around us. It was a feeling, an instinct perhaps. It was as if all of a sudden, a dark cloud drifted right above us, threatening to dampen us with rain.

“Blue?” I asked, not sure how to voice what I was feeling.

“It’s going to be okay.”

“What is?” I asked, pulling back to search his face.

He picked up the coffee and took a sip, sighing as he swallowed. I knew the coffee was good, but I also knew he was merely stalling.

I wasn’t going to like what he was implying. It had to be about his job. The case was heating up. Why else would he come over here in the middle of the night?

The last time he came here, it was because he said he couldn’t stand the thought of me out there hating him. He’d said I wouldn’t see him again. He did imply that perhaps once the case was over, he and I might have a chance.

But then he showed up tonight. He did things to my body I would crave until my last moments on Earth. He came even after he said he wouldn’t. Almost as if he thought it might be his last chance to see me…

Horror streaked through me.

My eyes shot up to meet his grim gaze. “You have a very expressive face,” he said.

I slapped my palm against his chest. “You’re a jerk.” I pushed away from him, going back out into the living room where I stood staring down at the blanket where we’d just made love.

“It isn’t as bad as you’re thinking,” he said softly behind me.

“No?” I asked, tilting my head and staring into the flames. “So you didn’t come here tonight as some sort of good-bye?”

He snatched me by the elbow and spun me around. His face pushed close to mine and his blue eyes sparked with anger. “Do you think after that—after us—that I wouldn’t do every last thing in my power to come back to you?”

“But before we did that?” I challenged.

He swore and released me. I swallowed past the sob threatening to rip its way out of my throat.

“The case is heating up. There’s some stuff coming up I gotta do.”

“What kind of stuff?”

“You know I can’t tell you.”

“But it’s dangerous?”

“Isn’t everything?” he quipped, but I heard the masked wariness deep in his voice.

I dropped onto the sofa, tucking my knees beneath me. It was pointless to ask questions or demand answers. I wasn’t about to compromise his cover, his very life, by prying answers out of him.

This was totally out of my area of expertise. I knew color. I knew cut. I knew the best kind of blow dryer and flat iron to buy. Drugs and police work? Not so much.

After a few quiet minutes, he dropped onto the couch beside me, once again laying his arm out across the back of the cushions. “Look, if everything goes well, then there’ll be a break in the case very soon. I could have this wrapped up in a couple of weeks.”

“That soon?” I glanced at him, hopeful.

His eyes softened and he brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “That soon.”

I nodded and gave him a small smile. With a sigh, he got up off the couch and paced near the fireplace. “I just need to know where they’re coming from.”

“Who?” I asked.

He seemed to realize he spoke out loud and spun. “No one. I really have to go.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

I stood up and he looked at his shirt hanging off my frame.

“I’m not giving it back.”

He chuckled and grabbed his jacket, sliding it over the sinew of his muscles. “I like the thought of you sleeping in my shirt.”

He tugged the gray cap over his mussed short hair and then picked up the coffee. “Thanks for this.” He gestured toward the mug.

We walked over to the door, a heavy feeling replacing the light one I felt earlier. Just because I knew he had to go didn’t make it any easier.

He undid the locks and turned to glance at me.

“Be careful, okay?” I asked softly.

He wrapped one strong arm around my waist and lifted me off my feet. Holding me tightly, he kissed me. He tasted like coffee, strong and sweet with just a little hint of heat. I pulled his lower lip into my mouth, tasting him to the absolute fullest.

With a deep growl, he pulled back and set me on my feet. “Damn, woman.”

I smiled.

When he opened the door, a little bit of my smile slipped as he stepped outside. Leaning back in, he pressed a quick kiss to the tip of my nose. “I’ll see ya later, sweetness.”

“See ya,” I said, softly shutting and locking the door behind him.

I listened for his retreating footsteps until I couldn’t hear them anymore. I picked up the blanket off the floor and wrapped it around my shoulders. I didn’t bother going up the stairs to bed, instead lying down on the couch, tucking the softness around me.

As I drifted to sleep with the feel of his shirt on my skin, I hoped I would see him again soon.

18

Blue

The interior of the Mustang was a lot colder than the inside of Julie’s living room, but I didn’t really feel the chill. My blood was still sizzling from what we just did. Fuck, she was one hot woman.

I’d never slept with a woman who so actively participated in love making like that. Her hands were everywhere. Her mouth was eager, and her hips… shit, her hips. That woman could for certain be a professional bull rider.

It made me wonder what all the other women I dated had been missing… Surely it wasn’t me that had been lacking; surely they just weren’t that hot.

It didn’t matter anymore. I would never go back to a lukewarm bedmate again. Hell, I never wanted another bedmate.

It dawned on me then that Julie turned the tables on me. It was me who vowed to make her never want another man again, but it was me who didn’t so much as want to look at another woman now.

I glanced down at the coffee cup in the cup holder and smiled slightly. She even made damn good coffee.

She was a keeper.

I stared out the windshield at the vacant street (I parked several blocks away from Julie’s townhouse) as a bitter taste erupted from the back of my throat. I literally felt my world shift around me.

Clarity was like a bucket of ice water in the face.