She arched back as he reached around, cupping one of her breasts, tweaking and teasing her nipple as he thrust over and over. Pleasure poured through her as he took her, battering at her nerve endings.
He was just a little rough, a little on edge, and she loved it. He’d always seemed so rigid, so in control until recently and this was the best surprise of all. That and his dirty talk from last night.
She grew slicker the harder he pushed, turned on by the groaning sounds he made. His other hand tightened once around her hip, his hold hard enough that he’d probably leave a bruise. Some primal part of her she hadn’t even known existed was excited at the thought.
When his hand slid around her and cupped her mound, strumming her clit, her entire body jolted in awareness.
“Faster,” she moaned. She just needed him to speed up and—she surged into orgasm, her inner walls tightening around him like a vise as the pleasure speared out to all her nerve endings.
He must have been holding back because as soon as she let go, he did the same, her name a rough growl on his lips.
She clutched at the blanket, her fingers tightening into the material as over and over he continued thrusting inside her. Her entire body felt oversensitive, like one big nerve ending as her climax seemed to go on forever.
They both collapsed onto the blanket almost in unison. Thankfully he rolled off her and sidled up next to her. Lying flat on her stomach, she turned her head to look at him since that was all the energy she had at the moment.
He was on his side, his head propped in one hand. Leaning over, he brushed his mouth against her forehead, the action sweetly sensual. She could feel the possessiveness humming through him when he kissed her.
He smoothed a hand down her back, lightly stroking against her spine. She shivered at the contact and he immediately grabbed another blanket draped across the nearby ottoman and pulled it over them.
She finally moved, curling against his chest as he stretched out onto his back. The lights twinkled beside them, casting shadows around the room. For the first time in years she felt safe, whole. All because of the man next to her.
She wasn’t sure how long they lay there, and didn’t really care. “When I was on the run, it was hard.” The words were out before she could think about what she was saying, or how much she was opening up.
His grip tightened ever so slightly around her, but he didn’t respond. He was simply silent so she could get the words out.
Tegan was grateful he was letting her open up. “I…sometimes had to do things I wasn’t proud of. I pretty much left with the clothes on my back and a few suitcases. A couple times a year I…stole license plates to switch them out with mine so it would be harder to track me.” She still felt guilty about that.
“That’s smart.”
She huffed out a laugh at his words, surprised there was no recrimination there. “In the first six months it was really hard even though I’d done the backpacking thing before. A couple motels I skipped out on paying because I was scared what little money I had wouldn’t be enough to cover me until the next town.”
His grip tightened again, his lips brushing over the top of her head. “You’re incredible, Tegan.” Sincerity laced his words.
She’d expected…well, she wasn’t sure what she’d expected—him to judge her, maybe. Looking up at him, she met his gaze. “I think we should just lie here all night,” she murmured.
“That sounds like a good idea to me.” His voice was just as quiet as he watched her, that familiar intense look in place.
She was glad he felt that way because there was nowhere else she wanted to be.
Chapter 11
A thrill shot through Alec to see Tegan O’Kelly leaving the police station on the news. A man was with the redhead and there appeared to be a group of security escorting them…cops off duty, maybe?
It was hard to tell. But he recognized the face of the man from his files. Aaron Fitzpatrick went into Kimmy’s Cakes and Coffee occasionally.
From the phone records Alec had acquired, it didn’t appear that Tegan had ever had contact with the man so he hadn’t even been on the radar as someone important. But the images on screen didn’t lie, and that man was very much invested in Tegan’s safety. Every movement he made was designed to protect her from harm. It was the way the man carried himself, the way he blocked her from everything. And the expression on his face when he glanced at her…they were definitely in a relationship.
There had been a couple of calls from Fitzpatrick’s house directly to the coffee shop recently. Alec had been monitoring the shop’s phone but hadn’t thought anything of it since that phone number belonged to the brother of the man the shop owner was likely fucking.