Disorderly Conduct (The Academy #1)

My heart is going to expire from happiness. I’m clutching at my chest, laughing, tears spilling onto my arms, rolling into the seam of my mouth. All I can think about is getting Charlie upstairs, into my arms, so I make a blind grab for the keys on my kitchen counter, dangling them out the window a moment, before dropping them into Charlie’s waiting hand.

A cheer goes up. Sirens go off again. Charlie is off the hood of the car so fast, his form blurs on its way toward the building. Mine probably does, too, as I make a mad dash to the door, throwing open deadbolts and twisting locks. The door opens immediately . . .

And there’s Charlie. All haunted eyes, stubbled cheeks and twisting hands. I launch myself at him, not caring one bit about the towel any longer. His strong arms are heaven around me. Perfect, unbreakable, never-letting-go heaven. The sound he breathes into my neck as I’m lifted off the ground is relief in its purest form.

“God, Charlie. God.” I’m sobbing and holding on to him for dear life. “Look what happens when you harness your powers for good instead of evil.” His laugh is hoarse and it vibrates my neck. “That was amazing. You’re amazing.”

“No, I’m a moron. I’m a desperate, exhausted moron who can’t spend another second without his girlfriend.” His blue eyes find mine, tired, but intense. “I have you back, Ever?” His voice is choked, beautiful. So, so beautiful. “Do I have you back?”

“You’ve had me back for days,” I whisper, my knees shaking. My stomach. “If you’d come to find me, you would have known.”

He grips my shoulders, stroking them up to my face. Cupping my cheeks. “I wanted to show you how hard I’ll work. To make you happy. To correct myself when I screw up.” His mouth hovers over mine and we moan. We moan, because it’s been too long since we kissed. “I needed you to see. I’ll keep you loving me. I won’t take it for granted. I’ll treat you, and this love, like the gift it is. You trust me, Ever?”

“Yes.” I wind my fists in his shirt and tug him close, close as possible. “Will you trust me to know what I can handle? When I’m missing you or you’re gone too long, I’ll tell you and we’ll work it out. But you’re taking that exam, Charlie. What’s important to you is important to me.”

“Of course I trust you, cutie.” His laugh is gruff and disbelieving. “And of course you wouldn’t let me back out of the exam. I should have known.” He shakes his head slowly. “At some point, I’ll stop forgetting I fell in love with the most incredible girl on the planet, I swear.”

“Anyway, someone who can juggle the police academy and execute sabotage at the same time can handle being a lieutenant and still keep his girlfriend happy.”

“That’s cute,” he breathes, walking me backward toward the bedroom, his expression awed. “Real cute. Thinking you won’t be my wife by the time I make lieutenant. You haven’t learned how determined I can be by now?”

We fall backward onto the bed, my towel a thing of the past. Charlie’s lips are just above mine, brushing them together. I watch as he notices my bed is covered in the letters he’s been sending. Every single one of them kept me company as I tried to sleep. And his eyes take on a damp quality, his jaw flexing.

“I’ll make you a deal.” He reaches between us, unfastening his pants, both of us laboring to breathe within seconds. “When I pass the exam, you let me put a ring on your finger. Vows in your mouth.”

“Done,” I gasp as he thrusts into me, my back arching off the bed. “I love you so damn much, Charlie Burns.”

He releases a ragged groan into my neck. “I love you more than life, Ever Carmichael.”





Epilogue





Charlie


Life is . . . good? That’s a massive understatement. Let’s go with incredible. In fact, they haven’t even invented a word yet for how fucking wow my life is right now. Sure, I only got Ever back yesterday, but we danced to James Brown this morning in her kitchen while she cooked me eggs, so . . . wow. Compared to the low point I hit when I lost her, this isn’t just heaven. I’m on cloud nine, baby. And it’s only going to get better from here.

I’m lying between Jack and Danika on a mat inside the gym. Greer just handed us our asses and we’re in recovery mode. Out of the dozens of zombies in academy uniforms sprawled around us, though, I’m the only one smiling like a crazy person.

“Ever is spending the night at our place tonight.” I squint one eye and check the clock, still grinning at the thought of seeing her in my bed for the first time. Holding her there. Listening to her talk in the darkness. “I need to wash my sheets.”

Danika’s nose wrinkles. “When is the last time that happened?”

“No clue.”

She groans. “Some Febreze wouldn’t go amiss, either.” Her elbow meets Jack’s ribs. “That goes for you, too, Garrett.”

“And yet the complaint department has been totally silent.” He stretches his arms over his head and yawns. “Does Ever staying the night mean we should invest in some ear plugs, Charlie boy, you dirty dog, you?”

Sure does. I can’t think about what Ever did for me last night without tenting my uniform pants, so I better not. But it involved her mouth and a lot of moaning. All right, now I’m thinking about it anyway, might as well continue.

Ever broke out the pink bikini.

There goes my cock, rising like baked bread in the oven. Turning onto my side, I untuck my shirt to hide it.

I took her out to dinner last night, because you don’t surprise your girl with a flash mob, then order sushi. No, I took her out for Italian, like a good New York boy. Wine and everything. And I think the wine is what gave her the pink bikini idea, so I’m looking into buying nineteen cases of the stuff. She sauntered out of her closet in the strips of pink and I proposed. Again. Since we already agreed she would become my wife after I aced the lieutenant’s exam, she only laughed. Before proceeding to rock my world.

She stripped off the tiny, little bottoms—real slow, like she wanted to drive me insane—and hung them on that down low part of me she owns. Maybe that’s what she was trying to signal. Well, guess what? She didn’t need to. I’m hers. Until the end of time. I’ll wear a sandwich board that says Ever’s Guy on it if she asks me to.

Her knees found the floor in front of me after that. Tightening the pink material around the base of my erection, she dipped her mouth closer, closer . . . That’s when the moaning—mine—started. I don’t mind saying hers was even louder ten minutes later.

Ideas are already forming on how to make them glass-shattering tonight.

Honest to God, I’m looking forward to our conversation in the dark afterward just as much as the sex. We were up until the middle of the night last night, talking about everything from movies to recipe ideas to memories from our childhoods. Damn, I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of her. Thankfully she’s giving me all the time in the world to get right to her center. Right where I want to live forever.

“You all right over there, Charlie boy?” Jack asks with a knowing look.

“Oh, uh . . . yeah. Yes, I would look into ear plugs.” My sigh is one of pure satisfaction. “Because we’re going to be doin’ it.”