Guilty by Innocence Page 5
Jax did look around. The house looked as neat as a marine’s gear before inspection. Dishes were all washed and put away, the floors shone, and he couldn’t see so much as a toothpick out of place or one speck of dust. He laughed.
“Yeah, I have to admit you’re a pretty good maid. Not that I want or need one—I only let crap get so deep before I muck things out. You could do better, you know. After the trial, you could make a new start anywhere and you’d be fixed up with a near-foolproof identity—go to school, get a job, whatever you choose.”
Despite his cautionary words, he already knew the direction this roundabout conversation was going, even where it was going to end. Did he want or could he allow that result? He remembered the first night, the inferno of hunger and need that had raged through him when he held Gabriel, when they kissed. He hadn’t felt anything like that in such a long time.
When he turned his gaze back to the younger man, their eyes met and locked in a stare so heated and intense he expected to see sparks or smoke any second. “I told you I wasn’t going to take anything you did with the warped notion of paying me for my protection. I told you I couldn’t…”
“You told me you wouldn’t, and I told you it was not about paying back or trying to even things out between us. I told you I wanted it and I still do. It—us—being together…”
The fight and the resistance blew out of Jax like air from a leaky balloon. Oh, what the fucking hell. Who cares? It might end up getting me fired if things go wrong, but sometimes you just have to go with what looks like the will of some higher power or fate or chance. Maybe I don’t owe quite all of my life to the EPPD and the judicial system.
He held out both hands. “Okay, Gabe, if you’re absolutely sure this is what you want, I’m not going to try to beat you off with a stick. Get your ass over here.”
Gabe didn’t require a second invitation. He almost teleported across the room and plastered himself against Jax like metal to a super magnet. Jax had to admit the contact felt better than anything he’d enjoyed in longer than he cared to recall. He locked his arms around the slimmer man’s body and resolved not to let go until…well, until they’d explored every facet and shade of this simmering attraction that had risen between them, or at least until he had to go on duty tomorrow.
With his luck running like this he might even get something on Contreras before all was said and done. Meanwhile, he was going to have one fucking hot time. He’d earned it and he was tired of being a goody two-shoes.
* * * *
Gabriel could hardly believe his ears when Jax summoned him. He flew across the space between them and threw himself into the bigger man’s embrace. It felt like the homecoming he had given up ever experiencing. This was where he belonged.
He reached up and grabbed the taller man’s ears to pull his head down for a fusing kiss. The lip-lock went on and on, until they both had to pull back and gasp for air. A few breaths and they were back at it again. Even as wonderful as that felt, it wasn’t enough.
When Jax lifted his head again, just far enough to separate their mouths, Gabe did not resist and the other man’s words made perfect sense. “We ought to go down the hall to my room. I think rolling around on that king-size bed would be even better than this.”
Gabe nodded his agreement. “Lead on.” Hand-in-hand, they made the short trip. Once in the bedroom, he went to work on Jax’s shirt, then his belt and the zipper of his trousers. As soon as the older man caught on, he returned the favor. It didn’t take long for them both to be nude, clothes flung and kicked aside as they were peeled away.
Jax set his hands on Gabe’s shoulders and held him at arms’ length for a few seconds. “Damn, you’re almost too beautiful to be real. I feel like the model for a big ole badly carved ape compared to you.”
Gabe felt himself blush. Compliments didn’t come to guys who worked the street and they weren’t routine for people who ran errands for the likes of Armando Contreras, either. “You’re pretty good to look at, too.”
He swept his gaze up and down Jax’s muscular frame, enjoying the matching mats of rusty hair on his chest and groin, the subtle café au lait tint of his skin, marked by a couple of conspicuous scars—and the big, hard cock beckoning him like a flashing neon sign. “You sure don’t need to hide behind the door! Not that you’d fit, unless it was one big ass door.”
Jax laughed then, a deep, warm laugh that seemed to burst forth with simple, exuberant joy. Gabe had never seen this side of the detective; had not even guessed a fun-loving, good-humored man lurked behind the stern cop exterior. At that instant, he realized what a demanding master the job of a law enforcement officer could be. Sometimes it could take more than a person had to give. His admiration for the big man grew even stronger.
He was still hesitating, not sure what to do next, when Jax caught his arm and gave him a hard tug. Like kids playing crack the whip, they both staggered and then flew backward onto the bed. In the ensuing bounces, Gabe ended up atop Jax, where he could feel every solid inch of the other man’s body. A shiver of pure electric energy zinged along his nerves. If he got any hotter, he’d either melt or spontaneously combust.
His aching, hard prick found its way between Jax’s solid thighs. Now every shift of their bodies, even the rhythm of their breathing, created a delicious friction. Every short stroke ratcheted his arousal to a higher level. He shifted enough to bring his face close to Jax’s and then found the other man’s lips again.
Sliding his tongue between his own lips, he traced along the seam of Jax’s, then found a way between them. Jax tasted of coffee and the mint gum he often chewed, of man and desire. Gabe savored those flavors as he explored the textures of his lover’s mouth, the silk of his inner cheek, the hard edges of teeth, and the darting tongue that tangled with his.
Jax’s cock made a hard, heated ridge under Gabe’s belly, pushing and reaching with untamed urgency. Gabe rolled to the side a quarter turn or so, rubbing against it. When he heard the deep moan, he wasn’t sure for an instant if he or Jax had made the sound.
“I gotta have more,” Jax said with a gasp. “I’m about to go up in flames here.”
“Yeah, me, too. What do you want first?”
Without speaking, the bigger man rolled them over together until Gabe lay beneath him. He reared back onto his knees as he lifted each of Gabe’s legs and slung them over his shoulders. Then he lowered himself back over Gabe’s body and began rubbing his cock along Gabe’s cock and balls and behind them.
“Wait,” Gabe managed. “Use a rubber. It’s for your own safety. I got tested a few weeks ago, but there’s no guarantee. I could have picked up HIV or most anything the last few months and it just doesn’t show up yet. For now, we need to be careful. You do have some, don’t you?”
“Yeah.” Jax growled the word, shifting his weight to reach for the drawer of his nightstand. “Not that I’ve been using many lately, but I have some. Suppose they’re still good.” He snagged two, tore open one and made a fast job of rolling it up his rigid erection. He dropped the other into Gabe’s hand. “Now.”
“Yes, now!”
They moved into position again and this time Jax did not hesitate. He thrust into Gabe with near-savage urgency, finally giving in to the driving force of his need, built to a fever pitch by his long period of celibacy and his growing frustration over the last few days. He was big and long, as large a man as Gabe could ever recall taking. The combination of size and force stretched him, but he felt no pain, only a singing elation.
This is good and right and amazing. Oh, yes. Despite the bigger man’s urgency, he managed not to be violent, hurtful, or careless. His hands on Gabe’s sides clutched, yet also caressed. He showered kisses across Gabe’s throat and face, licked his pebbled nipples, and returned to his lips.
At that moment, Jax hit Gabe’s hidden inner sweet spot, just before Gabe felt the sudden surge as Jax came. An instant later, he, too, erupted, his dick trapped between their heaving bodies so he got
the friction and pressure necessary to climax.
For a moment, they both lay still, Gabe half crushed beneath Jax’s suddenly limp weight. He could barely breathe, but he didn’t mind. Covered, as if with a heavy, warm blanket, he had never felt more secure, more protected or more cherished.
As if he realized his weight was almost mashing the smaller man through the mattress, Jax managed to get his hands under himself to lever up and off of Gabe. “Sorry, I like to have squashed you, didn’t I? Damn near blacked out for a few seconds there. Oh man, I can’t tell you how badly I needed that. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“No, it was great.” Gabe felt his face almost split with the smile he could not restrain. “You couldn’t hurt me unless you really wanted to, really meant to. I’m feeling damn near perfect right now.”
Jax reached to switch on the lamp on the bedside table. “Need to see you,” he explained. “Otherwise, I’m not sure I can believe this is real.”
“You’re going to let me stay then?”
“That’s a stupid question if I ever heard one. Do you think I could do this and then throw your ass out on the street again?”
Gabe shook his head. “No, not really, but it happened often enough recently. I s’pose I just need to be sure.”
“Hell, yes, you’re staying. I think I’ve found you guilty of innocence, maybe naivety and being kinda foolish, and none of those will put you back in jail. I have no idea where we’re going together, but I believe the trip’s gonna be a good one. If you can stand to hang out with a cynical old fart of a cop, we might make a pretty good team.”
Author’s Note
First, I admit freely to taking some serious liberties with law enforcement procedures and policies in this story. My late husband is probably about to come back and haunt me after his thirty years on the street. However, it is fiction and, as such, maybe an author has license to stretch and bend some factual material!
That being said, this one is for the real struggling police officers of El Paso, Texas, and all over the southwest US where drug-fueled crime is rampant and horrific. I do not envy the job you have to do and I pray for your safety. You truly do operate in a war zone and I cannot even imagine how tough it can be.
THE END
ABOUT DEIRDRE O’DARE
A lifelong reader, Deirdre learned to write—poems and stories—as soon as she could print the letters and try to spell words. She went pro with women’s fiction as Gwynn Morgan after she retired from a US civil service job and switched to erotic romance some years back. A confirmed desert rat, she sets most tales in her beloved southwest and slips in her ranch and outdoor background with adventures and ‘critters’ as secondary characters.
Although all of Deirdre’ s tales are explicit, she emphasizes she writes love stories and not just sex stories because she believes Love in all its forms is the One True Thing. She also believes that every human deserves to find and enjoy it. She currently resides in central New Mexico and serves as chauffer and household staff for two amazing dogs. She enjoys many creative hobbies and spending time with friends and her spectacular grandkids when she can escape from the keyboard.
For more information, visit deirdredares.blogspot.com.
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