No Rep by Lani Lynn Vale

CHAPTER 19

Be the reason someone drinks today.

-Text from Taos to Fran

TAOS

Mavis continued to glare at me, pissed as hell that I’d just caused Fran to have a panic attack, and not bothering to hide it.

“It’s somewhat my fault,” I admitted. “Last night, there was a reporter there, and I told her to go fuck off.”

The woman who’d pushed away from my chest burst out laughing.

That was much more preferable to her tears.

“You?” She snickered, wiping her eyes. “I would never expect that from you.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just… she pissed me off. Kept talking about how we were taking a long time to solve these murders, as if it’s all our fault that this motherfucker knows what he’s doing. And then she proceeds to tell me that I am the reason that we’re not getting anything accomplished. Because ‘I have a new girl’ that I’d rather spend my time with than solving these cases.”

Mavis drew in a swift breath. “What?”

“Somehow, she knew that you were a part of all of this.” I shook my head. “I’m not sure which officer told her. I’m not sure I really want to know, because if I knew, I’d kick his fucking ass, but someone spoke about you. How you fit into all of this. And then she concocted that shit story. I’m sorry, honey.”

She sighed. “I mean, it’s not like I wouldn’t have spoken up about this if I could have. I mean… maybe this is a good thing. Maybe him thinking that he screwed up, left a witness, will make him screw up for real. Maybe…”

“Maybe you’re dumb.” Mavis rolled her eyes.

Fran flipped her off, going as far as to put her finger right in her face.

Mavis slapped Fran’s hand away and said, “Don’t treat this as a joke, Fran.”

Fran grumbled something under her breath, then scrambled to her feet using my thigh as leverage.

I came up much more slowly than she, catching her before she could stalk out of the room. “Where are you going?”

She whirled in my arms and poked me in the chest. “To pack.”

My lips twitched, and I couldn’t stop from placing my lips to hers.

“Okay.” I reluctantly released her.

Fran made sure to shoulder-check Mavis as she left the room, leaving me alone with a very upset sister.

“I’ll watch out for her,” I promised.

Mavis narrowed her eyes. “You better.”

“I’ll never leave her alone,” I promised.

“You better not.” She crossed her arms.

“When I need to do something, I’ll call you. Or Madden. Or someone. I promise. She’ll never be alone,” I repeated myself.

Mavis sighed. “Don’t call Madden.”

My lips quirked up. “Why?”

Mavis sighed again. “Because I don’t think I want to be around him at all right now. And if my sister is around him, I’ll be forced to be.”

I didn’t bother arguing with her.

In fact, instead of doing any of that, I went to Fran’s bedroom, surprised to find her emptying out her drawers.

“Coming for the long haul?” I teased.

Fran looked at me and flushed. “I just… I have a lot of workout clothes. And I’ll need workout clothes, and regular clothes, and pajamas, and I don’t know how long that I’ll have to be there so…”

“It’s okay,” I teased. “I was just kidding.” I paused. “If you want to go ahead and move in permanently, you could.”

She looked at me in surprise. “Really?”

I opened my mouth to deny it, but then realized that despite my joking nature, I really wouldn’t mind her moving in with me.

“I definitely wouldn’t mind having you there,” I told her honestly. “Then I wouldn’t have to say goodbye to you every night because you’re too scared that I’m going to get tired of you.”

She opened her mouth and then closed it. “I-I just don’t want… I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”

My lips quirked at one corner. “If I thought that you’d overstay your welcome, I wouldn’t have asked you to stay,” I told her honestly. “Baby, I’m a pretty open and honest man. If I feel like you need to know something, I’ll tell you. If something is bothering me, I’ll tell you. If you’re doing something that’s getting on my nerves, I’ll definitely tell you.”

Her lips quirked.

“And if I need some time alone, I can just go to the gym. Or go to my office which you’ve yet to follow me to. Or, I’ll just plain ol’ tell you I need a break,” I informed her. “But the same goes for you. If you need a break, tell me. I’ll give you a break. If you want me to go fuck off, tell me. I’ll go fuck off. That’s the point of communication.”

Fran rolled her eyes.

“And while we’re on the subject of being honest, I know who your grandmother is. Everyone knows who your grandmother is, because she’s a fuckin’ bitch. Trust me when I say the name Pope is very symbolic around here. There’s no way that I wasn’t going to know who you were related to.”

She snickered. “I’ll bet your grandmother is way nicer than mine.”

I smiled then. “There’s no fuckin’ doubt in my mind that she is.”

• • •

“I want you to meet her,” I said as I helped her bring her things into my house.

After driving around for the last half an hour, making sure we kicked all the reporters that thought to follow us, we finally arrived at my home.

Not that it would be a secret for long.

It wasn’t unknown with the town that Fran and I were seeing each other.

I was sure, rather quickly, news would spread that she was staying at my place.

There was no way that I could keep it a secret with my nosy neighbors.

“Are you sure that it’s not too soon?” she asked quietly.

I grinned. “Sleep on it. And if it bothers you because it’s too soon, how about you think about the fact that there’s a serial killer out there? You can say that you’re staying until this motherfucker is caught. For now, I have other, more enjoyable topics.”

She frowned. “What?”

I ripped my shirt off over my head, then went to start on the jeans.

Her eyes went down to where I was slowly popping each individual button out of its slot, and she licked her lips.

“I’ve missed you these last few weeks,” I mused as I got to the end. “You’ve been avoiding me.”

Her eyes flicked up to mine.

“I…” She paused.

“Have been avoiding me,” I repeated. “You’re dodging my calls. You can only meet me for a short amount of time. Is it because I picked the case back up?”

Her eyes were pulled from the V that made up the muscles to my pelvic region to my eyes.

Her eyes said it all.

She was scared.

And not because of what happened today. But scared in general. Maybe of this feeling that I knew that she felt right along with me. Maybe of me in particular. I didn’t know. But I wanted to find out.

She sighed when her eyes stayed glued to mine for a long time. “I don’t know how to do healthy relationships. I don’t want to smother you with my desire to be around you twenty-four seven. And I don’t want you to get tired of me, because I really, really, really like you. And I want you to keep liking me as long as possible.” She paused. “And I’m kind of scared that you’re going to start pitying me because of what you learned of the assault.”

I moved fast, pulling her into my body, pressing mine into her lower half.

“Does that feel like I pity you?” I rasped, pressing a soft kiss against the base of her throat, right in that little hollow between her clavicles.

I made sure to twist my hips to allow her to feel my ‘non-pity.’

Her breath hitched. “You can pity me and still want me… like that.”

I scoffed, licking a line up the length of her throat to right underneath her chin. “I don’t feel pity for you,” I informed her. “I feel anger for you. Passion for you. Need. Desire. Want. I’m pissed that you didn’t tell me. Sad that I don’t get to see you every day. Mad that you keep ditching me because you think that’s what I want. But I most definitely don’t feel any damn pity for you. Not when you’ve persevered. When you’ve turned into this person that overcame a huge obstacle and made you into the woman that I see today.”

She sighed, pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes, then slumped against the wall.

“I’m a mess, Taos,” she admitted. “I know that you think that I’m not, but I am. I look really good on the outside, but inside my head, I have all kinds of things going on that I’m sure normal people don’t…”

“I can top that. I literally think about serial killers all of the time. All day, every day. When I’m not actively working a case, I’m literally plotting out shit in my mind. I’m not sure that it’s normal for people to think about the best way to kill someone to cause arterial blood splatter to reach a ten-foot-high ceiling,” I told her bluntly.

She threw her head back and laughed, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I moved until her entire body was pressed up against mine, not quite wrapping my arms around her before I said, “Why are you so far away?”

She smiled at me sheepishly before returning the hug that I was forcing her into.

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I just…”

“You just need to turn off your brain and let me do all the thinking right now,” I teased.

She tilted her head sideways, her blue jean eyes sparkling with something feisty that I truly loved looking at.

“Oh yeah?” she asked, running the tips of her fingers down along the center line of my chest, not pausing until she couldn’t make it any farther due to our body’s proximity to each other.

“Yeah,” I pressed a chaste kiss on the tip of her nose. Then on the very edge of her lips.

“What are you going to do to make me get out of my own head?” she teased.

I moved backward, putting just a little bit of distance between us, then reached for her jeans.

She hissed in a breath when my knuckles rubbed against her lower abdomen, her eyes flicking up to meet mine as she waited for me to do what I would.

I didn’t waste time.

I stripped her of her pants, panties, shoes, socks, t-shirt and bra all in the same amount of time that it would take a normal person to strip off just one article of clothing.

When she was completely bared to my gaze, I moved her until she was sitting on the ledge of my dresser, right in front of my window, where anybody who cared to look in could see.

Sure, it probably wasn’t the best idea in the world.

Yet… I couldn’t help myself.

I couldn’t make it any farther than I’d already made it. The bed felt like it was a mile away.

I needed her.

Right then.

Right there.

Right now.

Later, I would realize how fuckin’ stupid it was of me to take her where I took her. Later, I’d tell myself how fuckin’ crazy and exposing it was. But for now…

I dropped down to my knees, placed my hands around her lower hips, and picked her up, scooting her forward until she was all but hanging off of my dresser.

“Holy shit!”

Her gasp of surprise at the move of strength was amusing.

I loved that she never quite expected me to move her around like I did.

Inhaling deeply before I took a nosedive into her pussy, I groaned at the sweet smell of her.

I loved even more the way she tasted.

The flavor burst on my tongue when I practically buried my mouth in her in the next second.

“Gah,” she breathed, her hands going to my hair. “Stop! There’s no way I smell good.”

I looked up at her before I pressed forward, only stopping when my chin met the cleft of her ass.

Then, eyes continuing to stay on her, I licked out, taking a long, tasteful swipe of the best tasting pussy I’d ever had.

I let it be known with my eyes how much I liked the taste of her, because voicing it aloud meant I’d have to stop doing what I was doing.

“You’re crazy.” She shook her head, widening her legs and pressing her flesh fully into my face.

Smothering me in her.

I went to work then, tasting, sucking, licking and cherishing every single inch of her pussy.

I fucked her with my tongue. Sucked on her clit. Nibbled.

Not one single inch of her was left without attention.

I was so lost in what I was doing, enjoying every single fucking second of how she tasted, that I didn’t realize that she was getting frustrated until she yanked me back by the hair.

“God, Taos. Just fuck me already!” she cried. “Your fingers. Your dick. I don’t fuckin’ care, just get in there!”

I chuckled huskily against the apex of her thighs, licking my lips as I came to my feet.

My dick, so long denied, all but pulsed with each beat of my heart.

I was so hard that I could barely stand it, and the only thing holding up my jeans at this point was the engorged flesh.

Her eyes went to my cock almost immediately, and she took pity on me.

Reaching for my cock, she deftly maneuvered me out of my boxers, being careful not to break what I could tell she was about to try to play with.

When she tried to come down off the dresser, I shook my head.

“I’m on a thin and crumbling edge here,” I told her. “You want fucked. You’re getting fucked. But only when it’s right here, right now. If you so much as put your mouth on me, I’m going off without you.”

She pouted so cutely that I had to grin.

“I’ll let you play next time,” I said, removing her hand from around me as I took over with my own hand.

She sat back, her bare shoulders pressing against my dresser mirror, giving me an excellent view of her upper body and her heaving torso.

I looked my fill.

Her hair was disheveled. Her eyes were wide and pupils dilated. Her breasts were jolting, nipples pebbled.

Goose bumps ran down the length of her stomach and between her thighs.

That was a nice little mess.

Her thighs were straining as she balanced on the edge, and her pussy was covered in her excitement.

God, did I want her.

“Taos, stop looking,” she growled, her hand going down to her pussy lips, which she parted. “And fuck me.”

I liked her dirty mouth.

I liked even more that she was telling me exactly what she wanted.

Within two seconds I had myself lined up at her entrance and I was pushing inside.

The height of the dresser, with her on top of it, was the absolute perfect height.

All it took was me to move forward for me to be exactly where I wanted to be.

Her pussy stretched, blooming nicely around my engorged flesh.

She was slick, and she felt like molten fire as I sank into her.

Slowly.

So fuckin’ slowly.

She cried out as I filled her, her head falling back to the mirror, and a delicate lock of hair falling from the haphazard bun on the top of her head to curl enticingly around her nipple.

I all but yanked my gaze away to once again stare at her pussy.

Watched as I filled her until I was sheathed inside of her and she was stuffed so full that she was panting.

I pulled out, my eyes on my cock.

I was covered in her essence, gleaming in the harsh light that was coming down from the LED can lights above our heads.

I thrust back inside, hard and fast, burying myself to the hilt.

She gasped, her hands clenching so hard on the lip of the dresser that her knuckles turned white.

I pulled back and thrust in again, my balls tightening ruthlessly with an impending orgasm.

That’s when I started to count backward from one hundred in my head.

One hundred.

Ninety-nine.

Ninety-eight.

God, hold on just a little bit longer.

Ninety… seven.

Ninety-six.

Ninety… fuck, she felt so good. Tight. Hot. Wet.

Mine.

My release came whether I was ready for it to or not.

It hit me so fast that I couldn’t prepare.

Couldn’t even get her off if I’d wanted to.

One second, I was holding my own, hoping to give her what she wanted and needed, and the next I was coming, filling her up so full of my release that it started to push out around my cock.

My breath left me, and my heart was pounding so hard that I was sure that I was at an unsafe level.

I squeezed my eyes shut as every single bit of my cum left me and filled her.

When I finally opened my eyes, it was to see Fran’s hand reaching down and gathering the wetness at her opening, where I was still buried deep, and bringing it up to her clit.

It was the single hottest thing I’d ever witnessed, her rubbing our cum into her clit, and getting herself off.

When she came, I watched enraptured.

Noticed the small indents on the side of her mouth as her lips pursed. Witnessed the way her nipples pebbled even harder.

Felt the way her pussy rippled, released, and tightened over and over again around my still-hard cock.

Watched a flush start at the tips of those pebbled nipples and move up the length of her chest to her cheeks.

And, the best yet, I witnessed the look of love that was pouring out of her eyes when they finally opened and connected with mine.

Both of our breathing was uneven when I moved us from that dresser to the shower.

It didn’t slow in the shower, either, as I picked up right where we left off.

In fact, we continued that trend all the way into the night and early into the next morning.

When we both finally fell into a deep, exhausted sleep, it was with my arms wrapped tightly around her, her tucked in so close that not a single thing would ever break us apart.