Page 54 of Hart of Redemption
I slid my hands down his sweat-slick waist and grabbed his ass, opening my legs as wide as they would go.
Then with one hard thrust, he rammed in his cock, groaning. The look on his face of pure pleasure and pain was priceless.
He nibbled on my bottom lip, my jaw, my ears, everywhere he could as he picked up speed—in then out, breathing heavily through grunts and moans. “I’ve never been with anyone as breathtaking as you.”
Emotion clogged my throat as our tongues tangoed and we rolled around, me on top of him, him on top of me, hands in each other’s hair, kissing, nipping, sucking, breathing heavily, making sounds of pure unadulterated pleasure.
I never wanted this night to end, but my orgasm spiraled down hot and fast, and I squeezed around him so hard that he stiffened.
I cried out his name as he shuddered, both of us reaching that blissful state together.
His cock throbbed inside me, and with a satisfied grin, he raised his upper torso, his mahogany eyes filled with something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. “You okay?”
“Never better. You?”
He pecked me on the lips. “Perfect.” Then he rolled off me. “Come on, let’s take a shower.”
“I should go.” Leave and never look back. I needed to take myself off this case. Run far. Run fast.
He removed his condom and deposited it in the trash by the nightstand. “One night, remember? Plus, I would rather you not drive home alone at this hour.”
I drove home myself every night after my shift, and four a.m. wasn’t any different than two or three a.m. But a hot shower and another hour with him wouldn’t hurt. The damage was already done. That wall around my heart cracked, and slowly Duke had seeped inside.
I acquiesced. “Fine, but I would rather not be seen leaving the boss’s room.”
“I have a back entrance, and no one comes in until the afternoon.”
Sighing, I followed him into the bathroom as he turned on the shower. “Duke, everything you said to me tonight—was it the truth?”
I was fairly certain he’d been honest with me, judging by the emotion that had been in his voice and the expression on his face. But a tiny part of me felt that maybe that was how he lured women into his lair. I didn’t exactly know why I cared because he and I could never be.
He held out his hand as he guided me into the gray-tiled enclosure that had a bench along one wall. Once we were under the hot water, he gently grabbed the sides of my head, lowering his lips until they were ghosting over mine. “Every word was from my heart.”
Then he kissed me softly, and I knew when I left him that I wouldn’t be the same person. I was beginning to understand the severity of what Agent Howard had said. “No one comes out as the same person they were when they went undercover.”
Yet as Duke and I showered, taking time to touch and kiss each other while we did, I knew neither of us would be the same after my assignment ended. A part of me wanted to help him, to give him that redemption he craved, to make sure he didn’t go to prison. Considering my team was involved, that seemed unlikely. After all, it wasn’t just Duke we wanted.
21
DUKE
The club was dark save for the dim lights over the bar and the ones edging the steps that led up to the second floor, where I’d left Joy snuggled in my bed, looking like Sleeping Beauty. Blood was pooling in my dick, just by me recalling the feel of being inside her.
Denim sat at the bar. “Every time I come in here, I’m reminded of that night Jade was shot right there.” He stabbed a finger to a spot behind him. “Fucking Tito Alvarez. I’m surprised someone hasn’t shanked him in prison.”
“You woke me up at seven in the morning to tell me that?” I filled two glasses with Coke.
One of his eyebrows went up. “Since when do you sleep past four or five? Are you feeling okay?”
He had a point, but after my intimate time with Joy, I had actually slept soundly for the first time in ages until my phone kept vibrating on the nightstand. Denim had left me several messages that he wanted to stop by on his way home from his security job.
I set a glass in front of him. “Why are you here?”
“We didn’t have a chance to chat after Thanksgiving dinner. I wanted to thank you for working things out with Jade. You don’t know how much that means to me, bro.”
“She needed to come clean too. But she and I are cool. Also, congratulations again. You’re going to be a dad. Who would’ve thought any of us would have kids?”
He toyed with a napkin. “I’m scared out of my damn mind about being a dad. How can any of us be a good father after what our old man did to us as kids?”
