Page 9

When Roni finally made it home, she entered her house as gingerly as she had exited it. She removed the note on the door that she had written for Brax’s benefit, and placed it in her coat pocket as she made her way to the guest bathroom at the front of her house.

She showered quickly, getting all the dirtiness of Lou Jerard off of her, and then, naked, she tiptoed her way back into her bedroom and then into her bed. To her delight, Brax was still fast asleep.

Or so she thought.

Because as soon as she laid in bed, lying on her side with her front to his back, his voice was heard without an ounce of sleepiness in it. “It took you long enough,” he said.

Roni was shocked. Her eyes stretched wide when he turned over, facing her, and she could see he wasn’t asleep at all.

“Did it anyway, didn’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“I woke up. And read your note. Then I watched the newscast.”

Roni exhaled. She was surprised that he wasn’t angry with her. “I thought you would be upset if you found out.”

“I am upset,” Brax admitted. He was so relieved to have her back home safe and sound that it tempered his anger, but it was still there. “I told your ass I was going to handle that for you. Didn’t I tell you that, Roni?”

“Yes you told me, but--”

“Don’t you hand me any buts. There are no buts about it. What you did worked. And I’m glad it worked. But it could have easily went all kinds of crazy, Roni. That was some dangerous shit you pulled.”

“I know you told me you would take care of it, and I know it was dangerous. But this was my life they were messing with. And my career. And my name. I had to handle it my way. And I did,” she added, in that sassy way of hers that always dared him to object. As if she knew she had him wrapped around her pretty little finger.

And she did. Any other human being alive who defied him the way she often did he would have easily kicked to the curb long ago and never bothered with her again. She had him, alright, but that didn’t spare her from his wrath. Because he had her too. “Was that little stunt of yours worth risking our friendship?” he asked her bluntly.

Roni never liked when he dangled their friendship in front of her. Because, for her, their relationship was the most precious one she had, and there was no way she wanted to lose it. “Why would you bring that up?” she asked him. “You know good and well I wasn’t trying to harm our friendship.”

“You don’t have to try,” Brax shot back, “but that’s what you’re doing every time you defy me, Veronica. Because one of these days you’re going to take shit too far and I’m going to say sayonara baby and get the hell out of your life for good. Is that what you want?”

“You know that’s not what I want.”

“Then your ass better start acting like it! You’re twenty-nine.”

“I’ll be thirty in a few weeks,” Roni said.

“I don’t care when your ass will be fifty in a few weeks. You’re twenty-nine right now,” Brax said again. “The point is, I’m already forty-three. I can’t take all this drama you love to put front and center in my life. I rushed over here tonight because I was worried about you. I told you I would handle it and help you get a job, a detective’s job, in Victorville. But that wasn’t good enough for Roni. She has to have her adrenalin rush. She has to do it her way. One of these days, I’m telling you, I won’t be there when you get down from your high. And I mean that. I don’t have a need for speed. I don’t have adrenalin rushes. I’m not going to sit around and wait for the phone call in the middle of the night asking me to identify your body. I won’t do it and I mean that. I won’t do it!”

Roni had never seen him so worked up before. She knew he’d be pissed. He was always pissed with her about something. And he was always threatening to end their friendship, too, if she didn’t stop taking chances with her life. But he’d never come at her this hard.

“I thank you for coming tonight,” she said to him heartfelt. “I really needed you. And I know I do things that you don’t agree with. But I can only be who I am, Brax. What do you want from me? You want me to change to make you happy? Is that what you want?”

Brax could see the distress in her eyes. She had enough to worry about than to worry about him too.

He even thought about that other promise he made to her mother to never try to change her.

“No,” he said. “I don’t want you to change to please me. But could you be more careful?”

Roni smiled at the way he said it. “I’ll be more careful,” she said.

Brax managed to smile too. “At least you cleared your name, and should hopefully get justice for that poor kid.”

Roni nodded. “Yes. His mother was on the news just after it happened and she was so devastated. At least she’ll get a payday out of it, the city will have to pay up for what Jerard and Mulvaney did, although I know she’d rather have her son back.”

“Your so-called partner deserved exposure,” Brax said. “And his stupid butt exposed himself in that recording.”

“That’s why I needed to do it my way,” Roni said.

Then a thought occurred to Brax. “I hope you don’t think your exoneration will be enough for you to remain as a cop in this town.”

Roni was shaking her head before he finished his sentence. “I know I’ll forever be the snitch. I’ll never get promoted. Might even get killed in some friendly fire incident, I know all that. I’m not staying. I told you I was going back home, and I am.”

Brax placed his hand on the side of her smooth, worried face. “You’ll land on your feet, kid. Leave it to me. They won’t have to promote you. When you come back home, you’ll begin already promoted as a detective first grade and move up from there. I’ll see to that. And you’d better let me see to it, Veronica.”

Roni smiled. “I have zero clout in Victorville. Just like I have zero clout here in New York. You needn’t worry about me interfering.”

He smiled, too, satisfied that she meant it, until they both were looking into each other’s eyes so long and so hard that both of their looks turned into a seriousness that changed them.

When Brax moved closer to her, he was pleased to feel her nakedness once again. She could have put on a nightgown. She could have put on any article of clothing when she returned home that night. But she didn’t.

He knew it was probably because she wanted him to believe she had never left their bed. He would find out the next day when shit hit the fan, but at least he wouldn’t be screaming at her all night. But whatever the reason, feeling her naked body again delighted him beyond measure.

And Brax moved even closer to her, wrapped her into his arms. They stared at each other for several seconds. And then he slowly, tenderly kissed her.

But as soon as their lips locked, it became a passionate kiss for the very first time, and it broke them both. The grunts began. Desperation took over. All those years of wanting each other, of needing each other, of dreaming of being with each other turned passion into an urgency they could not quash.

Brax grabbed Roni desperately and pulled her entire body all the way on top of his body. She was five-seven, but he was six-two. She was light as a feather to him as he wrapped her into his big, muscular arms so completely that he nearly smothered her with his affection. They were kissing so passionately that their bodies felt on fire. He began massaging her tight butt as he kissed her.

Roni was so caught up with the overwhelming emotions of being intimate with Brax for the very first time that it took several seconds before she realized just what she was feeling. And that she was feeling more than just passion. She was actually feeling every inch of him . Every naked, rock-hard inch of him. Which startled her so completely that she pulled back and looked at him. He was naked too? When did that happen?

But Brax was still trying to kiss her when she pulled away. That was just how far gone he was into the euphoria of being with the woman he considered his forbidden fruit. But when he saw the puzzled look on her radiant face, he realized that she thought he was still fully clothed the way she had left him that night. She didn’t realize that he had gotten naked himself after he saw her on TV and made up his mind to go all the way with her. And for her to suddenly realize it made him smile. “I told you I woke up,” he said.

“And got up too,” she said, which caused him to laugh.

But then he stared at her. All kidding aside. “And then I realized,” he said as his big hands were not only massaging her tight butt, but squeezing it too, “that I couldn’t hold on another day without being with you. Without being completely with you,” he added, as he lifted her further and placed her nipple in his mouth. And sucked so hard it caused Roni to lean her head back with a groan so hard that her entire body felt that suck.

And everything changed again. Their looks turned into a hooded, lustful anxiousness as their bodies begged for more. As they both knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was an awful, terrible, horrible mistake for them to go down that road. The red lights were blinking all over the place urging them to stop. But they wanted to be with each other for far too long. They wanted this and had to have it. They had flirted with disaster and now disaster was upon them. They were too far gone to turn back now.

Especially Brax. He’d never moaned and groaned this much in his entire life. He was kissing her mouth and then her neck and then her breasts as if he’d never experienced anything like it before.

Because he hadn’t. It was one thing to make love to a woman. It was another level altogether to make love to the woman he loved.

For Roni, it was when his fingers began massaging between her legs that took her over. The sensations rippled through her body and she let out a guttural grunt that electrified both of them.

And Brax knew he couldn’t hang on much longer. He moved back up, kissing her lips again, as he guided his fully aroused penis toward her opening. But just when he touched her there, and was about to thrust it through, she touched it. He looked at her. Her face wasn’t puzzled or baffled. It was scared.

He knew he had to reassure her. “I’ve been around, Veronica, you know that.”

She nodded her head. She knew that.

“There’s a reason, in all that shit I’ve done, that no woman alive has even tried to claim that I’m the father of her child. I’ve worn condoms my entire adult life. And even before then.” His look turned extremely serious. “I would never do that to you.”

But you are going to break my heart , she wanted to say, but didn’t. This was no confession of love for either one of them. This was purely a confession of lust. And she knew she had better realize it now before she felt even more pain that she knew she already was going to suffer.

She rallied and smiled. “I wouldn’t do it to you either. I’ve never had unprotected sex.”

Brax was surprised to hear it. “Never?”

“Never.”

“This is your virgin voyage in the raw then?”

She smiled. Then turned serious as if she was pleading with him to understand how this could take them to a higher place together, or ruin them. “Yes,” she said.

Brax could see her anguish. He felt it too. If only he had the willpower to stop it and stop it right now!

But Roni was naked on top of him. He was within an inch of feeling the feeling he’d been dreaming of. He had no willpower at all.

He plowed on in.

Roni arched at the forcefulness of it, and both of them felt the burn. And it felt beautiful and serene and uncomplicated to them. They couldn’t believe how perfectly they fit together. How magnificent they made each other feel.

And that began their hourlong lovemaking session.

It was no longer filled with desperation and urgency. It was now a slow, calm, tender sense of sweetness for them.

Roni was never super-experienced, but she was experienced enough to know that nothing she’d ever had could beat it. The fact that she loved Brax and believed in her heart of hearts that he was her person had a lot to do with it. But the fact that Brax was oh so great in bed had a whole lot more to do with it.

There were few men alive as experienced with women in bed as Brax was, and he was feeling it too. It was the best he’d ever had ever. That was why he made it a slow drag. He was with Roni. He was with the love of his life even if he had no right to feel that way. But he felt that way as he stroked her, as he moved inside of her as if he was moving inside of himself. They were just that in sync. It felt just that special. He never wanted it to end.

But soon it became too much for both of them. What was slow and easy was becoming faster and faster until they couldn’t control their moans and groans and grunts. Until they were back in the land of urgency. Until Roni was crying out with an orgasm so strong she could hardly contain herself. Until Brax was cumming so hard that he was straining every vein in his body.

They looked at each other. They felt it to the roots of their hair. They kissed so hard and so lovingly as they came that as soon as it was beginning to wane, they started cumming again.

They’d never experienced anything like it.