Coming ine box set, p.84
Coming in Hot: Rescue Me Box Set, page 84
She closed her lips around him, and was treated to the sound of a sharp inhale from him. Then she felt his fingers in her hair. She set a slow and steady pace in an attempt to taste and savor every blessed inch of him. Her tongue swirled around and around as she took him deeper and deeper with each pass, trying desperately to fit all of him in as her jaw and tongue worked to pleasure him.
“Oh, that’s right, baby,” Jeremiah whispered as his hand tightened in her hair. “Your mouth feels so good.”
He was lost to the luscious feel of her mouth, so soft and warm and decadent. His breath hitched in his throat as he reached out a hand to brace himself against the wall. He could feel the head of his cock sliding down the back of her throat over and over, and the thought of it was every bit as sexy to him.
“Ah, fuck. I’m going to come, Monique!”
He moved to pull out of her mouth, but Monique grabbed the back of his thighs, holding him there as she increased her pace.
“Fuck!” His body stiffened as he emptied himself inside her throat.
She slowly drew him from her mouth, allowing her tongue to caress the length of him as she did. Then she licked her lips as she looked up at him from her kneeling position.
“You are exceptionally good at that, Doc,” he panted, gently running his thumb over her lips.
She grinned at him as she stood up. “It’s all the anatomy and physiology classes.”
Jeremiah smiled at her. “Is that right?”
Monique nodded, feeling pretty proud of herself. “Mmm hmm.”
“Well, I never took an anatomy or physiology class, but I think I have a pretty good handle on how things work. May I show you?” He pushed her jeans past her hips and held her steady as she stepped out of them.
“Oh, by all means, Mr. Tobin.”
He bent down and scooped her up into his arms. “Bedroom?”
She pointed to an open doorway off to the left, and Jeremiah turned and carried her into the bedroom. He kissed her lips before he gently laid her on the bed. Then he stood and looked down at her, letting his gaze roam over her body for a moment. He had heard the saying that if a woman was wearing nice lingerie once a man got her undressed, then most likely he was not the one who had made the decision to have sex. Jeremiah grinned at that notion as he admired her matching navy blue lace panties and bra.
“You are fucking beautiful, do you know that?”
Monique’s hungry gaze drank him in as he stood over her. His body was perfect, as if chiseled from granite. Every inch of him seemed unyielding and powerful. She reached up and placed her hand flat on his stomach, and then slowly slid it down over his skin as she looked at him. “You’re beautiful yourself.”
When her hand met his hefty erection she wrapped her fingers around it and held him firm.
Jeremiah groaned and knelt between her legs. He reached behind her back to the clasp of her bra and slowly slid the straps from her shoulders, then tossed the garment aside. Then he lowered himself on top of her and sucked one plump nipple into his mouth as he gave the other a harsh squeeze with his fingers.
“Ah!” Monique moaned at the duel assault as her voice dripped with equal measures of both pleasure and pain. She dug her fingers into the flesh of his biceps as she arched her back, pushing her breasts forward in a silent plea for more.
Jeremiah’s teeth grazed lightly over her nipple as he reached down to her lace panties. She whimpered as he slowly slid them past her hips and down her legs, and the sound of it resonated in his groin. It was more than he could take. His cock felt hard enough to cut diamonds, and he couldn’t wait any longer.
With one long, powerful thrust he was buried deep inside her, and Monique cried out again. He was larger than any man she had ever been with, and Monique could feel him stretching her, filling her completely with each delicious thrust. He moved with a slow and steady rhythm, allowing her to savor every second. She wrapped her legs around him as he moved, lifting her hips and meeting him with each thrust.
Jeremiah increased his pace, hammering into her with an animalistic force as he buried his cock entirely with every deep plunge. Monique screamed his name, followed by a lengthy profane incoherent rambling about God as her legs trembled around him. Jeremiah pounded on, grinding into her until his own climax overtook him. His body went rigid and he collapsed on top of her with his face buried in her wild crimson mane of hair.
***
Monique stared up at the ceiling as her head rested on Jeremiah’s shoulder. His fingers played gently in her hair, and she suddenly felt so exposed somehow.
“This never happens.”
Her voice was almost startling in the quiet room, and Jeremiah glanced down at her. “What’s that?”
Monique tightened her grip on the sheets as she held them at her breasts. “This. Being here with you like this. Things like this just don’t happen to me. I …” She paused and took a deep breath. “I don’t do this type of thing, ever.” A nervous chuckle escaped her for a second. “I don’t know what came over me. I mean, I barely know you. You must think I’m a colossal slut right now.”
She moved and sat up in the bed, pulling the sheets over her breasts once more and running a hand through her long scarlet hair.
“Whoa. Wait a minute. Just slow down a bit, all right?” Jeremiah sat up next to her and placed a hand on the small of her back. “Let me stop you right there, okay? See, that’s my friend you’re talking about, and I’m not going to let you, or anyone else, bad-mouth her that way.”
The instant the words were out of his mouth, it made him think about the package he had received that morning, and it made him wonder for the millionth time what she could possibly have done to land her on someone’s hit list. But he knew without a doubt that he would defend her, and protect her from any threat.
Monique smiled and looked at him. “Are we friends, Jeremiah?”
He studied her eyes for a few seconds. “Honestly, I can’t believe you even asked me that question. Doc, I have considered you a very trusted friend for several months now. Since that first night I cornered you outside the Emergency Room in need of a little assistance.”
Monique smiled at the memory of that night. Despite the terror she had initially felt when he cornered her that night — bleeding and holding a gun, no less — it had turned out to be a fortuitous meeting, and she actually looked back on it fondly. “Needing a bullet pulled out of the back of your shoulder was more than just needing a little assistance, don’t you think?”
Jeremiah grinned at her. What a night that had been. “Yeah, maybe so. But you came to my aid without calling the cops. You made the brash decision to sneak me into that empty wing of the hospital that was under construction at the time. When you left to go gather supplies you could have easily turned me in and told the cops where to find me, but you didn’t. Instead you came back and you removed the bullet. You didn’t demand any answers, and you did just as I asked. You trusted me that night. That meant a lot. It still does. So, yes … we are most definitely friends.”
Monique looked into his eyes and smiled. Then she leaned in and softly kissed his lips. This was insane, and she knew it. “I still can’t believe I’ve done this!”
“Done what? Brought a man home? In the middle of the afternoon, no less?” Jeremiah shrugged his shoulders as he watched her, trying to figure her out. Was she ashamed of what they had done? Did she regret having sex with him? Was that it?
“No. This!” She shook her head and glanced back at the bed before she looked up at him again. “It’s been a long time for me, Jeremiah. And no offense here, but I … well, I sort of promised myself that I would never get involved with someone like you.”
Jeremiah stared at her as that comment seemed to slap him in the face. She had asked him not to be offended, but he wasn’t certain how not to be. “Someone like me. What, dangerous? Black? I’m afraid you’re going to have to explain yourself if you don’t want me to be offended by that comment.”
Monique sighed and looked down at the rumpled bed sheets for a second. “Okay. I admit that I don’t know exactly what it is that you do for a living, but I’m not completely clueless either. And your last name is Tobin. I’ve heard that name floated around the ER a time or two. Like I said before, a lot of the cases that come into the ER on any given night are true traumas. You know … stabbings, gunshot wounds, and worse. And in this town, about half of that activity is mob related.”
She looked down at her hands, and Jeremiah studied her. He reached out and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear, then let his thumb trace gently down her jaw line. “All right. Fair enough,” he whispered as he looked into her eyes. “You understand then why it took so long for me to ask you out? Why I come into your ER for little minor scrapes and patch jobs I could easily do myself.”
Monique frowned as she looked up at him, and he continued.
“You said it had been a long time for you. Well, it’s been a while for me too, Monique. A long while. See, I usually avoid these types of entanglements, for various reasons. Not the least of which is simple safety, both mine and whoever the lady might have been. Putting a woman in danger is something I would never want to do. Especially someone I truly cared about.” He paused for a second and stared into her eyes. Then he looked away and took a deep breath. “But contrary to what you must be thinking, I’m actually not involved in my family’s day-to-day operations.”
Monique gave him a truly skeptical look. “Really?”
“It’s true,” Jeremiah said with a slight nod. “I’m not giving you a line here, but I’m not claiming to be a saint either. I know what my family does, and believe me, I am no better. In fact, some would undoubtedly tell you that I’m even worse. But I was telling you the truth when I said I’m in business for myself. My last name may be Tobin, and I do love my brothers, but my involvement in the family business is only peripheral at best.”
Monique frowned as she took in his explanation, not sure what to believe. “So, what business are you in, Jeremiah? I mean, you say it’s probably worse than what your brothers do, so …”
“Do you really need the answer to that right now?” he asked, interrupting her sentence as he stared into her eyes. “Can’t we simply enjoy the afternoon together before we allow reality to set in?”
She stared at him, and wondered what all he wasn’t willing to tell her. She could only imagine how bad it must be, but she could guess. He caressed her face, and then kissed her lips, and Monique looked into his eyes wondering who Jeremiah Tobin really was, and what he was so reluctant to tell her about himself. She supposed she could understand his reticence though. She had secrets of her own, after all, things she was reluctant to reveal about herself too. She reached up and ran her fingers through the salt-and-pepper stubble on his face, and smiled at him.
“Who needs reality when we have a safe place and a soft, warm bed?”
Jeremiah smiled at her. “My thoughts exactly.”
He kissed her, letting his tongue slither alongside hers as he wrapped his arms around her and gently pulled her back down onto the bed. He pulled the sheet away from her body as his lips and his tongue took a meandering path from her breasts all the way down to the apex of her thighs. He gently pushed her legs apart as he settled himself between them and gave her a more intimate kiss.
***
Jeremiah stared through the sheer pink fabric out the window. His fingers absentmindedly played through Monique’s flame-colored locks as her head rested on his chest. Their legs tangled around one another’s and the sheets as he held her close. They had spent the entire afternoon in bed together, going at it like animals in heat, and taking little cat naps here and there. And they talked a lot, about everything that wasn’t important — things that had nothing to do with his job or the situation she had no clue she was in.
He knew he was avoiding it. Sticking his head in the sand because he didn’t want to deal with it. Not yet. He simply wanted her. He wanted to bury his entire cock inside her and make her scream his name and claw at the sheets again, just like he had done all afternoon long. He wanted to feel her body tremble around him, wanted to empty himself inside her. He wanted to fuck her so hard she couldn’t walk, and then make sweet love to her again and again, and again. He couldn’t get enough of her, and he simply didn’t want to give that up right now to deal with whoever wanted her dead, or why.
Monique squirmed in his arms as she stretched, catching his attention and pulling him out of his introspection.
“Mmm. I’m starving.”
He quietly chuckled at her declaration, and hugged her tighter. Then he sighed. “Well, now that you mention it, I suppose I could eat.”
“Okay.” She raised up and looked at him. “I’m going to go get a quick shower, and then I’ll see what I can scrounge up. Sound good?”
He nodded by way of agreement, and she quickly kissed his lips and then jumped up and scrambled into the bathroom. Jeremiah sat up on the side of the bed and stretched for a moment. Then he stood up and went in search of his discarded briefs. He found them still in the living room, and he pulled them on as his mind started to work out the situation once more.
It was the thought that had tried all afternoon to creep in and steel his attention — they were running out of time. The note inside the package of money insisted someone wanted Monique dead within 24 hours. Jeremiah knew that when she didn’t turn up dead tomorrow, whoever had tried to hire him to do the job would have no choice but to contact him to find out why. It was a sick game to play, but right now it was the only move he could make. The only way to flush out the person’s identity and maybe get a lead on why they wanted her dead in the first place. It was his only choice, and Jeremiah intended to stick as close to Monique as he could in order to keep her safe until he could sort this thing out.
As he thought about it all, he wandered through her apartment, glancing at a few of the knick knacks and framed photos she had along the way. One photo in particular caught his eye, and Jeremiah stopped in his tracks. He picked it up from the shelf and his eyes narrowed as he studied it. Monique was standing with a group of people, almost like a family reunion shot, and there was a Christmas tree in the background.
His mind began to race with uncomfortable thoughts, and he returned the photo to its spot on the shelf. He continued his journey to the kitchen with a niggling worm of suspicion burrowing its way through his brain. Once in the kitchen, he opened up her fridge and took stock of its contents. Then he did the same with a few cupboards until he found some things he could work with.
A little while later, Monique emerged from the bedroom tying a short dark yellow satin robe around her. She ran a hand through her long dark red hair and smiled as she entered the kitchen. “Oh, my God. What smells so amazing?”
Jeremiah smiled at her. “I hope you don’t mind. I gave your fridge and pantry a look, and then I just started cooking.”
Monique smirked at him. “Well, yes actually. I mind terribly when a handsome, sexy man makes my toes curl all day long, and then decides to cook for me too. God, I hate that!”
She laid the sarcasm on thick, and Jeremiah laughed. He snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her in close, planting a heated kiss on her lips before he let go of her again. Monique grinned as she looked around at his handy work. He was putting the finishing touches on a delicious looking pasta primavera with asparagus, cherry tomatoes and zucchini, and her stomach grumbled again.
“Oh, I also took the liberty of opening that bottle of white wine you had in the fridge. It’s resting.”
He gestured toward the counter with a nod of his head, and Monique smiled at his choice of words.
“Resting, huh?”
He nodded.
“Hmm. Well, let’s just wake it up, shall we?” She set about pouring them each a glass of wine as he plated up their dinner. Then they carried their feast over to the couch to eat. The first bite she took exploded with flavor in her mouth.
“Mmm. Oh, my God. This is so good!”
They ate in silence for several minutes before she turned to him with a curious gleam in her eyes. “So, where did a man like you learn to cook like this? This is delicious!”
Jeremiah grinned at her and took a sip of his wine. “Food is kind of a big deal in the Tobin clan. Cooking was a hobby both my parents enjoyed. Each of them was a terrific cook in their own right, but get them both in the kitchen together and look out. You were in for a real treat then. It was like they played off of each other’s creativity.” He set his wine glass down and picked up his fork again and took another bite.
Monique smiled at him. “That sounds really nice.”
Jeremiah swallowed his mouthful. “Yeah. Having four growing boys with huge appetites helped too, I suppose. Each of us boys learned to cook from a pair of pros, that’s for sure. I miss that now that they’re both gone. Seeing my parents in the kitchen together, cooking up a storm. Back then, it was how I knew that all was right with the world, despite whatever else might be going on at the time.”
“Thank you for sharing that with me,” Monique said after a small pause. “You make your family sound so …”
“Normal?” Jeremiah cut in.
A soft pink blush fell over Monique’s face. “No. I didn’t mean it like that. I just …”
“I know. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” Jeremiah shook his head and sighed. “Look, Monique, I know that my family’s not normal, okay? I mean, we’ve done things that run the gamut from unethical to ruthless, and all the way to heinous. Believe me, I am well aware. But at the core, we are still a family, and I’d like to think we’re all still human. We have our moments, just like anyone else.”
“No, I … I totally get that, Jeremiah. I do. And I’m the one who should apologize. I didn’t mean to imply that I was judging your family, or looking down on them. I was actually going to say that you make your family sound so close-knit.” She shrugged a shoulder as she looked at him. “See, my family is really not much different from yours in terms of doing questionable things. But my childhood wasn’t nearly as happy as you make yours sound. That’s all I meant.”
