Page 17 of Back the Blue

Eleven

His hardened yet handsome features blur through my tears. He gently brushes them away. The gesture is a complete one-eighty from what just happened, but I love it. I take a breath to say something, but I’m shutting down. And he knows it.

“Get some sleep, sweetheart,” he whispers. “You’re safe now.”

Some jumble of syllables leaves me, and it makes him chuckle. Then he presses a soft kiss to my lips before climbing off me and covering me with a blanket. The last thing I see before sleep claims me is his very fine ass as he walks away to clean up.

***

Once I’ve discarded the condom and pulled my boxers back on, Lorna is fast asleep. For a long moment, I stand and stare at her. The sight of her sleeping in my bed is something to behold. Especially since I had a hand in putting her to sleep. Of course, I could very easily have slipped off with her, but there’s work to do.

With a sigh, I head to the small desk in the corner and power up my laptop. Then I make sure I’m properly logged in to the encrypted server before I send an email to my direct supervisor. And I pray that he’s not the damn leak. If so, I’ll have mere minutes to react if Diamond and his crew find us here. Which means there’s a good possibility that things will go south. I think for a minute before composing my short email.

Charlie Two compromised.

At a temporary undisclosed secure location.

Please advise on how to proceed.

After a deep breath, I hit send. My gut tells me I’ve made the right decision by reaching out to him, but with Lorna’s life also on the line, I can’t help but wonder. At least an encrypted email is far more difficult to intercept and track than a phone call. Which is why I’ve already powered mine off. Of course, I should probably do the same with Lorna’s. Just to be cautious.

Smiling, I walk over to where her pants landed after I divested her of them. Her cell is already on the floor, having fallen out of her pocket. I pick it up and press the buttons to power off. But I can’t help but see the voicemail from Malcolm. Something about his phone call to her earlier doesn’t seem right to me. He knew she was going into protective custody, so why would he reach out?

Unless…

“Ashley?”

“Yeah?” I say as I look up at her.

“Is…something wrong?”

Her attention ping-pongs between my face and her phone. Her brow is furrowed, and I hate it.

“No, sweetheart,” I sigh. “I just don’t want to take any chances, so I powered off both our phones.”

“Oh,” she nods. “Okay. So…what’s next?”

“I sent an encrypted email to my direct supervisor to find out.”

“Okay,” she says softly.

I nod. Then I watch as she very blatantly takes me in. A slow smile spreads across my face as I watch her thighs press together. When her eyes meet mine again, I’m already partially aroused. And I think she likes it.

“Did you just ogle me?” I ask her.

“Fuck, yeah, I did,” she grins.

“Fine,” I nod. “Then I think you should return the favor.”

Without hesitation, I reach forward and yank the blanket off her. She gasps, but she makes no move to cover herself. Instead, my little paramedic vixen rolls to her back and lifts her arms over her head. A low growl leaves me at the sight of her like this. Naked and waiting.

For me.

“I don’t have much time,” I say as I kneel at the foot of the bed. “So, right now, I’m just going to lick you where it counts, sweetheart.”

“And where would that be?” she breathes.

“If you don’t think I know, why don’t you show me,” I growl.

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