Page 26 of Immortal By Morning
Abril smiled at his teasing, but said, “I don’t know your name to use it.”
“Of course, you do,” Crispin said with a half laugh. “Officer Peters introduced us when we arrived today.”
“Oh. Right,” Abril said lightly. “So, your first name is Detective?”
Crispin blinked and then groaned to himself as he recalled that Peters had introduced them as Detectives Roberts and Delacort without including their first names. In truth, it was entirely possible that the man didn’t even know their first names since he didn’t ever recall giving them to the officer. He and Roberts tended to just use last names with each other as well as the other officers they worked with. A lot of members of the police force did.
“I apologize,” he said finally with true regret. “My name is Crispinus Delacort.”
Abril blinked. He’d pronounced his name as krees-pee-noos, sounding very Italian all of a sudden, which was why she asked, “Are you Italian?”
Crispin hesitated, and then said vaguely, “I lived there for a while.”
Before she could respond, he’d lunged to his feet, taking her with him to stand at the side of the pool. Then he clasped her face in both hands, met her gaze, and said, “You may call me Crispin. Most of my family and friends do.”
He followed that up by kissing her on the forehead before releasing her so abruptly you would have thought the brief caress had burned him. Actually, Abril could understand that reaction. While there was usually nothing sexual about a kiss on the forehead, it had still whipped up some excitement in her. Which was just damned weird, she decided as she followed him to the couch where she’d left her towel.
Shaking her head at herself, Abril commented, “We need to put your pants in the dryer.”
The words had Crispin stopping to peer down at his slacks. They were soaking wet with water running off of the heavy material in rivulets.
“There are no men’s clothes here,” she added. “So, unless you have a gym bag or something in the trunk of your car with clothes in it, you’ll have to make do with a pair of my joggers. Or a towel around your waist. It’s up to you,” she said, and then smiled naughtily and tagged on, “Although, I’d prefer the towel myself. I think it would look good on you.”
Crispin’s eyes widened slightly and then he grabbed her hand and dragged her to the sliding doors to the rest of the house.
Abril almost protested when they stepped onto the carpet, knowing they were both dripping all over it. Before she could, Crispin slammed the sliding door closed even as he whirled to press her up against the wall and planted his mouth on hers.
As it had been in the pool, his kiss was incredibly passionate, and her body immediately roared with excitement in response. Even so, when he tore his mouth from hers to begin kissing a trail down her neck, she gasped, “The carpet. Our clothes are wet.”
“Right,” he growled. “We should take them off.”
“Oh, yes,” Abril groaned as his hands closed over her breasts. He squeezed briefly through the cloth there, before removing one hand to tug the strap of her swimsuit down her shoulder, baring one breast. But then his words registered, her eyes blinked open in panic, and she dragged the strap back up, covering herself as she squeaked, “Cameras.”
“I know. The cameras in the pool room are whyI brought you inside,” Crispin said soothingly. And ran his tongue down her chest and along the curve of the top of her swimsuit to dip between her breasts.
“Yes, but—” Abril’s words ended on a groan as he tugged her swimsuit aside to close his mouth over the nipple he’d again bared.
Forgetting what she’d been trying to tell him, Abril slid her hands into his hair to urge him on as he suckled on the suddenly aching nub.
“She is trying to tell you that there are cameras in the living room too, detective,” Roberts’s voice had them both jumping guiltily apart.
Feeling like a teenager caught indulging in some heavy petting by her parents, Abril moved away from Crispin and glanced wildly about, trying to find the other man.
“I am talking to you through the camera,” Roberts said with amusement. “I apologize if I embarrassed you, Abril. But Crispin wasn’t really giving you a chance to speak, and I thought I had best stop him before he got too far and embarrassed all of us.”
Abril was about to say thank you, when Crispin stepped up beside her and quickly tugged the top of her swimsuit back into place, covering the breast that had been on display all this time. Definitely feeling that embarrassment Roberts had been trying to avoid, she muttered, “Towels are in that bathroom down that hall, Crispin.”
She then rushed the half dozen steps to her bedroom and closed the door behind her with a snap. Leaning back against it, Abril closed her eyes and relived the past several moments with Crispin. From the pool to the living room, it had been hot, hot, hot. Some part ofher brain did try to make her feel bad for once again letting the man do what he had. But then another part of her brain said,Hey! At least this time you learned his name.
Rolling her eyes at herself, Abril pushed away from the door and made her way across the bedroom to the attached bathroom. She needed to shower off the chlorine from the pool. It would be a cold shower, she decided firmly. Good lord! A couple of kisses and caresses from Crispin had more effect than an hour of the best foreplay she’d ever had in the past. She was aching with need and really just wanted to run back out, track down Crispin, and throw herself at him. The only thing keeping her from doing that was the fact that Roberts would no doubt see her chase after him on the cameras.
She’d embarrassed herself enough for one day, Abril decided, and closed the bathroom door firmly behind herself.
Half an hour later she was showered, dressed, and feeling much less frazzled. At least she was until she stepped out of her room and a sudden scratching sound from her right had her glancing that way. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw Lilith through the sliding glass doors to the pool room. They’d left the poor dog out there all this time!
Guilt assailing her at once, Abril rushed to the door and opened it to let the Labrador in. Cooing apologetically, she took the time to close the door and lock it again, then dropped to her knees to cuddle and pet the poor creature for abandoning her like that.
“We did not leave her in the pool room, did we?”
