Take Me Under by Rhyannon Byrd Page B

he said roughly, carefully pulling his fingers from her still softly pulsing flesh. She wanted to protest, wanted to keep him inside her, a part of her, but the words quickly caught in her throat when she saw him lifting his hand. Her jaw dropped as he put his drenched fingers in his mouth, a visceral, breathtaking look of hunger on his rugged face. Then he sucked on them, taking in every bit of her taste, before slowly pulling them out. “You’re so damn sweet,” he growled, exploding into movement as he gripped the sides of her panties, wrenching them down. But they’d only just cleared her knees when there was a loud knock on her front door.
    “Oh, God,” she said hoarsely, her voice still wrecked from screaming. “That’s going to be the repair guy, isn’t it?”
    He nodded as he took a harsh breath, looking as though he was bracing himself for something painful as he straightened. Reaching down, he grimaced as he rearranged himself in his jeans. “He has the worst timing in the world,” he ground out, still staring between her legs. “I wanted to get my mouth on you. I should have fucking tasted you last night when I had the chance.”
    With a soft laugh, she drew her legs together. “It, um, won’t kill you to wait.”
    “Feels like it,” he muttered, shoving both hands back through his hair.
    It was probably unfair of her, considering he’d just given her such an awesome orgasm, but Reese couldn’t resist teasing him a little. “You’ll survive.”
    “That’s debat—”
    The ringing of his cell phone cut her off, the tone a rapid beat that repeated itself, and this time he didn’t ignore it. “Damn it, that’s our emergency signal. I need to take this.”
    She sat up and pulled her cardigan across her chest, then smiled at herself. Her shot at modesty was a little ridiculous when her panties were still past her knees. “You take your call and I’ll get the door,” she said, wondering if there was a graceful way to hop off the table while pulling up her underwear.
    He nodded, finally dragging his gaze back up to her face. “Put on some sweatpants before you go anywhere near that door. That shirt is too damn short.”
    She gave him a jaunty salute. “Sure thing, officer.”
    He laughed as he leaned in for another quick kiss, then turned and walked into the kitchen. She could hear Ben on his phone as she hopped down from the table, yanked up her panties, then quickly ran and pulled on some sweats. It didn’t take long to let in the repair guy, an older man named Frank who had an easy smile, and make sure there wasn’t anything that he needed. He got to work on clearing out the jagged pieces of glass that were left around the edges of the door frame, and she went back into the kitchen.
    “Something’s come up at work,” Ben said, hooking his phone back onto his belt as he turned around to face her. “I’ve got to head in for a bit. But I wanted to ask if you’ll go to a beach party with me this afternoon. I should be back by one, but if I’m not, I could meet you there. I think it’s getting started around twelve thirty, just down the beach from us.”
    “Is everything okay at work?” she asked, deliberately ignoring the bit about the party. After what had just happened between them, she needed some time to figure out what the heck she was doing. For a woman who had serious reservations about having a purely sexual fling, she seemed to be doing a pretty good job of it so far. “Did something happen?”
    His face had that kind of closed expression that could only belong to a cop. “One of my deputies was patrolling the beach a little while ago and found a teenage girl. She was barely conscious, but it looks like she was beaten last night and then left behind one of the dunes, where she couldn’t easily be seen.”
    “Ohmygod.” Reese covered her lips with her fingers. “Is she all right?”
    “She’s at the county hospital. Chris, the deputy who found her, said she was