His Risk to Take (Line of Duty 2)

“Yes! I got very wet.”

He rewarded her honest answer by stroking her clitoris with his thumb. “Fuck my fingers until I’m satisfied with your answers. What happens next depends on how happy they make me.” With his hand still trapped between her and the table, she began pumping her hips against the solid pressure of his fingers, whimpering as his thumb continued its unyielding assault. “What did you think about in class, Ruby?” She released an impatient sob. “Answer me, or I’ll remove by thumb.”

“No. Please, don’t.” She sucked in a shaky breath, trying to divide her focus between talking and his insistent torture of her damp, needy flesh. “I thought about w-what would’ve happened if I’d stayed the whole night,” she breathed, her words running together. “I thought about waking up…wondered what you would have done.”

“Should I show you?” he growled.

“Yes.”

In the blink of an eye, he removed the hand between her legs and spun her around to face him.

Her backside hit the surface of the table hard, and he pushed her legs open forcefully. Troy deftly rolled on the condom, and drove himself home inside her in one powerful thrust. Ruby’s scream mingled with his shouted expletive. Before she’d fully registered his ample size filling her so completely, he began to move.

He rolled his hips down at an angle, his swollen length making contact with her clitoris with each frantic pound into her.

When her head fell back on her shoulders, Troy sunk his fingers into her hair and tilted her head back up until she looked him square in the eye. “As long as you’re with me, I don’t want some punk thinking he has the right to touch your gorgeous face. If you want to be touched, you tell me where, and I’ll take care of it. I’m the only one who touches you now, Ruby. Me.”

Ruby tried to think, reason through the pleasure, but her mind wouldn’t allow it. She could only concentrate on Troy’s calculated dismantling of her defenses. He guided her down with his body until her back arched on the table’s surface, and then he straightened again.

“Stay right there. I want to see every inch of your body when you come. It’s going to happen soon, baby. I can already feel your pussy tightening up on me.” His feverish eyes were hidden almost completely by his eyelids, pleasure blanketing his sensual features as he continued to drive into her at a wild pace. Once again, he dipped his thumb between her legs to massage her in that perfect spot, sending her hurtling toward release.

“Oh God, Troy. Oh God! ”

As she writhed and shook on the table, Troy gripped her knees and pushed them wider to accommodate him. Leaning down over her, he buried his face in her neck, his thrusts increasing in their intensity until she could feel the table scraping on the ground underneath them. He swelled larger inside of her, his groans of satisfaction getting louder and more guttural with each forceful movement of his big body.

When he finally reached completion, her name was a growl against her neck before he sunk his teeth into her shoulder. She cried out, grateful for the shock of pain because it brought her back to earth. To where Troy lay on top of her, struggling to regain his breath, their bodies locked together like two puzzle pieces.

He pulled back to look at her. “Are you still here with me?”

Nodding, she reached up and cupped his cheek.

“I’m here.”

Relief transformed his face before he scooped her up and carried her to the bedroom. When he laid her down on his bed, she scooted under the covers. Troy climbed in beside her and pulled her up against his bare chest, sighing as their heads hit the pillows.

Ruby waited, knowing their conversation from earlier was far from over. She didn’t want to think about the ramifications of their mutual connection to Lenny Driscol or Troy trying to send her away. Simply wanted to lay there in his arms and collect her scattered thoughts. Behind her, however, she could feel tension slowly building in his hard frame and knew what would eventually come to shatter their momentary peace. So she shattered it first.

“What do you want Lenny for?”

Troy sighed. “You know I can’t tell you that.”

Her heart lurched. “Because you’re afraid I’ll clue him in?”

“No, dammit. The less you know, the safer you’ll be.” After a long silence, Troy continued. “At the very least, you have to let me put surveillance on you. For your own protection. I won’t be able to concentrate otherwise, knowing you’re out there. Vulnerable.”

She turned to face him. “No. I’m sorry, but no. I appreciate you wanting to protect me, but I know these people. If they want to come find me, some unmarked vehicle won’t stop them. They’ll spot it a mile away, just like I would. It’ll only make things worse for me in the end.”

“You have an incredibly shitty image of cops.”

She brushed the hair from his forehead. “Maybe I used to.”

Troy turned his head to kiss her hand. “I can’t budge on this. You have to meet me halfway. My preference would be to lock you in a safe house.” A corner of his mouth quirked up at her look of horror, but quickly flattened. “I can’t even protect you myself because I can’t be seen with you.”

She could feel herself giving in. It surprised her how little this one concession cost her. Normally, she would fight to get her way, but if this one thing made him safer on the job, helped him concentrate, she could suffer through it. “All right, copper. I’ll make you a deal. If I spot your surveillance guy, I lose them. If they can stay well hidden, I’ll let them stay.”

A relieved smile transformed his face, tripling her feelings of guilt. Because in the back of her mind, she knew with absolutely certainty that she wouldn’t be able to stay out of it. Starting tomorrow, he’d have her help whether he liked it or not.

Troy took both of her hands in his and rolled her over. He ripped open a new box on the nightstand and removed a condom, then slid it down his swelling erection. With one push of his hips, he seated himself deep inside her, eliciting a moan from Ruby’s throat.

“See how easy that was, hustler?”

Then he leaned down and kissed her, swallowing her persistent cries with his mouth as he started to move.

Chapter Eight

Troy looked up as Daniel entered the precinct, Brent and Matt close behind. For the first time since they’d received the news about Officer Tenney being found beaten half to death in Brooklyn, they looked like they had good news. Troy certainly needed some.

He’d left R

uby pretending to be asleep in his bed this morning. Knowing they needed to talk but also very aware of the fact that spending the night with him had been a concession in itself, he hadn’t pushed his luck.

If he pressed her too hard, forced her to promise she wouldn’t take unnecessary chances with her safety, she might break their hard-won agreement about the surveillance.

Knowing she had a car following her was the only thing keeping him from losing his mind as he sat behind a desk, narrowing down Lenny Driscol’s possible location.

She thought she’d kept her intentions hidden the night before, but he’d seen them in her eyes. He needed to solve this case before she found some way to interfere. The night he’d met her, he’d recognized her curious nature, and she wouldn’t be happy taking a backseat for long. She would not only threaten the case, but her safety in the process. Not to mention, it had taken some fancy footwork on his behalf to convince Lieutenant Rhodes to assign the protection detail and not bring Ruby in for questioning instead. Troy didn’t have long, however, before the man’s patience ran thin and he started looking for information anywhere he could find it. He couldn’t allow Ruby to be used as a possible source, something that could endanger her welfare, but he needed to work quickly or it would be unavoidable.

One thing he knew for certain. If he didn’t stop thinking about all the possibilities of what could happen to her, he would never get anything accomplished.

Concentrate.

His silent command helped for all of two seconds.

Scenes from the night before played on an endless loop in his mind. Ruby kneeling in front of him, Ruby beneath him, Ruby’s dark hair spread out on his pillow as she slept beside him. He’d woken up half certain she wouldn’t be there. But she had been. She’d placed her trust in him, something he suspected she didn’t do easily. Now he needed to earn it. Once a girl like Ruby gave her trust, her heart would follow. He meant to earn that, too.