Center Mass (Code 11-KPD SWAT 1)

I went home and started dinner, allowing both girls to help keep my mind off the day’s events.

After an easy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs, we read books before I tucked each of them into bed, thankful that I had my life. That they had theirs. That Luke would be coming home to us.

Once they were in bed, I found myself glued to the news as they went over what had happened during the shooting.

Then they played a segment on the accomplishments of Radar, and I broke down.

I cried for the lost life. I cried for the two officers that were hurt, although not fatally. I cried for Luke having to experience that. For all the police wives that had to deal with the possibility of losing their loved ones on a daily basis.

How was I supposed to deal with that?

It wasn’t like Luke was just a cop. He was a SWAT officer.

He willingly went into dangerous situations like the one today, whenever the need for him and his team arose.

Then Lydia’s face filled the screen, and she said how thankful she was for the Kilgore Police Department’s quick action that saved her life.

“I just don’t know if I’d be alive right now if it wasn’t for the quick thinking of the Kilgore Police Department. If they hadn’t thought so quickly, I’d very well be in a morgue right now. They’re my heroes,” Lydia said to the newswoman.

My head hung.

It was true. If they hadn’t have been there, she’d have been dead.

If Luke wasn’t a cop anymore, who would be there when someone needed help?

I needed to stop thinking about myself, and think about the bigger picture.

Luke was a cop and a hero; I needed to put my big girl panties on and get over it.***Luke

“Thanks for the ride,” I muttered to Downy as we pulled into my driveway.

Downy nodded. “No problem. I’ll catch you on Monday. At least I hope, anyway.”

I knew what he meant. There’d been too much excitement today. I was fuckin’ wiped.

I didn’t want to hear my pager go off for a very long time.

After Downy pulled away, I stood outside for a few minutes and reflected on my day.

I’d nearly died today.

A K-9 officer had died today. Sure, some would say he was just a dog. But to us, he was one of our own, and we didn’t take killing one of us very lightly.

I’d also seen two of my fellow officers go down.

Luckily they were all okay, but that didn’t make it all right.

In fact, it was so far beyond all right that I was justifiably homicidal.

We had three hundred square miles of cops looking for our suspect…God help whomever it was when he’s found.

They’re going to need him and any divine intervention they could get.

“Luke?” Reese’s sweet, sleepy voice called from the doorway.

I hadn’t realized that she opened it.

I’d been staring right at it, and I hadn’t noticed the movement.

Shaking my head of the cobwebs, I walked inside and closed the door. Locking it. Then facing it, trying to gain my composure.

If I didn’t, I might do or say something I’d regret.

“Luke?” Reese called again, placing her hand on my shoulder.

I tensed, needing her touch, but knowing if I allowed my body to take hers while I was in this state, it would be far from gentle. In fact, it’d be so far from gentle that she’d probably become scared and I didn’t want her to ever be scared of me.

But then she made a mistake.

She started stripping me.

First my gun. Then my belt.

The muscles in my belly tensed, and my hands fisted where they rested against the door.

Control, Roberts.

Get some fuckin’ control!

Her soft, nimble fingers tugged the shirt from my pants, pulling it up and over my head, leaving it dangling from my hands that were still planted against the front door.

She leaned her head against my shoulders, running her nose along the skin of my back, tracing the tribal tattoo as she liked to do.

Then her hands slipped down, starting at my collarbone and ending at my hip bones.

My stomach, already tense, froze solid.

I realized too late that I was hanging on by a thread.

When her soft lips ran from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, all propriety flew out the fucking window.

Turning with a growl, I lifted her under her arms, forced her up against the wall, and slammed my mouth down onto hers.

The kiss was rough, hard and hot.

The force of my kiss felt bruising, but I couldn’t let up. I didn’t have the willpower.

I didn’t have the strength to pull back. I wanted her. I needed her.

“If you don’t want this,” I managed to pant. “You need to go to your room. Leave me now.”

She circled my hips with her legs, grabbing onto my neck with both hands. “Even if I wanted to leave…which I don’t,” she said, nipping my neck. “I couldn’t. You’re pinning me to the wall.”

I nipped her bottom lip, then sucked it better.

Then, with every ounce of energy I had left, I grabbed her ankles and physically removed them from around my hips. Stepping away from her one painful, debilitating, inch at a time, I stopped until our bodies had a good foot between us.

My fists were planted above her head and my head hung.

My jaw was clenched, and my chest was heaving.

“Go,” I rasped.

She ducked underneath my arms, walking straight out of the room without once looking back.

I heaved a sigh and dropped my arms.

One hand went to my crotch, and I pressed against my raging erection, squeezing the head of my dick, willing it to go down.

It didn’t.

Not even a little bit.

Turning out the last light in the bathroom, I walked to my bedroom.

My heavy dick led the way as I walked into my room, forgoing the light.

I closed the door, stripping out of what was left of my clothes before walking to the bed.

My hand encountered a leg as I started to crawl into bed.

It convulsed, and I growled, yanking the leg down until Reese’s ass was on the edge.