In a rush, he gave all of his weapons to his best friend, disarming himself completely. And Butch accepted the load with quick, grim efficiency.
“Yeah . . . maybe you’re right,” the guy muttered. “Talk to her later.”
“She’s not the one you need to worry about, cop.” ’Cuz apparently suicidal impulses ran the fuck all over his family tonight.
Butch caught his arm as he went to turn away. “What can I do to help.”
V had a quick, shocking picture filter through his brain. “Nothing you could handle. Unfortunately.”
“Don’t do my thinking for me, motherfucker.”
V stepped in close, bringing their faces to within an inch of each other. “You don’t have the stomach for it. Trust me.”
Those deep hazel eyes held his and didn’t blink. “You’d be amazed what I would do to keep you alive.”
Abruptly, V’s mouth opened, his breath growing tight. And as the two of them stood chest-to-chest, he knew every inch of his body, felt all of it at once.
“What are you saying, cop.”
“Do you honestly think lessers are a better option,” Butch muttered hoarsely. “At least I can make sure you aren’t dead at the end of it.”
Images flickered through his mind, graphically detailed and appallingly perverted. And all of them with him in a starring role.
After a moment of neither saying a word, Butch stepped off. “Go see yo
ur female. I’ll be waiting for you at the Escalade.”
“Butch. You don’t mean it. You can’t.”
His best friend regarded him coolly. “The fuck I don’t.” Turning away, he strode down the corridor. “Come find me. When you’re ready.”
As V watched the guy go, he wondered whether that was about them going out to drink tonight . . . or the pair of them walking through the dangerous door the cop had just opened.
In his heart of hearts, he knew it was both.
Holy. Shit.
Back in the exam room, as Manny stared into Payne’s eyes, he was dimly aware that someone was smoking somewhere close by. Knowing his luck, it was her cocksucking brother, and the big bastard was getting nicotined up right before he came in here to mop the floor with Manny’s piehole.
Whatever, though. Payne’s mouth was mere inches from his own, and her body was warm against him, and his cock was bursting at the seams. He was a man of willpower and self-determination, but stopping what was about to happen was waaaaaaay beyond even his skill set.
Reaching up, he cupped the side of her face. As contact was made, her lips parted and he knew he should say something, but his voice had packed its bags and taken a bus out of town, evidently—along with his brain.
Closer. He drew her closer and met her halfway, their mouths fusing. And even though his body had all the patience of an unfed tiger, he was careful as the contact was made. God, she was soft . . . oh, so soft . . . in a way that made him want to spread her wide and penetrate her with everything he had, his fingers, his tongue, his sex.
But none of that was happening right now. Or tonight. Or even the day after. He hadn’t had a lot of experience with virgins, but he was pretty damn sure that even if she was having a sexual response, how it was taken care of could be overwhelming—
“More,” she said with husky demand. “More . . .”
For a split second, his heart stopped and he rethought the go-easy routine: That tone of voice was so not little-girl-lost. It was all woman, ready for a lover.
And gee whiz, under the she-didn’t-need-to-ask-twice theory, he took over, stroking her mouth with his own before sucking in her lower lip. As his hand wound around her nape, he wanted to undo that braid and get into that hair of hers . . . but that was too close to undressing her, and this was far from private.
And he was close enough to coming already, thank you very much.
He slipped his tongue into her and groaned, his arms tightening around her—before he told them to loosen up or he was going to break them both off below the shoulder. Man, she was pure octane in his blood, his body in full gear and roaring. And he’d thought those dreams were hot? The real thing made that shit feel room-temperature compared to the surface of Mercury.
More with the tongue, more getting into her and pulling out, more of everything, until he had to force himself back. His hips were grinding against her tight ass in his lap—and that hardly seemed fair, given that she couldn’t feel it.