Investigating

"Don't be so damn independent, Gail." Carlton argued.

"Forget it, Carlton. You said to just 'leave it at that,' so just leave me alone." She pushed against him trying to get away from the look in his eyes.

He tried to put his arms around her to stop her from struggling, at the same time she was pushing against him. "Don't fight me, Gail. Just let me get you to bed."

"I don't need help."

"Dammit!" Carlton exclaimed as he backed her against the wall, lowered his head, and kissed her. She struggled a moment longer then put her arms around his neck and kissed him back. His hand came from behind her back to hold her breast. Her hand moved down to his hip to hold him as he ground his erection against her pelvis. Her hands searched frantically for the buttons down the front of his shirt as his pulled up the front of her shirt and unsnapped the front of her bra.

Carlton's mouth found her breast and her hand moved to the fly of his pants and began to lower the zipper. The sounds they exchanged were groans and simple words, which meant more, right there, yes, or do that again.

"Fuck," Carlton put his hands on her shoulders and stepped back, holding himself away from her. "Go to bed, Gail." Ten seconds later, he was out her front door, telling her to lock up as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket.

***

Gail had only four children for the week. One of the mothers was on vacation. Wednesday, another mother called to report that her husband had the day off and she would not be bringing her twins that day. It meant there were only two children for the day.

When the doorbell rang, Gail opened her front door to find Detective Carlton Conyers standing on her front porch. Gail unlocked the screen door and took three steps back.

As Carlton opened the door and stepped inside the house, he said, "I have a few more questions, Gail. But first I need to apologize for the other night."

"It's my fault as much as yours. It's not a fair excuse, but I had too much to drink. Thank you for bringing me home."

"You're welcome." He looked around for a moment and asked, "Where's all the kids? I brought them some toy badges." He pulled his hand out of his coat pocket showing her five small plastic police badges.

Gail took the small badges and put them on the table beside the front door as she explained about the missing three and that the other two were taking a long nap. "Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Sure," he agreed and followed her into the kitchen. "Have you heard from Cheryl Ramos?"

"No," Gail answered as she poured their coffee. "I haven't talked to Tony to ask how she is. He's been getting home after I go to bed at night and he leaves the next day after the children arrive."

"I stopped there first, but he isn't home. His telephone's disconnected. Has he moved out?"

Gail shrugged her shoulders as she placed a cup of coffee in front of Carlton and sat down at the table. "I think the electricity is off, too."

"Gail, will you go to dinner with me Friday night?"

"Why?"

"I'd like to take you to dinner."

"That's not what you said the other night."

"I know. I'd still like to spend some time with you."

"Carlton...you said..."

"Dammit, don't make this so damn hard. So I was wrong. Okay? I want to see you. I can't say it any plainer than that."

Gail looked up, a soft smile slowly spreading across her face, "Carlton, I'd love to go to dinner with you Friday night."

Carlton nodded, "Why is every conversation I have with you a battle?"

Gail lifted one shoulder and then let it fall, "I guess because I don't want to let you intimidate me."

"I don't do that." His denial was a little too quickly spoken. Finally, he admitted, "I don't like how I feel around you."

Gail didn't say anything. He seemed to think for a minute. He cocked his head to one side as he looked at her. He finally said, "Vulnerable, I guess. It's not something I'm accustomed to feeling. I'm a big bad ass cop. People are supposed to be afraid of me. They're supposed to cower and answer my questions. You don't do that. It's like you know where my soft spot is and your hand is around it ready to squeeze it at a moment's notice."

He watched as Gail stood. He seemed a little cautious, uncertain what she was going to do. Gail took one step and then another as she moved between his knees. He looked up at her, his face showing uncertainty as she put her hands on his cheeks and raised his face. Then she leaned forward and kissed him. He was so surprised he didn't move. He simply enjoyed her kiss. Gail took a step back and asked, "What time will you pick me up?"

"Is seven o'clock okay?" he asked as he stood and started to put his arms around her.

"Seven o'clock is just right." Gail answered as she held him away with one hand against his chest. "I'll even wear a dress."

"I look forward to seeing that," Carlton mumbled as he turned and walked to her front door, followed by Gail's chuckle.

"I'll be gentle, Carlton. I promise," she called out to him as he opened her front door.

"What the hell am I getting myself into?" Carlton asked as he closed the door behind him, letting the screen door slam as he walked down the sidewalk to his car.

***

"Oh God," Carlton breathed when Gail opened her front door. "You're beautiful," he added as he stepped inside. "Can I kiss you?" he pleaded as she stepped back into her living room and shook her head.

"You're going to make me wait, aren't you?"

Gail held up her forefinger and stepped toward him for the one kiss she would allow. Carlton made her capitulation worth it. He gathered her into his arms and kissed her slowly, sliding his lips across hers and returning to brush his tongue across her lower lip until she parted her lips to give him access to taste her.

When he lifted his head, his eyes were slightly glazed and he didn't want to stop looking at her. "That has to last me until I can get you back here, doesn't it?"

Gail nodded and grinned, then lifted her hand to his cheek and used her thumb to brush across his lips.

"Lipstick."

"You could have left it there."

Gail's voice trembled. "A big bad ass cop shouldn't be seen in public with lipstick on his mouth."

As he drove toward the restaurant, and throughout dinner, he responded to Gail's questions and discovered the few details he shared about the dirtier parts of his job did not bother her. He would say something, almost as if he was talking to one of his fellow officers, not watching his words, and when he realized what he had told her, he held his breath. She nodded or asked him a question so she could understand what he was telling her.

She may not have witnessed much of the seamier side of life, but she knew it existed and was not surprised about some of the things he told her. Instead of holding everything in, as he normally would have done with a woman he did not know well, he was soon talking to her and sharing some of his emotions. She laughed about some of the details of his investigations that were funny. She commiserated with him about some sad events and shuddered at the few gory details he barely mentioned. Yet, she did not ask him to withhold anything he wanted to share with her.

Alternately, they both laughed at the antics she described that typical four year olds performed. The things they said with such innocence and the things they did kept Carlton entertained until he had finished his steak. He discovered she had a friend who kept three-year-olds and how they had formed a sort of graduation process from one caregiver to another with a third young woman who liked to keep one and two-year-olds.

They learned a little about each other's personal history. He had been married for a few years when he was much younger but admitted it was not much more than a fuck fest for him and uniform worship for her. Neither of them had been faithful to their marriage. He'd had one long term affair with a woman almost his own age and casually mentioned he was faithful for the duration of their affair, but her fear for his safety would not allow her to commit to a permanent relationship. She married a real estate broker about a year after they broke up.

Gail reluctantly admitted she had never had a serious boyfriend. Eventually she told Carlton that she could count her previous sexual partners on the fingers of one hand.

"Good Lord, Gail, you're almost a virgin," Carlton offered quietly.

"Not hardly and it wasn't a very nice 'taking' if you understand my meaning," she admitted. "I thought it was more important than he seemed to, and then I discovered I didn't like him very much. Maybe I'm too particular, but I also didn't have a lot of opportunity. My parents were actually my grandparents and restrictive about my comings and goings. My birth mother was their only child. She died in childbirth, but the woman I called Mom never let me feel bad about it. It was God's will that gave her a daughter to replace the one she had to give back to God. My birth father was never around. I know who he is, but I've never needed him. He remarried less than a year after I was born. I had my grandfather for a Papa."

On the way back to Gail's house, Carlton's cell phone rang. He apologized as he answered, but said he would explain. He was still talking when they walked into her house. Instead of drinking a cup of coffee after their dinner, Gail had volunteered to make them a fresh pot when they returned to her house.

As she stood at the kitchen counter waiting for the last of the brew to drip through the filter, Carlton walked up behind her and put his arms around her, nuzzling her neck.

"Did you understand some of that?" Carlton asked as he rested his chin on her shoulder for a moment then touched his lips to the hard ridge of her collarbone.

Gail nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Sometimes it turns out good and sometimes it doesn't." He paused for a moment then continued, "She must have been bleeding internally when she was over here that night. He told his brother he beat her a second time after she went home. Then he drove her to his brother's house and dumped her in his yard. The coroner said even an emergency surgery might not have saved her."

"Did Tony's brother kill him?"

"He claims he didn't. He says it was a drive-by shooting, a mistaken identity. The brother was the intended victim. He claims Tony was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Yeah, I got that part. I...ah...I don't think I want any coffee, do you?"

"No," Carlton answered, turning Gail around so he could hold her. "Come on sweetheart, I'll put you to bed."

Carlton stood outside Gail's door as she changed her clothes and when she opened the door tears were still running down her face.

"I may not have liked either of them, but I never wished them dead," she muttered as she used a tissue to wipe away a fresh flow of tears. She wasn't sobbing, just crying a little with an occasional catch in her voice.

"I know, sweetheart. Come on," He encouraged walking into her room, turning her covers down, and then holding the corner up so she could slip into bed.

"Carlton?" Gail asked when she was sitting on her bed after sliding her feet under the sheet and blanket. "Can you...will you...would you mind staying with me tonight?"

"That's not a good idea, Gail. I'll come over some time tomorrow."

"I don't mean...we don't have to...I think I just want someone here."

"Okay," he relented. He really didn't want to leave her. "I need to make a couple of calls. You get comfortable. I'll be back in a few minutes. Maybe I'll have some coffee after all."

When Gail started to get out of the bed, he stopped her. "I can take care of it. You just lie down. I'll only be a few minutes, I promise."

He turned off the light but left the bedroom door open as he walked down the hall to the kitchen. Gail heard his voice for a little while but was probably about half asleep when she felt Carlton put his arms around her as he settled behind her. It was only then that she finally relaxed.

***

Gail's eyelids fluttered and then closed again, when Carlton whispered, "Kiss me, baby doll." He was on one elbow, leaning over her, watching her face as the faint glow from a street light filtered through the curtain covering the window above their heads.

So she did. It was a long slow kiss that became something else as Carlton explored her mouth, sucked on her bottom lip and ran the tip of his tongue along the sharp edge of her teeth. He caught her soft moan of pleasure in his mouth and shared his own with her.

His fingers threaded through the soft curls of her hair. He held her head still as he explored the tender spot under her ear. He chuckled when she shuddered from the chills that burst through her skin.

"Mercy, I love the taste of you," he whispered in her ear. His mouth moved down to her neck and his tongue explored the heartbeat under her jaw. "You have about ten seconds to kick me out of your bed, sweetheart."

Instead of asking him to leave, she put her arm around him and rested her lips against his stubble-roughened cheek. "I don't want you to leave."

"I wasn't planning on this. I don't even have a condom in my wallet," he told her as he planted quick kisses on her lips, cheeks, eyes, and forehead.

"You don't need one," she replied as she rubbed her teeth against the rough whiskers on his chin. "Last week maybe," she laughed when he flopped onto his back and she moved on top of him, "but not tonight."

He put his hands on her cheeks and held her face above him, "Preventing pregnancy isn't the only reason to use a condom, Gail."

"Are you telling me you're promiscuous, Carlton?"

"No, but..."

"Then hush and kiss me."

He kissed her as he slid his hands under the long t-shirt, pushing against her until she was sitting up and managed to capture her breasts. "Take that damn shirt off, it's in my way," he pleaded.

Gail sat up straight with her legs folded beside his hips as she pulled the shirt over her head and tossed it on the floor beside the bed. Carlton put his hands under her arms, lifted her slightly, and pulled her forward bringing one of her breasts to his mouth. His tongue swirled around the hardening bud and Gail twitched.

"Ah, you like that, huh?" Carlton teased. Although he knew the answer from the sharp intake of her breath, he asked anyway, "Have you ever had a man play with your breasts before?"

"Not really," She answered. "It tingles, makes me itch."

He turned his head to capture the other breast. He pulled his hands out from under her arms to hold the sides of her breast, pushing the center into a firm peak. His tongue moved from side to side mashing the nipple and areola against the roof of his mouth. As he suckled, Gail moved her hips up and down on his stomach, moaning with a long drawn out "O-o-o-oh."

"Easy baby, make it last," Carlton slowed her movements by placing his hands on her hips to hold her still.

"Come here," he encouraged, showing her how to brace her hands on the pillow beside his head and lean forward for him to give attention to her other breast. Gail slowly lowered her head until her forehead was resting against Carlton's and moaned with the intensity of the stimulation. When she would have raised her shoulders, he put his hands on her back and held her still for his ministrations. Her breathing grew faster until she was almost panting.

Her shoulders began to shake, her body trembled, and her stomach muscles contracted against his as a mini-orgasm shook her until she collapsed on top of Carlton.

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God," she whispered in his ear. "Never before," she added. "Carlton," she muttered.

"Easy, baby, easy, just enjoy it."

"Whew, what was that?" Gail asked as he allowed her to roll off him. He raised himself on his elbow to brush her hair away from her forehead and from the sides of her face as her breathing returned to near normal.

"God, you are beautiful," he said as much to himself as to her. "I've heard some women can orgasm that way, but I've never had it happen before. You're something special."

"Can I do that to you?" Gail teased as her hands sought his small flat nipples and tried to move her head down to get her mouth to his chest.

"I don't think it works that way," he countered, but he did lift himself to allow her access to his body. "They're somewhat sensitive, but not like yours are."

Try as hard as she could, she still couldn't get much of his flesh into her mouth. She pushed against him to get him sitting up while she was on her haunches. "You're all hard muscles," she complained. "I need some flab to work with."

He was laughing at her, but he wouldn't help either. His hands were busy sliding up and down her back as she knelt before him.

"What was that you did?" Gail asked as she moved her hands to either side of one nipple until she found just the right place for her flattened hands. She mashed toward one hard bud to get enough flesh so she could suck his nipple into her mouth. She finally used her teeth to nibble on him and felt him jerk. She was so elated she was laughing as she worked on the other side.

Pushing her head back down to her pillow, Carlton was laughing too. "You little tease. Lord, I enjoy playing with you."

"Playing?"

"Well, it sure as hell isn't work."

"But I thought it was, you know, in a hurry, sort of. Remember, I'm not that...I haven't..."

"Hey, hey," He interrupted her. "Whatever feels good to you is what I'll enjoy. Yes, I remember when it was a contest. In my twenties and maybe on into my thirties I couldn't get there fast enough and I may not have taken care of my partner as I should have."

Gail's hands moved up to cup his shoulders and then slid down his arms, investigating the feel of him, noticing the smooth skin over the muscles of his upper arms and the hair-roughened lower arms. She put her hands between his torso and his arms, ruffling over each of his ribs, and then around to his back slowly moving up to the sharp edge of his shoulder blades and down the dent of his backbone until she encountered the elastic band of his boxer shorts.

Boldly she slipped her fingers down inside the elastic of his shorts and rubbed across his bare skin. "You have a cute ass."

"You little hussy," Carlton whispered in her ear.

"What?" She asked, "You men always talk about a female with a bubble butt or a sweet ass. I'm just returning the compliment."

While Gail's hands explored Carlton, he did much the same to her, brushing his finger across her lips, moving from side to side, sensitizing them, and then lowering his head to kiss her. His lips touched, retreated, and then touched her again until she was lifting her head for a deeper kiss.

When he abandoned her lips to move to the soft spot under her ear, she whimpered and tried to move her head to capture his mouth again. Instead, his lips moved down the side of her neck and around to the soft spot at the base of her neck. He kissed her, tasted her, and rubbed his chin against her, sampling the soft skin between her breasts and along the underside of each breast.

When he reached the softness of her belly, he felt her quiver from the feel of his tongue on her delicate flesh. She jerked when he pushed his tongue into her belly button. His fingers slid inside the elastic of her panties and brushed through the soft hair covering her mound. He moved slowly until she was rolling her hips, wanting more from his hands. She bent one leg then straightened it. Gail raised one knee then lowered it as she grew more agitated and aroused from his slow movements.

Gail's hands went to his head, holding his mouth against her stomach while she pushed her belly against him to feel his tongue. He tasted her tummy. His fingers moved between her legs to cup her sex and his other hand pulled her panties down. She lifted her hips, unaware she was helping, or perhaps she wanted more. While she thrashed her legs to remove the panties, he settled between her thighs and heard her whimper of complaint when she could no longer run her hands up and down his back.