Fracture Read online

  “Definitely. I’m glad you stuck around.”

  “Me, too. Now, go on. I’m calling Mellie, and you don’t need to hear our convo.”

  “No argument here.” She walked away with a wave. At the grocery story, she meandered through the aisles, plucking things from the shelves and depositing them in her cart.

  A high feminine laugh had her rolling her eyes as she walked around a corner. Chase and one of the Anderson twins. Vicki wasn’t sure which one from the back. Whichever, or whoever it was, leaned close to Chase, no doubt showing off ample cleavage.

  He glanced up in that moment, piercing her with those stormy eyes. Her belly tightened as her heart rate accelerated. What’s wrong with me?

  His expression was mocking and cold until he dismissed her. When he returned it to the woman before him, his features morphed into raw sexual promise. A look that made Vicki think of nights of unbridled passion.

  The jealousy coursing through her shocked her. Okay, it’s official—I need to get some dick because, in no world, should I be jealous of attention another woman is getting. She pushed her cart by and kept her focus on the shelf to her left.

  “Hi, Vicki,” the woman said.

  She stopped and angled back to the couple standing there. “Hi, Jen.”

  “How’s being a cop this week?”

  Pasting her patient smile on her face, Vicki replied, “Same as it was last week. The best job I could ask for.”

  “Can you believe our Vicki Boshay went and became a cop?” she asked Chase, leaning closer still to him.

  Why don’t you just hump him here in the store, so I can arrest you for a public display?

  “Nope,” Chase said, voice deep. Once more, he allowed his gaze to meet hers.

  Infusing steel into her spine, Vicki held his judgmental stare. “People change.”

  “And, sometimes, just the outside does, but the inside remains just as rotten as before.”

  She wanted to smack him but nodded. “Very true. Have a good day, you two.” Vicki walked off before she snapped off something inappropriate. Pausing in the cracker aisle, she searched for her craving.

  The warning up her spine wasn’t nearly enough. Not even close. She turned her head to see Chase standing there behind her. The hunger that poured through her nearly took her to her knees. Under the artificial light of the store, he appeared even harsher and harder than he had last night. Worn jeans clung to his legs like a lover who never wanted to let go. His cotton tee molded to muscles that didn’t seem to end.

  “Something I can do for you, Mr. Ellery?” She flexed her fingers along the Wheat Thins box.

  “Just curious as to what your father thinks about you being in the uniform.”

  She replaced the box and faced him fully. “Not that it’s any of your business, but the day I joined the academy, he disowned me. Does that tell you what you want to know?”

  He stepped closer, bringing with him the pure scent of man and a light hint of sandalwood. “No,” he whispered along her ear as he reached for the box she’d just returned. “What I really want to know is what your pussy tastes like. How loud you scream when your orgasm. And how your pussy will feel around my cock.”

  Her knees trembled, but he had put a respectable distance between them before she could even recover or respond. His expression blank as he read the box.

  She closed her eyes briefly and opened them to find she was alone in the aisle. Chase had gone. She looked around but couldn’t see him, at all. It had to have been my mind playing tricks on me. Had to have.

  Whether it was or not didn’t matter. Her body wanted it. She wanted him between her legs, licking and sucking until she came. Wanted him fucking her until she couldn’t move. Craved his cock deep inside her.

  “Shit,” she muttered. Swiping two boxes of crackers, she made her way to the checkout line. After she paid, she pushed out to her Jeep Patriot and loaded the bags into the back. She was being watched. She closed the hatch and did a slow perusal around the parking lot.

  At the far end sat a man on a bike. Chase. She knew it was him as she knew the back of her hand. He straddled the bike that rumbled beneath him. Glasses covered his eyes, but she knew he had focused on her. She looked away from him and climbed behind the wheel.

  As she passed him, he pulled out after her. Her brain had a moment of weakness, wondering if he would follow her home and make good on what he’d said in the store. When he went the other direction from her, she shook off her fantasy.

  Had to be a figment of my imagination. She latched onto that explanation, for it was her reason for not smacking him for being so forward.

  As she unloaded her groceries and began putting them away, his words—or hers if she could ever fully convince herself of that—rattled around in her mind again. She wasn’t a prude nor was she the same young woman who had used the Boshay name to get what she wanted. The one who would have told her brothers to get the person beat up or jailed.

  “No, now, I’m a slut who wants him to put action to words and fuck me.” She folded up the reusable bags and stored them. “Not a slut, okay, a woman who knows what she wants. And, she wants Chase.” She stared at her reflection. “Okay, Boshay, admission is the first step. Now, what are you going to do about it?” She wasn’t sure yet, but she’d figure it out.

  ☼

  Chase opened a beer and drank half of the bottle before lowering it. Sweat drenched his clothes. But, the house had been cleaned out, well, about seven-eighths, anyway. He looked across the yard to the neighboring property. Mrs. Candace had gone back in her house to make dinner.

  “I’m pathetic,” he said. “She’s twice my age and not sweating half as much as I am.”

  It had been two days since he’d run into Vicki at the grocery store. Unsure what had possessed him to say those things to her, he figured he had best stay away from her. Part of him had an idea. It was to take her mind off the statement she’d made about her father disowning her.

  That information had been a shock. She’d been the apple of Victor Boshay’s eye. Even her brothers hadn’t been doted on as much as Vicki had. Perhaps she has changed. He drained his beer and tossed the bottle in the box holding all the broken glass.

  “Doesn’t matter.” He couldn’t forget the days of growing up here. Vicki had been his weakness in school. He’d wanted her to notice him. He’d been willing to take the beating her brothers delivered for talking to her; that hadn’t bothered him. When she asked him to meet her beneath the bleachers, he knew, just knew, the ass-whooping had been worth it. So, he’d snuck out to do as she’d requested. Despite his father smacking him around and telling him to stay away from the girl.

  She and her girlfriends had been there, and she’d informed him he wasn’t worth soiling herself for. A boy like him was only good for being a pool boy or a gardener. Perhaps, one day, he could be a chauffeur. Her brothers had arrived and proceeded to beat him once more. Sarah had followed him and helped him home to her house where her mother had patched him up.

  When his father had come looking for him, Candace had not allowed the drunk bastard into her house. When Chase had made it back home, his father had forgotten and had found something else to yell at him about.

  A truck pulled in the drive. Another guy he’d grown up with, Harry Sizemore, was at the wheel.

  Bending to swipe the box of glass, Chase stepped outside and down the two steps. “Hey, man,” he said.

  Harry hopped out and clapped him on the shoulder. “Good to see you, man. Let me take that.”

  “Thanks for helping out.”

  “No problem.” He carried the glass to the bed and placed it there.

  After a few more trips, they had all the recycling out and in Harry’s truck. Chase took the passenger seat while Harry went back behind the wheel.

  “So, how long are you here for?” he asked.

  Chase rolled down the window and waited for the hot Georgia air to flow over him. “Not sure yet. A while.”


  “So, you were in the Army while you were gone?”

  “I was.”

  “See any action?”

  Chase stared out the window. “A bit.”

  “Well, I’m married now. You remember Nicole Bardy. I married her and keep her knocked up and barefoot.”

  Grateful Harry dropped the topic of the military, Chase asked questions about his family. At the recycling plant, they dropped off and paid. On the way back to Cottonwood Falls, they passed a car that had been pulled over by a cop. His heart sped up a bit when he realized it was Vicki who had stopped them. He watched surreptitiously in the side mirror after they went by.

  The way her uniform clung to her made him want to peel it off one layer at a time. He couldn’t explain how shocked he’d been to find she’d joined the fraternity.

  “Can you believe it?” Harry asked.

  “What?”

  “Miss hoity-toity Victoria has donned a uniform.”

  “No. I hear her father disowned her for it.”

  “Oh, he did more than that. Took her out of his will, blackballed her from certain places. No one in her family speaks to her. Unless she stops them. When that happens, pretty much the entire town turns out for the court date.” He laughed.

  “So, he doesn’t have Judge Harrolson in his pocket anymore?”

  “That old bastard died. Judge Wilder doesn’t care how much money Mr. Boshay or his family have. If they broke the law, he makes them pay.”

  “That’s a change around here, then.”

  “Sure is. All happened when the new sheriff took over. He didn’t want anyone getting away with anything.”

  “And, Vicki went along with the changes?”

  “Oh, that was done before she returned. She had been living in Atlanta and working on their force.”

  Chase tried to imagine the princess working those mean streets and even getting dirty.. “Atlanta?”

  “I know, shocked all of us when she left to attend the academy there. We actually had bets on how long before she’d return to Cottonwood Falls. We were all wrong; she only came back two years ago.”

  “Do you know why she left?” Chase couldn’t explain why he was so interested in the answer.

  “I heard she’d been shot during some drug raid.” Harry shrugged. “Then, I also heard she broke up with her boyfriend and had to come home. I think she was also caught sleeping with her captain, who was a married man.”

  Small towns. “So, you don’t have a clue.”

  “Not a one,” Harry said with a grin. He parked before the trailer. “What’s next?”

  They spent the rest of the afternoon working. After thanking Harry for his help, showering, and eating with Mrs. Candace, Chase rode to one of the bars, this one out on the outskirts of town.

  The music was loud and shook the area as he strode to the door. He passed by two large men to enter the establishment and sidled up to the bar.

  The bartender caught his eye, and Chase said, “Bottle of beer. Something dark.”

  She gave him a thumbs up and finished her conversation with the man she spoke with. Chase drummed his fingers along the smooth top and waited.

  “Sorry about that, handsome; here you go. Anything else?”

  “No, ma’am. Thanks.” He paid and sat on a stool.

  A brush against his arm had him turning to see Vicki sliding onto the seat next to him. She reached out and took a handful of the peanut-pretzel mix on the bar.

  She wasn’t in uniform, and he had no problems admiring the way her jeans hugged her long legs. Her shirt had crisscrossed lines in the back, showing off some skin. The vivid blue of it blended well with the tan of her skin. He didn’t see any paler lines. I wonder if she sunbathes nude.

  She didn’t look at him, just ordered her drink and took a sip. When he put his bottle to his lips, she spoke.

  “Did you mean what you said earlier or were you just trying to annoy me?” She stirred her drink. “Because if you did mean it, I want to know, as well.”

  Well, fuck.

  Chapter Three

  Vicki stepped back and let Chase enter her house first. He brushed by her and paused in her entryway. She knew he was expecting something more for a place where she slept. “Not what you expected, is it?”

  “Nope.” He turned and stared at her.

  She gulped and closed the door behind her. He pressed her back until she could go no farther. One hand on either side of her, he leaned close and said, “What is this? A tumble with the bad boy?”

  She placed her hand on his chest. “This is about you and me. Nothing else. Either you want it or you don’t.”

  His eyes flared with heat, and her gut tensed.

  “I don’t want it; I want you.”

  “You’ll have me.”

  He lifted her in his arms and kissed her. Vicki shuddered as his tongue slid into her mouth, his taste filling her. She wound her arms around his neck and legs about his waist. Submerging her hands into his hair, she yanked the stands and tangled her tongue with his.

  He palmed her ass with one hand and ground against her, his cock hard and there. She nipped his tongue and muttered, “Strip.”

  The moment her feet hit the floor, she began tearing at her clothing. It fell to the floor and mingled with his. When he stood naked before her, her breath left her in a rush. Hard muscles flowed along his limbs. His abdominals were decidedly cut, she wanted to drop to her knees and run her tongue along the ridges. A bit lower, his cock rose, hard and thick. The large mushroom head shone with pearlescent drops of his precum. She flicked her tongue along her lips, wanting him in her mouth.

  She sank to her knees and grasped him. Tipping her head, she fisted her hand up and down his shaft. The groan slipping from his throat was music to her ears. She flicked out her tongue and tasted him. Salty. Male. Hers. Opening wide, she drew him in.

  “No,” he rasped, lifting her up.

  “Why?”

  “I want to taste, as well. If you don’t want to do this on the floor here, tell me where your room is.”

  “Ain’t that many rooms in here. One’s my bedroom, and one is the bathroom.”

  “Come on,” he said.

  Her place wasn’t that big, so it didn’t take him long to get her to the bedroom. He kissed her again as he cupped her pussy, slipping his finger deep inside her. She moaned and bucked her hips.

  He laid her back and placed his mouth over her core.

  “Shit,” she said, arching up, encouraging his fingers in deeper. His tongue laved at her clit. She gripped the blankets as he ate her out with extreme skill. A scream ripped from her throat as she came, hips flexing. She struggled to sit up and brought him up on the bed, as well. Soon, she was on top of him, his cock deep in her mouth as he continued to eat her.

  Up and down, she bobbed her head. He stretched her mouth as she took as much of him as she could. Her pussy wept at his assault of fingers and tongue. She ground on his face, loving how he gripped her hips and kept her tight to him.

  Her body quaked with another orgasm, and his cock pulsed before filling her mouth with his seed. She didn’t release him until nothing else came. Only then did she remove the warm suction she had around him.

  “Come here.”

  His voice, a deep rasp, ratcheted up her pulse once more. She turned and straddled him, closing her eyes tight in rhapsody when his thickness pushed through her muscles. Fully seated on him, she held still and gave herself a moment. He watched her, his large hands with square nails resting on her thighs. His stormy eyes blazed with barely contained passion.

  He reached up and undid the loose ponytail her hair was in. The tenderness he exhibited while doing it surprised her. Although, she couldn’t exactly explain why.

  She squealed when he rolled them over. He rose over her and began driving home. His strokes were long and sure. Fast, slow, deep, shallow. He changed it up and kept her on pins and needles, guessing. She latched her legs around him and held on, undulating and writhing ben
eath him.

  Over and over, he took her to the edge, only to drag her back and make her scramble to reach it once more. Her throat burned for water and some relief from her cries, but she didn’t slow nor did he.

  Their sweaty skin slid along one another. No words were passed between them other than her out-of-breath yells and his grunts. This wasn’t a deep, soul-connecting, intimate exchange. It was a fucking. Sex. Raw and gritty. Her hair, he’d wrapped in one large hand and angled her head how he wanted it. He took, and she gave all he asked for and more.

  When he came hard inside her, her body, exhausted, quivered and came once more. She hadn’t any energy to move. Time had lost all meaning; all she knew was the man above her who nuzzled her in the side of the neck.

  He lay beside her, still fully buried inside her, and held her tight. Twining her arms around him, she allowed the cuddling. Normally, she wanted to leave immediately after, but even if she had wanted to, she didn’t have any energy to do so. Plus, this was kind of nice, him making her feel safe and protected. Not many men could do that.

  She closed her eyes and listened to the rhythm of his heart as it slowed over time, as did hers.

  Three more times during the night, they had sex. As with the first time, they kept comments to themselves. When she stirred early in the morning, she cracked her eyes open and found him shoving into his pants across the room.

  “Leaving?”

  He stared at her, that coldness back in his gaze. “Figured you’d not want anyone to know you went slumming.”

  Her eye twitched, and she climbed from the bed, naked. His eyes darkened, and she watched the rapid uptick of his pulse on the side of his neck. She strode to stand toe to toe with him.

  “You need to get over yourself. This isn’t high school, anymore. We’re not kids.”

  “Yet, at the end of the day, I’m still an Ellery and you’re a Boshay.”

  “You have a dick, and I have a pussy. What’s your point?” She slapped her hands on his chest before pushing his hands away and undoing the pants he’d just done. “I told you, I’ve been disowned by my father.”

  “So, now, I’m okay to be with?”

  She cupped his cock, glad when it was in her hand once more. She loved touching him and hadn’t had enough of it last night. “You were back then, as well. I just was too full of myself to know. I get it. I was a bitch in school. People change.”