“You’re a cop,” I shoot back, smiling, relief substantially more pronounced than the shock.
“Wow, this is a lot to take in. But the first thing I want to say is I have no intention of going out there to pick up anyone else. I have all the woman I need right here.” I smile as Blaze pauses to think. “Were you going to let me pay you for sex and never say anything about being a cop? Shitty police work, Ari,” he retorts.
"You were going to pay me for sex and not arrest me!" I counter. "You suck at your job, too!" I start giggling, and before long, we are both tickled to death over finding out we’re both undercover.
“Maybe it’s not that we suck, it’s just that we were meant to suck on each other,” he says, pulling me closer to him and kissing my neck, while suckling at my skin. “I’m glad this is out in the open. Now, we can start something serious without any inhibitions,” he adds.
I’m still naked in his bed, sheets pooling around my waist. I gaze into his eyes; then, my eyes roam over his body. There's a rash of red at the base of his neck from where I left my mark earlier in the night. He's strong and gorgeous, and I don't have to feel guilty for wanting to be with him any longer. This is a good thing.
“Yes, we can,” I surrender to the idea of being with him freely. “And, I would love that.”
"So, you don't have other clients?" he asks again as if that bit of knowledge gives him life. "Just me?"
"No! I don’t have clients, at all. You’re not even a client, you’re my boo," I say and chuckle loudly.
He chuckles with me. “I’ll take that. I’ll take all of that,” he says, pulling me back into his arms and holding me there for what seems like the longest time.
"You don't go picking up hookers on the reg?" I ask to clear the air. I guess that’s something I’m hung up on too.
"Fuck no!" he says, leaning back on the bed. "I fuckin’ hated that assignment when I got it. It took me so long to figure out what to wear, thus Terry’s suit, and then I didn’t know what to say, how to hold my hands…it was a disaster."
"God, me too," I say and start laughing, a choked off, wheezing sound that's pretty contagious.
Blaze starts chuckling along with me.
“I hate going undercover doing this, but the FBI wanted me to go deep cover, so I’ve been doing this for a few months. We’ve been trying to figure out the flow of girls caught up in this sex trafficking ring,” I admit.
"You’re amazing!” he says while tugging at my bottom lip.
“You’re pretty amazing too,” I tell him. “But the most amazing part is that now we can get out there and fight this problem together.”
“Most definitely,” he says, his finger now running circles over my shoulders. “These assholes don’t have a chance now.”
“No chance,” I agree.
“You know we're going to have to come up with a very different story for how we started dating,” he says, still running circles over my skin which heats up in every place he touches. “My mom can never hear this one,” he adds before his lips come crashing down on mine warming me to th
e core.
“Neither can mine,” I say, giggling, imagining the day Blaze would meet my parents and impress them with his charm just as he amazes me with the way he expresses his love for me. “Do you think your mother will like me because I can tell you now my parents are going to love everything about you?” I ask.
“Baby, my mother has said so many prayers that I will meet a girl as brilliant, compassionate and lovely as you. If she doesn’t fall head over heels in love with you, then I don’t know what to say. What’s not to love about you?” Blaze says as he climbs on top of me, covering my body with his.
While I can think of some obvious barriers to his mother accepting me, I clear my mind as we make the sweetest love with our full truth on the line. We give ourselves to each other wholeheartedly for the first time.
And, as the future holds, Blaze is right. When I meet his mother, she makes me feel right at home and a part of the family. My mother falls head over heels in love with him, and he passes my father’s test for a man capable of taking care of his daughter. Our love life is on the right path. We have everything we desire, finally.
Epilogue
Blaze
Six Months Later
When I step out of my car and head to the alley, I see her before I get there. The light mist in the air is reminiscent of the first day we met and makes what I’m about to do even more meaningful. I make my way across the street towards the alley, anxious to be close to her. As soon as she sees me, she presses her back against the old stone wall and props one foot on an old stump for support. She knows I love it when she sees me coming and stands in that nasty way that drives me wild.
“Are you looking for a good time?” she starts our cat and mouse game.
“No,” I say, startling her. “Not tonight. I need more than that from you tonight.”