“Right,” I returned, all pissed off, and then flipped around and pushed at his shoulders until he was on his back. My mouth was at his chest and moving down when he hauled me back up.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“I’m going to give you something to compare. You can score us, me against Cherry, like the ice skaters in the Olympics.”

“The Head Olympics?” Lee asked, his voice amused.

“Something like that,” I replied, totally angry now because he thought I was funny. I broke free of his hold and started down again.

He hauled me back up.

“Your mouth isn’t gettin’ anywhere near me when you’re pissed off,” he said.

I tried to carry on and he kept hauling me back. This became somewhat of a wrestling match, which, with even a small amount of effort, Lee could have won. I could tell he was being gentle and trying not to hurt me, which put him at a disadvantage.

We tussled, tangled in the sheets, rolled, tussled more and ended up falling on the floor, me on the bottom. Luckily, Lee’s arm was around my waist and it tightened and he threw his other one out to break our fall, doing kind of a one arm push up with me in the middle. Still, my ass slammed against the floor and Lee’s h*ps mashed into mine.

This nearly knocked the wind out of me but I continued, rolling him over, then he rolled me over.

Then somehow arms, legs and rolling were joined by lips, tongues and groping and the wrestling match got interesting.

We were both breathing heavily, I was seriously hot and bothered, when all of a sudden, the flannel shirt was whisked over my head, my panties were gone and Lee slid inside me.

I instantly stopped wrestling, wrapped my legs around his thighs and my arms around his back.

He was moving inside me and I was moving with him, our lips touching but not kissing, our breath coming fast. I lifted my head to kiss him but he pulled away and kept moving inside me. Then his lips came back to mine and I tried to kiss him again but he pulled away again.

“Lee…” I whispered, I was going to tell him I wanted to kiss him and he should stop messing around.

He drove in deep and said against my mouth, “There it is.”

Then he kissed me.

* * * * *

After, my legs were still wrapped around his thighs, one of my hands was in his hair, the other one on his ass. Lee’s face was tucked into my neck and he was still inside me.

“Cherry’s a four. You’re off the scales,” he said to my neck.

I might have thought this was bullshit, but one thing Lee wasn’t was a bullshit artist.

“I shouldn’t have asked,” I said.

“No, you shouldn’t.”

He pulled away, carted us both into the bed and he settled me against him, full-frontal.

“I didn’t mean to flirt with Eddie,” I told his throat. “It was a reflex action.”

One of his arms tightened around me, the other hand started fiddling with my hair.

“I’ll try to do better… with the flirting,” I said.

“I’d appreciate that.”

“You need to do better… with the jealousy thing, not every guy wants to get in my pants.”

“You’re wrong, every guy does want to get in your pants,” Lee said.

“Tex doesn’t.”

“Tex isn’t every guy. Tex is a crazy guy and he’s old enough to be your father.”

“Duke doesn’t,” I tried.

“Dolores would chop Duke’s dick off if he so much as looked at another woman and he’s old enough to be your father.”

“Hank doesn’t,” I persevered.

“Hank doesn’t count. He thinks of you as his little sister.”

“Darius doesn’t.” I was a dog with a bone.

“Darius doesn’t f**k white women.”

Jeez.

I tried a different tact.

In a quiet voice, a very quiet voice (because I kinda hoped he wouldn’t hear me), I whispered, “You know it’s only ever been you.”

He heard me.

His body went still. Then his hand fisted in my hair and he tugged my head back. He kissed me, long and sweet and when he was done, he tucked my face back into his neck.

I took in a deep breath and then let it out.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” he asked softly.

It was harder than hell, it was scary and it made me feel vulnerable.

Since I felt I’d done my sharing for the night, I stayed quiet.

Lee let me have my emotional space.

“Ally tried to take the earrings back to Tiffany’s. They refused the return. I’m not approaching Coxy, for various reasons. You’re stuck with them.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “I’ve decided to give them to charity.”

“Good plan,” he said and then, “I was in the surveillance room and saw them come in. You thought they were from me.”

“Yeah.”

“You want anything, just say and we’ll get it. You can pick out what you want.”

I held my breath.

“Seriously?” I said when I let it out.

“I’m not gonna try to read your mind when there’s something you want. Just tell me and I’ll get it for you.”

Well, hell. That made things easy for him.

He didn’t have to ask clever questions, do any detective work, put any effort into it at all if I just told him what I wanted.

I decided to change the subject because that one very well might tick me off.

“What was Eddie so hot to see you about this morning?” I asked.

Lee rolled onto his back and I snuggled into his side, my cheek on his shoulder.

“Darius has some trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“The kind Eddie can’t get involved with. He’s got some pressure from the Department about Darius, they don’t like the relationship and they want Darius out of commission.”

“Eddie won’t do it?”

“Eddie’s a Mexican-American, family is all important. He thinks of Darius and me as brothers. It’s one of the reasons why he and I survived both of us being in love with you. Eddie would never take Darius down.”

I wrapped my arm around his waist.

“What happened to Darius?” I asked.

“After his father was killed, the life insurance covered funeral expenses and some bills. Not enough money comin’ in, standard of living crashed. All of a sudden, Darius and his Mom were responsible for a house and Darius’s three younger sisters. It was hard, he was young. Darius was offered an easier path and he took it. No one would have guessed he’d make that choice but after what happened to his father, Darius was one seriously pissed off black man. He was lookin’ for trouble and found it.”