Lullabies & Dead Bodies, page 33
Gerri took a deep breath.
“Pete said they were coming here and why. And I didn’t really feel like being in a big group.”
“I understand.”
“Leaded,” Pete said, handing a beer to Gerri. Then he turned to Ike and handed him a bottle of the non-alcoholic brand. “Unleaded for you.”
“Thanks.”
Sidney stood by and grinned, politely declining when he offered her one.
They all raised their bottles.
“To Detective Curt Dorn,” Gavin said. “One of this department’s finest. He will be missed.”
“To Curt,” they all said in unison.
Ike took a sip of his near-beer and then walked over to the table to sit with the others and share in the stories to follow.
Gerri still hung back.
Sidney ran a hand over her arm.
“Can I get you something to eat, sweetie?”
“No, thanks.” She wiped at a tear and attempted a smile. “I hope this is okay. Us just showing up here like this? We probably should’ve called.”
“No, it’s perfectly all right. In fact, I think it’ll do Ike some good. I think it’ll do all of you some good.”
Gerri nodded and then finally moved over to sit with the others at the table. Sidney followed, but didn’t sit. Instead she slipped her arms around Isaac’s shoulders and leaned down.
“I’m going to go round up some food for you guys, okay?”
He looked up at her and nodded.
“Thanks, darlin’.”
She kissed his lips and then his temple. Then she left him with his friends and went into the kitchen.
EPILOGUE
“2-Adam-1. Base, raise 2-Adam-14.”
The professionalism Isaac heard in his Lieutenant’s voice belied the emotion he must’ve felt at making the symbolic call.
Standing beside Isaac at the cemetery, Gavin spoke softly into his handheld radio. His voice was amplified throughout the sizable crowd as the End of Watch call with dispatch was broadcast over the loud speaker.
“Copy. Base to 2-Adam-14.”
The answering voice from police dispatch was female, clipped, and efficient. Worthy of the solemnness of the moment. The call for 2-Adam-14 was repeated twice more before she addressed the head of his department again.
“Base to 2-Adam-1. Unable to raise 2-Adam-14.”
“Copy that,” Gavin replied. “Show 2-Adam-14 ten-seven.”
A pause and then three sharp beeps, commanding attention.
“All units be advised, 2-Adam-14, Detective Curtis Dorn, is ten-seven. He ended his watch on Wednesday afternoon in the line of duty, giving the ultimate sacrifice for his community. Gone, but never forgotten. Detective Dorn, your brothers and sisters in blue will watch over your family. Rest in peace. We’ve got it from here.”
Those words ended the graveside portion of the funeral services for their lost man, and Isaac gazed around at the huge gathering. Besides Dorn’s family and friends, nearly eighty officers representing over thirty police departments, sheriff’s offices, and the state highway patrol were present. FBI Special Agent Fox had even shown up with two others who’d been part of their joint operation last week when Dorn was shot.
The procession from the church to the graveyard had been a lengthy one with lots of flashing lights and no sirens, almost bringing the city to a standstill. That was usually the case whenever a cop had fallen in the line of duty.
Shrouded in his dress blues with a black band across his badge, Isaac held tight to Sidney’s hand as the congregated throng began to slowly disperse.
“I’ll see you at the house,” Pete said, referring to the station.
Isaac nodded and headed for the car.
“You have to go in now? After the funeral?” Sidney asked, staring up at him as he held the car door open for her.
“Yeah, I do. We’re short handed right now. Two men down with Curt gone and Gerri on leave.”
“Right.”
The ride home was silent, and Isaac’s mind was all over the place thinking about the funeral, and about his strange telekinesis, not to mention the telepathy. And he wondered if Sidney was completely sure she still wanted to marry him. He also wondered how Gerri was really doing after the loss of her partner. It was like a computer running constantly in the background, a machine that he couldn’t turn off no matter how hard he tried.
Once home, he parked the car and got out.
“You’re coming in?”
Sidney sounded surprised.
“Well, yeah. You think I’m going to work in this monkey outfit?”
She giggled at him.
“I think the dress blues are sexy, Detective.”
“Then you got some weird ideas about what’s sexy.”
Inside, he went straight to the small walk-in closet and began to strip out of the formal dress uniform, putting away his hat and white gloves on the closet shelf. He took his time, his mind still churning over questions he couldn’t answer and things he couldn’t control. He wondered how Jay Schiffer could look at himself in the mirror, knowing he’d killed a fellow cop. They’d gotten word that the ex-Deputy Chief had been placed on suicide watch down in the jail. Pathetic bastard.
The news media had gone nuts after the death of Jeffery Schiffer, and Jay and his wife being taken into custody. The whole story was causing quite a stir, even making national news, and Isaac only hoped that Gavin Hayes’ handling of the case — and him by extension — wouldn’t be called into question over it. He knew both DA Hanson’s office and Chief Branson’s office were already working together in an attempt to spin it in a good light — calling it a massive success in their joint campaign to flush out corruption and improve the level of policing in the city of Cleveland.
Freshly dressed in a nice pair of blue jeans and a light gray dress shirt and tie, Isaac clipped his holstered gun to his side and adjusted the black band on his badge before clipping it on too. Then he left the closet and headed for the bathroom.
“Hey.”
“Yip!”
Sidney squeaked and jumped, dropping something as she whirled around to face him.
The strange yelp made him grin.
“Sorry, darlin’. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It… no, it’s…um…”
“You dropped something in the sink there,” he pointed, and then reached around her to retrieve it. He picked up the small white stick and his heart stopped as he studied it.
It had an oval window from which two tiny pink lines peeked out at him.
Two lines.
Pregnant.
He looked at Sidney.
Her lovely face was frozen in what he could only describe as shock. Her beautiful jewel-toned eyes wide with… fear? She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.
Isaac put the test on the counter, then he turned and gently pulled her into his arms, drawing her close.
“I didn’t think it would actually say positive.”
Her voice quivered, and Isaac pulled back to look at her, caressing her face.
“But it does.”
The amount of joy in his own voice surprised the hell out of him.
“I’m sorry, Ike.”
“What the hell for?” He studied her eyes. What was she thinking? “For giving me more of a future than I ever thought I’d have before I met you?”
Sidney frowned, seeming confused.
“You’re not upset?”
“Upset? Sidney, you’re about to make me a father!”
Joy flooded his belly, rising like the Erie tide and threatening to drown him in more feels than he’d ever experienced in his life.
“And you’ve agreed to marry me. Do you have any idea how happy you make me, baby?”
He kissed her, soft and reverent, molding his lips to hers and caressing her tongue with his own.
“I love you so much, Sidney Fairchild,” he whispered.
She smiled up at him, her champagne-colored eyes sparkling with unshed tears.
“I love you back, Isaac Taylor.”
* * *
***
* * *
Thank you for reading Lullabies & Dead Bodies. If you enjoyed reading the continuing romance between Isaac and Sidney, keep turning the pages to read a fun and steamy passage from book five in the series, Murders & Romance, or CLICK HERE to download Murders & Romance now!
MURDERS & ROMANCE
Book 5 Sneak Peek
“Hey, I’ve been wondering…”
Isaac paused and repositioned in his chair. Why did asking this question make him unreasonably nervous?
“I mean… I don’t want to rush you or anything, but I just thought maybe we could um… well, if you wanted to, I mean…”
“Isaac?” Sidney’s tone was cautious, and she placed a hand on his, making his skin tingle. “Whatever it is, just spit it out.”
Isaac took a breath, buoyed by her touch. “Well, I was thinking maybe we could, you know, talk about… dates.”
“Dates?”
The confusion in her voice was mirrored in her eyes, and Isaac licked his lips before trying again.
“Wedding dates.”
Her eyes lit up, and his nerves lifted.
“Oh! Dates.”
Isaac grinned. “Yeah. Dates.”
“Hmm. Well, you know, I have been thinking about that.”
She ran a single finger over the back of his hand and up his forearm, and that tingle zipped through his body and connected with his dick. He repositioned on his chair once more, for an entirely different reason.
“Really?” It was the only word he could get out.
“Um hmm,” Sidney hummed in response.
Isaac quietly cleared his throat. “Feel like sharing any of those thoughts with me?”
The question was met with a slender probing foot sliding up his leg beneath the table in a sexy caress. His mind clouded, like fog rolling in off Lake Erie. Was she purposely trying to get him worked up? Deliberately teasing him when she knew he couldn’t do anything about it?
Her foot rose higher, drifting up his inner thigh. Isaac pushed his empty plate away and leaned in closer, putting his elbows on the table and watching Sidney’s luscious lips as she spoke.
“Well, I was thinking that I don’t really want to wait a long time. I’d rather do it sooner than later.”
“Oh, I like that idea a whole lot, darlin’.”
“Do you?”
“Hell yes. In fact, I’m all for flying to Vegas this weekend.”
Sidney laughed, and the timbre of it lit up the night for Isaac. He smiled hard, bathing in the richness of the sound.
“That’s a little sooner than I was thinking,” Sidney said with a giggle.
“Ah. Can’t blame a man for trying.” Isaac reached out and touched her bouncy curls. “So when were you thinking?”
“Well, ideally I’d like to say Spring. But that’s nearly a year away and I don’t want to wait that long. On the other hand, I don’t need some elaborately planned church wedding with all the trimmings either. There’s a lot to think about. I just don’t know.”
“Hmm.” Isaac could sense her uncertainty and he needed to resume his mission to get her to relax and have a little fun. He stood and walked over to the radio. “Well, just keep Vegas in mind while you’re deciding, okay?”
He turned on the radio, which was always tuned to their favorite R&B oldies station, and turned up the volume.
“What are you doing?”
Playful suspicion crinkled the corners of her eyes, and Isaac held out his hand to her.
“Asking you to dance.”
She smiled up at him. “You’re volunteering to dance?”
Isaac grinned and nodded.
“But you don’t like to dance, Ike.”
“I like dancing with you.”
She took his hand just as Martha and the Vandellas began to sing about dancing in the streets, and Isaac led her to the middle of the room and began moving his body to the rhythm.
Dancing was something he’d only recently discovered he truly enjoyed doing. Normally, the very thought of flailing his body around to the music made him sick with worry. The chance of accidentally touching someone nearby was simply too great a risk. A fool’s folly.
But when it was just him and Sidney — just him and the one woman whose touch never caused him an ounce of pain — he could be as free with his body as he wanted to.
He spun around and shook his shoulders, making a funny face at her.
Sidney laughed and finally began to dance with him.
Fast songs and slow. From the Supremes to the Temptations and the O-Jays, they boogied around the dining room for over half an hour. When Marvin Gaye started to belt out “Let’s Get it On,” Isaac pulled her into his arms and held her tight against his body.
He stared down into her light champagne gem-colored eyes and saw so much — love, longing, his future. He loved this woman more than life. She was his world.
Slowly, his hand ran from the small of her back down over the curve of her ass. He leaned in and inhaled the spiced honeysuckle scent of her. His lips moved to the rim of her ear.
“I really want to make love to you right now.”
Something close to a whimper escaped her, and he looked down into her eyes once more.
“I want that too. But we can’t.”
“I know. Two weeks.” He said the words with a hint of dread. How the hell he was going to make it two whole weeks he had no clue.
Sidney pulled back, and he could see her mind working.
“Technically, the doctor’s instructions were not to insert anything into my kitty-kat during that time.”
Isaac silently chuckled at her colorful euphemism.
“No tampons. No fingers.” She ran her hand over the front of his sweatpants, shamelessly caressing the blatant bulge there. “No pythons,” she whispered.
Isaac flinched at the contact, unable to hold in the needy groan. “Well, that doesn’t leave much room, does it?”
“Nope.”
Her teasing tone mirrored the sweet torture of her hand, and Isaac nearly buckled under her ministrations.
“But there is another place where you can insert something.”
Before her meaning took shape in his mind, Sidney was already on her knees in front of him, slowly pulling his sweatpants down. His eyes closed, and all conscious thought stopped when she took him into her mouth.
He gripped the back of a chair to keep himself steady while she worked. Opening his eyes, he looked down to watch her lips move up and down his dick, feeling the caress of her tongue around him.
Something snapped.
Some unknown control-switch inside him flipped.
His free hand delved into her mass of curls and fisted. He held her head still while he thrust himself deeper into her mouth, hitting the back of her throat again and again.
He felt her hand on his balls, gently fondling and squeezing.
The move was his undoing.
“Shit. Sid, I’m coming!”
He attempted to withdraw himself, but her hands suddenly grasped hold of his ass cheeks, keeping him in place.
He emptied himself down her throat with a shuddering groan.
He had no clue how long it took him to surface from the depths of ecstasy, but he felt Sidney kiss his lips. He opened his eyes just in time to see her cocky smile. She stepped around him and began to clear the table.
Isaac pulled up his sweatpants and turned toward her. He took the plates from her and set them back on the table. Then he took her into his arms and gave her searing, sensual kiss.
“You are a fucking goddess,” he whispered against her lips. “You know that, right?”
“I’m not a goddess. I’m just a woman in love with an incredible man.”
Isaac shook his head. “You can’t fool me. You’re a goddess sent to Earth just for me.”
He kissed her again, slower this time, molding his lips to hers and caressing her tongue with his own and leaving them both breathless.
“Why don’t you let me clean up here?” He gestured to the dining table. “You go relax.”
She smiled at him, and Isaac couldn’t decide if it was more sarcastic or amused.
“And do what? Lay around and eat bonbons?”
Sarcastic. Definitely.
He shrugged a shoulder. “Or whatever it is that you celestial types do in your spare time.”
She giggled at him. “I think all that dancing has made you crazy.”
“Maybe. But it was fun. And it had a very happy ending.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.
“Mmm. For you.”
Isaac put on his best playfully shocked face. “Ooh! I see how it is. Well, now let me take this opportunity to make you a promise, darlin’. The minute our medically induced abstinence is over, I will more than make it up to you.”
“I’m going to hold you to that, Detective.” She kissed his chin and then walked away.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lashell Collins is an American author of romantic suspense. She walks to the beat of her own drum, but that’s okay ’cause she’s got a pretty good sense of rhythm. Basically, she’s a geeky, quirky, laid-back, music loving kinda girl who’s married to a retired cop, motorcycle-riding, bad-boy alpha all her own, and she likes to write about sexy men who are sworn to uphold the law.
* * *
When she’s not busy living vicariously through her characters, she can usually be found watching Star Trek, listening to music, playing with her two Bernese Mountain Dogs, Gus & Gracie, stuffing her face full of Chinese food, or riding on the back of her husband’s Harley-Davidson.
Newsletter Sign-up:
http://www.lashellcollins.com/newsletter
Website:
http://lashellcollins.com
JOIN LASHELL’S FACEBOOK READER GROUP
Want to get the scoop (like blurbs, release dates, cover reveals, etc.) on all of Lashell’s newest books before anyone else? Want dibs on being the first to read and review her latest releases? Want to hang out and ask her questions about her books, or life in general? Then joining her Facebook Reader Group is the way to do it! Click the link below to join.
