Carter's Cuffs by Lacey Alexander

to take every ounce of what he had to give.
    His rough drives soon came with deep groans and she knew he was getting closer and closer to exploding in her. “Come, baby, deep inside me,” she urged him, remembering how, despite herself, his demands for her to come had helped push her to climax.
    “Oh fuck, yeah,” he said, voice deep, filled with a hard, masculine pleasure, and then he pounded into her still more roughly, brutal and hot and good, and she knew he was spilling his come inside her, and she’d never felt so physically satisfied.
    He kissed her again, his mouth still flavored by her cunt, and they lay quiet for a long moment, recovering.
    Finally, he rolled off her, lying beside her in the grass, their wrists still connected. “Damn,” he said. “You get me so hot, baby.” Then he turned his head to look at her and caught her already peering at him. “And I like you, Erin. So much.”
    His earnest tone made her feel the words in her gut. Shit. She hadn’t expected him to come right out with it. She thought it was pretty clear that they were strongly drawn to each other, and that, yes—like it or not—there were emotions involved, a lot of them. But having a guy as hot and handsome as Carter come right out and simply say that he liked her hit her hard.
    She turned her gaze back toward the sky and decided not to respond.
    Because as good as this had been—as unbelievably intense and pleasurable—she had to get back to business here, the business of making him understand this had to end.
    “I fucked up by letting myself be attracted to you,” she said frankly. “And I fucked up worse by trying to…to stop it with sex. And I apologize for that.”
    She looked back to him, but couldn’t read his expression until he said, “All right. Apology accepted. And thank you. For telling me everything you told me tonight.”
    She gave a short, precise nod, and realized it was her “cop nod”, something she used on the job. And that was good—because she had to close the emotional floodgates now. Once and for all. “And I wish I could have something more with you, Carter, because…well, it’s clear you’re an amazing lover and also…a really nice guy.” She blinked. “What I’m saying is…I like you, too. A lot.”
    Oh hell, stop it. You’re supposed to be closing the floodgates, not opening them wider.
    So she again withdrew her gaze, focused on the moon. “But like I told you, I can’t allow myself to feel the things you make me feel. If I’d had to go to work the other night after we had sex at Caesars, I’d have been toast. I felt too much. I was thinking too hard. And I can’t do that, Carter. It literally puts my life at risk.”
    “You’re soft underneath,” he said gently, simply.
    “What?” When she looked at him this time, those green eyes were enough to bury her.
    “You’re soft underneath your sturdy cop exterior, and I love that, Erin.”
    She sucked in her breath, again felt his words in her chest.
    Then forced out the ones she had to say, to make him finally grasp the situation. “But the two don’t mix—soft girl, hard cop. So I have to choose. I have to be the hard cop all the time.” And the further truth, although she didn’t tell him, was that the contrasts between her true personality and her profession did make her do a lot of pretending—she’d realized that when he’d accused her of it earlier. Only maybe a lot of it was to herself—pretending it was easy to be so tough all the time, pretending she never needed anyone to lean on or a guy to love. And she talked herself into believing it most of the time, too, but Carter was wearing down her defenses.
    “So,” she went on, “I answered your questions. Honestly. I’ve told you things I’ve told no one else. That’s what you wanted—an explanation for my behavior, and now you’ve got it.”
    She sat up then, thinking it was high time they got off the ground. “So now you can keep your end of the