Free The Chase by Adrienne Giordano Page B

previous hours of the two of them inventing new sexual positions. His morning erection suddenly did an encore. Oh, hell . Now he’d have to face Ramirez with a boner. Not to mention, time was ticking. He checked the bedside clock. Five-eighteen.
    He tickled Jo’s cheek with one finger. “Honey, I’m leaving. See you later. Ramirez will be outside.”
    Another moan. He rolled his eyes. Total freaking killer of a decision. He could easily climb back into bed, coax her into getting rid of the boner and head off to work with time to spare.
    Except Ramirez would be standing outside.
    Jo reached up, her hand hit his thigh and worked its way— whoa, there babe —to the waistband of his pants.
    “Come back to bed.”
    “Can’t. Ramirez will be here soon.”
    “Gabe, I’m naked and my sense of touch is one hundred percent accurate. You should come back to bed.”
    Her voice held the gravel of sleep. Morning phone sex with her would be wicked fun. Forget the phone, he’d take the sex.
    He slid his hand down her sheet-covered body, over the curve of her hip. It would be so easy to give in. “If I get back in bed, I won’t get out.”
    “What’s your point?” She wrapped her hand around the back of his leg and urged him forward. “Come on, Sergeant, live a little.”
    Another glance at the clock. How fast could they make this happen?
    With the current state of his body, pretty damned fast.
    He looked toward the hallway and the silence in the room expanded. If he walked out of this apartment and found Ramirez standing there, forget it, he’d never hear the end of it. The guys would ride him endlessly.
    She nudged his leg again. “I don’t care about Ramirez.”
    “Yeah, you say that now.” The clock blinked. Five-twenty. He bent low and kissed her cheek. “I’d love a replay, but I don’t want my team talking shit. I’ll be back tonight. How’s that?”
    “And you’ll bring your erection?”
    He cracked a smile. This woman. Total trip. “Usually it comes with the rest of me.”
    “Okay then. You can leave.”
    But she pulled him back and kissed his neck, then his jaw. “I have morning breath. Don’t want to scare you off.”
    “After last night? Nothing is scaring me off. Pretty damned incredible, lady.”
    “I know. Now leave before I make you stay.”
    He glanced at the door, then back to Jo. The neon numbers on the clock blinked again. Completely unfair. He marched to the living room, shoved his feet into his boots and did a piss-poor tie job. He’d fix ‘em later.
    He opened the front door. Crap . Ramirez. Wearing his tactical uniform and a mile-wide grin. Gabe’s stomach lurched. “You’re early.”
    “Five-thirty, dude.”
    Gabe checked his phone. Yep. Apparently Jo’s clock was slow. Maybe she could have mentioned it? Not a break to be had this morning.
    He jerked his thumb to the door. “She’s asleep.”
    The shit-eating grin expanded. “I’ll bet she is.”
    The ragging begins. He’d have to shut this down quick. Ramirez was about to find himself on the receiving end of the U-boss death glare. “I hear that from you again and you get an ass-kicking. I hear it from anyone else, I’ll figure it came from you and you get an ass-kicking. Either way, you get an ass-kicking.” Gabe folded his arms. “You can choose to do the right thing here, Ramirez. Outside of that, I’m still your superior. I got no problem finding you grunt work. Are we clear?”
    The grin disappeared. Not a shock. Ramirez was no genius, but he understood chain of command. With Gabe on the track to lieutenant, this was not a difficult decision to land on the right side of.
    Ramirez cleared his throat. “Understood.”
    “Good. Get Ms. Pomeroy to work and report in.” Gabe turned to leave, but shifted back. “And thank you. For volunteering your downtime. She appreciates it. You keeping your trap shut about what you saw here, I appreciate.”
    “No problem. I like Jo. She got a bum deal.”
    “Yeah, she did.