He let out a long, deep breath. “No, far from it.”
“What’s it about?”
He leaned closer and grinned. “Can’t tell you that, Buttercup. It’s confidential.”
“Really?”
Ethan nodded. “Really. But when we go on the ride-along, you’ll sign an NDA, and then you can know all about whatever we come across.”
“I’m excited.”
“If it’s anything like what I saw last night, then we’ll know for sure if you can be CSI.”
“It was bad?”
Ethan leaned back. “Yeah. Worst murder I’ve ever seen.”
“Wow,” I breathed and took another sip of water. “Well, I’m excited. Class has been fun so far. It will be good for me.”
“Want me to come over when I get off work, and we can study?”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I mean it. I can answer questions if you have them.”
The waitress came and took our order. After she left, I said, “I’d rather study like we used to study.”
He choked on a sip of water. “Really?”
I leaned forward, resting my forearms on the table. “Tell me if I’m reading this wrong. You took me home, let me sleep in your bed, gave me a key to your place, invited me to lunch, and offered to see me again tonight when you’re working on what I assume is a big case since you said it was the worst murder you’ve ever seen.”
Ethan grinned slowly. “Reagan Hunter, are you telling me that you want to study?” He put air quotes around “study,” causing me to bite my lip.
“Yeah, Ethan Valor. I want to study. All. Night. Long.”
“Check, please!”
When I’d decided to take back my life—to do me, as they say—I didn’t realize it would mean taking back my sex life too.
“What time do you need to be back at the station?” I asked. Ethan was dragging me down the street, our hands laced together.
“Doesn’t matter. I’ll work all night if I have to—if this really happens.”
“It’s not going to happen?”
He stopped and looked straight into my eyes. “Yeah, it’s going to happen. When do you need to be at work?”
“Four.”
Ethan’s gaze roamed up and down my body. “Can you wear that to work?”
“Technically I could, but I also have a spare T-shirt in my car.”
He smirked. “Tutoring is about to start early, Buttercup.”
He tugged on the hand he was still holding and walked another block until we were at his building. Just like the other night, he nodded to the door guy as we walked to the elevator. It was waiting for us, so we entered, and he stabbed at the button for his floor repeatedly until the doors closed.
Ethan turned, gave me one look, and crashed his lips into mine. His soft lips felt both new and familiar as he pushed me back against the wall of the lift and devoured my mouth. His hips pinned me against the back railing, and I felt how much he wanted me, something I hadn’t felt for over half of my life. I’d missed it. I’d missed him, and the sparks we’d once shared lit inside of me again as our mouths worked together.
The elevator dinged, indicating we were on his floor, and he growled into my mouth before pulling away. He laced our fingers again, and then we walked toward his door.
“You know,” he started to say as he worked the lock to open his door, “I haven’t had a nooner since—well, since we were in high school.”
The times when we’d ditch school to study flashed through my head briefly. “I’m surprised you graduated.” He was a year older than me, so after he graduated, we only hung out after school and on weekends, but it hadn’t stopped our teenage hormones.
“We didn’t miss that many days. Plus, I had a good study partner.” Ethan winked as he slammed the door behind us.
“Right, studying.”
His lips found mine again, and we raced to discard our clothes, only breaking the kiss when we needed to. Once we were both naked, we stared at each other briefly, and I admired how the boy I once knew was definitely a man now. Hard, strong, and big.
“Are you as sweet as I remember?” he asked.
My body flushed. “There’s only one way to find out.”
He smirked and then led me to his bedroom. Before I realized what was happening, he picked me up and tossed me playfully onto the bed. The softness cradled me, and I bent my legs as Ethan spread my thighs apart. The moment his wet tongue met my pussy, I shivered.
“Cold?” he asked.
“No,” I breathed. “Keep going.”
And he did.
The first man to taste me was between my legs again, making me wetter and wetter and hotter and hotter until I was moaning, my body spasming as I came. It didn’t take long. This was Ethan, and it had been years since any man had pleasured me. I wanted more.
“You taste even better than I remember.”
My body heated more at his words to the point where I couldn’t speak. He reached over to the nightstand and grabbed a condom from the drawer. Opening the foil packet, he slid the latex on. I wanted nothing more than for him to crawl between my legs and sink into me, but I also didn’t want the same old missionary sex I’d had with my ex-husband. This was Ethan.
I stood before he could move another inch. He raised an eyebrow, questioning me silently. “Sit,” I instructed. He sat on the edge of the bed. “Scoot back,” I said, moving to place my hands on the side of his hips. He did as I’d asked until he was in the center of the bed.
“This isn’t what we used to do. You’ve learned new tricks.”
I laughed as I crawled toward him. “I just know what I want.”
“And what’s that?”
“You,” I said. As I positioned myself on his lap, my gaze downcast, I replied, “I’ve always wanted you.”
Ethan grabbed my chin, making me look directly into his oceanic eyes. “Then why did you break up with me?”
I swallowed, feeling a slight lump form in the back of my throat. A part of me had hoped we’d never bring up the past, but never in my life would I have thought that we’d be having this conversation naked, in his bed, and about to have sex.
“Just tell me,” he pleaded. “I won’t be mad. I thought you didn’t love me any more or something and now … now I don’t know what to think.”
Taking a deep breath, I looked off to the side, not wanting to meet his stare. “I got drunk at a party and kissed another guy.”
The air grew still as I waited for him to say something. “Did you date him after me?”
My gaze moved to his. “No, I don’t even know who I kissed. I was too drunk to remember.”
“Then how do you know you kissed him?”
I shrugged. “I just remember kissing someone.”
We stared at each other for a few moments as my heart beat rapidly inside my chest. “Things happen for a reason, right?” he asked.
I nodded slowly, still not sure what else Ethan was going to say.
“I won’t hold some drunken kiss over your head. The past is the past, and it’s been two decades since it happened. We’re adults now. Let’s start over.”
I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. “Okay.”
Nothing more was said as he adjusted to sit cross-legged. The movement made me slide closer to his cock, and I wrapped my legs around him too. My arms draped around his neck as he guided himself inside of me. Once he was fully in, we started to kiss, and I tasted myself on his lips, tasted what he’d done for me.
We rocked together as his arms reached around my back, moving as though he wanted me to get closer. We were as close as we had ever been, and having the weight of our break up off my shoulders allowed me to relax.
Our lips broke apart, our lungs searching for air. We weren’t only fucking. We were in sync, rocking together, Ethan’s shaft going as deep as it could and hitting the spot he’d been the first to find.
“I didn’t realize how much I missed this—missed you,�
� he stated.
My gaze locked with his, and I smiled warmly at him. “I know.”
What would have happened if I had never got drunk at that party? Would we still be together? Would we have kids together? Married? Divorced? He was right, things did happen for a reason, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t sad about it. My heart ached for the twenty-some-odd years we’d missed.
I leaned back onto one hand, angling so that I could move faster and my pace quickened as I held onto his neck.
“Fuck,” he hissed.
“I’m close,” I panted. Ethan groaned and stilled my hips, coming as I climaxed around his cock, pulsing to work every drop from him.
After my body stopped convulsing, I wrapped both arms around his neck again and brought my lips to his. We stayed like that until he was ready for round two, and then round three in the shower before we both had to leave for work.
Over the next few days, Shawn and I retraced every hour of the day and night Amy was murdered. The downstairs neighbors heard nothing, and Heather’s and her boyfriend’s cell phone records put both of them at his apartment from 5:30 p.m. until about twenty minutes before the 9-1-1 call was placed by the next door neighbor. Amy’s cell phone put her in her apartment at the same time. She’d apparently never left, and we had nothing. Abso-fucken-lutley nothing.
“I don’t like this,” I sighed, throwing my pen onto my desk and leaning back in my chair.
Shawn glanced up. “I don’t either. It’s too clean.”
All we had to go on was the number of stab wounds. The ME would take at least four weeks to get us a tox screen, so we could see if anything in Amy’s system might indicate if she was lucid during the attack. For it to be such a clean murder scene, so to speak, I was almost certain she had to be either restrained or unconscious.
Will from our cyber unit walked up to our desks. “I have something.”
I perked up. “What is it?”
“Well, a little something,” he replied.
“Spit it out, man,” Shawn coaxed.
“Amy had a malware program installed on her computer, and someone was using it to access her webcam.”
My eyes widened. “Someone was watching her?”
“I need to dig further, but yes.”
“Who?” Shawn questioned.
“That’s what I’m trying to find out. It’s going to take me some time because it seems like this guy knew what he was doing. The data was being routed and re-routed all over the place.”
“Could it be more than one person?” I asked.
Will nodded slightly. “Possibly.”
“Where are they logging in from?” Shawn inquired.
“That’s the thing,” Will replied. “The first IP I ran, traced back to Japan. The second one traced back to the Netherlands.”
“We don’t think her killer is from overseas, do we?” Shawn asked.
“Or, this guy’s a pro and knows how to make the IP addresses ping from those places, but he’s really here in Chicago.”
“Can you find out?” I asked.
“I’m going to try, but it will take me some time,” Will stated.
“Keep us updated,” Shawn advised.
“Will do.” Will turned and left.
“Well”—I stood—“I need to head out.”
“Going to your girlfriend’s?” Shawn sang as though to mock me. He knew about Reagan because Shawn and I were close given we’d been partners for seven years.
I chuckled. “No. Got the boys tonight for dinner.”
“Oh, right. It’s Wednesday.”
“But after I take them home, I’ll be going to Reagan’s.” I shrugged on my suit jacket.
He stood. “I should head home too. Julie’s making fajitas.”
Ever since my divorce from Jess, Shawn had made it a point to be more of a family man. We still had our work to do and thought about cases at home, but he didn’t want Julia to feel like Jessica had felt. Jess had said she was leaving me because I was never there. I wasn’t the husband she needed me to be. I might not have been the husband I should have been for her, but I was a damn good father. I made sure to always go to their sporting events, school functions—whatever—because we were a family, but I hadn’t realized she needed a part of me too.
With Reagan, I wasn’t going to make that mistake. I wanted to spend every waking hour with her. I wanted to make up for all the years we’d lost. I didn’t care that we’d only been dating again for a few days. I wanted Reagan to be mine forever.
Pulling into the driveway at my old house, I put my F150 into park. The front door flew open as I got out of the truck, and Tyson, my five-year-old, came running out.
“Hey, buddy.” I picked him up, hugging him as tight as I could. “You ready for pizza?” Tyson nodded, and I looked over his shoulder to see Cohen, my eight-year-old, walk out of the door. These boys were almost the spitting image of me with blond hair and blue eyes. Cohen was a little more cautious about things than his daredevil brother, but I assumed it was age. At five, you didn’t really understand that riding your scooter down a hill could result in crashing and getting hurt.
I reached out an arm to bring Cohen in for a side hug. “Hungry?”
He nodded and stepped back. “Giovanni’s?”
I grinned, still holding Tyson. “Of course.”
My gaze flicked to the door again and I saw Jess standing in the threshold, arms crossed. For a split second, I thought I should set Tyson down, tell my kids to get into the truck, and go up to Jessica and tell her I was dating Reagan. I didn’t, though. We were divorced, I wasn’t planning on Reagan meeting my sons tonight, and honestly, fuck Jess. So instead, I gave her a nod and turned to get my kids into the cab of my truck.
After we ate almost an entire pie, I took my kids back to their place. Then I headed over to Reagan’s, and my heart was happy. I’d gotten to spend time with my sons, and I was going to see my woman. It had been a long time since I’d been this excited about my life.
When I got to Reagan’s door, I knocked, holding a pizza box with leftover deep dish slices inside. A few moments later, it swung open, and her smiling face greeted me.
“I need my own key,” I stated.
She stepped back, letting me enter. “Yeah? Don’t you think that’s moving kind of fast?”
I cupped her smiling face with my free hand, running my thumb across her cheek and looking into her emerald eyes just as the door closed behind her. “Maybe, but you haven’t given me back my key.” I pressed my lips to hers, then stepped back.
“Do you want your key back?”
I handed her the leftover pizza. “No, Buttercup. That’s the point I’m making. We may have just started over, but we’re not at the beginning.”
She took the pizza to the kitchen, and I followed as she placed it on the counter, taking a slice to put on a plate. “What point are we at?”
I smirked and wrapped my arm around her waist, pressing her back to my front. Sliding my hand down her belly, I toyed with the band of her jeans. “We can be at this point.”
Reagan chuckled and turned, pushing me back. “I’m in the middle of my homework.”
I cocked a brow. “So? We can study.”
Her laugh made me grow even harder than I already was. “I’m almost done, and then we can study.” She moved to her desk, where her laptop was already open, with a plate of the pepperoni deep dish I’d given her.
Groaning, I grabbed a beer from the fridge, and then went to the couch. After I settled in, I switched on the television to watch the Cubs game. Two minutes later, I felt her gaze on me. Reagan’s desk was against the wall behind the couch, so I turned and looked over my shoulder at her. “What?”
“Remember how I told you I was doing homework?”
“Yeah?”
“You’re watching TV.”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t concentrate with the TV on.”
“I thought you were almost done?”
She rol
led her beautiful green eyes. “I am.”
“Then what’s the big deal?”
“Are we about to have our first fight?”
I balked, and turned to face her completely, leaning my elbows on the back of the couch. “What? No!”
“Okay. Can you just give me fifteen-twenty minutes?”
“Why don’t you let me help you?”
She smiled, and I was instantly at ease. I didn’t want to fight with her. “I want to do this on my own. I’ll ask you if I have questions.”
“Okay.” I shut off the TV and walked to her. I placed a kiss against her lips. “I’ll go shower.”
I needed a new woman to watch. No, I needed another victim. I had to stop thinking of them as women. They were prey—my reward in my new found game.
God, I loved being able to tap into a computer and see what they were doing through their webcam without their knowledge. It was easy, just like getting a key to Amy’s apartment. Each student or staff member had a profile on LU’s server. Of course, the access portal was different for each, but I still had access to them. Whenever new students or staff members started, they received an email with a link to change their password to something they only knew. Each link was coded and gave me their IP addresses plus their passwords. Most students and staff used their own computer to create the password. Of course, there was the off-chance someone used a library’s computer or something, but I had enough female students to watch even if that happened.
Logging into the duplicate database I’d created, I started to scroll the names, filtering it to show me only the females who attended Lakeshore U. Their student body pictures were listed next to their names: Lisa Vitous, Ebonie Hill, Cherica Hasner, Sally Oey, Samantha Burch, Reagan McCormick. The first five were nowhere in sight when I logged into their webcams. But, Ms. McCormick—I got a real treat watching her.
I didn’t get a good look at the man who walked up behind the brunette, but I continued to watch as he leaned down and whispered into her ear. I had to strain to hear him.
Watch Me Page 4