No. She wasn’t imagining it. She had heard a voice making a silly fairy tale reference. Laurie knew it. Snatching up the phone, she sent off a quick text. She could not be sure what was more surprising: the fact that she got a return text so quickly, or the fact that she could hear someone’s text tone about three stories down from where she was sitting.
How was that possible? Was someone else down there sending and receiving messages? Why? Was it just some residents enjoying the peace and quiet like she did? Were they on their deck wondering why she was acting so strange up above them?
Then Laurie read her return text. I’m on the ground under your balcony. Let me into the building.
She nearly bolted from her balcony into the apartment to hit the buzzer in order to let him up. As her fingers pushed the button, Laurie looked down and realized that she wasn’t dressed to greet anyone. She was wearing pajamas. They were cute pajamas, sure. Shorts and a snug little baby doll tee. But they were summery and thin and almost see through in spots. The lightweight fabric did nothing to hide the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra.
Bolting to her bedroom, Laurie fumbled for her satin wrap. She didn’t wear it very often. She rarely needed it. Tonight, she was going to need something to keep her from making it look like she’d invited Younger up to her condo with the sole purpose of seducing him. Not that she would mind per se. Seduction was good. It could be fun too. And Younger was… ugh, what was she talking about? Yes. Younger was super good-looking and probably amazing in bed. That did not mean he was interested. Hadn’t they just had a talk about that?
There was a gentle knock on her front door. Laurie took one last look in the hall mirror before she went ahead and opened the door to let him inside her condo. It felt strange having him in her space. Not bad. Just strange.
“Sorry to bother you.” Younger had not wasted a single second. He was already turning off lights and heading to the balcony. “I have to check something.”
“What?” Laurie was confused. She had envisioned him coming inside and maybe she offering him a glass of wine. Then they could sit outside and sip their wine and… do what? That was a good question. She turned to follow him out onto the patio. “What are you checking? Did you see something out there?”
“I heard something,” Younger muttered.
He was being very quiet so Laurie followed suit. She went ahead and turned off the rest of the lights in her apartment so it looked as though she had gone to bed. Although, if anyone had really been watching her place, they would have seen Younger come inside, right? The windows were all frosted so you couldn’t see through them from the outside though you could see outside when you were in. But it was still possible to see shapes and light and shadows from the outside.
Younger exited the condo for the small balcony and left the door open behind him for Laurie to follow. She carefully went out and wondered what he thought of her little wine and strawberries party for one. But then, he probably wasn’t noticing it to begin with. His attention seemed riveted on the far end of the Landing complex near the message board kiosk.
Laurie closed the door and sat in her chair. Younger was looking through binoculars, but his were higher end and probably had night vision capability. Maybe Laurie was going to have to get some of those. They sold them down at the sporting goods store not a hundred yards from her condo. That’s where she had purchased her first set.
Younger put his phone on the patio table and shoved it in Laurie’s direction. “Keep an eye on those cameras. You use the little arrows to cycle through them.”
Laurie picked up his phone. The picture on the tiny screen had a green cast to it as though the cameras also had a night vision element to them. She sat back down in her chair and quickly made out the message board on the kiosk as well as the surrounding features such as trees, the building, and then the street beyond. It was quiet. Except it wasn’t totally quiet.
“Do you see it?” Younger murmured in a voice that barely traveled far enough for her to hear.
“The guy crouching behind a bench?” Laurie tried to be just as quiet when she spoke. Her gaze was riveted to the tiny screen in her hand. “Yes. I can see him. Can you?”
“Just barely,” came the answer.
It was like trying to watch paint dry. Laurie had no idea how much time had passed while they sat there in total silence. The night sounds increased as the sound decreased. Crickets chirruping. An owl hooted in the trees across the lake. The water lapped. Finally, when Laurie thought she might go mad watching the tiny lump on the screen in her hand to see whether or not it would move, she finally saw it shift.
“Did you see that?” Laurie’s voice was tight and hoarse.
Younger shushed her and nodded his head. He held up his hand and put his index finger to his lips. His face had a greenish cast to it thanks to the tiny screen in her hand that was the only real light on the patio.
Of course, the real question was what were they going to do about it? Run down there and grab him? It would take ages to go back through her building and down the stairs and out the door. There would be so much noise involved that whoever this “skateboard mafia boss” was could escape quite easily. And just slipping over the edge of the balcony and dropping three stories onto cement probably wasn’t going to happen either.
On the screen, Laurie could see the shape growing and changing. It seemed to go through several different versions of itself and it took her a moment to realize it was the camera’s translation of the light and shadow she was seeing. Finally, the man—because it really looked like a man—began to move carefully toward the kiosk.
He seemed to spend quite a lot of time looking back and forth and all around as though he was not entirely sure whether or not he was in the clear. It was difficult to tell with the camera angle, but Laurie was pretty sure he kept staring up at her condo as though he knew she had been out there watching earlier and wondered if she had really gone to bed.
But after a moment or two more, the man seemed to decide to just go for it. He stepped boldly toward the kiosk and Laurie was surprised by the efficiency and boldness that he displayed. Big movements of the arm, presumably to erase the board. Then careful strokes with the chalk as he created his master plan for Tuesday. There would be a new date on the board too. The next attack. Laurie’s belly knotted with tension as she considered that notion. They had to get this figured out before there were more attacks. She couldn’t keep going on like this. She didn’t have the budget—thanks to Josh—or the manpower or the energy. Her mind began to whirl in circles as she thought about what would happen if they could not get a handle on this by the time Thanksgiving and Black Friday rolled around in a few months.
“There. He’s leaving. Do you see it?”
The sudden sound of Younger’s voice seemed loud in the stillness, even though he was barely speaking above a whisper. His hand shot out and lightly touched Laurie’s leg. She felt the warmth all the way to her toes. She touched his hand and nodded her head, not trusting her voice to come out softly. If she opened her mouth she might start screaming in frustration and never stop.
Laurie forced herself to keep watching the little screen. She saw the man standing back surveying his handiwork. He backed off. One step. Two steps. And finally, it was as if he had decided it was time to be done, he seemed to melt into the shadows of the buildings. Laurie tilted her head as she tried to decide where he was with her limited camera view. But within seconds he was totally out of sight and it was all over.
Sort of. The truth was that it was far from over. In fact, this was just the beginning.
She swallowed. Her throat felt tight and scratchy. “Do you think he’s gone?”
“We can’t know for sure and I don’t want to go down there and look,” Younger reasoned. He stood up from where he had been crouching on the edge of her patio peering through his night vision binoculars at the scene below. Lowering himself into a chair, he reached for a strawberry. “Sorry, I interrupted your party.�
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“My party?”
“Party for one?” He held up the strawberry before popping it into his mouth.
It was still dark out though the glow of the fairy lights and the decorative landscape lights illuminated the area. Her eyes seemed a bit bleary after staring at the greenish little screen for too long. She set Younger’s phone on the table and scooted it towards him. Then she let her eyes adjust a bit to the low light on the porch.
“It wasn’t a party for one,” Laurie finally told him. “It was just a night of spoiling myself.”
“You deserve to be spoiled.”
His words made her tingle all over. She could think of a hundred ways that he could spoil her and she would not have been arguing with him about any of them. But that was neither here nor there. They were still whispering because they could not be sure that mister skateboard mafioso was gone or not. Hardly the time for some ridiculous romantic interlude.
“Would you like a glass?”
She expected him to say no. But he surprised her. “Sure. I’ll have a glass of wine with you.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Younger was trying not to be so aware of the fact that she was in nothing but a short satin robe. The thought was driving him absolutely out of his mind with curiosity. What was under the robe? Was it a skimpy nightie? Was it a set of granny pajamas—unlikely since he would have been able to see a high collar. Or, was Laurie wearing something down right sexy? Something that a real woman would wear to bed.
In Younger’s opinion, men wasted far too much time thinking that women were sexy in their skimpy lingerie. Sure. It was nice to see all of that skin and just cover up the really important bits. But if you wanted a woman—in his opinion—you should be thinking about the real way she looked when she went to bed at night. The way she woke up in the morning. Slightly tousled, hair mussed, face flushed, eyes just a little sleepy. That was what turned Younger on. The realness of a woman.
It only took her a moment to return to the patio with a fresh glass. She hadn’t even turned on the lights in her kitchen to do it. Younger had to respect that. She was thinking on her feet. When she poured him half a glass of the dry white wine, he almost wanted to tell her to fill it up to the brim. But that might have looked strange and he wasn’t trying to make her think he was going to get drunk. He had already showed up at the hospital the other night after a few beers. No need to make her think he was a regular alcoholic or something. And why did he care what she thought about him anyway?
“Here you go,” she whispered as she handed him the wine glass. “Feel free to help yourself to the strawberries. I think I have another package if you’re that hungry.”
He figured that asking her to go grab a late night cheeseburger probably wouldn’t be all that romantic. For now, he could make do with the wine and strawberries. “Thank you.”
“I don’t do this very often.” She spoke suddenly, as though she had decided she needed to clarify this for him. “I was just thinking tonight about… I don’t know. I was sort of thinking that I’d really enjoyed the self-defense lesson.”
Younger couldn’t help it. He had to tease her at least a little. “And that made you come outside on your patio to drink wine and eat strawberries?”
Thankfully, she chuckled. The sound was low and sultry in the darkness as she tried to keep quiet. “You’re right. The two things are completely unrelated. I just… I don’t know. I like sitting out here at night. It’s peaceful.”
“Don’t you get up early?” Younger wondered. It was late after all. He didn’t function on that much sleep, but he could not help but think that she should be getting more rest. “You’ve had a rough time of it lately. You need your rest.”
“Are you putting me to bed?” What he could see of her face showed amusement. “Because it sounds like you’re trying to suggest I need to go in and go to bed and that just makes me think you want to tuck me in.”
“Only so I can see what you’re wearing under that robe,” Younger retorted. Then he bit his tongue, sure that he’d gone too far.
But she only smiled. “It’s not like I’m wearing a lacy merry widow under here. I don’t know why men think that stuff is attractive. Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it would be to sleep in an underwire shelf bra with a corset strapped around your waist to cinch you down?”
“Actually, you’ve got no idea what I think is sexy.” Younger’s mouth was dry. He downed half the wine in his glass trying to calm himself. This was not a sexual advance. She was not trying to come onto him and he really needed to remind himself of that.
She stood up and unbelted her robe. The satin shuffled to the patio floor with a soft swish. She wasn’t wearing lingerie. No. She was wearing something mouthwateringly better than that. A pale pink cotton tee hugged her curves. Her pajama bottoms barely brushed the tops of her knees. They were a little looser than the T-shirt, but the fabric was so thin that he swore he could make out the triangle of hair between her legs. She thought she was covered, and she was, but she probably had no idea that the fairy lights below cast just enough light to make out the hardness of her nipples beneath the soft cotton of her top. Her breasts were full and firm. Her nipples were high and his mouth watered when he considered just how much he wanted to take one into his mouth.
“See?” she prompted. “I’m not wearing anything amazing. It’s all rather mundane. I just don’t answer the door looking like this.”
Younger did not admit it was because she was a lady before anything else. He couldn’t get a word out at all. His voice was trapped and he had to rattle it loose before he could speak. And he needed to speak. He needed to tell her how beautiful she was because she needed to hear that.
“Younger?” She started to bend over to fetch her robe off the ground. “I’m sorry. That was really brazen of me.”
He caught her hand and stopped her from reaching for that damned satin cover up. Tugging, he brought her closer to his seat. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t cover up.” His head was swimming, but it wasn’t from the wine.
Her breath hitched. He wasn’t sure what made him decide he was going to make love to this woman, but the choice was there in his mind before he realized he had already made his decision.
Younger put his hands on her waist. She was athletic and strong. Curvy with the sort of feminine softness that Younger loved in a woman. “You are so incredible. Do you know that? Do you have any idea how much you turn me on?”
“Me?” She sounded as though she could not breathe. “I’m nothing special. Barely even feminine.”
He put his finger against her lips. “Hush, now. That’s not true.”
She kissed his finger. Her lips puckering just enough to press a light one against the pads of his index and third fingers. It set him alight and he could no longer hold himself in check.
Younger downed the rest of his wine and put the glass on the table. Then he pulled her closer, tugging her all the way to him until he could nudge his knee between her thighs and coax her into sitting down.
“What are you doing?” She sounded confused.
In his mind, he wanted to eliminate all confusion. Right. Now. So, he reached up and cupped her face in his hands. He lightly stroked her lips with his fingertips. Then he kissed her. He had to stretch up in order to do it, but the angle was perfect for kissing. He took her lips in a drugging kiss that left his toes curling inside his boots. He could not imagine anything more soul satisfying than this. Well, perhaps he could.
She moaned against his lips. Her hands moved to his hair and she stabbed her fingers through the tangled strands until she was tugging on them as though she were desperate to get closer to him. She began to rock against his knee, her body moving closer and closer to his as though she wanted to crawl inside his skin just as much as he wanted to crawl inside hers.
Younger moved his hands to her back. He gently nudged up the hem of her T-shirt and felt the smoothness of her b
are back. He wanted more. He wanted to lick her skin, to taste her, to know her so intimately in a way that he would never know anyone else in his life. His arousal rose to the point of madness and he did not care.
Moving his lips from her mouth to her neck, Younger kissed his way down the column of her throat. He nipped at her skin and she shivered. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer. She fisted her hands in his T-shirt as though she was going to rip it off.
“Too much,” she whispered as his lips grazed the deep vee of her T-shirt. “Too much clothing.”
He could not have agreed more. Pulling back suddenly, Younger took hold of her T-shirt and pulled it up over her head. He had a sense it might have gone over the railing in his haste to get it off. But none of that mattered now. Her bare breasts were right there in front of his face. He could feel the heat of her crotch against the top of his thigh and he knew he was going to make good on his desire. Laurie was going to become his tonight and that was the only thing that mattered.
Younger palmed her full breasts. She whimpered as he took her nipples one at a time into his mouth. He made love to them, tickling and teasing, nipping the sensitized flesh until she was moaning and writhing against him. He made her crazy and she knew he was right there with her. He wanted her so badly right now he was not sure he could last the few more moments until he managed to be fully inside her.
Sliding his hands down the curves of her torso, Younger pushed past the stretchy elastic of her waistband and cupped the globes of her backside. He gave them a good squeeze, which caused her to ride forward on his knee. She was moving against him, restless and wanting. He knew what she wanted. He knew what she needed.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 66