It wasn’t far to his place. The small condo sat in a group of them on the ridge above Tablerock Lake, technically in Branson West and not far from Indian Point and Silver Dollar City. Ash liked the fact the property was completely closed in with huge trees. The other residents griped that the trees blocked their view of the lake. Ash liked it the way it was. You could hear the boats and the water yet you were totally isolated in a thick forest of trees with boughs heavy with foliage.
Ash parked the truck right in front of his condo unit and turned the engine off. He looked over at Mindy and wasn’t entirely sure what to say. It wasn’t like he had asked her permission to bring her here. He’d just done it. Maybe it was selfish on his part. Maybe she was going to think he expected something from her. This for that, of course. But he didn’t expect anything.
“Mindy, I don’t want to take you back to your apartment.” Ash figured this was a good place to start. “If you have a friend or someone you would like to stay with, I will happily take you over there right now if you want.” Wow. That was a bit unnerving. He said he was willing to do it. But he wasn’t entirely sure he meant what he said. He wanted her here. What was that about?
“I don’t have anybody,” she said hoarsely. Her voice was a bit stronger. She had both hands wrapped around the big Styrofoam milkshake cup. “Here is fine.”
Here is fine. What did that mean exactly? Ash wasn’t sure, but he figured if he was careful he could figure it out. “Well, let’s get you out of the truck and into the house. Then we can have some food and I can show you to the spare room.”
She threw open the passenger door and started to scoot out. Ash had to force himself not to run around and grab her to make sure she didn’t fall. This overprotective thing he had going on at the moment was absolutely ridiculous. He was acting like she was incapable of walking. She was a lot stronger than he was giving her credit for and he needed to remember that. If he treated her like a helpless victim, she would start getting the message that she should act like one. And that would change everything about her that Ash respected and admired.
Ash grabbed the food instead. He carefully toted the bags of burgers and fries and the drink carrier in his arms as he fumbled for his keys. It took a moment to juggle his armload and get the front door open. Fortunately, that meant he was more concerned with keeping himself from dropping their meal. Mindy walked on inside his condo and Ash beeped the key fob to lock his truck. Once he was inside, he shut the door and they were blessedly away from the rest of the world. At least for a while.
There was a light on in the living room. Ash always left a light on. It was just habit after living alone for so many years and always coming home very late to an empty place. The living, dining, and kitchen areas were all tucked cozily together around a central hallway that led back to the bedrooms and the bathrooms. A huge fireplace took up one whole wall of the living room. The ceiling was vaulted and nearly twenty feet high. Ash didn’t like feeling closed in and the high ceilings were worth a slight lessening of the original square footage so that he could have that roomy sensation every time he was here.
“This is nice,” Mindy whispered. It sounded like she was talking as though she was in church. “I’m almost afraid to touch anything.”
“Don’t be silly.” Ash moved into the little dining area adjacent to the kitchen on the left side of the front door. “Come in here and sit down. Or you can stand. That’s why I have a bar height table. You wouldn’t believe how often I stand here and eat while I watch television.”
He was rambling. Ash tried to force himself to shut up as he arranged the bags on the table. He needed to calm down. He wasn’t going to make anything better if he just kept freaking out about the way she was taking in all the details of his home. It wasn’t like he had anything to hide. No girlfriends or ex-wives hanging around. Although, that should not have mattered. He wasn’t bringing her here in that context. Right? He had to keep reminding himself of that. This was an offer of shelter and nothing more.
Ash went to the refrigerator to grab the ketchup. Mindy moseyed into the dining room moving as though she was having difficulty staying upright. She was slow and stiff and very unlike herself. But she sat down and started to eat. That was good. Mindy needed to eat. Ash could satisfy himself with the thought that he had at least given her food even though he could not manage to fix the rest of her life.
When Ash joined her, he could not believe that sense of peaceful calm that seemed to descend over the entire condo. They didn’t talk. Not at first. She ate. He ate. They shared a comfortable silence and he didn’t feel the need to fill the gaps with awkward conversation. Yes, it was nearly one o’clock in the morning, but in his mind it was still profound.
“What happens now?” Mindy asked after she had nearly put away a whole burger and had already started on some chicken fingers. She seemed very interested in dipping them first in barbeque sauce and then in ranch dressing. “I won’t just be let go of all of the stuff Caprico was trying to accuse me of.”
“Like what?” Ash prodded. “What was he saying to you in that interview room? I’ve never seen Lowell like that. And come to think of it, I’ve never seen Sellers like that either.”
“Like what?”
Ash struggled for a descriptive word that would cover it all. There wasn’t one. “Spooked, I guess. Sellers acted as though he had no idea what was going on.”
“I don’t think he did,” Mindy said slowly.
She carefully laid out what had happened to her. Starting with the ridiculous box cutter incident in the mirror maze castle complex and going through the strange ride from the mirror maze to the police station when Caprico had waited for news of her brother’s death and then had arrested her. And Mindy finished up with the interview room and all of Caprico’s horrible accusations.
“Mindy, you know you weren’t the cause of your brother’s death,” Ash quietly reminded her. He willed her to believe him. It was so important. “He made his own choices. And I found out there was someone else in your apartment that night. There had to be. You told me you put the drugs in the duffle bag and then set it under an end table. But this message said that what Darren needed was going to be outside his bedroom door.”
“What?” She gazed at him in utter shock. “How is that possible? Are you saying someone came into our apartment and took the drugs out of the bag and put them right outside Darren’s door?”
It was time for Ash to test his theory on her. “I know the whole bag was gone in the morning. You’ve said that. It was empty there in his bedroom. But do you honestly think it makes sense that Darren would take all of that? You said it was a really big bag. Don’t you think he would know better?”
Mindy looked thoughtful for a moment. And then she started nodding. “You’re right. He was an addict, but he wasn’t an idiot. He would have known how much to take and of what. He knew way more about that than I did.”
“That means this entire thing has been staged.” Ash was absolutely certain he was right. “I just don’t know why. What purpose does it serve?”
“Darren is dead.” She put her chicken finger down and her blue eyes filled with tears. “Why did they have to kill him to make their point? I don’t get it. It’s such a waste!”
She was right. It was a waste. Unless you began to ask yourself what Darren had seen while working at Dino Golf. If he was the guy walking around down near the maintenance shed sweeping up and picking up trash, he might have seen something.
“I feel like this is my fault,” Mindy whispered. Ash started to respond, but she shook her head. “Not like that. Not that I think it was my fault he started using drugs or that he overdosed. I get it that someone else was likely involved in that. But I’m the one who was riding him so hard to get a job and keep a job and make money. He probably felt like he had no other choice and he was still so young!”
Ash did not bother pointing out what she had told him about herself as a teenager; that wasn’t what she needed r
ight now.
“And maybe,” Mindy continued, “this happened partly because I was so tired of taking care of him. I’m just tired, Ash. I’m tired of dragging him along behind me because he doesn’t want to pick himself up by his bootstraps and walk. He doesn’t want to do anything. He just wants to pretend that hard work isn’t necessary.”
She began to cry again. Ash let her, knowing she needed to get it all out. But after a moment or two, he reached across the table and lightly touched her arm. “Mindy, those feelings were natural. All of them. You’ve been asked to shoulder a load that most of us would not have been able to handle. I cannot imagine anyone would hold it against you that you wished your situation was different. And it wasn’t like Darren was brimming with thankfulness either. Even a bona fide parent struggles with that.”
“I just can’t believe that’s what happened and he’s just dead,” Mindy whispered. “It’s so surreal. Like I won’t be able to believe it for sure until I see the body.”
Ash nodded. “Tomorrow we can go see him. Not tonight. You need some rest. I need to get you into the bath and then the bed. I think I have an old T-shirt you can sleep in if you’re comfortable with that. I suppose we could go and get some of your stuff tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow.” She sounded as though she dreaded the prospect. “I still have to be at work at nine.”
“Are you sure?” He didn’t want to tell her there was no way in hell she was going into work with that bastard Kevin sniffing around. But that wasn’t Ash’s call.
She was already nodding. “Yes. I’m sure. I don’t get to take days off. That’s not how my life works. I have to keep slogging along or it will come down around my ears. End of story.”
Somehow, and Ash didn’t have a clue how, he was going to change that story she was talking about.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mindy blinked to clear the sleep from her eyes. Then she sat bolt upright in the bed and looked around and around until her brain kicked in and told her that she wasn’t in her own apartment because she was staying at Ash’s place. Darren was dead. She was a murder suspect. And Ash was probably asleep in the room across the hall.
The condo was quiet and peaceful. It had to be early dawn, but there was no clock around and Mindy suspected Ash wanted it that way to keep her from trying to run off to work instead of playing hooky with him.
Playing hooky with Ash Forbes. The thought certainly appealed. Mindy had never been attracted to anyone like this before. Not that she was absolutely sure that’s what she was experiencing. It was hard to separate these feeling of being physically attracted and enjoying someone’s company with this profound sense of gratefulness that she was experiencing.
Yet…
Mindy sat up in the bed. The room was filled with moonlight from the not quite closed blinds across from the bed. The dark shapes of a chest of drawers and a dresser were unfamiliar and yet not at all threatening.
Flinging her legs over the side of the bed, she got up. She smelled faintly of some kind of mint shampoo and conditioner. It had been in the shower and she had gratefully washed and conditioned her hair after not being able to afford real products for so long that she’d forgotten what it felt like to have her scalp tingling with the effects of real hair soap instead of watered down dish soap.
Mindy felt better than she had in ages. She tried to block out the guilt that wanted to accompany that feeling, the thought that it wasn’t fair for her to feel this good when Darren was dead. She pushed off the bed and stood up. Ash’s black T-shirt was enormous on her. The hem of the shirt touched her mid-thigh and completely covered her backside.
She could have accessed the bathroom from her bedroom, but that wasn’t where she was headed. The hallway was dark; there was no light visible in the crack beneath her door. She eased her door open and stepped out of her room. From there it was a short trip to Ash’s room just across the hallway.
Mindy bit her lip. Her heart was pounding. And yet, there was nothing to be afraid of. Not really. Maybe rejection. But he wouldn’t do that. She could not imagine him doing that. So instead of going back to her room and back to sleep, Mindy bit her lip and forged ahead with her plan to seduce the man who seemed so determined to protect her.
She could hear his soft, regular breathing just as soon as she put her hand on the door knob. But the second she turned the knob, that changed. The rhythm altered and he sat up in his enormous king-sized bed.
“Mindy?” His voice was groggy from sleep but so sexy that she felt herself getting more and more excited with each step in his direction. “Are you all right? Did you need something?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? It was now or never. She was naked under the T-shirt. Not even a pair of panties to deal with. She moved to the side of his bed and perched on the edge of it.
“I need you,” Mindy whispered as she reached out and touched Ash’s leg.
He was only wearing a pair of underwear. She could see them in the muted moonlight coming through the open doorway. The room was pitch black save for that. Mindy could not be sure why, but this made her brave. She leaned forward and kissed him. Lightly at first. On the lips.
Ash was stiff. Mindy told herself to be patient. This wasn’t about protecting her anymore. He didn’t have to do that. She was a grown woman. He was a grown man. There was nothing wrong with them enjoying each other.
“Mindy…”
“Hush.”
She kissed him more deeply. Lightly stroking her tongue over the seam of his mouth, she begged entry and was welcomed. His tongue rubbed against hers. The feel of that contact was so erotic that she felt a quickening low in her belly and a dampness between her legs. She ached for him. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than she wanted him. Not now. Not ever.
Mindy kissed him and kissed him. She crawled up onto the bed and pushed him onto his back. He didn’t fight her, though he could have. Instead, he let her lead, carelessly teasing her with his tongue and nipping at her lower lip with his teeth. She growled and deepened the kiss again. She showed him without words what she wanted him to do to her body. She told him what she needed.
Ash settled on his back and lightly touched her with his hands. He was tentative at first. Then she reared back and pulled his T-shirt off her body in one yank. She was naked there in the bed with him. Taking his hands, she lifted them to caress her breasts. She moaned as he cupped the small mounds and let his thumbs lightly stroke her sensitive nipples. This was good. This was better than anything she’d had before. He wasn’t demanding. He was giving.
Mindy straddled Ash. He continued to explore her body with his hands, letting them run lightly down her sides before moving back to her breasts where he seemed delighted with the way her nipples grew hard for his touch. She rocked against him and felt the long shaft of his erection swelling beneath her.
She had admired him before, but only with her eyes. Now, she dared to touch his chest and his belly. She memorized every inch of him with her fingertips. Her nails grazed his skin and tickled over his ribs. She felt the soft brush of dark hair at the center of his belly that seemed to arrow down to the main event below his waistband. Mindy leaned over and pressed a line of kisses from his neck to his belly. When he groaned she thought she had never felt so incredibly sexy and wanton. This was what it was like to be a real woman. She would be forever spoiled for anything else.
Mindy gently took hold of his waistband and tugged. The boxer briefs were stretchy enough to tug away from his body. She wriggled them down over his butt. He wasn’t helping. And when she looked into his face, it was too dark to see his expression. Did he want her to stop? Was he going to stop this glorious moment before they had fully sated their desires? She knew he wanted her. The hardness of his erection told her that much.
“Ash, help?” Mindy finally whispered. “Please, Ash. I want this.”
Suddenly she was airborne as he planted his feet flat on the bed and arched up. The boxer briefs went off and Mindy
pulled them down over his feet. But in that moment, she was vividly aware that her being on top was only because he allowed it. There was no contest between her and Ash in strength. He could have flipped her over and had her on her back in a millisecond before she’d even realized it was happening.
When she resettled herself across his groin, she felt the tip of his erection gently brush against her damp center. The sheer feel of him was enough to nudge her toward the edge. Her breath was ragged and her hands were shaking. Still, she reached between them and took hold of his shaft. He was big. Larger than any other man she’d been with. A moment of fear nearly made her chicken out, but then she felt the warmth of his hands touching her sides, stroking the roundness of her buttocks. This man would never hurt her. If there was pain, it would be brief and over in an instant. She was in charge. She held the reins.
And with that final thought, she put him inside her and slid down the length of him until the two of them were joined so intimately that there would never be space between them again. She felt him, hard and thick inside her. But her body welcomed him. Her heart welcomed him. Her very soul wanted this. And when she began to move against him, the pleasure was so intense that Mindy thought she might go mad with it.
Mindy put her hands on his chest to brace herself as she began to move on top of Ash’s body. She gripped him with her thighs, riding him like a horse, her thrusting making wet noises as her honeyed juices soaked them both.
She closed her eyes and just let herself feel. There was nothing else that mattered. Just the slide of her body against his. He put his hands on her waist and urged her to move faster. Faster and faster until she thought she was going to fly to the sky and never come down. Her toes began to tingle. Her fingers and hands tingled, too. She was so close. So close to something. She didn’t know what was coming. It was bigger and more beautiful than anything else she had ever experienced.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 88