Another slap, on her other ass cheek. It turned just as red and I watched as her back arched again and she bit down hard on her lip. I pressed against her, letting her feel how hard I was, and shoved my hand into her hair. Tugging at it, I waited. I was acting like I was in charge, but it all came down to her. If she didn’t like it, I’d never touch her like that again. If she kept giving signs saying yes, I would continue.
She pressed her hands into the bed and rocked back into me. Rolling her hips, she met my eyes and I could see desire burning in them. “Is this what you did to her?”
I spanked her harder. Once, twice, three times, I rained slaps down on her ass, watching it bounce and color as I did it. She writhed and rocked, a mix of trying to get away from the sting and trying to rub against me. “I didn’t do anything to her.”
She rocked into me harder. “You’re a liar.”
Another rain of stinging slaps. “And you’re too stubborn to know the truth when it’s right in front of you.”
She cried out and buried her face in the bed. Her body shook under me and her entire back was blushing red with desire. I hooked my hand around her and the moment I brushed my fingers against her clit, she came apart. Hearing her cry out my name was almost my undoing. I had to pull my hips away from her to keep my cool.
Before Lauren finished coming, I flipped her over on the bed and knelt in front of her. Yanking her leggings and panties off, I hooked her legs over my shoulders and buried my face in her core. Tasting her, consuming her, filling her with my tongue and fingers, I made her come a second time. Only when she was completely sated did I step back from the bed and stare down at her naked figure.
She was stunning. In clothes, she was beautiful, but out of them, she was the stuff that fueled wet dreams for life. There was a tattoo on her thigh of a lace garter. In white ink, it drew me in and I found myself leaning over to trace it with my tongue.
“Come here.” She crooked her finger at me, her eyes heavy.
I smiled. She had no idea how much she had me wrapped around that finger. Internally, she owned me. I could pretend I had control over the situation, but I was helpless.
Unbuckling my belt and undoing my pants, I pushed them down. When I stepped out of them, I had a wave of self-consciousness hit me. The cold metal of my leg was a glaring flaw that I couldn’t hide. Even if I turned the lights out, it’d still be there, cold and unfeeling.
“Mercer.”
I looked back at Lauren and saw her sitting up.
“You’re beautiful. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything.” She glanced away and then looked back at me, squaring her shoulders. “I don’t know if you get that, how much I want you. I’ve wanted you since I was helping you when you first got home. I’ve wanted you through everything. There hasn’t been a single day or night in the last few years when I haven’t wanted you.”
Words played at the back of my throat, but they were crazy. I swallowed them down and moved towards her instead. She met me at the edge of the bed and smiled up at me. She was so fucking sweet. I wanted to give her everything.
She pushed my boxers down, stroking her hands over my thighs as she went. When I was free, she stared at my shaft and then took it into her hands. “Did you really want it to be someone else when I did that before?”
I shook my head and growled when she stroked me. “No. It was always you.”
She bit her lip and moved back on the bed. “Come here.”
“You giving the directions now?”
Shaking her head, she rolled onto her stomach and showed me how red her ass still was. “I like when you take charge.”
“Stay like you are.” I knelt beside her and took in the beautiful view that was my handprints on her ass. “Did you like getting spanked?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She tried to roll over, but I pressed my hand in the middle of her back. “Stay there, Lauren.”
She wiggled under me, but when she spoke, her voice was clear. “I don’t know. I would never let you boss me around any other time.”
I smiled and stroked my hand over her ass and down her thighs. “But you like when I do what I want to you in here?”
She moaned and lifted her ass just enough to flash me a beautiful view of her core. “Yes.”
I slapped her ass again and then straddled her thighs, keeping her legs pressed tightly together. I gripped my dick and lined myself up with her. “I’m going to fuck you now, Lauren.”
She shivered under me. “Please.”
“Please, what?”
“Please, fuck me.” Her voice broke. “I need it.”
I slid fully into her one stroke. Her body was tight around me, trying to squeeze me out. She screamed my name and I watched as her hands found the sheets and her nails dug into them. Her core contracted around me, sucking me even harder. Feeling like I’d lose my mind if I didn’t move, I pulled out and then rocked back into her.
“Mercer… Mercer, please…” Lauren’s moans and broken pleas accompanied her hips rocking back and forth, her back arching, and her nails ripping through the motel sheets.
“That’s it, baby. Take me.” I pumped in and out of her, hard and fast. I felt like something was driving me forward, possessing me, like the only thing in the world that mattered was being in her.
Lauren came with an ear-piercing scream, her body squeezing me so tight that I felt like she was going to suck my brains out through my cock. I gripped her hips hard and shouted her name as an orgasm shot through me. Her body pulsed around me, milking me until I was finished and had nothing left to give.
Someone was banging on the wall, screaming at us to shut up. I could hear them, somewhere far away, but it didn’t matter. I slipped to Lauren’s side and pulled her into my arms, feeling like, for those seconds, everything was right.
She turned into my arms and curled against me. Her breasts pressed against me, her thigh tucked over me, it was heaven. Then, she trailed her tongue over a scar on my chest and I knew real heaven. “I’ve wanted to do that for forever.”
I stroked her hair out of her face. “Fuck, you’re beautiful.”
“I love you.” As soon as the words were out, she stiffened against me and I knew she hadn’t meant to say them.
I went stiff, too, unsure of where we’d just gone. I searched my brain for what to say in response. I knew that I could say the same thing back to her, that I’d wanted to before, but I couldn’t make my mouth do it. I wasn’t ready.
“I mean, I love you as a person, Mercer. Don’t be weird.” She faked a yawn and turned over. “I’m passing out. That was great.”
I stayed where I was, frozen. I couldn’t make my mouth form any words. I knew I needed to say something. Anything. I didn’t know what, though. Everything struck me at once. I’d just had sex with Lauren and it had meant everything, dirty shit and all. I was a fugitive. I was going to stay a fugitive. Lauren couldn’t live with me, on the run, like we were some busted-up Bonnie and Clyde. I knew the ending to that story.
It was too late, though. The connection had been made and I couldn’t imagine ever being able to be near her and not touch her. I couldn’t go back. She knew my truth. I wanted her. I needed her.
She loved me. She’d been there for me, through everything. She’d shown me that she didn’t care about my flaws. She didn’t pity me. She loved me. Loyal and fierce, she was the best woman I’d ever known and I didn’t deserve her. Yet, there she was, in my arms, giving herself to me, completely.
“Fuck.” The barely-whispered word said it all. There was no going back, but there was no going forward. I didn’t know what to do.
Chapter 18
Lauren
Dear God, I wanted to ram my head into something hard. What the actual fuck was wrong with me? I couldn’t believe I’d told him I loved him. Just said the words, like we’d been dating for a year and it was just that special time. I wanted to scream. His silence had said everything. He had
n’t wanted that. We’d fucked. Maybe he’d wanted to for a long time, but it was just that. He’d wanted to have sex with me, nothing else. And there I was, confessing my undying love like a fucking moron.
I hadn’t moved since I rolled over, too afraid that I’d upset whatever balance we’d come to and we’d have to talk about what I’d said. He’d tell me that it wasn’t me, it was just that he wasn’t in a place to love, or some other bullshit thing men said to women who loved them. He’d have to awkwardly separate himself from me and I could already feel all of the places we were still touching sweating. I was sweating. Panic was causing a whole heaping amount of physical responses in me. The sweating, the sheer force with which my heart was beating, the way my stomach kept clenching and releasing. I had to get up. I was going to vomit or die if I stayed there.
No matter how awkward I’d made things, Mercer was still a man. He’d had sex and then passed out. His breathing had finally leveled out and the tension had slipped from his body. I was glad for him. At least one of us didn’t have to live with what I’d said for a few hours. Me? I knew that even if I went to sleep, it would haunt my dreams.
I had to get away. I was in fight or flight—and flight was going to win. I wanted to be with Mercer, but I’d messed that up. I was close to solving what’d happened to Jessica. I could feel it. I needed to get it done and then go home and hide for a while. Mercer could go back to the cabin and live out his life in solitude, if that’s what he wanted.
Slowly slipping from the bed, I searched quickly around the room for my clothes. Yanking them on, I didn’t think about the fact that Mercer’s seed was still in me. I just needed to go. I could stop somewhere along the way and clean myself up at a gas station. I knew that once I did something that woke him up, he’d never let me go. Still, I took the chance to scribble out a note and take out a roll of money from my bag. I was heading back to Ambrose. I’d be able to use my cards there, so I didn’t need the cash. I also felt bad for leaving Mercer so far away from the cabin with nothing.
I pulled my bag on my shoulder and looked back at Mercer. Spread out on the bed, he was beautiful. With all of the lights still on, I had a chance to really study him. Everything about him was stunning. My stomach fluttered. One time wasn’t enough, but it’d have to be. Slowly backing away, I opened the door and slipped out as silently as I could. Then, like I was being chased, I raced to the car and threw my bag in before jumping in myself. I didn’t even bother with the seatbelt before starting the car and pulling out of the lot.
Leaving him behind made my chest ache. I wanted him, more than for a night in a motel. I wanted him forever. There were things in life that you couldn’t have, though, for whatever reason. Mercer was one of them for me.
I didn’t look back. I was too afraid of seeing him standing there. I just drove on. Only four hours from Ambrose, I drove straight through. Exhausted and feeling like I was just another mile away from falling asleep at the wheel, I had to stop in Smith, outside of Ambrose. I checked into a nicer hotel with my card and spent the rest of the night tucked into the best bed I could ever remember sleeping in.
I woke up the next morning, earlier than I wanted to. I had things to do, though. I took a much-needed shower and then dressed in jeans and another sweater. The jeans drew my attention to my still-tender ass, but I shoved that away. I couldn’t think about Mercer if I wanted to get anything done. And get things done, I was going to. I was done with playing around. I wanted the man who’d hurt Jessica put away and Mercer cleared.
I piled my hair on top of my head and secured it with one of the hotel pens before sitting down with my laptop and the list of men I’d made the night before. I had a list of personnel from the time when Jessica was killed and a current one. There were a lot of the same players.
The current sheriff, Jacob Hayes, had been an officer back then. Some of the cops were still the same. I didn’t see how any of the men there would’ve been rich and powerful, though. JD had mentioned a really nice suit. I couldn’t imagine a cop owning and wearing a suit like that around, especially with cufflinks nice enough to try to steal. The sheriff at the time had been a man who was now about ninety, so I crossed him out. I figured that whoever he was, he had to have some clout currently, as well. The new sheriff stayed on my list, but I didn’t think it was him. I’d met him and he didn’t seem like much of anything.
I had the TV on and a commercial about accidents was playing, something about lawyers helping people get the payouts they deserved. It caught my attention and held it. Lawyers.
Tapping away at my computer, I easily found an older list of lawyers in the area, paired with a current list. I also included a list of judges, just to be inclusive. I easily cut out women and any men of color, since the guy I was looking for was a white man. One name on the past list stood out to me. Paul Williams. Paul Thomas Williams was the current judge in Ambrose. My pulse quickened and my brain raced. Every time Mercer had needed bail to be set or to be released, Judge Williams had been out of place. Each time. He’d also approved the murder charges against Mercer.
Not wanting to get ahead of myself, I forced myself to look at the other men in office at the time. The judge at the time Jessica had vanished was now no less than ninety as well. The DA at the time had been a younger man, but from the pictures of him, I could tell that he wouldn’t have been so easy to forget. With a nose that went on for days, even JD would’ve had a hard time forgetting a white man like that. The ADA, however, had been Paul Williams. A man who would’ve had power through that position, the power to lock people away.
The two men who stood out the most were the cop and the ADA from back then, who were the current sheriff and judge. My stomach twisted and I knew that it was the judge. Charlie had mentioned more than once that she’d redone the judge’s new house for his wife. They had money. He was the right age, not completely unappealing, and just awful enough to keep Mercer locked up for longer periods of time than he had to.
I pulled up a new picture of Judge Williams and stared at it. He had to be the man. Everything in my body leaned in and said yes. I had to prove it, though. I had to find some kind of evidence.
Gathering my things, I shoved my bag on my shoulder and checked out of the hotel. I needed to be in Ambrose. I had to figure out how to prove that our good judge was a murdering piece of shit.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to go far to start my search. No sooner had I driven into Ambrose when a police car pulled behind me and turned its lights on. I looked in the rearview mirror after pulling over, and watched a young cop get out of the car to approach me.
At my window, he leaned down and nodded in at me. “Miss Dulaney. The sheriff needs to see you at the station.”
I smiled sweetly. “Did he say why?”
“Should I follow you there now?” He didn’t leave much room for negotiating, but I didn’t have any problems with going in to see the sheriff. I had a few questions for him.
Feeling excited and like I was close to solving the case, I gladly drove to the small sheriff station and parked. Without waiting on the young officer to escort me inside, I strolled in and stopped at the front desk.
Donna Banks, an older woman who’d done yoga with me for a few months, looked up at me and frowned. “You’ve been a hard woman to find, apparently.”
I shrugged. “I needed a vacation after everything going on around here.”
“Miss Dulaney,” a dark voice called to me from the back of the station. Sheriff Hayes. “You mind coming back here and talking to me?”
I smiled. “Of course, not, sheriff.”
Passing a few occupied desks, I kept my eyes straight ahead, not needing to entertain whoever was watching with more of a show. I moved past the sheriff and made a point of looking around his office. “Nice digs you’ve got here. I didn’t realize the county outfitted you guys quite so well.”
“This way, Miss Dulaney.” He gave me a dark look and motioned me out of his office and into a room next to
it.
An interrogation room, I realized. That was fine. He couldn’t prove I’d done anything wrong, so I didn’t have to worry about him actually charging me with anything. Not that they needed proof or fact to charge people with anything, apparently.
“Have a seat. I’ve got some questions to ask you.” He turned the metal chair across from me around and sat in it like he was getting ready to play his own toy version of good cop, bad cop.
I sat down and crossed my legs, taking a moment to pick a piece of fuzz off of the top of my boots. “Sheriff Hayes, it turns out I’ve got some questions for you, too.”
He scowled. Bad cop. “Where have you been? We’ve been looking for you.”
“Oh, really?” I shrugged. “I’ve just been on a long vacation. Things have been so stressful, as I’m sure you’re aware, what with your office pressing false charges against a coworker of mine. I just had to get away.”
“Where’d you go? Were you with Mercer Dunn? If you helped him hide, Miss Dulaney, you could and would be charged with the crime of aiding and abetting a fugitive.”
“Oh, heavens, no. I wasn’t doing anything of the sort. It was just a vacation.” I smiled. “A working vacation, to be honest.”
“Miss Dulaney—”
“Lauren.”
“Lauren. I’m being very serious with you. Mercer Dunn is charged with murdering two young women. First-degree murder with the possibility of the death penalty. This isn’t a joke. If you know where he is, you need to tell us.”
A chill went down my spine at the mention of the death penalty. “I don’t know where he is.”
“I’m not kidding around here!” At his raised voice, I decided he would just skip good cop altogether.
“You want to know about my working vacation, Sheriff Hayes?” I raised my eyebrows and gave an exaggerated sigh. “It relates to you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I just felt like this office did a piss-poor job of investigating what actually happened to Jessica. I mean, really, did you even look into her personal life, at all?” I rolled my eyes. “Further than Mercer, I mean.”
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