Cilla’s eyebrows drew together inquiringly.
Maxwell frowned. “Buy a vibrator.”
She coughed into her hand, muttered her agreement, and fled the office.
Chapter 26
Sunday, July 27 8:59 P·M·
Nikki had almost decided to stay the night at Kim’s house, but a lack of clean clothing had worked as a deterrent. Besides, if she slept over at the Cox residence, she and Kim would end up talking into the wee hours of the morning again and Nikki wouldn’t be sufficiently rested for work tomorrow afternoon.
There was also the issue of Thomas. Megan had informed Nikki upon their return that he wanted to speak with her. At first she had wondered why he hadn’t simply paged her if he wanted to talk, so out of curiosity she’d checked her beeper. A wince and a panic later, she’d realized it had accidentally been powered off.
Nikki could only be grateful the hospital hadn’t tried to contact her while she’d been gone. She never would have forgiven herself had there been an emergency surgery and her O.R. team had unsuccessfully tried to reach her. Not to mention the fact that she probably would have been fired. The only thing she could figure was that the Lucifer situation had rattled her brain a bit loose. Luckily, she was starting to feel like the old Nikki again—in control.
Sinking the key into the lock, Nikki pushed open the door to her apartment with her hip since her arms were full of shopping bags from purchases she’d made in Amish country over the weekend. She didn’t particularly care for the country theme, so hadn’t bought much in the way of decorations, but their food was too good to not bring home bags filled with it. Cheeses, trail bologna, wines, spiced cider, fudge—yum.
“Well look who finally came home,” a male voice drawled.
Nikki yelped, so startled she almost dropped one of her shopping bags. In fact, if Thomas’s reflexes hadn’t been what they were, the wine probably would have crashed to the floor.
“Thomas,” she breathed out as he plucked the wine from her tentative grasp. “My God, you scared me half to death.”
“Good,” he growled. “I say you deserve it for what you’ve put me through.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said as she walked her bags over to the dining room table and set them down. “But I can tell you I’m not in the mood for the third degree.”
He followed hot on her heels. “Where have you been?” he demanded, setting the wine down next to the other bags. His nostrils were flaring. “Who have you been with?”
She looked at him like he’d gone crazy. “What is wrong with you?” Nikki snapped. “I’ve been with Kim!”
His dark eyes narrowed at her. “What happened to all that stuff you said about showing respect to your partner? Leaving me a note when you decide to trot off and all that? I was worried! I haven’t heard a goddamn thing from you since I dropped you off when we left Cincinnati!”
She frowned. He had a point, but she was too angry at the way he was interrogating her to concede to it. “If you want the truth,” she spat, “I didn’t realize I had a partner when I left town!”
“After everything we’ve gone through together?” he snarled. “Yeah, right!” His jaw tightened. “I think you’re trying to make me jealous is what’s going on here. Rather than flat-out admit you want attention, you punish me for not automatically giving it. I’d only just found out that my partner murdered my daughter—excuse the piss out of me for not being tuned in to your womanly needs!”
“And excuse me for not always thinking rationally!” she screeched back. “I make mistakes too, you know! Or are you the only one allowed to do that?”
Thomas stilled, but said nothing. His breathing was heavy, anger and jealousy still radiating off of him in waves. Yet somehow Nikki realized he was calming down a bit, too.
“Hell,” he muttered, glancing away.
She was quiet for a moment. “Thomas, I’m sorry,” she said softly. Good god, he had a valid point about trying to make him jealous. She hated admitting it, but it was true. More than once this weekend she’d found herself hoping Thomas had called her apartment only to realize she wasn’t at home—her way of letting him know life could go on without him. “I left town because I was afraid you didn’t want me anymore and I needed to get away and . . .” She sighed. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
His brooding gaze bore into hers. “Me, too,” he rumbled out. He did a little sighing of his own. “I should have just told you I needed to get myself together rather than shutting you out like I did. Hell, I suck at relationships. But I’m trying, Nikki. I promise. I don’t want to lose you.”
“It’s okay,” Nikki assured him. “And I’m sorry about not calling you back. Thomas, I only just realized a few minutes ago that my beeper was accidentally turned off. I swear that’s the truth.”
Silence.
Thomas gently but firmly grabbed her by the shoulders and started backing her toward the sofa. “Just tell me one thing because I need to hear it from you,” he rasped. His gaze was intense, his jaw clenched. “Tell me you didn’t fuck anyone this weekend. Tell me.”
“I swear it,” she said quickly. “I don’t want another man touching me.”
He backed her into the arm of the sofa, his erection pressing against her thigh. “If you ever give away my pussy to another man,” he vowed as he ripped open her jeans and pulled them down with her panties, “I swear I’ll kill him.” His nostrils flared. “You hear me?”
“Yes,” Nikki breathed out.
He flipped her over so that her stomach lay across the arm of the sofa. Arousal knotted in her belly as the sound of his zipper coming undone reached her ears. Her jeans were at her ankles, her shirt still on. Only her most intimate part was bared.
“Show me my cunt,” Thomas ordered, his voice thick with arousal. “Spread apart your ass cheeks so I can see everything that belongs to me.”
She blew out a breath, intensely aroused. Her hands a bit shaky, she grabbed her buttocks and spread the cheeks apart as far as she could so that nothing impeded his view of her bared vagina and anus.
“Good girl,” Thomas said thickly. “Now tell Master who this juicy pussy belongs to.”
“To you,” Nikki gasped, so aroused she could barely stand. Feeling his eyes on her submissively bared center was making her belly knot impossibly tighter. “Only to you.”
Thomas stood there for a lingering moment, doing and saying nothing, simply staring at what he’d claimed for his own. The effect was unnerving. Being on sexual display made her nipples harden and her breathing hitch. A few seconds later, Nikki hissed when she felt his index finger slide into her anus.
“I’ve missed you,” she said throatily, wiggling her bottom at him.
“I’ve missed you, too, baby,” Thomas said hoarsely. His index finger slid in and out of her anus, forcing new and pleasurable sensations on her. “One day soon I’m gonna want this ass too. Will you give it to me?”
“Yes.”
“You ever had a man here?” he growled.
“No.”
“Then I’ve definitely got to mark it. It’s mine.”
She swallowed between pants. “Everything is yours.”
Thomas played with her anus for several more moments before withdrawing his index finger. “Later for that,” he rasped. “Right now I need to be inside my pussy.”
“Please,” she whimpered. “Quit teasing. Please take me.”
He gritted his teeth as he guided his cock to her vagina. “I love it when you beg, baby. You know how hard that gets Daddy.”
“Please.”
Sinking into her flesh from behind, he impaled himself to the hilt within her. “Goddamn,” Thomas groaned. “You’re gonna kill me.”
He withdrew slightly and sank into her body again. She moaned, her hands leaving her buttocks to rest before her on the sofa. Thomas immediately began to ride her fast and hard, his hips pistoning back and forth with increasing speed as his cock surg
ed in and out of her.
“Oh, Thomas,” Nikki gasped as he took her hard from behind. She threw her hips back at him, meeting him thrust for thrust. She could hear the sound of her sticky flesh gripping around his cock and sucking him into her with every outstroke. “Oh,” she breathed out, her nipples stabbing out from under her bra. “Thomas.”
His callused hands reached under the T-shirt she wore and threw her bra up over the swell of her breasts. He palmed them, his thumbs and forefingers clamping around her nipples as he plunged into her flesh from behind. He rode her hard, making her gasp and groan, his tight balls smacking against the back of her as he sank in and out of her like a man obsessed.
“All mine,” he growled into her ear. His voice was hoarse. “My nipples. My pussy. My ass. My woman.”
Nikki closed her eyes and let the arousal overwhelm her. Her breathing was labored, her heart thumping like mad. Her nipples were so stiff that his hold on them was pleasurable to the point of pain.
He released her breasts, leaving them there to jiggle with each thrust, his hands settling on her raised buttocks. He cupped the cheeks, kneading them with his callused hands, simultaneously pumping in and out of her at a merciless pace.
Whack!
Nikki gasped, the small, stinging smack to her bottom startling. Her eyes widened as she wondered if she and Thomas had read the same books . . . only the detective had never admitted it.
Whack! Whack!
“Ooooh,” she groaned.
The books hadn’t lied. Making blood rush to her bottom did sensitize another, crucial part of her anatomy.
“You like that?” Thomas murmured into her ear, his voice thick. “Can you feel my cock better, baby?”
“Yes,” she gasped. “One more time. A bit harder, please.”
Whack! Whack! Whack!
“Oooooh!”
He took her impossibly harder, sinking in and out of her flesh like he meant to brand it. “Thomas,” she groaned, heat rushing to her face and nipples. “Oh, god.” Nikki moaned low in her throat, throwing her hips back at him as a violent orgasm ripped through her belly.
He growled as he fucked her, pounding into her harder and deeper and faster. His hands left her buttocks and cupped her breasts again. “I’m coming, too,” he gritted out. His muscles tensed, his breathing grew ragged against her ear. His hands squeezed her breasts, reminding her who they belonged to.
“All mine,” he rasped, his powerful body shuddering. She could practically hear his jaw clenching. “Mine.”
Thomas groaned loudly as he came, hot semen spurting from his cock to warm her insides. He kept up the steady pace, pumping away inside of her until his balls were depleted.
When it was over, when they were both exhausted, they didn’t move for a long moment. He kept her pinned to the sofa, her buttocks up in the air, his palms tenderly massaging the warm spots.
“I came so hard I damn near passed out,” Thomas muttered, finally letting Nikki up. He lifted his T-shirt, using the edge to mop perspiration from his forehead.
She chuckled softly. “Me, too.” An eyebrow arched as she turned on her heel to stare at him. She studied his face, a suspicious look in her eye.
He grunted. “What?”
“You read the e-books from my computer, didn’t you?”
He grinned.
Her smile came slowly. “Lady Polly and the Pirate Master?”
He scratched the stubble on his cheek. “You gotta admit,” Thomas drawled. “That scene when Captain Triston spanked Polly after he caught her trying to seduce that dude with the gimp leg was pretty hot.”
Nikki shook her head, unable to stop herself from laughing. “So what made you decide to try the spanking on me?” she asked as she pulled off her jeans.
He shrugged. “It came out of nowhere, to be honest. I’m just glad you liked it,” he mumbled, “or I would have felt like a real dumb asshole.”
Her arms crossed under her breasts. She huffed. “You mean that spanking was for real?”
His face colored slightly. “Only the first whack.” He frowned at the look on her face. “I was feeling territorial, okay? I know we made up and all, but I still have a hard time not knowing where the hell you’ve been all weekend!”
Nikki rolled her eyes as she pulled her T-shirt off. “You really meant it when you said you were the jealous type, didn’t you?”
“Yes.” He grunted. “So where were you?”
She shook her head and sighed, too amused to be angry. “Millersburg,” she answered, squatting down to tug off the jeans pooled around Thomas’s ankles. “You know, that notoriously seedy hotbed of Amish party life.”
His frown deepened. “You mean to tell me I’ve been walking around with a broken heart the whole damn weekend when all along you’ve been hanging out with corn-husking ZZ Top look-alikes?”
Nikki shrugged. “Apparently so. Hey, want some Amish cheese?”
“No,” he snapped.
One eyebrow slowly inched up. “Pistachios?” she murmured.
“Maybe later,” Thomas sniffed. “I’m not in the mood.”
“What are you in the mood for?” she whispered, standing to wrap her arms around his neck.
Thomas bent his head to kiss her. He thrust his tongue in between her lips, groaning into her mouth when she ground her body against his quickly stiffening erection.
He picked Nikki up and carried her into the bedroom, his lips never leaving hers, deciding to show her what he was in the mood for instead of telling her.
“Priscilla,” Claude’s voice purred from the cell phone. “I don’t think you understand what it is I want from you.”
Cilla’s teeth ground together as she paced back and forth in her bedroom. She could only hope her father was listening in on this conversation. More specifically, she could only pray he was tracing Claude’s location.
“Name your price,” she said after she blew out a puff of smoke from the cigarette dangling between her lips. “Whatever it is, I’ll pay it.”
Claude chuckled. “Master doesn’t want your money, silly slave girl. He wants your heart.”
She rolled her eyes. How utterly sweet and utterly provincial. “Fine. You have it. Does this mean you’ll leave me alone now?”
He was quiet for a long moment. Eerily silent. Something about it sent chills down her spine.
“You’re a bad girl, Priscilla. You’re naughty, just like Lisa. You pretend to be someone you aren’t.”
“Who doesn’t online?” Cilla snapped. “Look! I am growing weary and my patience thin. Either name a price or go to the media. Either way, I refuse to play this game with you a moment longer. Especially since it’ll be my word against yours!”
“Yes, it will be. But do you really want to take that chance?”
Silence.
“Meet me in an hour in the alleyway next to Jake’s down in the Flats. If you’re late, or if you bring anyone with you, every major television station will own a copy of our chat transcripts . . . as well as proof that you are in fact the owner of the SpankMeImANaughtyGirl account.”
She hysterically wondered if he could be believed. Her career couldn’t end like this—not like this! “An hour?” Cilla said shakily. “But what about—”
She cursed under her breath as the line went dead.
Damn it!
Thomas’s cell phone rang, the interruption making him frown. He stopped thrusting and bent his neck to kiss the tip of Nikki’s nose before reaching for the phone. His eyebrows rose as he pointedly looked at the handcuffs securing her to the bed. “Don’t go anywhere,” he ordered. She grinned. “Yeah?”
“Cavanah.”
“Ben? What’s up?”
“You at Dr. Adenike’s?”
“Yeah. Why?”
Ben sighed. “I’ll send over two cops to watch her place. You better get down here.”
Thomas stilled. “What’s going on, O’Rourke?”
“James. He escaped.”
“What?
” Thomas noticed the frightened way Nikki was staring at him, so he ran a soothing hand over her belly before sitting up in the bed. “He escaped?” he asked, looking at a wide-eyed Nikki.
“Yes. And it gets worse.”
Of course. “I hate to ask, but know I have to. How?”
“A missing woman report just came in,” Ben said quietly.
Thomas closed his eyes. “Who?”
“You ready for this?”
“Tell me.”
“Priscilla Harrington-Barnsworth.”
His eyes flew open and then narrowed. “Why does that name ring a bell?” Thomas muttered.
“Cavanah! Hello! Senator Priscilla Harrington-Barnsworth.”
“Shit.”
“Exactly. And I just had a chat with her dad. It seems the senator has an, um, interesting online life.”
Thomas took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’ll be right there.”
Chapter 27
Monday, July 28 1:37 A.M.
“This report just in: Channel One News has learned that Ohio Senator Priscilla Harrington-Barnsworth was reported missing to the Cleveland Police Department. The report was filed a little over thirty minutes ago by her husband and father. Making this news more shocking still is a second report that just came in . . .”
Nikki paced back and forth in her living room, now wondering how idiotic she’d been to decide on staying put rather than going to Kim’s. The fact that two policemen were outside offered little in the way of comfort. Especially considering that a police officer, James, had already tried to kill her. If only she had thought of that before Thomas left.
Her eyes flicked back to the television where the shocked anchorman was continuing his report.
“Are you sure?” the anchorman muttered to someone off-camera. He nodded, swallowed, and then looked up into the camera’s eye. “It appears that former police detective James Merdino, the man arrested in connection with the brutal rape and slaying murders of nearly ten women in the Cleveland Metropolitan area, escaped from county lockup approximately one to two hours prior to Senator Harrington-Barnsworth’s disappearance. Speculation is running rampant as to whether or not there might be a connection between these two cases. The senator’s spokesman has declined to comment.”
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