I would’ve smiled, but even my cheek muscles hurt.
Instead of saying a word, I pulled her into my arms, then led her to the shower.
No foolery went on in that shower.
We barely had enough strength to make it to the bedroom before both of us collapsed.
“In just a minute, I’ll get dressed and leave,” she whispered.
I grunted as I rolled, not stopping until she was tight to my side.
After wrapping my arms around her, I said, “You’re not going anywhere.”
Her beautiful eyes opened and they glowed with mirth.
“I’m not?” she teased.
I shook my head. “No. You’re staying in bed with me.”
She closed her eyes and said one word, “Okay.”
Was it always that easy? Was that all I’d had to do this entire time? Tell her she wasn’t leaving?
As the woman fell asleep in my arms, I thought about how easy it was to get her to stay.
That meant that she’d wanted to.
Had she wanted to all this time, but forced herself to leave?
I didn’t quite know the answer to that, but what I did know was that I was more than willing to ask her to stay, all the damn time, if it was what it would take to get her to sleep in my arms every night.
I was just drifting off to sleep when my cell phone rang.
The particular tone belonged to the chief, and I knew without answering the phone that I wasn’t going to like whatever he had to say.
I was right.
“Hello?” I answered, sounding just as groggy and tired as I felt.
“We had another one.” He paused. “Well, technically, we had one a while ago, and we just found it.”
I felt my head throb with unease.
“What’s the problem?”
I moved to place my hand on the woman’s leg that was next to mine, but ended up placing it more on her ass, causing her to squirm.
I moved it upward toward her back, pulling her in closer for a quick kiss, before letting her go. “It’s the chief.”
She sighed against my lips, then let me go, just before I heard her groan as she started to get up.
I once again caught her by the hip, pressing down so she would know to stay.
“Please stay,” I said, tilting the phone away from my mouth as I spoke.
She looked at me with reluctance.
“I want you here when I get back,” I rasped.
She blinked and then nodded once before settling back down in the bed.
I got up then and headed for my closet. “Text me where it is, Chief. I’ll get there when I can.”
When I got dressed and came out of the closet, it was to find Fran fast asleep using my discarded pillow.
I felt a pang inside of my chest at seeing her where I wanted her—for the rest of our lives—and then went to the lights and shut them off before leaving the room.
The text came, and I went frozen solid as I saw the address.
My heart beat hard in my chest for a few long, crazy seconds before I snatched up my keys and hurried out of the house and closed the front door behind me.
When I arrived, my eyes went to the familiar minivan that was in the driveway next to the one I was to be meeting at.
I stared at it for so long that I didn’t realize the chief had come up to my car until I heard the knocking on my window.
I got out and my eyes went to him.
“What is it?” he asked.
I placed my hand on my chest and rubbed, as if that would help the throbbing.
“That’s my girl’s place,” I said, gesturing toward the neighboring house that didn’t have the police tape surrounding it.
The chief followed my gaze.
“We possibly have a witness then,” he mused.
I felt my stomach sour. “Possibly.”
She might not have seen anything. Or, it was possible she had seen something, and might not have realized that she had.
Whoever had done this was good. Came and did his dirty deeds at odd hours, then escaped without anyone the wiser.
Obviously, this particular murder he’d done in a populated neighborhood. Meaning he’d been even more careful and quiet than he had at previous murders.
“What took us so long to get this one?” I wondered.
The chief gestured toward the front door, and I fell into step beside him, jerking my head at Schultz when he stood up from his observation of a piece of evidence right inside the door.
“Woman paid for the month to rent this place on one of those vacation rental sites. Owners had a cleaning company come out today because she was supposed to check out yesterday. They found this,” the chief answered.
I stopped inside the door, the familiar disgusting taste of decaying flesh washing over me.
Steeling myself, I did my job. Then promised myself, after cataloging how yet another single, young woman was murdered, that I would find this bastard and make him pay.
He deserved to go down in a vat of flames.
• • •
I arrived back at my place with my eyes drooping, my head aching, and a need to shower that bordered on irrational.
After showering, I came out of the shower to find my bed empty.
Once I slipped on my sweatpants, I made my way out of my room to find my woman at my stove, cooking.
“I am making toast and eggs,” she said. “I hope that’s okay.”
Actually, it sounded pretty good, but I felt a little weird thinking about food after spending the last few hours among a rotting corpse. But I’d be damned if I told her that.
“Thanks,” I croaked.
She whipped around at the sound of my voice, and her eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”
She read the worry on my face like someone that’d been doing it for a long time.
I was glad that she was mine… at least, mostly. I hadn’t actually had the full ‘you’re mine’ talk with her, seeing as she still held herself partially back from me. But I would. I just needed to give her more time.
“That murder.” I paused.
“Was it a serial killer?” she asked.
I nodded. “FBI is on the case and should be here momentarily. It should be figured out faster with the experts here to deal with it. But yes, there was another murder by the serial killer. This one, we think, was one of the first ones that he did in our area.”
Her shoulders slumped.
“That’s sad,” she whispered.
It was sad.
Really fucking sad.
“Fran…” I paused, wondering how to say it.
She set my favorite wooden spoon down against the side of the pan, then gave me her full attention.
My gaze went to her outfit.
She was wearing one of my t-shirts that’d seen better days.
There were holes all over it.
One such hole right over the chest area.
I couldn’t make out a nipple, but I knew that it wasn’t far off.
It made me sigh because what I was about to tell her would upset her. And my mind wandering to sex wasn’t a good thing at this moment.
I cleared my throat and rubbed the back of my neck.
“The woman that died today. It was someone that you might have known. She was your neighbor. The house to the left of yours,” I explained.
Her mouth fell open. “What?”
I nodded. “It’s the house that the couple rents out for vacation renters. The woman had rented this particular one out for a longer amount of time, and yesterday the chick was supposed to be gone. The cleaning people found her.”
Her shoulders drooped, and she went back to the food she was cooking on the stove.
It was only eggs, but it made my stomach rumble anyway.
I’d eaten a lot today. So much, in fact, I shouldn’t be hungry. Especially after what I’d just left at that crime scene.
But police officers were a different breed. We could compartm
entalize things better than most, meaning that I could eat, still think about the case, and not feel guilty about it.
She flipped my egg over, pulled a plate down after opening at least three other cabinets, and then used the spatula to spoon the egg onto the plate.
She broke the yolk as she did, sighing in frustration.
“There’s something you should know about me,” she said as she walked to the toaster and pulled two pieces of toast out of it. Slathering on butter, she turned with the plate in hand and held it out to me. “I don’t know how to fry an egg without breaking the yolk. No matter how careful I am, I just never seem to be able to accomplish it.”
I grinned as I took the plate from her.
“Oh, and you need bacon or something. Because you have, like, zero meat in your house. Other than ground bison that was frozen,” she mused as she pulled a plate out of the microwave that looked like it’d been done a while. “So just eggs and toast.”
I walked up behind her and pulled her into my arms, pressing my mouth to the back of her neck and causing her to shiver.
“Bacon is nice, but eggs and toast work just as well. And, just sayin’, but I don’t care if the yolks are busted. I’m going to bust them anyway when I eat them,” I teased.
She snickered and moved until she could press her lips to the only part of my body she could reach—the top of my head.
“I’ll remember that,” she whispered.
I allowed her to eat before I started questioning some more. And, like I assumed, she didn’t know much. She hadn’t seen much, either.
Which, in turn, left me frustrated.
This guy that was doing these killings was good.
Even worse, he’d never screwed up.
Even worse than that, not only could I not find anything, neither could the FBI, who had been sent the files we had on the killings.
Something I found out about ten minutes later when there was a knock on my door.
I eyed the clock on the stove.
It was well past when it was acceptable to arrive unannounced at someone’s place, but I had a feeling I knew who it was.
I found out a few moments later when I answered my door to find Schultz, an FBI agent with his fancy little badge attached to his hip, and my chief.
I sighed. “I just got home.”
The chief and Schultz grinned.
The FBI agent, not so much.
Schultz’s eyes went behind me, and I stiffened.
Fran was behind me, in only my shirt, and I winced.
“Give me a minute?” I asked.
The three men nodded, and I shut the door in their faces, causing them to chuckle.
Even the FBI agent.
“Sorry, sorry,” Fran cried from my bedroom. “I’m going to go.”
I didn’t want her to go.
But I had a feeling I would be having a long ass night, and I didn’t want her to have to hear all the gruesome details of this particular case.
But I also didn’t want her to go home.
“Can you stay with your sister tonight?” I asked as I followed her to my room.
She was sliding a pair of my sweatpants up her legs.
Her bare legs.
God.
She’d been naked underneath my t-shirt and I hadn’t even noticed.
What the hell was wrong with me?
That’s why you quit being a police detective, dumbass. Your skills weren’t holding up after that last arrest you made. Your mind wasn’t in the game.
She looked at me when I made it to her side and then smiled.
“I can, I suppose.” She paused. “For a price.”
I couldn’t help but crowd her closer, pressing into her, which in turn made her fall into the wall.
She squeaked in surprise at the aggressive move, but I couldn’t help the way she made me lose control.
I especially couldn’t help the way my dick was now raging at the thought of her being naked underneath my clothes.
I could see her nipples pebbling behind the t-shirt, and I couldn’t help but bring my hand up to rub against the distended peak.
She gasped, her breath hitching. “Taos, there are people here to see you.”
There were.
But they could wait.
At least long enough for me to make a small little claim on her body.
But that small little claim went right out the damn window the moment that she started to respond to me.
The moment her hands dug into the muscles of my shoulders. The moment her mouth pulled my tongue into hers.
The moment that she pressed herself up against me, teasing me with her body, and telling me without words that she wanted me just as badly as I wanted her.
All the crazy shit that I’d witnessed over the last few hours slipped away, and for a few precious moments in time, I focused solely on her.
Her hands were now in my hair, pulling my mouth down to where she wanted it.
Her fingers tightened, causing little bolts of electricity to follow the path of her fingers along my scalp.
Before I could tell her that we couldn’t do this. Tell her that we shouldn’t, seeing as there was an FBI agent outside waiting to speak to me, I spun her around and pressed her face-first into the bed, hiking her ass up high in the air.
Seconds later, I tugged her sweatpants—my sweatpants—down just low enough that I could expose her beautiful ass and pussy to my gaze.
She gasped with the sudden movements but didn’t say a single word as I pulled my cock from my pants, lined it up with her entrance, and pressed inside.
Though she was very wet, she was still just as tight—or even tighter due to the position—than she had been the very first time that we did this.
I waited, cock halfway inside of her, to read her mood—I didn’t want her freaking out on me—but found that she was more than into it when my hesitance to press farther forward became annoying to her.
“Taos!” she growled.
I snorted, pressing forward just a little more.
My eyes were on where I entered her, the way that her pussy stretched so obscenely around my cock.
The way that she was so wet for me, practically leaking her desire all over her pussy and upper legs.
I loved that I turned her on that much.
I loved even more that she wanted me, rough as I was, tired as we both were.
“Taos, hurry,” she pleaded, pushing backward on me.
I slipped yet another inch inside, causing my lips to quirk.
“Patience,” I teased, smoothing my hand down over the curve of her ass.
She snarled at me. “There are people waiting on you. I don’t want to exercise patience.”
My hand twitched, really wanting to pull it backward and slam it back down so that my handprint would mark her ass.
She seemed to understand what I wanted, too.
Because she wiggled her ass, all but inviting me to do what I wanted.
So I did.
I brought my hand down, lightly but still hard enough to cause the smacking sound that I wanted, causing her to hiss in a breath.
She looked at me with narrowed eyes as if to say, “That’s all you got?”
I grinned and caught her hips up in my hands, pulling her backward so that I could give her all that I had to give.
She cried out, burying her face into the pillow.
But apparently that’d been all that she needed, because in the next second she was crying out, “Fuck me, Taos. I’m coming.”
I could tell, too. Her pussy was rippling around me, and my cock was so snug inside of her that I swear I saw stars.
I closed my eyes and felt my dick start to jerk as my own release barreled its way down my spine.
Before I could tell myself to wait. To hold off. I was coming.
Hard and deep inside of her.
My hands clenched on the flesh of her ass hard enough to bruise, and she cried out as she said, “Oh my God. My ass is so
sore!”
I closed my eyes as I tried not to laugh.
Before I could pull myself together, there was an impatient knock on my front door, causing me to curse.
I pulled out rather reluctantly, and Fran flopped down unceremoniously onto the bed.
“You okay?” I wondered as I tucked myself back into my pants.
I was likely making a mess, but there was nothing for it.
I had to do what I had to do.
“Fine, now that you let go of my ass,” she snickered into the pillow.
“When you get dressed, you can take my car. I’m going to take them into my office so you can slip out,” I offered.
She looked at me as she came back up to her knees.
“Trying to hide me?” she teased.
I shook my head. “Trying to save face. Because there’s no way in hell they don’t know what I was just doing to you.”
She blushed profusely. “Whatever.”
I was right.
The moment I let them inside, they knew exactly what I’d been doing.
And it was Chief Wilkerson who had the biggest smile on his face. “Damn, I didn’t think you had it in you, boy.”
CHAPTER 15
Why is it called beauty sleep when you wake up looking like a troll?
-things not to say to your girlfriend when she wakes up
TAOS
Last night had been a shit show.
Even worse, I’d had to get Schultz to drop me off at damn near dawn so I could get my car.
I’d made it back home in enough time to shower, change my clothes, and head back out the door to teach my first class. Yet, the one person that I’d wanted to see hadn’t shown.
Though, technically, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’d made her do a competition yesterday after all. She was likely sore as hell, and wouldn’t have been any good at working out today anyway.
Even I was sore, and that was saying something because I was used to competitions. Fran was not.
The hour and a half that it took for me to get through the class, then for everyone to leave, had felt like it’d taken forever.
Which led me to now. I was heading to a certain someone’s sister’s place just so I could see Fran.
When I arrived at their house, it was to find both of them standing outside staring with confusion at Mavis’s van.
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