by Jane Godman
But he didn’t.
“Harder,” she insisted. Her voice was throaty now. Raspy. Vulgar.
Olivia wrapped her other leg around him, ramming herself against his erection. The only way he could slow her down and stop them from falling on their asses was to bring her back to the floor. Lucian went to his knees, and with her back against the wall, that put them nearly face-to-face.
“Who am I?” he demanded.
He could see her actually fight through the haze. “Lucian.”
“And you’re Olivia. Hear that? You.”
She shook her head.
“Yes, you!” Lucian’s voice wasn’t exactly a lover’s growl. He sounded pissed. And was. Marissa was trying to take over, and Lucian wasn’t going to let that happen. This was his moment with Olivia.
The only one he might have.
He latched onto her chin, forcing eye contact. He never stopped the frantic strokes inside her. Each one was the best of pleasure and some agony, too.
“Who am I?” he repeated.
Her chest was pumping because she was breathing so fast. However, when she moved her mouth, it was his name that she muttered. “Lucian.”
“And you’re Olivia.”
With one hand Lucian kept a firm grip of her, and he used his other hand to hold her in place. She was fighting him. Squirming. Fighting Marissa, too.
Lucian took a deep breath, hoping to keep his voice level and calm. “It’s me, Olivia. It’s me.”
Her eyelids fluttered, threatening to close, but Lucian shouted her name. That got her eyes fully open. And she stared at him as if trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
Lucian reminded her.
He put his hand between them and rubbed his fingertips against her clit while he thrust his erection in and out of her.
“Olivia.” He repeated her name to the rhythm of the thrusts.
Olivia.
Olivia.
Olivia.
He said her name faster. Pushed into her harder. Deeper. Until she made a slight sound. An uh. Just that. But it was a big prelude to her body surrendering.
Lucian felt the muscles around her spasm on his fingers. The rest of her reacted. And the climax wracked through her.
Shock after shock.
Those shocks did a hell of a number on his erection, but Lucian didn’t let himself go yet. He took a moment to watch her face, to hear those tiny sounds she was making, and to let her drain every last bit of primal pleasure from him.
“Lucian,” she whispered.
And that was it.
He couldn’t hold back any longer. Lucian buried his face against his neck and surrendered.
Chapter Eleven
“Uh, are you two all right?” Bennett called out. “Because I heard some funny noises up there.”
Olivia would have laughed if she’d had enough breath. She didn’t. Lucian had seen to that, and for once she was glad she was breathless.
“We’re okay,” Lucian answered the PI, and with his breath gusting, he dropped onto his desk and pulled her right along with him.
“Marissa and Damien didn’t come,” she mumbled.
He lifted his head, located her mouth. “But we did.”
Now, she laughed because yes, they had indeed done just that, and it’d been the orgasm of the century. Her orgasm and Lucian’s. Not a trace of Marissa or Damien.
But why?
“Why would they demand we come here and then not show up with their images and memories?’ she asked.
It seemed a deep question, considering that she wanted to hang on to the pleasure a little longer. But the question and the next one in her mind were already brothering her.
“Why wouldn’t they help us find whatever it was they wanted us to find?”
Lucian shook his head and turned off his camera phone. “Maybe it was finding ourselves and pushing them out of our heads. This was perhaps the way to make them go away. Hell, I hope so anyway.”
Olivia tested that theory. She actually tried to conjure some of Marissa’s memories that had been slinging around in her head.
Nothing.
Just the hum of her own satiated body. Lucian’s rhythmic breathing. And his scent. All Lucian. She released the breath of relief that she’d been holding when she remembered something else.
“We still don’t know who killed them,” Olivia said.
She didn’t have to add the rest of what she was thinking because she could see it in Lucian’s eyes. If they didn’t learn the identity of the killer, then Marissa and Damien would be back.
This wasn’t something that could be scraped away and covered with concrete.
Lucian got off the desk, and, still naked, turned the computer screen toward him. “Let me go through the pictures again. I have the same ones here that I do at my home office, and I’ll look for anything that could be the it they want us to find.”
Olivia’s stomach twisted at the thought of seeing those pictures again, but she needed this nightmare to end while somehow hanging on to what she had with Lucian.
But what exactly did she have with him?
Great sex. Yes, that box was ticked. Hot guy—that, too. But she also loved his gentle nature. The way he protected her.
Even now.
He was trying to block her from seeing the pictures. But this was something she needed to do. Besides, his naked shoulder was there to lean on in case she needed it.
Olivia put on her panties while the photos began to scroll across the computer screen. It was that party again. Marissa acting like a cat in heat, rubbing all over Damien while Estelle looked on. Or rather, glared on.
That picture seemed to freeze in her mind. Then, it froze for real when Lucian hit the button on the keyboard to stop the slideshow.
“Estelle’s jewelry,” she mumbled. “Those earrings and necklace would make a metallic sound if they hit the floor.”
Lucian nodded, and his fingers got to work again, moving through the photos until he got to Harvey’s. “No cufflinks.”
But there was a pea-sized diamond earring flickering in his left earlobe. Definitely a possibility.
“Do you have photos of Estelle and Harvey taken after the murders?” she asked.
He shook his head, grabbed his boxers and pants to pull them on. “But if the jewelry fell off, it could still be in this room.”
That got them both moving. Olivia put her clothes back on and started looking. This was one occasion when it helped that the images were so clear in her head. She didn’t need the photos of Marissa and Damien’s dead bodies to know the exact spot where they were murdered.
“The killer would have come in through the door,” Lucian said, as if talking to himself. “Surprising them. Maybe the gun recoiled when shots were fired and that caused something to fall.”
Lucian dropped down on his hands and knees to search the baseboards and the floor vent for the AC.
Olivia went in a different direction, staying close to where the bodies had been. After all, the killer had moved Marissa and Damien’s jewelry and clothes. Had put them in a stack.
“The killer was looking for whatever fell,” she mumbled.
Lucian stopped and looked back at her. “DNA tests weren’t routine yet,” he said, repeating what he’d said to her the day before. “Even if it was Harvey’s earring, he wouldn’t have stayed to hunt for it. There are plenty of diamond earrings like that.”
Yes, but Estelle’s earrings had been estate quality. Probably a family heirloom. Definitely something that would have been linked back to her.
“I’ll call the cops,” Lucian said, getting to his feet. “I’ll convince them to arrest Estelle and then comb this place for her earring.”
The second part of that would be easy, but it definitely wouldn’t be easy to get the cops to take a wealthy heiress like Estelle into custody.
Lucian picked up his phone.
Just as she heard the footsteps.
“Bennett,” Lucian mumbled.
But he didn’t sound entirely sure of that.
Lucian finished fixing his clothes. Olivia did the same, especially since they hadn’t locked the door. If it was the PI, she didn’t want him to see her top and skirt askew. And if it wasn’t…
Olivia didn’t want to go there yet.
After all, she’d heard footsteps in the dream so perhaps they weren’t even real. This could be just another round of Marissa’s memories. And besides, if Marissa and Damien hadn’t shown up for the sex, then there was a good chance the killer wouldn’t show, either. Maybe Lucian and she had broken the curse.
Maybe.
But why did it feel as if the curse was bearing right down on them? Shoving away the decay, the years and crawling out of the graves to come after them?
Lucian pressed some keys on his computer. “The security cameras,” he mumbled.
Yes, the ones in the hall outside his office. If it was indeed Bennett, they’d be able to see him on the screen.
“It’s frozen,” Lucian said, and he frantically tried more keystrokes.
Nothing.
The image of Marissa and Damien stayed on the screen.
Salvetti and his team had redone all the security at Lucian’s house but not at his office. Did that mean someone had managed to get in?
There was a tap at the door, and before Lucian or she could say anything, it opened. The morning sky was still overcast enough to make the room somewhat dark, but she definitely saw Bennett when he looked in.
The relief flooded through Olivia.
For a split second, anyway.
One look at him, and Olivia knew something was wrong.
“I’m sorry,” Bennett said, his words slurred. “I didn’t hear the footsteps in time.” He dropped to the floor, his head hitting hard.
Lucian reached for his gun that he’d put on the desk, but it was too late. He’d shoved it out of reach when they’d had sex.
“Don’t,” the woman warned him.
Estelle came through the doorway, her gun already aimed at them. She was still wearing that bulky raincoat she’d had on earlier and stepped into the shadows by the side of the bookcases.
Olivia blinked to make sure this wasn’t part of the memories. It wasn’t. Estelle was real and so was her gun.
“He’ll be fine for now,” Estelle said sparing the PI a glance. “I drugged him.” There was no emotion in the woman’s voice, which frightened Olivia even more. No way to reason with a cold, hard killer. But they had to try.
“How’d you get in?” Lucian demanded, moving in front of Olivia.
“Does it matter?” Estelle fired back. She huffed when they stared at her. “I didn’t have otherworldly help, okay? I used the security code that my hacker got from your computer and disarmed your cameras. And then I hid in one of the old crawl spaces so your hired guns wouldn’t find me, and I waited. Now, I’ve waited long enough.”
So, Estelle had been behind the computer hacking. Of course, that was a minor crime compared to murder.
“How were you so sure we’d even come here?” Olivia asked.
Estelle drew in a long, weary breath. “I figured Marissa would make sure you came since she’d want to find her killer. And if not, I would have just had your house, this place and both of you blown to bits.”
“But that would have been risky,” Lucian mumbled.
“Very,” Estelle verified. “I would have had to worry about what you might have stored in safe deposit boxes and such, but one way or another, this was going to end today.”
Olivia hadn’t needed to hear Estelle say it aloud, but that caused the knot to tighten in her stomach. Damien had been right when he’d told Lucian that if they didn’t come to the office building, they’d die anyway. Estelle would have seen to it.
“Your alibi for the morning of the murders was fake,” Lucian said, cursing.
Estelle kept her gaze and that gun fixed on them. “No way would my father have let his only child go to jail. So, yes, he lied. Now he’s in the grave and can’t say differently. Of course, you two were in the grave and look where that got me. Right back here.”
“We’re not Marissa and Damien,” Olivia insisted.
“I don’t believe you. Now, give me the earring.”
Olivia glanced at Lucian, but he only shook his head. “We don’t have it.”
“Liar. You sent me a photo of it.” Estelle stared at them, and their expressions must have been convincing, too, because she shook her head. “You must have it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lucian argued.
“The pearl and emerald earring!” Estelle shouted. “One of you sent me a photo of the earring last week. But I want it back. It was custom made and can be traced back to me.”
Since Lucian and she had come to the same conclusion, that wasn’t a surprise, but something else was.
“Let me guess,” Olivia said. “You’ve been looking for it this whole time?”
“On and off. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself. And this building wasn’t supposed to be sold.” She glanced around, disdain written all over her face, especially when it landed on the floor where she’d committed murder. “Damien’s partners promised me that it wouldn’t be, and then they turned around and allowed Lucian to buy it when he dangled cash in front of their fat, greedy faces.”
God, she’d spent three decades looking for a piece of jewelry that could have put her away from life. If she’d found it, she would have gotten away with murder. Now, she was willing to murder again to claim it.
“Someone else must have taken the earring,” Lucian said, moving not only closer to his gun but putting himself fully in front of Olivia.
But she didn’t want him dying for her. What she wanted to do was launch herself at Estelle and extract the pound of flesh that the woman owed Marissa and Damien.
“I won’t go to jail for murdering Damien and his whore of a lover,” Estelle spat out. She jabbed her finger toward the picture on the screen. “Look at the bitch. I wanted to kill her first, but Damien scrambled in front of her and took the first bullet.”
Yes, those images were much too clear in Olivia’s head. She could feel the fear they’d felt, could hear their pounding heartbeats. Could feel the pain, too. Damien and Marissa had not died easily.
“So, they knew you’re the one who killed them?” Olivia mumbled.
“Perhaps.” Estelle lifted her shoulder, the motion causing drops of rainwater to slip off her coat and splatter onto the floor. “I didn’t exactly have a long chat with them. I stepped in the room and gave them exactly what they deserved.”
Olivia shook her head. “They didn’t deserve what you did to them.”
“To hell they didn’t. And I’m not spending one moment in jail over the likes of them.”
“You plan to photograph us, too, while you kill us?” Lucian asked.
Estelle flinched and pulled a knife from her left pocket. “Of course not. Why would I want that kind of proof lying around for someone to find?”
Lucian maneuvered another step toward his gun. “Maybe because you get off on it. It’s your own kind of personal porn.”
She made a sound of disgust mixed with outrage. “I don’t want pictures. Not of you two. Not of them.”
That didn’t make sense. If Estelle hadn’t been the one to take the pictures, then who had? Did that mean she had an accomplice?
“Just give me that goddamn earring so I can finish this, Estelle demanded.
“You mean so you kill us,” Lucian argued. “So you can kill them again.”
“I’ll kill them a thousand times if necessary, but this morning I’ll do it the smart way. I’d planned to set up that idiot Andrew Tatum, but he got here before he was supposed to. Now, he’s on the way to jail so the PI here will become the patsy. The hacker can fix it so that it looks as if he’s become obsessed with Marissa and now Olivia.”
Estelle paused, her gaze snapping to Lucian. “Everyone becomes obsessed w
ith her. Even you. So obsessed that you became him so you could get to her.”
“Not Marissa. She’s Olivia.” Lucian moved again, bumping into the desk so hard that the items rattled around. “And I’m not going to let you kill her.”
The corner of Estelle’s mouth lifted. “Are you planning to come back from the grave and haunt me?”
The words had no sooner left her mouth when there was a sound.
That same pinging sound that Olivia had heard in Marissa’s memories.
The pearl and emerald earring dropped from one of the ornate grooves on the desk leg and onto the wood floor.
Estelle made a strangled sound of surprise. Then, relief. It was just enough of a distraction for Lucian to launch himself at her. He crashed into Estelle, knocking both of them down. The knife went flying, but somehow Estelle managed to hang on to the gun.
She took aim at Lucian.
And fired.
The sound blasted through the room. Through Olivia. And she thought she might have screamed, but thank God the bullet didn’t hit Lucian. It tore through that massive window. Obviously they weren’t like the ones in Lucian’s house because the shot sent a shower of glass raining down on them.
Olivia snatched up the knife and tried to use it to stop Estelle. Hard to do, though, with her tangled around Lucian. And she was fighting hard. Estelle was outsized, but that didn’t seem to matter to her. She was fighting like a crazy woman with everything to lose.
But Olivia had everything to lose, too.
Lucian.
She couldn’t let Estelle kill him.
“Do it,” someone said.
Marissa.
Her voice was as clear as the sound of that earring dropping. And while at first Olivia didn’t know exactly what it was that Marissa wanted her to do, that became clear as well.
Estelle bashed the butt of the gun against Lucian’s head. And turned it on him. Olivia knew she only had a split second to react.
And she did.
So did Lucian.
He latched onto Estelle’s wrist. Turned the gun. And pulled the trigger.
The bullet went into the woman’s head at the same time that Olivia drew back the knife and plunged it straight into Estelle’s cold, black heart.