by Tl Reeve
“Please,” she whimpered writhing against him.
“Fuck, Kennedy, you beg so prettily. But I’m taking my time.” He kissed a path down her body, licking and laving her supple flesh as he went. His tongue traced intricate patterns across her skin. Sometimes they formed perfect figure eights other times she swore he spelled out sex. By the time he got to her belly button, she was rolling her hips, trying to get him to move faster. Phoenix dipped his tongue into her navel, rimming it with a flick. God, she was going to die. But what a way to go, right Kennedy? Fuck yes!
“I’m going to eat this pussy like a starved man,” he growled, nipping at her thighs. His tongue laved away the sting, before doing it to the other side. Like a moth drawn to flame, Kennedy couldn’t look away. She watched his mouth descend on her pussy in slow motion, until he pressed a kiss to her clit and licked it. She groaned. Kennedy swore she felt his tongue all the way down to her toes with the way he used it to arouse her.
A lick and a nip were precursors to what his devious mouth could do to her. Her body remembered everything he’d done to her virginal eighteen-year-old self. His tongue fucked into her, and Kennedy just about came off the bed. His arm held her down as he delved in and out of her over and over before flicking her clit and drawing it into his mouth. It was official. He was going to kill her.
The sounds he made while eating her were completely…dear God, they were primal. He sounded famished. Each grunt and growl vibrated against the sensitive flesh of her feminine folds, adding to the pleasure she already felt. Rolling her hips against his mouth, she took what she needed, letting the climax inside her grow until she was screaming. He scraped his teeth against the hard pearl, shooting her head long into a cataclysmic climax. “Phoenix!” She hollered, bucking through the best orgasm she ever had.
Kennedy floated on a cloud of nothing, her body relaxed into the bed and a lazy smile spread across her lips. Below her, Phoenix sat up, licking his lips. His gaze was predatory as he covered her and kissed her again. The spicy/sweet taste of her cum exploded on her taste buds, causing a flesh wave of wetness to gather at the apex of her thighs. “So good, Phee.”
“You have no idea,” he murmured, positioning himself at her entrance. The broad tip of his dick pushed through her folds and nestled just inside her. “Goddamn, Kennedy. You’re going to kill me,” Phoenix grunted, forging forward. His eyes were squeezed shut, his head was thrown back. He was beauty incarnate.
Kennedy felt her pussy quiver around him with each inch he fit deep inside her. The hate that festered for so many years disappeared. The disappointment in herself dissolved, and all that was left was her love for the man she knew owned her soul the moment he made love to her all those years ago.
Slowly Phee began to move. His cock dragged against the sensitive nerve endings hidden inside her, sending shards of white hot pleasure coursing through her. It was too much and yet not enough for her, she wanted more—needed it as desperately as she needed her next breath. Kennedy coaxed him. Together their bodies moved in a sensual rhythm. His mouth latched onto her nipple once more. She arched to him, silently cursing him for tying her to the headboard.
She was going to come. Her walls clamped down on him. Phee’s jaw clenched. A light pink flush tinged his cheeks, and she knew by the way he flexed his hips he was just as close as she was. “Do it, baby,” she whispered, her gaze locked with his. “I’m yours, Phoenix.” She kissed him tenderly and felt herself implode. Phoenix’s strokes were urgent, relentless.
He fucked her hard and fast until she was screaming, coming hard around him. His guttural groan of pleasure matched her sentiment. Her pussy milked his cock for every bit of his release, until he collapsed over her. Emotions that lay dormant for so long rushed back to the forefront, and she sobbed.
“Fuck!” He rolled off her, gathering her into his arms. “Did I hurt you?” She shook her head as he untied her. How did she explain what she was feeling when she didn’t even understand it herself? “God, talk to me Kennedy. What’s wrong, baby.” His thumb wiped away the tears as they fell.
“I…” Oh fuck, did she really love him still? Of course she did, and if she had any hope of hiding that, she was screwed. Turning to him, she buried her face in his chest and inhaled. The scent of sandalwood and leather filled her senses, mingling with the musky smell of sex. Swallowing hard, she breathed deep and tried again. “I love you, Phoenix.”
“Oh God, baby.” His arms wrapped around her and held her tight. “I’ve dreamed of hearing those words again.” He kissed her gently, reverently. Pulling back, he brushed the short strands of her hair off her forehead and smiled. “I love you too, Kennedy. And this time, I’m never letting you go.”
****
He had to tell her. There was no way around the fact another girl died. The same girl she’d seen on stage only forty-eight hours before. Warm and pliant, her body snuggled into the crook of his side. Her leg was thrown over his, and the soft snores coming from her made Phoenix smile. Finally, Kennedy was back where she belonged. Shortly after making love to her, she’d fallen asleep in his arms and when she woke again, he’d been rougher, more demanding of her submission. God it was beautiful. Just thinking about it made his cock stiff, even though he should’ve been sated for hours to come.
Yet, lying there watching over her, all he could think about was burying himself in her again. Tracing his fingers around her areola, Phoenix watched her berry nipple pucker up into a tight bead. His mouth watered. One taste. All he’d need to slake the lust burning in his gut. Liar. He’d savor each nipple—each breast and work his way back down her body and between her legs. His grip tightened on her, and she moaned. Her blue eyes fluttered open and a soft blush stained her cheeks and neck. Fucking hell, she was beautiful.
“Hey,” she murmured, her voice husky and sleep ridden.
“Hi,” he grinned leaning in for a kiss. Even though every instinct told him to take what was rightfully his at that moment, he pulled back, placing several quick kisses against her lips. “We need to talk.”
Kennedy’s brows furrowed, and she pushed up onto her elbow so she could look at him. “Okay, what’s going on, Phoenix?” There, the suspicious nature of hers reared its ugly head.
Rubbing his thumb across her cheek, he grimaced. “I have something to tell you, and you’re not going to like it.” When she opened her mouth to speak, he stopped her. “We’re fine. It’s not about us.”
“Oh.” She visibly relaxed into him. “What’s going on? You look so…upset.”
Yeah, upset didn’t even cover how he was feeling at the moment. “What do you remember about the night in the club?”
Scrubbing her face, Kennedy shook her head. “Not much really.” She sat up letting the sheet covering her fall. Get it together, Dupree. You’re not fucking her again until you tell her what happened. “I know I was taken back to another room, and there was a stage. After that, it gets foggy. Like the memories aren’t mine and they’re hazy, almost tinny.”
“When I hauled you out of there, there’d been a blonde girl on the stage, performing with a man.” She blanched and he pushed on. “Her body was found dumped near the river a couple of hours later.”
“Son of a bitch,” she whispered. “Same M.O?” He nodded. “Who’s working the case?”
“Eric. He came by early yesterday morning and told me. You were so out of it and sick. It was touch and go for a long time, so he didn’t want to wake you nor did I. I had to promise him if you got any worse off, I’d take you to the hospital.” Memories of her lethargic body draped over his arms, her skin ashy and gray assaulted him.
Sliding out of bed, he watched her spin in a small circle and put her hands on her hips. “Where are my clothes?”
“You mean the cocktail dress?” She nodded. “I may have thrown it away. You puked on yourself,” he winced.
“Shit.”
“However, you can borrow one of my shirts until Eric calls in.” The longer she stood there naked,
the more he wanted her. Her lithe body was curvy in all the right places and instead of the flashy belly button jewelry she always wore, the tattoo on her hip stood out in contrast to her sun kissed flesh. Two hearts angled perfectly together, their initials in the middle of each heart.
“Fine.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “When is he due to call in?” Instantly, she had gone from being a sated submissive to being a take charge woman.
“He said it might take a day or two, he wasn’t sure,” Phoenix supplied, getting out of bed himself and throwing on his pants.
“That gives us time to think,” she said, grabbing the shirt he handed her. “You know there was something about those two guys in the club.”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” He walked over her, running his hands under his shirt, unable to not touch her.
“Yeah, they seemed off, like they didn’t belong there.” Her head lolled back against his shoulder and a soft sigh passed her lips. “The suit. I remember thinking it was high quality, better than the yuppie wore. They’re out of place in that dump of a club. Yet, he sat with the blond like it was nothing.”
“What do you mean?” Engulfing her in an embrace, he rubbed her ass against his engorged length. God, she twisted him inside out when he should be focusing on what she said.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “It might be nothing. Whatever’s in the drug is potent.” Turning in his arms, she faced him and nipped his chin. “As soon as it hit my tongue, I felt the effects of it. I even tried to push it against my cheek hoping to slow the dissolving down. It didn’t work. In fact, I think it made it worse.”
He listened to her try to figure out the puzzle pieces of her memories. “How so?”
“I don’t know,” she frowned.
“It’ll come back, I promise.” The trill of his ring tone stopped him midway to kissing her. “That damn thing has shitty timing.” With a huffed laugh, she stepped out of his embrace allowing him to answer his phone sitting on the dresser. “Dupree,” he said answering it.
“Hey man, how’s our girl?” Eric’s voice filled the line.
“Good.” He watched her open the French doors of his room and step out onto the balcony. “How are things over there?”
“We got the tox-screen back from the lab on both ladies. Can you meet me at the station in thirty?”
“Yeah, give us forty-five. Kennedy needs some clothes.” Eric’s rough chuckle filled the line.
“Can do, man. See you then.”
Hanging up with Kennedy’s partner, he walked outside and stopped short. She tilted her face up toward the sun. A slight breeze blew through the wispy ends of her blonde hair. “Looks like the tox-screens are back. It’s time to get to work, Le Roche.”
Chapter Nine
Twilight, a combination of barbiturates, oxycodone and GHB—a druggy’s concoction that had taken off in a club in New Orleans, the same club Kennedy had been in—had been found in both girls’ bodies. Semen samples were also found during the examinations of the victims along with hair and fiber samples. Maya had already began combing through the database looking for a match. After getting a copy of the report, Kennedy kissed Phoenix goodbye and promised to meet up at the club the next night for a little play time. She shivered at the memory of how they spent the day before while she stood outside the station waiting for Eric.
“Hey, ready to go?” Eric walked up beside her and handed her the file on the second dead girl. “Read this while we drive out to the dump site.”
Taking the file, she climbed into their unmarked car. “I want to take the drive from the club to the dumpsite see just how long it would take to get there.”
“I knew you would say that.” He smiled pulling out of the parking space. “The shortest route takes just under forty minutes in high traffic. On an empty road at four a.m., it could take considerably less time.”
“Right. Well, there are actually three routes we can take, and I am sure they know this too. So we’ll take them all.” After being forced to stay in bed and take care of herself, she was itching to get back to work. “Hey, thanks for covering for me. I appreciated it.”
“Don’t even worry about it. Just promise me you’ll never pull something that stupid again.” He had a point. Once she had time to think about it, it had been pretty fucking stupid.
“I won’t. I promise. She saw the frown form between his brows and sighed. “Hopefully we can get a warrant on the place soon and take it down together.”
“You’ve got yourself a deal.”
Kennedy went back to reading over the file. The victim’s identity had to be verified, but she was twenty-three, white, blonde hair and blue eyes. The same as victim number one—Ava. “Here is what doesn’t make sense for me.” She turned to her partner as he drove. “You have Ava, who essentially walked from the bus stop, if that’s how she got back to Reserve, two blocks to her home and drops dead a hundred feet from her doorstep. Then you have our second victim. Who’d been drugged and taken out to the river and left. What made them different?”
Eric shrugged. “Could it be the only ones who get on stage, die?”
His assessment opened up a whole other can of worms right there. “It doesn’t fit.” She couldn’t put her finger on why just yet, but the stage did have something to do with it.
“There’d been a man on the stage, the club used him to play with the girl, could you see his face?” Kennedy stilled. “NeNe?”
In slow motion, she could see the man on stage, a black mask over his eyes so she couldn’t really see his face. “He wore a mask,” she said absently.
“What?”
“I found it weird, not like the whole situation wasn’t, though. He wore a mask. The girl had been so out of it; I doubt she would know the guy outside of the club if she’d lived.” Her thumb nervously tapped the file trying to remember anything else. All she succeeded in doing was giving herself a headache.
“Okay, so you’re drugged completely out of your mind and this guy with a mask is pleasuring you,” Eric snarled, finding the words revolting. “And what? You’re so excited you take the mask off, and he’s forced to kill you?”
“No. I think that part is all for show. I think the girls who agree to participate, are already dead when they step onto that stage. Hell, probably the minute they talk to both assholes. The girls are expendable in this little game they play. I think they get off on it, in fact.
“Damn. That’s pretty fucked up,” Eric muttered.
“Yep.”
Turning off the road, they took the dirt trail down to the river’s edge where the body had been found. From where they stood, she could look south and see the bridge that took them back to Reserve. There was nothing special about the spot. No tributes or legends about it. It was just a plain, dirt patch surrounded by grass. If the perp or perps were trying to hide the body, they found the perfect spot to hide it because no one came out here. Yet, the report stated a call came in about the body being found where she stood just a few hours after she saw the girl. “We need to hear the nine-one-one tapes.”
“I already requested them. We should have them by this afternoon, why?” Eric turned toward her, his hands on his hips.
“I think whoever called it in is also her killer.”
Chapter Ten
Getting a copy of the nine-one-one tape was taking too long. She knew realistically it could take weeks. Eric’s hasty assertion of ‘by the afternoon’ was a wish, but with two open and active homicide investigations, the paperwork should have been put through already.
The longer they wasted waiting for a nine-one-one recording, the more the chances grew another would die. It left a bitter taste in her mouth.
Almost like clockwork, Ariges came into her office. “Le Roche,” he stated sitting down in front of her. “I have bad news.”
Kennedy’s stomach soured. Her pulse jumped. “What is it?”
“Another body has been found.”
“Where?” she asked.
“Same M.O.?”
Ariges sighed as he nodded. “Maya is doing a drug screening right now. We should know by this afternoon.”
Son of a bitch. The acts of violence were escalating. “Does Phoenix know?”
Her boss gave a divisive laugh. “No. Not yet. The only connection we have right now is another flier.”
Her heart sank. “Son of a bitch. When was she there?”
“The same night as you.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” She slammed her fist on her desk.
“Good news is—if there is any, I received the nine-one-one recording this morning. Take it to Dupree, and see if you can figure out what the hell happened. Eric should already be there when you arrive. I’ll keep you abreast on what Maya finds out.”
Numbness slithered through her. The girl died because she’d gone in half-cocked. The woman on stage died, now this one. When did it all stop? “On it,” she said, standing.
Ariges opened his mouth, then closed it before trying again. “I know you, Kennedy. You’ll blame yourself for this situation. It’s not your fault some fucked up guy gets off on killing girls.”
“You know; I’d believe you more if this club had been more like the places I’ve been to. This place…is not a BDSM club. This place…it’s a trap. They use people, get them hopped up on some fucked up drug then kill them. It’s almost like a sport to them. Like a killing club.”
“I’m inclined to believe you,” he said. “This is your case, Le Roche, do you want a detail on our witness?”
“The witness in New York?” she replied. “No, I don’t think she got close enough. If they wanted her, they would have done something by now. If we follow the M.O. …”