by Hannah Ford
I swirled my tongue around the swollen head of his prick, enjoying the way he tasted in my mouth, salty and sweet and good. He let me have control for a minute, let me suck him the way I wanted.
But then he grabbed the back of my head. “Don’t move.”
I held still while he fucked my mouth. His dick hit the back of my throat, his balls slapping against my chin. I did my best not to gag while my eyes watered and my pussy got wet from the deep-throating.
“You’re going to make me cum, baby,” Noah said. He pulled out of my mouth with a pop and stroked himself, his hand rubbing my spit all over the head of his cock.
“Please,” I groaned. “Come on me.”
“Open your mouth, baby.”
I opened my mouth obediently and stuck my tongue out, waiting for him to finish.
He came on me with a groan, shooting his load onto my tongue. He tasted bitter and tangy, and I swallowed as another shot hit my lips and dripped down my chin. I licked it up, swallowing him down.
When he was done, he turned and walked back into the suite. He returned a moment later with the key to the handcuffs, which he used to unlock me before helping me up from my kneeling position. My knees were weak, my legs quivering.
He led me to the bathroom and helped me into the shower before stepping in after me. The water was hot, the steam billowing around us like clouds. He pulled me close to him, his hands moving expertly over my body as he soaped me until I was scrubbed clean.
We didn’t say anything. He didn’t dominate me. Instead, his touch was soft, caring, his fingers moving through my hair, down over my back as he washed me.
When we were both clean, he dried me with a towel then carried me to bed, laying me down in the soft sheets and down comforter.
We lay there in the semi-darkness, the lights of the city filtering in through the windows. Noah reached out and pushed a strand of damp hair off my face. His hair was damp, too, making it darker than it already was, and it curled slightly around his forehead.
I loved laying here with him like this – it felt like our own little world, just the two of us, away from the craziness of the city and the crushing disappointment that reality had a way of inevitably bringing.
He was the first to break the silence.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently.
“Yes.”
He hesitated. “Not because of what we just did. But with… last night, with everything that happened.”
My first instinct was to lie, to tell him I was fine, that I could handle it. But I felt my eyes fill with tears, and I shook my head. “No,” I said. “I’m not.”
He reached for me, his hands enveloping my waist, pulling me toward him. I buried my face in his chest, feeling safe and protected against the strength of his body. “I’m sorry, Charlotte,” he said, his fingers tangling in my hair. “God, I’m so sorry. I should have never left you last night, I should have never walked away from you.”
I wanted to believe his words, wanted to believe he was sorry. But I needed more. I forced myself to pull back from him, and I looked him in the eye, putting him on the spot the way he’d done with me so many times. He’d forced me to look right at him while he pushed me sexually, and now I was going to expect the same from him as I pushed him emotionally.
“Then why did you?” I asked.
To his credit, he didn’t flinch. He didn’t look away. He kept his eyes right on mine. “I got scared.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true.”
“No, I mean, that’s a bullshit excuse.”
“I know. I don’t…” he trailed off, trying to find the right words, and I could tell how difficult this was for him. The man who’d been involved in hundreds of high-pressure trials and situations and stayed cool during all of them, was struggling when it came to expressing his feelings. “Charlotte, when I felt like you didn’t trust me, when I felt like you were keeping something from me, it gutted me. I realized how much I cared for you, what it would do to me if you decided I wasn’t worthy of your love, of your trust.”
“Then you should have told me that.”
“You should have told me about that phone call.”
“Yes,” I said. “I should have. But two wrongs don’t make a right.”
He nodded, his fingers still moving through my hair. “Do you think I killed those women?”
“No.” I hesitated. “But…”
“But you’re not sure.”
“No, I am sure. It’s just hard when all the evidence is telling me otherwise.”
He nodded, his hand brushing my side, before moving over and grazing my stomach. I instinctively went to grab for him, to move him away from my stomach, from my flaws, but he didn’t stop. “You’re beautiful,” he breathed into my ear.
He grabbed my leg, moving it up and up over his body so that his cock was pressed up against me. He was hard again. “Just being near you drives me crazy.” He kissed me softly, sucking my bottom lip gently into his mouth.
I relaxed in his arms, wondering how something that gave me such pleasure could be so confusing.
“I want to trust you,” I said. “I want to trust you so bad.”
“I know,” he said. “And I want to give you what you need, Charlotte. I want to love you the way you deserve to be loved. I want to let you in.”
His cock twitched as he said the words, moving closer to my opening.
“Then do it,” I said. “We can do it together. We can learn to trust each other.”
He slid inside of me, soft and slow.
“I will never leave you again,” he said, and his words were enough to make all the emotions that had been building inside of me bubble over.
Tears spilled down my cheeks.
Noah pushed them away with the pad of his thumb, then kissed my face, my cheeks, my nose, my lips, my neck.
All the while he moved slowly inside of me, fucking me deep.
There were no demands.
No commands to be quiet or still.
No expectations.
Just two people becoming one.
He leaned his forehead against mine, our eyes open and locked on one another. I felt him come inside of me, and the feeling of him filling me with warmth made me come, too.
It was one of the most erotic things I’d ever experienced.
We fell asleep that way, our legs tangled together, our arms wrapped around each other.
I wasn’t sure what was going to happen tomorrow.
But for tonight, for right now, it was enough.
***
The sound of my phone ringing woke me at seven the next morning.
I untangled myself from Noah and moved to where my cell was sitting on the desk. The caller ID flashed a 212 number – Manhattan – but it was a number I didn’t recognize. I hesitated, looking at Noah lying on the bed behind me, still asleep.
I took the phone into the bathroom, pulling on a robe from the closet and shrugging into it.
“Hello?” I asked. There was no reply for a moment, and my heart sped up, thinking maybe it was Anonymous.
But then a young woman’s voice said, “Hi, is this Charlotte Holloway?”
“Yes, this is Charlotte.”
“Hi, um… this is Madeline Dunn. Um, Katie’s friend. You sent me a message on facebook.”
“Oh!” I said. “Right. Madeline, hi, thanks for calling.”
“You’re welcome. I’m sorry it’s so early, but I had the early shift at my job, and then I have class, so this was really the only time I had free.”
“Oh, no, it’s fine,” I said. “I’m really sorry to hear about Katie. I’m sure it’s been a very difficult time for you.” We’d been taught to do this in Criminal Law 101 – to always make sure we were sensitive to any potential witness’s loss. It made the witness form a bond with you, made them think you were someone worth trusting.
When we’d first learned that, I’d found it a bit ridiculous – of course you were going to be
sorry for someone’s loss, of course that was going to be the first thing you said to any witness who’d experienced something horrific. But now I realized it didn’t come as easy as I’d thought – my lawyer brain was turned on, and I was hungry for information.
Was it because I had such a personal connection to the defendant? Or was it because this is what happened when you became a lawyer? You got so used to shutting off your emotions and trying to win cases that you almost forgot how to be human? The thought was unsettling.
“It’s been really hard, yeah,” Madeline said. “Katie, she… she was my best friend.”
“I gathered you two were very close.”
“Yes. Very.”
“I’d love to meet up with you and ask you some questions about Katie, if there was anyone you thought might want to hurt her.”
“Everyone loved Katie,” Madeline said, sounding slightly offended. “She was a great girl.”
“No, I don’t mean Katie did anything wrong,” I said quickly. “I just meant… was there anyone you thought might want to hurt her? An ex-boyfriend, perhaps?”
“Katie didn’t have many ex-boyfriends. She was pretty inexperienced until recently.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean she started dating this older man. He was into… he was into things that were kind of weird.”
“Weird how?” My mouth went dry and my heart started to pound.
“Just… sexual things,” Katie trailed off. “I don’t really know how to explain it.”
I closed my eyes. “Who was the man?”
“She wouldn’t say. But I got the impression it was her boss, Noah Cutler.”
“Have you told the police that, Katie?”
“Aren’t you the police?”
“No. I’m a defense lawyer.”
“A defense lawyer? Like, you’re working for Katie’s boss?” She sounded outraged. “I’m sorry, this was a mistake. I have nothing to say to you.”
“Wait!” I said. “Madeline, please! I just … I’m working very hard to find out who killed Katie.”
“Noah killed Katie.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because he was fucking her,” she said, all traces of embarrassment gone from her voice. “He tied her up. He did disgusting things to her. Katie was in love with him, because she was too stupid to realize he was just using her. He made her keep everything a secret. And then when he was done with her, he killed her.”
“I thought you said Katie wouldn’t tell you who she was having the affair with.”
“She didn’t want to mention him by name, because he told her not to. But it was Noah. The police wouldn’t have arrested him unless they had evidence, isn’t that true?”
It was true. But what kind of evidence, I wasn’t sure. The evidentiary hearing was coming up in just a couple of days. It was like a mini hearing where the prosecution would have to present their evidence in front of a judge, and that judge would have to decide if they prosecution had enough to bring their case to a full trial.
The burden of proof was much smaller for an evidentiary hearing, so there was a good chance the prosecution would have enough to bring Noah’s case to trial. Even so, Professor Worthington would try his best to get the whole thing thrown out.
The prosecution would have to share with us the evidence they planned to bring to the hearing, and they’d do that very soon – we’d know exactly what we were dealing with then.
“Madeline,” I said. “I understand you’re upset, but don’t you want to know who killed Katie?”
“I do know who killed Katie,” she said, sounding exasperated. “I’m sorry, I… this was a mistake.”
“Madeline—” But the line went dead. “Shit!” I swore out loud.
There was a knock on the bathroom door, and I jumped.
I set my phone down on the counter and opened the door.
Noah stood there in just his boxers, concern on his face. “Who were you talking to?”
“No one.” I shook my head.
He raised his eyebrows. “Charlotte –”
“It wasn’t Anonymous,” I said. “I swear. It was a friend of Katie Price’s.”
Noah frowned. “A friend of Katie’s? Why were you talking to a friend of Katie’s?”
“I was going through Katie’s emails last night,” I said. “And there were a bunch of emails to her friend, Madeline. I thought maybe she’d have some information for us about who could have hurt Katie. But she… she said Katie was having an affair with an older man. An older man she seemed to think was you.”
Noah took in a deep breath through his nose, and his jaw twitched. “Charlotte,” he said, and I could tell he was trying to keep his voice even. “I thought we talked about this.”
“We did,” I said. “And I trust you, Noah. I do. But if Madeline can help give us an idea of who really killed Katie, we have to talk to her.”
“No.” He shook his head. “That’s not what I’m talking about. I told Worthington to take you off my case, and yet apparently you’ve decided not to listen.”
“Professor Worthington didn’t take me off the case,” I said.
“He what?”
“He said I wasn’t to have contact with you, but he allowed me to stay on in a clerical capacity. You know, going through documents, that kind of thing.”
“Dammit!” Noah swore, pounding his fist against the doorframe. He turned around and strode to the phone sitting on the desk , picked it up and dialed a number angrily. “This is unacceptable, Charlotte. You knew my wishes, and you specifically decided to defy them.”
“Who are you calling?” I asked.
“Colin. I’m putting an end to this bullshit right now. You will not have any kind of involvement with this case, Charlotte.”
I reached out and ended up the call, hitting the button to disconnect it. This made him even angrier.
“Do not,” he said. “Fight me on this.”
“Noah, please,” I said. “Don’t you want to find out who it was who called me? The anonymous caller who sent me to Audi?”
“I can find that out without you being involved,” he said.
“Maybe,” I said. “But if I’m still working on the case, there’s a chance whoever it was might contact me again. We don’t know what they wanted. Maybe they were looking for information, maybe – ”
“It doesn’t matter what they were looking for, Charlotte,” he said. “The only thing that matters is keeping you safe.”
“But this is my career we’re talking about,” I said. “Do you really think it’s fair to take this opportunity away from me?”
“You think I give a shit about your career, Charlotte? This is your life we’re talking about.”
“My life isn’t going to – ”
There was a knock on the door, and we both froze.
Noah set down the receiver that was still in his hand and moved toward the front of the suite to open the door.
A messenger stood there holding a soft leather briefcase. “This just came for you, sir,” he said. “Please sign here.”
Noah scrawled his name on the pad the messenger was holding out. “Thank you,” he said, shutting the door behind him.
“What is it?’ I asked, as Noah opened the folder.
“It’s for the evidentiary hearing,” he said as he glanced through the documents. “It’s what the prosecution is planning to present as evidence.”
“Oh.” My mouth went dry and bile rose in my throat. This was it. The moment I’d been dreading, the moment I was going to have to come face to face with whatever was in that folder, whatever they had that made them think Noah did this.
“Go ahead,” Noah said, replacing the documents and holding the briefcase out to me. “Open it.”
I hesitated for a moment, wanting to remind him he’d said he didn’t want me involved in his case anymore. But then I realized he was giving it to me not so I could help his case, but so he could show he had nothing t
o hide. He was putting it all out there, trying not to keep secrets from me anymore.
I took the file from him and then sat down on the bed.
He watched me as I pulled out the thick folder inside.
My breath caught in my throat as I flipped it open. Whatever was in these pages had the power to change everything. I closed my eyes, trying to brace myself for whatever it was I would find.
I didn’t have to wait long.
The first page was a list of potential witnesses the prosecution was planning on calling.
And there it was.
Right there in black and white.
The very first name on the page.
CHARLOTTE HOLLOWAY.
They were planning to call me to testify. I blinked, trying to focus on the letters in front of me. “Who did… ” I trailed off.
“What?” Noah asked. “ What is it?”
“Who did you tell about us?” I asked. “Who knows?”
He shook his head. “No one. Why?”
“Because I’m on the witness list.”
I looked back down at the paper, hoping that maybe, somehow I’d made a mistake.
But my name was still there.
They were going to put me on the stand.
They’d ask about me and Noah, they’d ask me what we’d done sexually, if he liked to control me, if he’d ever hurt me, if he’d made me do things I didn’t want to do. It would all be a part of the public record. They’d make me a laughingstock. Everything I’d worked for – all the late night studying, all the agonizing over my law school applications, all the loans I’d taken out to pay for school – would be for nothing.
My only other choice would be to refuse to answer – and then I’d be in contempt of court. They’d put me in jail.
It was over.
Everything.
And there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop it.
I was ruined.
And even worse, my testimony would most likely put Noah in jail.
End of BOOK NINE. Click here for book ten, WHAT HE FIGHTS, available now!