by Jillian Neal
“Please don’t stop.”
The frayed rope on his restraint snapped. He devoured the heat of the whiskey as it lingered on her tongue. She tasted like liquid sin and the sweetest sunshine. The combination sucker punched him. God, he needed more and he’d be damned if she was going to control this kiss.
The sweet little whimpered moans she made zinged straight to his cock. He edged his hand higher and deepened the kiss, sucking, biting, licking until she melted fully into him.
Her thighs parted. Oh hell yeah. Fire burned in his bones. She came alive in his arms. Her hands traced down his chest on a direct path to his crotch. A low hungry groan spilled from his mouth into hers.
The cracks and pops of the dying fire had nothing on the sounds of her voracious hunger.
He hadn’t expected another shocked gasp however. “My God, you’re hung like a horse.”
“You have that affect. Now, hush up and kiss me some more.” The constant, mounting pressure in his cock erased any pain that lingered from the wreck. Now, all his body demanded was more of her.
“So bossy.” She leaned in sank her teeth into his bottom lip. The pain registered instantly and unadulterated pleasure. Oh, fuck yeah.
“You have no clue just how bossy I can be, peaches,” he managed as he jerked away, turned his head and kissed the hell out of her. Her arousal perfumed the air. He longed to demand that she ride him. Desperation to see her stripped bare and dripping ignited in every muscle in his body.
His hands accepted the invite her thighs had extended. Wet heat greeted his fingertips and welcomed him further. “Kiss doing its job, baby? Making you nice and creamy for me?”
A frantic, carnal cry of hunger was his answer as she writhed for him.
Greed seized him. He painted her neck with tender, suckled kisses. Brushing his tongue over the markings and burns where her seatbelt had marred her beautiful skin.
She arched her body, begging for him. Restless, he stroked his thumb along the scrap of wet satin he located at the apex of her thighs.
“Guess it is working.” He continued to explore her. “Nice and wet all for me.”
Another breathless gasp worked up from her lungs. Suddenly, she threw her right leg over him, straddled him and thrust her ample breasts in his face. He gripped her lush ass and drew that wet satin against his crotch.
“So, do you have rules for sex too, cowboy?” She whimpered as he brought his mouth to the lace covering her nipples. The robe tumbled down her arms. He’d get to that later. Currently, he was drenching the lace of her gown, making her nipples raw with need as they pulsated against his tongue.
“Oh, fuck yeah, peaches, most important one is for you to understand that I’m in charge.”
Another slow grind against him and he was certain he was going to come in his shorts like a green kid. Gritting his teeth, he ordered himself to get it the fuck together.
“And if I want to be in charge?” she challenged as she laid the left side of her face against his shoulder, cradling into him. Using her new position to his advantage he nipped her right earlobe. She jerked her head away but still seemed into it so Grant continued his dirty talking.
“When I show you just how high I can make you fly, darlin’, when I prove to you that I’ll make you feel better than you ever have you’ll have no desire to be in charge. You’ll find that being at my mercy is a pretty damn good place to be.”
“You sound awfully sure of yourself, cowboy. You really going to show me all the naughty things nobody ever wanted me to know?” She lifted up onto her knees and sank down in another slow grind that was going to end him.
“Oh, hell yeah. You can be a sweet girl for me and everyone else until I get you in bed. Now, lay back for me. Spread your legs, peaches. You’re so nice and wet and I’m so damned thirsty for you.”
“Yes,” she cried in what sounded distinctly like relief.
His cock throbbed against her.
Suddenly, a spark of electricity lit a low hum throughout the house. The kitchen lights and lamps in the living room ripped away the covering the darkness had provided. The refrigerator groaned back to life and the television blared at deafening decibels.
Furious at the interruption, Grant attempted to keep his mouth on Kaitlyn’s chest while locating the remote to turn the blasted thing off.
“Oh, my God!” Kaitlyn scrambled out of his lap, much to his chagrin. He leapt to steady her when she fell forward, almost crashing into the coffee table.
It took him another full second to see what she was seeing. A recent picture of her was on the television screen with the letters BOLO underneath what Grant immediately noticed was not a sincere smile.
“Police Chief Sommerville’s youngest daughter, Kaitlyn, has been listed as missing after her car was found totaled outside the Hillcrest Country Club today during the storm. Charges of felony vandalism have been brought against Chief Sommerville’s daughter and she is suspected to be on the run. Cell towers all over the city are still down, but if you have any information on Kaitlyn’s whereabouts and are able, please call the number at the bottom of the screen here and on Channel 8 Eyewitness News’ Facebook page. Police Chief Sommerville has set up a direct line to his office.”
“Did that just say what I think it said?” Blood was still pounding in her good ear from the heady sensations Grant had offered her and shock muted any other noise.
Grant was staring at the television screen. Shock resonated from every chiseled plain of his body. “Your daddy’s the chief of police?”
Kaitlyn managed a slight nod. The movement made her dizzy.
“And he’s going to arrest you for wrecking your car?” Stunned disbelief bordered on fury in his tone.
“No. I mean, I don’t think so. It said vandalism, didn’t it? I watched the reporter’s lips. That’s what she said. So, that means Seth is pressing charges for his car. Oh my God. What am I going to do?”
Grant’s grandfather stalked into the living room. Kaitlyn had forgotten she was barely covered until Grant quickly wrapped her in an afghan he grabbed off the back of a chair.
“I’d apologize for interrupting whatever … was going on here, but I’d dare say we need to figure just how much trouble you’re in, sweetheart,” he offered apologetically.
“I need to call my sister.” That was the only possible next step. Sophie could tell her just how much trouble she was in. “My cell phone won’t work.”
“Your sister got a house phone? We can use the landline.” Grant pointed to a cordless phone that had come back to life with the electricity.
“I don’t know her number. I always just touch her name on my favorite’s list.”
“Okay, deep breaths, darlin’. Just cause it won’t make calls don’t mean you can’t get to your contacts, right?”
“Thought you hated cell phones?” Granddaddy Camden quizzed.
“I do, but that don’t mean I don’t know how to use ‘em. I hate entering all the stats on my steers on my computer too, but I do it. Ain’t no good in doing things the way we used to do ‘em just ‘cause that’s how we used to do ‘em.”
Kaitlyn didn’t have time to listen to them bicker. Guilt ravaged her. What must her parents have thought when they saw her car? How could she have been so selfish? Even if she refused to be new Kaitlyn anymore, old Kaitlyn was still considerate of her parent’s feelings. Speaking of things even old Kaitlyn wouldn’t have done, what was she thinking, daring Grant Camden to teach her all the finer points on dirty love-making? That was one hell of a first kiss. The magnetism between them quelled a little of her guilt, but nothing else mattered other than making certain her family knew she wasn’t missing.
When all this was over and she’d paid Seth back for his ridiculous car, then she could think about a second and maybe a third kiss with Grant Camden.
Chapter Eight
Please answer. Please answer. Please answer. After she’d changed clothes, Kaitlyn listened to her sister’s cell phone ring. Th
ere was no answer. Not even her voicemail message. Sophie didn’t have cell service either.
If her family really believed she was missing they were probably all down at the precinct, but Kaitlyn absolutely could not speak to her father currently. Unbearable wouldn’t even cover the way he would react when he figured out nothing was wrong with her, she’d just stupidly decided to leave her wrecked car on the side of the road.
The tornado would be no excuse to a man who was a formidable hurricane.
With another fervent prayer, Kaitlyn dialed her sister’s home number into the old phone.
“Hello?” Sophie’s frantic voice took another vicious blow to Kaitlyn’s psyche. The guilt increased its death-grip.
“Soph, it’s me. I’m not missing. I’m fine.”
“Oh, my God! Kaitlyn! Thank God. Wait, are you really fine? Or is someone making you say you’re fine when you’re really not fine?”
“Sophie, I swear, I’m fine. I found out Seth was cheating on me with Kelsey. I ran into this guy’s truck when I was running away from the church. Then the storm and tornado and I’m with him and he’s … very nice. Really.” That didn’t come close to covering the things Grant Camden made her feel, but the cowboy himself was looming ever closer, pacing as he listened to her talk, so nice would have to do.
“You’re lying. I always know. Okay, if you’re still in Nebraska say ‘I’m fine, really.’ If your kidnapper has been driving for a while say … uh, say … hmm … okay, say, ‘the blue bird lives in the nest with seven eggs.’”
“Oh, my God, yeah, because that wouldn’t be obvious. I swear to you I’m completely fine.”
“But are you saying that because they still have you in Nebraska or because you’re really fine?”
“I’m going to hang up if you don’t believe that I am fine.”
“Answer the following questions correctly and I will consider believing you. When we were kids, what color were those God-awful comforters Mama put on our beds?”
“Sophie …”
“Answer me, Kit-Kat, or I’m calling Dad to tell him you’re being held captive and that you’re still in Nebraska.”
Her sister’s nickname for her dampened her resolve. “Mine was orange and pink and yours was rose and green.”
“Okay, good. I think. Uh, how old was I when I lost my virginity?”
“Sophie.”
“Answer me.”
“You were nineteen.”
“And who was the cherry picker?”
Kaitlyn scowled. “Marty Jensen.”
“And besides the fact that he came before I was even in the bed what else made the experience revolting?”
“Are you trying to torture me?”
“Are you being tortured?”
Grinding her teeth, Kaitlyn was ever aware of Grant’s presence in the room. Clearly privacy was not the cowboy’s forte. “Please do not make me say this.”
“I’m getting in my car and driving back to the precinct. This is the perfect question not to answer if you are in any danger.”
“He had gross ass-pimples.” Kaitlyn cringed. Grant’s scowl matched her own. “Now, I am fine, but I can’t come home just yet. There are trees down everywhere.”
“If you really are fine, Kit-Kat, you can’t come home for a while.”
“What? Why?”
“Seth was beyond furious when he figured out he’d texted both you and Kelsey. Kelsey high-tailed it out of the church screaming that she was sorry and his tiny dick wasn’t worth hurting you over. So, then he was really livid.”
Kaitlyn huffed. “Yeah, well, she wasn’t lying. He was definitely not gifted.”
“Yeah, I gathered by her sincerity. Anyway, the tornado passed by us on the south-side. After it stopped raining, he went outside and saw his car. I knew he was an asshole, but I had no idea he was this much of a crapbag. Anyway, he got the club to release the security footage of you … let’s go with ‘penning your frustrations in the hood of his beloved douche-canoe’. And he’s pressing charges. And our father, in all his stubborn stupidity, agreed to allow him to do this as he feels like that will teach you not to run away from your problems, which he says you’ve always done. He also feels that if you had been kidnapped, having an escaped felon as your captor allows the police to be more aggressive in locating you. His words. Not mine. You know he’s just freaking out because we didn’t know where you were, but I swear I’ve never seen him so mad.”
“I’ll pay for Seth’s stupid car. I’ll pick up more shifts at Chully’s or something. Why can’t I come home? Surely, he’s not mad I didn’t marry Seth.”
“He is, actually. You know, Dad. Family dignity before everything else. The fact that everyone knows about this is killing him. I am the Chief of Police. This makes me look weak, like I have no control over my own daughter.” Her sister mimicked their father’s stern tenor to perfection. “And there’s more. Guess who good-ole Seth has representing him in your case?”
“Why isn’t he representing himself? He works for the D.A.”
“Conflict of interest. He’s already hired himself some help just to stick it to you.”
“Oh my God. Are you seriously telling me that he hired …”
“Yep. Resident ambulance-chaser with a huge grudge since you’ve had him by the balls for the last year, Morris Holsten, your old boss. When Dad found out you weren’t working at Baylor, Holsten, and Brown, he lost his proverbial shit. Said some pretty awful things.”
Holsten was known for convincing judges to give no lenience for any reason, and he’d love nothing more than to make Kaitlyn’s life miserable.
Simply unable to stand any longer, Kaitlyn slunk down the paneled wall seeking steady ground. Her heart refused her another beat. “What am I going to do?”
“Let Dad simmer down. I’ll tell him you called and that you’re fine. As soon as we have cell service, could you call Mama? I don’t know how to handle her like this.”
“She’s back in bed and refusing to eat or speak, right?” Kaitlyn already knew the answer.
“Yeah, so call her and call Nana. She’ll talk to Daddy. As for Seth, just make sure the Lincoln police department doesn’t find you until Daddy calms down and comes to his senses.”
“How exactly do I do that?”
“Can you stay where you are? You don’t have to go back to work for a while, right?”
“I have three weeks off, but I can’t stay here, and don’t you think disappearing for that long will only make Daddy angrier?”
“I don’t think that’s possible. They’re pretty hurt, and they’re scared. I don’t know how to deal with them like this. This is your job.”
“I know. I’m so sorry. I just … Maybe I could go to Hawaii tomorrow like we were supposed to. Figure everything out and let Daddy calm down.”
“Uh, do you seriously think Dad doesn’t already have uniforms along with Bailey and Stevens camped out at the airport?”
If her father’s third-best undercover detectives had been dispatched to the airport, that meant his best detectives were out and about looking high and low for her.
The all-too-familiar desire to run and never stop surged through her. “I have to get out of here.”
“Uh, yeah but don’t stay gone too long. Nana told me what she told you. I guess I kind of agree with her. You lay low and so help me, Kaitlyn, figure out who the hell you are now, and then you come home and deal with Daddy. As soon as he talks Seth into dropping the charges, you can come back. But Seth is too furious, and Daddy’s letting him run the show.”
“I seriously cannot believe any of this is actually happening.”
“Kit-kat are you certain you’re safe? I know this all sucks, but I’ll come rescue you myself if I need to. We can run away together just like when we were little.”
“I’m safe. I’ll be okay. I’ll figure something out.”
“I love you and I’ll talk to Dad again, but listen, I just thought of something. You can’t call Mama o
r Nana, even when the cell towers are fixed.”
“Why not? You just told me to call them.” As soon as Kaitlyn asked she knew the answer. “He wouldn’t.”
“He would. The machine thing is already set up awaiting your ransom call.”
“Good Lord. There is not going to be a ransom call because I was not kidnapped. I was … rescued.” And in that moment she knew she had been. Rescued from a life of misery with Seth. Rescued from her own delusional attempts to be someone else for the sake of her parents. Rescued from her own stupidity. And if he was still willing after she got all this sorted out, maybe Grant Camden could rescue her from her own naivety.
“You know how Dad is. Hang on a sec.” Kaitlyn heard the phone crackle and then Sophie was back on. “I’m going to erase this number off my caller ID. It says Lincoln on here. You need to get out of Lincoln.”
“Yeah, I heard you the first time. How do I know if Daddy drops the charges if I can’t call?”
“I’ll call your cell when I get through to him. I love you, Kit-kat, but I can’t do all the things you do for Mom and Dad.”
With that, her sister ended the call.
Stunned. There was no other word for what she was feeling other than absolutely stunned. Squeezing her eyes shut she refused more tears. She’d cried enough and that wasn’t going to solve anything anyway. Anger swept away the liquid emotion. Fury pulsed at the base of her spine. Anger at her father, certainly, but she knew the person she was really mad at was herself.
She had to figure out some way to get out of Lincoln, and currently, she couldn’t even get out of Mr. Camden’s driveway, and she still didn’t have a car.
“What’d she say, peaches?” Grant demanded.
With her breaths as shallow as her resolve, Kaitlyn tried to think what to tell him. “Maybe, I could walk to a car rental place.” She hadn’t intended to state that out loud, but talking herself through things helped her think. They weren’t that far outside of the city limits. If she left now, it would still be dark for several hours.
“Why in God’s name would you do that?”