Dark Euphoria

by Ronica Black

  Maria nodded, but she couldn’t think of anything else but the phone call. When Samantha closed the door behind her, Maria answered the phone, which was ringing again.

  “Ms. Ashland. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Her heart thudded in her ears. In her mind, Avery had just fucked the hell out of her. It was difficult to sound calm.

  But there was only silence to her question and then a long exhale that Maria assumed was Avery blowing out smoke.

  “Looks like she was pretty good,” she finally said. “If you’re into the more masculine type.”

  Maria looked out her living room window and saw only grays and blacks. Her curtains were mostly shut. She and Samantha had been in virtual darkness. How could she have known?

  A chill ran through her, followed closely by embarrassment and anger. She had been watching her somehow.

  “What do you want, Ashland?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? Come now, Detective, you’re better than this. Surely you know what I want by now. No?”

  Maria tried to come back with something clever, something powerful, but her mind was mush and words couldn’t be found, no matter how hard she tried to concentrate.

  “Cat got your tongue? Or did that handsome butch take it with her?” Avery laughed and made the sound of exhaling once again. “I’m having another engagement in a few days. Be sure to bring that beard of a partner of yours. I look forward to seeing you, Detective.”

  The call ended, leaving Maria completely spent, mentally and physically. She rose and locked her doors and closed her curtains tight. Then she collapsed once again on the couch and slept the hardest she’d ever slept.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Avery moved so hard and fast she just about ran right off the elliptical machine. Her pace was insane along with her calories burned. She’d been pushing it for close to two hours, going in spurts of intense pressure and speed, yet she still couldn’t get the blond butch out of her mind.

  Samantha. Sammie. Samantha Rogue. Was that really what Maria wanted? A strapping, strong, butch who knew how to fix engines? She wiped her face with a sweat soaked towel and then threw it across the room.

  “Goddamn it!” She jumped off the machine and nearly buckled to the floor her legs were so spent. She stumbled to the mirror and leaned against it. A sheen of sweat coated her face and soaked into her hairline. Her breathing was labored and she had a stitch in her side, but she didn’t care. It wasn’t near enough to numb her. It just wasn’t enough.

  She reached up and snagged the photo of Samantha Rogue and Maria Diaz off the mirror and crumpled it to the ground. Then she turned and tore the one off the screen of the elliptical. She threw that one to the ground. She forced herself to move to every single spot in her personal gym where she’d hung the photos. She tore and trashed every single one and then finally fell to the floor, her back pressed to the wall. She held her head in her hands and fought screaming.

  How could she compete? How could she be better? Samantha Rogue was everything she wasn’t. And at the moment, she’d had what Avery wanted most. Maria. She moaned in anguish as she mentally replayed the video Bobby had sent her of Samantha Rogue fucking Maria from behind. It had caused her stomach to clench with a rage and jealousy she’d never felt before. Not even with Bryce. Not even the first time she’d caught her in bed with that young model.

  No, nothing compared to this physical and emotional hell.

  Why did she want her so badly? Why was she feeling this way? It wasn’t just Maria’s looks; it went far beyond that. It was her aching innocence hiding her darker desires, the way she desperately wanted to do right, her stubborn attitude, her ability to act fearless when Avery knew she was anything but. She wasn’t like the other women in her life with their caked-on makeup and confidence. Maria was real. And Maria wanted what none of the other women did. Love. Passion. Loyalty. She would accept no less, and though she’d never said it, Avery knew it. Maria deserved a life, a love, an honest partner, a passionate partner who would know how to awaken her deepest desires and one who knew how to put feelings into words.

  “Fucking shit.” Avery knew it wasn’t her. Could it ever be? She didn’t know. But she wasn’t going down without a fight. She knew Maria had some attraction to her, and it was time to step it up a level. If Maria wanted to assume her guilt and treat her like a criminal, then she’d play the game right back. Why make it easy for them? The way they’d behaved around her at the station, the way they’d looked at her. Like she was filth. A madwoman. A murderer.

  Well, maybe a madwoman wouldn’t be so hard to play. After all, she’d done it before.

  * * *

  “Don’t even bother. I’m not in the mood.” Avery pushed past Lana and walked into her bedroom where she threw the towel around her neck onto the floor and began to peel off her workout clothes.

  “Believe it or not, sex is the last thing on my mind,” Lana said, arms crossed tightly across her chest. She sat on the side of the bed, staring at the pile of damp clothes Avery left in her wake.

  “Well, what is it? I’ve got guests arriving in an hour.” Avery stopped, completely nude, and placed her hand on her hip. Lana was quiet and she wasn’t dressed for the evening’s proclivities. “You’re not staying to play?”

  Lana shook her head. “I’m not much in the mood.”

  Avery laughed. “Since when?”

  Lana met her gaze and Avery swallowed hard, not liking the look she was giving her.

  “Lana?”

  “The cops are after me,” Lana said. “They asked for my DNA.”

  “I thought you weren’t worried?”

  Lana squeezed herself as if she were cold. “I don’t know, Avery. I think they are looking into my past. The questioning, now this DNA request, not to mention my lawyer, it’s all getting to me.”

  Avery grew unnerved, but she shrugged with indifference. It was nice Lana was finally caring, but at the moment, she had no words of comfort for her.

  “Just listen to your attorney. Give them nothing.”

  Avery turned, crossed to the shower, and switched it on. Seeing Lana so scared and worried was beginning to get to her. It made their predicament seem all too real.

  “We’ll cross it all when we come to it.” She stepped inside the steamy cavern and closed the door. As she soaked her hair, she saw Lana enter the bathroom and rest up against the counter.

  “What will we say?”

  Avery sighed. “I don’t know.” Panic started to creep up her throat, but she pushed it back down. Not tonight. She couldn’t do this tonight.

  “If we don’t give them real answers, pretty soon they’ll have enough to search our property, even arrest us. I’m surprised they haven’t done so already.”

  Avery shampooed her hair and rinsed. “Damn it, Lana, I don’t want to deal with this tonight. When I wanted to talk about it you weren’t interested.”

  Silence.

  “I’m going to give them my alibi, Avery.”

  Avery wiped water from her face. “Lana, you can’t.”

  “I have to. My lawyer is suggesting it.”

  “He’s a fool. A scared fool.”

  “They know I left with Hale that night,” she said, raising her voice. “What am I supposed to do?”

  Avery stepped back under the spray and conditioned her hair. Her heart pounded, and for a few seconds, she forgot about how badly her muscles ached from her rigorous exercise.

  “Just tell them you saw him home.” She didn’t know what else to say, what else to do.

  “Somehow I think they know he didn’t go home.”

  “Well, whatever. They can’t prove you were the very last one last with him.” But she didn’t believe her own words.

  “I think you’re wrong about that, Avery. I think maybe if you’d close your legs long enough to pay careful attention to this, you’d know more.”

  Avery stepped forward and popped open the door. “What the hell do you mean by that?”

  Lana pushe
d off from the counter. “I mean that instead of trying to seduce the damn detective in the case, maybe you should be busy trying to find out what all she knows.”

  “Whoa, where the hell is this coming from? You go from not caring to this?”

  “I’m scared.” She tossed Avery a towel and began to walk away. “It’s up to you to save our asses, Avery. Don’t fuck it up by chasing tail.”

  Avery watched her walk away and then reclosed the door. She leaned back into the spray and soaped herself. She was so angry, she stopped, rinsed, and then pushed against the shower wall to let the water beat down on her. Lana was going to be a problem. She should’ve known. But what could she do about it?

  But more importantly, how was she going to handle things tonight?

  Chapter Seventeen

  A slight sweat broke out along the back of Maria’s neck as she pulled up to the front entrance of Euphoria in her Grand Cherokee. Valets rushed to work two lanes of cars, and Maria noticed a cluster of press huddled near the front entrance. The announcement of Avery Ashland as a main suspect in the case seemed to bring more people in rather than scare them away. Curiosity often won out even when danger was involved.

  Maria exited her vehicle with the help of a polite valet and walked slowly, wearing her kitten heels and silver sleek cocktail dress, hoping not to be recognized by the press. Her sergeant usually gave the press briefings, but she and Finley were often waiting in the wings and sometimes they were questioned. Thankfully, she looked much different this evening with her hair down, thick and wavy, face nicely made up, and dress skintight. She let out a breath when she made it through the small crowd of press and entered the resort to find it dimly lit and cool. Somehow it smelled like a tropical breeze, and the sound of the fountains to the right offered false promises of calm and serene when Maria knew anything but calm and serene was going on in the rooms upstairs.

  “Pardon me, ma’am. May I see your invitation?” A woman, the one she’d seen before working the desk, was dressed in a white skirt and jacket and shining a black light on the invitations people were handing her.

  “I’m afraid I don’t have a paper invitation.”

  “Oh?” Kelly asked.

  “No, I received a verbal one from Ms. Ashland herself.”

  The woman shifted and picked up a clipboard. She eyed the board and then Maria. She smiled.

  “I see. Please go ahead, Detective Diaz. Ms. Ashland expects you on the fourth floor.”

  Maria nodded politely and began to walk away.

  “Oh, will your partner be joining us this evening?” Kelly asked.

  Maria was caught by surprise. “No, he won’t.”

  Kelly appeared surprised, but she said nothing, just waved her through.

  Maria wove between dozens of guests and sidestepped several waiters carrying hors d’oeuvres. By the time she reached the elevators, her muscles twitched and a Charley horse cramped her calf. She had to stand on her tiptoes to release the knot. The twitching and the knots were becoming more frequent, so much so that she knew Finley would never let her come tonight alone if he’d known. Which was why she hadn’t told him about the invitation. She wanted to do a little investigating on her own, and Finley rubbed Avery the wrong way. And truth be told, her insides had been doing flips ever since the moment she’d decided to come alone. Something about being alone with Avery again made her skin feel electric and charged. So much so that she wondered if, when they touched, if she’d be able to see an actual spark ignite between them.

  If so, what would she do? How would she react? Would she be able to hide her heated attraction?

  She boarded the elevator with two other couples and rode to the third floor where the couples, who had been talking softly with sly smirks, exited. Maria attempted to adjust her hair as she rode alone to the next floor. She wondered why the couples hadn’t ridden to her floor until the doors opened and she was greeted by more security. Gone was the friendly female in front. Instead there stood a giant of a man wearing an earpiece and what appeared to be a Taser on his waistband. He was dressed in white.

  “Ma’am,” he said with a nod.

  “I’m here to see Ms. Ashland.”

  “Of course.” He moved and waved her through. Her presence must’ve been relayed already. She nodded in return and walked down the poorly lit hallway. She recalled what she had seen before, the women having sex in a bedroom with Avery Ashland whispering in her ear from behind. Her skin came alive at the mere thought, and when she heard soft moans coming from the bedrooms, she nearly had to lean on the wall to keep her balance.

  She forced herself to straighten and walk with purpose, careful to avoid looking into the open doors of some of the rooms. But when she came to the last one before a landing, she stopped, the moans too loud, the whips cracking like clapping thunder. Sheer ecstasy came at her like a wave as two women climaxed together, crying out into the night. A spark of animal desire slapped her in the face and she wanted desperately to turn, to look inside, but she clenched her jaw and made herself stare straight ahead.

  “Just walk,” she whispered to herself. She took four more steps and heard other voices coming from the landing. She looked to her right and saw two women binding a nude woman to a large leather cross. The nude woman looked serious, and the women adjusting her wrist cuffs were dressed in shiny black thongs, heels, and eye masks. The black tassels on their hidden nipples swayed as they worked. Then one moved to a rack where dozens of floggers were hung, and she pressed buttons on a remote control, causing music to play and the lights to turn from deep blue to a deep red. The music developed a thudding beat, an erotic thump, and Maria felt her throat tighten.

  “Would you like a blindfold, Detective? Since you can’t seem to make yourself look?” The voice was deep and melodious and teasing her ear from behind. Maria tried to turn, but strong lean hands on her hips halted her.

  “No, no, no. What you need to see, it’s no longer behind you. It’s right there in front of you.”

  “Ms. Ashland, I don’t think—”

  “There’s no thinking allowed. Only seeing and feeling.” Avery pushed her gently, and they walked toward the cross, stopping a couple of feet away from the bound woman, who was now gagged and sweating.

  “I don’t—”

  “What? Want to be here? Want to watch?” She tsked. “I find that very hard to believe. In fact, I think if I slid my hand deftly up your thigh, like this, I’d soon feel your heat and your slick juices.” She traced her hand up her dress, and Maria had to squeeze her legs together and push her hand away in order not to succumb to her touch.

  It caused Avery to laugh, and she finally stepped in front of her and led her by the hand. “I think you’ll like what you see, Detective. You know, I too, can be a little rough around the edges if I or the one I’m with, so desires.”

  Avery was smiling devilishly wearing dark men’s dress slacks and a white button-down dress shirt with a dark tie and hat. As Maria tried to calm herself and look away, Avery removed her fedora and tossed it aside. Maria noticed her slicked back hair and dark liner around her eyes. Avery stepped in and gently held Maria’s chin, quietly ensuring she wouldn’t look away.

  “Can you help me with this shirt?” she asked. “It’s a bit hot in here.”

  Avery unbuttoned the top few buttons of her white shirt and then reached for Maria’s fingers.

  “Come on now, I know you want to help me. And we mustn’t keep our guests waiting.”

  As if on cue, the two women in thongs and tassels stepped up and tied an eye mask onto Avery. When they tried to help unbutton her shirt, she shoved them away.

  “Come on, Detective. You came to play, after all. Merely watching will not be enough this time. You’re already too turned on.”

  Maria’s fingers shook as Avery held them close to her chest. “I am not.” She knew she should run far and fast, but she was determined to spend time with Avery. Their case depended on an inside eye. She would just have to harden h
erself and remain detached. But at the moment, that seemed far from possible.

  A grin spread across Avery’s face as if she knew she wouldn’t be able to turn her down. And as much as Maria wanted to meet her gaze head-on to show her resistance, she could no longer bear to keep looking at the angles of her jaw and the plump of her red lips. So she moved her gaze only to see how her high cheekbones slashed upward toward the outer edges of the mask.

  Maria grew dizzy and squeezed her fists to fight it. But Avery’s face kept coming at her, luring and dangerously appealing. And the music. The music was maddening.

  “You know I never pegged you for a liar,” Avery said. “But in knowing you a little better I know you will not hesitate to do so if it helps your case.”

  Maria tried to back away, but Avery held tight.

  “Uh-uh-uh.”

  “I don’t want to do this,” Maria said. The loss of control that was threatening was as terrifying as it was tempting.

  “Very well.” Avery released her and snapped her fingers. The two scantily clad women hurried to her and nearly tore her shirt from her body, leaving the dark tie to snake down between her glistening bosom which was encased in a shiny leather low-cut bra. With her eyes trained on Maria, she unfastened her belt and whipped it from her waist, causing her lean, etched muscles to writhe beneath her skin.

  Oh God.

  Maria took a step back. Ashland smiled again and turned. She lashed out and slapped the bound woman lightly across the chest with the belt.

  “Do you want this?” Ashland called out, tossing the belt aside. The bound woman heaved with breath and nodded.

  A lightning slash of red plumed along her breasts. She jerked at her restraints as if she wanted to be freed but then demanded more.

  “Remove her gag. I want to hear her beg.”

  The women did so quickly, and when the bound woman caught her breath, she said, “Give it to me. Please, Madam.”

  Ashland held out her hand, and one of the women placed a knotted flogger in her hand. She rotated her wrist, whipping the flogger around. She lashed out again and whipped the bound woman’s breasts, causing her to call out.