Treacherous Seduction (The Rockford Security Series Book 3)

by Jones, Lee Anne

  “Yeah?” She did as he’d instructed.

  “Oh, yeah.” Chase moved into position between her spread thighs and lowered himself down atop her, keeping his weight partially suspended on his arms as he nuzzled the sensitive spot just below her ear. “Tell me what you like.”

  “I like anything you do to me.”

  “Anything?” He raised his head and stared down at her, one sinful brow raised.

  She nodded and looked away.

  “Well, all righty then.” Slowly, he kissed his way down to her breasts once more, lavishing attention on each one while his free hand traveled to her hip, stilling her small movements. His cock was already hard as steel and if she continued to buck and rub against him, he wouldn’t last two seconds. And this time, he wanted to last all night. He circled then flicked one of her hard nipples with his thumb. “Do you like that, baby?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.”

  He did it again. And again. Over and over until she was writhing beneath him.

  Then, continuing his slow descent of her body, he swirled his tongue around her belly button before making a beeline to the top of her pubic bone. The spicy scent of her arousal filled his senses and he damned near came from pure excitement like a randy schoolboy. Except he was no blushing virgin, and this time he refused to let his cock run the show. Not now.

  Now was all about the beautiful woman lying beneath him, and he planned to make her come at least twice before he sought his own release. His eager cock would just have to wait its turn this evening.

  Kneeling, Chase spread her legs farther apart and positioned her the way he wanted before stretching out on the bed again. Before him was the treasure he’d wanted to uncover since the first time they’d met.

  Shelby propped up on her elbows and looked at him down the length of her body. “Chase you don’t—”

  The kiss he placed at the apex of her wet folds severed her speech. He gazed up at her, his grin wicked. “Don’t what, baby?”

  She groaned in response.

  “That’s right. Just enjoy.” With that, he traced his tongue over her slickness, loving the flavor of her arousal before delving deeper to seek out and suck on her swollen clitoris. She dug her nails into his hair and pulled him closer, her body arching as her need increased. “You are so incredible, baby. So soft, so hot, so dripping wet for me.” He inserted first one, then two fingers inside her slick walls and thrust gently, preparing her for him. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”

  She bit her lip and cried out as he added a third finger and rotated them gently to reach that bundle of nerves just inside her tight channel. “Good, so good. And full. Yes. Keep doing that, right there. Yes. Don’t stop.”

  “Never, baby. I’ll never stop until you tell me.”

  Her breath hitched and her muscles tightened and he increased his attention on her clit, swirling his tongue around it then pinching it softly between his fingers, wanting her ultimate pleasure more than he wanted his next breath.

  “Oh, God. Chase, I’m almost there. I’m almost…”

  “That’s it. Let go. Come for me, baby.”

  Bucking hard against him, she pressed herself tight against his mouth and fingers, her inner muscles fluttering as her climax struck. Chase nuzzled her through the orgasm, drawing out every last sensation from her exquisite body before building her toward the next peak.

  “Chase!” Christ Almighty, was there anything sexier than the breathless sound of her voice? He worked her sensitive flesh, driving her near the edge once more, his own need zeroing his focus to just this moment, just this night, just this one, sweet woman. If he didn’t bury himself inside Shelby soon, he feared he’d lose his fucking mind. The little moans and mewls and hot-as-fuck noises she made as she shook her head from side to side were the best aphrodisiac Chase had ever encountered. With her eyes closed and her lips parted, she seemed completely overtaken with passion. Passion he’d awoken within her.

  Once more, pride and possessiveness stabbed his chest.

  Mine.

  “Oh, oh!” She clutched him tight again, her blue eyes open and dazed. “Chase, I’m gonna come again. This never happens… Oh, God!”

  Her second orgasm hit, the contractions of her inner walls around him stronger than the first and Chase reached his breaking point. He had to be inside her. Now. With shaking hands, he grabbed his jeans on the bed beside him and pulled out one of the condoms he’d stashed in his back pocket. After slicking it on, he kissed his way back up her body and dropped a soft kiss on her trembling lips before rising above her and positioning his aching cock at her wet entrance.

  “Ready for me, baby?”

  “Please.”

  She didn’t have to ask twice.

  Chase entered her in one long thrust, sinking his entire length inside her soft, warm body. The lingering spasms from her release gently milked him and he couldn’t contain a groan. “Fuck, baby. You feel so incredible. Hot and wet and so goddamned tight.”

  He thrust slowly at first, then increased his pace as his need for her grew uncontrollable. She locked her legs around his lower back, drawing him deeper inside her, and he swore he couldn’t tell where she stopped and he started. It had never, ever been like this before. This good, this real, this all-consuming. He wanted Shelby. All of her. Exclusively and forever. Amen.

  A familiar tightening started low in his balls as his release loomed. He wanted to come so bad his whole body ached, but not without her. Not without bringing Shelby along with him to the pinnacle.

  “I’m close, baby. So fucking close.” His thrusts grew harder, stronger, deeper. “But I want you with me when I go.”

  “Yes.” She met him thrust for thrust, rocking her hips against him for maximum penetration and angle. “Take me with you.”

  “Fuck, yes.” He reached between them and circled her clit with his finger and thumb.

  “Oh, God. I’m coming, Chase. I’m coming!”

  “Yes!” He drove into her one last time, his body tensing as he came hard inside her, her body tightening around his cock and drawing out every ounce of his pleasure. On and on and on it went until he feared he might pass out from too much ecstasy.

  Finally, he collapsed atop her, his head resting in the valley between her breasts as she stroked his hair.

  All his life he’d searched for one safe place. One secure place. One place to call home.

  He’d never dreamed he’d find all three in Shelby’s arms.

  Her breath evened out into the patterns of sleep, and her fingers stilled in his hair. As Chase drifted off himself he knew deep inside he’d do anything to protect the woman he loved.

  Loved?

  Yeah, he loved Shelby.

  Even if he couldn’t say the words yet.

  Eighteen

  Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

  Chase squinted an eye open into the darkness and for a moment wondered where in the hell he was. There was something soft and warm pressed against his side and a hard lump covering his feet. Normally, when he jolted awake in the middle of the night, fears bombarded him and he imagined himself back in prison.

  Except this time was different.

  The sweet smell of flowers and warm women coaxed him to burrow deeper beneath the covers once more. Shelby. He was with Shelby, in her apartment and they’d made love late into the night. His tired body felt as heavy as concrete and as light as air at the same time.

  From the end of the bed, Snickerdoodle snored louder than any human he’d ever known and Chase couldn’t help but grin. Happy. For the first time in memory, he was happy. Truly, deeply, wonderfully happy.

  Buzzzzzz.

  Shit.

  He rubbed his eyes and glanced at the nightstand where he’d stashed his phone. Maybe if he ignored whoever it was, they’d go away. Calls in the middle of the night were never a good omen anyway, right? The phone stopped ringing and silence filled the small studio apartment once more. Chase snuggled down beside Shelby and closed his eyes
.

  Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

  Fuck.

  Immensely irritated, he pushed up onto his elbows and reached over for the damned device. Whoever was on the other end of the line better have said their prayers, ‘cause they’d be dead soon.

  Shelby stirred and looked over her shoulder at him, groggy. “What’s going on?”

  “Nothing.” The screen flashed Blake’s name. Shit.

  Considering he was either in for another ass-reaming because his boss had discovered he’d lied about his whereabouts or they’d discovered something new about the murder case, he figured upright and alone was the best way to have this conversation. He threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood. “I have to take a call. Go back to sleep, baby.”

  He tugged on his jeans then kissed her softly before heading out the front door to the small landing beyond. The phone rang for the fourth time and he growled as he hit the Answer button. “This better be good.”

  “Where the hell are you?” Blake’s irritation rippled through the phone line.

  “I’m…” He ran a hand through his bed-head hair. Lying to Blake after all he’d done didn’t sit right, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to let the guy know his actual location. Not yet anyway. Things with Shelby were still too new, too fresh, too precious. “I’m fine. What’s going on?”

  “We found the footage from Warren’s office on the day of the murder.”

  “What?” Adrenaline shocked him fully awake. “That’s awesome.”

  “Actually, no. It’s not.” Blake’s serious tone settled in Chase’s chest like a boulder. “You’re not going to like it.”

  “Why not?”

  “This isn’t something you want to hear over the phone. Trust me.” Blake sighed. “Come into the office.”

  The Rockford offices was where he was supposed to be already. The fact Blake knew he’d lied about his whereabouts, yet didn’t berate him for it, troubled him even more. Blake always gave him a hard time about stuff like that. Well, shit. “Uh, yeah, okay.”

  “I know you’re at Shelby’s, Chase.”

  “Look, man. I’m sorry I lied, but—”

  “Save it.” Blake sounded thoroughly exasperated. “Why didn’t you just bring her to the house?”

  “She has pets.”

  “So do I, now, thanks to you. What? Would they eat Henry or something?”

  He thought about Snickerdoodle’s banana-pants reaction to those dumbass liver treats and thought, yeah maybe he would—if the lizard was slathered in liver pate. “I don’t know.”

  “Look, whatever. Just get your ass into the office. I’ve already sent a car to pick you up. Should be pulling up to the curb as we speak.”

  Sure enough, he looked down to see a gray sedan now idling in the complex’s parking lot. “Fine. I’ll be right there.”

  Chase ended the call and slipped back into the apartment, dressing as quickly and quietly as possible to avoid waking Shelby. He pulled on his boots and grabbed his jacket then tiptoed over to kiss her one last time on the forehead. Snickerdoodle whined from the end of the bed, and Chase gave the mutt a quick scratch behind the ears. “I wish I could stay here too buddy. Believe me.”

  Cool desert air brushed his face as he stepped outside and headed down the creaking metal stairs to the company car. Before he reached his ride, however, a figure stepped from the shadows.

  Dark hair, expensive clothes, piss-poor attitude.

  Katherine.

  Fuck it all to hell and back. Could this night get any worse?

  Beneath the orange streetlights, she thrust something in front of his face. Something glittery and gaudy as hell.

  The brooch.

  Apparently, yes. This night could get much, much worse.

  “If you knew about this, then you know I tried to stash it at your girlfriend’s.” Her voice seethed with venom. She stashed the pin away and instead pulled out her cell phone. “I’m sick of you poking your nose in where it doesn’t belong. You’re nothing but a worthless felon, bad DNA through and through, and yet you think you’re good enough to mess with me. Well, you’re not. And this just proves my point.”

  She shoved the phone in his face next, the small screen filled with the now familiar black and white security footage from the Lucky Ace. Chase recognized the interior of Warren Bryant’s office and his throat constricted as he watched a very much alive Warren working at his desk. The man went through files, signed documents, took a drink from a glass near his side.

  Moments later, he slumped over his desk, apparently asleep. Or worse.

  Bile rose and Chase swallowed hard to ease the burning. A man entered from screen left and rounded the desk to stand beside Bryant. The guy looked straight into the security camera.

  Chase’s world teetered before plunging off a sharp, endless precipice.

  No. It couldn’t be. He couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it.

  You’re not going to like it…

  Blake’s words mocked him, running an endless loop through his head. This must’ve been the video he’d wanted Chase to see.

  Shane.

  His own little brother. A murderer.

  Inside, he screamed. Outside, he couldn’t look away from the video, like a train wreck happening right before his eyes. Onscreen, Shane pulled a syringe from the pocket of his black coat—one of the same embroidered designer jackets he’d seen that day in the apartment—and plunged the needle into the side of Warren Bryant’s neck. Within seconds, Bryant’s body went into convulsions, mostly likely from an overdose. Chase was surprised the rational part of his brain still functioned enough to supply that detail about the drugs because the rest of him sure as hell wasn’t functioning on all cylinders.

  Onscreen, Shane shoved the now empty syringe back into his pocket then set something onto Bryant’s desk before exiting. Katherine enlarged the picture to focus on the object left behind.

  My letter opener. My fucking commendation letter opener.

  Chase’s heated blood froze to ice. Now he knew what really happened to it. Shane hadn’t pawned it for money, like he’d led Chase to believe that day in his apartment. No. He’d used it to let Chase take the fall. Again.

  Marlowe's words came back to him. She'd said they had proof he was in Bryant's office. She must have been talking about the letter opener and it probably had his fingerprints all over it.

  Pain and betrayal, worse than he’d ever experience before—not when their dad left, not when their mom kicked them out, not even when Shane let him take the responsibility for his drug wrap—seared his insides, eating up what joy he had left.

  “See.” Katherine shoved the phone back in her coat pocket, her smile smug. “There you go. Your own pathetic kin couldn’t even care less about you. All of you Evans boys are nothing but worthless trash. Less than worthless. Purely expendable, really.”

  Chase forced words past his tight vocal cords. “That’s why you pinned this on me?”

  “Of course.”

  “But how could either of you know I’d even get the job at the casino?”

  Katherine shrugged. “Educated guess. With your past conviction, and your ties to Blake Rockford—which your brother so eagerly provided, by the way—it made sense. All I had to do was request a bodyguard and boom, there you were. Only thing I didn’t expect was for you to run out that first night. Figured a hard-up ex-con like you would pounce on the first woman who offered him nookie. I’d planned to keep you in my bed until after the murder, but you went and screwed up that plan.” She tossed her long brown hair over her shoulder and studied her perfectly manicured nails. “Oh well. It all still worked out in the end, didn’t it?”

  Her smiled was cold enough to freeze ice.

  “You won’t get away with this.” Chase clenched his hands at his sides to keep from finishing the choking he’d started on her days earlier.

  “Already did, thanks.” She looked up at him and batted her heavily-mascaraed eyes. “See, this is how things w
ill go down. You’ll confess to Warren’s murder and you’ll say you did it for your whore of a girlfriend up there, or else I’ll give this video to the cops.”

  “I won’t implicate Shelby in this mess.”

  “No?” Katherine snorted. “Not even to save your beloved little brother? He’s the only family you’ve got now, Chase, sad excuse for a man that he is. You were his hero five years ago. He told me so.”

  A choice he’d never, ever wanted to make.

  The woman he loved or the brother he’d sworn to protect.

  A choice he couldn’t make.

  “No. I’ll confess, but I won’t tie anyone else to the crime. Take it or leave it.”

  Katherine frowned. “Dammit. You are a stubborn, noble thing, aren’t you? Fine. Whatever. I don’t care how you confess, only that you do. It won’t be as convenient for me, money-wise, but I’ll deal.”

  “Deal how?”

  “Don’t worry, Chase.” She backed into the shadows once more. “I always have a plan.”

  Numb, he stumbled to the car and climbed into the passenger seat. He didn’t recognize the guy driving, but it was just as well. With his mind spinning a billion miles an hour, he couldn’t really talk anyway.

  The future. The hopes he’d had. The dreams.

  Gone. All fucking gone. With one choice. A choice he had no option but to make.

  No more freedom. No more family. No more Shelby.

  Nineteen

  The IT room at Rockford Security buzzed with activity when Chase walked in half an hour later. He spotted Blake near the far corner of the room and headed over. The shock from his encounter with Katherine had worn off, leaving in its wake exhaustion and resignation.

  These would be his last few hours as a free man. He should be out enjoying them, not stuck in some dreary computer lab. But Blake had put himself on the line more times than Chase could count over the past couple of weeks and damn if he’d let the guy down again.

  “Hey.” He walked up to the cubicle where Blake stood, hunched over the shoulder of one of the techs, pointing at something onscreen. He did his best to school his features into bland indifference, but if the concern in Blake’s eyes was any indication, he’d failed. “I’m here.”