by Vivien Sparx
“That feels better,” Lilley sighed. Her cheeks were flushed, maybe from the water being too hot, maybe from something else.
Stone’s gaze was openly admiring. “Looks better, too.”
Lilley blushed, looked down and plucked at the frayed edge of her cut-offs. “They’re a bit short.”
“Not from where I’m standing. They look perfect.”
She edged past him to the counter, picked up the plastic containers of pie and pulled the refrigerator door open. “I’ll put these away until we’re ready to eat.”
She bent over to find an empty shelf and Stone leaned back to appreciate the perfect shape of her body. As she bent, he could see the soft white cheeks of her bottom, above the tan line of her thighs.
Stone had no doubt about what Lilley was doing, but for all that he appreciated her coyness. In a world where women went around overtly displaying their bodies in the skimpiest of outfits, he appreciated the subtlety Lilley was using. Somehow he found it sexier than if she had appeared in the kitchen wearing nothing.
When the show was over, Lilley switched lights on and they settled themselves at the table, Lilley with coffee, Stone still finishing off his second Coke. Daylight was fading fast in a riot of sunset oranges and mauves.
Stone quickly picked up the thread of the theory that had been forming in his mind all day, and that he had begun to explain to Lilley on the drive home from the diner.
“After I went to the library and visited the Bevan family, I walked to your diner because I wanted to walk the road and see if there was any sign of a struggle, or tire tracks in the dirt – anything at all along the roadside that might have been a clue about where the girls had been taken from. I found nothing. That didn’t surprise me too much. So after I picked up your Chevy, I decided to drive north to Rapture,” Stone said, “I was looking for the blue SUV. Those men from the diner aren’t locals, and they certainly aren’t tourists. They’re here for a reason, Lilley, and they’ve been waiting long enough to be frustrated. They want to get away from Windswept. They want to go back to wherever it is they came from – after they pick up what they have been waiting for. I went to Rapture and drove around the town, thinking they might be staying at a motel – because there has been no sight of their vehicle around town since yesterday.”
Lilley looked surprised. “You’ve been busy,” she said. “And did you find the men?”
“No, not in Rapture,” Stone said. “That’s what has me confused. I don’t know where they are staying,” Stone shrugged. Then he sat back in his chair, stretched and yawned.
Lilley went to the counter and refilled her coffee cup. She took the pie from the refrigerator and set the pieces in the oven to warm.
“So I went to Hank Dodd’s bar to ask him why he lied about the suitcase.”
Lilley made a face, an expression almost of horror. “He wouldn’t have liked that,” Lilley said. “Hank Dodd isn’t the most social man in town. Did you find anything out?”
Stone shook his head. “When I got there, Dodd went into his office. A couple of minutes later the men from the blue SUV appeared.”
“You’re suggesting that Dodd called the men and told them you were in the bar?”
Stone nodded. “I know that’s what he did.”
Lilley shrugged. “Could have been a coincidence.”
Stone frowned. “No. Not possible. I don’t believe in coincidence, Lilley, and I’d walked the streets of Windswept and driven the streets of Rapture looking for those men. You’re suggesting they just suddenly appeared out of thin air?”
Lilley shrugged, and the gesture changed the shape of her breasts under the fabric of her t-shirt. Stone liked what he saw.
“Hank Dodd phoned those men, and when they arrived, two of Dodd’s flunkies at the bar backed them up.”
“So…?”
“So Hank Dodd knows those men. At least he knew them well enough to know how to reach them. Maybe he has their cell phone number, or maybe he knows where they are staying. But they are connected.” He let that thought sink in for a moment, and then summed it all up for her. “Hank Dodd is the last man to see the two local girls, and Hank Dodd lied about the suitcase. And there are two strangers in town, waiting around for something. And this isn’t just any town, Lilley. This is a town I was told about by a guy I put into hospital. He told me someone in Windswept was a part of a sex slave network, selling young girls to men. It all fits.”
Lilley said nothing. Just sat staring down into her coffee cup for a minute. “What’s your next move?” she asked finally, like she was scared what his answer would be.
“I’m going to find those men and talk to them – alone – and in my own special way,” Stone said ominously. “And then I’m going to ask Hank Dodd some questions when I can get him away from his bar-room henchmen.”
Lilley shook her head. “Hank Dodd is always at the bar,” she frowned. “I don’t like your chances.”
Stone’s face was rigid. “He’s got to sleep sometime. Tell me where he lives.”
Lilley shrugged again – another sexy distraction that drew Stone’s eyes back to the firm rounded shape of her breasts. “He lives a mile or two north of town. He has a property between here and Rapture.”
Stone flinched – physically flinched – as the realization struck him like a fist to the face.
“Damn it!” he was angry with himself. Angry at his own oversight. “The properties I saw on the roadside. The mailboxes.”
Lilley nodded, puzzled. “Yes. The turnoff for his property is the third mailbox you pass once you leave town.”
Stone started to smile, started to put the pieces together. “That’s why I couldn’t find the blue SUV,” he said. “Because those two men are staying at Hank Dodd’s property. It’s how they’ve managed to stay out of sight, and it’s the reason they were able to get to the bar so quickly once he called them. They’re waiting at Dodd’s property to pick up the girls.”
“Then where are the girls?”
“I don’t know,” Stone rubbed his chin. “But if they were kidnapped last Wednesday, it’s most likely he has them somewhere close where he can get to them. They would need food and water – and drugs. Most likely he is overdosing them on every drug imaginable until they’re so far gone they can’t resist, can’t remember their name, can’t do anything. That’s when the men will take them. That’s when they will be lost forever.”
“But that could be anytime. It could be tomorrow. How will you know?”
“You’re right,” Stone said grimly. “And I don’t know how much longer those girls have. That’s why I have to go to Dodd’s property – tonight and try to find some convincing proof I can take to the authorities. What time does the bar close?”
“Midnight.”
Stone nodded. He glanced at his watch. It wasn’t yet 7pm.
“Is he married?”
“Of course. But his wife is in Phoenix. She’s been visiting her mother for the past few weeks. The old woman is recovering from heart surgery.”
Stone smiled slowly. “Can I borrow your car?”
Lilley nodded. “Sure. When?”
“Later tonight, maybe nine or ten o’clock.”
Lilley got up from the table and went into her bedroom. She came back with the car keys and handed them to Stone. Still on her feet, she went to the oven and removed the slices of pie. She brought the food back to the table on plates with cutlery on the side, smiled warmly just like she was back serving customers at the diner.
“I hope you like it,” she said.
They ate in silence. Outside, the residents of West Street were settling in for the night. Dogs were barking, and Stone heard the rumble of an occasional car cruising down the street as residents returned home from a day’s work. Through the open kitchen window he could hear a woman in one of the houses nearby chastising a child.
The pie was good. Stone cleaned his plate and sighed. Lilley beamed across the table at him, pleased.
�
�You want another Coke?”
Stone shook his head. “Coffee. Please.”
She took the plates to the sink and made fresh coffee, fussing busily at the counter. Stone watched her, yet again his eyes drawn to the firm curved shape of her hips, the narrowness of her waist in the tight shorts, and the long brown length of her legs.
“I said it before, Lilley. You’re too damned beautiful to be single. Have you ever thought of finding another man?”
She turned to face him, frozen in the attitude of pouring hot water into the coffee mugs. She smiled, a weary expression. “Around here?” she asked. “There are no good men around Windswept, Jack.”
“Then have you ever thought about moving on? Maybe selling the diner and moving to the city?”
She shook her head, like it was an argument she’d had before. Maybe lots of times. “I thought about it a few years back,” she sighed. “But I don’t want to start again. I’ve put too much blood and sweat and tears into the diner, building up the business on my own to ever sell it and walk away. I don’t want to start again.”
“Not even for the right man?”
She thought about that, her expression suddenly puzzled. “Is that some kind of invitation, Jack Stone?”
“No, sorry. I’m not the right man, Lilley. I’m not right for you, and I’m not right for any long term relationship. I am going to find my sister, no matter how long it takes. That makes me the wrong man in every possible way.”
“For now.”
“Maybe for a long time.”
“But not forever…?”
Stone didn’t answer and Lilley filled the silence. “I wouldn’t leave Windswept, Jack. But I’d wait here, until the right man came back for me…”
Stone pushed away his chair, stood slowly. He went to her and Lilley backed herself against the edge of the counter, sensing him fill the space, feeling him coming closer like an overwhelming force she wanted to consume her.
She felt her breath catch in her throat, and a sudden surge of adrenalin sent tingles all the way to her fingers and toes. She felt as though she might suffocate. Her skin was hot and sensitive. Every nerve seemed stretched to breaking point. The long sinews down the inside of her thighs were tight as whipcord.
“Lilley, I –”
“No, Jack. Don’t say anything right now.” She closed her eyes and her chin lifted, exposing the long smooth lines of her neck. Stone touched it with his lips and Lilley made a breathy noise like a purr in the back of her throat so he could feel the skin vibrating. She felt the softness of her own body crave the hardness of his and she flattened herself against him, and her fingers laced themselves into the hair at the back of his head.
Stone hooked his arm around her waist. Lilley felt the strength of him and she gasped aloud. He pulled her close, crushing her body to his and her head tilted further back. Then he pulled away and she opened her eyes and met his smoldering gaze.
He kissed her. Lilley’s lips were ripe and soft and moist and Stone covered her mouth with a long lingering kiss that seized the breath in her lungs and left her trembling within his arms. She could feel the sexy stubble of new beard, and sense the immense strength of the man. She gave herself over to every sensation; sight, sound and smell as Jack Stone kissed her like she had never been kissed before.
She had never known a man like this, he filled her with a sense of awe. It was not only the physical strength of him, nor was it the steady confidence of him. She broke the kiss at last, her eyes wide and fathomless as she explored the details of his face from the hard, uncompromising jaw line, to the tiny creases and marks of life that had chiseled into features around his eyes and the corners of his mouth that all seemed to heighten the effect of power and strength and determination; the face of a man who lived by his own rules, dictated his own terms to life.
Immense. That was the word for Jack Stone. Immense in every way imaginable – and in his arms she felt delicate and vulnerable and fragile, and yet somehow safe and secure.
“Do you want me to stop?” Stone asked.
She shook her head. “No,” she said softly, her voice still ragged. “I want you to take me into the bedroom.”
Nineteen.
Stone followed Lilley down the hallway into her bedroom. There was a big bed set against the far wall, the headboard and footboard ornately shaped from black wrought iron. On one wall was a dark timber wardrobe similar to the one in the room he slept in, and beside it an antique-looking dressing table with an oval mirror mounted between drawers and shelves that were stacked with small jars and bottles of cosmetics.
The window was down and the blinds drawn. The room smelled of perfume and fresh linen.
Stone stepped into the room and seized Lilley from behind, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her back so she was pressed against him. She went willingly, a little gasp torn from her lips. She felt the press of his hard body against her own. Stone turned her around so they were facing and he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her fiercely.
Lilley Pond felt herself turning to putty. His kiss was like fire, masterful and skillful, and she found herself wondering who had taught him to do this to a woman, and then was consumed by jealousy at the thought. Her need for him was intense – like a flame that seemed to burn and glow brighter with ever second. She felt a wave of giddy vertigo overwhelm her and her legs began to tremble. Still Stone kissed her, and the flame began to consume the last shreds of her inhibition.
“Take me, Jack,” she breathed. “Treat me the way I need it. Just tonight. Just this one time, make it perfect for me.”
Stone’s hands went from around her waist and slid slowly up beneath the fabric of her t-shirt until he felt his palms filling with the weighty silken flesh of her breasts. Lilley gasped. His fingers found the rosebuds of her nipples and he rolled them gently between his fingers. Their color darkened and the skin surrounding each nipple puckered tensely. She sighed, and then gasped louder as his touch became more insistent and demanding. She felt her nipples harden, jutting stiff and aching. She shifted her weight, arching herself back, and setting her feet wider apart giving Stone access to every part of her body.
He lowered his head, kissing his way down her neck, across her throat, taking a breast in his mouth and sucking greedily. The sensation was electrifying. Lilley felt the urgent tug of his lips and she wrapped her hands around his head, buried her fingers in his hair and held him to her.
“God, yes!”
She felt herself rising onto her toes as the exquisite sensations began to overwhelm her. Stone’s big hands wrapped around her waist to hold her and then she felt the kneading strength of his fingers as they worked from the height of her hips, slowly down over the faded denim towards the gap of her body.
Lilley spread her legs wider, welcoming his touch and thrusting her hips forward at the same time, so that her whole body seemed bowed as she ground herself against the rising hardness within Jack Stone’s jeans.
She felt his fingers rub down past her bottom and then dip possessively between her legs. She groaned, and her whole body seemed to clench rigid for an instant.
Then she felt his mouth against her ear, and his words were suddenly breathless and rasping and wildly arousing.
“Strip for me! Now!”
He let go of her, took a pace back towards the bed, pinning her with the intensity of his gaze. His eyes seemed to smolder, burning with the fierce strength of his desire to watch her. She groaned, craving the contact of his body, leaning towards him like a flower towards the sun, but he held her at arm’s length.
“Strip for me.”
“Jack,” she blushed. “I.. I can’t.”
Stone ignored her protest. He sat on the edge of the mattress. “Do it. Right now.”
Lilley turned away, saw her reflection in the dressing table mirror. She could see the flush in her cheeks, the wild desperate need in her eyes. She turned back then, facing Stone on the bed, but with her gaze towards the ceiling.
The t-shirt came off slowly, and she held her arms high above her head, knowing the pose would enhance the swell of her breasts, before she cast the shirt aside. Stone’s eyes roamed her body hungrily. Her breasts were large for her narrow shoulders. Then she reached for the button on her cut-offs, tugging down the zipper slowly and then pirouetting so that her back was to the bed as she slowly bent at the waist and wiggled the denim from her hips. She glanced over her shoulder, saw Stone’s fixed admiring gaze, and some of her hesitance melted away. She hooked her thumbs into the elastic waistband of her panties. Slid them down off her hips before turning, naked and trembling with a delicious sense of abandon and wickedness.
She shifted her weight, tilting her pelvis at an enchanting angle and there was suddenly a soft sly smile on her lips as she reached up slowly and took one nipple between her thumb and forefinger. She stared across the room, her gaze suddenly bold and provocative. Stone’s eyes were dark, intense.
Lilley moistened her lips, then rolled the nipple between her fingers until it swelled and grew hard. She trailed her free hand down across the hollow of her abdomen, lower still until it was between her parted thighs, cupping the soft smoothly shaved skin of her mound. She shuddered from the erotic sensory thrill of being so brazen and so wanton.
“Now get on your knees,” Stone said.
She responded to his tone, the words themselves just an echo, for his voice had become suddenly lower and taken on a new power that resonated somewhere deep within so that to obey him was intuitive.