by Delta James
They had set up an electronic whiteboard and were busy entering all the information they had. Adam was still in Philadelphia. While the case was still being worked on, the focus of the investigation remained on Remi as the primary suspect. Murphy, Yancy, and Hoss were on the phone with Adam getting a recap when they were interrupted by the appearance of Remi.
Hoss turned around and had to suppress a smile. With her disheveled, wet hair and tentative movements, it would be fairly obvious to men who lived or died by their ability to be observant and draw the right conclusion, that she had just awakened and that Hoss had made use of her considerable charms. She had put on the sweater he left for her but had managed to find and make another pair of sweatpants fit, although it was plain to see that they were not hers.
In order to reestablish their proper dynamic, Hoss growled, “I left my sweater for you, Remi, not the sweats, bring them to me.”
“There are people here,” she stammered, clearly embarrassed.
“And if you don’t want them to get another look at your backside as I paddle your pretty little ass, you’ll do as you’re told.”
Yancy and Murphy looked mildly amused at her discomfiture, but he was certain neither failed to recognize the control he was exerting. Remi would find that she had no support amongst these men. Both believed that a man’s rightful place was as the dominant partner in the relationship and that his woman would follow his lead. When they stepped out of line, which most spirited women were wont to do, it was their job to provide them with the discipline they needed to be the best version of themselves, which, in turn, allowed them to reach their full potential.
“Now, Remi.”
“I’ll go upstairs and take them off and just stay up there,” she said, raising her chin up defiantly, although her tone was respectful.
He smiled, knowing he should draw the proverbial line in the sand with her. He tempered that knowledge with the understanding that she had to be under considerable stress. He hated having to get after her, but he couldn’t risk her going rogue again as she had when the helicopter bore down on them.
Hoss crossed the room before she had time to even process that he was coming for her. As he reached out and grabbed her upper arm, she squeaked. He hauled her over to the couch, bending her over the back of it. Hoss easily stripped away the sweats, lifted the sweater, and delivered a flurry of swats to her backside.
Remi kicked her legs and squealed as the stinging blows reignited the fire all along her backside. Hoss noted as he spanked that her welts were resolving nicely but would enhance the pain from the spanking.
“What did I tell you about disobeying me publicly?” he asked rhetorically.
“You told me not to do it,” she cried.
He spanked her three more times. “That’s not what I told you. What did I say?”
“That I wasn’t to disobey you and that if I did, you’d spank me and then fuck me,” she sighed.
Both Yancy and Murphy chuckled.
Chapter Nine
Something snapped. The sexual spell he’d managed to cast over her evaporated as if it were a soap bubble, pricked with a pin. She was a well-known chef with some thugs out to get her. She was not some love-struck teenager who was finally reunited with her proverbial prince. She rather doubted any of those fabled princesses had ever had her bottom hole fucked, much less orgasmed as it had been done to her.
“I’m done. You and your goon squad can do whatever you want. I’m going to the authorities. I don’t doubt that Sheriff Sanders would have been less than helpful. Steve always was a major prick of the first order. But I’m pretty sure if I call the federal authorities from the closest law enforcement agency, they can resolve the situation. This wasn’t a job for the boy I’d had my first truly erotic fantasies about. I need professionals.”
Absolute silence greeted the end of her tirade, but the weight of what she’d done hung in the air all around them.
“Not a good idea, Remi,” offered Yancy.
She looked at Murphy. “What? No sage words of advice from you?”
“Me? Hell, if I weren’t married and Hoss here didn’t want to tame you and make you his, I’d be more than willing to sign on for that job. I do think he needs to take you to task for putting your life at risk by leaving Philly without telling anyone.”
“She’s already mine, you asshole,” growled Morgan, the anger and lust rolling off of him in waves that threatened to drown her.
Without another word to her, Morgan tossed her over his shoulder like she was a rag doll. She felt the sweater rise up, exposing her punished backside.
“I see the two of you have entered into preliminary negotiations about the status of your relationship,” quipped Yancy.
Morgan stroked her bottom covetously. “Yes, but apparently my girl has more of a stubborn streak than I remembered.”
“If you want, we can secure things here and reach out to our recon team while you drive home the finer points of being your girl to Chef Caulder,” suggested Murphy.
“I think I’ll take you up on that. I thought I’d made her place clear to her, but obviously I haven’t.”
Morgan turned and headed back to the stairs. Murphy accompanied them.
Morgan had just started up when he turned back. “Anything else I need to know?”
“Nothing that can’t wait. I meant what I said, Hoss. Get her squared away. Whoever wants her dead sent plenty of muscle. My guess is that they’ll keep on coming. Adam and Yancy agree. I’d use that big stick of yours to make sure you get through to her. Better you have to carry her over your shoulder because she’s too sore to move quickly than they get their hands on her.”
Remi felt his hand pat her behind affectionately.
“And you, my girl, had best learn to mind Hoss. He’s the best man I know, and he’s been pining for you for a long time. Better late than never, I always say.”
Hoss trotted up the stairs with Remi flung over his shoulder like she was a sack of grain. He entered the bedroom and set her down.
“I hope you enjoyed that little tantrum. I thought I told you to stay up here and take a nap. Do I need to start shackling you to our bed?”
“It’s not our bed and I’m not your girl!”
“You couldn’t be more wrong... especially about being mine. I’d think after having both your bottom hole and cunt filled with my cum, I wouldn’t need to drive home the point that you belong to me, but apparently I do.”
He continued to hold her in place as he rained down a hailstorm of pain all across her backside. When his strikes moved down to the tender spot where her buttocks joined her legs, she howled with a new fiery pain that continued as he engaged her upper thighs.
“Had enough?” he growled.
She tried to sink down and away from him, but he held her up and prevented her from moving away from him.
“I’m sorry.” She hated the sound of pleading in her voice. But more than that she hated the way he made her feel.
He landed three more blows across the fullness of her backside.
“Enough?”
“Yes, please, no more.”
“Go lean over the side of the bed.”
The minute he let her go, she did as he’d ordered, spreading her legs without having to be told. Her entire body was burning with need for him, alight with desire. It roared through her body, infusing every part of her with an arousal that she now knew only he could satisfy. She had no idea whether he planned to add more welts, take her bottom hole again, or just give her pussy a rough fucking... and she didn’t care. As long as he used her and assuaged the hunger she had for his carnal ownership, she would give him what he wanted.
“Good girl,” he said as she heard him unbuttoning his jeans. “Which should I fuck, Remi? Your ass or your pussy?”
She let out a strangled cry that she knew he would recognize as her final capitulation.
“I ought to take your ass again, but as good as that felt, I really think I prefer yo
ur pussy. Hold yourself up by your forearms.”
She didn’t question him, just did as he wanted. He moved into position behind her and thrust forward, spearing her pussy with his shaft and reaching under to grab her breasts. He stroked down the entire breast until he seized her nipples and began to knead and tug her as if he was milking her. He timed the plunging of his cock so that it was in syncopated rhythm to his manipulation of her turgid tips.
She could no longer focus on anything other than the man who was ensuring, in no uncertain terms, that she understood he was not only her man, but her master, and she would obey him. She was vaguely aware that she should be concerned about her career, but she didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was the man who stood behind her, ravaging her pussy with his cock.
Her breath sped up and she keened her need as she pushed back against him to see if he could drive into her more deeply. She could feel the ambush of her orgasm approaching faster than she could even comprehend. Her muscles tensed, and her breath came in fast and shallow pants in response to her apprehension of the amount of pleasure she was about to feel, and embarrassed that he could undo her, yet again, to this extent.
He released her nipples, grasped her hips and gave a last brutal thrust, pumping his seed into her as she keened in abject surrender. He grasped her by the nape of her neck, leaning down and growling in her ear. To her dismay, her body responded by climaxing again.
“Who do you belong to?” he snarled, his anger and lust not yet resolved.
“You,” she said, trying to stifle the sobs that wanted to break through.
There was a knock on the door. Morgan stepped back and fastened his jeans. Remi started to rise and was rewarded with another wallop to her derriere.
“What did I tell you about getting out of position without permission?”
“Not to, I’m sorry. You aren’t going to let anyone in here, are you?” she asked, humiliated at the thought.
“No reason not to.”
He opened the door and not only invited Murphy in but left the door open.
“I hate to disturb you, Hoss, but Adam’s on the phone; I think you’ll want to hear what he has to say.”
“I’ll be right down. Remi, you stay right there. I ought to leave the door open and invite the boys up here to see your blistered backside and my cum dripping down your leg.”
Remi grabbed a pillow and buried her face in it to wail.
“Is there anything more arousing than the site of your woman showing the evidence of your loving correction? I’m telling you, Hoss, we need to get this taken care of so I can get home to Ginie and get her straightened out... again.”
Morgan chuckled. “I’m not sure you’re ever going to get that filly of yours to settle down and learn to yield to your rein.”
“I’m not convinced I want her to. So, you finally decided to get your head out of your ass and stake a claim on what’s yours?”
“I am indeed.”
“About damn time,” said Murphy.
Hoss turned back to her. “You stay there, Remi. If I come back up here and you haven’t minded me, I’ll add some additional welts to your fanny. You hear me?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
She flinched as he placed his hand on the small of her back and brushed his lips against her shoulder.
“It’ll be all right, Remi. We’ll get this mess you got yourself into sorted out and then we’ll get on with our lives. You behave while I’m downstairs, and I might let you have some sweatpants. That’ll make it better, right?”
“Yes, Morgan.”
Remi quietly began to sob as she heard him close the door. She lay on the bed haranguing herself for her unwillingness to put an end to this farce... for that’s what it was—unwillingness, not inability. She had no one to blame but herself for her current predicament. That wasn’t exactly true either. Someone did murder poor Becca, framing her for the deed and then threatening her, but she could have responded by either staying in Philadelphia or going home to Baltimore to see this thing through.
She lay there wondering about the consequences of disobeying him. She didn’t doubt that he would carry through on his threat. Realization crashed down around her—since when did she obey anyone? Granted, she had never experienced the soul-bending levels of pleasure she had at his hands but neither had she been spanked. Shaking her head, she realized that the physical pain wasn’t the worst of it, it was the emotional connection that made the soreness linger. And never had she felt the levels of pleasure that allowed her to soar among the heavens when she climaxed—something she did with a frequency and intensity she had never known before. Was that alone worth it? Even if it was... was she willing to give up everything to have it?
Chapter Ten
Hoss trotted down the stairs behind Murphy. Yancy switched the phone to its speaker system.
“Go ahead, Adam, you’re on speaker.”
“Hoss, I’ve done some unofficial nosing around that show. It seems the murder wasn’t the first piece of nasty business. Even before it started, one of the people chosen bowed out under questionable circumstances; one of the judges resigned saying his other business concerns had to take precedence; they’ve had a couple of near misses with equipment; one of the contestants said his dish was sabotaged; and finally the murder and threat to your Remi.”
“Any idea who or what is behind it?” asked Hoss.
“No and that’s part of why your girl... she is your girl now, right?”
Hoss looked at Murphy and Yancy, who were trying to look anywhere but at him.
“Yeah, she’s mine.”
“That makes me feel a whole lot better. In any event, not seeing a good motive for anyone except the contestants really narrowed the field. What with the tape being hers and her fingerprints all over it...”
“Of course, her fingerprints were on it... it was her tape.”
“Don’t shoot the messenger, Hoss. But combine that with the fact that she found the body and it was in a locked room with her, it makes the circumstantial evidence pretty damning.”
“Doesn’t it bother any of you that she got that note?”
“The consensus is that she planted it. It doesn’t help that her prints were on it,” said Adam.
“You fingerprinted it and gave it back to her?”
“No. We have it here in evidence.”
“Then why did I find one the night she got here?” asked Hoss quietly.
“Did she show it to you?”
“No, it slipped out of her pocket...” explained Hoss.
“And it fell out of her makeup case...”
Yancy looked between Murphy and Hoss before asking, “Why is that significant?”
“Awfully coincidental. Two notes and each is discovered accidentally,” replied Adam thoughtfully, adding emphasis to the last word. “Hoss, if somebody is trying to frame her, they’re doing a helluva good job. I’ve had every inch of that hotel room and its door and locking mechanism examined and examined again. There is no evidence of foul play.”
Silence hung in the air.
“You changing your mind?” Hoss asked.
“Not necessarily,” answered Adam. “I’m just saying the evidence is adding up. Add to that there’s no motive for anyone else.”
“No motive for anyone except the other remaining contestants,” interjected Yancy.
“And she was the odds-on favorite to win.” In response to the look he received from Hoss and Yancy, Murphy continued, “What can I tell you? Ginie loves that show... especially after she found out that Chef Remi was the girl who broke your heart. By the way, she had planned to pull you aside next time you were visiting to talk to you about Remi.”
Hoss snorted. “You were going to let her come after me?”
“What can I say? I thought she was right and figured that you’d be less likely to deck her than if I brought it up.”
Yancy and Adam laughed.
“Well, if you schoolgirls could get back t
o the matter at hand, do any of the other contestants have a better motive?” asked Hoss.
“Better? Only that Remi, as Murph said, had become favored to win. I think most of the others never thought they’d actually win. They are mostly in it for the celebrity status it gives them, which can help their careers. Julian Burns was thought to be a shoo-in especially as the replacement judge, who is the CEO of the sponsor, was said to be in his pocket. Things got interesting when the other two judges voted Remi as the winner of the first elimination round. There’s a bit of a controversy in that the replacement judge has voted for Burns every single week. He maintains that he is objective and feels Burns is the best chef, but Burns has yet to win an elimination round and your girl has won four.”
“But if the others thought the competition was fixed, wouldn’t they have started to resent it?” asked Yancy.
“Not necessarily,” said Adam. “I think if you go in knowing the fix is in, I think you play to the audience at home and make the best of the exposure. Two of the chefs already eliminated have received lucrative offers as a direct result of being on the show. It really was shaping up to be a finale between Burns, Remi, and one other.”
“So, the finale was to have three people?” asked Hoss.
“Did you not watch the show at all?” asked Yancy. “It really wasn’t bad.” He hung his head sheepishly. “Okay, Cathy likes it, especially after Ginie told her about Remi.”
“Is there some conspiracy going on with your women? Adam, tell them that Heather isn’t the least bit concerned about my love life or lack thereof.”
“No can do, Hoss. Well, that’s not true; she isn’t concerned anymore. Once she found out about Remi, she convinced herself, and then the other two, that they needed to help you and Remi find your way back to each other.”