“It’s okay, Vinnie,” Frannie said. “I was dead.”
“It’s just—” Vinnie paused, darting a nervous glance at Niall. “I don’t want no bad feelings between us, hon.”
“Don’t worry, Vin. I’m not gonna bite you,” Frannie said.
Niall couldn’t resist staring at the open collar of the other man’s shirt. He didn’t want him getting too comfortable.
“I-I didn’t think you was,” Vinnie said, giving her a smile that looked a little strained. He gestured with his thumb back to the bedroom door. “About Rae, it was never nothin’ serious. But she’s been a gem, since you—”
“I’m happy for you Vinnie,” Frannie said quietly.
Vinnie started to sweat in earnest. “Look, there’s somethin’ I gotta tell you. I didn’t want you to hear it from no one else, seein’ as how we was engaged and all…”
“You can tell me anything. I promise I won’t get mad. I’m not the same person I was a few days ago.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Vinnie said with a quick smile. Then his face froze. “Not that the way you were wasn’t wonderful. You were—wonderful, that is!”
Frannie rolled her eyes. “Out with it, Vin.”
“Yeah, well, uh, you see, Rae and me are gettin’ married tomorrow.”
Niall caught Frannie just as she lunged at Vinnie. The other man’s face blanched so pale, Niall feared he’d pass out again.
“You lousy, two-timing bastard!” Frannie screeched. “Three freaking years I waited for you to set a date.”
“We gotta get married, Fran,” Vinnie said, his voice approaching a whine.
“Why? She knocked up?”
The bedroom door swung open, and Raeline dragged in a suitcase behind her. “Frannie, I know Vinnie didn’t say it right.” She set the suitcase at Frannie’s feet and squared her shoulders.
Niall had to admire her courage. Frannie continued to fight his hold, wriggling like a worm on a hook. Rage had turned her face the color of her sofa.
“I found out I was pregnant after that night at the funeral home,” Raeline said, wringing her hands. “I puked all over Vinnie’s shoes on the ride back to my place.”
Niall tightened his arms around Frannie and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Are you mad because you loved him and he’s a jerk? Or because you chose the wrong guy?”
All the fight went out of her, and she hung in his grasp like limp linguine.
“If I let you go, do you promise not to have another go at him?”
Frannie nodded, and Niall released her. Rubbing her arms, she scowled at Vinnie. “Niall, you still have that thing I told you I never wanted back?”
“It’s in my wallet, sweetheart.”
Frannie held out her hand. Niall slid his wallet from his jeans pocket and pulled the diamond ring from one of the credit card slots. When he placed it on her palm, she never once glanced at it. Instead, she handed it straight to Raeline. “A wedding gift. I don’t hold any grudge against you, Raeline. I wish you luck. You’re gonna need it.”
Raeline’s eyes widened. “Th-thanks, Frannie. It’s a gorgeous ring.”
“Just remember, it’s worth a few grand—you may want the money more, someday.” Without another word to Vinnie, Frannie grabbed the handle of her suitcase and rolled it out of the apartment.
Niall flexed his shoulders and arms and gave Vinnie the hardest, meanest look he had and winked at Raeline. Then he trailed after Frannie, whistling tunelessly as she stomped all the way out of the building.
All in all, he thought the visit with the ex had gone swimmingly.
Chapter Five
‡
“Can you believe the nerve of that man?”
Niall paused mid-stroke and gritted his teeth. Once again, he was an inch from orgasm, but Frannie kept returning to the scene at Vinnie’s apartment. “Can we do a play-by-play afterward, love?” He flexed his cock inside to remind her where they’d left off.
Frannie slid her legs from his waist. “I can’t help it. I feel like such an idiot.”
Sighing, he pulled out of her warm sheath and rolled off her body. He bunched a pillow beneath his head, prepared for another round of ‘What’s-the-matter-with-Vinnie?’. Reminding himself women had to talk their problems to death, he said, “Don’t take it so hard. The one I feel bad for is Raeline. She has to deal with his tomcattin’ now.”
Frannie sucked in a deep breath. “Wait a second!” She rose up on her elbow and stared at him like she’d never seen him before. “You seem to know an awful lot about Vinnie.”
Niall cursed his loose tongue. “It’s in his nature. Cheat one time—”
“Don’t give me that horse shit.” Frannie’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “You weren’t looking for a fare that night—you were on the job, weren’t you?”
Niall raised his hands. “Now, Frannie—”
“And don’t give me a line about you just happening to pass by on your way to the office.”
Niall clamped his mouth shut. That was exactly what he’d intended to say.
“Lie one time…” She threw his words back in his face.
Niall pulled the sheet over his loins. He needed to keep his wits to dig his way out from a hole that was getting deeper by the second. “You’re gonna chew on this until all the flavor’s gone, aren’t ya?”
A frown drew her dark eyebrows together. “You had Vinnie staked out.”
Niall felt a guilty flush heat his cheeks.
Her eyes glittered as she mulled over the problem. “Who hired you? Was it someone connected?”
Niall fell back on an age-old escape. “That’s privileged information.”
“Privileged schmivileged!” She sat up on the bed and reached for his robe. “I know—I’ll just go through the files.”
“You won’t find anything there.”
“Then I’ll go through the ones stashed in your desk!”
“What the hell were you doin’ goin’ through my desk?” Niall stopped himself from heading down that path. One problem at a time. “You won’t find anythin’ about Vinnie in there, either.”
“Then I’ll look through your bank records. Someone had to pay you a retainer for that piece of work.”
She had him by the shorthairs. Niall grabbed her arm and pulled her down to the mattress. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you.”
“What? You’ve got more secrets? I’m so surprised,” she said, acid dripping in her tone.
“Look, Frannie,” he said, trying one last time to get her to let go of this bone. “Knowin’ the truth isn’t gonna make you happy.”
Frannie’s eyes teared up. “I have to know who set this whole thing in motion. Don’t you see?”
“Why? So you can pin the blame on that person? Or so you can thank them?” Her answer mattered. More than he was comfortable admitting.
Frannie shrugged. “I just have to know.”
“All right. I’ll tell you, but you can’t go off half-cocked. She meant well, I’m sure.”
“She?”
Niall drew in a deep breath. “Your mother.”
Shock rendered her momentarily speechless. She opened and closed her mouth like a fish. “My mother hired you to spy on Vinnie?” she asked, her voice sounding a little strangled.
“Yeah, Donatella Valentine. Or Donna as she asked me to call her.”
She bolted from the bed. “You call my mama, Donna?”
“Should I call her Mama Donna now?” he quipped, and then immediately wished he’d kept his attempt at mirth to himself.
Frannie’s face grew red. Her chest puffed out with anger. “My mother had you follow Vinnie around?”
“I only just started workin’ the case,” he said, hoping a little lie would calm her down.
Frannie’s hands balled into fists at her side. “How long?”
“A week—” Her frown had him revise his second white lie. “Three.”
“Did you follow him around when he was with me?”
Niall held himself very still. “I had to learn his habits,” he said quietly.
Her stare grew pointed. “Did you watch us?”
Niall squirmed. She wasn’t going to like his answer. “Only when you were in public. I didn’t wire your home.”
“Did you watch us having sex?”
“Just once when you went down on him in his car after a movie.”
Frannie blinked, and her chin wobbled. “We saw Furious 7. Vin Diesel always makes me horny.”
He hated adding to her pain, but now that the truth was out, he had to tell her the rest. “And…when he fucked you in the bathroom stall at Benihana’s.”
Her tears spilled down her cheeks.
Niall’s gut clenched. “I ducked in there when you both came down the hall. How was I to know he wasn’t comin’ in for a piss?”
“Did it turn you on—watching me?” she asked, her voice breaking.
Niall couldn’t meet her gaze. “You’re beautiful—and very sexy.”
“Did you plan to turn me? Were you just waiting for an opportunity?”
“No, never. Never once did I even think it.”
“You didn’t once wonder what it would be like to have me, here like this?”
How the hell could he answer that question? He’d wanted her—dreamed about having her here in his bed. He sidestepped the question. “I never planned what happened. Do you think I put that bus there?”
Frannie collapsed on the side of the bed, like her legs wouldn’t hold her up. “So what else did you learn about me?” she asked, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand.
“That you tried very hard to please him, but his neglect was driving you nuts.”
“Were you following him or me that night?”
Niall’s whole body tensed. This was the crux of the problem, wasn’t it? The one truth he’d hoped she’d never learn. “I already knew what he was doing at the office that night. So I drove back to your apartment building. I arrived just in time to see you hail a cab.”
Frannie wrapped her arms around her middle. “So you followed me.”
“I was keeping watch over you. You looked like a woman with a bone to chew.”
“But you broke the rules when you intervened between Vinnie and me, didn’t you?”
“I was…concerned.”
“You didn’t have to stick around after you dropped me off. But you followed me into the bar.”
“It was a rough place.”
Her glare told him she didn’t believe him.
“All right,” he said, feeling defeat weigh on him. “I couldn’t help myself. You looked upset.”
“And you wanted to meet me.” Frannie’s voice was even, too quiet.
“Yeah,” he said, not caring to varnish the truth at this point. Whatever he said would make him look like a jerk. “I wanted to meet you.”
“Why? Because I’m the kind of girl who goes down on her boyfriend in a car?” Her voice rose at the end, fired by her anger.
“Because you fascinated me,” he said truthfully. “Even then.”
“I can’t believe this. This whole thing—I thought it was coincidence. That maybe God meant this to happen to me. But it was all you—and my mother.”
They stayed like that—her poised on the edge of the bed, him still as stone, afraid to move in case she bolted.
“So what are you going to do now?” he asked, wanting to reach out and stroke her back, needing to offer her any comfort she’d accept.
“What am I supposed to do? I make the most ridiculous decisions when it comes to men. My life’s a mess.”
“What do you want?”
“What I want can’t even enter into this discussion. I’ll never have it.”
Niall thought about the kids she might have hoped for, and his heart plummeted. That was something he’d never give her. Something he’d stolen from her forever. “Do you want to leave?”
Her breath gusted. “And go where?”
“You have a job. I’ll advance you the rent, if that’s what you really want.”
Her gaze swung to his face. “You’d let me go—just like that?”
He gave her a smile he knew didn’t look the least bit genuine. “If it will make you happy.”
“And if I want to stay?”
His heart heard the poignant question in her voice. Do you want me? He rose on his elbow and reached for her hand. “You know you’re welcome to stay as long as you want—and you don’t have to share my bed, if that’s what you’d prefer.”
She tugged away her hand and shot off the bed. “And what am I supposed to do when I get hungry?” she shouted.
An inward smile broke over him, and he relaxed. Anger from Frannie was a good thing. “Order in?” he asked, stoking the fire.
“And what will I tell the restaurant—send me raw steak and a well-hung delivery boy?”
Niall kicked off the sheet and sat up. “Oh, you’re talking about that hunger. I guess I could accommodate you.”
Frannie’s glance swept downward, and she looked at him from beneath the dark fringe of her eyelashes. “You’d sacrifice yourself for me?”
“Baby, it’s no sacrifice,” he growled.
“Ooh!” Her hands fisted again, and she paced. “I should be feeling really, really ashamed of myself. I’ve been used, manipulated, lied to—why does that feel familiar?”
Now his anger rose up to bite. “There’s no comparison between what Vinnie did to you and what I—”
She halted, and her head jerked up. “You’re right. Vinnie never killed me.”
Niall didn’t react to that jab—he waited.
“I said, I should be feeling those things.” Her shoulders slumped. “But I don’t. Does that make me a weak person?”
“No. Just…adaptable.”
Air hissed between her teeth.
“Pragmatic, maybe?”
She faced him, hands on her hips. “What I feel right now is really, really hungry.”
“Shall I order that takeout, love?”
Her expression grew crafty. “No, let’s find an all-night diner and dine on the customers.”
“Frannie?” he asked, worried he’d pushed her over the edge.
She shrugged. “I said I was hungry. We can leave a really big tip.” Frannie gave him a saucy grin. “After I’ve filled my belly, I’ll be really, really horny.”
Catching on to her joke, he said, “God, I hope that’s where I come in.”
“Only if you play your cards right, buster.”
Niall patted the mattress. “How about one for the road? Just to take off the edge?”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Frannie crawled onto the bed, stalking him, not stopping until she lowered her body over him, her thighs sliding either side of his cock for a mind-blowing caress.
Niall pushed her hair from her face. “There’s still the little matter of your snooping in my desk.”
She winced. “I was hoping that comment went right over your head.”
“I think that infraction of the rules deserves a little punishment.”
She bit her lip. “What are you gonna do?”
“I did promise a little ass-fuckin’.”
Her breath hitched. “You said you’d wait until I’m ready.”
“Aren’t you?”
Her hips squirmed, tugging at his cock. “Niall?”
He rolled over, pinning her to the mattress. Looking down at her, Niall felt invincible. Frannie’s wide-eyed gaze and slender form made him feel intensely male, like a conquering Roman crossing his Rubicon. Only his sword would sink into the softest flesh. He lowered his head and kissed her.
Frannie sighed into his mouth, and then their tongues mated, dueling for supremacy. Her nipples poked at his chest, and hungry little moans broke in the back of her throat. She wriggled her hips, creating a heat between her thighs that threatened to unman him.
He stroked his cock between her legs, grazing her slick folds, and felt the first ri
pple of ecstasy shudder through her body. Just a little higher and he’d slide home.
Instead, he rose up, straddling her body. “There’s that little matter of punishment.” That was all the warning he gave her before he flipped her onto her stomach. He leaned over her and whispered, “Give me the pillows.”
Frannie grabbed blindly for the pillows and tossed them behind her.
Niall laughed and lifted her hips off the bed, sliding the pillows beneath her belly.
“This feels awkward,” she said, her voice muffled in the bedding.
“Are you afraid?”
“You can see everything.”
Niall pushed his knees between hers and encouraged her to widen them further with gentle shoves. “I can now.”
In all their loving, he’d never once had her from behind. Her breasts were endlessly fascinating. But now, he had a chance to admire her narrow waist, the gentle flare of her hips, and the lush, fleshy bottom that would cushion his strokes.
Niall closed his fist around his cock. God, he couldn’t wait to bury himself inside her tight ass.
“Remind me, how does a little snooping offset your lying?” she asked, her voice sounding a little thin.
Niall knew she was nervous. While all the blood in his body was rushing to his cock, he fought to keep his mind engaged. He needed Frannie to relax. “I didn’t really lie.” He started at her shoulders, massaging away the tension he found there with firm squeezes and strokes.
“Mmm.” Frannie sighed. “Didn’t your mama ever tell you that omission is a form of lying?”
Never letting up, he worked his way slowly down her back. “Is that what Mama Donna told you?”
“I don’t want to talk about my mama while you’re doing this to me.”
“Just what am I doing?”
“Looking at me. Touching me.”
He ground the balls of his palms in the muscles on either side of her spine. “What do you think I see?”
“Everything.”
“Not quite. But maybe I need a closer look.” Reaching her buttocks, he kneaded the rounded globes, spreading her cheeks for a peek between the creamy halves. Niall rubbed his cock over her bottom. “I love your ass, Frannie.”
She clamped her hands over her ears. “Don’t say that!”
His hands smoothed over her ass and down her thighs. “Why?”
Frannie and The Private Dick (Night Fall Book 7) Page 6