“I know that, silly.”
There was a long silence. “Nox … it’s only been three months.”
“Which is why I’m not asking the question yet,” he said lightly, but she could see the depth of his emotion in his eyes. “But make no mistake, I will be asking the question. This is it for me. You are the love of my life, Livia Chatelaine.”
Tears dropped from her eyes then. “And you are mine, Nox Renaud.”
He lifted her left hand and kissed her ring finger. “One day. Soon.”
Later, after they’d made love, Nox lay with his head resting on her stomach, his hands under her hips. Livia tangled her fingers in his hair and brushed her thumbs gently over his face.
“You handsome,” she sang at him. He pulled a face and blew a raspberry on her navel. She giggled. On all fours, he climbed up the bed until their faces were level. He gently bit her bottom lip and then kissed her. She pulled him down so his whole weight was on her and sighed happily.
“What are you thinking?” he asked, kissing her neck all the way down to her shoulders.
“I’m thinking I wish I could erase the past twenty years for you and make this last forever.”
“Well,” he rolled to one side. “I can’t erase the last twenty years. But I can promise this will last forever.” He grinned at her and ran his hand down her body, splaying his long fingers over her belly. Livia wriggled with pleasure and looked at him, seeing his expression fall.
“What is it?”
He looked away. “I wish … I wish my family could have met you. My mom, Teague … even my dad. Liv, I’ve been thinking and thinking and I’m damned if I believe he killed my mom and brother. I want the case reopened. I knew my father, knew him. There’s no way he would have done that. I think he was murdered and set up.”
Liv sat up, nodding, energized by what he said. “Good. Good, Nox, I’m glad you’re thinking like that because I agree. Let’s find out the truth. Something tells me that it’s linked to what is going on now. I’m glad, sweetheart, and I’ll be with you all the way.”
“He was a good man,” Nox said finally and Livia nodded.
She pressed her mouth against his. “So are you. The very best.”
Nox started to shake his head. “No, I screw up too often …”
She didn’t let him finish. “Everyone makes mistakes; everyone has their demons. You’re not perfect. I’m certainly not. No one is. But you and me together, well, I like those odds.”
She straddled him and he grinned up at her.
“Oh, you the boss now?”
She laughed. “I am chief now. You may call me Chief … Always Ready for Action.”
“A fine Native American name.”
“I thank you.”
“Chief?”
“Yes?”
“I think that’s my night stick you’ve got hold of.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Okay then …”
It was late evening when the residential home called Sandor to tell him his father had passed. Sandor listened in silence then thanked the nurse. “I’ll make the funeral arrangements,” he told her, stoic as ever, but when he hung up the phone, he felt a shift inside him. Damn it, Dad, couldn’t you have waited until after Christmas?
He felt bad then. He had known this was coming, that his father was spiraling downwards, but it was still a shock. His last remaining family. Shit.
His cell phone rang again and he saw it was Odelle calling. “Hi, Odie, what’s up?”
“It’s Roan. The police just called me because Nox and Livia are out of town. The semen Livvy’s attacker left matched Roan’s DNA. Goddamn that man, Sandor. I’m sorry to call and interrupt you, but I didn’t know what to do.”
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Where’s Roan now?”
“I don’t know. He’s been gone all day. I almost called Amber to see if she was with him, but then I thought I might go off on her, so …”
“I get it. Look, let’s meet and talk. Are you at home?”
“I am.”
“I’ll come to you and we’ll figure out what to do.”
He hung up and sighed, knowing he wasn’t at all surprised that Roan’s DNA had been found on Livia. He wondered how he should break the news to them, but didn’t want to interrupt their vacation. Instead, he called Amber and got her voice mail. “If you know where Roan is, Amber, tell me now. This has gone too far now. Call me back.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
It was Christmas morning and Nox was cooking eggs for their breakfast, sipping his coffee as he gazed out over the snowy landscape. He heard the shower running and then, a few minutes later, Livia emerged, dressed in a thin white robe, her long hair damp. Nox smiled at her.
“God, what a beautiful sight. Merry Christmas, baby.”
She stood on her tip toes to kiss his mouth. “Merry Christmas, gorgeous.”
“Hungry?”
“God, yes.”
They ate breakfast, then as they were brushing their teeth, he saw her grinning to herself. “What are you up to with that cheeky smile?”
She turned to him. “Want to open your Christmas present?” She nodded down at the belt of her robe and, grinning, he hooked a finger into it and pulled it open, leaving her robe to fall open.
Underneath, she was wearing the harness he had bought her, the leather crisscrossing her body, her breasts, and her belly, before sweeping between her legs. Nox felt his cock harden immediately.
“My God …” His voice shook and Livia grinned, slipping the robe from her shoulders and taking his hand.
“Let’s go play, baby.”
As he followed her into the bedroom, he admired her perfectly rounded buttocks, the dimples of Venus, the smooth, flawless skin. His cock strained painfully against his linen pants and Livia cupped it in her hand. “Is that all for me?” She looked up at him from beneath her long eyelashes, her mouth parted slightly, and Nox gave a growl of desire.
“Every inch. I’m going to fuck you so hard, pretty girl.”
Livia giggled as he swept her up into his arms and onto the bed. He kissed from her neck down to her breasts, sucking on each nipple until it was rock hard, then rimming her bellybutton with his tongue. Livia squirmed beneath him, her pleasure obvious, and when—finally—his tongue found her clit, Nox saw her sex become red and swollen, ready for him to fuck her in any way he saw fit. It made him feel like the most powerful man on Earth. To prolong their pleasure, he brought her to near orgasm then stepped back to strip.
Livia watched him, lust in her eyes, a small smile playing around her lips. Nox stripped slowly, then, reaching into the box, he slipped a cock ring around the base of his already engorged penis. “You want this?” he said to her, fisting the root of it and she nodded.
“I want to taste you.”
Nox grinned. “In time, beautiful. First … let’s tie you up, and see how you like the whip.”
Livia moaned softly. She was beyond turned on. She spread her legs so he could see how much she wanted him. “I want you so badly.”
Nox smiled. “Remember our first date? When we talked about anticipation? Well …”
He tied her hands and feet to the bedposts, then, grabbing a tube of warming lube, he slicked some into her sex. “Can you feel the tingle?”
Livia nodded. “God, that feels so good.”
He took the riding crop out of the box. “Shall we try this? Where would you like it?”
“Breasts and belly,” she said breathlessly, then cried out both in pain and excitement as he brought the crop down across her belly, leaving a red welt.
“You like?”
“More, please, baby, more …” Her back arched up as he struck her again, the crop marking a cross on her soft skin. It turned him on so much but he held back, even though his cock was straining and pulsing and aching to be inside her. He grabbed a dildo, slathered it in lube, and plunged it into her cunt, making her squeal. He kissed her passionately as he fucked her with the dil
do, then when he couldn’t wait any longer, he plunged his cock deep inside her, lifting her hips with one strong arm as he reamed her into ecstasy.
“Are you mine?” he said, gazing into her eyes, and Livia nodded, her face adorably flushed pink.
“For all time,” she gasped then gave a cry as she came, her body shuddering and trembling. Nox buried his face in her neck as he pumped thick creamy semen deep into her belly.
“God, I love you, Livia … so much, so, so much …”
They collapsed, breathless and sated, Nox freeing her from her bonds. “Wow,” Livia breathed, “that’s definitely the way to celebrate Christmas.”
Nox laughed. “That’s probably quite tame compared to what we could do.”
“We have plenty of time.” Livia rolled onto her side, hooking her leg over his body and snuggling into his chest. They lay in companionable silence as they caught their breath, kissing softly now and then. Nox gazed down at her.
“I cannot imagine my life without you now, Liv. It just wouldn’t make any sense.”
“I feel the same. Weird, when you think of the coincidences that got us here. I keep thinking, what if you had never decided on Marcel to cater your Halloween party? Or what if I had moved to Seattle instead of New Orleans?”
Nox looked surprised. “You never mentioned Seattle before.”
Livia smiled. “It was the other option. Moriko and I had another roommate, Juno, and she’s a Washington girl. You’d like her and her family, actually. It was a toss-up between there and New Orleans. NOLA won out.”
“Any reason?”
Livia gave a small laugh. “It was further away from my father.”
“Understood.” His arms tightened around her. “You don’t talk about him a lot.”
“Nothing to say. He’s an asshole who never gave a crap about me or Mom, so as soon as I could get away from him, I did. Worked multiple jobs at one time to get through my undergrad degree, but I tell you, it was worth every lost hour of sleep.”
Nox smoothed his hands over her face. “Have I ever told you you’re my heroine?”
Liv smirked. “Dude, it’s not an unusual story, truth be told. So many people don’t have access to college when they show so much potential. We had a couple of people in our class who could have, and I’m not exaggerating, gone on to become world-class musicians. They had to drop out after not being able to afford to eat, even working two or three jobs. It was tragic.”
An idea was forming in Nox’s head as she spoke. “You know … we could do something about that.”
Liv grinned at him. “You have that ‘I want to save the world’ look in your eyes again. What’s the idea?”
“A charitable foundation—in your name—to help support students with musical ability but who have no means to fund their education or future.”
Nox saw Liv’s eyes fill with tears. “Nox … I’m speechless. Could we make it work?”
“With your help? Definitely. Maybe we could get Charvi and some of the music department faculty to help. Would that be something you’d be interested in?”
“Hell, yes! But I do have one suggestion.”
“What’s that?”
She touched his face. “We should do it in your mother’s name. The Gabriella Renaud Foundation.”
Nox felt his throat close. “She would have loved that. And I love you for suggesting it.”
Livia smiled, kissing him softly. “But first, Nox, we need to get this thing at home dealt with. Then we can truly move on to better things.”
“I agree.”
Liv sat up. “We should start to make a plan of how we’re going to approach this.”
Nox laughed and pulled her back into his arms. “After this vacation,” he said firmly. “Until then … this is all that matters.
Roan Saintmarc buried his head in his hands. He had heard Odelle take the call that had damned him, and he knew the police would haul him in and arrest him for assaulting Livia as well as killing Pia. He was a dead man. He walked out of Odelle’s house with nothing in his hands, nothing in the world.
He withdrew as much cash from his checking account as he could and, after debating, he went to Nox’s mansion, breaking into the basement. He knew Nox and Livia were away and that the mansion was empty. He also knew he could live down in Nox’s wine cellar, that at least he would have food, drink, and shelter. It didn’t take him long to find his way down there; he and Nox had found the hidden entrance from the garden when they were kids. He had dumped his cellphone in the city and purchased a bus ticket with his credit card to throw the police off his trail. Hopefully, they would think he was long gone.
He found his way into the wine cellar and dumped his bag. Jeez, he’d forgotten how goddamn cold it was down here in the winter. Cold and dark … he grabbed an extra flashlight but just as he lit it, he heard the step behind him. Whirling around, he only caught the shape of another human as something heavy connected with his head and everything went dark.
Chapter Twenty-Three
On the last night of their vacation—their blissful, relaxing, sensual vacation—Nox and Livia shared a bath in the huge tub. The window overlooked the snow, and they’d lit a bunch of candles to make the room softer, more romantic. Livia didn’t know how this vacation, this place, this man, could be any more romantic, but the candles were a nice touch. She kissed Nox’s temple. “Can we stay here forever?”
Nox laughed. “It would be nice, huh? But I think eventually, you’d get bored. Besides, it’ll be nice to have somewhere we can always guarantee to be stress-free, a safe haven to go when things get bad.”
Livia stroked her hands down his chest as he laid his head back against her breasts. “Speaking of which …”
“Yeah.”
“Back to the real world tomorrow.”
“Ugh.”
Livia laughed. “But, we have a purpose now, baby. We’re finally going to lay every single ghost to rest, however painful it is. I got your back.”
Nox wound his fingers through hers. “Couldn’t do it without you.”
“You know what surprises me?”
“What’s that?”
“That none of your friends have ever suggested doing it. Really looking into the case, seeing if there’s a link between Ariel’s murder and what happened to your family. It seems to me that if they are linked, then you are at the heart of it. How come Sandor or Roan or Amber never said to you, ‘Come on, let’s find out what’s really going on here’?” She sighed and leaned her head against his. “Maybe they thought they were protecting you.”
“Maybe.”
“It’s a pity Sandor’s dad couldn’t throw some light on what was going on with your dad. I know they were close.”
Nox looked surprised. “They were business associates, but I wouldn’t say they were close. Dad was weirdly protective of Sandor, and it seemed to me that he was shielding him from things Sandor’s father did. What, I don’t know.”
“This is getting complicated.”
“Well, that’s kind of why we left things so long. Too many questions, not enough answers.”
“Was Sandor’s dad a bad man? I should say, is he a bad man, sorry?”
Nox considered. “He’s not someone I would have chosen to hang out with.”
“I guess the apple fell far from that tree.”
Nox nodded. “Very far. Sandor is one of the best men I’ve ever known.”
She smiled fondly and pulled him back against her, kissing the top of his head, running her hands down his chest.
“You like everybody.”
He laughed. “Yeah.” He lifted himself off her and, with much splashing, turned to face her.
“I like you best.” He pulled her to him, His hand gathered up the damp hair from her neck, the other slipped between her legs. She sighed at his touch as he buried his face in her neck. He pulled the plug out and as the water drained away, they wrapped themselves around each other, tangled limbs, making love until they were both
exhausted, laughing, and sweating on the bathroom floor.
Later, as Livia slept, Nox went over what she had said. Yeah, this was going to be complicated. Back in the day when his family had died, DNA profiling wasn’t such a big thing, but now, he wondered if it would help in any way. Could he have his family exhumed and their skeletons tested? What would it prove? God, this was so confusing, but he knew in his bones that something was wrong about the accepted storyline. It was only now that he had found the courage to acknowledge that he believed his father hadn’t killed his mother and brother. It just wasn’t the man he had grown up with. Not even a psychotic break was believable. Tynan Renaud wasn’t a man who got depressed—he worked the problem and found a fix. No. There was no way he would kill Gabriella … Nox’s mother had been the love of Tynan’s life, just as Livia was Nox’s. For a horrible moment, he pictured himself shooting Livia in the stomach and watching her die a slow, agonizing death.
“God, stop,” he muttered to himself, rubbing his eyes to scratch the image from his brain. Focus on the beginning. His father, mother, and brother had been shot dead. Who would have wanted to kill his family? Jesus, he knew why the police had questioned him for hours; he still remembered the incessant jabs.
Who did you hire to do it, Nox?
Did you want your inheritance that much?
Why’d you did you do it, Noxxy boy?
It dawned on him then that even the police didn’t buy Tynan Renaud as a murderer. Why hadn’t they pursued that line of thinking even after they’d cleared Nox of all blame?
Someone must have asked them to drop it. A shock ran through him. God, yes. That must be it. Someone had paid the police off. It wouldn’t be unheard of. But why?
He could rule Sandor out then, to his relief. Sandor might be rich now because of his own hard work, but there was no way he would have been able to afford the payoff the cops would expect. Which left Roan, Amber, and Odelle. Odelle he ruled out immediately—the woman might be an odd ball but she truly loved Nox and his family.
He winced when he thought of Amber and Roan. They had the money, certainly, and the influence … but why would …
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