by Hannah Ford
“All clear,” he said when he came back. He put his hands on my shoulders. “You okay?”
“I’m just so sick of this,” I said, twisting my hands together in front of me. “I’m sick of everything being so complicated.”
He sighed. “Come,” he said. He took my hand and brought me to the bedroom, pulling me down onto the bed next to him and gathering me in his arms.
“Noah,” I said into his chest. “Noah, I just want everything to be okay.”
He tipped my chin up and kissed me, his tongue rubbing against mine, his stubble raking across my cheeks, his hands roaming my body. He kissed me until I was breathless, senseless, dizzy. He didn’t push it further, didn’t try to remove my clothes, and the pulsing ache that settled between my legs was excruciating. We made out for over an hour, kissing, touching, his hands exploring my body, mine sliding over his strong chest, my fingers running along the strong cords of muscle in his arms. My want built and built, until finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I reached for his zipper.
He grabbed my wrist. “No, baby,” he said gruffly. “Just you.”
He unbuttoned my pants and slid his hand into my panties. He began to rub my clit, softly slowly, as his mouth returned to mine and we French kissed, his mouth claiming mine. I moaned into the kiss as I came, a shuddering orgasm that left me spent, my body weak and worn out, my limbs loose and relaxed.
Then he pulled me back to him and I laid my head on his chest as he enveloped me in his arms.
We laid in silence as his hands slid through the strands of my hair.
After a few minutes, I drifted off to sleep. I wasn’t sure how long I laid there in his arms, drifting in and out of sleep. But a little while later, Noah began to speak, pulling me awake.
“Lameuix’s real name is Domino Bentley.”
His voice cut through the room, his words striking deep in my core and causing my heart to race in my chest. I was wide awake now, but I stayed quiet, not wanting anything to deter Noah from talking.
“I met him in college. We were both into the BDSM scene. But after graduation Domino began to get into things that were more intense than I was comfortable with. Beatings, whippings, games that started to border on non-consent.” He shook his head and shifted away from me on the bed until he was lying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. There were a few seconds of silence before he began talking again. “He would keep girls in his basement, chained and tied, under the guise of slave play, but there were no safe words. When I convinced the police to look into it, the girls said they were there of their own accord.”
Noah’s hand found mine under the covers, his fingers intertwining with mine. “I cut ties with him, but he began to build an underground network of women, and with those women he began to attract very powerful people. Senators, celebrities, powerful businessmen.”
“And so… if they have those girls from Force, what are they doing with them? Hiring them out as sex slaves?”
“I think it’s much worse than that.”
I frowned. “How can it be worse than that?”
Noah took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything, the sound of someone pounding on the front door echoed the through the room.
Noah was out of bed in a flash. “Stay here,” he commanded, and then he was striding down the hallway toward the front of the apartment.
A moment later, I heard raised voices. I hesitated, and then, before I could think better of it, got out of bed and tiptoed into the hallway to listen.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Cutler, I couldn’t stop him,” I heard Maddox say, which I knew must have made Noah livid. Couldn’t stop who? I wondered as fear skittered up my spine. Had Professor Worthington figured out a way to get to us?
“Yeah, I can see that,” Noah said evenly. “What do you want, Rake?”
“Nice to see you too, Noah,” a familiar voice said. Detective Rake! He must have been here to take our statement about the phone call Professor Worthington had made to me.
“If you’re here to ask about the phone call, it’s a little late, don’t you think?” Noah asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Worthington’s probably in Cancun by now, sipping drinks and enjoying the sun.”
I walked further down the hall and peeked around the corner.
Detective Rake was standing right outside the apartment, Noah’s large frame blocking the doorway and preventing the detective from coming in.
Detective Rake’s eyes fell on me. “Oh, good,” he said. “You’re both here.”
Noah turned to look at me. “Charlotte, go back to the bedroom. Now.”
“I think she’s going to want to hear this,” Detective Rake said.
“Hear what?” Noah asked. “How your department is going to let an accused killer escape from jail and just disappear into the night?”
“No,” Detective Rake said, and then he grinned and dropped the bomb. “How Jason Cartwright is dead.”
“What?” I asked. My mouth went dry as I ran to the door, my hands tightening around Noah’s arm, my fingers digging into his flesh. “Dr. Cartwright is... what?”
“Stabbed.” Detective Rake said with satisfaction. “Right in his office, blood everywhere.”
Noah sighed and rolled his eyes. “And let me guess,” he said. “You idiots think I had something to do with it.”
“Oh, no, not you,” the detective said, and then his eyes landed on me, and they were shining with suspicion and revenge. “Charlotte.”
“Charlotte what?” Noah demanded.
“We think Charlotte’s the one who killed Jason Cartwright.”
* * *
End of Book Twenty
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Obscene
Some say I’m dirty.
The way I talk, the way I drink and fight.
And most importantly, the way I f**ck.
It’s not my fault that women come crawling to me for it.
Life these last two years has been really simple as long as I don’t get any entanglements, and that’s how I like it.
I just wish that I hadn’t run into her.
Dirty
The way he makes me feel.
The way he looks at me. I know that this is wrong. I’ve seen what he does to people, and I’m absolutely sure that one day soon I’m going to be left in the dust like everyone else who ever knew him.
I just can’t stop. He makes me feel too good…
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