Bound by Blood Box Set

by Lane Hart

  Elizabeth.

  It was like nothing else in the world mattered to me anymore. From the moment I saw her I’d felt like she was everything my life had been missing. She was so sweet and beautiful. I’d never seen anyone more breathtaking. I loved the way she felt in my arms, so small and delicate, and the amazing floral smell of her long auburn hair. But the most incredible thing about her was her sparkling teal eyes.

  There was a sadness in her eyes that made her seem older than the young woman she actually was. And the loneliness in them cut me down to my soul. It was unfair for her to be so unhappy and alone, especially now that she’d lost her mother. I was pretty sure there wasn’t a father in the picture, and she hadn’t said much about her brother. I knew she had friends, but I would almost bet that she wouldn’t want to burden them with her problems, or ask anyone for help or support.

  I couldn’t wait to see her again tonight and try to make her forget all the pain, at least for a few hours. It seemed like time stood still as I waited until I could head back to the restaurant that night. I changed into casual clothes, wearing a comfortable pair of jeans, a blue polo shirt, and sneakers. When I left the hotel I was feeling more like myself. Even though it was December and cool outside I couldn’t stand to put a coat on. I felt like I would suffocate, just like I felt in those damned stuffy suit jackets I had to wear.

  When I pulled up in the parking lot to wait, I looked around my car one last time to make sure I hadn’t left any papers from the agency in it. A few minutes to seven Elizabeth pulled up in an older model Camaro. I climbed out of my black D.R.A. issued Taurus to head towards her.

  I couldn’t help but smile seeing her again. She stepped out of her car wearing tight jeans and tall boots that matched her brown jacket. This outfit was a helluva lot sexier, and much more formfitting than the plain brown work uniform, but I knew she’d look beautiful in anything.

  When I walked up to her, her eyes widened momentarily when she greeted me.

  “Hey. I almost didn’t recognize you. You look ... different in regular clothes. Younger and less intimidating.”

  I laughed. “Intimidating?” I asked, crossing the rest of the distance to her.

  “Yes. Your suit makes you look so stern and serious.”

  “I hate the suit, but my supervisor makes me wear it,” I told her, remembering I needed to be careful what I said. I gave her a quick hug because I needed to feel her in my arms again, even if it was only for a second.

  "So how old are you? Before I would have said thirties, but now I'm not sure," she asked when she pulled back and looked me up and down.

  "I'll be twenty-eight on New Year's Eve. How old are you? I’d guess twenty."

  "I just turned twenty-one," she said, then looked away and cleared her throat. I was pretty sure she was trying to hold back her tears for some reason.

  "So I was close. When you smile you look your age, except for the sadness in your eyes," I told her, reaching up to brush a lock of her auburn hair away from her face.

  "That feels about right."

  "So where would you like to have dinner? Your choice since I don't know anything about this city."

  "How do you feel about bars and grills?" she asked with a smile.

  "I could use a beer or two."

  "Okay, there's a pretty good sports bar that's not far from here."

  “Sounds great. I can drive us,” I offered, and we headed for my car. I helped her into the passenger seat, and once I climbed in she gave me directions. A few minutes later we pulled up at The End Zone. It was just my kind of place.

  “I love football,” I told her when we both climbed out of the car.

  “Really? What team? No wait, let me guess. The Eagles?”

  “Nope. Steelers,” I told her with a smile then walked around the car and grabbed her hand. "My dad grew up near Pittsburgh and I guess his love for them rubbed off on me. I got into so many fights I lost count, wearing a Steeler's jersey to school in Philly, but I never relented."

  She laughed. “Well, I know a thing or two about football, and both teams better watch out. Carolina's going to have their own team soon,” she joked as we made our way inside.

  I’d finished my first glass of beer before Elizabeth took two sips of hers. I was in heaven being here with her, relaxing without a care in the world as we got to know each other. I hadn't even realized until I was away from them how my mom and bitch of a wife kept me uptight all the time, not to mention unhappy. I knew neither of them would ever step foot in a place like this, but I loved it - the TVs all around the walls, football paraphernalia everywhere, jerseys from almost every NFL team hanging in frames, some of them even signed.

  “So do you have school tomorrow?” I asked.

  “Yeah, my English final is in the morning, but I’m not too worried about it. I can’t really study since it’s a composition course.”

  “Then I’ll try not to keep you out too late tonight.”

  “I don’t mind staying up late. It’s not like I sleep anymore,” she said sadly with a shoulder shrug.

  “I’m sorry Elizabeth, but I know that saying so doesn’t help. I’d like to know what happened to her if you're able to talk about it.”

  “Auto accident, hit and run," she said quickly. "By the time help arrived there was nothing that could be done to save her. I don’t even know why she was out so late that night,” she said, shaking her head while I watched her eyes glisten. “It was the day before my and Jason's birthday, so it probably had something to do with that.”

  That's when I realized she was trying to blame herself for her mother’s accident.

  I reached across the table and grabbed her small hand, rubbing my thumb over her knuckles. “You know it wasn’t your fault or his. It wasn't your mother's fault either. Her death rests solely on the person that hit her and didn't call for help.”

  “But if she hadn’t been out so late-” she started.

  “Elizabeth, life's not fair and sometimes it doesn’t make sense. But I believe fate is fate, and that everything turns out exactly as it’s supposed to in the end.”

  I was starting to believe fate was the reason I'd ended up in this town, investigating this case. Because I was meant to meet this beautiful woman. It was a shame that the loss of her mother was the reason I was here in the first place.

  “I know. I believe that too, it's just so unfair,” she admitted with a sigh. “And I promise no more tears tonight. That was my last one,” she said, swiping her finger across her wet cheek.

  “I don’t mind, and I understand what you're going through."

  "You do? Did you lose someone?"

  "Yeah, my father to cancer about five years ago. The pain never goes away, but I try to be thankful for the time I had with him. I just wish it'd been longer."

  "I know. It's so hard to even think about being happy again, when I miss her so much."

  "I’d like to try and make you happy, even if it's just for a little while,” I told her, squeezing her hand underneath mine.

  “I like being here with you. I haven’t been on a date in so long I can’t even remember,” she admitted with a smile.

  “You are a beautiful woman, so it couldn’t possibly be because of a lack of interest,” I told her.

  “Very little interest actually.”

  “I find that hard to believe. You probably just don’t notice because your life is so busy."

  “What about you? How busy is your dating life?”

  Oh shit. I hated having to lie to her, so I took a long swig of my beer to figure out how to respond.

  “That’s not a good sign,” she said with a soft laugh, and started to withdraw her hand from under mine. I held onto hers tighter, not wanting her to pull away from me. Then I lied.

  “It’s nothing like that,” I assured her, even though it was so much worse than she thought. “I went into the army right after I graduated high school. Then I worked the graveyard shift as a police officer for about five years, and
here I am now traveling with a new job. So, honestly, I’ve only had two serious relationships, and I've never really dated much.”

  The serious relationships being my current wife and Amanda, my high school sweetheart. That had fizzled out after she went to college, and I went into the service.

  “I find that hard to believe,” she repeated my same line.

  “Maybe I’m too intimidating,” I suggested with a smile. “I should probably try and tone it down a notch or two.”

  “In the suit, yes. But how you look now? I don’t think that’d be a problem at all,” she said as she looked my upper body over and blushed. “Do you work out a lot?” she asked, making my smile grow even wider.

  “For the past nine years of my life it was all part of my job, since I never knew who I’d be chasing down or fighting. I had to be in top shape. Now it's mostly just when I have time.” The agency actually required us to stay in shape, weekly weightlifting and cardio, but I’d never had a problem with that aspect of my job.

  "Wow. Well I'm the least athletic person in the world, even though I love almost every sport. I think my brother got all of those genes."

  "You said you and your brother share a birthday, so I'm assuming you're twins, or was that just a really big coincidence?" I asked, not admitting to her that I already knew the answer from digging up dirt on them both. My deception was starting to burn a hole through my stomach.

  She nodded. "Yeah, Jason and I are twins. Both born November eighteenth, but since he was born two minutes before me he thinks that gives him big brother standing," she said, rolling her eyes. "Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

  "Yeah, an older sister. She's five years older than me, and we've never gotten along. Abby has always been … well let's just say we don't have anything in common, and even to this day we can't be in the same room together without arguing."

  "That doesn't sound like any fun at all. Jason and I have our moments, but usually we get along pretty well. He's a bit of a womanizer, so with his dating life I haven't seen much of him over the last few years, even though we live under the same roof. He refused to go to college, so he's just been working in random places since we were fifteen."

  I nodded. "I know how he feels. My parents assumed I would go to college. They never asked me if that's was what I wanted. So, during my senior year of high school, instead of registering for college I enlisted in the Army. Shocked the shit out of them too. My mom is still pissed about that to this day."

  "Why? What's wrong with the military? It's a brave and honorable thing to volunteer for."

  I laughed. "That's what most people believe. My dad didn't mind, but to my mom, well she felt it was "beneath" our family. My dad was a pediatrician, and she was a socialite who wanted her son to be a doctor or lawyer, and my sister to marry a doctor or lawyer, or any other man with an enormous bank account. All for nothing more than her to have bragging rights."

  "So you went into the Army, then took a job as an underpaid police officer just to spite her?" she asked.

  "Actually, those are about the only two things in my entire life that I did because I wanted to, so pissing her off was just a nice bonus."

  "I've always thought guys in military and police uniforms were hot. Do you still have either of those lying around?" she asked, trailing her fingernails up my arm.

  "You know, I'm pretty sure both are hanging in my closet back home."

  I could feel things starting to heat up between Elizabeth and I, and I was so fucking eager to get my hands or mouth on her again. Since we were sitting next to each other at our high-top table, I reached down and rubbed her denim covered thigh. If she was surprised she didn’t show it. Instead, she threaded her fingers on top of mine, giving my hand a squeeze that went straight to another lower body part.

  “Where is that waitress?” she asked, then shifted uncomfortably in her seat. I was pretty sure Elizabeth was ready to move things along tonight too.

  “The service here is nowhere as good as Tex & Shirley’s,” I observed, and she laughed. Damn if that wasn't an amazing sound. Her face had continued to light up more and more while we talked, making her seem like an almost completely different woman from the one I met this morning.

  “Are you going to ask this waitress to go on a date with you too?” she asked, a pretty shade of pink coloring her cheeks.

  “Of course not. You're definitely the only waitress I want,” I told her, and couldn’t stop myself from leaning over to kiss her lips. I was just going to give her a brief chaste kiss, but that's not where it ended. Elizabeth’s hand came up to hold the side of my face to hers, encouraging our tongues to meet and swirl around each other. Her enthusiasm was so sexy that I instantly felt a blaze of heat spread through my body. My jeans tightened uncomfortably under my zipper, my erection begging to escape.

  Elizabeth’s erotically thrusting tongue against mine had my body on edge, desperate for more. I wasn’t about to move or stop, and didn't give a damn that we were in public. Well, not until our waitress cleared her throat for our attention. Even then I only stopped because it would have been impolite not to, and I really wanted Elizabeth to put some food into her too slender frame.

  “So do you know what you want?” the young, and clearly annoyed, woman asked.

  Her phrasing caused smiles to stretch across Elizabeth's face, and mine. I was pretty sure we both knew what we wanted alright.

  We gave the waitress our orders, asked for refills on our glasses of beer, and tried to refrain from making out in public again. I was keeping it strictly to holding her hand on her thigh, but my restraint was wearing thin. Especially with my hand and hers making slow, sensual movements up and down her leg, getting closer and closer to the apex of her thighs which each pass. We both fidgeted in our seats, neither of us very talkative anymore, but our eyes stayed on each other, and our smiles never left either of our faces.

  “Your eyes are the most beautiful color I’ve ever seen,” I told her. I swear it felt like I was looking into the sparkling blue depths of the Caribbean Sea.

  She tilted her head to the side. “I was just thinking the same thing about yours. They're Carolina blue, which just so happens to be my absolute favorite color.”

  I had to kiss her lips again. Since our mouths and tongues were already familiar this kiss was more urgent than the one before. I wanted nothing more than to pull her onto my lap or, better yet, take her somewhere more private. By the time the waitress interrupted us with our food we were both panting.

  “She’s going to tell us to go get a room soon,” I joked with Elizabeth after the waitress walked away with a huff.

  “But you already have one, don’t you?” she asked.

  My eyes shot to hers to see if she was suggesting that I thought she was. The heated look she gave me was my clear answer. I wanted to yell, “Check please,” and get the hell out of there. Instead, I responded coolly with, “Yeah, I do, don’t I?”

  “Where are you staying?”

  “The Airport Marriott.”

  “Oh, and that’s really close by too,” she said with a mischievous grin.

  I knew my jaw dropped open, and I wasn't sure how to respond. My pants were getting snugger by the second, and I wanted Elizabeth in my bed more than anything. But her mother’s file was in my room. Fuck.

  I took a really long swig of my beer as I watched her start eating. I was glad to see her putting something in her stomach since she looked thin, like she probably hadn't been eating much in the last few weeks. Just like she hadn’t been sleeping.

  I started in on my wings and fries as I tried to figure out what the hell I was going to do about the dilemma I was in. Maybe I should just come clean with Elizabeth, and hope she doesn’t run. Maybe we could go to her place to give me a few more dates to convince her she could trust me. Or that might only piss her off more because I'd have to lie to her for even longer. Maybe I should just take things slow and wait to get her in my bed another night.

  “You’r
e awfully quiet,” Elizabeth said, interrupting my internal debate.

  “Sorry, just enjoying myself. I haven’t had a night this fun and relaxing in … well, this is probably the best one I’ve ever had.”

  And I did feel comfortable and happy sitting here with Elizabeth. I just wish I knew how to tell her everything I was hiding from her, and keep her from hating me after she found out.

  “I’m having a good time too. Thank you for asking me to dinner and convincing me. You were right, I needed this,” she said.

  “I’m glad you agreed to come out with me, but I'm nowhere near being ready for the night to end.”

  "I wouldn't mind staying out a little longer," she said with another grin.

  We quietly finished dinner and then headed back to my car. When we got to the passenger door I let go of the restraint I'd been holding on to during dinner. Instead of opening the door for Elizabeth I put my arms around her waist and pulled her hips to mine, diving hungrily into her mouth again. She eagerly slid her arms around my neck to bring us even closer.

  Wanting so much more, I pressed my lower body into hers until she was against the car. I’d stand here and kiss this woman for the rest of the night if she'd let me. My car was near the back of the lot, out of the way, and we didn’t have anywhere to go.

  The only problem in the world I had was that the longer we kissed the more aroused I became. I was pretty sure she was going to notice soon if we didn’t separate, but I couldn’t stop. On and on it went, my need for her growing more with each passing second.

  I knew when Elizabeth felt my erection by her sharp intake of breath, and I waited for her reaction. She rubbed her stomach against my length and then it was my turn to gasp. Her lips formed a brief smile as we kissed because she knew full well how she’d affected me. A second later her palm was cupping me, rubbing my cock through my jeans, and making me moan into her mouth.

  "Keep that up sweetheart and I'm not going to be able to keep my hands off of you," I warned her as I kissed my way down her neck, making her squirm. Her hand continued to move, causing my breath to come in pants.