Agent Pierce rubbed his neck. “Ever see him? The boyfriend? He ever pick her up from that shitty studio of yours?”
“Hell if I know. I don’t walk the girls out to their cars, Agent Pierce. Sorry.”
“You’re quite the gentleman,” Elaina noted. “You sure you never walk any of them out to their cars? Ever pay any of them a visit at their home?”
Ulrich gave her a dirty look. “Pretty sure, sweetheart.”
Agent Pierce leveled the man with a hard stare. “Did you call Eden Sterling ‘sweetheart’?”
Ulrich went wide-eyed. “No. Why?” He cleared his throat. “Is she saying that I did? That I made a pass at her or Caroline? Because I didn’t. I offered them multiple opportunities to make additional income, but I do that for all the girls who show their level of potential. Whatever she’s saying, she probably just misinterpreted the offer.”
“She isn’t saying much of anything, Ulrich.” Agent Pierce leaned forward. “She’s gone missing. Just like Caroline did. Know anything about that?”
His eyes widened in what looked like surprise. Elaina watched him closely. She couldn’t figure out if his response was genuine or bullshit.
“I know I’m ready for my lawyer to join us. Now. I’m done talking.”
20
“Everyone thinks it’s the best course of action. Except you,” Chloe pointed out.
Gage wanted to hit something.
They had gotten permission to work out of Eden’s house since it had been processed. They were still careful about coming and going in case someone was watching. It was the middle of the night and he, Chloe, Holt, Elaina, and Alyson sat around the kitchen table strategizing their next move.
This specific move pissed him off beyond measure.
Alexander Ulrich had lawyered up, but he’d given the FBI—and, unbeknownst to him, Alyson—access to Eden’s section of the Red Light Productions website. Chloe had come up with a way to use that access that he wasn’t particularly fond of.
She’d been pitching it to everyone all afternoon. He was the last one to come around.
“You are not bait, Chloe. Period. End of story,” he bit out, making eye contact with everyone surrounding him.
“Gage . . .” Alyson began, “I know it’s not ideal. But you know as well as I do that time is not a luxury we have.”
Chloe nodded in agreement. “Everyone is doing everything they can. This is the one thing I can do.”
He knew he was outvoted and outnumbered. He looked to Holt for some backup, but the man shrugged in defeat. “She’s willing and able. But I get it. If she were mine, I wouldn’t like it either.”
Before he could protest her being his, Aly shot him a pointed “Don’t even try to deny it; we all have eyes” look.
“She’s my sister, Gage. How could I live with myself if I didn’t do everything I possibly could to try to find her?”
When he couldn’t supply a valid rebuttal to Chloe’s argument, everyone stood, and, just like that, the decision was made.
Chloe would dress as Cossette and film a fake webcast in hopes of drawing whoever took Eden out.
And Gage would hate every single second of it.
Mostly.
The one stipulation that everyone had agreed on was that it would only be Gage, Alyson, and Chloe involved in the filming of the webcast.
Elaina and Holt had gone downtown to get some dinner. They were on standby in case anything turned up during the webcast.
Gage knew he didn’t own Chloe, but a streak of possessiveness had ignited somewhere along the way whether he liked it or not. He’d seen the footage of Eden as Cossette. He didn’t want another man around while Chloe talked about sex, clad in lingerie designed to rewire the male brain.
He trusted Holt with his life, but he didn’t trust anyone this much.
Alyson and Chloe had been in Eden’s bedroom for over an hour watching Eden’s webcasts, picking out wardrobe options, coming up with a script that gelled with what Eden had been doing, and rehearsing—whatever the hell that meant.
A Lakers game was on the television, but Gage couldn’t really see it. His eyes remained on his laptop while he read the background reports on Chloe and Eden.
Some of it he already knew from what Chloe had told him, and some of it was new. Their dad had been arrested many times for drunk and disorderly conduct, public indecency, and assaulting an officer. If he didn’t respect the law, he probably hadn’t respected his daughters much either. He hadn’t even come in for an interview about Eden’s disappearance because no one could reach him to tell him she was missing. When Chloe finally had reached him, he didn’t even seem concerned. He’d be a suspect if he wasn’t such a colossal fuckup. Judging from his medical records, he’d been hospitalized several times as a John Doe because he was too drunk to remember his own name. It was a wonder the man could tie his own shoelaces.
Chloe said he was probably drying out somewhere, that he went to rehab from time to time when it was between that and jail time. But looking at the reports, Gage figured it was a toss-up between the drunk tank, the hospital, or a gutter somewhere.
No wonder Chloe was so self-sufficient and resourceful. She’d had to be.
“We’re ready,” Alyson called out.
Yeah, but am I? Gage groaned inwardly.
He stood and made his way to the bedroom trying to think of things that would keep him from being affected by Chloe as Cossette. Baseball. His grandmother, God rest her soul. Starving orphans.
Nothing could have prepared him for the sight of Chloe Sterling in a black leather corseted bodysuit and matching thigh-high stockings complete with garter belts. The black wig didn’t even take away from her enticing perfection.
Even without the getup, she nearly brought him to his knees. But with it, with her looking like she’d just walked out of every man’s darkest, dirtiest fantasy, he was breathless and disoriented.
“How do I look?”
Gage swallowed, or attempted to swallow, but his mouth had gone dry. “Um, taller?”
“Stilettos,” Chloe pointed out.
Alyson snorted from where she sat at the compact computer desk. “Yeah, that’s the big difference.” She stood and gestured for Chloe to sit. “I showed you everything. You press this when you’re ready to film, and this when you’re finished. Save the file like I showed you and upload it to the server. Remember to click live so viewers can comment while it plays.”
Gage tore his eyes away from Chloe to look questioningly at Alyson.
She caught his gaze. “I set it up so they’ll think it’s live. Some of them might catch on that she isn’t answering their comments, but Eden did this before and they didn’t notice. We even put a few places in the script for her to pretend she’s reading the comments and smiling. She can say something generic, like aw, that’s so sweet because some idiot always tells Cossette she’s beautiful and asks her to marry him.” Alyson rolled her eyes. “Even faking it, I think this is the safer option so they don’t realize she’s a doppelgänger.”
“Where are you going?” Chloe asked when Alyson began to leave the room. Gage was wondering the same thing.
“It’s a little warm in here,” Alyson said with a small shrug. “I’m going to get some air, maybe go home and take a cold shower. I can monitor the feed and comments from my laptop once she posts.”
Even under the makeup, Gage could see Chloe’s cheeks flush.
“It might take a few tries to get it right,” Alyson reminded her. “Use the script like we practiced. Don’t act nervous. Eden had done this more than a dozen times. Act like you have too.”
With that, she was gone, leaving Eden and Gage in awkward silence.
“Tell me it’s silly to feel shy around you right now,” Chloe said without looking at him.
“It’s not. You’re putting yourself in a vulnerable position. You don’t see me wearing that. You can feel however you want to feel.”
Gage inhaled deeply, catching her fai
nt wildflower scent and something else as he moved closer. Something clean, like vanilla-scented soap. His senses seemed sharper around her, as if he were more in tune with her than he’d ever been with anyone. If he wasn’t mistaken, Chloe was aroused.
“Picturing you wearing this is actually putting me at ease,” Chloe teased him. “A little, anyway.”
“I don’t think I could pull it off quite as well as you do.”
A small titter of laughter escaped her lips. “We ready to do this?”
“You want me in here or you want privacy?”
Chloe sunk her teeth into her lush lower lip.
“Um, I think maybe stay? Then if I get too nervous or awkward you can go.”
“Whatever you’re comfortable with.” He stood just out of the shot of the computer’s camera while Chloe got settled.
When she began speaking, he wondered if she and Alyson had designed the script to torture him specifically. But then he remembered Alyson saying something about accessing Eden’s scripts online a week ago. So they’d used it as a template. The way it appealed to him on a molecular level was just a coincidence, then.
“The trick to perfecting oral sex,” Chloe said seductively, “is giving up the idea of perfection.” She gave the camera a flirty grin. “If you’re entirely focused on technique, it becomes work. Perhaps where the term blow job comes from. But if you are eager and enthusiastically focusing on pleasuring the recipient of your efforts, it can be a satisfying experience for both of you.”
Kill me. God, or Satan, or whoever gets custody of my black soul, just take me al-fucking-ready.
He watched as she licked her lips slowly. “Conversely, it’s important to be vocal with your partner while receiving oral. Guide them with your words and sounds. Praise them when they’re pleasing you, let go and moan appreciatively when you’re about to climax. There’s nothing wrong with a little constructive criticism, so long as it’s helpful. For instance, a ‘lower, baby,’ or ‘harder, please, yes, right there,’ is a good thing.”
The way she moaned the phrases had Gage fisting his hands so hard his knuckles turned white.
“No one wants to give their partner step-by-step GPS directions while trying to orgasm. But encouragement and guidance are sometimes necessary.”
Chloe did a squint and said, “Aww, that’s so sweet of you to say,” which he figured she and Alyson had strategically placed in the script knowing she’d get some complimentary comments around then. He didn’t even want to imagine how offensive and vile those particular compliments might be when they came flooding through the gates.
Gage knew round one live and in person was hard as fuck, but round two, the video with the viewer comments, was probably going to send him right off his hinges. He was thankful Alyson was vetting most of that.
Chloe made a few more comments about committing to making your partner come and swallowing after, which nearly sent Gage out of the room.
She finished with, “Oral sex is one of the most intimate experiences you can share. Embrace the intimacy. Take each other as high as you can and ride the wave of ecstasy together. Whenever possible you should try to pleasure each other orally simultaneously, and work on timing your orgasms so that you can experience the intimacy of coming together. Experimenting with bondage and restraints can enhance oral sex and bring both of you to higher heights. Tease each other. Enjoy yourselves.”
She paused for another fake comment break. “What’s my favorite? Hmm, I think my favorite is restraining my partner and force-feeding him or her whipped cream or honey or even champagne from my . . . body.”
She grinned wickedly at the camera. “Speaking of, I think I’ll get on that right now. Love and kisses. Until next time. Think dirty thoughts.” She gave Cossette’s signature closing and blew a kiss before ending the recording and saving the file.
Gage exhaled for what felt like the first time since she’d begun.
“Pussy,” Chloe blurted out unexpectedly, turning to face him.
“Pardon?”
She sighed as she stood from the chair. “I was supposed to say, ‘My favorite is restraining my partner and force-feeding him or her whipped cream or honey or even champagne from my pussy.’ That’s what the script said.” She frowned. “I don’t know why I couldn’t. It felt weird to say out loud. I don’t know that I’ve ever said it out loud until just now.”
Due to her line of work, he’d never thought of her as innocent. Now, though, seeing the blush coloring her cheeks, he suspected she was very innocent sexually.
“You’ve never told a man to fuck your pussy? Or to lick it?”
Chloe shook her head slowly. More color in her cheeks. Desire in her eyes.
Fuck it. He was already as gone as it got.
“Well, that’s a . . .” Dirty, rotten shame and a wonderful blessing all at once, he thought. But his brain had other ideas for what he should say out loud. “. . . Situation that should be remedied immediately.” Gage took several deliberate steps in her direction. Alarms rang out in his head, but they seemed too far away to matter.
All of his blood had already drained south. He was so hard it hurt.
Chloe’s leather-bound chest rose and fell more rapidly than usual.
“Tell me,” he commanded. “Tell me to lick your pussy, Chloe.”
She leaned on the chair, seemingly for support, and blew out a breath. “Gage, I don’t know if I can—”
“You can,” he instructed. “I know you can. You want to. Don’t you, sweet Chloe?”
He could tell the outfit and the persona had given her a newfound confidence. She had a dominant inside of her.
He wanted to be inside of her. Desperately.
She bit her lip.
He wanted to bite it, so he did. His fingers drove into her hair and he used them to keep her in place while he explored her mouth tentatively with his tongue before bringing her closer. Her lips were full and sweet and unexpectedly yielding to the demands of his.
“Tell me where to lick you.” She moaned and he tugged her lower lip with his teeth. “Tell me what you want.”
“Lick me.” She swallowed thickly. “Lick my pussy. Pretty please.”
Gage gripped her hips and placed her back in the chair. She spread her legs for him and he sank to his knees.
But before he honored her command, he took her jaw in hand and gave her a firm enough squeeze that her mouth popped open. Slowly, infuriatingly slowly, he traced her lips with his tongue.
“Like this, baby?” He waited. She stared at him, dazed. “Or like this.” He went in again and sucked her lips into his mouth, nipping at her bottom lip before pulling it with his teeth. Harder than before. Hard enough to sting and bruise. “Slow and gentle or fast and rough? Tell me how you want it.”
She trembled beneath him, her gaze burning like wildfire into his.
“Both. I want both.”
“Good girl.” He pressed her knees open wider. “Love how these perfect legs spread for me. Only for me.” He used his fingers to pull the crotch of the body suit aside and took a minute to enjoy his glimpse of paradise before going in. “Drown me, Chloe. Show me how wet I make you.”
He used the tip of his tongue to circle her clit and draw out her moans.
“Let go, baby. Let go, and let me hear you.”
Her legs went limp, falling farther apart for him.
“Say it again, Chloe. Tell me what you want.” He pulled his head back and looked up at her while licking his own glistening lips.
“I want you to make me come. Lick me and make me come.”
Gage pulled her roughly onto the carpeted floor and splayed her out on her back. “I’m going to make you come, baby. But I need you spread out for me so I can make you scream.” She inhaled audibly, and her legs parted for him once more. He used the string to open the corset but left her leggings and heels on.
Chloe whimpered as he dove inside her with his tongue. He fucked her hard with his mouth until he could feel her walls
clench around him.
“Oh God,” Chloe moaned. “Gage. Please. I need you inside.”
“Inside what, Chloe?”
“My pussy,” she all but screamed while her back bowed off the floor. “I need you. So bad.”
Her pleas tore at him, but this was about her release. Not his.
Slowly he slid two fingers deep inside her entrance, curving them at the tips to reach her most sensitive spot. Her pussy pulsed, and her juices flowed down his fingers. Gage bent to lap them up with his tongue.
When she came, she gripped his head with both hands.
He fucked her harder with his fingers, pushing through her first orgasm and rolling into the second.
“I’m going to fill you up, baby. You good with that?”
“Yes, please.” Chloe’s eyes rolled back and he wondered if she was going to speak in tongues. This was already hands down the hottest fuck of his life. He hoped it was the same for her.
She was still convulsing when he freed his throbbing cock from the prison of his jeans.
“Do it,” she commanded. “I have an implant. Birth control,” she panted. “And I’m clean.”
“Me too,” he panted. “I get tested regularly for work.” Her juicy pussy beckoned him. He wanted to draw this out, but he was weak when it came to this woman.
His cock throbbed as he pushed himself inside.
It took every ounce of self-control he had not to explode on impact.
“Damn you’re tight,” he bit out. “So fucking wet for me.”
“I think I’m always wet for you,” she purred. “I’ve wanted you so bad since the moment I saw you. That’s so messed up, but it’s true.”
God bless America, dreams did come true. Gage took her harder, as hard as he could handle without coming.
He was literally going to black the hell out when he came. She clung to his body, mouth fused to his as their tongues tangled and her stilettos dug into his ass. He gripped her ass with both hands and she held on to him for dear life.
Nothing in the world existed in that moment but the head of his cock rocking in and out of her heat.
Blood & Lace Page 12