The congressman nods, eyes cast downward.
Hadley speaks up in a blatant attempt to defuse the situation. “But did this man request that you videotape us? I mean, if you didn’t know him, then how would he know you even had a video?”
Westhaven’s jaw muscles tighten before he explains, “Six months ago, I almost faced voyeurism charges, but somehow the women making the allegations recanted their statements before charges could be made.”
The pieces finally begin to come together and I’m not liking what’s being laid out before us. “You’re basically telling us that you were contacted recently and threatened to hand over the video, and if you didn’t the world would know about you being a voyeur?”
“That’s right,” the congressman says.
I watch him for a long moment. A man who appears to have it all, and yet has far dirtier secrets than I could possibly fathom. I came here tonight hoping he was our guy and this would be over. I stare at him, looking past all his defenses, searching for signs that he’s lying.
There are just none to be found.
It guts me that I finally have to say to the congressman, “Go.”
“What?” both he and Hadley snap in unison.
I glare at the congressman. “Get out of here before I change my mind and go back in there and tell your very sweet wife about all the things she doesn’t know you do.”
He leaves without further enticement from me or a final look at Hadley, indicating just how little she meant to him, which annoys me even more. Oh, the things I want to do to that man. Not only for Hadley, but for violating all of the women he taped without their consent.
The second the heavy door slams shut, Hadley spins around to me. “Please tell me why you told him to leave. We have nothing more than what we came here with.”
I sigh, fighting against wanting so desperately to protect her and knowing there isn’t a damn thing I can do right now. “He’s being blackmailed, too,” I tell her gently. “I believe what he told us, and wasting any more time here is not going to get us anywhere. But he did tell us something important.”
“Which is?”
“Whoever is doing this has access to police records, which means we’re dealing with someone in the highest levels of power.”
I instantly regret what I’ve said, as the color slowly begins to drain out of her face.
“And we have what?” She gasps, eyes darting from side to side. “A little over twenty-four hours to not only find them, but stop them.”
Right then, I realize three things simultaneously.
One, twenty-four hours doesn’t seem as long to Hadley as it does to me.
Two, her strength does have a breaking point.
Three, I’ve just reached it.
Chapter 11
Hadley
The stairwell begins to somersault around me, and I can’t tell the difference between the cement on the floor and the cement above me. I grip the cool railing to remain upright, my skin flushing hot. “What are we going to do now?” I ask Ryder. My heart slams against my chest, sweat gathering along my spine, and my throat squeezes tighter and tighter. “We know nothing. We have nothing. Tomorrow the video’s going to hit the world, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”
“Hadley.”
I hear Ryder call out to me, but he sounds so far away. My feet move to get help, to run away, to do something instead of standing here doing nothing. “We have twenty-four hours, that’s it.” I spin around and stride past Ryder, who’s standing calmly at the door, arms crossed. “And now we have nothing to go on. No names. No leads. Nothing.”
“Hadley.”
Again, his voice is there, yet off in the distance. Calm in the middle of a raging storm, but my head is swimming. “Soon, the world is going to see me doing things…” Sweat begins to form between my dress and my skin, and the room spins wildly again. “Oh, God, my father is going to see it. My mother…”
“Hadley.”
The world is getting blurry around me, the walls closing in, getting closer and closer. Suddenly, strong hands grip me and I’m shoved against the wall, and rough lips are against mine, slowly but forcefully bringing me back.
Ryder’s fingers tangle into my hair, not careful, but purposeful, and the intense hold grounds me. I’m expecting him to say something to soothe me. But that’s not what he does. He holds me so I cannot move, and he begins to gather my skirt until he can slip his hand underneath.
There’s nothing gentle about his touch as he pushes my panties aside. I spread my legs, desperate for his touch, desperate for anything to help me escape, as his kiss turns rougher, primal. His mouth opens mine and his tongue dives in as he takes what he wants from me. All of me.
I moan and he swallows the sound, as his tongue leaves no part of my mouth untouched. But then he shows me more, and my body is lit up, sensations running wild as he slips one finger inside my soaking wet folds. I groan against his kiss when another finger joins the first.
It’s all so much. He’s so much. To be on the receiving end of his pleasure, it’s a treat that’s greatly addictive. I attempt to lean my head back, relishing in all that he gives me, as he moves his fingers in and out, right there in the stairwell, but the strong grip in my hair leaves me only able to surrender to him. Each insertion, his palm rubs against my clit, driving me higher and higher, and my legs begin to shake. Each withdrawal, I ache for him to return. But then he’s gone…
I snap my eyes open, greeted by his dark stare, as he raises the very fingers he just used to pleasure me to my lips.
“Open,” he murmurs.
I do as I’m told and he slides his fingers against my tongue. The boldness of his move erases thoughts from my mind and draws all my attention to the taste. My taste.
“We both know what you want, don’t we, Hadley?” he asks, dragging his fingers out of my mouth, watching each and every move intently, until he lowers his hand and looks into my eyes. “Tell me what you’d like me to do to you.”
The power, the strength, the control…I’m hanging right on the edge of climaxing. There’s something about Ryder that’s so agonizing it’s hard to understand the power he holds over me. It feels like he knows me, understands me, desires me, and it makes me want him in ways I’ve never wanted anything. “I want to come.”
One brow slowly arches with the curve of his mouth. “Oh, is that what you’d like?”
That’s when I see it written over his face: payback. A year of teasing him has led me to this moment. He knows he has me, putty in his hands, just as I’ve known for the past year I’ve had him, too, and teased him to get some sort of reaction out of him.
I wisely stay silent, breathless and quivering.
His low chuckle indicates I made the right choice.
Smoldering eyes directly on mine, he slides his fingers over my highly sensitive clit, back and forth, teasing the bud to react under his touch, and my legs shake harder now, my breath all but gone. “It feels like you’re right there.” He drags my head to the side, licks up my neck, and whispers in my ear, “Tell me. How close are you, Hadley?”
God, it’s the way he says my name. Like I’m his. “So close,” I moan, shutting my eyes against the quivering in my stomach and how much need he’s drawing out of me. He slides his fingers against the sides of my sex, causing parts of my body to throb that I didn’t know could throb. “So damn close.”
“Not close enough if you ask me.”
I snap my eyes open, but my words are sucked away when his fingers slide out of my hair and move over my breasts, and I realize he’s lowering to one knee. I’m ready to stop him, watching his head move between my thighs, but then I feel his tongue.
Then there is nothing but…him.
Slowly and gently, he swirls his tongue over my inner thigh, methodically working his way closer and closer to my sex. I press my hands flat against the cool cement wall behind me, my chest rising and falling quickly. I’m convinced I can’t possibly take mor
e when he blows a long breath against my hot flesh. Though again, he proves me wrong, as a hiss I’ve never heard before escapes my mouth as he slowly licks the other thigh, never getting close enough to where I want him to go.
“How about now, Hadley?” He blows across my clit again. And again. “How close are you?”
I moan, the only answer I can give. I’m afraid if I say anything he’ll stop. I’m right there, quivering and whimpering. So ready to explode for him that there is nothing I wouldn’t do for him to continue. And when he does, using the flat of his tongue to caress my clit, I grab his buzz-cut head and push his face into me.
He chuckles, reaching for my hands and placing my palms back against the wall. “Leave them there,” he orders.
Again, I do as I’m told, but it’s hard. Oh, it’s so hard not to shove his head into me and demand he give me everything and more. But Ryder’s not a man you demand from, nor is he a man you push.
He is torturing me with every slow lick on my swollen heat, never giving the pressure I need to get there or the speed required to send me soaring over the edge. Each second devastates my control to keep my moans silent, and soon I don’t care who hears me. I’m moaning loudly, and he doesn’t stop, not for a second, and not until I’m standing there, full-on trembling in my heels, does he take it further.
With my legs spread wide, and his head buried between my thighs, he finally gives me what I need. He sucks my clit deep into his mouth, and I give him everything, exactly like he intended.
I’m shuddering and bucking against his mouth, feeling the rush of endorphins taking me to a place I never want to return from.
But then I do, and his lips are dancing with mine. I inhale the scent of myself on his mouth as he kisses me in his fiery way, stealing all thoughts from my mind. And before my body even has the chance to recover, he’s wrapping one of my legs around his waist, lifting me a little, slipping my heel from my shoe until I’m standing on tiptoe.
Then he’s inside me.
I grip his shoulders, gasping against his mouth, as he’s thrusting fast and rough. His cock is so very hard and tears of intensity leak from the corners of my eyes. I want to do something—to take him like he’s taking me—but I can’t. He’s pinning me to the wall with the strength of his body and he’s taking what he wants. My surrender.
With one hand he cradles my face while the other thrusts into my hair. “Anyone could find me fucking you.” He licks over my bottom lip before he nips it, shifting his hips upward, pounding into me. “Does that excite you?”
“God, yes,” I breathe, my eyes rolling back into my head. “Don’t stop.”
He squeezes his hand around my cheek, pushing my lips together, until he’s kissing my swollen mouth, sucking my lips into his. Then he backs away and intensity greets me when he stops thrusting. His stormy eyes on his target. Me. “Why does this excite you?”
I’m soaring so high that I can’t even think of refusing to answer. My lips part and out comes, “Because I want to be caught with you.” My reply sounds like it’s coming out of someone else’s mouth. “I want them to see how incredible we are together.”
The side of his mouth arches, but it doesn’t look sweet. It looks deadly, like he’s claimed me as his and he’s decided to let me in on it. He thrusts upward and I gasp as he releases the tight squeeze around my cheeks and slides his hand to my bottom, lifting my leg higher on his waist. He pumps his hips harder now, faster. His eyes don’t leave mine, and there’s just something in them I’ve never known. It’s what he offers me when he gives his body to me that no one else ever has. All of him. Right there out in the open. He has nothing to hide. And the freedom of all that truth and honesty breaks down walls I didn’t know were there. Because I don’t know that kind of freedom. But I want to. Badly.
I squeeze my inner muscles, wanting to give him all that I can.
His jaw muscles clench and he grunts, “Do that again.”
Again, I do as I’m told.
Pleasure washes over his face, his mouth parting with his low moan. “Fuck, yes, that’s perfect.”
When he looks at me again, I’m lost in him. He begins shifting his hips faster and harder, and the intensity in his expression is driving me higher and higher, because I know it’s my body getting him there. I squeeze tight, giving him as much pleasure as I can, until suddenly there’s no thought behind my squeezing him. I bear down against the swell of sensations that rush across me so fast that my mind goes blank…until all there is is me and him and our deep breathing.
Sometime later, I vaguely hear, “Do you…”
I force my eyes open, returning from the foggy high. “Pardon?”
His hands are braced around my face, so tight, as his strong eye contact holds me. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” I place my hands over his, breathless. “Of course.”
“We’re going to get through this.”
“I know you’ll do whatever you can to help me, Ryder. I’m just not sure that it will be enough.”
His eyes flare, with…annoyance, irritation, possession…I’m not exactly sure what he’s feeling, when he says, “I asked you if you trusted me and you told me yes. Was that a lie?”
“No, of course not.”
He leans in and drops his head, his eyes right in line with mine. “No matter if that video gets out, Hadley, we’re going to deal with this. You will not face this alone. Do you understand?”
I swallow the emotions that come along with what he’s telling me as I choke back the promises I’m hearing between the lines and give him a soft smile.
He brushes his thumbs across my face, holding tight, and I believe that he’ll never let me fall when he adds, “If we can’t stop the video from coming out, we won’t run from it either. We won’t hide from it. You’ll tell the truth like you told me, and you’ll face the media bravely, proud of the incredible woman you are.” I can barely breathe, air seemingly impossible to inhale, as he continues, “And I will be standing by your side as you do it, promising to deal with anyone threatening to shame or hurt you. Tell me you hear me.”
I don’t just hear you. I feel you. “You won’t let anyone hurt me.”
Chapter 12
Ryder
Ten minutes later, as we exit through the hotel’s front door, we’re greeted by a streetcar whizzing by and typical San Francisco pedestrian traffic filling the streets. The warm breeze brushes across my face, bringing a plethora of city smells along with it.
Though it’s the woman next to me who garners my attention. Hadley fiddles with the side of her dress and wiggles her hips. “Next time we go anywhere remind me to bring a spare pair of panties in my purse,” she says, her amused eyes flicking to mine.
“Next time don’t look as beautiful and we won’t have a problem,” I tell her, liking the heat I find in the depths of her eyes. In fact, I’m discovering I like a lot about her, beyond how much I crave her body. Being in public with her like this, regardless that today wasn’t a date, wasn’t a horrible thing, I decide. In fact, being with her feels pretty damn natural and that feels oddly…good. “Besides,” I continue, lowering my voice in the way she sensually reacts to, “we both know that I like that you can still feel me inside you. And you like that you can, too. So I say, next time skip the panties altogether.”
As expected, her eyes flare red-hot with desire. “Blackwood, you are a dirty, dirty man.”
“I accept that title with pride, sweetheart.” I take her hand in mine and kiss her palm. “And you like that, too.”
She gives me a cute little laugh, and of course stays silent in agreement and begins matching my stride, as we walk hand in hand down the sidewalk. “So, back to nonsexy things, but where exactly does this all leave us now? Fucked?”
With my free hand, I reach for my bow tie and undo it, then open a couple buttons, finally able to breathe. “No, we’re not fucked,” I tell her with a frown. “Alex will come through before the night ends.”
Ha
dley looks straight ahead at the couple approaching us on the street. “I still don’t get how you can be so sure of that.”
“Because Alex doesn’t fail me.”
“Not ever?”
“Never,” I confirm.
Obviously Hadley accepts what I’ve told her, since she stays quiet as we pass another couple. But as soon as we continue on down the street toward my truck, I begin to see her silence isn’t a good silence. Even from the side, I note the strain in Hadley’s eyes and the way her face is tight with worry, and it guts me. There’s nothing I want more than to tell her the video is in my possession and she no longer has to worry.
She finally breaks the silence. “It’s very hard for me to trust that this is all going to go away and my life isn’t going to become very public tomorrow.” Her eyes meet mine, her expression twists. “You do realize how little time we have, right?”
I move out of the way, giving the couple on the sidewalk space to walk by us. “All that matters is that we’ve got time. Five minutes, an hour, whatever, the video isn’t out yet. That means we can still stop it.” I firm up my voice and squeeze her hand, giving the only comfort I can right now. “And I won’t stop until time runs out.”
She gives a soft nod and a gentle smile.
While Hadley doesn’t look convinced, she also doesn’t know Alex the way I know her. Alex will get me what I need, and she’ll likely get me even more than what’s required. Because that’s what Alex does.
At the three-way junction, we cross the street, and I spot my truck off in the distance parked behind a BMW, exactly where I’d left it, as Hadley asks, “All right, so what do we do now? Sit around and hope that Alex calls?”
I frown at the concern tightening the corners of her eyes. Even I know the odds are stacked against us. I would say yes. Because that’s the honest answer. Finding the hacker at this point is our best bet to stop the video from getting out, considering we have no idea who the other man in the video is or who the blackmailer could be. I open my mouth to answer her, when my cell begins to ring. I grab it out of my pocket, look at the screen, and snort. “Alex’s ears must be burning.”
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