He grasped her hips in both hands, gripping her so hard he was sure he’d leave marks on her skin. He helped her pump against him, over him, with him. His chest constricted. His abs tensed. His thighs and calves cramped. But none of that mattered.
Nothing mattered until she sank down on him one last time and cried out. Nothing mattered until let himself go at the same exact second. Nothing mattered until he came so hard he wasn’t sure he’d ever recover.
Even through the latex, he felt her quiver. For the love of all that was good in the world, he was quivering too. His legs, his hands, his brain. He didn’t want to move, he didn’t want this moment to end.
But that was a fool’s dream, and he was nobody’s fool. As she slumped against him, he straightened some, yet kept her tight in his arms.
“Tell me we don’t have to go anywhere,” she murmured against his chest. “That we can stay right here, just like this, all day.”
“Ah babe. I wish we could.” That was no lie. God, how he wished her assault never happened, that she was never hurt. That they didn’t have to witness a lineup and have her relive the horror of her attack all over again. How he wished he could stay here with her, inside her, forever. “You say the word, and I’ll push it off. I’ll call Mac and tell him—”
“No.” She sat more upright too, pushing her hair out of her face. “There’s no use in putting off the inevitable. Besides, the sooner we go and get it over with, the sooner we can come back here.”
She had a point there, one he could easily get on board with. “I like the sound of that. And we’ll stop on the way back to pick up everything we need to make those cheeseburgers you were craving.”
“Oh my God, that sounds amazing,” she said on a bright smile before leaning in to kiss him.
Yes, he thought, it did. It sounded absolutely amazing. Almost as amazing as her kiss, as amazing as the heat inside her wrapping around his cock. Christ, he was still hard, a state he didn’t see as resolving itself any time soon. Not when she was starting to move over him again.
She pulled back from the kiss and blasted him with a look teeming with need and desire, all while biting on her lower lip. “Think Mac will mind if we’re a little late?”
There was only one answer Tye could give before he pulled her back in. “He can mind all he wants. We’re not going anywhere just yet.”
Chapter Fifteen
Laine and Tye arrived at the Samson County Sheriff Headquarters in Carson two hours later, which was a good hour after they should’ve been there. As they made their way to the front desk to ask for Mac’s assistant, Tye led her there by holding her hand. It was such a simple gesture, yet it meant the world to her. After bringing her concerns regarding Tye’s domineering ways to light, it was exactly what she needed.
Instead of Jen coming to the lobby to get them, it was Mac who opened the door leading to the back offices. The expression he wore was neither angry nor impassive, but it did carry a bit of what were you two up to? along with it.
“I was considering whether or not I should send out a search party,” Mac said on a sly half-grin.
Laine’s cheeks warmed, but Tye remained cool. “No need for that. Time just got away from us. That’s all.”
The two men passed a knowing look between them. “Happens,” Mac replied as he held the door open wider and gestured for them to pass through. “Let’s go into my office. Second door on the right,” he told Laine as she took the lead.
As she stepped into Mac’s private office, she couldn’t help but notice how completely different it was from the one she found him in at Club Euphoria. Diplomas and awards dotted the walls here, instead of the framed kinky BDSM instruments decorating the richly dark room there. The drab white walls here matched the collegiate feel of the simple décor, while the plain furniture—an oak desk with a credenza behind it and two stiff, wooden chairs taking up the space in front—gave off that institutional ambience most government offices were known for.
“Can I get you anything?” Mac offered as she sat.
A time-travel machine? A firing squad? A sudden case of amnesia? Any of those would be great right about now so she wouldn’t have to deal with this. But instead of giving Mac any of those smart-ass answers, she drew in a deep breath and blew out a quiet and resolved, “No thanks.”
Mac sat behind his desk and flipped open a manila folder before looking over at her. “I don’t have to tell you again that I need to ask for an official statement from you.”
Laine crossed her legs and hugged her arms around herself. “No, I know you do.”
Tye closed the door to the office and moved in behind her, but he didn’t touch her. He didn’t need to in order for her to tap into his strength. Just having him there, next to her, was enough. For now.
Mac folded his hands over the file. “And I also don’t have to tell you it’s within your rights to refuse to give one.”
That was sweet of him to remind her she had a choice in all this, but refusing to give a statement wouldn’t do anyone any good. “And ignore the situation? Open up the chance that someone else could be hurt or killed because of me? No, I can’t let that happen.”
Mac picked up a pen and glanced at Tye, who shifted his stance and tightened his arms over his chest. She knew his gung-ho-a-meter was running on empty about her having to rehash the attack, but Mac’s expression said he never expected anything less from her. “Take your time,” he said gently. “Just tell me what happened.”
She did, slowly at first, just as she had with Tye. But then, in an almost hyperventilating rush, the events of that night spilled out of her. Tye stood behind her the entire time, edgy and with his hands clamped on his biceps as if he were waiting for her to collapse. But she didn’t. She got her story out, down to every last detail she could remember.
Pain twisted Mac’s face afterward, reminiscent of the pain on Tye’s after she’d told him. “Any ideas on who we’re looking for? Maybe someone from your job? Have you received any threats? Dealt with any irate defendants?”
She shook her head. “Most of the people I deal with are irate, but no one’s ever threatened me. Or any member of my staff, for that matter.”
“Which what? Leads us back to the club?” Tye asked. “Or someone who knows Jeffrey Perry?”
“Not necessarily,” Mac interjected. “The details of how Perry committed his crimes were revealed at trial. Anyone who followed the case in the papers and on TV at the time would know exactly what he did to those women. My gut tells me we’re dealing with a copycat here. A damn dangerous one at that. Only this guy? He’s upping the ante.”
“How?” she asked.
It was Tye who answered. “He told us specifically that he’s gunning for you.”
She peered up at his dark eyes from over her shoulder and shivered at what that meant for her. At what that meant for all of them.
“Hell,” Mac blew out quietly after running his hands down his face. “I hate that this happened to you. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but we’ve got every available person working on this. We’ll find him, Laine. That, I promise you.”
“I know you will.” God, I hope you will.
Mac nodded once, flattening his palms on the top of his desk and pushing off to stand. “Let me go tell Jen that we’re ready for the lineup, then. It’ll take just a few minutes to get set up. Be right back.”
Tye sidestepped to let Mac by, then moved back to stand behind her chair. He settled his warm hands on her shoulders and rubbed gently. “Doing okay?”
“I’m going to take the fifth on that one.” She let her head fall back to rest against his waist. “This is all so nerve-racking—“
“It is,” Tye said, kneading a little harder.
“Knowing the man who hurt me could be in this building. That I might see him again in a matter of minutes.”
Tye squeezed tighter. “I’ll be with you the entire time.”
She closed her eyes and nuzzled her cheek against his forear
m. “Thank you,” she whispered.
He stilled his hands. “You don’t ever have to thank me for standing by you. Or for protecting you.”
“I know. But I wanted to say it. I want you to know—”
Her thought was cut off by Mac’s return. “Ready?” he asked, looking serious and gruff.
She stood despite her knees taking on the consistency of jelly. “I think so.”
Mac opened the door all the way and stood aside to let them through. “Down to the left.”
She went first, followed by Tye and then Mac, who passed them halfway down the hall to open the next door. She stepped in, her thoughts buzzing as she prepared herself for the worst.
The room was small and dimly lit. A framed, two-way mirror took up the upper half of one wall. A tiny table and chair sat in the corner with two more chairs shoved up against the opposite wall. She’d dealt with numerous law enforcement agencies throughout the years, and she’d been inside plenty of interrogation rooms. But never as a victim. It felt…odd. Unreal.
Scary.
“Looks just like the movies,” she mused.
“Nothing cinematic about it,” Mac said as he picked up the phone receiver on the desk and tapped four numbers. “Go ahead,” was all he said before hitting the light switch by the door and dousing them in darkness.
Through the mirror, a light turned on. The room next to theirs was empty, but only for a moment before the door opened and six men filed in.
Laine wrung her hands as she waited for the men in the lineup to stop and turn her direction. Tye slid his hand around her waist while Mac leaned back against the closed door with a thud. She could feel them watching her, feel them waiting anxiously for a response, whether it be positive or negative.
She took her time, studying each of the suspects in turn as her heart started to beat harder. Number one was too short. Number two was too tall. Three was the right height and even had the scar, but it ran above his eye, not through it. Four, five and six… Well, they just didn’t match up with the person she remembered.
“None of them,” she said quietly. A weird combination of relief and disappointment tingled through her stomach. “He’s not here. It’s not him.”
From behind her, Tye dropped his chin to his chest and let out a heavy breath.
“You’re sure?” Mac asked.
She gave the men another once-over through the mirror, then nodded. “I am. The man who attacked me is not in this lineup.”
Mac dialed the phone again. “We’re done.”
As the men filed back out the way they came in, Tye situated himself between her and Mac. He cupped her chin the way he so often did, rubbing his thumb over the hollow of her cheek. Her hands instinctively went to his wrists and she held on.
“I’m sorry this isn’t over for you,” he said.
He wasn’t the only one. She was sorry too.
Mac’s voice was deep from his place by the door. “I had a feeling it’d be a long shot, but you never know.”
Tye glanced over his shoulder at him, and even though the only light in the room spilled in through the connecting mirror, the annoyance in his eyes blazed like an out-of-control fire. “How about we don’t put her through this again unless you’re sure it’s something more than a goddamn long shot?”
Mac flicked on the light switch and straightened, shoving his shoulders back. “I’m going to let that slide, Sheriff Carter, because I know that you know that’s what lineups sometimes are.”
The air between the two men sparked with tension, and she hated that it was all because of her. “Hey, guys. Ease up,” she said, trying to be the voice of reason in an otherwise shitty situation. “I had to do this. And despite how much we all hated it, we knew it had to be done.”
Mac eased a fraction, but Tye didn’t. He was her tireless warrior to the end, but right now she had to do something to defuse the pressure building inside him. She tugged on his wrist to get his attention. “I’m okay. Okay?”
He turned back to her and nodded once, even though he continued to hold his body taut.
“How about some water?” She swallowed past her truly dry throat. “Can you get me some water? Please?”
She needed to get him out of there before the situation escalated. These two men were friends and had been for years. She wasn’t going to let that come to an end because of her.
“Sure,” he answered, kissing her quickly yet firmly before grabbing the doorknob. “Keep an eye on her,” he threw at Mac. “I’ll be right back.”
Laine pushed away the tingles still spearing at her stomach before taking a step toward Mac. Defusing the growing animosity between the two wasn’t the only reason she wanted Tye out of the room. She hesitated for a second, forming the words she wanted to say in her head before deciding that simple and straightforward was the best way to go. “I wanted to thank you.”
Mac lifted his eyebrows. “For?”
“Your discretion. That you didn’t out me. That you gave me the chance to tell Tye where I’d gone that night myself.”
He eased his shoulders even more as he relaxed the set of his eyes. “I told you that the club takes privacy very seriously. Short of a court order, I wouldn’t have said anything. I’m glad you told him, though. Had I done a little mental math in the first place and realized the two of you had to know each other…”
She smiled, a little calmer now. “You would’ve played matchmaker?”
He cracked a smile, too. “Maybe. I’ve known Tye a long time. And going by what you told me you were looking for? He fits. You fit him.”
Her heart fluttered at that, yet she turned strangely solemn. To think that something so awful was what finally brought her and Tye together. “He’s worried about this. About me.”
“I know he is. I am too,” Mac said, turning serious as well.
She huffed past the zing returning to her stomach. “That’s reassuring.”
He shoved a hand through his hair. “I don’t see any benefit in sugar-coating it. This guy who’s out for you? He’s dangerous, and all he sees are bull’s-eyes where you’re concerned. But until we get a lead, something solid, my hands are pretty much tied. All I can do is order more patrols for the area around the club and hope for the best.”
Tye returned then with a bottle of water in his hand and a little less resentment in his expression. “Here you go,” he said, handing off the bottle to her.
“Thanks.” She took a long sip and recapped the bottle. “What’s next?”
“Aside from beefing up patrols, I’ll send my investigator out to the local businesses with the description you and the other woman gave me to see if this guy’s been hanging around and what he’s been up to. Again, it’s a long shot that anyone has seen him or remembered him, but for now it’s the best we can do.”
She hated this, hated feeling helpless and useless. But when the criminal had the upper hand, there was little to be done until he tripped up in some way.
“Keep us informed?” Tye asked.
“Of course,” Mac answered. “You do the same on your end.”
Tye nodded. All outward signs of their hostility toward each other had waned, which relieved her. Inside, she knew their agitation had sparked over their concern for her, not from any real animosity the two may feel for each other. The situation sucked, quite frankly, and as a result tensions ran high between all three of them.
The men shook hands before Mac turned to her. He took her hand as well, engulfing it between both of his and holding it there. “Stay smart and stay safe.”
She stood on her toes and kissed his cheek. “I will, promise.”
As Mac handed her off to Tye, she couldn’t remember a time when she’d felt more protected. To have two Adonis-like gems care so much for her—never mind if it was the more platonic way she regarded Mac or the heart-stopping need that possessed her whenever she looked at Tye. The thought of being so cherished had her throat closing up as she and Tye said their goodbyes and made their way
down the hallway and out the front doors to head toward his truck in the parking lot.
By the time they reached Tye’s vehicle, she’d composed herself enough that she was able to gather all those wayward emotions and tuck them safely away close to her heart. After telling Tye how strong she was, the last thing she wanted was to have another slobbery breakdown in front of him, to come off as a fraud or appear weak in any way.
They’d driven only about five miles when Tye reminded her about stopping for groceries. “There’s an organic market off this next exit. They carry some of the best grass-fed beef I’ve ever eaten. It’s perfect for the burgers I’m making tonight. Stopping won’t take long.”
“I don’t mind,” she said. “Food shopping sounds so…normal. And after the fun of the lineup, normal would be a welcomed change.”
He took her hand in his and entwined their fingers. After he kissed her knuckles, he said, “Normal it is then. We can even get a movie. Play it up all date-night-at-home style.”
A mellowing contentment warmed through her at the thought of spending such an ordinary evening with him. And as he turned into the parking lot, she returned the gesture, kissing the back of his hand, too. “A comedy,” she added. “Something light and fun where we don’t have to think too hard. Or think at all.”
“Perfect,” he said, turning down the middle row of the parking lot and pulling into a vacant spot toward the middle. They got out, and together they walked hand-in-hand into the store. He yanked a cart from its nestled lineup and the two of them set about gathering all the fixings for some killer grilled burgers.
Fifteen minutes later, they had everything they needed—along with an additional container of deli pasta salad and an extra six-pack of beer with lime—when she remembered one of the most important additions to any homemade burger. He’d already started unloading the cart onto the checkout belt when she said, “Tomato. We forgot a tomato.” She hitched her thumb over her shoulder toward the produce department. “Let me just run and get one.”
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