by Jessie Cooke
“You do seem to be here a lot. What’s that about?”
“Angel is working on a case and I’m helping her with some research. Bobby, can I get a beer?” he asked the prospect behind the bar. “Have you ever heard anything else from the police in New Orleans?” About a year after they started dating, Kat finally told David everything, even her suspicions that maybe Dillon accidentally killed her mother and panicked. David had grown close to Dillon by that time and didn’t want to believe it. He started researching serial killers in Louisiana. By the time they’d split up, he hadn’t found anything solid that they could take to the police.
“No,” she said, tapping the bar for another shot. “They forgot about her, I think.”
David looked sad. “I didn’t forget.”
Kat was reaching for the new glass the prospect had just poured. She stopped and looked at David again. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve still been looking for things that fit the MO of your mother’s murder. I found three other women who were murdered around the same time. None of them were in New Orleans, but they were all in Louisiana. If you look at the pattern, it looks like maybe the guy was working his way across the state. I spoke to a detective back there and he said he’d look into it. None of those cases have been solved, but there are a lot of blanks in between…miles and years. When I have time, I’m going to start trying to cross-reference missing women during that time period…”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you still doing all that? It’s been five years since we…I just don’t get it.”
“I made a promise to you a long time ago that I’d help you find out what happened to your mother. I wish I would have made more progress by now, but I won’t stop working on it until you have some answers.”
Kat couldn’t wrap her head around that kind of loyalty. No one, not even Dillon, had ever cared enough about her to take so much time out of their own life to do something for her. “Thank you,” she said. “I can’t even tell you how much that means to me.”
“You don’t have to,” he said, picking up his beer.
“David, I’m so sorry…about everything. If I could do things differently…”
“You can’t, and I know you’re sorry,” he said. “But we can’t live in the past. We just have to keep moving forward.”
Kat nodded. Every time she was on the verge of telling him the truth, he stopped her. She’d given up on it a long time ago, but lately, being back home and seeing him had refueled her desire for him to know what really happened five years earlier.
“There’s a lot more to it than what you know. I wish you’d let me tell you.”
He sighed. “I’ve just always been afraid to hear it, I guess.”
Kat was about to suggest they go somewhere and talk, when the sound of Harley engines out front distracted them all. Zoe was the first to run to the door and everyone else in the bar followed suit, except Kat and David. Kat could hear loud, excited voices and seconds after the engines were cut, Skulls started to flow into the room. Kat breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Levi, with Zoe wrapped around him. Their eyes met over his old lady’s head and he smiled at her. Gunner and Tammy were hugging and Cody was holding Harley so tightly that Kat wondered how she could breathe. “Where’s Dax?” she heard Angel ask.
“He went to the hospital with Wes. He lost a lot of blood, but he was still breathing,” Cody said. “Dax says no one on or off the ranch tonight,” he announced to the room. That was when Kat slid off her stool.
“I need to get home,” she said.
Cody shook his head. “You’ll have to talk to Dax about it when he gets back.”
Kat looked at the time and cursed under her breath. “Is Dillon too sick to handle the bar on his own?” David asked her.
“No, but he’s too stupid,” she said.
David chuckled. “He’s been doing it for a while; one more night probably won’t hurt anything.”
“You haven’t been there when he’s drunk and in a betting mood,” she told him. Suddenly she felt the warmth of David’s hand on her arm. She looked down at it and he took that to mean she didn’t want him to touch her…the truth was just the opposite.
“I’m sorry. I’m glad Dax is making you stay here.”
“You are?”
“Yeah. I want you to be safe, Kat.”
She wasn’t sure what she was hoping for. Her feelings were out of control and they were affecting her thoughts…or fantasies, for that matter. “Yeah, I guess one night won’t hurt. I should call him.” David nodded and she stepped away and took out her phone. She cursed her shaking hands and shaking insides. Her voice was even shaking as Dillon answered the phone and she started talking. Dillon sounded sober, so that was a plus. He said the same thing David did when she told him what was going on: he wanted her to stay put and be safe. Kat ended the call and looked around the room. The old ladies were all hugged up to their men, except Angel, whose man was still out taking care of business. She had her head together with David, and Kat’s imagination started running wild again about what she was saying to him. It was going to be a long fucking night.
Dax finally returned as the sun was going down. Kat had spent the few hours in between talking to Tank and helping him prepare food for everyone…and avoiding David. He had made it easy for her, leaving after about an hour and going up to Angel’s house to check in on Susie, who was hanging out with one of the club girls. That made Kat’s mind jump to how many club girls David had been with in the five years that she was gone. She chastised herself over that thought. Of course he wasn’t celibate. It wasn’t like he was waiting for her to come home. She just despised the thought of him with anyone but her, no matter how stupid it was for her to still feel things so deeply.
When Dax got back, he gave everyone an update on Wes. He’d had his spleen and part of his liver and stomach removed and he was stable at the moment. That was a relief. “What about the police?” Angel asked him. “Did they arrest him?”
Dax shook his head. “No. There were plenty of witnesses in the restaurant that said Levi only ran out after the shooting started.”
“What about us?” Harley asked. “Do they want to talk to us?”
“So far, they don’t even know you girls were there. The hostess told the cops that Levi was alone at the bar. I’m sure when they start finding all the spent shells they’ll have more questions. Handsome, you have Levi’s gun too, right?” Handsome nodded.
“Yeah, Kat gave it to me.” Dax looked at her then and smiled.
“Thanks for that, it was quick thinking.” Kat was uncomfortable with everyone looking at her. She felt her face go hot and she nodded at him. Angel was looking at her, but for the first time without that look of hate she usually carried around in her green eyes.
“No problem,” she said. “Can I go home?”
Dax made a face. “The men and I are headed back out tonight. I’d rather that no one else went anywhere right now, Kat. Is Dillon okay to handle things just for tonight?” Kat just nodded. There was no reason to argue. Dax was always nice about it, but she was in his house and he was the boss. “You can take your pick of one of the empty rooms upstairs,” he said.
“Okay,” Kat gave in. She was tired and a night away from the bar might be just what she needed anyways.
Dax wrapped up his meeting with everyone and moved into the meeting room with his executive board. The mood in the great room was depressing, but it was too early for Kat to make her escape upstairs. She went back over to her chair in the corner and watched people interacting for a while until her eyes began to burn from fatigue. She didn’t drink often, and the three shots and a beer she’d had were adding to her exhaustion. She was about to get up and go find herself a room when she saw that David had come back from Angel’s house. He wasn’t alone and when Kat saw him with the little redhead, her heart felt like it might explode in her chest. She was torn between how sweet he looked, sitting on t
he floor cross-legged, playing Legos with Susie, and the sadness as she wondered if David realized their child would be almost that age had he or she lived. She sat quietly and watched them, alternating between the joy the smile on his face brought her and the guilt she felt that he didn’t have his own child to play with like that. She should have known that if anyone was having similar thoughts, it was his sister. Angel snuck up on her, taking the seat across from her and blocking her view of David and the little girl.
“He looks happy,” Kat heard herself say. Why she said that to Angel, she wasn’t sure.
“He is…or he was, before you came back.” Angel’s voice wasn’t filled with the same kind of venom it usually was, but her words wounded all the same.
“What do you want me to do, Angel? I didn’t come here to make David’s life miserable. My father needs me right now. I need to be here for him. I didn’t know David would be spending so much time here at the ranch. Now that I do, I’ll stay away more, okay?”
Angel was watching her face as she spoke. She let her finish and then she said, “I just don’t want to see him hurt again.”
“I have no desire to hurt him. You have no idea how long it took me to even begin to forgive myself.”
“David forgave you, right away,” she said. “I never understood how he could, but Dad used to say it was a good thing. It was healthier for him not to hang onto that bitterness. He asked me to forgive you too, and I’m trying. Mostly, Kat…I just don’t understand. I thought you loved him. If you weren’t ready for a baby…”
“That wasn’t it, Angel,” Kat snapped, realizing as soon as she did that she’d said too much.
“What was it then?”
Kat shook her head. “It doesn’t matter now.”
David appeared as he walked up behind his sister, and Kat’s eyes went to his face. Her body began to buzz again and despite how hard she tried, her mind danced with possibilities of things she rationally knew would never happen. “Are you being nice?” he asked his sister, placing his hands on her shoulders. David was talking to Angel, but his eyes were on Kat’s face. The raw emotion she saw there every time he looked at her was what fueled those fantasies in her head that just wouldn’t go away.
“I’m being nice,” Angel told him. “We were just talking.”
David cocked an eyebrow at Kat. Angel couldn’t see him and he seemed to be asking Kat if his sister was telling the truth. “Yeah,” Kat said, “We were just talking.” She stood up then and said, “If no one minds, I think I’ll go find a room.”
David squeezed his sister’s shoulders and said, “I’ll go with you, I need to pick out one of my own.” Kat turned away quickly so Angel couldn’t misinterpret the look on her face. Or maybe she was just afraid she’d read it for what it was…hope. Fucking elusive hope.
21
David took the lead and Kat followed him wordlessly across the room and up the stairs. He led her down the hall and when they came to the first room with the door opened, he rocked her world so hard and so suddenly that she wasn’t even sure if it was real. He turned to her, pulled her against his chest, and backed into the room, kicking the door closed once they were clear. His eyes locked with hers for just a second before he brought his lips down to hers. Kat’s core was on fire and her nerves were firing off impulses that even she didn’t understand as she brought her arms up around his neck and let him deepen the kiss. She felt like a woman who had been locked in a cage for years without sunlight, food, or water and had finally been set free to have her first taste…and fuck, did it taste good.
David pushed her back into the wall and groaned into her mouth as he kissed her. She could feel his erection as he ground his hips into her body while they kissed, and the heat of his hands as they searched underneath her blouse for the clasp of her bra. He found it and with a slight little flick of his fingers, he popped it open. Kat moaned into him when he reached back around and took one of her breasts into his hand. He began to massage and caress it, letting his fingers run lightly across her hard, aching nipples. He kept kissing her, pushing her shirt up higher as he did, until her breasts were exposed. He broke the kiss then and looked down at them, growling again as he took a nipple between his fingers and began to twist and roll it.
“David,” she said, breathlessly. Her head was a jumbled mess, her brain felt like scrambled eggs…worthless.
“Not now,” he said. “We can talk later. I need you, Kat. Do you want this too?”
She nodded without hesitation. Fuck yeah, she wanted it. David didn’t discuss it any further. He pushed her shirt up over her head and pulled it off and then she let the straps of her bra fall off her arms. He groaned again, or growled, as he said, “So beautiful, Kat. God, I miss looking at you.” Kat’s insides went crazy again as he took hold of her waist and kissed her again. He turned her around as they kissed and led her backwards to the bed. He stopped when the backs of her legs hit it and broke the kiss again. Kat watched and tried to fill her lungs while he stripped off his shirt. He had definitely gotten bigger. His chest was big and hard and his biceps bulging. Her fingers burned with a desire to touch him.
She let her fingers reach out and trace the contours of the muscles in his chest and abs. David stood there with his eyes closed and she felt him shudder as she got close to the waistband of his jeans. She let her hand slide along just underneath it and he shuddered again. When she slid her hand down and covered the outline of his throbbing cock through his jeans, he whispered her name.
“Take off your pants,” he told her. Kat reluctantly stopped touching him long enough to strip off her jeans and panties. He finished getting undressed too, and when they were both naked he looked at her again, almost reverently and said, “You’re the most beautiful woman in the world. No wonder I couldn’t forget you.” That statement bordered on a conversation that would kill the mood instantly, so instead of saying anything in return, Kat pulled herself up, and covered his mouth with hers so that he’d have to stop talking. David kissed her back, taking her by the waist again and lifting her up so that she could sit down on the bed. Once her butt was on the comforter, he slid his lips down across her jaw to her breasts and kissed each one, before sliding down lower. He pushed her legs apart and dove in, taking a long lick of her wet pussy and causing her body to convulse and her head and shoulders to drop back. She put her hands on his head, softly stroking his hair as he used one hand to hold open her lips and the other to slide a finger up inside of her. As her slick walls clamped down on his finger, his mouth covered her clit.
“Oh, fuck!” She had to let go of his head and drop back onto her elbows to hold herself up. David wasn’t being gentle. He was sucking and licking and fingering her like it had only been a few days and not years since they’d been together. It wasn’t awkward at all and that made it even hotter, Kat thought. His tongue and lips were working overtime on her clit and he’d put another finger up inside of her, crooking it so that it would hit her g-spot. Kat was panting and whimpering and writhing as a powerful orgasm worked itself through her body and threatened to rip her wide open. “Jesus, David…fuck!” She screamed out his name as she came, gripping his hair again and vaguely registering that she was being awfully loud in a place filled with people who didn’t want the two of them together. David was still sucking her pussy as she came, and she smiled to herself. She didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought, she was right where she wanted…where she needed…to be.
Once she finished coming, David stood up and reached for his jeans. “Not yet,” she whispered in a hoarse voice. “I need to taste you too.” She sat up and reached for his cock. It was hot and hard as steel in her hands. She lowered her head and licked around the outside of his head. His cock throbbed in response and David moaned. Then she traced a line from the tip of his cock to the base of it on the underside and back up again. David had his head back and his hands gently holding onto her hair. That time when Kat got back up to the tip, she opened her lips and took it in between them. H
is grip on her hair tightened slightly and he whispered out her name again. Kat took his cock into her mouth an inch at a time, licking each inch before sucking it in with the rest until she could feel him pressing into the back of her throat, and then she began to suck and stroke and bob her head up and down. She had one hand on his ass and she could feel his body shaking. The noises he was making let her know he was enjoying what she was doing, and when she slid the hand that was stroking him down between his legs and began to gently massage his heavy balls, he let out a primal sound before grabbing her by the wrist and stopping her.
“I’m so close already,” he said, bending down to kiss her lips. She could taste herself on him, and she licked his lips and sucked on his tongue, knowing that used to turn him on in the past. Apparently, it still did. David pushed her back further so that she was in the center of the bed and, holding his weight off her with one arm, he deepened the kiss and it became even more passionate and hungry. Their bodies were pressed together with her breasts mashed between them and her hips grinding up against his. She wanted him inside of her so badly at that point that she thought she might sincerely lose her mind if he didn’t hurry. David either sensed that, or he was as ready as she was. He slid both of his hands underneath her butt and sat up as he turned her over onto her stomach. Pressing on her lower back without a word, he told her what he wanted her to do. Kat raised her ass and kept her face against the comforter on the bed. She felt David’s hand between her legs, playing with her pussy once again and flicking her swollen clit with his fingers. She was sopping wet, and when he pressed his cock against her pussy from behind he put his lips to her ear and said:
“I love how wet you get, baby.” Kat lingered on the “baby.” She’d been called that more than once in the past five years during her one-night stands…but it didn’t mean anything, until it came from David’s lips. He pushed his hips forward and buried himself inside of her. Kat cried out and David slid one hand underneath her and pulled her up so that her back pressed into his chest and she was almost sitting in his lap. Every thrust fanned the flames of the fire burning inside of her. David went slowly at first, whispering to her that he wanted to make it last as long as he could. But his pace quickened rapidly and his breathing became ragged and she could feel beads of sweat splashing against her back as it rolled off his brow. The hand he was holding her up with slid up to her breasts and he played with them while he fucked her. Then his other hand came around and suddenly he was playing with her clit as well. It was so much stimulation that she felt like the top of her head might explode. She was trying to say his name and it came out as an incoherent sound. David didn’t say a word while he drove her wild with passion. He pinched her nipples one at a time, pinched and pulled and rubbed on her clit, and put his mouth on the sensitive skin at the side of her neck and bit down, just as her second orgasm slammed into her, knocking all the wind from her lungs.