He slid her jeans off her hips and they fell down around her ankles. He stripped her panties down her legs, reached down and undid the laces on her athletic shoes, then pulled them off her feet. She was down to socks, but he didn’t appear to care. She kicked her pants aside.
He inserted one leg between her thighs. “Spread ‘em farther.”
She did as he demanded, and he crowded up behind her.
Panting softly with anticipation, she said, “Punish me, Lieutenant.”
“With pleasure.”
His cock nudged her folds, and she held her breath for a second. As she leaned over the counter and accommodated him more by spreading her legs wider, he slipped deep. She moaned in pleasure as his thick cock speared straight to the end of her channel. He packed her full. She gasped, once more closing her eyes so she could savor the spine-melting sensations. Pleasure rode up and down her skin, tingling here and there. She quivered, her entire body reacting.
She reached behind her, wanting to touch him.
“Hands on the counter,” he said.
With a smile, she placed her palms on the counter again.
He held still within her channel as he tweaked her nipples with soft brushes and light pinching. The feathery touches drove her wild, and she twisted in his hold.
“Easy,” he said.
“Easy? You’re driving me crazy.”
“Good. It wouldn’t be punishment otherwise.”
She groaned a half laugh. “You’re sadistic.”
“You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
The statement drove her higher, making her wonder how and when he’d do something outrageous.
She wanted him to thrust, but he held tight, pressed into her channel so far she knew he could go no deeper. Determined to give as good as she got, she tightened her vagina around his cock, stroking him with little grips and releases.
He groaned softly, and she smiled at the triumph.
But it wouldn’t make him thrust. Higher and higher her arousal grew, until she shoved against him. Instead of moving as she wanted, he caressed her clit in a slow, delicate touch that sent pure lust streaking to the burning pleasure between her legs. She didn’t think, she just reacted, jerking against his hold. He continued his torment on one nipple while stimulating her clit. Wild with need she returned to clasping and releasing him, and with every squeeze she increased her own desire tenfold. Over and over he stroked her and pinched her nipple. Arousal grew until she dangled over an edge, her body trembling; her breath ragged and heart pounding. She felt like a wild animal, a creature hanging on the edge of escape.
She wouldn’t survive this.
“Jeremy.” She heard the ragged plea in her voice.
“Come on my cock,” he whispered near her ear. “Come on my cock, sweetheart.”
The hoarse command, laced with the endearment broke her defenses. That’s all it took.
Pure ecstasy exploded through her loins as she contracted hard on his cock, rippling around his hard flesh in pulse after pulse. She groaned, giving in to the earth-shattering sensation of his iron-hard shaft stuffing her to the limit. She was a mass of sensation, unable to control each movement, each sign of release from her body as she shook and panted.
As she came down from the explosion, he cupped her hips and withdrew. She moaned as his cock caressed her sensitive walls, pushing, retreating, plunging…the pleasure was acute. She shook with it, raw and exposed. With a low growl he drew back again and thrust. Their bodies slapped together as he took her hard, pounding out each thrust with a growl. She came again, shaking from the inside out, the beautiful throb and pulse of her body clasping him sending a moan of bliss to her throat. He detonated, came undone within her. Low sounds of completion left his throat. His arms came around her and held tight.
As they panted he said, “Will you leave crumbs on my keyboard again?”
She laughed. “Would I get punished again?”
“Hell, yeah.”
“Good.”
Seven
Jeremy couldn’t believe she’d talked him into this. As he drove them in his SUV toward the Hexley place and the Mumford Munitions Area Saturday morning, he understood he’d lost his mind. He’d officially lost his mind when he’d first met her again after all these years and his libido had launched into the red zone.
This, though—his willingness to return to this area where his father had committed heinous crimes—was madness.
As he drove from his house back into town and headed for the opposite side of Bristol Peak, he took stock of things around him just as he did every time he went on patrol. The businesses rolled by, they passed the Veteran’s Park and the grade school. Everything about this day should feel ordinary and calming. Instead he felt as if he hovered on the edge of a crazy precipice caused by the woman beside him. He’d fallen into a relationship with her he hadn’t expected, even when he’d decided being with her for three weeks and fucking her blind had been a good idea. Yeah, this was the type of nutty relationship void men fell into when their dicks did all their thinking.
And shit, had his dick been doing all the talking when it came to Cassidy.
He needed to put on the breaks and slow down.
Before he’d met Cassidy he’d felt free. Free because he hadn’t dated in what seemed a million years, and it hadn’t been on his radar much. It only interfered with his job to date—a lot of women didn’t like his demanding schedule.
Cassidy seemed like one independent woman, not clingy or asking him much about where he was going, and he liked that. But since she’d shown up in town, her appearance had distracted him even more than he believed possible. At work he’d felt wonky, mixed up and horny. Horny for her. He’d hated every minute of it. Even Brooker had asked him why he looked so dazed, and he’d very politely told his good friend to fuck off. His libido erased all his brain cells. Around her, his cock didn’t give a damn about freedom—it simply wanted her with a ravenous need. Having sex in the kitchen was a first for him, but then he’d already had a lot of firsts with her. Maybe that scared him the most.
The wild sex yesterday in the kitchen had sapped his energy for a couple of hours, and apparently it had obliterated hers, too. They’d ended up in the shower and then had fallen asleep on the bed, Cassidy tucked into his arms. He’d loved holding her, and that scared the shit out of him. There was liking the sex and being willing to hold a woman for short term, but falling asleep holding her? Liking how it felt and wanting more of it? Hell-to-the-no.
Most disturbing? When she’d brought up the munitions area and Hexley house. He’d wanted to scream like a girly girl and forget.
But no. That wasn’t who he was. He didn’t run and he didn’t hide.
Or did he?
Cassidy would travel to the munitions area and Hexley house whether he went with her or not, and there was no way in hell he’d let her go with anyone else. A huge surge of protectiveness had arisen with him at the thought of anything happening to her. Then he’d distracted her with sex. Hell, who was he kidding? He’d needed the distraction.
“Okay, what’s wrong with you?” Cassidy said from the passenger seat. “You’ve been weird all morning.”
He jerked into awareness, pissed he’d been on autopilot. “Nothing.”
“You’ve got this huge frown about a mile wide like you’re angry at something.”
He tried straightening his expression. “I do not.”
“You woke up like this. You sure weren’t this way last night.”
“What way?”
“You know. Quiet. Frowning and looking—I dunno—as if you have a corn cob up your rear.”
He glanced over at her in surprise, but she wasn’t joking—her expression didn’t give him anything but maybe exasperation. She hadn’t whined or raised her voice or done any of the stereotypical things he expected. Cassidy redefined everything he thought he knew about relationships, and he didn’t want to keep being wrong.
“It’s your imaginatio
n,” he said.
Her mouth took on a doubt-ridden smile. “Right.”
She leaned her head back against the seat and made that noise every woman seemed to know from birth. That sigh that implied a man’s guilt from that single sound.
Somewhat relieved she wasn’t insisting or nagging, he said, “Tell me again why the Hexley Place and the munitions place can help you with this hum investigation.”
“If there’s something covert going on here, both places would be ideal to hide in plain sight, right?” she asked.
“I suppose.”
“What if the military is still using the munitions place?”
He threw her a doubtful look before returning his gaze to the blacktop. “What? The big, bad military industrial complex?”
She grunted. “No. But the military does have secrets they have to keep. What’s better than hiding in plain sight?”
He shook his head. “It would be too hard to keep that a secret. Every kid in town who parked up here? There’s no way they wouldn’t have stumbled onto something by now. There’s nothing up there but the old Hexley house, a bunch of dilapidated Quonset huts and other junk. Most I’ve seen is signs of illegal camping. Probably from a homeless person.”
She went silent for a bit before saying, “Okay. I suppose it’s farfetched. I’m still checking it out.”
The teenaged boy left inside him wanted to explore. “I haven’t been out to this place since…”
Her voice, when it came, was hushed. “Since your dad?”
He drew in a breath, one that hitched at the end. “Yeah.” His father’s deeds and imprisonment had riddled his family with holes, as much as if his father had shot them with bullets. Coming back here twisted his stomach in knots. “Yeah.”
She reached over and touched his shoulder in a gentle caress that sent warmth through him and eased the ache inside.
“So when the sheriff’s department has gotten calls out this way you’ve never…” she drifted off.
“Nope. Someone else always takes the call.”
“I see.”
“I’ve felt like a coward every time they’d taken the call, and I’ve stayed away.”
Ah, shit. Had he said that out loud?
“You’re not a coward.” Her voice was fierce with conviction. “You’re coming out with me right now.”
He made a noise in his throat that articulated his doubt. “I’m going with you because you’re stubborn as hell and won’t drop the idea of exploring.”
She laughed softly. “You’re worried about me.”
“Of course I’m worried, damn it. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I don’t know. I just…” There was a new softness; a vulnerability in her usually confident tone. “It feels kind of nice that you’re worried about me.”
Something ached inside him, a longing he’d never experienced. It made him want to say stupid things, to go all friggin’ mushy. Oh, hell. Damn. He felt himself slipping over some sort of precipice.
So he put it into the only words he could articulate. “No one is going to hurt you when I’m around. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
The world didn’t dissolve. Besides, he meant every fuckin’ word.
When he glanced over she had one of those satisfied smiles that looked similar to the look in her eyes when she’d just come apart in orgasm. His cock took notice again and a rush of need flooded his loins. He wrestled with ridiculous arousal. Now was not the time to think about pulling to the side of the road and taking her. He shook his head.
When she didn’t speak, he said, “From what I’ve heard all the kids think the munitions place and the Hexley place is haunted, and so do some of the adults and it keeps them away. We get the occasional ghost hunting group who doesn’t ask for permission. One of them almost broke their freaking neck falling into a hole last year.”
“Well, this might be a goose chase. If it is, we move on to something else.”
Yeah, if he didn’t embarrass himself when they reached the dreaded munitions area and Hexley place, he’d move on to something else with her.
The left the outskirts of town and headed into the country for several miles, pinion pines and aspen spreading over the mountain landscape. She’d worn her normal boots, laced up tight with long cargo pants and her backpack full of supplies including food, water and a first-aid kit. His pack plus water and supplies lay in the back seat. They were prepared for whatever the place could throw at them. Plus, he’d made sure his weapon was in the holster at his waist.
“I’d think hiding a hum in a so-called haunted place would be a bad idea.” He rolled to a four way stop and looked both ways before proceeding.
“Why?”
“Because look at this area.” He turned left down a dirt road heading into territory that frequently turned into a raging river during summer rains. They started to bump along the dirt road, and he avoided huge pot holes as he took the road at a crawl. “The road sucks. It’s hard to get into this place.”
“My reasoning exactly. Why do you think kids come out here to park? It’s hard to get here and its quiet. There’s nothing else for miles.”
“At least ten miles.”
“Yep.” She lifted her right leg and hooked her ankle over her opposite knee. “A good a place for hanky panky as any I’ve seen.”
He smiled. “Hanky panky. Isn’t that a little old school?”
She grinned back. “Bite me.”
Heat blossomed in his groin. “Thought I did already.”
She barked a laugh, the sound carefree.
Damn. She was not only beautiful, he admired her bravery. Her quick thinking. He didn’t want to care for her this much, but he was screwed. He’d always wanted her, and he would do anything to avoid hurting her.
He returned his thoughts to what she’d told him about her Internet research. She’d given him the rundown, a long list of areas where the hum had been heard, such as Bristol, England and Taos, New Mexico and also several of the theories. It was usually a persistent, low-frequency sound. Most people heard the sound more often inside buildings than they did outside. Recently there was a town back east where people could hear it outside at least as well as inside. Scientists eventually figured out in that case that it was shifting ground and minor earthquakes. And even tracking could account for some of the minor quakes, but not in this case. No one was doing fracking in the county.
They jostled over the rough road. He took it slowly, working his way around pot holes the size of Delaware. Crap this was a mess. It hadn’t snowed in a while so at least the road wasn’t muddy. They came to a T in the road.
“Right for Hexley and left for the munitions area,” he said. “Which one first?”
She shrugged. “Munitions I guess.”
He turned the vehicle left and it wasn’t long before the bunker-looking buildings came into view and the tell-tale shape of Quonset huts. About a hundred yards back, tall concrete towers about three stories high rose into the sky. Bunkers were partially hidden from the main road by pine trees planted around the time the munitions area was built in 1942. As far as he knew, the place hadn’t been used for any military purpose since 1965. The Hexley family had originally owned the land the bunkers were built upon, and when the government had offered them money for the property in 1942, they’d taken a large payout. In fact, the old Hexley house had gained a few more rooms and luxuries after they sold the land. From the time the munitions area and bunkers had been closed, the government had let the place crumble. While they’d taken all the munitions, rumors had built around the place—most of the tales were damned implausible. Jersey Devil type creatures flying around the abandoned buildings. Mutated creatures of every nightmare. Mothman bullshit. Maybe the most incredible and implausible tale of all featured an old man wandering the property who could move objects, fly and do tricks no human could do. Hell, kids high on weed and meth saw a lot of things that didn’t exist.
“Beats the hell out of me wh
y any of the kids would want to park up here.” He glanced over at her as they turned right this time into the rocky driveway leading up to the numerous buildings.
“Think about it. Teenagers like the thrill. Maybe the scare makes them horny.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I suppose that’s possible.”
“How big is this area really?” she asked.
“About six hundred acres.”
“Wow. I never imagined. I didn’t really pay a lot of attention to this place when I was in high school.”
Curiosity ate at him. “You didn’t park here with any guys?”
“No way.”
He couldn’t help the satisfaction that gave him.
“We aren’t going to accidentally step on any unexploded ordnance are we?” Her tone held the barest hint of nerves.
“No. The army took it all when they left.”
“Good. I feel like taking all my parts with me back to Costa Rica.”
Her wry sense of humor made him grin. God, he liked that about her. “Yeah. I like all your parts.”
Her cheeks went pink, and he loved the way he could do that to her.
He parked, and they exited the vehicle. He walked around to the hood of the SUV and stared at the main building. Once two stories tall, it had lost the second floor a long time ago. Despite the decrepit state of the buildings, he didn’t feel a threat exploring them. They stayed out of the buildings, watched their step, and looked for any signs that would tell them someone had moved in illegally. After an hour of walking around and exploring the skeleton-like buildings, they returned to the vehicle.
After they climbed back into the car, Cassidy turned to him with a curious expression. “Well that was a bust. Where to now?”
“Hexley I guess. Pretty sure we aren’t going to find a damned thing there, either.”
Her beautiful eyes sparkled, and her gaze skated over him in a searching way. “Thanks for bringing me out here even if you don’t believe in the hum.”
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