by Milly Taiden
He looked up at her from his position lying on his stomach. “Really?”
“Oh, butt wait. I’d like to thank you for busting your ass out there. I knew you had one smart ass . . . or are you just a wise ass?”
“No! Stop!” Barry guffawed. “I can’t stand being the butt of your jokes. Nor can I stand.”
Charli plopped down on a swivel chair. “Whew, I’m glad that’s over.”
“Really? You’re done now?” he gave her a skeptical look.
She nodded. “Yeah. I’m pooped.”
A grin broke over his lips and his laughter thundered in the house.
She leaped from her chair, headed for the kitchen. Barry reached out and snagged her leg. “Get your ass over here, woman.” Trying to pull out of his grasp, laughing turned to snorting, and she slipped to the floor. From his prone position on the sofa, his arm slid her across the hardwood to where he lay. The guy had serious muscles to be able to do that with her curvy body.
He chuckled like a pirate. “Now you’re mine, wench.” His hand wrapped around the back of her head and pulled her close, bringing her lips to his.
The kiss was all-consuming. He took her mouth hard, with a wildness that left her breathless. Almost as if she’d just run a marathon. The spikes of adrenaline inside her sent fire to her core. There was no doubt where this was going. She’d wanted him from the moment their eyes met and now it was their time. He growled softly by her lips, his tongue dancing over hers and sucking it into his mouth.
Her body took over. The feel of his hands gliding down to slip under her shirt only urged her on. With nimble fingers, he removed her top and drew circles with his tongue over her collarbone. Her respiration faltered. She’d never had a man touch her to the point that her insides melted. He skimmed his mouth over her cute lacy bra. Thank god she’d worn the nice one today. Too bad the top didn’t match the bottom, but she doubted he’d care.
He kissed his way down to her belly button, bit the small indentation, and then twirled his tongue in circles over it. Lust clawed at her chest. Her body throbbed with her need for release.
Her legs shook like she’d been working out for hours. Anticipation made her almost giddy as he continued to kiss his way down to her hips. She gulped unsteady breaths. He hooked his hands in her pants and dragged them down her legs. Then it came time for her underwear. For a second, common sense tried to hit her in the head, but desire slammed the door closed on it.
Muscles strung tightly, she watched as he tugged her tiny bikini underwear down. She didn’t care if she was a bigger girl, she still wore the stuff she felt sexy in. That was part of who she was. Her heartbeat pounded in her head. She breathed so fast, she swore she’d pass out. His gaze lifted from between her legs to meet hers. Oh damn. That look of pure ownership he gave her made her channel slicker.
Then he did it. Oh, he went straight for the kill. He licked her pussy in a slow, drawn-out caress. Lord have mercy!
“I can’t fucking wait any longer,” he growled.
Stars exploded behind her lids. She moaned out a curse and begged as she drew breath. Fire spread in her veins. This was new, amazing, and totally different from any man. Desperation bloomed inside her. Barry was so good with his tongue. Too good. He rumbled a soft sweet word and she saw heaven. Even in the middle of this, he still managed to call her beautiful.
“Barry . . .”
He stopped, and she bit back a curse. What the hell was wrong with him? Why would he stop now?
“Listen to me carefully, sweetheart,” he said, and she could hear the roughness of his bear in his voice. “I’m going to eat your sweet pussy like no fucking man has ever done before. My mouth, my tongue, and my teeth are going to own you. With every lick and suck, I’m going to take you and stamp your scent on my face. All mine.”
She gulped at the proprietary note in his voice. He licked up her pussy lips and she groaned at the way her channel grasped at nothing. “Every drop of your honey belongs to me.” He licked a circle around her clit. “Every moan. Every groan. Everything. And when you come”—he fondled her with his tongue for a millisecond and she almost cried—“and you will come like the world is fucking ending, you’re going to know that I’m the only fucking man you want in your body. Me. Only me. No other. Only I have the right to be here.”
He slid a finger into her pussy. Her channel contracted around his digit in a tight grip. “That’s right, baby. When the time comes, it’s going to be my dick in you. My cock pounding your pussy and making you mine. My name being screamed from your gorgeous lips.”
He thrust his tongue into her and growled. The vibration made her entire body shudder. Whimpers slipped past her lips at the same moment that shakes rattled her core. She wiggled her sex closer to his face. Another lick. Up to her tight little nubbin and down to her ass. Repeat. He knew just how to touch her, how to make her melt.
Lust roared louder inside her, almost as if she were the shifter. Animalistic desire had her panting and tense, ready for her body to burst into flames. Arousal gathered hot and tight at the very spot he continued to lick mercilessly. She was close, so close. Her body screamed for her to hurry and give in or she’d die a slow death. Heat skyrocketed inside her. Perspiration coated her skin. More. Faster. She needed him to get her there, over the edge.
“Barry, I need . . .”
Him. Now. Preferably moving at a faster pace.
The feel of his teeth and tongue circling and nibbling her bundled flesh was more than she could take. Electric currents zoomed through her and pushed her off that final ledge. He growled again. The vibration increased her pleasure. High. Higher. So high she swore and shook with the force of her release. Her body jerked under his lips. He continued to lick her, sucking, rubbing his face on her wet folds.
Holy mother of vibrators. The bear had a tongue that needed insuring. Breaths came in short, ragged puffs. Fuck breathing, she could die at that moment and it would have all been worth it. All the years without sex and her inability to find a man who could touch her in the ways she desired. They’d disappeared with a single lick of Barry’s tongue on her girl parts. Barry pushed back. His face had turned into a feral mask of desire. Wild hunger had taken over his features. His nostrils flared, his jaw clenched, and the vein on the side of his neck throbbed. Fuck. Looking at him made her pussy quiver—again.
“What’s wrong?” she asked hoarsely.
He inhaled and groaned. “You smell so fucking good. I can’t— Your taste? Delicious. It’s hard for me to control this bear. The animal side is aggressive. He wants you. All he keeps demanding is to take you. To fuck you until all you have is my seed deep in your body, marking you as mine.” His gaze clashed with hers. “To fuck you. To watch my cum drip out of your slit. He wants me to make you mine again and again, until your legs can’t hold you up and they’re shaking from how hard you come.”
Goddamn that was sexy. Oh so sexy. She could see the way he struggled to control his animal. “Barry, I love how much you want me right now. Hell, I feel like I’m in curvy girl heaven, but I think you need a little time getting to know your bear before we—you know.”
He licked his lips. Oh dear god, he licked his lips and the golden light in his eyes grew brighter. A short rumble later and he nodded. “You’re right. I need to learn control before we go further.” He crawled up her body and pressed his hard erection into the juncture of her thighs. His lips brushed over hers. The taste of her own body made her slick all over again. “I’m going to have you soon. Very soon.”
God, she hoped so.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Devin leaned over his desk, the two case files neatly aligned, showing shots from both the bank and jewelry store robberies. No signs of forced entry at either location. No prints at any door or window. Unless the perp was a ghost who could walk through walls, he was stumped at the moment.
“Wassup, Sonder?” Russel shuffled up to his desk.
“Looking over the files Detective Gibbons brough
t this morning.”
“Man, is she hot or what. I’d sniff a mile to see where she pees.”
Devin turned to his coworker, face dead serious. “Is that because you’re a horny toad?” Russel stared at his eyes, probably trying to figure out if he was serious or not. Devin had a dry sense of humor and he loved to screw with other people’s heads. He decided to let Russel off the hook. “I’m joking, Mayer.” Devin slapped Russel’s back.
Russel’s tense body relaxed. “Right.” He smiled. “Gotcha, there.”
Devin turned back to the pictures and various papers. “Nothing looks out of the ordinary for the human world. If it is a shifter committing these crimes, then, I don’t know. Maybe they have magic.”
“Nah, dude. Magic isn’t real. It’s aliens.” Devin raised a brow at him. “Yeah, seriously. Those little fuckers are slippery. Mean as hell, too.”
“You’ve personally met an alien?”
“Not really. But my sister’s boyfriend’s cousin swears he did. They were hiking somewhere out east and said they saw a ship rise out of the ground. Well, not really a ship, but something like a ship. Then guards with dogs chased them away. And when they went back the next day, the mountain was gone.”
“A mountain? Gone?”
Russel shrugged. “That’s what they said. Personally, I think they were high, but what do I know?”
“Well”—Devin wiped a hand over his brow—“let’s eliminate aliens, for right now. Sound good?”
“Yup, works for me. I’m just saying.”
“No, I get it. Keep an open mind, right? We’re dealing with more than human stuff,” Devin said.
“Right, right.” Russel rubbed his hands together. “So did the footage of the naked—I mean, the video come in for either burglary?”
Devin sat in his chair and wiggled the mouse on its pad. “Just got it from the detective. Haven’t looked through it yet.” Russel leaned over Devin so closely, Devin could feel his body heat. “Uh, Mayer, would you like to join in?”
Mayer slapped him on the back hard enough to shove his chair forward, mashing him against the desk. “Yeah, sure, man. Thanks for asking.” He rolled in a seat from the empty desk on the other side of the partition. “Okay, whatcha got?”
Devin clicked the Play button on the computer monitor. A grayscale image of a small, narrow room popped onto the screen. On the back wall looked to be a door with a keypad next to it. The time code at the bottom of the screen read 03:34, between three and four in the morning.
At the top of the screen, the door from the outer hall opened and the figure of a woman with thick black hair to her waist walked in. Half the hair was combed forward, covering her face. Only the tip of her nose showed. Now Devin understood why they couldn’t ID the woman by sight.
She stopped at the keypad, and with a long, sharp fingernail she pushed the buttons, and the door popped open. And that would be why there were no strange fingerprints at the crime scenes. No, she couldn’t do everything with only nails. There had to be a print somewhere.
The shot on the screen changed to inside the vault. The woman quickly loaded stacks of money into plastic bags hanging on her arm. When the bags were full, she left both rooms. Since the hall was part of the employee-only area, with only the break room across the hall, there were no cameras monitoring it. Just the vault rooms. That was probably changing now.
Devin clicked the Stop button on the video. “Well, that was sort of strange.”
Russel snorted. “Couldn’t even see anything.” Devin was sure Russel wasn’t referring to the thief’s face.
“Let’s see what else is included.” He clicked the green triangle on the screen and the image changed to a long hallway with several offices to the sides. The big door at the far end had a sign: Banking Personnel Only. “That must be the hall leading to the bank lobby.” The time at the bottom of the screen coincided with the other angles. “So there should be a person walking through the shot to get out of the building.”
After several seconds of nothing, Devin fast-forwarded the image. A streak of something dark flashed and had him rewinding a bit. He hit Play to watch a fluffy black cat slowly strolling into one of the offices.
Russel recoiled in his chair. “Eww. I hate cats.”
“What’s wrong with cats?” Devin turned his poker face to Russel.
“They give me the willies. Those fuckers are worse than aliens. Especially with their sharp-ass claws.”
“You mean like this?” Devin lifted a hand and morphed it into his panther’s paw, claws extended.
Russel scrambled his chair back, hand over his heart. “Don’t do that, man. You scared the shit out of me. I’ll have nightmares for a month now.”
Devin laughed. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, I’m as serious as the heart attack you just about gave me. Shit.”
Director Milkan stuck his head over the wall partition. “What are y’all doing? Sinatra, you screaming like a girl again?”
“It wasn’t my fault this time.” He pointed to Devin, then looked at Milkan. “When did you get in?”
“Just walked in to hear your lovely singing.” Milkan looked at the computer monitor. “Are those the security shots from the bank?”
Devin pivoted his chair toward the other two. “They are. I can see why the police are stumped. Doesn’t show much but a woman with long hair disappearing after robbing the vault.”
“What about the jewelry store?” Milkan asked.
“Haven’t received that footage yet. I think we need to check out both places for ourselves,” Devin said. “Get a feel for everything.”
“It’s been weeks since the robberies.” Milkan shrugged. “Probably won’t be anything to find that’s not contaminated in some way.”
“Maybe.” Devin stood and pulled on his suit jacket.
“All right,” Milkan said, stepping back. “I’ll buy us lunch on the way. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Devin pushed open a door from the sidewalk with the name Stevens Jewelry etched into the glass. Overhead, a brass bell rattled. A tall saleswoman approached from the side.
“Mr. Milkan. It’s lovely to see you again.” She reached out to shake Milkan’s hand. His cheeks flushed a light pink.
“Uh, yes. Good to see you, too.”
“How does your wife like the earrings you bought her?”
“She loves them. You were right about the cut. Should never question a lady who knows her jewelry.” The woman laughed. After an awkward second, Milkan continued. “We’re here to see Mr. Stevens.” He pulled a business card from his inside pocket and handed it to her.
She glanced at it. “I didn’t know you were with the police. Special unit?”
Russel leaned forward. “Yeah, we investigate the freaky shit.” Both men discreetly backhanded him. “What? We do,” he whispered liked a scorned little kid. The lady disappeared into a back room. A minute later a short, balding man hurried from the back, hand extended.
“Director Milkan. Thank you for coming. Do you have any news on my stolen merchandise?”
“No, sir, we don’t. But we’d like to have another look around, if we could.”
The man looked dejected. “S-sure, I don’t think there is anything here that will help. The glass with the hole cut into it was replaced last week. The other police took it with them.” He pointed to a cabinet displaying a ton of bling. Devin thought one piece of that crap would cost his entire year’s salary. He didn’t understand why women had to have it so badly. If he ever met a woman, he wouldn’t be buying anything so useless. He’d consider power tools, though.
Devin whispered to Milkan, “Why was there a hole cut in the glass?”
“Because the cabinets are hooked up to alarms. If they slide open or if the glass is smashed through, then alarms immediately sound.”
“Ah, so the thief had done her homework. Could it be an inside job?”
The director paused. “I wonder if the PD thoug
ht of that. I’d like to get the cutter back. Let’s get a look at the employees for long black hair.” He called to the owner. “Mr. Stevens, do you mind if we walk in the employee areas?”
Stevens stood behind one of the counters. They could barely see the top of his head. “Please do. Everything is through the door there.” The men headed around the counter and followed the aisle through the single door marked Employees Only.
The back rooms were much less spacious than the showroom. Seemed they had an open door policy, which helped. They could walk by and peek in without making a big fuss. A man and a woman with short sandy hair shared an office that had Accounting on the door. Scratch her off the list of candidates.
The next office belonged to the office manager. She sat at her desk, working on her computer. A pile of papers was neatly stacked and arranged by color on a table. On the floor in front of shelves lay a bunched-up old blanket flattened in the middle, possibly for a small child or animal to sleep on. Binders on the shelves were arranged by color, ring width, and height. A printed label graced each spine perfectly.
This could be the woman of his dreams. Devin stepped up to introduce himself, felt a bump on his hip, and the next thing he knew, he was staring at the ceiling, flat on his back. The manager flew from her desk and was at his side in a second.
“Oh my. Are you all right?” she asked. Her dark hair shone under the fluorescent lights, a long braid slid over her shoulder. Her face had the clearest complexion with straight pearly-white teeth. Perfection.
Another lady in an apron with a company logo consisting of a mop and bucket put her hand under his back and helped him sit up. “I am so sorry, sir. I didn’t see you standing there.” She straightened her apron and the handkerchief covering a bun at the bottom of her head. The cleaning woman didn’t look to have the strength to knock him to the ground, but she clearly had.
Devin shook his head to clear the spinning. “I’m sorry. It was my fault for not watching where I was going.” Both ladies helped him to his feet. The cleaning lady slipped off her rubber gloves and wiped down the back of his black jacket while he faced a very lovely lady. He glanced at her soft hands on his arm and saw a wedding ring. Of course. He should’ve known better.