“Good morning, beautiful,” he said, his voice low and raspy. His morning voice was seriously the sexiest thing in the world. “Waking up to this is seriously incredible.”
Goosebumps sped down my spine when his hands slid from my hips to my breasts. He used his knuckles to lightly massage them, warming me up, and it took me a minute to gain the strength to answer him.
“Morning,” I gasped out, all of my focus on him. I couldn’t hold back my moan when he rolled my nipples with the tips of his fingers.
He grinned, loving the effect he had on me. “Did you sleep well?” I could only nod as he continued to play with them, slow and torturously, reminding me of what he’d done to my body last night. “Me, too. I actually slept better than I have in weeks.”
I couldn’t stop my gaze from roaming down and admiring my insatiable view of him, eyeing the muscles of his hard chest. Beads of water dripped from his muscles and the tip of his cock. I licked my lips when I realized it was already hard. He was ready for me, and the intense beat of my heart confirmed I felt the same way.
His hand stayed on my breast while I slowly reached down and wrapped my hand around his erection. It jerked in my hold.
He tilted up his hips. “Did you think about our talk last night?”
“I did,” I answered, slowly starting to glide my hand up and down his dick.
He shut his eyes, his head falling back. “And?”
“I think we can give it another go. No secrets this time.”
My breathing hitched when he brought me in closer. His wet lips caressed my neck. “Absolutely no secrets.” He pulled away, just a little, to make eye contact while I continued to slowly stroke him. “So you’re back to being all mine?” He reached down to gently caress me between my legs, his fingers teasing my opening.
I pushed into him, begging for more. “I am. I always have been.”
“Fuck yes.” I lost my hold on him and yelped when I was pushed back against the cold, tiled wall. I missed the warmth of the water, but I knew he was going to heat me up in a much more satisfying way. “I love hearing you say that.”
His hands went straight to my ass, gripping it tightly, and he hoisted me up in his arms. His mouth went to my tits, sucking greedily on my sensitive nipples, while he still continued to tease me with his fingers.
I cried out when he plunged a finger deep inside of me. God, this was bliss. Perfect. Something I’d missed so damn much. Deep down, I knew that no one, absolutely no one, could bring out these feelings in me. No one could cause me to tear down my inhibitions and give them my all but this man.
And now, he was mine, all mine, and I was all his.
“I need more,” I breathed out.
“You want more?” he asked, adding a finger and upping his pace.
“Yes! More than just your fingers. All of you.”
And he gave me what I wanted. His fingers abruptly slid out of my folds. He tightened his hold on me and replaced them with this cock.
“Damn I missed you, missed this pussy,” he moaned out, slowly thrusting in and out of me. His lips met mine, kissing me softly.
He was being gentle, too gentle, and I didn’t like it.
“Harder,” I pressured. “Give it to me harder.”
“No,” he grunted out. “I want this to last. I don’t want to lose you yet.”
“Please,” I begged, panting against his lips.
“Are you sure?”
I nodded, and he did as he was told. The sound of our bodies slapping against one another’s in the water was mesmerizing. Just like I thought, he warmed me up, heat shooting through my entire body, while he pumped in and out of me.
It was building … my heart pulsating … until I couldn’t hold back any longer. I moaned out and fell slack against the shower wall. He continued to drive inside of me, not losing his hold, and groaned out his release. We were both panting as he carefully set me back down to my feet.
“Looks like that sealed the deal,” he said, with a laugh. He tipped his head down to kiss me.
“I think we sealed the deal a while back,” I replied, catching my breath. “This is icing on the cake.”
“No, icing on the cake will be the day you let me put a ring on you.”
I grinned.
Some people thought that I took him back, forgave him too soon, but it was my love life. Not theirs. I was only worried about my happiness now.
The things he did were wrong, but he was apologetic. He was sorry. He was only trying to protect me.
If people didn’t understand that, then they didn’t understand our love. They didn’t understand moving on and realizing what’s best for your family.
And I honestly was done giving a shit about what people thought.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DALTON
“I have to go to the office for a bit. Do you want to come or stay in this warm, comfy bed?” I asked Gabby. I nestled in closer to her body and wrapped my arms around her, kissing the back of her neck.
She let out a moan, and her arm reached out to slide around my neck. “As much fun as that sounds, I think I’ll stay here,” she replied. “My morning is starting off pretty damn well. I’m not going to let that drama kill my mood.”
Her hand tightened around me, and I continued to run my lips along her soft skin. The feeling was mutual. Staying there with her sounded more alluring than anything, especially walking into Douglas PR, but I had a job to do. A murder to solve. I had to get this mess figured out. We were having a baby, and protecting my family was the most important thing to me.
“Okay,” I whispered, against her skin. “I’ll be home in a few hours and take you to lunch. Call me if you need anything.” I reached down and rubbed her stomach over the sheets. “I can’t wait to meet our little one.”
***
I shut my computer off and was about to get up to leave when I heard the knock on my office door.
“Come in,” I yelled, hoping my father wasn’t on the other side. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with his bullshit. I held in a nervous breath when the door slowly opened and released it when Summer appeared in the doorway. Thank fuck. Her face was pale, like she’d seen a ghost. Something was wrong. “What’s up?”
“So … I’m not sure if this is good or bad,” she answered, the words falling from her red lips slowly.
“What is it?” I rushed out, waiting for it to be bad. I normally wasn’t a rider on the road of pessimism, but shit hadn’t been working out in my favor lately.
“Ivy’s parents are here to see you.”
Fuck. That definitely wasn’t what I’d been expecting. “Her parents are here to see me?” I paused, taking in her words like I’d misheard them. She nodded, and from the look on her face, I knew she was aware of the Ivy situation – most likely from my father. He seemed to always go to her when he either wanted to get laid, have his ego stroked, or rant about work. I took another breath and released it slowly. What the hell did I do? Turn them away or contact my lawyer before meeting with them? “Send them in.” She nodded and turned around to leave. “And Summer.” She stopped to look back at me. “Please don’t say anything to my dad.”
A faint smile flashed on her lips. “I won’t. You’ve got my word.”
My pulse skyrocketed when she walked away and shut the door. Was this a good idea? Or was I digging myself an even bigger grave?
I got up from my chair as soon as she brought them in. I’d only met Ivy’s father once, and it hadn’t exactly been pretty. He’d pulled a gun on me, telling me to stay the hell away from his daughter, after I kept trying to persuade her to retract her affair statement.
Thomas and Becky Hart. I knew more about them than I should have. We’d looked into them – their bank statements, call logs, hacked into their car GPS system to see where they’d been. We didn’t find anything substantial. The chance that Ivy’s parents had something to do with her murder was slim, but I never said never. They could’ve found out about the big chunk o
f money Edith had given their daughter and wanted it for themselves.
I looked for signs of anger, blame, something, but the only look I saw on their faces was devastation. They introduced themselves, and I shook their hands, asking them to have a seat. Summer scurried out of the room, most likely scared to hear anything else my dad would get pissed about her hiding from him.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said, leaning back against the edge of my desk.
“Thank you,” Thomas replied, looking down at the floor. Becky only nodded. “This hasn’t been easy for us.”
I wanted to say some words of wisdom, something to put their minds at ease, but I was drawing a blank. I wasn’t the best person to help people grieve.
“What can I help you guys with?” That was the best thing I could ask them? It was forward, but I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer. I couldn’t put their mind at ease when mine felt like a rollercoaster. Why were they here? Especially since I heard they were the ones who told the cops about Gabby and me.
Thomas folded his hands in his lap and finally looked at me. “We want your help in finding out who did this horrific thing to our baby girl,” he answered. “We …” He stopped, fighting back tears. “We don’t have a lot of money, but I hear you guys are the best at finding answers. You were persistent in talking to Ivy. You take your job seriously, and we want that seriousness in finding out the true story. We think you might know what she was up to more than anyone.”
It took me a second to digest his words. I pointed to myself. “You want me to help you?” He nodded. “After you gave the police my name as a possible suspect, causing them to bring me in and question me like some criminal?”
“We gave them everyone’s name we knew had been in contact with Ivy. Her friends, ex-boyfriends, co-workers, everyone. We gave them anything we could think of. We’re desperate to find her killer.”
They could’ve actually been of some use to me. “First, I don’t care about the money. Consider this pro-bono. Do you still have that list you gave them?”
“We do.” His hands shook as he pulled out a paper from his pocket and handed it to me. I frowned when I noticed there were only a few names on there. Apparently, they didn’t know who their daughter had been hanging out with.
“Do you mind if I make a copy?”
He nodded. “Does this mean you’re going to help us?”
“It does, but if I help you, you have to help me.”
“Anything,” Becky said. Her first words since she’d stepped in here.
“You find anything else, you come to me first.” I needed to be one step ahead of Harold. They both nodded. Perfect. “Do you have anything else for me that might help us?”
“We do. We made copies of everything. They’re at the house. You’re more than welcome to come over and go through them. She was also …” He paused. “She was also receiving threatening notes.”
“Terrible ones,” Becky added. “That’s why she was staying with us.”
“Do you have them?” She shook her head. “We gave them to the Police.” Fuck! We needed to get into evidence. I needed to call one of my dad’s guys.
I snatched my phone from my pocket and put it to my ear. “Hey Murphy, stop whatever you’re doing and meet me in the lobby.” I hung up and looked at my visitors. “I’ll follow you to your house.”
***
“Did you tell your dad about this?” Murphy asked, when we got in his car and started following Thomas and Becky. I gave him a look from the passenger’s seat. I thought it would be a smarter choice to take his car than mine, just in case someone was watching their house. “Of course, you didn’t. He’s going to be pissed.”
I shrugged. “And I don’t give a flying fuck. This is my best shot at finding out who did this before they start heavily looking into John and us. He better be thanking me for this shit.”
“What about the police’s evidence? Have you got anything from your boy there?”
“I texted him before I left the office and told him to find me something. One hundred bucks for everything reliable.”
“You give them dudes a hundred a pop? I’m about to change careers and be a shady cop.”
“Shut up. You know damn well you get paid better than that.” I shook my head before grabbing my phone and hitting Gabby’s name. “Hey babe, how are you feeling?”
“Good. Starving,” she answered.
Shit. I felt bad. I hated canceling on her, but I didn’t know if I’d get this opportunity again. “Do you think you can wait a little longer before lunch? Or maybe see if your mom or Cora wants to go with you? I’m so sorry, but Ivy’s parents showed up at my office.”
“What?” she screeched. “Of course, the day I decide to not come to work they show up. Go figure. All the good shit happens when I’m not there.”
“You can meet us there,” I offered. Did I want her anymore tangled up in this? Absolutely not. But she liked to be updated on everything going on, considering she was also involved.
“No, it’s fine. Cora texted me earlier asking me what I was doing today, so I’ll meet up with her. You go, and you’ll be telling me every detail when you get home, mister.”
“I already planned on it.” I knew I’d be getting an interrogation as soon as I walked through the front door. Gabby didn’t like to be involved in drama, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to hear every single detail about it. “Let me know if you need anything. I love you.”
“Love you, too.”
“Oh, love is in the air,” Murphy sang out, when I hung up. He chuckled at my dirty look. Bastard was jealous that I found the girl of my dreams, while he was too busy hacking into porn sites for free.
Murphy parked behind them in the driveway of a one-story brick ranch. “I want you to take pictures of everything … every single fucking thing,” I told him, before getting out. “Receipts, records, notes. Even if it doesn’t look like anything. I don’t know if they’re going to let us take this shit with us or not, but I know something in there is going to help us.”
“Got it,” Murphy replied.
We got out of the car and followed them into their home.
“We made copies of everything before giving it to the police,” Thomas said, signaling to a cardboard box on the kitchen table.
“Are the threat letters in there?” I asked.
It took Thomas a minute before answering. “Everything but that. We didn’t think about it until it was too late, and the cop said they were already in police custody.”
“Can we take the box?” I asked. Thomas hesitated for a moment. “Or at least make copies of everything. You probably don’t want me here all night.” If they said no, that was exactly what I was going to do.
“There’s a copy machine in the office down that hallway,” he answered, pointing the way.
“And her bedroom?” Murphy asked.
“Directly across from it.”
Thomas grabbed the box on the table and followed us. Ivy’s bedroom was nothing like the upscale apartment I had visited her at. The furniture was old, scratched, and adolescent. Boy band posters were still taped on the walls.
I looked over at Thomas, curious whether he’d stay or leave us. He stayed. Murphy pulled his phone from his pocket and started taking pictures of everything.
We’d stayed in Ivy’s room for over an hour but weren’t finding anything. She either didn’t keep anything there, had gotten rid of it, or was hiding it somewhere else. Broken trails kept coming up, and it was discouraging. I felt like I was running out of time.
“This was a fail,” I muttered. “The only things in this room are stuffed animals, makeup, and shoes. Let’s go.”
“We’ll keep looking elsewhere,” Murphy said, noticing my disappointment. “Trust me when I say we will find something. I’ll look at every phone call she made and received and then contact everyone on her parent’s list.”
We started to head out of her bedroom when something caught my eye. “Loo
k,” I said, snagging the robe from the hook on the back of the door. I fingered the embroidered logo on the chest. I’d never personally been to the hotel, but I knew that logo from anywhere. Everyone did.
“The Chancellor,” Murphy said, eyeing the robe. “The mistress and hooker capital of Atlanta. Do you think it means something?”
I thought about it for a second and frowned. “Probably not. She was John’s mistress, so I’m sure he took her there before getting her the apartment. She probably kept it because these things are nice as hell.”
***
“Tell me the good news,” I said, answering the phone on the way back to the office from Ivy’s parent’s house. Please let this be a good phone call.
“Well … I got in,” Lonnie, my inside source at the station said. Lonnie wasn’t that high in the rankings yet, so it was more difficult for him to feed us intel, but the man was persistent and liked the extra cash.
“And?”
“To be honest, there wasn’t much in there. It looked like they hadn’t even started on the investigation yet. Her phone records and everything was gone. It’s weird as hell, man. Either they’re doing a sucky ass job on the case, or someone is trying to hide something.”
“What about the notes?” I rushed out. “Were there any threatening notes in there?”
“Yeah. I managed to take pictures of them, as well as the evidence inventory.”
“Send me picture of the notes, inventory, everything you managed to get.”
“Got it. It’s on its way as soon as I hang up.”
“Thanks. I’ll text you the address where you can pick up the cash.” I hung up and looked at Murphy. “He said there was barely shit in there. But he did get snaps of the notes.” I relaxed against the seat. “I know this might be out of left field, and I could be completely wrong, but I have a feeling there’s a reason why there isn’t shit in there. I think someone involved could be on the force.”
“And last I heard, Harold is pretty easy to buy off,” he replied.
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