I dragged my nails up her body. She still arched toward my touch, mewing quietly as I reached her neck. Standing at the head of the table, I kissed her. Holding my hand around her neck while my other hand twisted and pulled at her nipple.
She took in a long shaky breath when I released her and stepped away. “What do you want, Sugar?”
“Your fantasy,” she spoke as if her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. “Your worst. Push.”
I flicked one of the clothespins, and she gulped in a rough breath of air.
As I started to step around the table again, her fingers brushed against my belt.
She couldn’t.
I unfastened the cuffs and untied her other arm.
She sat up and pursed her lips, yanking the tie off of her head and snapping it at me. “That all you got?”
I caught the end of the tie and pulled her to my face. “Not at all.”
I untied her legs. “Roll over.”
She didn’t move, so I smacked the inside of her thigh, and she finally rolled over, a smile on her face the whole time.
“Oh, Sugar.” I fished through the open drawer again and came up with a spatula.
I can’t believe I’m really doing this.
But it was damn fun. Especially after being locked up on my own for weeks on end.
The spatula slapped against her skin, and she squeaked, grabbing ahold of the side of the table. “How about this? Zero means you feel great and want to keep going—”
“Zero.”
I raised an eyebrow and smacked her again. “Five means you can’t take it anymore, and the rest is if you need something in between.”
I wanted to move slow—even if she wanted it, one of us could just as easily slide into a flashback that would not only ruin the mood but the entire week.
“Zero,” she said again, this time in a teasing sing-song voice.
I brought the spatula down again, one strike to each ass cheek and one on the back of each thigh. She took a deep breath when I paused, but her body was still.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you enjoy far more than just watching me.” I winked, kissing her shoulder.
All I got was a moan in return that grew louder as I brought the spatula down four more times. I continued beating out a variety of patterns while I listened to her mix of moans and squeaks. She pressed against me as I rubbed a hand across the pinkened skin.
“More, Sugar?”
“Yes,” she breathed.
Where would either of us draw the line?
I took off my belt and folded it over as she watched, biting her lip.
“Where do you stand?”
“One.”
I smiled at her honesty. The belt cracked against her skin and she squeezed her eyes closed. My second strike was a bit lighter, giving her a chance to adjust. After three more strikes, her body—of all things—started to relax.
“Number?” I asked, taking a moment to rub her skin again.
“Zero,” her voice was almost drowsy.
I scoffed. “After all that, you went from one to zero?”
“Mmm,” she took a deep breath. “It’s starting to feel... fuzzy. Good. Very good.”
My next few strikes were harder and swifter, but she didn’t tense again until the third, and then she relaxed again immediately. I sat my belt down on the counter.
Caressing and kissing all of the warm, tender flesh, I moved up her body. Even her shoulders and neck were free from tension, as if I’d just given her a long full-body massage rather than a beating.
“Don’t stop,” she said, voice barely verging on a whisper.
“I think you’ve had enough, Sugar.” I kissed her forehead, but she glared back at me. “And so have I, for now.”
Suddenly, she shivered and goosebumps broke out all over her skin again. “How about we just cuddle for a while?”
I helped her to her feet, and wrapped her in a blanket as we settled on the couch, her laying between my legs and against my chest.
As much as the whole thing turned me on, my cock had resolved to the fact that it wasn’t getting any attention, and I was finally beginning to feel in control of it all.
Chapter 18
Friends, Lovers, and Fiends
I startled at the sound of Trent’s voice.
“About damn time you wake up,” he said.
Still laying against my chest, Rose groaned and pulled the blanket tighter around her.
The room was darker as the late afternoon sun moved to the back of the house. The main source of light came from the lamp Trent must have turned on when he came in.
It took me another second to remember what we’d done.
“We really need some new rules for you barging in here,” I said.
“Right, well if you would have answered the door the first three times I knocked—I was beginning to worry.” He stood above us, hands on hips and oblivious to Rose’s condition beneath the blanket.
“How about you step back out the door?” I raised my eyebrows and cocked my head.
His eyebrows pinched together, then his eyes widened, and he stepped back without another word. I sat up with Rose as the door clicked closed, stealing a final kiss before she dashed off to the kitchen to gather her clothes.
I followed behind at a more casual pace, stowing away all of the implements I’d gathered. “You still okay with everything?”
“Us, yes. Trent, not so much—can I go hide now?” At first, I thought she was kidding, but her eyes were miserably pleading.
I hooked my arm around her neck. “No hiding. Let’s go see what our intruder wants.”
“You see what he wants. If I can’t hide, I’m at least going back to sleep.” She dropped to the couch as we passed and pulled the blanket around herself again.
I opened the door and gave Trent a flat look, but he just laughed in my face. “Next time hang a tie on the door.”
“Didn’t have one to spare.”
Trent gave me a second look as he passed. “Well, I mostly came to see if you wanted anything for dinner. Bad news—”
“Nothing new on the case. Why am I not surprised? I’m about to start subscribing to conspiracy theories.”
Rose squinted at something on the table where I’d left my copies of the case files strewn out. She slid over a piece of paper and picked up the sketch of the second man Raini had described.
“You recognize him?” I asked.
She nodded slowly. “Remember when I said Elijah was talking to an old friend at the bar? This is him,” her voice barely made a sound with her final statement.
Trent and I flanked her—I felt like we were swarming her, but it was the first big break we had.
“You know his name? Anything?” I asked.
“No. He had a wicked scar down his arm, but that’s all I know. Elijah stepped away to talk to him, and Charlene said she didn’t know him either.” She dropped the picture and stood. “Oh god.”
I tried to pull her back, but she shook me off.
“I um.... It’s just that. Elijah knows where my parents live. He’s been there. I told Charlene I was going to be there. That you were taking care of Trapper. I sent her a picture of where we were shopping for dresses. James—” she spun back toward me “—tell me I’m overthinking it. Tell me I’m wrong, being paranoid. Something.”
I stared down at the picture and shook my head. “I don’t know.” I wanted to ease her fears, but couldn’t convince myself to lie to do it. “We need to find him.”
Trent sat against the couch arm. “Charlene said you two went to school together before her family moved to Oklahoma. Then, you both moved here a couple of years ago.”
“Yeah, we always stayed in touch. I never really talked to Elijah though. He had the whole overprotective brother thing down, but not really the social thing. He moved in with her a few months back after a big tiff with his roommate.”
She rubbed her forehead and I pulled her into my lap.
“We need to find out what all he knows,” Trent said.
“No,” I said, and they both looked at me. “I know how you think—” I pointed to Trent “—and Rose is staying out of this.”
“You know how I think because it’s how you’d think too if you didn’t have puppy dog eyes.”
I straightened, nearly shoving Rose back to her feet.
“Guys,” she jumped up before I had the chance. “If I can help, I’ll do it. It’s better than waiting for them to make the next move. Everything has been silent since the threats, maybe going into hiding is what they wanted. Maybe....” She looked back at the photograph. “It’s all a misunderstanding and he can just give us a name.”
“And if he’s willing to kill to protect that name?” I asked.
“He hasn’t done it yet,” Rose said, holding her head high. “And he’s had the opportunity. You drag him in and you throw up all the flags, but if I go over there looking for Charlene—”
“And you’ll randomly ask about the guy he spoke to in the bar? I think by that point he’ll be on to you.”
She shrugged, her gaze moved from me to Trent and back again. “Lucky my guards will be waiting close by.”
Why did I have to go after a girl who was at least as gutsy as me? It had to be against the laws of the universe. “That won’t do us any good if he shoots you first.”
“I doubt he’d know how to aim a gun if he had one. If he goes for something, I’ll drop everything and duck. You know I can do this.”
It was one thing watching her put herself on the line at the Retreat, I didn’t want to do it again. But I also knew she could handle it, and that there was no arguing when she put on her determined face. “Fine, you be the knight in shining armor.”
She smirked and put her hand on her hip.
Trent chuckled. “Sometimes, I question my sanity for encouraging you two. As if you’re both not crazy, intimidating, and stubborn on your own.... We have to get it cleared and get everything set up first.”
“Only if I’m in that surveillance van,” I said.
Trent and I got her set up, and wired, then headed over ahead of time to set up surveillance. I called Detective Winsor to take Rose to her car so she could drive herself.
“If you don’t stop freaking out and bouncing her foot, people are going to think we’re in here having sex,” Trent said.
“It’ll make a good cover,” I said. As much as we tended to quibble and fight, push each other’s buttons, and threaten to rip each other apart, we never had a problem settling back into our usual banter and rhythm.
Trent nodded to the driveway about five hundred feet away from our SUV. “She’s here.”
Rose’s voice came over the receiver. “Hope you guys can hear me.”
I sent her a text: Take it slow.
“Right,” she said.
My phone buzzed.
ROSE: Love you.
She climbed out of the car and headed up to the apartment complex without even looking in our direction.
“She’s good,” Trent said. “Calm, not fidgety—”
“You have no idea how good she is.” I couldn’t imagine that confronting an old friend—even under the current circumstances—could be as intimidating as facing Milo or staring down Ross with his gun pointed to her face.
Over the receiver, we heard the mutter of people passing by, doors opening and closing, and then three solid knocks.
“Rose,” he sounded surprised. “What’s going on?”
“I was hoping Charlene was still around. I’ve been out of the loop for a while.”
“No, she left last week. Everything okay?”
“Yeah, sorry.” There was a pause. “Hey, that guy you were talking to at the bar the other night, I started thinking that he looked familiar and it’s been bugging me. Does he bartend? Pufferbelly maybe?”
“Why would you think that?” He already sounded tense and defensive.
“Just curious. We used to go there all the time, you know.”
“He doesn’t.”
Come on, Rose. I tapped my fingers against my thigh, unable to sit still.
“I’m sure I know him from somewhere. What does he do?”
“Why do you care?” Elijah’s voice rose.
I heard the door close and my heart clenched.
“Like I said,” she kept her voice even and slow, “it was bugging me. How do you know him?”
“Leave it alone,” he said in a hushed voice.
“No big deal, right?” She matched his tone.
My hand clenched against my thigh. I wasn’t sure if she could get anything before he sounded the alarms.
“What do you know?” Elijah asked.
“I asked first. One simple question.”
“You and your cop friends just need to stay out of it.”
Almost there.
“Stay out of it? I wasn’t doing anything when I was threatened last month.”
“It wasn’t a threat,” he growled.
I reached for the door handle—it was enough for me, and with his rising anger, I wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be safe.
Rose snorted. “So you told them where I was? How to find me?”
“No.” There was a long pause, and Elijah’s voice sounded more distant as if he’d moved away from her.
Trent didn’t budge, but I was about to crawl out of my skin. “I don’t like not having eyes on her.”
He put up his hand, staring intently at the receiver. “You said that I have no idea how good she is—maybe you should trust in your own assessment and give her a minute.”
“I didn’t tell anyone where you were,” Elijah said. “They never knew.”
“You arranged the pictures?”
There was silence.
“How dare you,” she yelled so loudly the mic crackled. “Were you also the one shooting up my house?”
“I didn’t expect anyone to be there,” his voice rose again. “They were going to kill Charlene if I didn’t take off some of the pressure.”
“How did you get involved with them in the first place?”
“Long story. I, uh, they got something on me. I just kept going deeper and they—they said they’d kill Charlene and my family.”
“So, much better to threaten my family.”
“I’m sorry, Rose. I had nothing—Please. I knew nothing bad would happen to anyone. They were just pictures.”
“You’re begging from me now. You could have come clean.”
“Not with everything they had on me. I made stupid mistakes. They weren’t—you weren’t supposed to get hurt. B-but I screwed up—I had to save my sister. I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”
“Oh....”
Something rustled against the microphone and my body tensed ready to pounce out of the car, but Trent caught my arm and held up his finger for me to give it another minute.
“Please,” her voice wavered, “tell me you didn’t set me up.”
“They’ll never let me go. They won’t let you go either now.”
“Elijah, wait. We can fix it we can take it—”
“No,” he shouted and something rustled against the mic again.
“Just give me five minutes—”
Five. That was our cue, we signaled for backup to move in and sprinted toward the front of the building.
No noise. No shots. My skin tingled with anticipation.
Just keep him talking, I mentally urged her. Keep him talking and not attacking.
We flanked the door listening for a brief moment to gage what was going on. Trent tried the knob, turning it slowly, then he nodded to me and flung it open.
Rose was in the corner of the room, hands raised in a defensive posture while Elijah stood a few feet in front of her with a kitchen knife.
“I just need to keep her here,” he said.
Trent and I edged around him, until I had a clear line to Rose. Keeping my gun pointed at him, I held my hand out to her. “I’m
not going to let you do that. How about you let her come to me?”
“They’re going to be coming for us,” Elijah said, the knife in his hand shaking. “They know everything. Always.”
“They have the place bugged?” Trent asked, somehow managing to keep his voice com.
“No. They just know.” Elijah’s hand shook even harder.
A parade of officers entered the room behind us.
“Drop the knife, Elijah,” Trent said, moving cautiously toward him. “They’re the least of your worries at the moment.”
Elijah shook his head and charged toward Rose, but Trent caught his arm and in a swift move twisted his forearm around until the knife clattered to the floor. Trent used Elijah’s momentum to then slam him into the wall, and held him there long enough for one of the officers to cuff him.
Rose straightened and ran straight to my arms. “What the fuck took you so long?”
I kissed her forehead and lifted her to her toes. “We came as soon as you said five.”
“Well, that seemed like an hour ago.”
“Sweep the place for radio frequencies,” Trent ordered. “We need to find out quick if they were already listening or if he’s just paranoid. In the meantime, let’s get you two back to the station, too.”
Chapter 19
Traitor Within
“Told you I could handle it,” Rose said with a wink.
We were waiting in the same interview room I’d been shoved into while Trent handled Raini’s interview, but at least this time I had far better company. Rose came over and sat in my lap, curling her arm around my neck.
I clasped my hands around her waist, content to keep her there. “You didn’t seem so cocky when I walked in.”
“Decided to let you play the hero,” she whispered, her nose grazing my cheek.
“Uh huh,” I muttered. There was something off about her—more than the scare she’d received from Elijah. After the long nap she’d had, I didn’t think even the afternoon was intense enough to make her that sleepy, but she sighed and sagged against my shoulder.
“Sometimes, I quite enjoy having you rescue me.” Every sentence was lighter than the last.
I pushed her upright to see her face, her forehead and neck were tense, eyes half hooded. “Headache?”
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