Knox

by Lisa Ladew

  “What a surprise.”

  “Off the record, there are more officers on this case than I’ve ever seen committed to a single murder investigation.”

  “Is it because of Senator Rushton?”

  “That’s my guess. There’s one thing I’ll tell you, Becky. I haven’t passed it on to my superiors yet, but finding you with Jonathan Sloan was probably more damning for him than that anonymous tip.”

  “Why is that?”

  “You know why. You know where you work. Your firm’s reputation precedes you. The only thing that would have been worse than finding you and Jonathan Sloan is finding Kara Henry with Jonathan Sloan.”

  I looked at the time on my phone. I refuse to acknowledge that remark. “Is there anything else?”

  “That is it.”

  “Will you give me a heads up on what the evidence turns up?”

  “You know I can’t do that. Not if he’s your client. If he’s charged, you’ll get your hot little hands on all the evidence during discovery. By then you can deal with whoever will be assigned as Prosecutor from the DA’s office.”

  “I guess that’s it, then. Thanks for the help, I think. See you around, Rob.”

  “Hold on, Becky.” He reaches for my hand again. “Can we at least talk about it? I never wanted things to end that w—”

  I cut him off before he can continue. I refuse to talk about the distant past, even if it only was eighteen months ago. “Rob, whatever happened, I’ve let it go. You need to let it go too.”

  “We could have had something special, you know?”

  “I left that in the past. I’ve forgiven you. Take care.”

  He releases my arm, but gently rests a hand on my shoulder. “Promise me you’ll be careful. I don’t want to see anything happen to you around those people. I don’t have anything tangible, but you hear things. Watch yourself.”

  “I will. Thanks.”

  I have what I need to know when I leave him standing on the bridge, positive that his sad, loving, regretful eyes follow me all the way until I’m out of his sight. It takes a lot of strength for me to keep walking.

  I spend the rest of the day digging up everything we have in our files on the Sloans. After that, I research what’s up on the Internet and in our legal databases and public records. I pack it in after five. I head home, and go for another run with Sarah. I remember to eat after my shower. Yesterday was enough of a lesson, but now, I have a good idea why Jonathan just buzzed me from the front door of my building, and is waiting downstairs.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jonathan

  “Hello,” she answers over the intercom after I wait about a minute.

  “Rebecca. It’s me, Jonathan. Can you let me up?”

  I hear her let out a breath before she buzzes me in. I take the stairs up to her place. She gives me a stern look when she opens the door, but stands aside and lets me in without a word. She instructs me to sit down, completely aware of why I’m here. I don’t say a word. I sit and wait to let her talk. I need to find out what she knows.

  “What did you find out?” I get right to the point when Rebecca sits and says nothing. I’m not in the mood for small talk. I just want the facts. To be honest, that’s why I think I came here, but the longer I look at her, I’m not so sure anymore that it’s the only reason.

  She looks better than she did yesterday after her little slip and fall in the bathtub. There’s color in her cheeks, and she looks strong; healthy. My head is telling me stick to business with this woman. If she is the one Kara put on this case, I need her focused. She can’t afford to be distracted with any personal shit, not even with me. Scratch that, especially not with me.

  My dick however, is handing out a completely different set of instructions. It has more to do with wrapping my arms around her, spreading those sexy, long legs, getting inside her, and fucking her until she screams. I need to put that thing in check. I give it a silent lecture to shut it down. I hope to God it listens while I’m here sitting opposite Rebecca’s fine, sexy ass.

  She relates everything she found out so far. I can’t believe the police would come to my door on a fishing expedition after only an anonymous tip, however if that’s all it is, I’m not as worried anymore. Yes, I’m slightly concerned about who that anonymous caller was. It could be anyone—anyone with a grudge for the Sloans. That list is pretty darn long.

  She tells me she has questions for me. Questions about the last time I was in trouble like this. Questions about that dropped second degree murder charge. I asked her what that has to do with anything. The charges were dropped. What else does she need to know? She tells me it has everything to do with the direction this case may take if charges are filed. I’m already angry. I’m not ready to rehash the details or prove my innocence over and over again.

  “There’s a case file, Rebecca. Kara’s got a thick one somewhere in her office. I suggest you get familiar with it. I’ve been through enough.”

  “There’s no need to get defensive,” she replies.

  “I’m not.”

  “You sure look like you are.”

  If she’s trying to get me even more upset, it’s working. I get up and I start walking towards the front door. I didn’t come up here for that shit.

  “Jonathan, wait.” She follows me and reaches her hand to my forearm.

  I turned to look at her. All that chemistry is sparking around the room and through her fingers, back into me. She pulls her hand away and takes a step back. I’m certain she’s feeling it too, but she probably knows better than to mess with a man under suspicion of a brand spanking new murder, as well as a prior charge. I don’t make a move. I wait for her to speak.

  “Please,” she says. “I apologize. I’ll go over the case file again.”

  “Thanks. If there isn’t anything else, I’d best be going. Let me know if anything comes up, will you?”

  “Yes. I will.”

  “I’ll call you if anyone else reaches out to me to inquire about this. Thanks for seeing me on your personal time.”

  I turn and leave. It is a smart move, probably the best thing I’ve done in the last seven days. She has her work cut out for her if there’s anything on the Rushton girl that ends up linking back to me. That anonymous call wasn’t even circumstantial evidence. If there’s anything of mine placed on that body, then I’m fucked. By now, I wouldn’t put it past my father or anyone in his camp to do exactly that, now that I’ve agreed to be the sacrificial lamb.

  I get outside to my car and I’m about to unlock it when Rebecca charges out the front door of her building. She doesn’t even have shoes on. I’m wondering what she has to say to me out here on the street that she hasn’t already told me inside.

  “Jonathan,” she starts. “I just want to tell you thanks for last night. I appreciate how you handled…my incident…and that you stayed with me to make sure I was okay. More importantly, I trust that we can keep what happened just between us?”

  “It’s not a problem. If you’re asking me to forget it ever happened, you have my word. I won’t tell a soul.”

  “Thank you.”

  I open the driver side door and begin to step in when she calls out to me again. I look up.

  “I was going to ask if I can take you to dinner, as a way of thanking you for helping me yesterday.”

  I’m itching to accept, but I manage to keep my dick at bay. Rebecca is potentially my legal lifeline to getting through this without a prison term. I can’t take the chance. “I’m not sure if that’s such a good idea anymore, Rebecca.”

  “Oh,” she says, looking away, seeming dejected. “You know what? You’re probably right. Have a good night, Jonathan. I’ll be in touch.”

  She turns around and gets back to her front door. I watch as she unlocks it. It occurs to me I have spent my entire life following my head, and look where it’s gotten me. I was the rational one when my father committed his first act. I took care of the mess, and all of the others ever since, right u
p till before Doreen Rushton. I was using my head when I pulled Stephen Harrigan off that transvestite that night too. I was also thinking straight when I told my dad I would take the fall for him. So maybe it’s time to give my dick a break.

  “Hey,” I call out to her. She looks back at me, and I walk over to her. “Sure. Dinner. Let’s do it. This way, I know you’re getting enough energy to handle my case if it gets serious. Want to catch some now?”

  The tension in her face seems to ease, and she nods. “I’ll need to change. Do you want to wait upstairs or down here?”

  “Upstairs.”

  I follow her up those flights of stairs and I don’t regret a moment of it. I get the best view of her ass and legs in those yoga pants, and if my dick had hands it would be high-fiving me all the way up to her apartment. It’s throbbing with joy in my pants. I sit in her living room, waiting for her to get dressed. I think back about last night. She made the first move when I came out of the bathroom, coming to think about it. She just asked me out to dinner. Maybe she has a thing for bad boys. I figure I’ll take a chance.

  I get up, stroll past her bathroom and walked right up to her bedroom door. The door is ajar. It’s wide enough for me to look inside. She’s standing in her bra and panties, looking sexy as sin. I let out a low groan. I don’t know where it came from, but she hears it and turns to look at me. She does not cover herself or ask me to get out. She stands there. She doesn’t move. Before I know it, I’m right in front of her, with my hands sliding around her waist.

  She has an intense look in her eyes as she stares up at me. I’m all in. I lean in, and that electricity sparks through my body when I kiss her gently.

  Her body relaxes into me. A soft moan betrays her when it escapes her throat. I take my time. It’s early, and I doubt we’ll end up doing dinner after this. Takeout—that’s probably what we’ll have. In the meantime, I enjoy the moment. I taste her lips, parting them with my tongue to get closer. She tastes sweet. I pull her into me, and can’t help the groan that echoes in my throat.

  God, this woman has me feeling things. It’s more than what I care to admit. She’s beautiful, so willing; just so—amazing. I deepen into our kiss. She sways into me. Her body is pressed up against me, and the heat in my chest and stomach ramps up. I feel our escape from this world to the next. We’re lost together, bodies pressing closer, tongues exploring.

  Her hands reach up around my neck. I pull her in closer from the waist. I feel her hardened nipples pressing onto my chest. My cock is so hard against her stomach, dying to spread her legs open and take her right this second. She’s getting playful now. Her hips are rocking into mine, and she’s pulled from the kiss to nip at my bottom lip. I wonder if she knows she’s playing with fire when she does that. I’m about to lose my mind any minute now.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Jonathan

  “Take off your clothes,” she tells me.

  She continues to nibble on my lip. I groan. I do as she asks, and she gets her bra and panties off in no time.

  “Shit,” I say when I’m down to my boxers. “I don’t have any condoms with me.” For a man with a reputation as a playboy, I should probably be embarrassed, but whatever.

  “It’s okay.” She walks over to her dresser, and pulls out a three-pack box from the top drawer. “I’ve got you covered this time.”

  It’s the same brand I used on her yesterday, and the same size. I wonder if she went out and got those for me. I smile as it’s probably my ego talking. I’m fucking impressed, even if I know we can use up those three in less than an hour. I keep my boxers on and sit on her bed. Motioning for her to come over with my finger, I pull her to sit in my lap when she’s close enough.

  I snake one hand up her back, pulling her down against my hard cock. Her eyes flutter closed again. I put a hand around her waist, and Rebecca moves it up to cup her breast. I like that she’s showing me what she wants. Caressing her breasts, I gently tweak and massage her nipples one by one. She tips her head back, giving me all the room I want to nibble on her earlobe. I breathe into her neck, my tongue darting and licking as I slowly lose control. I want to get inside her so damn bad.

  “We should stop,” I say. I don’t mean one word. Except the ‘we’ part. I like how saying ‘we’ feels right now. I don’t want it to stop, but I’m glad I suggest it. I want her to have an out. The woman has seen my case file. I don’t want her to have any doubt this second time we’re doing this.

  “I know,” she says, but arches her back and presses her breast into my hand.

  She continues by reaching her hand between us and into my boxers. She wraps her tiny fingers around my shaft. I growl at her touch. She slides her hand up and down with firm strokes.

  Fuck!

  I’m past waiting, but I want her to be ready. She pulls off me all of a sudden. She tugs at the waistband of my boxers and slides them down enough to free my cock. When she kneels between my legs and begs me to take it off, I stand for a second, and practically rip if off like Superman does with his clothes in those telephone booths.

  I can barely breathe when I look down at her. She looks like she’s in love with my cock the way she’s assessing it, sizing it up, and biting her bottom lip as she gets ready.

  “Mmmm.” I hear her moan eagerly.

  Her fingers grip my cock again, right at the base, and she positions it to take it in her mouth. The tip of her tongue makes contact with my cock head. I can explode if I don’t hold myself back. She licks a trail from the tip right up to where her hands are. She releases her grasp to get her hands out of the way. Her tongue swirls to the back and begins to lick my balls.

  A loud, sexy moan vibrates out from her lips and through my ball sack. I don’t know if I can keep this up.

  “Fuck,” I groan, my legs shaking from the pure torture of waiting.

  I’m dying to pick her up off the ground and throw her in the damn bed. Looking down at her, though, she looks like she’s really enjoying this. She wraps her lips around my cock and floats into it, taking as much of the shaft in. Her tongue works as she goes, relaxing her jaw to take me deeper inside each time.

  She bobs and licks and sucks—hard—until my will disappears. I hold her head and thrust my cock deeper still.

  God!

  She groans with pleasure and that’s it. My entire body convulses as I erupt my load into her mouth. She swallows every drop, and holds my gaze as she’s doing it. When she looks like she’s finished, I take her hands and pull her up to cradle her in my arms.

  “You have not stopped surprising me since I laid eyes on you at the coffee shop, woman.” I murmur in her ear, still breathing heavily. I lower her into her bed and stand. “I’ll be back.”

  I walk to her bathroom and clean myself off. It’s time to make her scream. I get back to the room. She’s sprawled out on the bed. Her hands are busy. One is tight over one breast, and three fingers of the other are deep inside her pussy. I stand at the door silently. She hasn’t seen me yet. Just watching her makes me hard as a rock again, so I stalk over to the bed. Rebecca doesn’t even flinch when she realizes I’m standing there. She keeps pleasuring herself. I’m tempted to get myself off just watching her.

  “Fuck me,” she whispers.

  It’s so soft I’m not sure I hear her. She says it again and calls my name this time, reaching beside her and then waving a condom wrapper in her hand. I do not wait. I get in bed beside her. She rips open the condom like a wild woman who hasn’t eaten for a week. In seconds, she’s positioned the condom on me and seductively rolls it up my shaft. I pull her from where she’s sitting, and move her to straddle me on top.

  She climbs up, settling herself over me. I reach over to her mound.

  “You’re so wet, Rebecca. So ready for me.”

  I want to return the favor and pleasure her before I drive my member deep inside of her, but she doesn’t give me that chance. In a split second, she grips my shaft to position it, and lowers herself on my cock, hard and
fast. Her channel is tight around me, so tight I can feel her contours. She places her hands on my chest and begins to rock back and forth. I place my hands on her waist and she finds her own climax before I can do anything. Her body flexes, and I feel the walls of her pussy clamp around my cock as her juices flow down on me.

  I tilt up my hips, and down again, thrusting into her, penetrating her more deeply each time. Soon she’s climbing to another orgasm, and tips over the edge.

  “God, Jonathan. Fuck!” she shrieks, letting her body go so she can enjoy this new crescendo.

  Her walls tighten around my shaft. It’s rippling and pulsing, giving my manhood the most incredible massage it’s ever felt. I bounce her up and down to extend her climax. She hits another height. She lets out a shrill scream and I pray to God her walls are sound-proof.

  I’m tempting fate big time, but I push on, reaching up to massage her breasts. She escapes her new plateau and comes again, arching her neck and back as it rips through her. That expression on her face kicks me right to my orgasm. I buck my hips up and down, bouncing her as I go. In a few final plunges, I release into her.

  I know she’s spent when she flops down onto my chest. I hold her close, rubbing her back. She takes a while to catch her breath, and the sound of her breathing eventually eases. I hold her there. I have no idea why, but I let her be. I don’t move to leave the room. I just let her rest, and soon, I think she drifts to sleep.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Rebecca

  I’m beginning to think I was a daredevil in a former life. I hear my boss tell me I have no fuck passes left, and what do I do? I let Jonathan into my bed and I sleep with him—again. I have no idea what got into me. It would be easy for me to blame it on Jonathan’s irresistible wiles, but I’d be lying my pants off.

  Yes, the man is irresistible, however he didn’t come on to me. I’m the dumb, risk-seeking brunette who runs after him when he leaves my apartment. I’m the one who asks him to dinner, and I’m the one who just probably gave him one of the most memorable blow jobs he’s had in a while. Well, at least it was memorable for me. Now he’s sleeping beside me—in my bed.