Saving Thea

by Melissa Schroeder

  He angled her hips, his fingers digging into her skin. God, she felt good. Hot, wet, tight. He plunged once, twice, three times. His balls grew heavier, everything in his body tensed, his body preparing for the release. Slipping a hand between them, he pressed against her clit once more, and she came again, her muscles clenching around his shaft and he was lost. One more stroke and he poured himself into her.

  Long moments later, he collapsed on top of her. He knew he should move, but he couldn’t find the energy to do it. Her hands stroked down his back, loving, gentle. She kissed the side of his neck.

  He finally gained enough energy and pushed himself aside. She protested, but he put his finger on her mouth.

  “I’m too heavy for you.”

  She smiled. “I liked the feel of you on top of me.”

  He grunted, as he pulled his jeans off and then settled back against the pillows. He pulled the sheets back up over them and Thea snuggled against him. It was then he remembered the one thing he’d forgotten.

  “Thea?”

  “Hmm?” She slipped her fingers over his chest.

  “I’m…damn, I didn’t use protection.”

  She paused, then restarted her motions. “I’m on the pill.”

  He released a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Okay.”

  Duncan knew for a fact he was clean, he always wore a condom. Except tonight. It was the first time since he lost his virginity that he hadn’t thought of using protection. That scared him more than the idea he hadn’t used it.

  But he couldn’t think of that right now. He definitely didn’t want to think of why he should never have taken her to bed. Right now, all he wanted was to sleep with her by his side.

  Thea woke slowly, her body coming awake, her mind adjusting to the hard, hot body next to her in bed. She smiled as she drew in a deep breath.

  Duncan.

  She’d dreamed of this moment for years, yearned for it, not knowing exactly what it would be like. Anything she imagined didn’t come close to the reality. She pushed the sheet aside and trailed her finger down his body, following the line of hair that bisected his abdomen. She reached his groin, pausing only a moment before slipping her palm over the tip. He was already hard when she took him in her hand. His indrawn breath told her that he was no longer sleeping.

  She glanced up at him with a smile. “Sorry I woke you.”

  He chuckled then groaned when she pulled her thumb over the tip. “No problem at all. You can wake me up any day.”

  Thea scooted down the bed and pressed her mouth against his stomach.

  “Thea…”

  “Hmm?”

  “You don’t—”

  He stopped talking the moment her tongue darted out against the sensitive skin on the inside of his thigh. Excitement surged from the power she felt over him. She’d never really gotten into power games, to playing in bed. But with Duncan, she couldn’t fight the need to tease, to be the one in control. Thea inched her mouth closer to his shaft, then rolled onto her stomach between his legs. She waited a second, two, knowing her breath feathered over his cock. It twitched. His legs shifted against the sheets as she bent her head and touched the tip of her tongue against his sac.

  “Holy mother of God.”

  She could barely hear his muttered plea, but she smiled and said, “Just call me Thea.”

  Then she trailed her tongue up his length, rising enough to take him into her mouth. His fingers twisted through her hair as she stroked his cock deep in her mouth. He soon picked up on her rhythm and joined in, jettisoning in and out of her mouth. It wasn’t long before he sat up, grabbed her by the arms and pulled her up his body. He took her by her hips and looked up at her. But instead of thrusting into her fast, hard, he entered her slowly. Inch by inch, he slid inside, all the while keeping eye contact, his gray eyes dark, burning. When he was finally in her to the hilt, he held still and she squirmed.

  He chuckled. “Problem?”

  She narrowed her eyes and knocked his hands away. Grabbing him by the shoulders, she urged him forward, so her breasts pressed against his chest. She dipped her head and captured his mouth, thrusting her tongue inside, and she began to ride him. He kissed a path down her throat, his tongue darting out against her flesh until he reached her breasts, then he took a nipple into his mouth and slid his hand down her torso, to just before he reached her mound. He caressed her clit, as she continued to rise and fall. All the tension that gathered in her circled in her stomach, then slipped down to her sex. It exploded a moment latter, sending pulses of heat streaming through her blood.

  A moment later, as she still shuddered from her orgasm, he followed her with a shout.

  They collapsed together, still joined, their heavy breathing filling the silence in the room. Then he chuckled, his chest vibrating against her ear. She lifted her head—which took almost all her energy.

  “What?”

  “You can wake me up anytime you want.”

  She smiled and opened her mouth when a crash sounded downstairs. Quickly, he moved Thea off him, then rose from the bed, grabbing a pair of jeans as he headed to the door.

  He slipped into his jeans and said, “Damn it. I left my gun in my room.” He buttoned his jeans and looked back at her. “Stay here.”

  And with that he slipped out the door to the sound of another crash. Thea, her heart pounding, fear icing her blood, searched for her nightshirt. As she was slipping it on, she heard yet another crash. She grabbed her cell phone and tiptoed to her door. Her heart jumped to her throat the moment she heard the gunshot.

  Chapter Nine

  Thea ran out the door and started down the stairs. Waves of terror spread through her. Fear stabbed her stomach at the thought he might’ve been hurt because of her. Before she stepped off the last step, Duncan stopped her.

  “Get some shoes.”

  His voice came from the kitchen.

  “Are you all right?” she yelled.

  “Yeah, but there’s glass everywhere. And bring some towels. Ones you don’t care if they get stained.”

  She ran up the stairs, and slipped on her Crocs when she realized she hadn’t put on any panties. Now that she knew Duncan was okay, the situation hit her. She’d gone tearing down the stairs with nothing but a shirt on. She chuckled as she grabbed a pair of panties and pulled them on. It was a helluva situation when Thea Johnson went commando while barreling downstairs.

  Duncan sat down in the kitchen chair cursing his stupidity. He’d heard the glass break, but like a fool, he’d only grabbed his gun. He hadn’t thought once of grabbing a pair of shoes.

  Thea’s light footsteps sounded and he turned to the stairs. Her eyes widened at the mess. And it was a mess. Someone had thrown a brick through the kitchen window. Glass covered the sink, countertops and the floor.

  “Do you have a first aid kit?”

  She looked at him and then down at his feet. “Oh, Dunc, why didn’t you think of putting on your shoes?”

  Because he hadn’t recovered from making love to her.

  He shrugged. “Wasn’t thinking. Can you get something for this?” He nodded to his feet and her eyes traveled down and saw the blood.

  “Yes.” She handed him a towel. “What was the shot?”

  “Me. I saw a figure outside and thought I saw him raise a weapon.” He glanced at her and took stock of her horrified expression. “Missed him and he went running. Everything’s okay.”

  She nodded although she didn’t look like she believed him. “I’ll be right back.”

  She turned and headed in the direction of the downstairs bathroom and he sighed. She wasn’t going to like his next actions anymore than he liked to be doing it, but he didn’t have a choice. He’d used his service revolver, and it had to be reported.

  She rushed back into the kitchen, the kit in one hand and a broom in the other. She set the kit on the table, but he stopped her from cleaning up the mess.

  “I need your phone. I have to call it in.” />
  She hesitated, then nodded. He took it from her and said, “Not going to argue?”

  She shook her head. “No. I figured you discharged your service revolver, so you would have to call it in. You keep forgetting that I was married to a cop, not to mention my brother has been one.”

  He called it in, making sure to tell them not to use lights or sirens. After clicking the phone off, he looked at Thea.

  “Come on.” She yanked him out of the chair, grabbed the kit and helped him walk to the couch. “Let’s see how bad they are.” She sat on the coffee table and rested one of his feet in her lap. She made a few noises over the injuries, but had both feet cleaned and bandaged within a few minutes.

  “So, you think this was the stalker.”

  “Not sure.”

  Her head snapped up from her task. “You think I’ve pissed someone else off?”

  “No. I think this was just some kids playing a joke. Our guy is a lot subtler. Bricks are not his game. But I’m gonna treat it as if it were him.”

  She nodded, accepting his conclusions. The silence grew as she finished up her task and he knew they had to talk about what happened.

  “Thea?” She gently placed his foot on the floor and looked at him. “What happened earlier should never have happened.”

  She cleared her throat. “I know, Duncan. Besides being completely wrong for each other, we…we need to keep our heads clear.”

  It was what he meant, what he wanted but all of a sudden, he couldn’t agree with her. It was for the best, but at the moment, Duncan couldn’t convince himself to agree with her.

  Before he could answer, she continued, “I mean, I understand when two people live in close proximity to each other, judgment gets clouded. Completely understandable.”

  “Clouded?”

  “Yes. The important thing is that we figure this out. Then we can go our separate ways.”

  “You don’t need to tell me what my job is,” he spat out.

  Why the hell was he so mad? The woman didn’t argue, gave in and never said one word about their lovemaking being the best she ever had. Women didn’t just agree to cut things loose.

  He took her hand in his and said, “I know it’s wrong, and granted…I think it might be a mistake.”

  “Don’t worry—”

  “Will you shut up?” She widened her eyes and he sighed. “I’m trying to say that I don’t know if I can be within ten feet of you and forget about last night. Hell, I could be on the other side of Texas and still be thinking about it.”

  She smiled. “Really?”

  He gingerly set his foot down on the ground and leaned forward to brush his mouth against hers, all the while keeping his eyes open. “I know it’s wrong, but there is no way I can go back to being just friends.”

  Something shifted in her gaze, her green eyes filling with a light he wasn’t sure he’d seen before. She opened her mouth to speak, but the doorbell had her snapping her mouth shut.

  “I’ll get that.” She stood and headed to the door in nothing but a nightshirt.

  “Thea.” She turned to look at him. “Go get dressed.”

  She looked down at herself and smiled. “Yeah, that would probably be best. Can you get to the door by yourself?”

  He rolled his eyes and stood. “I’ve had worse.”

  “I know.” She rose up, gave him a quick kiss and headed up the stairs. He watched the sway of her ass, the soft fabric clinging to her heart-shaped bottom and sighed. Duty before pleasure. He turned toward the door to deal with work.

  It took less than an hour to deal with Freddy Michelson, his newest deputy. In his mid-twenties, the young officer had taken one look at Duncan’s bare chest, raised an eyebrow but said nothing. He was more than polite to Thea, but Duncan was pretty sure that most of Crocker would know by noon that he’d been at Thea’s.

  “So much for keeping this private,” she said, then let out with a chuckle.

  He glanced at her as she swept up the glass. “You don’t sound too worried.”

  She shrugged as she dumped the last of the glass into the trash. “You were the one who was worried. I could care less.”

  He wanted to argue with her, but he didn’t think it would do any good, so he picked up the cardboard and tape for the windows.

  “Can you think of anything, anything at all that went on right before your mom was murdered? Anyone hanging around that much?”

  She bit her lip and wrinkled her brow. “Well, Chris was there, but you know how tight he and Dad were. We had some work done on our roof. There’d been a huge hailstorm the month before and some shingles had to be replaced. Other than that…” She shrugged.

  Once he’d secured the cardboard, he turned back around and found her gaze had been concentrated on the area where his ass had been. She took her sweet time raising it to meet his own.

  “You like the view, Ms. Johnson?”

  She shook her head. “I’d rather see it without the jeans.”

  He chuckled as she stood. He followed her out of the kitchen and up the stairs. He knew she needed to forget, to pretend nothing was wrong and everything was normal. As she pulled off her top and jumped into bed, he decided he was the man for the job.

  He wiped the blood from his face, his hands still shaking. It had been stupid, so stupid to go to Thea’s house, to watch through the windows. He had seen someone—a man—moving in that house earlier. When he searched for a car, he found nothing so he had no idea who the fuck was inside. Anger had boiled beneath his skin, the screams in his head blinding him to everything around him. He’d left, found a woman, but she had been a sorry substitute for Thea. The kill was no longer the thrill it had been, a weak buzz that diminished almost as soon as it started.

  He winced as he realized the light blue cashmere sweater would have to be burned. It was splattered with the slut’s blood. She’d been so easy, so willing, such a disappointment. He pulled off the sweater and dropped it into the tub. As he poured alcohol over the sweater, then threw in a match, he thought of tonight, of his rash behavior.

  First, he had gone after Chase. The man had his sights set on Thea, and he had been sure the man he’d seen tonight was Chase. But Chase didn’t like guns, never had. It had been a mistake to throw the bricks, but the fury that flowed through him could not be stopped, even after killing the whore. He closed his eyes when he remembered glimpsing Thea, seeing her in just a nightshirt. Shivering with lust and need, he slipped his hand down his body, and encircled his staff. He thought of Thea, of her dark hair, those deep green eyes, so pure. She needed him, needed to understand that they would be together.

  When Duncan stepped out of the bathroom after his shower, the aroma of fresh coffee, eggs and bacon reached him. One thing about living with Thea, the woman could cook. If this investigation lasted too long, he’d be too big to fit through the door.

  His feet were a little sore, but not so bad. He walked down the stairs thinking about how good it would be to wake up like this every morning. Except, he’d wake up next to Thea, all her curves and the scent of apples and cinnamon. He stopped halfway down and shook his head. He did not want to get serious. He was not the type of guy to settle down and definitely not with Jed’s sister.

  He continued down to the kitchen because he knew they needed to talk. He’d deal with those peculiar feelings some other time. Like fifty years from now.

  Thea knew the moment he walked into the room. The nape of her neck tingled and she turned to give him a smile. Completely false, but she needed to get past her humiliation.

  The serious expression on his face stopped her for just a moment.

  “Hungry?”

  His lips curved. “Starved.”

  They sat down and served themselves. Duncan loaded his plate with a hearty helping of eggs, bacon, toast and filled both of their mugs with coffee. If the man ate like that all the time, he must have the metabolism of a fly.

  As she ate, she realized Jason had never really liked what she e
njoyed cooking. He went in for gourmet while she loved home cooking. Duncan didn’t seem to have a problem with it though.

  As they ate the silence grew and she knew he had something on his mind.

  She set her mug of coffee down with a clunk. “What? You want to say something, just spit it out.”

  He looked up from shoveling food in his mouth.

  “I think we’re in over our heads here and we need help from someone who was around then.”

  “Who? You and Jed were gone, my memories are all fuzzy. Who would you trust to help us?”

  “The person who investigated it. Sheriff Dailey.”

  Chapter Ten

  Duncan waited for Thea to explode. He didn’t have to wait long.

  “Sheriff Dailey?” Her voice was hoarse from trying to control her temper. “The man who screwed up the investigation to begin with?”

  Her face flushed with anger and for a second he was reminded of the incident last night. Her skin hot and fevered with desire, the scent of apples and cinnamon filling his senses, her moans, her pleas…

  He shifted to ease the tightness of jeans. Get your mind out of her bedroom, Perry. Her safety was more important than his lust.

  “I don’t think he can help much, but half that file is missing and I’m sure there’s a lot he didn’t put in it.” Like other suspects. He’d known the man all his life and even though he wasn’t a top-notch detective, Duncan knew Chief Dailey wouldn’t have run such a shitty investigation.

  “He practically convicted my father with no evidence. Hell, he probably blamed my father because his disappearance then my mother’s murder could have cost him an election.”

  He knew she was right. But they needed Dailey’s help no matter what.

  “We are going to have look past his inefficient handling of the case. He knows who was around your mom at the time of the murder. Other people might be able to tell us but…”