I led the way out of the house and locked up, trying to block my emotions at leaving the property for the very last time.
I caught Jolie watching me curiously.
“What?” I asked her.
“You’re quieter than normal.”
I hoisted the bag on my shoulder. “I don’t have anything left to say.”
I didn’t want to tell her how I felt. She’d affected my body and heart—letting her get inside my head as well would be a bad idea.
With the property secured, I turned to hike through the island, toward the dock where I’d moored the boat. Jolie followed along behind me, picking her way through the vegetation. I’d walked this way so many times before, I’d created a natural pathway through the palm trees. The fronds overhead offered us some shade from the hot sun, and insects buzzed and flitted around our heads. Jolie’s breathing grew louder from the exertion, and I did my best to ignore it. She skidded in the mulch and cried out, but I didn’t turn to offer her help. What had happened with Loretta had alarmed me, and it hadn’t just been that Jolie had been capable of strangling the other woman to death. No, it had been my emotional reaction when I’d found Jolie that terrified me. All I’d wanted in that moment was to keep her safe, to scoop her up and protect her from all the bad stuff in the world, even though in her world, I was the bad stuff. I told myself I’d buried Loretta’s body to save myself any complications of having to explain exactly what had happened, but deep down I knew I’d done it for her.
The terrain sloped down toward the cove. The gentle shush of waves hitting the shore met my ears. Today was a far cry from how it had been the last time the two of us had come down here. Then the ocean had sounded like a monster ready to eat us; now it was more like a mother wanting to rock us to sleep. We broke through the trees, the blue of the ocean stretching out to meet the equally blue skyline on the horizon. Sunlight glinted off the waves and reflected off the white of the boat, which bobbed at the end of the jetty. I was pleased I’d managed to get it back again, even if it hadn’t been an easy task. The vessel would be our home for the next couple of days, and I was happy to see it.
“No tricks this time,” I warned Jolie as we made our way across the sand to reach the jetty.
She shook her head. “No tricks. I just want this all to be over.”
It being over would also mean her father would be dead. I wondered how she felt about that.
We navigated the jetty, and I jumped on board at the back of the boat and then turned to put my hand out to Jolie to help her on deck. Her slender, small hand slipped into mine, and my fingers closed around hers, the contact sending shockwaves up through me. Her blue eyes widened, and I knew she’d felt it, too. We were all just animals at the end of the day, fighting against our basest of instincts. It didn’t help that I was probably more animal than some.
She stepped on deck, and I forced myself to release her hand. I was surprised she’d taken it in the first place. Understandably, she blamed me for everything that had happened, and so she should. Her life was already fucked up before I’d come into it, but she’d been working on that. I was the one who’d come in and royally screwed things up for her.
In a few days, she’d be free of me for good, and then she’d have the rest of her life to get things straightened out again.
I went to the lower deck where the kitchen was located and threw the bag down on the table. I unzipped it and pulled out the fresh foods that would need refrigerating.
Jolie stood behind me, looking around. She hadn’t seen much of the boat the other night in the storm—only the outside, really.
“This is nice,” she said, though I knew she was understating things. This boat cost a stupid amount of money. It was far better than ‘nice.’
“Good thing she didn’t end up lost out at sea or smashed to pieces against the cliffs, then,” I retorted.
She shrugged but glanced away, her cheeks pinking. It was good to see some color in her face. She’d been ghostly pale since I found her, and even the hike across the island hadn’t done much for her complexion.
“Make yourself comfortable,” I told her. “There are two cabins, if you want to pick one for yourself. The wet bar refrigerator on the upper deck is well stocked, if you want anything to eat or drink.”
She shook her head. “I’m not hungry.”
“That’s fine, but you’re going to need to drink something.” I removed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and threw it to her. With surprising reflexes, she snatched it from the air.
“Thanks.”
I climbed the stairs to the upper deck and went to the helm and started the boat. Once I’d navigated her into open waters, I’d be able to use the autopilot, so I wouldn’t have to sit behind the wheel the whole time. I’d cross the body of water then drive along the coastline until we reached the state where her father was being held.
Chapter Sixteen
The boat powered through the water, the rise and fall of the ocean waves barely noticeable under the forward motion of the big boat.
I sat on the couch in the living area of the vessel, watching the back of Hayden’s head as he drove. My feet were up on the cushions of the built-in couch, and I rested my chin on top of my knees, my arms wrapped around my legs. What I’d done continued to haunt me, and I thought it would for the rest of my life, but being away from that damned house and the island helped. There was something calming about being out to sea like this, with no one else around. Though my biggest enemy was the one driving the boat, it was also a relief that no one else could interfere with us. It being just the two of us meant we were on a more level playing field. He needed me to lure out my father, and I needed him to get me to safety.
After a while, I dozed, and woke to find the boat had slowed.
I pushed myself to sitting and rubbed my eyes. I’d been exhausted—emotionally and physically—and felt better for the nap. The memory of what I’d done to Loretta immediately rose in my mind, threatening to drag me under again, and I swiftly pushed it away. I’d have time to grieve and weep and mourn for the person I’d been before I’d become a murderer once I was out of this situation, but for now I needed to keep my head on my shoulders.
Where was he?
I got to my feet. “Hayden?”
A spurt of panic rose inside me. What if this had all been a trick to get rid of me? Maybe he’d waited until I’d fallen asleep, and then abandoned the boat with me in it? No, that was crazy. What would he achieve by doing something like that?
Movement came from the small staircase that led down to the cabins below deck. “Jolie? You okay?”
I exhaled a sigh of relief. “Yeah, I just wondered where you were.”
He emerged from beneath deck with only a small towel around his waist and his hair damp. “Sorry. I needed a shower. All the digging and sweating...”
I realized he was talking about digging Loretta’s grave, and I was suddenly bathed in cold, a shiver running through me. The boat cabin swam around me, and I staggered, though I didn’t think a wave moving beneath the boat had thrown me.
Suddenly, he was right there, holding me up.
“It’s all right. I’ve got you.”
His bare chest was right up against my face, and he smelled so good—clean and fresh—his skin still damp. His hands were around me, and dizziness washed over me again, but for a whole different reason this time. A strange noise emitted from my throat, my body fighting the sudden clenching of desire that took over me. I didn’t want to give in to it, but I found myself leaning into him and pressing my lips to his chest.
Hayden sucked in a breath. “Jolie...”
His voice was part groan, part warning, but I ignored him. He was filling up my senses, blocking out all the horror of the past twenty-four hours. His skin was hot and smooth against my lips, and I poked out my tongue and trailed it across his pectoral muscles until I reached his nipple. I circled it with my tongue, feeling the bud crinkle and tighten, and then I nipped with my teeth.
He sucked in a breath, his hands reaching for my hair. He wore only a towel, and now it protruded almost comically between us. I wanted him, was using him, if only to try to eradicate all other thoughts and feelings going through me. Life had gotten too complicated, but sex was simple. Just a man and a woman together.
I lowered myself down, keeping my tongue out to leave a trail of saliva across his abs. My knees hit the deck. I yanked the towel away from his body and threw it to the floor. His cock was right there, long and thick, and I leaned into him and rubbed my lips and nose down his length, inhaling the scent of him. God, he smelled so good, all clean and fresh from the shower, but still with that hint of male muskiness about him. He was literally good enough to eat, and that was exactly what I intended to do. Instead of sucking his cock, I moved lower, lapping at his balls with my tongue. I circled the sack with my mouth then sucked one ball into my mouth, palpitating it with my tongue, and then moved on to the next one, repeating the process. Above my head, his cock jerked with every suck I gave him, and I reached up to grab him by the root and slowly masturbate him while I sucked his balls.
“Ah, fuck, Jolie. That feels so good.”
He made no attempt to tell me to stop or push me away. It wasn’t as though this was the first time we’d done this. I didn’t know why the two of us worked so well together physically when deep down we harbored such hatred for each other, but we did.
I let his balls pop from my mouth and then moved back to concentrate on his cock. My hand was still fisted around his root, and I held him steady as I circled the tip of his cock with my mouth, and then sank deep. Above me, Hayden groaned, his hands tightening in my hair. I suctioned my lips around him to create friction and slid down as far as I could go, until the head of his dick rubbed against the smooth palate at the back of my throat, and then moved back up again. I increased my motions, bobbing back and forth, faster and faster. His hips jerked to meet me, and he didn’t hold back, fucking my face as though it was my pussy or ass. I looked up at him to find him staring back down, his face tightening with an expression I couldn’t quite read.
“Ah, shit.” He used his hold on my hair to yank me off him, and then hauled me up by the arm. He pushed me toward the couch I’d been sitting on. “On your knees again,” he instructed. “Bend over the couch.”
The seating area was a little lower than a regular couch, as it was built-in. I didn’t even think to question him and got into position right away. He moved up behind me. I was still fully dressed, while he was completely naked, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to stay that way for long. He flipped the skirt of my dress up and over my back. I still wore my boots, but he made no attempt to take them off, and instead just took hold of my panties and yanked them down, tugging them over the heels of the boots and throwing them to one side.
“You have such a beautiful ass, Jolie,” he growled, his hand on my skin, following the curve of my buttocks. “I think I’d like to take that ass.”
I sucked in a breath, but didn’t say no. Instead, I remained in position, waiting for his next move. But to my surprise, he moved away from me. I glanced over my shoulder to see what he was doing and was rewarded with the incredibly sexy view of his naked back and ass walking away from me. He went down to the small kitchen and returned with a bottle. It took me a moment to realize what he was holding, and then saw it was an expensive bottle of olive oil, no doubt the highest-grade money could buy.
Oh, shit. He was going to use that on me.
Nerves and excitement fired up inside me in equal measures. I was no virgin, but that was an area I hadn’t let a man go before. Hayden had used his fingers on me, but I knew full well that his cock was hell of a lot wider.
It would hurt, but I deserved the pain. I’d taken a woman’s life, and if this was to be just a fraction of my punishment, then I would take it.
I pushed out my ass toward him, peering over my shoulder. His cock jerked, responding to me, and a half-smile turned up the corner of his lips. “Good girl.”
He dropped to his knees behind me, and I turned back, burying my face in my folded arms. A second later, cool oil hit the crevasse of my buttocks and trickled down over my ass. I sucked in a breath, but my pussy clenched in response. Then Hayden’s hands were on me, his fingers working in the oil. He concentrated on my tight star, first rubbing in the oil, then slipping a finger into my ass, bringing the oil with it.
I turned to see him trickling more oil onto his cock, working it in with his hand. There was something hugely sexy about watching him fisting his erection, his hand pumping up and down as he lubed himself, ready to take me.
“Do you think you can just suck my cock whenever you feel like it, Jolie?” he said. “You’re still my prisoner, remember.”
The head of his cock pressed against my rear hole. The oil made everything so wet and slippery, and suddenly he breached me, the pain bright and sharp.
“I know I am,” I cried.
He shunted his hips forward, entering me another inch. “Good, ’cause you don’t get to just take advantage of me like that.”
He pushed in again, and I stretched around him to take him. “You were a bad girl.”
“Yes, bad girl,” I gasped. “Very bad.”
He drove in again, and I thought he must be fully in by now. My pussy contracted and pulsed, needing something to tighten around. It was a strange feeling to be full and empty both at the same time.
“And bad girls get their asses fucked, don’t they, Jolie?”
I nodded frantically. “Yes, yes, they do.”
I had been bad. I’d killed someone. That was as bad as it got.
Chapter Seventeen
Fuck, the sight of her ass stretched around my cock was probably the hottest thing I’d ever seen in my life.
Knowing she’d need more, I reached around her with one hand, finding her clit. I flicked the sensitive nub, and she bucked like a horse being mounted. My cock reacted to the movement. I wanted more of that. With my other hand, I pushed my fingers between her folds, and slipped two digits inside her pussy. She was sopping wet, and that had nothing to do with the oil I’d been using on her. She let out a moan and pushed back on me, a sign she wanted more.
I was happy to give it to her.
Somehow, us fucking or fighting almost felt like the same thing.
She was impaled now, her pussy around my fingers, her ass around my cock. She stretched around me, and the oil made my passage slick. My balls were already pulled tight into my body, my ass clenched as I slid back out and drove back into her. Jolie cried out, her hands no longer beneath her head, but gripping the edge of the couch as though to hold herself steady.
I wouldn’t last long, but I gritted my teeth and held on, wanting Jolie to come first. My movements became faster and more frantic, and I somehow managed to keep up my strumming on her clit, even while the fingers of my other hand were embedded deep inside her pussy and I fucked her ass.
“Oh God, oh God. Oh, yes.”
Her pussy spasmed around my fingers, and her ass clenched down hard on my dick. I couldn’t hold on any longer. Pleasure was like an explosion inside me, and cum shot up through my dick. I didn’t even get the chance to pull out, but emptied myself into her ass, shudder after pleasurable shudder wracking through me. She trembled beneath me as I fell forward, covering her back with my chest. I kissed her shoulder and swept her hair away from her neck, but she pulled away.
“No, Hayden. That’s not what this is about, you know that.”
Her rebuttal caught me by surprise. Had I been too rough on her? She hadn’t told me no and seemed to have enjoyed what we’d done.
She snatched up her panties and vanished downstairs to the cabins below deck. Shit. She was one complicated woman, and I didn’t think I’d ever understand her. I collapsed onto the couch, not caring I was still naked. It wasn’t as though anyone was going to see me, except for Jolie, and she’d already seen about all there was to see. She’d literally r
ipped my towel from my body, and somehow I was left feeling like the bad guy.
Okay, maybe I was the bad guy, but that didn’t seem to stop her wanting to have sex with me.
I reached out and picked up the towel to wrap around my waist, and then went to the lower deck. One of the doors to the cabins was shut, and I hesitated outside, wondering if I should knock and check if she was all right. But I just shook my head and kept going.
I washed up and dressed in a pair of khaki shorts. Leaving my chest bare, I went back up on deck. I liked to feel the sun on my skin and the spray of the ocean. I inhaled the salty tang of the sea air. Once I was locked up for Patrick Dorman’s murder, I’d need to recall these moments to keep me sane inside.
I drove the boat in silence for a while, happy to be on the ocean. I hoped Jolie was okay down in the cabin. She’d seemed perfectly happy when I’d been fucking her, and it wasn’t as though I’d been the one to initiate things. Only after it was over had her mood changed.
I spotted something cresting the waves, and a smile stole across my face. Leaning back in my seat, I called out, “Hey, Jolie, quick! Get up here!”
I wasn’t sure she’d come, but then movement flew up the stairs. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Look.” I pointed into the water nearby.
She gasped and clapped her hand to her mouth. “Dolphins!”
A pod was following the boat.
“Oh, look, babies,” she cried, her eyes shining with delight as two smaller dolphins breached the surface then dived back beneath the waves.
I couldn’t help grinning at the excitement on her face. It was the most animated I’d seen her, other than when we’d been having sex, and her enthusiasm was infectious.
A crazy urge to suggest to her that we just keep doing this rose up inside me. We could live on the boat and travel all over, seeing new places and eating different foods, and experience the world together.
We might pretend we want all the trimmings that came with life—the job and the house, and the nice car, and the expensive holidays—but in truth, all we ever wanted was to feel something. Really, truly feel something. Right down to our souls, as though it was tearing us apart and breaking us down to our most basic element. Love or hate, fear or pleasure. It didn’t matter what that emotion was, as long as we were experiencing it with every fiber of our being.
Broken Minds Page 12