Chapter Twelve #2
“Good thing I’ll feed you, Officer. I have no problem cooking with, or for, you.” I start down the path toward the beach, desperate for the ice-cold Maine ocean water on my skin. I hook my finger in his direction and get him to follow me.
“Where are you going? I’m still in uniform.”
“Oh I know. Trust me, I can’t miss you when you’re in that uniform. It’s like my pussy has a beacon out, calling to you whenever you’re in it.” I laugh, swaying my hips a little extra for him.
“You can’t say shit like that when I have to go back to work, Trouble.”
I turn and wink. “Maybe you’re just out here to catch a suspect.”
With that, I take off. “Better catch me, Officer Keaton.”
Sprinting down to the beach, I hear his boots on the path getting closer. The anticipation of him capturing me sends my blood thrumming through my veins.
His strong arms wrap around me as I get closer to the water, and he takes me down to the sand.
“Suspect has been apprehended,” he whispers in my ear.
Rolling onto my back underneath his body, I spread my arms out with him holding my wrists. “What is my punishment?”
“Truth or dare?” he asks.
“Dare,” I say confidently.
“Skinny dip.” He rolls to his ass, sitting on the sand with his hands outstretched behind him, a lopsided smile on his face that goes higher on one side than the other.
Taking him in like this, it’s hard not to fall for him. He’s fun and uninhibited.
Straddling his lap, I lean down to kiss him as an overwhelming need to taste this man overtakes me.
“Truth or dare?” I ask him, pulling back.
“You haven’t completed mine.” He pouts.
“Okay, okay. Rules are rules.” Standing over him, I slip my shorts down my legs, dropping them on his lap.
“Fuck, Trouble. No underwear?” He’s practically salivating.
Shaking my head, I step back.
“You in that tee is fucking phenomenal. I need to get you more.”
“Does it make you all primal to know I’m wearing your clothes?” I bite my lip, backing toward the water.
“Knowing you’re mine when you wear it makes me hard.” His eyes track my hands as they lift the hem of the shirt over my head.
“I kind of like it, too. No one knows what we’re doing, but they’re all speculating. Your tourists around town, the girls whose hearts were broken by Wyatt Keaton.” I drop the tee in the sand and pull my sports bra over my head next, slingshotting it and hitting him directly in the face.
I’m completely bare to him here on the beach. Thank God it’s private.
“Now, truth or dare, officer?”
“Dare.”
“I dare you to join me, and not touch me.” The waves lap at my feet as I trek through the low tide, not breaking eye contact with him.
“I’m enjoying my show.” His gaze roams up and down my body.
“If you don’t take the dare, you owe me a truth.”
He taps his chin, thinking about his options. “Okay. I’ll take your dare. But then I want a truth from you. No dare.”
I swallow hard, not knowing if I’m able to give him any yet. “Okay.”
“You’d rather strip your body naked and put it on display than bare your emotions.” He strips out of his uniform until he’s down to his boxers.
I don’t even enjoy it, because he’s frozen me with his acute observation of sharing my feelings.
“Eyes on me, Goddess,” he says.
Snapping my attention to him just as he starts to pull his boxers down, his cock springs free making me regret the no-touching rule.
The water is cold as fuck, but I need it to cool my heated skin as he stalks toward me.
As soon as his feet touch the water, he says, “Dare completed. Now your truth.”
“One each.” I sink into the waves.
He swims toward me. “Who is James? Does he have anything to do with why you’re here?”
“H-how do you know about James?” I stammer.
“You said his name in your sleep. I put two and two together after your comment.”
“Oh God, what did I say?” My body runs cold, and it’s not from the water.
“Answer the question. Who is it?”
I stare at him, frozen in fear. Do I lie or tell the truth? He closes the distance between us. Pulling me to him, I instinctively wrap my legs around his waist. His hard cock pushes against my ass.
Can I distract him?
I start grinding against him as best I can in the water.
“Not going to work, Goddess. Spill it.”
“I need you to promise me you won’t get mad.” I wrap myself tighter around his body, hoping to keep him close.
“I promise.”
“He’s my fiancé,” I blurt out.
Wyatt instantly drops me in the water, and I could cry. “You’re engaged?”
“You promised you wouldn’t get mad,” I said, tears pricking at the back of my eyes.
“I’m not… fuck. I don’t fuck with married or attached women. How could you hide this from me?” He’s standing now, pacing back and forth in the low tide, running his hands through his hair.
“It’s not… we aren’t still engaged.” I swallow hard and steady myself to admit this next part. “He thinks I’m dead. I’m technically dead.”
“What?” He freezes, staring at me.
It’s now or never. “My real name is Sophia Chiave. My father is Hugh Chiave.”
“But… I just… I’m the reason your father is in prison.” He slowly steps toward me again.
“I know.”
“You should fucking hate me.”
“I don’t. I fucking hate him. He’s exactly where he belongs.”
He pulls me back into his arms and my heart rate slows. “I don’t understand.”
“James was my father’s pick for a husband for me.
He has the right family that would give Hugh more power.
He was an abusive asshole, and Hugh didn’t care.
I was forced to stay with him. Every day was a new assault.
At first it was just a hit here and there, but the longer we were together, the more he did.
When Aubrey left Maine earlier this year, she came to Montana to see me.
James almost killed me. He would have if my brother hadn’t gotten there in time and taken me to a safe house. ”
“The cuts.” He traces one of the larger scars on my collar bone. The same one he kissed just two nights ago.
Biting my bottom lip to keep the tears away, I nod. “I was in a coma for a bit, and I recovered with a doctor on my brother’s payroll.”
I rest my head on his shoulder. I don’t want to see the disappointment in his eyes when I say this next part.
“My family is organized crime, Wyatt. My brother, he doesn’t want to be involved in all that my family is, but we’re still the bad guys. And I got to escape the abuse because Ryder has the resources to make me disappear.”
His arms stiffen around me. “Ryder is who helped me.”
“When?” I ask, pulling back to look at him.
“He said something happened to his sister. Something that would have happened to Aubrey. I offered him immunity in the form of my silence for information on Jack as long as I caught him. I didn’t give a shit what Ryder did.
He’s the reason I had as much information as I did when he showed up with Aubrey.
Holy shit, you’re his sister. He told me what happened to you. ”
He kisses me, deep and needy. “God, I was so afraid for you, even though I didn’t know it was you then.
I know what men like James are capable of, I just didn’t know your names.
Just that Jack was capable of the same, and if he could protect Aubrey like he tried with you, then he’d tell me anything. ”
“James is a fucking coward. He ran when Ryder came looking for him. Within the family, Ryder and his best friend, Damon, have been working behind the scenes for years trying to get Hugh out. When you arrested him, Ryder took over easily. It’s how I could just disappear without a second thought.”
“Hugh is out. He won the appeal.” He stills.
“What?”
“He won the appeal this morning. I just got the call. He’s out clear and free. Paid off some judge, probably.”
Now the tears have no chance of staying put. They spill down my cheeks, fat and heavy. “No. No. He can’t be. He can’t… Ryder didn’t call. I didn’t know.”
“Hey, don’t worry. I’ll keep you safe. You’re here with me now, he doesn't know where you are. He made a statement to the media about not wanting the attention. He wants the police to find who murdered you. He doesn’t know you’re not dead.”
“How can you be sure?” I cling to him like a lifeline.
“I’ll call Ryder when I get back to the office. We’ll get this sorted out. We’ll keep you safe, Goddess. No one will find you.” He pulls my face to his with his finger, kissing me.
I only hope I can trust him.