Chapter 14
Katherine's question hung in the air between us.
So, what are we going to do about it?
I looked at her sitting beside me, close enough to touch. Her blue eyes held mine, steady and sure. No hesitation. No doubt. Just Katherine, asking me to be brave enough to answer honestly. She was fucking amazing.
"I know what I should do." The words scraped out of my throat. "I should tell you this is a bad idea. That we need to wait until the case is over. That getting involved now is unprofessional and stupid and—" I cut myself off as her eyes twinkled.
"But?"
"But I can't stop thinking about you." The admission felt like stepping off a cliff. "Every time I close my eyes, I see you. When I'm working, I'm aware of exactly where you are in the room. This morning when you smiled at me, I forgot what I was saying mid-sentence."
Her lips curved. "I noticed."
"This isn't how I operate, Katherine. I'm controlled. Focused. I don't get distracted by—" I stopped myself again.
"By what? By women?" She leaned closer. "Code, I've been in this industry for fifteen years.
I know what it looks like when someone wants something from me.
When they're calculating angles, planning their next move.
" Her hand found mine on the table, tangling our fingers together.
"That's not what I see when you look at me. "
"What do you notice?"
"Someone who looks at me and sees me. Not Kit Lord the actress, not the brand, not the commodity. Just Katherine." Her voice dropped. "Someone who makes me feel safer than I've felt in years. Someone who kisses me like I'm precious and rare and worth protecting."
My chest tightened. "You are."
"Then stop overthinking this." She stood, still holding my hand, and pulled me to my feet. "We're both adults. We know what we're doing."
"Do we?"
"I do." She stepped into my space, close enough that I could feel her warmth. "The question is, do you want me enough to take the risk?"
Want her? I wanted her so badly my hands shook with it. I needed to pull her against me and never let go, to learn every sound she made, every way to make her gasp my name.
"Yes." The word came out rough. "God, yes."
She rose on her toes, reaching for a kiss, but not this time. This time I was going to start the kiss. I picked her up, and in six long strides we were at the threshold of her room. A couple more steps and I was laying her down as softly as a feather.
“I thought this only happened in movies,” she said solemnly. I looked in her eyes—there was no laughter, just want and need.
As I positioned myself beside her, she let out a negative mew and pulled me on top. I dipped in for a slow, deep kiss. Her mouth opened under mine and I tasted mint toothpaste and something sweet. Her hands slid up my chest, around my neck, fingers threading through my hair.
Her hands moved, gliding under my T-shirt. I continued to make love to her mouth, my hands holding her head, feeling the silk of her hair caressing my fingers.
Katherine’s soft hands edged higher along my back, then paused as she felt the first scar. She broke our kiss.
“What happened?”
"Shrapnel. Kabul, 2019."
She pushed me up. “I want to see.”
“There’s more,” I warned.
“I want to see everything. I want to see the man you are. The man who’s making love to me.”
Her eyes weren’t twinkling anymore, they were deep blue, staring as if they could see straight into my soul.
I helped her pull the shirt over my head. Her gaze traveled over my chest, the scars from Afghanistan and Iraq marking my skin like a roadmap of missions I couldn't talk about.
"You're beautiful." Her fingers traced a line of scar tissue near my ribs. "What happened here?"
"Knife fight in Mosul."
Her hands continued their exploration, cataloging every mark, every piece of evidence that I'd lived a life of violence and danger. When she looked up at me, her eyes were wet.
"Thank you for surviving long enough to find me."
The words broke something in my chest. I cupped her face in both hands and kissed her like she was oxygen and I was drowning.
I dropped down to resting on my forearms, careful not to crush her with my weight. Her legs wrapped around my hips and pulled me closer.
"Too many clothes." She tugged at her own shirt. "Help me."
I sat back on my heels and pulled her shirt over her head, then her tank top. She wore a simple bra, nothing fancy, but the sight of her hit me like a punch to the gut.
"Katherine." Her name was a prayer.
"Your turn." She reached for the button on my jeans.
I covered her hands with mine, stilling them. "Wait."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I just—" I struggled for words. "It's been a while for me. And you're—"
"Human?" She smiled. "Code, I'm just a woman. I'm not fragile."
"You're not just a woman. Jesus, Katherine, you’re everything." I kissed her slowly, thoroughly, until she melted beneath me.
Her hands resumed their work on my jeans. "Then show me."
We helped each other out of the rest of our clothes, awkward and laughing and desperate all at once. When we were finally skin to skin, I had to stop and just breathe.
"Okay?" Katherine's voice was soft.
"Yeah." I traced the curve of her hip, her waist, the soft swell of her breast. "Just need a minute to memorize this."
"We have all night."
I kissed her again, slower this time. Let my hands learn the geography of her body while she did the same to me. Every gasp, every sigh, every arch of her back taught me something new.
I reached down and snagged the wallet out of my jeans. One measly condom. I needed an entire fucking box. I ripped it open and had trouble slipping it on when Katherine licked her lips.
“You’re doing that on purpose.”
“What?” she teased.
“Game on.”
I slid down and parted her thighs. Wide. She was limber, she could handle it. My thumbs traced down the seam of her sex, and she cried out. I looked up and she was biting her lip. Good. No lip licking, the little tease.
I parted her folds and saw heaven. I traced my tongue through her cream until I reached her swollen clit. I circled it. Again. And again.
“Code,” she wailed.
I was only getting started. I took her aroused nub into my mouth and sucked hard.
Her fingers grasped my head, her nails dug into my scalp.
I circled her clit with my tongue as I suckled, she alternated between crying out my name and long moans.
I couldn’t decide which I liked better. It was time to take it up a notch, or two.
I slid two fingers into her tight, wet sheath and then she screamed out my name. I winced as she yanked my hair so hard I was sure she was going to come away with a handful.
Her knees shot up as I started a slow, deep rhythm.
“Faster, Code.”
My chuckle vibrated against her clit, and she moaned and arched, forcing my fingers deeper.
I was dying. I needed to get inside her. It was time to end this show. I thrust my fingers deep and suckled hard, this time with the lightest scrape of my teeth.
“Code!” Her wail filled the bedroom. Then I felt her entire body shake as she cried out my name again. “So good, Code.”
Had I ever accomplished something better than giving Katherine this amount of pleasure? I wasn’t sure.
Her fingers loosened, and I didn’t think I was bald.
“Hold me.” Her voice was a whisper.
I slid up her body, and her eyes widened as she felt my erection pass over her soft skin. I watched her kiss-stung lips form into a wide grin. “Oh goody, we’re not done.”
She reached down and squeezed my swollen cock.
“Careful, baby, I’m a hair-trigger.”
“You better not be. I have plans for this thing.” She wrapped her legs around my hips and tilted, lining us up perfectly. “If I ask you nicely, will you fuck me?”
I snorted out a laugh. “If I have to.”
“You do. You absolutely have to.”
She felt like heaven as I slid inside her. Her silky warmth wrapped around me, as if she were welcoming me into more than just her body—she was welcoming me into her soul.
“Closer, sweetheart,” she whispered. “Come closer.”
My forehead fell to her shoulder as I plunged forward with a groan.
Her fingers kneaded the muscles of my back as I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her up.
Our bodies fused together as she wrapped herself around me completely, meeting my rhythm.
The control I'd maintained for weeks shattered completely.
There was only Katherine beneath me, around me, gasping my name like it mattered.
"Don't stop," she breathed. "Please don't stop."
"Never." I kissed her neck, her jaw, her mouth. "I'm not stopping."
The pleasure built between us, spiraling higher. Katherine's breathing changed, her body tensing.
"Code, I'm—"
"Let go. I've baby, I’ve got you."
She shattered, crying out, and I followed her over the edge.
We lay tangled together afterward, both breathing hard. Katherine's head rested on my chest, her fingers tracing idle patterns on my skin.
"That was—" She stopped.
"Yeah."
"Are you okay?"
I tightened my arms around her. "More than okay."
She lifted her head to look at me. "You're not going to retreat now, are you? Put the walls back up and pretend this didn't happen?"
"No." I kissed her forehead. "I'm exactly where I want to be."
"Good." She settled back against my chest. "Because I'm not letting you go."
The fierce possessiveness in her voice made me smile. "Wouldn't dream of it."
We drifted into comfortable silence. Katherine's breathing evened out, deepened. I held her while she slept, cataloging her weight against me, the scent of her hair, the soft sound of her breathing.
For the first time in three months, maybe longer, I felt at peace.
The ping from my laptop woke me at 3:31 AM. Katherine stirred but didn't wake. I carefully extracted myself from her arms and pulled on my jeans.
The facial recognition alert flashed on my screen. Multiple hits. Instagram, TikTok, posted twenty minutes ago.
I pulled up the images.
Three different accounts, all posting from the same event. Based on the backdrop, it was a private party at some Hollywood venue. The automated system had flagged faces in the background of candid shots.
Russell Dunlap. Clear as day.
My pulse kicked up. The bastard had been hiding for days, and now he showed up at a Hollywood party?
I downloaded all the images and ran an analysis. The timestamps showed the posts went up between 2:15 and 2:30 AM Eastern. Which meant the party had happened hours ago West Coast time.
Russell appeared in six different photos from three separate accounts. Always in the background, always moving, but clearly present.
In two of the photos, he was talking to the same woman. Blonde, late twenties, wearing a black dress. The body language between them was intense. In one shot, her hand was on his arm. In another, Russell was gesturing emphatically while she looked distressed.
I ran facial recognition on the blonde woman.
Sophie Tremaine. Actress based in Los Angeles. Twenty-eight years old. No criminal record. LinkedIn was sparse, but she was active on IMDb. She did bit parts on television, but she recently did a co-starring role in a major movie.
Now, how was she connected to Russell? I started cross-referencing Sophie’s background this time.
It took a while, but I found it. Naomi Tremaine had married Russell’s father.
She had a young daughter, Sophie Tremaine.
She was six years old when she was brought into the family, Russell would have been twelve.
No wonder there hadn’t been any kind of relationship showing up when we were looking through Russell’s background.
My blood went cold.
I checked IMDb again to see if she was connected to Passing Through Jordan, but I saw nothing. That didn’t mean squat. The last time she’d updated it was six months ago. Which was weird, almost every other actor on the site was updating their profile daily. They were hungry for work.
I stared at the photos again. The intense conversation. Sophie's hand on Russell's arm. The distressed expression on her face.
I needed Katherine’s input, but my gut told me this was the lead we’d been looking for.
I heard Katherine turn the handle of the bedroom door, and I saw her naked in the doorway. “Is something wrong?”
I debated talking to her about what I’d found or going back to bed and holding her in my arms. Holding her won by a country mile.
“Nothing that can’t wait.”
I veered off to the mini-bar and plucked out the intimacy pack Amber had been so curious about. I looked at the box. Two condoms. It’d have to do.