Chapter 28 Cilla
CILLA
I must have dozed off. I came to halfway down the hall in Locke’s arms.
I turned my face into his neck. “You must be so tired of carrying me.”
“Not a chance.”
He set me down on the edge of the bed and helped me out of my sweater. I hadn’t bothered with a bra after my shower. His eyes heated at the skimpy tank I wore, but I could feel him withdrawing.
I took his hand and put it over one breast. “I need to forget for a while.”
“Cilla, you need rest.”
“I need you.” I slipped under the hem of his shirt and touched his muscled belly. I pushed it up and pressed a kiss along the furred skin at the top of his sleep pants. “Just you.”
He reached behind his head and tugged his shirt up and off. “As if I could tell you no.” He framed my face with his big hands.
The kiss was slow and drugging. He was unhurried in his pace, making me a little crazy. I wanted to lose myself in him. Push all the shit away in the way only he seemed to be able to do.
But the slow made my tears come too close.
I dragged the pants down his hips and stroked his firm shaft. Before I could draw him into my mouth, he backed up and pulled me to my feet. When my clothes were gone, he stretched me out on the big bed.
For the first time, he spread me apart without the usual gentleness and settled himself between my legs. He stared up at me as he lightly licked through my center.
I dragged in a breath and reached for him. He laced our fingers together over my belly, holding me down as he took his time driving me absolutely insane. He didn’t hold back.
That promise was kept. By the time he came up for air, I was a trembling mess. He turned his mouth to the inside of my thigh and sucked hard leaving a mark just above my scar.
I arched off the bed and scraped my nails through his hair to his scalp. There was just enough hair now for me to tug until he crawled up over me. I wrapped my legs around his hips.
“Greedy girl.” His mouth slick from me hovered over mine.
I lifted to meet him and licked the salty taste from his lips and his tongue.
His forest eyes went dark and hot.
“I like tasting myself on you,” I said against his lips.
Then he covered my mouth, and the kiss went deep and controlling.
Yes, this was what I wanted.
The darker parts of him that he kept under wraps. I tore my mouth away and moved my lips to his ear. “I don’t want Safety Locke tonight. Don’t hold back.”
He gripped my hips. “Baby, you don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I do.”
I lifted my knee to stroke down his flanks and undulated my hips until I could drag my wet pussy over his shaft.
He growled and trailed his mouth down my neck then palmed each thigh and spread me wide and drove into me. He held me down and stroked into me again and again until every inch of me burned. Then his fingers curled around to push my legs up until there was no space between us.
He bottomed out inside of me, his balls slapping my ass.
I arched my back and cried out. The sweat between us gathered and spread as he worked me over. His face was carnal and savage as he used my body, pushed me over the edge again and again until my throat was raw.
My nails marked his back as thoroughly as my thighs wore his fingerprints.
Then he pulled out and rolled me over.
“This body is mine.”
“Yes.” I sobbed.
“You’re mine.”
“Yes.” I spread my fingers over the bed and groaned as he pressed me into the mattress.
He shoved my legs together and the burn of it from being so wide for so long made me sigh. Then I felt the thick head of him press into me. The angle deep and tight as he held onto the headboard above me and fucked me.
It wasn’t pretty.
It wasn’t soft.
It was elemental.
I reached up and all I could do was graze his neck before I was flattened again. The relentless pace pushed me into a whole new place where there was only pleasure and him.
Where he owned my release.
I was a shuddering heap when he rolled me back over and sunk into me one more time. He pulled my legs around him and wrapped his arms around and under me until we were one. I cupped his face, sucked his tongue into my mouth as he slowly pumped into me.
“Let go,” I whispered against his mouth. “You’re mine too.”
He shook over me and the tiny pulses felt almost sweet as my name rolled out on a sigh as he came for me.
He buried his face in my neck before collapsing on me for a precious moment.
The entire weight of him.
All of him.
Mine.
I dragged my foot down his thigh to his calf with a contented sigh.
I whimpered a little when he rose off me, but then he rolled me onto my side and curled along the back of me.
I lost a few minutes or a few hours, I really wasn’t sure.
Sometime in the night he slipped inside of me again, soft and slow. I wasn’t sure if it was a dream or not until I woke with a cry as the orgasm rolled through me and heard his groan behind me.
I rolled over with a laugh, splayed out on his sweaty chest. “Shower.”
“God, yes.” He dragged me off the bed and we played in the big shower.
I was sore on so many levels, but I’d never felt so relaxed. We bundled in towels and ate cold pasta and finished off the wine.
Then we crawled into the big bed with the soft white sheets and both of us slept without dreams or nightmares.
When I woke again, he was gone but there was a note on his pillow.
Meeting with Stone.
Hang with Nyx at the lab until I’m back.
Yours,
L
I grinned and set the paper on the bedside table. I was pretty sure garlic was coming out of my pores from our late night dinner. I brushed the death out of my mouth and took a quick shower.
Nyx had left a few outfits in the closet. I’d been living in bikinis and sundresses for most of the summer that it felt weird to wear pants. But the black cropped pants were light and airy. I paired it with ballet flats and an insanely soft teal sweater.
I dug out a pair of hoops I’d found at a little shop in Maine, added a touch of makeup and headed out to the living room.
Unsure if I had access to the lab without an escort, I picked up the landline. There was a simple directory sticker above the keypad.
“Information, can I help you?”
“Can I be connected with Nyx—er, Nina Kendrick?”
“One moment.”
There was a click then after a few rings a male voice picked up.
“Uh, hi. I was looking for Nyx.”
“Priscilla?”
“Bastian?”
“Yeah, when she’s in the zone she doesn’t hear her phone.”
“Oh. That’s okay. I just wasn’t sure I could get to the lab without permission. The elevator seemed to have special panels with that watch thing you guys wear.”
He laughed. “Astute. We’ll get you one today. I’ll meet you on your floor and bring you up.”
“Thanks.”
I made a stop at the fridge and found a canned coffee. I cracked the top on my way out the door and nearly finished it by the time I got to the end of the hall.
The elevator opened to Sebastian’s ridiculously attractive face. I was pretty sure it should be illegal for a man with that kind of hair to also be a genius. He was wearing one of his suits, a deep blue, with an icy blue dress shirt. He grinned at me. “Well, aren’t you glowing.”
I choked on the last sip of my coffee. “Thanks, I think.”
“Considering Locke was damn near whistling when I saw him, I’m jealous as fuck.”
I stepped into the car with him with a shrug. “Must have been the vodka sauce from Marcella’s.”
“Right, must be,” he said dryly.
I laughed as the doors closed. “What kind of work do you do here—beyond security that is?”
“Why?” He arched a brow. “Looking for a job?”
“Actually, maybe. I left my old company for personal reasons. My CV is extensive, but I’ve been at the same place since I graduated.”
“Which company?”
“Hartman & Hayes Industries.”
He frowned. “Why does that sound familiar?”
“It’s mostly an investment firm. I was lead on the financial team. I handled most of the bigger cases and was actually in line for the CFO job when...” I trailed off. My fiancé boss boned my best friend and gave her the job instead.
Mostly because she was good on her knees.
Nope.
Couldn’t say that.
I was just guessing on the knees part. Marcus didn’t have a whole lot of staying power and preferred when I did all the work in and out of the bedroom. Maybe Lydia got something else out of him, but I doubted it. My ex was lazy at his core. I wished I’d seen it before.
“There’s a whole conversation going on in that pretty head of yours.”
“Sorry. That obvious?”
“A bit, yeah.”
“Let’s just say I got stepped on and over for the position.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, especially when it was by a woman who I thought was my best friend. Needless to say I required a bit of a change in scenery.”
“So that’s how you ended up from Albany to Salem?”
“I’ve played it safe my whole life. There’s something to be said for it, but from the moment that monster found me on the wharf my life changed for the worse and then I found better with—“
“Locke,” he finished for me softly.
“Yeah.”
“He’s a good man. Losing Milligan fucked him up, but we always hoped he’d eventually come back to us.”
“I know. He won’t really talk about him, but I know it was bad.”
“It’s his story to tell, but I haven’t seen this side of Locke in a damn long time. Whatever is going on between you, take care of it.”
“I’m trying.” I blew out a breath. “I love him.”
“Oh, man.”
“I know.”
He grinned at me. “Am I the first person you told?”
“Yes, why?”
He rubbed his hands together. “Nyx is gonna be so mad. She might be able to hack the damn Pentagon, but that girl loves love above everything.”
“Does this mean you’re going to gloat about it?”
“Fuck yeah it does.” The doors opened on the cybersecurity floor, and he held a hand over the sensor while he waited for me to walk across the threshold.
“My stupid mouth.”
He laughed and hustled me down the hallway past the cubicles to the massive lab. The doors swished open and Bastian strutted in whistling.
I spotted Nyx fidgeting with one of her Lego designs. I rushed around him and over to her as Bastian chased me.
“Oh, no you don’t.”
Nyx looked up from the sphere made of teeny tiny blocks. “Where’s the fire?”
“Are you aware Bastian is a gossip hound?”
“Oh, yeah for sure.” Nyx grinned. She set down the sphere into a little stand, her honey brown eyes sparkling. “Why? I want to know the hot goss.”
Bastian elbowed me away playfully. “Oh, nothing. Just a little epiphany in the elevator.”
“What? That she and Locke are stupid in love with one another?”
Bastian’s face fell and he crossed his arms, narrowing his eyes at me. “I thought you didn’t tell anyone yet.”
“If you need it to be said, you’re both blind.” Nyx hooked her arm around mine and dragged me away, waving him away over her shoulder. “Did you just figure it out?”
“I just said it out loud for the first time. How did you know?”
“There wasn’t a neon sign over you or anything—actually, no that’s a lie. It’s pretty obvious if you have any sort of emotional IQ. Bastian is better than most of the men here, but he’s still a dude.”
I laughed.
“Have you told Locke yet?”
“No.” He was too busy fucking me into a coma last night, thanks.
Nyx shook me. “I’m so damn jealous.”
“Why?”
“Because you got love and sex. Ugh. I’ve only found one or the other. Right about now I’ll settle for the sex though. It’s been a long drought.” She pulled me over to a bank of screens with laptop stations.
“I find that hard to believe.”
“I work all the time. My brothers keep me busy and I love this place, but it’s hard to date people you work with especially when I’m the boss.”
“Ten out of ten, don’t recommend.”
She laughed. “Exactly.” She held out a chair for me. “I was wondering if you could help me out on a project? Locke told me you’re good with numbers.”
“Of course.” I sat down. “I’m afraid I’m not as exciting as what seems to go on in here, but my background is in accounting and analysis.”
“Perfect. I suck at that part. We have analysts of course and Bastian is our resident brain trust, but this is a little more tedious. The tracker Dante found on the boat actually was our first lead.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, it needed longer range since you two were traveling all over. You can’t buy those so easily. First of all, they are rather pricey which tells me he has money, and second, there might be a way to find a money trail. You, my friend, are the money expert.”
“I’m sure there are people better at this than I am.”
“I can write program, but it takes time for a bot to search it all out. It’s not as intuitive as a person is.” She put a hand on my shoulder. “There was another killing this morning.”
“God.”
The guilt of it threatened to suck me under.
“Nope. It’s not your fault. This guy is the asshole, remember that.”
I blew out a breath. “I can help.”
“I knew you could.” She gave me the rundown of the company that sold the tech gear.
“I dug into the dark web to find it, but now I just have a ton of data that I have no idea what to do with. I know there has to be a money trail in there somewhere. There’re a ton of dead ends because I was scraping a shitstorm of data in a place known for hiding their shit well. ”
“I’ll give it a go.”
“Thanks. We have all the coffee too if you need it. Cold, hot, espresso, or not.”
I fortified myself with caffeine and borrowed a pair of headphones to cut out all the distractions, then got to work.