26. Aus
AUS
This is wrong. I shouldn’t be kissing Thea right now. Her whole life is crashing down around her. She’s vulnerable, and if I sleep with her, she’ll think I’m taking advantage of her.
I break my lips from hers.
Her eyes flutter open. “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you stop kissing me?”
I sit back on the couch. “The last thing you need right now is some guy you barely know kissing you.”
Her irises flare. “That’s exactly what I need right now. I need you to kiss me, to take me away from this horrible night.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been surer of anything.” She crushes her lips to mine.
I open my mouth, and our tongues tangle.
I reach my arm around her back, squeezing her tightly to me.
We stay there for a moment, our bodies woven together in need and hunger, but it’s not long before her hands wander to the buttons on my shirt.
She slowly works her way down and slides the fabric off my shoulders, exposing my chest. She slides her fingers over my nipples as we kiss and kiss and kiss, and it feels so fucking good.
I grab the zipper at the back of her dress and bring it down, revealing her perfect breasts.
“No bra,” I growl as I pinch her nipples.
She grins and our teeth collide gently. “No underwear either.”
Fuck.
I’m hard.
And she knows it. She’s fiddling with the buckle of my belt. Once she gets it undone, she whips it off my hips in one fluid motion.
In a flash, she’s removed the rest of her gown and my own pants and briefs are around my ankles. She swings her legs over me and slides down onto my dick.
Sweet Jesus, is her pussy glorious. Glorious and tight as fuck.
My first instinct is to be gentle, but then I remember her words. Take me away from this horrible night.
Gentle isn’t what Thea needs right now. She needs me to fuck the demons from this night out of her.
And there’s nothing gentle about an exorcism.
I pump my dick into her quickly, and she arches her spine backwards as she moans.
“Yes, Aus. Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck…me!” She lets out a scream as she flies over the cliff.
I accelerate, pounding into her like a damned jackhammer. She plays with her nipples as I fuck her and fuck her, and soon I’m getting close to coming myself.
But I’m not done with her yet.
I lift her off my cock and place her on the couch. I kick my pants off my ankles before I dive headfirst between her slender legs.
And I feast.
I devour her pussy, running my tongue up and down her delicate folds as she squirms under me. Pretty soon I pull out a second orgasm, and then a third.
I clamp my lips around her clit, driving her to a fourth.
I climb upward and thrust my cock back inside her.
I pump and pump and pump in and out of her. In and out, in and out. Up and down. Up and down.
She throws her head back and bites down on her lip so hard she draws a drop of blood.
I only fuck her harder.
“Fuck, Aus… You’ve got me close. Close. Close…” She lets out the loudest moan so far as she comes once more. The sounds of her groans go straight from my ear to my dick, and with a few more pumps, I’m spilling into her.
I stay inside her for a few more moments as we kiss. Eventually the haze lifts and we sit back up on the couch.
She wipes the sweat off her brow. “God, I needed that.”
I grin. “I’m happy to help out whenever you do.”
She smiles—the first smile I’ve seen since the gala—and peppers kisses over my right shoulder. She’s so warm that her kisses almost burn.
She takes a few deep breaths in. “I guess I can take the couch tonight if you’d like to keep your bed to yourself.”
I laugh at that. A big belly laugh, like fucking Santa Claus. “Thea, do you think I’m going to make you sleep on the couch after what we just did?”
She frowns. “I mean, I was hoping that wouldn’t be the case. And I’m not on the news tomorrow, so I won’t wake you up early. But… I mean, it’s your apartment. I just want to be respectful.”
“The most respectful thing you can do is share my bed with me, baby.” I kiss her and then squeeze her hand. “Bedroom is right down the hallway. We could both use a good night’s sleep.”
I wake up the next morning to sun streaming in through the window. I glance over at the alarm clock on my nightstand. It’s nearly ten in the morning.
Same time I woke up yesterday morning, but with much better company in the bed.
Despite the incredible sex I had with Thea, the memory of last night’s events hits back with an edge.
I look over at the side of the bed. Thea lies nude next to me, her beautiful tits spilling out over the comforter. She looks serene, the only movement the slow rising and falling of her chest, the only sound coming from her a gentle snore.
What an insane fucking night.
I had no idea when I agreed to go to the gala with her that it would end with police swarming her house and her spending the night with me.
Oh, and me punching the living daylights out of my own employee.
I’m going to have to smooth that over somehow. I’ll give him a raise or something. Emotions were heightened. I’ll explain it away and apologize.
Right now, though, the only thing in the world I care about is the woman snoozing next to me.
I slowly get out of bed, throw on a terrycloth robe hanging on a hook on my bedroom door, and pad over to the kitchen to start some coffee.
I don’t know what Thea likes for breakfast. Normally I’m an eggs and bacon guy, but today she could probably use some comfort food. I have a bag of frozen blueberries in my freezer that I use for fruit smoothies. I’ll whip up some blueberry pancakes. That’ll be a good smell for her to wake up to.
I gather the ingredients—flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, eggs, milk, butter, and the blueberries—and get to work on the batter. Dry ingredients separately from the wet.
Following a recipe is nice. Someone else has already gone through the trial and error. If I do exactly as they say, my dish will turn out the way it’s supposed to.
If only this situation had an instruction manual. A how-to guide to get me from Point A—Thea being accused of the murder of one of my employees—to Point B, a lifetime of happiness with her.
Once Thea’s awake, we can figure out our next move.
For right now, all I have to worry about are the pancakes.
I fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mixing just until they’re incorporated, and lay them out on a griddle over my open-flame cooktop.
Once little bubbles appear in the corners of each pancake, I flip them over.
I haven’t made pancakes in years. They’re full of sugar and empty carbs, but after last night, Thea deserves a treat.
A treat for my sweet.
I’m stacking the finished flapjacks on a plate when Thea walks in. She’s wearing an oversized T-shirt she must have found in my dresser.
And fuck if that isn’t sexier than the gown she was wearing last night.
Her eyes are swollen—she must have cried at some point during the night—but there’s a glow around her. I can’t help smiling as she enters the kitchen.
“It smells so good in here.”
I gesture to the stack of pancakes. “I figured you’d enjoy something indulgent after the night you had.”
“No fucking kidding.” She grabs a plate. “Do you have syrup?”
I open my fridge. “Let’s see. I’ve got some real maple syrup from Canada. Got that from a friend. And I also have Mrs. Butterworth’s.”
“Mrs. Butterworth’s, no question.” She laughs lightly. “Give me that lab-made high-fructose corn shit that’s never seen the light of day. I need something chemically designed to hit every reward center in my brain right now.”
“Done.” I bring out the woman-shaped bottle and plop it on the counter.
She smiles as she looks at it. “My dad used to call this Mrs. Buttersworth, with an extra S. He said it was because you got your butter’s worth.”
“Nice. Does he live nearby?”
Her smile vanishes. “No. He died when I was pretty young. But the memories are nice.”
“I’m so sorry.”
She shakes her head. “You didn’t know. You would have found out eventually. Why not rip the band-aid off now? Both my parents are dead. Mom died in childbirth. And then Dad died later. I was raised by my stepmom.”
“Sounds like a difficult childhood.”
“You could say that.” She stares out the window for a few seconds before blinking and turning back to me. “But anyway. That’s not relevant right now. All I want to do in this moment is stuff these pancakes down my gullet.”
I grin. “Done and done.”
I love a woman who’s not afraid to eat in front of a man. Thea is exactly who she appears to be. No added airs, no pretense. What you see is what you get.
We sit in my dining nook and dig in. The pancakes are fluffy and not too sweet.
“These are great, Aus,” she says. “What’s the recipe?”
I chuckle. “The first thing that came up when I googled ‘blueberry pancakes.’ Glad you like them, baby.”
“They’re fantastic.” She pours another glop of syrup on her stack of pancakes and makes quick work of them. She leans back in her chair, folding her hands behind her head. “Okay. So…now what?”
“I was thinking that through as I made breakfast.” I lean toward her.
“First thing we do is get you a lawyer. Not just to guide you through the process and make sure that you’re not saying something that could get you in trouble, but I also want to look into that warrant.
There’s something fishy about a search warrant being produced that quickly. ”
“Agreed. At the very least, I’d think they wouldn’t have shown up in the middle of the night.” She frowns. “It’s weird, though.”
“What’s weird, babe?”
“After everything that happened last night, everything that was thrown at me. I should have tossed and turned the whole night. But I slept really well. Only woke up once.” She scratches the side of her head.
“I normally sleep in two shifts. Four hours from noon to four and then the four hours after I get home from work. It equals eight hours, which is what I’m supposed to get, but there’s something about getting all your sleep in one session. I feel super rested.”
“That’s great.” I hold her hand from across the table. “That’s why I wanted you to sleep with me last night. You felt protected, so you slept well.”
She looks up at me, her eyes fiery. “The sex didn’t hurt either.”
I laugh. “No. It sure as hell didn’t.”
She smiles wide, but then her faces scrunches. She takes her hand from mine and runs it through her hair. “Shit, Aus. What the hell am I going to do?”
“Like I said, lawyer up first. Challenge that warrant. Something isn’t right about what’s been going on with Kin’s death. Once you have an attorney, you’ll have protection if the police come knocking again, which I’m pretty sure they will.”
“Yeah. I think so, too. Officer King didn’t seem satisfied with what I told her.” She crosses her arms. “One of my coworkers you met last night, his partner is an attorney. He’s apparently pretty good at his job.”
“Then we’ll give him a call. Maybe he can give you a family and friends rate.”
“If he’s good, I’ll pay him twice what he’s worth.” Her lip trembles. “I just want everything to go back to normal. I want to be able to live in my own home.”
This is your home now.
That’s what I want to say. But she’ll think I’m off my rocker.
Instead I get up from the table, walk behind her chair, and massage her shoulders. “You will, baby. I’ll make sure of it.”
She smirks. “You’ll make sure of it? A guy who, forty-eight hours ago, had no idea who I was?”
“I knew who you were. The smoke show from O2 news.”
She giggles. “You’re too kind.”
“I’m just speaking the truth.” I lean down and kiss her cheek.
“Once we get a lawyer, we can start looking into this from all angles. Is there someone out there who would want you taken down a peg? Someone who would use any circumstantial clue at their disposal, like those damned sneakers, to fuck you over?”
“I mean, I can’t stand the woman who works as co-anchor on my news channel. Micaela Fields. She’s a heinous bitch. But she’s a garden-variety heinous bitch. I don’t think she’s behind this.” She rubs at her forehead. “And she didn’t tell me to go to Jade the night before last.”
I widen my eyes. “Right. You were there on a Twistr date.”
She nods. “With Bobby Q. The asshole who didn’t show up. I wouldn’t have even gone home with Wick if he hadn’t ghosted me, and then I wouldn’t be in this mess.”
I furrow my brow as I calculate my thoughts. “Maybe your date was never supposed to show.”
“What do you mean?”
I pace around the table. “A lot of Twistr dates end up at the Jade Sanctum. I don’t know why.
We don’t pay them for sending people there.
There are lots of clubs in this city, and I’m friends with several of the owners.
Zebulon Minos has never mentioned Twistr dates coming to his club.
Same from Scythe at Second Star. But we’ve gotten quite a lot of business from Twistr since it launched a few months ago. ”
“Maybe you just run a good club.”
“So do Scythe and Zeb. It makes sense that it wouldn’t send people to Aces Underground.
That’s an exclusive, members-only club. But the rest of the venues that used to be under the Aces umbrella charge covers to enter.
Anyone can come. But Jade is the only one getting Twistr’s business.
It can’t just be out of the goodness of their hearts. ”
Thea blinks. “What are you saying?”
“Do you still have that guy’s profile on Twistr?”
“Yeah. One sec.” She walks over to the living room and grabs her phone out of her purse. She swipes and taps a few times before showing me the display. “This is him. Bobby Q. The guy who stood me up.”
I widen my eyes. Bobby Q is a good-looking guy. The kind of guy you’d see in stock photos riding a horse shirtless.
In fact…
Wait a second.
I take screenshots of Bobby Q’s profile pictures, text them to my own phone—convenient, now Thea has my number—and then run them through a reverse image search.
The first few images are of generic models with similar builds and hair. But as I scroll deeper, I see a face that matches. Another one. Several.
I eventually end up on a modeling agency website, confirm the name of the man in the pictures.
I give Thea back her phone. “Check this out.”
She shrugs. “It’s Bobby. I guess he’s a model. No wonder he decided to turn me down. He could get all kinds of beautiful women.”
I shake my head. “Look at the name of the model.”
She squints at the screen and then widens her eyes. “Billy Hamilton?”
I nod. “Turns out the guy you were supposed to meet? He doesn’t exist.”