Chapter 21 #2
Kissing her hard, tasting her with every touch, he rocked against her, his movements quickening with her breath.
With two layers of denim between them, he couldn’t feel the first flutters of her orgasm, but he could hear them.
In her staccato breathing, in the tiny, gasping sounds coming from her throat.
And he could feel it in the way her back bowed under his hands, in the way she drew away from his kisses, wholly lost in the feeling taking over her body.
When her head fell back and her eyes fluttered closed, her body going taut under his touch, his own responded.
For a split second, embarrassment threatened to douse the heat of the moment, but he let that thought flit away.
He let it dissolve into nothing, instead choosing to focus on experiencing this pleasure with Helia.
Sensing his arousal through her own haze of desire, she pressed her core to his thigh, shifting her hip against the zipper of his jeans and the raging erection that fought for release—in every sense—on the other side.
“Fuck, Helia,” he muttered, his other hand dropping to her hip to hold her tighter.
“Collin,” she responded on a breathy huff that trailed off to a long, low moan as her body tumbled over the edge. The feel of her, the knowledge of the release he’d given her, brought him to his own on a rumbled groan that matched hers.
Holding each other as their bodies came down, he let his head fall against the door as hers came to rest on his chest. Without thought, he lifted a hand to cradle her there, holding her to his heart as their unsteady breathing slowly evened out.
“That was some kiss,” she muttered, her lips brushing his shirt and drawing a sated chuckle from him.
“Will you come back tonight?” he asked. He wouldn’t presume they’d take things any further than they had, but if she was willing, his mind had already conjured a hundred and one ways to worship her.
“Will you let me touch you? Taste you?”
An obvious answer for most men, but they both knew that in this, he wasn’t most men. Still, the thought of her doing to him even a tiny percentage of the things he wanted to do to her had his body coming back to life.
“If that’s what you want,” he managed to say.
“I definitely want, but do you?”
He pressed his hips against her. “What do you think?”
She chuckled softly, the sound fading to a sated silence as they savored the quiet moment of connection.
Finally, dropping a kiss on her hair, he shifted away, reluctantly separating them. “You need to get to work,” he said.
She ran her hands through her mussed locks. “And you need to change your pants.”
Again, the thought struck him that he should be embarrassed, but the hot look in Helia’s eyes, as if she’d enjoyed sending him over the edge, stopped him. “Thankfully, I have a second pair,” he said with a grin. A load of laundry a small price to pay.
She stared at him for several seconds, then, with a shake of her head, she stepped forward and gave him a big smacking kiss.
“I’m going to leave now. It’s not a good idea for me to be in the room when you change your pants.
I might get all sorts of ideas that will keep me here, and we both have things to do today.
” And with that, she nudged him away from the door and stepped out.
“I’ll tell Gretchen you’ll be down in a few,” she added over her shoulder as she walked away.
He watched her go until she disappeared down the staircase. Tempted as he was to replay the last fifteen minutes again and again in his head, he shut the door, changed quickly, then started down the stairs only to halt a few steps down, turn around, and head to Kendall’s room.
Knowing she probably still wore her headphones, he knocked loudly on the heavy door.
A beat passed before she called out for him to come in.
He hadn’t set foot in the room since he’d been back but wasn’t surprised to see it neat as a pin.
She’d had enough instability in her life that she was no doubt ready to flee at a moment’s notice with everything she owned. He both admired and hated it for her.
“Gretchen Roan is downstairs; she manages Bacco. I didn’t get any indications that she’s involved with Roger and his life in any way, but I wanted to be sure she’s not who you heard the day he died.
Would you mind coming downstairs to meet her?
Or if you don’t want to meet her, you can listen in from the hallway while she and I talk, and you can text me if her voice is familiar? ”
Kendall shook her head. “Don’t need to. I know it’s not her. I heard her here a few times, talking to other staff people before Roger died. I know who she is, and it wasn’t her.”
Relief lifted a weight from his chest. He was going to need Gretchen’s skill and knowledge in the next several months.
He dipped his chin. “Thanks. If you want to come down, feel free. We can tell her you’re my niece or sister.”
A look flashed in her eyes, but she shook her head. “Thanks, I’m almost done with this module. I hate the subject so want to get it over with.”
He grinned at her tone, one of the few times he’d heard her sound like the tweenager she was. “What module?”
“Coding,” she replied, making a face. “It’s stuff I could do when I was six! It’s so boring,” she said, drawing out the “so.”
“And you can’t whiz through it?”
“It’s timed!” she said in outrage. “They give you a prompt, then give you ten minutes to do it, but you can’t go any faster if you finish early. Can you believe that shit?”
He arched a brow. He’d told her he didn’t care too much about the swearing, but the words should be well-timed and -placed rather than gratuitous.
She rolled her eyes and reached for her headphones. “I’ll come down when I’m done. Maybe we can search the house. See if we can find any clue as to who poisoned Roger. Or if his murder is connected to Flannery’s or Fisher’s.”
There was something dreadfully wrong with dragging a twelve-year-old into a murder investigation, but once again, he opted to let it slide. If it kept her mind off the fact that her mother hadn’t yet returned, he’d call it a win. A dubious one, but a win.
Jogging down the stairs, he found Gretchen where he’d left her, Dulcie and Helia gone. “Any chance you have a copy of Kelly’s contract?” he asked.
She gestured to a file on the desk, not lifting her eyes from her screen.
“I’m checking inventory, shipments, supplies, that sort of thing.
Alessio’s been monitoring this season’s wine both remotely and in person.
The stuff that’s already been set aside to age won’t be an issue, but he’s racking a few varietals.
He’ll be wrapping that up by the end of January and will need supplies and people. ”
“Helia pointed Miguel out to me the other day at Guichos,” he said, opening the file. “I assume his crew can help?”
Gretchen nodded. “They can. I’ll get the supplies ordered, though.
I also reconciled the books to date and paid a few bills.
You can terminate that contract for convenience at any time,” she added, looking up and nodding to the papers in his hands.
“I’ve changed the login and password. Password is dingdongthewitchisdead.
” He snorted a laugh. She smiled, then rattled off the new login.
“Want me to call Kelly?” she offered.
“I get the feeling you’d like that,” he replied, chuckling.
“Possibly,” Gretchen said, holding her hand out for the file.
“Anything you need me to do?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Everything can wait until after the holidays. You probably want some time to figure out what to do with it all anyway.”
“I’ll admit, I haven’t given it much thought. There have been other things occupying my mind.”
“Like the murders and how they seem to be circling around Helia?” He blinked. “Very little goes on in this stretch of the world that I don’t know or can’t find out about.”
“Handy skill.”
She bobbed her head. “Mostly. Sometimes it’s annoying.”
“Do you have any idea why it’s circling around Helia?”
She sat back in her chair. “I’m not so sure it’s Helia. She isn’t the only thing they have in common.”
Before he could ask, his phone rang. Glancing at the screen, he rose. “Go ahead and call Kelly. I need to get this, but I’ll be back in a few and you can tell me your thoughts.”
She nodded as he connected the call, then walked out of her office. “Leo? What’d you find?”
“It’s not good, and I think you need to sit down.”