20. Josh
20
JOSH
Nia has this habit of throwing her hands above her head while she sleeps, a simple, unconscious gesture that somehow makes my mind spiral into all kinds of delicious thoughts.
It’s something so small, so innocent, but the sight of her stretched out beside me, her arms up in that vulnerable, inviting position, sends a rush of desire through me every single time. I can’t help but imagine all the things I want to do to her, how I want to take advantage of the moment, of her trust, of the way she’s so completely at ease in my presence.
It’s a twisted kind of arousal, one that makes my dick hard and my pulse quicken as I lie there beside her, torn between the urge to wake her up and the thrill of keeping her in that blissful, unaware state.
The headboard I helped her pick out the first month we were together has proven more than once that it was worth every single penny. The hook and eye that I drilled into it helps too. But I’m not going to tell anyone that I've put it in or that Nia loves it when I use it to keep her tied up and at my mercy.
In fact, that's exactly what I find myself doing when she curls into my side and whispers three little words that I want to hear more than anything. When she is awake, that is.
Instead, she says them while she is still asleep, dreaming of what happened between us last night. I can tell because one hand slides down her stomach and into the panties that she wore to bed. Like the rest of her dreams, it doesn’t last long. And her body writhes against mine a few minutes later as she throws her hand back over her head.
With a slow, deliberate motion, I reach over to the side table next to the bed, my fingers brushing against the cool wood before finding the silk rope I bought online. The rope is soft, almost delicate, but strong enough to hold her in place, to keep her exactly where I want her. There’s something exhilarating about this, about the quiet preparation, about knowing what’s about to happen while she remains blissfully unaware. I lace the rope through the hook on the headboard, taking care to be as quiet as possible, not wanting to wake her just yet. As I do, I lean down to press a gentle kiss to her lips, a promise of what’s to come. She stirs slightly, her lips parting under mine, but she doesn’t wake. Not yet.
Nia remains fast asleep while I wind the ends of the rope around her wrists and tug them into a slipknot that will tighten as she pulls against it.
Once I’m sure it is the right amount of tight, I slip the blanket down over her body slowly so I don't wake her up. My fingers ache with the need to touch her, to claim her and make her mine forever. Instead, I hold my breath while I carefully slip the black panties over her hips and throw them behind me on the floor.
With Nia's body splayed out above me, I lick my lips and grab both of her thighs. Settling between them, I don't waste any more time. Sucking and licking her center, I use my fingers to press against her already wet core until she is beyond ready for me.
When her body arches up off the bed and she moans, I know she's woken up. But her hands are tied, and she can't force me closer. My hands hold her trembling thighs open, and I continue to suck and lick her clit until Nia screams my name and her orgasm slams into her body. Taut and quivering, her body is perfect against mine.
But I don't stop there.
Instead, I kiss the inside of her thigh, where I've just held it open. Working my way up her body with sweet kisses and gentle bites against her skin, my dick throbs with the need to claim her.
"Do you want it like this?" I ask her while I grab the base of my dick and press the head against her clit. "Or do you want me to take you on your knees?"
Nia bites her lip instead of answering me. Her eyes flare when I rub back and forth against her clit and slide just the very tip inside her.
"Make a choice, Nia." I pull out, even though it feels like I’m going to die as I do, and wait with precum beading on the head.
"This way." She shimmies, pressing herself against me.
Giving her what she wants, I thrust into her body in one smooth motion and then bring her legs up so they can wrap around my waist. She locks them there, and for a long few minutes I don't move. I let her do all the work, grinding down so that I hit the spot inside her that makes her body go crazy.
"Yes." I lean forward, caressing her chest, and press my lips against her neck.
The hurried thrum of her heartbeat meets my lips in a frenzied staccato that feeds my unquenchable lust.
"Josh," Nia cries out. "With me."
Her broken plea works its way into my soul and fuels the boiling heat in my veins. Just like every single time, the tingling starts in the base of my spine and hurls my body on the same path that Nia's takes.
I barely pull from her length in time to shoot my load against her stomach.
While Nia catches her breath, I get a washcloth and wet it with warm water, and then clean the mess from her body.
"Can I have my hands back?" She bats her eyes at me. "And thank you for using the silk one so I don't end up with burns… again.”
After releasing her from the knots, I rub Nia’s wrists where the silk has been bound around her skin. “Better?” I kiss first one and then the other.
“Much.” She smiles and wriggles her body against mine. “But you have to work today, and I have a date with Gem and my sister and Lyla.”
After another kiss, this one on her lips, I roll off Nia’s body and get up. “What are you ladies up to today?”
“Nunya business.” Nia brushes past me on the way to the bathroom. “It’s called girls’ day for a reason. The reason being that there aren’t any guys allowed to know about our plans. Not you or Rich or your brothers, if you think you’re going to convince them to ask me about it instead.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” I lie through my teeth. But Nia laughs, shaking her head while she brushes her teeth and then turns on the shower.
“Go to work.” She gets in the shower, and before I follow her in, I walk back into the bedroom.
By the time I’m dressed and ready to go, she is wrapped in her towel and putting on makeup at the bathroom mirror.
“I don’t know what time I’ll be done tonight,” I tell her quietly. “I’m supposed to be getting some lab reports back that I’ve been waiting on.”
Nia’s eyes cloud over for a second, and then they clear. “Be safe, Josh. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
For Nia, that is just as good as her declaring that she loves me to a room full of our closest friends.
I ride that high all the way into work, like the pussy she’s turned me into, and I don’t give a single flying fuck about it.
“What are you smiling about?” Ryder’s voice cuts through the early morning quiet as he strolls into the administrative office, two steaming cups of coffee in hand. It’s still an hour before shift starts, but here he is, as usual, with that damn grin on his face that suggests he knows exactly what’s going on in my head. He sets one of the cups in front of me, the rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee filling the room. “Could it be the lovely and perfect Nia Davidson is the reason for that smile?” he teases, raising an eyebrow as he leans against the doorframe. “If not, I’ll have to tell her big brother so he can kick your ass next time he’s home.”
I can’t help but chuckle at that. Ryder’s always been one to give me a hard time, especially now when it comes to Nia. He’s got this protective streak a mile wide, not just for Nia but for everyone he cares about, and I respect that. But he also knows how to push my buttons, and I can tell he’s enjoying the fact that he’s caught me in such a good mood.
I take the coffee he offers, feeling the warmth seep into my fingers as I bring it to my lips. The bitterness of the first sip wakes me up fully, grounding me in the reality of the day ahead. I’ve got a lot on my plate, but for now, I allow myself to bask in the afterglow of the morning I spent with Nia.
“Yeah, you could say that,” I finally admit, a grin still tugging at the corners of my mouth. “But if you tell her brother anything about our relationship, I’ll have to kill you, Ryder.”
Ryder laughs, a deep, hearty sound that fills the room. “Fair enough, man. Fair enough. But seriously, it’s good to see you like this. She’s good for you, Josh. Really good. Don’t fuck it up.”
I nod, not needing to say anything more. Ryder’s words resonate with me, and as much as I’d like to keep up the banter, there’s work to be done. The reality of what’s on my desk is a stark contrast to the lighthearted conversation we’re having, and I can’t ignore it any longer.
“The lab results are in,” I tell him with a grimace as I check my email with one hand and take a sip of the coffee he brought with the other.
Ryder nods, drinking his own. “Why do you think I’m here early. I figured you wouldn’t want to be alone when you get the confirmation we both know is coming.” He jiggles the coffee cup slightly. “And I brought coffee to help keep the edge off.”
“There was a different accelerant used in the fire we pulled Nia out of.” I read off the screen. “But every other fire, including the one that Piper died in, had the same chemicals used, down to the percentage. Over ten fires in the past two years, but that’s it.”
Ryder grimaces, his usual easygoing demeanor slipping away as the gravity of the situation sinks in. He doesn’t say anything, just nods, his jaw clenched tight. There’s nothing he can say, really. What could he say that would make any of this better? The truth is, we’ve been dealing with something far more sinister than we initially thought, and now that we have the proof, the weight of it is almost suffocating. I can see the same realization dawning in Ryder’s eyes, the same grim understanding that this is just the beginning of something much bigger, something that’s going to require every ounce of our focus and determination to stop. If we can stop it at all.
“It’s a mix of turpentine and kerosene,” I explain, reading off the specifics from the lab report. “The exact same chemical composition in every single fire. There’s no mistaking it. The fires were all started by the same person. Or the same people, I should say. We still don’t know how many are responsible for it, or if it’s just one sick bastard with a lot of time on his hands. But this gives us a paper trail, and a long one at that.”
The implications are staggering. The fact that someone has been able to pull off this many fires without getting caught means they’re either extremely lucky or extremely smart. And either way, it means we’re dealing with a serious threat. I can feel the tension building in my chest, the pressure of knowing that we’re running out of time. If we don’t stop them soon, there’s no telling how many more fires they’ll set, how many more lives they’ll destroy.
I want to throw my computer against a wall, but I don’t. Instead, I print out a copy of the results and add them to the file that I’m putting together for Chief Hayes. The one that I have to present to him after lunch and has already given me something that will ruin my week.
“Murder and arson,” Ryder says sullenly. “Who’d have thought that those two would mix in Birch County again so soon after what happened with that rogue firefighter a few years ago.”
“Raymond James.” I say his name like the curse it is. “No relation to Deacon or Avery James.” I clear my throat. “I got a report on him as soon as I took over the investigation, and the accelerants he used do not match. He’s still in prison, where he’ll stay for the rest of his life. I also found out that one of the cops he killed had the same last name as Nia. One of her cousins. But that’s not a story for today. I don’t know who it could be or what reason they’d have. And it’s not just one fire that might have been started accidentally.”
“This is heavy, Josh.” Ryder whistles darkly. “You’re saying you think someone killed a three-year-old little girl and they didn’t have a reason.”
I don’t want to admit it, don’t even want to think about the possibility of what I’m getting at actually being real. But there it is, like a lead weight just sitting there now that Ryder puts words to what I am insinuating.
“Piper was the only fatality in any of the fires.” I tap my pen against the table, recounting the facts.
“Still,” Ryder says. “You said there’s a paper trail?”
“Yep.” I rifle through the manila folders I got when I started to pull all the suspicious fires. “Just a minute.” They each have the date and location of a fire on the outside, and all of the investigatory notes are contained within them. Or copies of that information because I don’t want to have the originals of anything in case I lose it.
While he waits, I go through them and separate the files into two piles until I make it to the last one. The one that Piper died in.
“These.” I set the file on the smaller stack. “Are the files that all had the same accelerant. Including surveillance tapes and other information that investigators found at the time.”
I’ve already read them all front to back, trying to get as much information as possible on all of the fires.
“Ten fires, and they all have surveillance reports. Guess you’re having movie night at your place tonight, right?”
“Yeah, this is my first lead, so I’ll be ass deep in this information until I find something I can use to figure out who’s responsible.”
Ryder picks up the file from Piper’s fire, as I’ve started to refer to it in my mind, and opens it, revealing the sparse information I’ve been able to collect so far.
He grunts and then puts it back on the table in the right pile. “If they didn’t mean to hurt the little girl, it’s going to be even harder to find them than you think,” Ryder points out.
“I’m not going to start with the newer fires,” I tell him. “That’s the first thing I learned when I was a cop. When you’re investigating a string of crimes, you start at the beginning. That’s when they made the most mistakes, and one of those mistakes is going to lead me right to them.”
Ryder stares at me for a long second before he gets up and taps my desk with his coffee cup. “You know you’re scary, right?”
“Go to work, Ryder. I’ll talk to you later.”
He mock-salutes me and then shuts the door on his way out, leaving me with a pile of information and the beginning of a migraine.
“I’m gonna find you.” Muttering, I open the first file and get to work.