CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Vince was naked on his back and Ricki was naked sitting on top of him, straddling him, as he slowly entered her.
She was leaned forward, with the palm of her small hands pressed against his barrel chest and her eyes closed. He watched her as he entered her. He saw her eyelids flutter. He saw her head leaned back as he continued to move in until he was in so deep that she groaned.
He wanted her to ride him hard. He wanted it desperately.
But he reached up and laid her down on top of him instead.
Because this wasn’t about him. He wanted her to relax.
After what happened to her sister, and what almost happened to her, it was no longer about satisfying his needs. It was all about Rasheda.
She could feel every inch of him inside of her in a way so real that it felt as if he was expanding with his every movement. The tightness of it. The massiveness of it. She felt it all.
But not just inside of her. She felt his big hands on her back, as he rubbed her there.
She felt one of his hands move down to her butt, as he rubbed her there.
She felt his warm, big, protective arms encapsulate her entire upper body as if they were a cocoon around her.
And his large thighs against her small thighs.
The smell of his cologne. The smell of his manliness.
It felt as if he was all over her, with a kind of sensual control over every inch of her body. And she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Vince felt completely in control, too, as he did her. And as ten minutes became twenty, and twenty thirty, he felt as if he could carry them on like this forever.
But that was until he felt Ricki’s vagina closing in on his penis with such a tightening that he could feel her pulsations. Which he knew meant she was beginning to cum. Which meant he had done his job well.
Maybe too well because, as soon as he began to feel her vibrations, he started cumming too. That wasn’t his plan. He had hoped to give her rolling orgasms. The kind that wouldn’t stop. But that would have required him to hold off his own orgasm.
He couldn’t hold off. Because it was Ricki.
Because no woman made him feel as if he was climbing Mount Everett every single time he entered her until he reached that summit and had to burst through.
He burst through. He came just after she came.
And it was such a thunderous cum that he nearly sat up as he poured into her with sensations he’d never felt before.
Making love to the one you loved: That was the difference.
And even when it was all over and he had not even a miniscule of a drop left to pour into her, they were both still feeling the sensations.
That was why Ricki remained on top of Vince.
That was why Vince remained inside of Ricki.
It felt so wonderful, and so right, and so relaxing that they remained as they were all that night, and half of the next day too.
And over the next three weeks, George and Milo continued to investigate in Milton while Vince kept Ricki in New Haven with him. They spent all of that time getting to know each other in every intimate way possible. Minor and major.
Ricki’s favorite color was orange, for instance, which was the weirdest thing ever to Vince.
Vince’s favorite color was beige, which had Ricki laughing as if she’d never heard anything so absurd. All the colors in this world, and he chose beige? It was like white being somebody’s favorite color. It wasn’t exactly colorful.
But they found that they enjoyed each other’s company in and out of the bedroom. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
Including Vince’s bad habit of always sleeping in.
Ricki understood he owned his own company and didn’t have to work at all, but the idea of a man sleeping until noon everyday did something to her.
She told him about it. She didn’t keep it to herself.
But he made it clear that he often worked late into the night and was accustomed to the hours he kept.
He wasn’t a morning person on any day of the week unless he had to be, he declared.
And right now, on vacation in Connecticut, he didn’t have to be.
But would he change at all if their relationship, such as it was, blossomed?
Would he work late into the night every night if they hooked up?
Ricki didn’t ask those questions. She had to assume the answer was yes, he would continue his routine.
The question wasn’t would he change. For her the question was whether she would be willing to adjust. It was a question she wasn’t ready to answer. It was still too soon.
Vince also found out that Ricki had what he considered was a very bad habit of taking baths day and night. “If you took a bath that night,” he asked her, “why take another one the next morning? How can you possibly get dirty overnight? I bathe every morning,” he added. “That’s enough.”
But Vince knew he was blessed. There were worse habits in his experience that a girl could have (like cheating on him or lying to him or trying to extort big sums of money from him). But a young lady being overly clean? He could live with that.
They were enjoying their time together so much so that the stress of Milton was beginning to feel like a planet away when it was only an hour’s drive away.
But they compartmentalized. It was all about Ricki’s happiness for Vince and what he could do to make her comfortable in his world.
And Ricki thought she was excelling in his world.
She was more than comfortable. Until one morning, when George phoned, did she realize that she hadn’t truly touched foot into Vince’s world.
Connecticut was his vacation world. DC was his real world.
When the call came in, Vince was attempting to teach her how to play tennis on the courts in his backyard.
At first Vince didn’t want to answer the phone. He was just that serious about his lesson plan. But when Ricki reminded him that it could be news from Milton, he walked over to the refreshment table and looked at the Caller ID. “It’s George,” he said and answered the call.
Ricki hurried over to see if he had found out anything.
“We’re in the middle of something, buddy. This had better be good.”
But George didn’t realize he was on Speaker. “Don’t wear the girl out, Vince, the way you do every lady you ever had. She’ll be too sore to perform when you most need her to.”
Vince almost turned red as he looked at Ricki. “You’re on Speaker you moron,” he said.
George quickly cleared his throat. But when Ricki smiled, Vince relaxed too. That was what he loved about her: She never seemed to have time for jealousy.
“Is that why you phoned me?” Vince asked George. “To embarrass me in front of Rasheda?”
“Of course it is! I was worried about her.”
“Like hell.”
“I’m kidding, Vince, damn. Can’t take a joke anymore? Wait. You could never take a joke.”
“George!”
“Okay, okay. I didn’t call to embarrass you, that’s for sure. I got some info.”
This interested Ricki too. “Go on,” Vince said to George.
“It’s been three weeks of pulling teeth in this little hellhole of a town, so we decided to get creative.”
“Meaning?”
“Milo spread some big money around and was able to get one of the jailers to tell him that the head guard, his boss, was in Erica’s cell for quite some time just before she was found hung.”
Vince and Ricki glanced at each other. “What’s quite some time?” Vince asked George.
“Ten minutes. Maybe a little more. But certainly enough time to string her up: excuse my choice of words. But our informant said it was more than enough time. He also said his boss ordered no floor walk during that ten-minute stretch.”
“What’s a floor walk?” Ricki asked.
“When the guards check on the prisoners,” said George. “They walk the floor. But they were ordered not to walk the floor during that stretch of time.”
“Is that an unusual order?”
“Very unusual according to our informant,” said George. “Not just the fact that he ordered no floor walk, but the mere fact of the head guard spending any time in somebody’s cell. That is even more unusual, according to our guy.”
“Has Milo spoken to this lead guard?” Vince asked.
“We haven’t been able to find him yet. He supposedly went home sick a couple hours after they found Erica dead. But he’s not home. And we’ve since found out that he resigned by email.”
“Damn,” said Vince as he and Ricki looked at each other.
“He could be anywhere by now,” said Ricki.
“You didn’t hear this from me because, contrary to what Vince believes, I am an officer of the court,” George said.
“Just tell us what you know,” Vince said impatiently.
“It’s my understanding that Milo managed to take a look around, inside the head guard’s house.”
“And?”
“It appears as if that guard had thrown a lot of his clothes on his bed, grabbed some of them, and took off. Milo couldn’t find a large suitcase anywhere in the house. And everybody has one large suitcase in their home.”
“What about his family?”
“He has none. That’s why it was an easy tell that this guy took off in a hurry.”
“So it’s confirmed he’s on the run?” Vince asked.
“He’s on the run,” said George. “But you know Milo. He’s a bulldog. He’ll find him.”
“What’s Milo’s take on what he’s hearing?” asked Vince.
“He believes once we find that head guard, then we’ll not only find Erica’s killer, but we’ll also find out exactly what’s going on: Who bombed that house. Who ran you off the road. All of it.”
“That’ll be a relief.”
“So just relax and let us handle this. I take it you’re going to Linda’s retirement party tomorrow night?”
Ricki looked at Vince. What retirement party?
“Yes, I’m going. She’s worked for me for many years. It’s a must.”
“Driving or flying?”
“Flying. My long-distance driving days are over for right now.”
“Because of this situation?”
Vince looked at Ricki. “Among other things, yes. My pilot will be at the airfield around noon tomorrow.”
“Might I catch a ride? I’m a fan of Linda’s too.”
“You can go only if Milo doesn’t need you. This case is priority, not a retirement party.”
“Understood,” George said. They discussed other matters, including the arbitrator ruling in Vince’s favor over his ex-wife’s demand for more money. And then they ended the call.
“What does all of this mean, Vince?” Ricki asked him.
“It means your sister didn’t hang herself.”
“And it means she didn’t kill Dr. Proctor either,” Ricki added.
Vince nodded. “More than likely, that’s correct.”
Although he could see the relief on her face, he saw something else there too. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.
“Nothing’s wrong.” Then she looked at him. “But you’re leaving tomorrow?”
“We’re leaving tomorrow, yes.”
She looked at him. “We?”
“We’re going to leave town for a few days.”
“And go where?”
“To DC. Where I actually live. Remember? We’re going to attend the retirement dinner party of one of my long-time executives, and we’ll hang around DC for a few days.”
“But I’m not ready to be going to any party, Vince. I need to know what happened to my sister, and who framed her before I can be in a party mood.”
“It’s not about a party,” said Vince. “It’s about getting you as far away from Milton as I can until we get those answers you want.
That lead guard is on the loose. We don’t know his agenda.
I say they’re targeting you just like they targeted your sister.
Until the evidence says differently, we’re going with what I say. You’ll be far safer in my world.”
“But what about my family? I want to continue to check on them. Just by the way they talk to me I’m sure any inroads we made earlier, although we didn’t make hardly any, but the little progress we did make is over because I went with you three weeks ago instead of with them.”
Vince knew it too. He went up to her and placed his arms around her and pulled her close.
“I have a security detail on your family. Nothing’s going to happen to them, so don’t worry about them.
And when you made that decision to come with me after that bombing?
You did the right thing, Ricki,” he reassured her.
But he could tell she wasn’t entirely assured. Her body still didn’t feel relaxed the way it felt before she heard that news.
He lifted her chin and looked her in the eyes. “When this is all over,” he said to her, “then you can make amends with your family. But for right now? Where I go, you go.” When her eyes began looking away from his eyes, he lifted her chin again. And forced eye contact. “Understand?”
That was an easy call for Ricki. He not only had the will to protect her, but he also had the resources. “I understand,” she said.
And when she said those words such a feeling of love overtook her that she couldn’t help herself. She wrapped her arms around Vince just as tightly as he was wrapped around her.
It touched Vince so deeply that he closed his eyes with a hard squeeze.
He had to tell her. Sooner rather than later he had to let his feelings for this precious woman be known.
And verbalizing that knowledge for the first time in his life could make him or break him.
The problem for Vince was that he was in seriously unchartered territory.
It could go either way.