Chapter 32 Maxim
MAXIM
Hollie’s hair spreads across the pillow like a spiderweb, her breathing soft and shallow but finally peaceful.
After our shower together last night, I feared she wouldn’t find peace after what she went through but luckily, sleep came swiftly and I spent my last hours awake doubling our security, putting a permanent car on her parents, and having Rex dig up every piece of info on Mr. Havershire.
The man’s a ghost, deepening my suspicions.
Suspicions that rest on the back burner as I study Hollie’s sleeping face and gently brush a few red strands away from her face. Her dark roots are peeking out now, but I like the contrast between the brown and red. Reminds me of a cinnamon candy cane at this time of year.
She turns her face toward my fingertips as if some deep part of her is aware that I’m there with her. Her lips part, and I sweep down to lightly touch her lower lip. She’s become so important to me in such a short time, and I failed her when she needed me the most.
Never again.
Hollie stirs a little more and her eyelashes flutter against her cheek, then she rolls onto her back with a soft sigh.
Drawing her out of slumber as gently as I can is fun, but I’m running out of time and I need to talk to her before I leave.
She murmurs softly in the back of her throat and her lips part a little further, taunting me enough that I lean in and kiss her very softly.
A part of her responds with just a flicker of pressure.
She’s on the cusp of wakefulness, dancing that blurry line between the comfort of sleep and the lure of waking, so I continue my path.
I kiss her jaw, then down to her neck and all the way down to her soft shoulder where the strap of her sleepwear rests in the crook of her neck.
Down her arm I kiss while my body gradually pushes the sheets away from her body.
From her forearm to her abdomen exposed by her sleepwear rising up during her sleep, I lavish warm, gentle attention as I go until I reach the hem of her sleep shorts.
She shifts under me and one leg lifts to the side, cocked at the knee.
Warmth blooms through me as I pull her shorts down inch by inch until the silk rests around her knees and she’s exposed to me.
Her mound makes my mouth water. I discard her shorts completely, shift under one of her legs, and very slowly press my mouth against the outer lips of her pussy.
She doesn’t react other than a soft, sharp intake of breath.
Pressing my tongue flat against her, I press in between her folds until my tongue is against her searing heat, with her clit hardening against my tongue in seconds.
Her sweetness becomes the only thing I care about. Licking through her slowly from hole to clit, I savor her silkiness, lavishing equal attention on each of her inner lips and then focusing my pointed tongue on her clit.
That’s when she wakes up, alerting me to it as her thighs suddenly tighten around my head and a louder, clearer moan rises from her throat.
I pause briefly, awaiting her decision whether to continue or pull back, and my answer comes in her legs draping over my back and fully locking me in between her soft thighs.
Message received.
Now she’s awake, there’s no need for me to hold back, and I surge forward voraciously, eating her out with my usual passion.
Strong flicks of my tongue, hard suction of her clit and deep delves licking inside her until her juices soak my beard and every breath from her above is tinged with a moan and a whimper.
I press my face as close as I can, smothering all my senses in her, and I don’t stop until she comes around my fingers, quivering and moaning as if she’s about to fall apart right in front of me.
“Good morning.” I grin at her, my chin resting on her thigh once her last shakes of pleasure have passed.
With flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, she gazes down at me with a cloud of pleasure drifting in her eyes. “Morning.”
“I have to go out,” I say softly. “I need you to stay here. And this isn’t a request. You need to stay here.”
She squints at me and lifts onto one elbow as if my words aren’t quite making it through her sleep- and orgasm-addled mind. “Are you telling me I can’t leave?”
“Yes.”
“But… I have lunch with my mom today. She invited me yesterday at the party because Christmas is on Saturday and she still has so much to do.”
“Until I know it’s safe, I don’t want you going anywhere.” Her brows furrow so I add, “Your parents are being protected too.”
Her eyes widen. “You think he would go after my parents?”
“I’m not taking any chances. Whether he’s someone worth fearing or just a random asshole, I don’t know. And until I know, I need you here.”
Hollie seems to be debating with herself, judging by how her mouth twists to the side, but thankfully, she nods. “Okay. I’ll call her and postpone.”
“Thank you.”
“Will you be gone long?”
Kissing her hipbone over the bruise that’s darkened over the course of the night, I climb from the bed and pull the covers over her as I stand. “I don’t know, but I’ll leave Toto here and I’ll have my phone on me. Call me if you need anything.”
“Is this really the place?” Biting, icy wind whips around me, pulling at my coat and lifting my pant legs as if it’s desperate to find any way beneath my warm layers.
A thick coating of snow lies all around us, disturbed only by my car and Stu’s footsteps.
If anyone else had been here, their presence would have been erased in the snowstorm that hit a little after four in the morning.
“Yup,” Stu confirms, his hands in his coat as he stares up at the building. “How did they clean everything so fast?”
When I dropped Hollie off here yesterday, this building was full of life.
Christmas wreaths hung from every window, the stone pillars at the entranceway were swirled with lights, and there were several glittering wire reindeer all over the front lawn.
In the cold light of day, not a single detail remains and the building looks so different, it’s like we’re in the wrong place.
Rex, kneeling at the front door with a lock pick in hand, grunts in surprise and stands. “Boss… It’s not even locked.”
The door swings open, revealing an empty foyer, and Stu’s face flits between confusion and surprise. “What the hell?”
Inside, there’s nothing.
Bare wooden floors stretch in every direction, open doors lead to empty rooms void of furniture, and crooked curtains hang off windows. There’s not a single hint that anyone was ever here, or has been here in the last month.
“What the hell?” Stu leads the way toward the room where he found Hollie’s shawl and purse.
“How could they have cleaned up so fast? There were lights and decorations, Christmas trees and paintings on the wall. The entire manor looked lived in and now it looks…” He trails off and opens the door to the small room, but there’s no furniture in here either.
Everything is gone.
“Find the office,” I say as an uncomfortable itch crawls over my skin. “I want every room searched from top to bottom.”
This is looking more and more like a setup to lure in Hollie, and the only valid reason makes my blood run cold.
Hollie is my wife and she saw the tattoo, the same tattoo Zoe remembered during her triggered episode.
Rex finally confirmed last night that the man I killed didn’t have the tattoo which means this man, if he’s the same as the fake Mr. Havershire, is my second target.
Not only does he know who I am, but he knows Hollie. And he almost had her.
It doesn’t take long to find the empty office, identifiable only by a smearing of glitter on the floor and a single glass shard retrieved from between the floorboards. This is where he attacked her and she fought free with the paperweight that seems now more like a snow globe.
“Boss?” Rex joins me shortly after we clean up the glass and glitter, hoping someone can help us identify the snow globe.
“Find anything?”
“Just this in one of the upper rooms wedged behind a dresser.” He hands me a crumpled flyer and grimaces. “This entire thing was a show.”
“A show?” Unfurling the flyer, neon text glares up at me advertising a flash mob party.
“Basically, a group chooses an abandoned building, sets up an event, and then hosts a party to whoever turns up and then they clean it all up afterward. All within one night,” Rex explains. “I remember them being viral a few years ago. My daughter was obsessed.”
My brow twitches. “But the engagement?”
Rex shrugs. “Could be that he found a guest to play along with him. The whole thing is an act. No one is who they say they are. It’s a night of pretend.”
“Find this group.” I shove the flyer back into his hands. “Hollie got this gig a few weeks ago, which means that fucker knew this was happening and chose this because there would be a crowd of strangers here to make it look real. Chances are, he knows one of them.”
Rex nods quickly. “Stu’s on it, Boss.”
“What the fuck is this…” Gazing around the room, tension pulls across my chest as the rest of my team scurries out. “Why the fuck would he go to all this effort?”
“He’s cocky. Arrogant. We reasoned that the entire reason the attack happened was that these small pricks couldn’t comprehend not being important. But now you’re looking into this personally… I bet he feels like he’s got a fucking spotlight on him.”
“So Hollie’s attack was my fault?” I fix Rex with a stern gaze. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“Technically, with her association to you.” Rex nods. “But we did what we could to make the best of a terrible situation back then. News spread and we knew your enemies would see her as a prime target. It’s just this fucker got to her first.”
“I want him,” I growl as my phone buzzes in my back pocket. “I want his head on a fucking platter in front of me. If he wants my attention so badly, then he’s fucking got it.” Anger licks at my spine as I answer the phone with a bark. “What?”
“Maxim?” Zoe’s trembling voice cuts through my anger and it takes all my strength to reign it in.
“Zoe?”
“Maxim you’ve got to come, please! Someone tried to break in!”