34. Finn
34
FINN
E mma moans softly, then she whimpers and twists under my attention. Her thighs close around my head, blocking out all other chances of hearing her pleasure. Luckily, I don’t need to hear her. The press of her thighs and the tightening of her fingers in my hair are enough to tell me I’m on the right track.
Her hips press upwards and I increase my pressure against her pussy, licking from clit to hole without hesitation. Each stroke upward, I focus intently on her clit with the point of my tongue, then I dip back down. No inch of her goes untouched, unkissed. She gets my full attention and each time she shifts away slightly, I tighten my grip around her hips and pull her back.
She starts to tremble like a leaf and her hips buck back and forth. She’s close and I’m going to take her right off the edge with no pausing. A muffled moan reaches my ears through the closing of her thighs. Her fingers twist around my strands of hair and she pulls so sharply that a bolt of arousal shoots down my spine. I seal my lips in a small circle over her clit and suck hard . Her hips buck. One leg slips on my shoulder. There’s a surge of warmth against my face.
Then, Emma comes.
Her body ripples like a wave, from her toes all the way up to her head. Her thighs tighten around my head for a long moment, trapping me against her pussy, but I’m not complaining. Her sweet juices spill over my tongue for the third time tonight and I continue to kiss and suck at her until her trembling thighs relax.
One leg falls off to the side and my hearing returns. I kiss her mound, then move to prop myself up. Emma’s face is rosy and damp, her lips bitten crimson and her chest heaving. She looks down at me with glassy eyes and a tired, grateful smile pulls across her beautiful face.
“Good?” I ask, as if I have any doubt.
“Mm-hmm,” Emma nods. “So good.”
Kissing the inside of her thigh, I trail smaller kisses up to the crook of her knee. Then I crawl up the length of her body, leaving fleeting kisses over her abdomen and breasts as I move. Up until we’re face-to-face and then I capture her lips in a slow, deep kiss. The heat radiating from her body is immense, and just one taste is enough to entice me into sinking back inside her one more time.
But she’s tired.
Coming home to Emma crumpled on the floor, sobbing her heart out, had broken mine. She’d barely told me what was wrong, only that a class had rejected her. Her pain felt like it ran deeper than she was admitting but I took care of her. A bath and then bed, to rest, where she’d chosen to pour all of her pain into sex. She’d needed a distraction and I’m always happy to provide.
“Think you can get some rest now?” I caress her face and lightly tuck some damp hair behind her head. “Or do you want some more of me?”
“Always,” Emma murmurs, both her hands coming to rest on the sides of my neck. “But no…I’m tired. I want to hold onto this so I fall asleep with these thoughts and not other ones.”
I kiss her slowly, giving as much attention to her upper lip as I do to her lower. Then, I stay with her until she falls asleep. Tucking her up neatly, I stroke her hair repeatedly and sleep takes her quickly. Still, I remain for a few long minutes, just in case. Only when I’m certain she’s asleep do I leave and head to the bathroom to quickly wash up.
Washing my face, the door sits ajar and I catch the low hum of Caspian and Asher’s discussion. They arrived shortly after I called them about Emma being upset, but she wasn’t up for seeing everyone. A choice we all respected.
Towel in hand, I drag it across my beard as I walk into the lounge. Asher’s on the phone with a face like thunder while Caspian is busy on his laptop. He flashes me a tight smile when greeting me but remains quiet as Asher groans deeply.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Thanks for nothing.” He hangs up abruptly and tosses his phone onto the counter with a clatter.
“How is she?” Caspian asks immediately.
“Worn out,” I tease, but I can’t bring myself to add the usual smirk. “She fell asleep quickly so hopefully that will bring her some peace. Poor thing.” Another pummel of my face with the towel, then I discard it and approach the coffee maker. “What about you two? Any luck?”
“Nothing,” Asher mutters, slumping against the counter. “I used all my connections, but the prudes behind the course she applied to aren’t budging. Apparently, they have no interest in entertaining adult content. Even when I explained that the pictures they were sent were stolen and not representative of Emma, they just didn’t care. They’re far too concerned about their own image since the email containing those pics apparently claimed that they wouldn’t want to be associated when the pics go public.”
“Art discrimination,” Caspian murmurs under his breath.
“Public?” I hesitate, holding the coffee pot over my mug. “Is that a threat? Whoever has them is going to release them?”
Asher shrugs. “I can’t tell. Whether it’s a bluff or not, it’s enough to keep Emma out of the course.”
“This is bullshit,” Caspian murmurs. “We have to take this to the police.”
“And do what?” I eye him over my glasses, finally pouring my coffee. “We can’t make the police force them to take Emma into the course, and while I don’t give a shit about exposing myself, I do care about exposing Emma.”
“Me too. I’m days away from quitting and opening my own studio so I don’t care if this goes public,” Caspian declares.
“I won’t have a choice either,” Asher murmurs. “Her father isn’t budging so if he has his way, I’ll be out of a job. Might as well do it on my own terms.”
“Self-sacrificing is all well and good,” I remind them. “But how does any of that help Emma?”
“Well, we have to do something.” Asher presses frustrated fingertips along a groove on my kitchen counter. “All this shit is happening and we’re just watching. Offering our support is useless if we can’t help her. I want to stop this.”
“Pretty shitty that we can’t protect her. We don’t even know who or what it is. I can’t settle on what the goal is here?”
I move across from them with my coffee in hand, nodding slowly. “You’re right. Okay so, let’s work out what we do know.”
“Are you serious?” Asher shoots me a withering glare. “All we’ve been doing is hashing this out.”
“We’re clearly missing something,” I snap back, fighting against the urge to get heated. It’s no one’s fault, and fighting amongst ourselves won’t help anyone. “Let’s go back to the beginning.”
Asher puffs out his cheeks and rubs at his beard, then he throws one arm out in defeat. “Fine. Her car got broken into.”
“Random act?” I ask. “Or targeted?”
“Feels random,” Caspian says. “It’s a common crime, especially around campus and beyond. Plus she admitted to having her laptop in the back seat. Crime of opportunity?”
“Although if we say it’s targeted then, why?” Asher resumes picking at the crack on my counter.
“To scare her?” I offer. “Steal from her. Force her to do something.”
“It forced her to ask her parents for help, but that can’t be it. She wasn’t exactly estranged from them and has been living a life for them.” Bitter coffee washes over my tongue as I drink deeply.
“Then there was the club, right?” Asher straightens up. “She got drugged in the club and a mystery person brought her home.”
“She started sleepwalking,” Caspian adds. “Misplacing things.”
“Then we had the cabin, the shadowy figure Caspian saw,” I add.
“Do you think someone followed us up there?” Asher glances between the two of us. “Or followed Emma?”
“Maybe.” My brow pulls low. “But even then, that’s so risky because her parents and everything were supposed to be there that weekend, right? There’s no way anyone but us could know that they canceled.”
“Then those pictures were stolen, and my art studio was wrecked,” Caspian says. “I still can’t decide if that’s related or not.”
“Everything could be at this point.” I drain my mug and set it down with a light clatter. “Then we were attacked in her home. Someone broke in and came right to her bedroom. Nothing was stolen, so I don’t believe the cops’ theory that it was someone trying to steal shit after breaking into her car.”
“I don’t know about the other stuff,” Asher says slowly, and it’s like a light has come on behind his eyes. “But whoever drugged her and took her home that night, assuming it’s the same person, would have had the perfect opportunity to clone her phone and her keys.”
“What are you saying?” I ask as my stomach twists uncomfortably.
“Think about it. She mentioned in passing that stuff was going missing, right? Like her phone and the window opening and losing underwear. She put it down to her sleepwalking, but if she was so out of it that night, then whoever was with her easily could have cloned both. A set of keys to let themselves in.”
“Oh fuck,” Caspian breathes, getting onto the same wavelength. “A cloned phone would explain how they’d know she was alone at the cabin since we turned up unannounced. And they’d have access to her emails. They’d know she’d reached out to that course since she never told a soul.”
Out of all the theories and ideas we’ve had, this is the only one that makes any kind of sense.
“Okay, okay.” I begin to pace, repeating their theory in my mind. “So this asshole breaks into her car looking for anything, ends up taking her laptop but that would only be good to track her until she reported it stolen, and changed all her passwords and things. So they follow her and drug her in order to clone her phone and her keys.”
“She’d never know,” Asher adds. “So she wouldn’t be changing any passwords after that.”
“But if they want her so badly, and they have her keys, why not break in sooner and do whatever it is they wanted to do?” I meet Asher’s gaze. “Why wait?”
“Maybe they’ve liked toying with her?” he offers.
“But who?” Caspian snaps suddenly. “Even if we’re right, we have no idea who it could be since her ex is apparently a reformed asshole.
“That doesn’t rule him out,” I remind him. “That just makes him less likely.”
“Or more likely,” Asher grumbles. “Since we have no other suspects. She’s the sweetest person in the entire world. Who would have issues with her other than her ex?”
“Her friend?” Caspian prompts.
“No.” I shake my head. “Whoever I fought with was definitely a man. Taller than Meghan too.”
“Taller,” Caspian muses, then he slides forward against the counter. “Speaking of, you never actually showed me the CCTV from the club. Are we sure there’s nothing there?”
“Positive,” Asher says, picking up his phone from where he tossed it and turning it on. “The footage is so dark, whoever it is might as well be a shadow.”
Asher plays the footage for Caspian and slides it across to him. Caspian leans over and falls silent while he watches. Meanwhile, my mind runs in circles. First things first, we have to get Emma a new phone and change the locks on her apartment. Not that I want her to go back there but if we can stop the culprit from rooting around in her home, it’s a start.
Then…I have no idea. I'm at a loss without an idea of who is behind this.
“Oh shoot,” Asher murmurs. “The hate she gets online. Have either of you ever noticed anything specific about it?”
“Nah.” I shrug one shoulder. “Other than threats of her getting what’s coming to her, the majority of it seems like regular, terrible trolling.”
“Related, you think?”
“Honestly, at this point it’s anyone’s guess,” I reply. “I can’t tell.”
“Fuck.” Caspian slides Asher’s phone toward me. “There really is nothing.”
“Right?” I pick up the phone, but just as I hand it back to Asher, something about the footage caught my attention. I pull the device back and watch as the video loops once more, showing me the same thing.
“What is it?” Caspian asks. “What do you see?”
A sickly chill crawls over my skin, washing away the lingering heat from Emma’s touches.
The figure helping her is shrouded in darkness, but one tiny detail escaped me before.
The stranger wears a dark black jacket with a blue tag.
A blue tag I’ve seen before.