Her Dark Web Defender

by Dana Nussio

  But when he moved back into the kitchen area, he crossed behind her, edging closer in her personal space this time.

  “Don’t you forget my naughty side.”

  His whisper wasn’t close enough for her to feel his breath on her skin. He didn’t touch her at all. So why was she tempted to beg him to put his hands on her, even with half of the Brighton Post afternoon shift in her living room?

  “Oh. You might want to check under the couch later.” He waited until she looked over her shoulder to add, “The bottles.”

  The heat in his eyes said nothing about returnables under the sofa but spoke volumes about what they’d been doing on top of the cushions. Every place he’d touched earlier warmed under his gaze, as if brought to life by tantalizing caresses. Those secret places he’d yet to explore preened for his notice.

  To busy her hands that were tempted to do a little touching of their own, she switched the mugs again and handed Tony the second one, carefully trading off the handle. “Better get it out there fast or you’ll lose out on your tips.”

  “Wouldn’t want to do that.”

  He hurried to deliver the cup while she tossed the pod and started another round of brewing. They repeated the process several more times.

  Soon they were all seated around her living room, sipping coffee and trading stories. She’d tried before not to share Tony with her friends, and now she wondered why. He fit right in with them, despite working in a different agency that wasn’t always popular with local police. He laughed at the same jokes and had some of his own ridiculous stories to share.

  Conversations splintered then, with several going on at once.

  “...need to schedule a ride share back to my car since Kelly drove here,” Tony was telling Ben.

  “Don’t do that,” Ben said. “Delia and I will drop you off.”

  Kelly leaned closer to Delia, who was seated next to her on the carpet.

  “How did you and Ben happen to get out tonight, anyway?”

  “Grandma asked if she could keep Lydia overnight this time instead of just until the end of our shift,” Delia explained.

  “And you’re not home, uh, cuddling?”

  “There’s time for, uh, cuddling later, but it’s nice for us to get to spend time with other adults. Not at work.”

  “I get that.”

  “Tony’s nice,” Delia whispered.

  “It’s not the way it looks.”

  “Well, good.”

  “Wait. What?”

  The side of Delia’s mouth lifted, but she didn’t turn to face Kelly. “I’d hate to think we interrupted some real fun.”

  Of course, Delia would recognize it. She and Ben had once had their own secret office romance, though technically, Ben had been suspended at the time.

  Was that what they were having? A secret office romance? Or was it only a tryst? Was she so desperate for someone to tell her that Emily forgave her that she’d thrown herself at him when he had? No matter what it was, maybe it was a good thing they’d been interrupted.

  She was supposed to be helping to hunt down Sienna’s and Madison’s murderer or at least to find out if BIG DADDY was the same man who’d abducted Emily. Why was it that every time she got within twenty feet of Tony, she forgot why she was there and what she was supposed to be doing?

  Kelly couldn’t help feeling relieved when they all poured out the door, taking Tony with them.

  “See you tomorrow,” he said.

  “See you then.”

  He only patted her arm when the others had hugged her on the way out, but her bicep had flexed as if it longed to extend his touch.

  She closed the door, only realizing she’d been holding her breath when it came out in a long, full stream. She moved about the apartment, fluffing pillows and loading the mugs in her dishwasher, the first time she’d used it in months. Then, remembering, she crouched in front of the sofa and pulled out the two bottles from beneath it. Her finger traced the rim of the bottle, where his lips might have touched the glass.

  She held the bottles away from her as she carried them into the kitchen to rinse. That bottle wouldn’t and her mouth shouldn’t touch his lips again. Tomorrow she would figure out how to be more helpful in this investigation and how to keep her cool, even if she had to spend an hour talking to BIG DADDY.

  But tonight she needed to do one thing first. She had to figure out how to stop wanting things she couldn’t have.

  Chapter 13

  Tony pushed the button, and that same obnoxious sound that had interrupted the best/worst thing that had happened to him in a long time poured from the speaker. He jerked back his hand. It had happened to him? Okay, he’d been practically waving and shouting, “Put me in, Coach,” but the rest was true.

  What was he doing back here? Ben and Delia had been kind enough to take him back to his rental car. The least he could have done was to stay there when he drove home instead of switching to his personal vehicle and heading out again. He could’ve treated the interruption as the gift it was and had the good sense to walk away and forget about what had almost happened. No one could have accused him of doing the smart thing.

  She didn’t answer the buzz. He stuck his hands in his pockets. It was just as well. At least one of them had been listening when the universe blared a warning siren.

  “Yes?”

  Tony swallowed, his pulse pounding so loudly in his ears that he could hear nothing else.

  “Is someone there?”

  He cleared his throat and pushed the button to speak. “It’s me.”

  “Tony?”

  “Yeah.” He glanced over his shoulder to the parking lot. His car was there, waiting. He could still drive away. No harm, no foul. Well, almost no harm. It was like a child’s first piece of candy. He’d had one taste, and he couldn’t help but to go back for more. “Are you going to let me in or not?”

  Nothing. Was he more disappointed or relieved? He stared at the line of buttons for a few seconds more and then nodded. She’d chosen for them both. Then just as he backed away and turned, a click louder than even the buzzer unlatched the door.

  He hurried back to the front of the building and yanked it wide. Inside, he skipped a few steps in his rush to reach the second floor, somehow managing not to trip.

  Kelly stood in her apartment’s open doorway, her hands gripped in front of her. Instead of giving himself time to worry that she might have been having second thoughts, or to wonder why he wasn’t, he crossed the distance to her in three long strides. He needed her in his arms so badly that they ached, but he paused just the same and anchored his thumbs through his belt loops to keep from reaching for her.

  “You came back,” she said in a small voice.

  “I did.” He waited as she stared back at him, her eyes unreadable. “Is that okay?”

  Her tongue darted out to dampen her lips, and his jaw tightened as he tried to ignore his body’s automatic response to seeing it. Nothing could make him forget how sweet she’d tasted.

  Then those beautiful lips lifted.

  “Oh, hell yeah.”

  Tony barely registered that she’d used his same words from earlier. He reached for her, and she stepped willingly into his arms. Their lips searched for and found each other before he could even crush her to him. Her fingertips pressed into his back.

  In an awkward dance, they shuffled into the apartment, neither willing to break that connection of lips, tongues and heated bodies. When the latch clicked and Kelly’s behind was pressed against the door, she finally broke off the kiss and drew in a long breath. She rolled her head against the wood and snickered.

  “Well, I wasn’t going for laughs, but...”

  She smiled. “I’m just glad I have the least nosy neighbors in the world.”

  “I like them already.” Bracing his hands against the door on bo
th sides of her head, he dipped his chin to taste her again. Gently this time. At his leisure. But she didn’t seem interested in taking her time, her kisses desperate, her hands exploring with determination. When he slid his mouth to the side to gulp a breath, she moaned in protest.

  He smiled against her neck before tasting that delicate skin again. “Slow down. Have mercy on an old guy, would you?”

  Her head lolled to the side. “You mean like how you slowly waltzed in here? Anyway, there’s nothing old about you. Nothing at all.”

  His growl surprised him. His hands slid beneath her bottom, and he hoisted her up against the door, nestling himself against her. Was he trying to prove her right? He didn’t care. The only thing that made sense to him then was that a want had become a need, and he needed to be as close to Kelly as two people could ever humanly be.

  This time when he broke off the kiss, she smiled up at him. “Would you like to see the rest of the apartment?”

  Her hint was clear in that he’d already seen every room at her place. Except one.

  “Yes, I would.”

  She turned away then but reached a hand back to him. He laced their fingers and let her guide him to the room with the closed door.

  As Kelly flipped on the light, Tony expected to see something that resembled the rest of the apartment. A life in transition. No past to cling to. No future to wish for. Because of his assumption, the lushness of her private space surprised him. Dark wood furniture met a poufy white comforter and a mess of oversize pillows, all covered in a deep red.

  But none of those things were as startling as the flow of gauzy netting that started at the ceiling and enclosed the bed on two sides. His mouth went dry.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “Just checking out the place. It’s different in here. Another side of you.”

  He would have asked about the space that looked like a seductress’s palace, but then her hands moved to the buttons of her blouse, the same silk that had gaped when she’d rushed to dress earlier. He forgot his questions. He crossed to her, but instead of taking over the task of undressing her, he observed the unveiling this time.

  When her blouse lay open, with little hidden behind the flimsy lace beneath it, she stepped toward him and started on the buttons on his shirt. His fingers ached to caress all that beauty, but he wouldn’t, not until some things were said.

  “You sure you want to do this?” He asked it just as she’d released the final button, her fingertips skimming the line of his zipper just beneath his shirttails. His breath hissed through his teeth.

  She chuckled as her hands moved to his hips. “Are you kidding? I’m the one undressing you.”

  “Then maybe you’d better ask me. I hear that consent is a really big deal these days.”

  “It always has been.”

  “I know.”

  Kelly looked up at him, probably to see if he was serious. She had to know that he was.

  “So,” she paused, clearing her throat, “where were we?”

  “You were about to ask me...”

  Her hands went up in surrender.

  “Okay. Fine. Do you want to, I mean, are you in agreement, uh, are you into this?”

  “Oh, hell yes.” He grinned at the repeated words, his hands sliding to her hips.

  She snaked her arms around his neck and lifted herself to fit intimately to him.

  “I’m in, too.”

  “I can see that.”

  Tony dipped his head, his lips returning to their sweet spot on hers. He wasn’t sure how long they’d clung together, their mouths previewing the act they would repeat with their bodies next and his hands beginning an in-depth exploration. Somehow, though, when he lifted his head again, the backs of her knees were pressed against the side of the bed.

  “You need to clear all of the pretty stuff off there?”

  She didn’t answer at all this time. At least not with words. She grabbed the open sides of his shirt and dropped back on the bed, bringing him with her.

  Caught off guard, he extended his hands to catch at least some of his weight on either side of her, but he couldn’t prevent her oomph when he landed on top of her.

  Or the sound of ripping cloth.

  The rumble of her belly laugh vibrated through him.

  “That didn’t go as planned.”

  He pushed up and looked down at her. “You had a plan?”

  “Well, a destination.” She patted the mattress. “Sorry about your shirt.”

  “I have others. I wear a uniform, you know.”

  “You don’t say.”

  He rolled his lips inward, regretting bringing up work. The last thing he needed was for her to have the good sense to change her mind.

  “But you don’t need a uniform now,” she said.

  He sighed as she snaked one arm through his and pushed his shirt off his shoulder. To be helpful, he rolled off her, shrugged out of it and yanked his undershirt over his head. Since he was standing, anyway, he unhooked his belt and dropped his dress slacks and slid back onto the bed, wearing just boxer briefs.

  Her gaze on him felt like a caress. She lay on her side now, still fully clothed but with lace peeking out from her open blouse.

  He swallowed. It had been a while since he’d had any in-the-sack escapades, but this felt different somehow. He wasn’t sure how to take it slow when every part of him longed for immediate connection, but he would make this good for her if it killed him. And waiting much longer for it just might.

  “I need two things from you right now,” he said.

  “What are those?”

  “First, let’s get all this stuff off here. I need more room to work.” He reached above his head for two pillows and tossed them out the open side of the canopy. “And, second, we need you out of those clothes.”

  Both of his needs were quickly met, and after plenty of yanking and wiggling, the cover landed in a heap next to their clothes and the pillows.

  “Is that all you want?”

  Wearing only that work-appropriate pink lace bra and a surprising black net thong, she smiled up at him, her arms folded behind her head on a regular bed pillow.

  “Not even close.”

  Kneeling next to her, he repositioned her to the center of the bed. Then lifting her foot with those bubblegum pink toes he’d noticed hours earlier, he began a luxuriating introduction to her body. Baby toes. Ankles. Back of her knees. Higher.

  He hadn’t even reached the taste he craved most when she lifted off the bed.

  “Tony, please.”

  His lips slid away from her skin. “Relax. I’m not even to my best work yet.”

  With his fingertips tracing her lines and dancing over her curves, he took another slow visual journey over the length of her. Had he imagined anything so amazing when she’d appeared, wearing that uniform? He had, and that was the hell of it. She’d been a flashing light in front of him from the moment she’d marched into the office and onto his radar screen.

  “I need you now.”

  Though Tony had a more extensive expedition planned—more to discover, more to cherish—her words stilled his hands. She didn’t just want, hadn’t just pleaded for relief from her misery. She wanted him.

  “Can’t disappoint a lady.”

  He stood, shucked his briefs and sat on the edge of the bed, facing away from her. He’d stopped at the pharmacy for condoms on the way over, so he pulled out the small box he’d stuffed in his back pocket.

  “Oh. Right.”

  “I had...hoped.”

  She cleared her throat. “Good.”

  He made quick work of rolling on a condom. “Could this be more awkward?”

  They both chuckled for a few seconds, but the sound stopped as he shifted to cover her. He waited for a fraction of a second until she smiled up at him
.

  “Seems okay now.”

  He claimed her mouth and brought them together at the same time. For a few seconds, he didn’t move. From that first moment of ultimate intimacy, he knew he’d made a mistake. Not that he could have prevented himself from wanting Kelly. That had been as unavoidable as the collision between meteorite and Earth once the pull of gravity was involved.

  Following through on that desire, that was his mistake. He could tell it by the humiliating way his insides trembled. Could she feel it, too? He had to be overreacting. He’d been with hundreds of women. Well, tens.

  Still, he edged up, needing to see for himself if she recognized his uncertainty. Did it disappoint her? Kelly smiled up at him instead, as if she saw something in him. Something good. Then she lifted to him, both in lips and body. He was lost.

  He moved with her, drawing her sighs into his lungs, needing to give and take with a desperation that bewildered him. He didn’t want to think about it now, didn’t want to take away from this moment. But a worry remained on the periphery of his thoughts: he would never be able to be with another woman without thinking of Kelly.

  Chapter 14

  The horny investigators were making this way too easy. The driver shook his head as he stared up at the single remaining light in Building Four. Someone might have been a night owl up there, but it was more likely that a couple of law-enforcement officers were forgoing sleep for other, more salacious pursuits.

  He’d figured it was time to give the task force members a warning about sniffing too close to things that were none of their business. He hadn’t expected to find two of the investigators, who were moving too close to his business of providing prurient services, tucked in for a little slap and tickle of their own.

  “He couldn’t get inside her building fast enough,” he said into the darkness and then jerked his head to see if anyone was close enough to overhear. At least he hadn’t opened the car window, though it was hotter than hell with his air-conditioning shut off.

  Still, he grinned over that telltale drugstore stop. Those high-and-mighty officers thought they were so different from his clientele. They were all lusty beings in the end, right? To each his own.