Seductive Reasoning

by Melissa Schroeder

  Del could wait until she finally noticed him, but he knew that would probably be around sunrise. She was overly focused on work, and it wasn’t good for her. He knew from what she had said at dinner that she was getting stuck. And when Emma got stuck, she had issues.

  Walking up behind her, he slipped his hands around her waist.

  “Oh, hey.”

  He kissed her neck and she hummed. Damned, she always smelled so good. Exotic, and tonight there was the aroma of cool, Hawaiian night air clinging to her.

  “You taste good, Emma.”

  “Yeah,” she said, distracted still by her board. If he didn’t know her as well as he did, he would be irritated. With Emma, a man had to learn a way to capture her attention. Right now, her focus was a man who needed to be stopped. And they did need to do that. But, she needed a break and he didn’t see anything wrong with both of them enjoying it.

  He licked her neck up to the earlobe, which he took into his mouth. Another hum.

  She shook her head, even as she shifted from foot-to-foot. He knew she was getting aroused, but she was, as always, single-minded. “Del, I’m trying to work.”

  He kissed her neck again, scraping his teeth over her pulse point causing it to scramble. Satisfaction wove through him. “You need a break.”

  “I can’t stop now. My brain won’t shut down.”

  He chuckled. “I have a remedy for that.”

  He turned her around so that she faced him and drew her closer. Dipping his head, he nibbled on her bottom lip before slanting his mouth over hers. He stole inside for a taste and she moaned. The vibrations of it danced over his tongue, then filtered through his body.

  He heard something ping against the table, and he realized she had tossed her pencil so she could slide her arms around his neck. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He walked them to a big oversized chair and collapsed. There was no way he would make it to the bedroom. Del grabbed the bottom of her tank top, tugged it over her head, and threw it on the floor. She laughed, one of the most carefree sounds he had ever heard.

  She looked down at him with those damned mermaid eyes of hers, and he leaned forward. Without breaking eye contact, he pressed his mouth against her nipple, and drew it in. She leaned her head back and moaned again. The tips of her hair tickled his legs as he moved from one breast to the other, giving it the same treatment.

  When it was almost too much to ignore, he pulled her up off him, so he could strip her shorts off. He settled her back down on his lap. She slipped her hand beneath the waistband of his boxers and grabbed hold of his cock. He handed her a condom he’d stashed into the waistband of his boxers, she ripped it open and rolled it on him. As she lifted up, she caught his gaze. Inch by inch, she slipped down on his erection. She moaned when she finally had him inside of her all the way.

  “So good,” she said, her voice a deep whisper of need and satisfaction that fed his own arousal.

  Slowly, she started moving. She was wet, slick with her desire for him. He accepted her pace, moving with her and allowing her to set the rhythm of their lovemaking. Again and again, she moved over him. Each time she rose up, then descended down on his cock, he thought he would lose it. But she held back. Every move pushed them both closer to the edge, but she didn’t let them go over. Instead, she built the anticipation. Soon, though, it was too much for her. She increased her rhythm as her moans increased.

  “Oh, Del, yes, there, Del,” she screamed. He watched as her orgasm slammed into her. She leaned her head back, arching her back so that her breasts were in perfect placement. He took one in his mouth and she shuddered. Another wave tore through her at that moment, drawing him inside her further. His own release followed as he gave himself over to the pleasure. It ripped a shout from his throat as he thrust up into her one more time and let his release wash over him.

  She collapsed on top of him, snuggling against him. The scent of their lovemaking hung heavy in the air around them. He drew in a deep breath and sighed. They sat like that for a long time before he lifted her and carried her into the bedroom.

  “I have work to do.”

  He chuckled. “It’ll wait. Let’s get some rest.”

  He laid her on the bed, went to the bathroom to discard the condom, and returned to find her sleeping already. He slipped into bed beside her, and smiled when she rolled right to him and snuggled against him. Her breath was against his neck, and one of her hands rested on his chest right over his heart.

  With a sigh he settled back, his body satiated, his mind ready to shut down, if only for a few hours.

  The woman was going to be a lot of work, but she would definitely be worth it.

  Jin woke up with a scream. She looked from side to side and tried to sit up. She couldn’t. Her hands were strapped down, as were her legs. Worse, she was naked. Fear wound through her. What the hell had happened? She’d been to meet her source, then nothing.

  What the hell had he given her? Her mouth was dry, as if she had been trying to eat cotton. Even now that she was awake, her thoughts seemed to not make sense. She studied her surroundings. It was dark, so dark, and she heard the sounds of night beyond the walls. She wasn’t in a house, but in something else. Before she could think of a way out of there, she heard the lock at the door.

  Closing her eyes, she feigned sleep. Strong, masculine steps sounded on the floor. It was a wooden floor, but not strong wood. It sounded more like plywood. He stopped, fiddled with something on the table beside her. He turned to her and in the next instant she felt his breath against the flesh on her right arm. It took every effort she had not to freak out. The only way to get out of there was to pretend to be sleeping so that maybe he would leave.

  He apparently wasn’t stupid.

  “Tsk, tsk, Ms. Phillips. I am not quite ready for you.”

  Then Jin felt a prick in her arm, the rush of something hitting her bloodstream, and she started to fade again.

  The next morning, Emma was drinking coffee and looking over things on her tablet when the same name she had previously seen appeared in a report from Italy. Damn her for not knowing Italian. She was pretty sure Sean knew it though, or maybe it was Randy. One of them knew it. She would definitely have to call them and go over. She really hated romance languages. Too weird to her ear, and that irritated her even more. She wanted to learn to speak them, but had some kind of barrier.

  “What has your beautiful mind ticking this morning?” Del asked as he walked into the kitchen.

  He leaned over to give her a kiss. It was all very…normal. And weird. She hadn’t really lived with another person for years. The short time she had spent with Sean didn’t count. At that moment, she realized she really liked having him there. Not just for the sex, but also because she just liked him. He didn’t make her feel as if she were weird, and he seemed to like having her around also.

  She watched him go to the coffeepot and pour himself a cup of Kona.

  “I found this report in Italy with a man’s name I’ve seen before, but I can’t read the report. It’s in Italian.”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “Can’t you read Italian?”

  She shook her head. “My forte is more the Asian languages. Romance languages make my head hurt.”

  “Let me see it.”

  “You can read Italian?”

  He nodded. “Not that well, but I can read it. My forte, as you call it, is more the curse words, because my Nonna yelled them at us.”

  She handed him her tablet, and he sat down at the table. With the first blush of sun brightening up the room, it brought out the golden highlights in his hair. For a man, he had the longest lashes. The sweep of lashes against his golden skin seemed to mesmerize her. If his face wasn’t so masculine, it would make him look like a woman. But there was no doubting he was a man.

  He murmured the Italian words, and she almost sighed out loud. Bloody hell, she knew why they called them the romance languages now. Hearing the words fall from his tongue, al
l that Italian beauty to back it up, she was ready to jump his bones right there.

  He looked up.

  “What?”

  She shrugged. “You’re really pretty.”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment, before returning his attention to the report. Then, ever so slowly, his cheeks turned ruddy.

  “As I live and breathe, Martin Delano are you blushing?”

  “I am not blushing. Men don’t blush.”

  Delight filled her, and she couldn’t help but smile at him. “Drew blushes all the time. Any time Cat looks at him, he stutters and blushes.”

  “He’s also barely twenty.”

  “He’s actually almost twenty-eight, but you still can’t change the fact that you blushed,” she said laughing.

  “I am going to ignore all of this. And tell you that a man named Stanton was detained. It seemed that a French woman, who had been on a holiday in Rome, claimed that he drugged her and raped her. There was no evidence of rape. The man claimed they’d had rough sex.”

  “Yes.” She popped up out of her chair.

  “What?”

  “He was mentioned as a person of interest in Korea I think. Or Greece. Yeah, it was Greece.” She found the piece of paper and showed it to him.

  “We need to find out if he is here, and if he was in the other places. This guy might just be the one.”

  He looked over the paper. “It’s thin, but it’s more than we had. Let’s head into the office. I want you and Marcus working on it together. He’s been going through all males in the last couple of months who arrived in Hawaii. As you said, he had to have money, so he’s looking for high priced rentals off the regular path.”

  “Okay. I’ll go in with you.”

  He paused. “Are you sure you want to advertise that to everyone?”

  “What?”

  “That I came from your condo.”

  “Everyone knows you’re at my flat.”

  “Still...”

  She rolled her eyes. “Seriously, all of Hawaii saw it on the news. And the bet is done, so who cares?”

  He shook his head. “You never fail to surprise me.”

  “Good. I would hate to be boring.”

  It took them less than twenty minutes to make it to the office. There was one thing to be said about a woman who could care less about clothing and makeup; she could be out the door at a moment’s notice.

  They went in the back way. Reporters were still being a nuisance out front. As they stepped into the office, Del’s phone went off.

  Adam saw him and clicked off his own phone. When Del saw his friend’s grim expression, his blood chilled.

  “Hey, Boss, I was just calling. Seems we have another missing woman.”

  “Got a name?”

  He nodded, something close to desperation clouding his gaze. “Jin Phillips.”

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  If the press had been bad before, they became relentless when Jin disappeared. In the hours that followed, the team went into overdrive. Del spent a huge chunk of his time and energy fending off both the mayor and governor. They had wanted to call in the FBI, and while he didn’t mind their help, he knew that they would want to take over, not just help. Add in that there was definitely a chance there was a leak in the HPD, they really couldn’t trust anyone but themselves.

  They assembled around lunchtime in the squad room. Del wanted to get everyone on the same page, and make sure no one missed anything one of the other team members had discovered.

  “What do we have?”

  Adam shook his head. “Nothing, Boss. She went to meet a source, then…nothing.”

  “Cell phone?”

  Marcus shook his head. “Nothing. Just like before. Probably removed the battery.”

  “So, no one knows who the source was, or are they keeping that from us?”

  Adam shook his head. “I think they would tell us if they could. The other reporters did not like her, and the anchorwoman on the weeknights, lord, she was nasty about Jin. But, the crewmembers really like her. While the people in front of the camera might hold back, the others would not. They seemed seriously upset over this.”

  Emma came out of his office then, her hurried steps propelling her so fast, she tripped over her own feet. He caught her just as she went flying. Her laptop landed on the tabletop.

  “Whoa, what’s up?”

  “I think I found him.”

  Everyone turned to her.

  “Him—as in the suspect?”

  “Yes. Thanks to the information Marcus gave me, I worked it out.”

  She stepped in front of Adam and punched in the info. A photograph appeared. It was a newspaper in Japan. The man was white, blond-headed, a square jaw—he looked like a freaking movie star from the 1940s. He was dressed in a tux, and it looked like he was at some kind of public event.

  “Everyone, meet Richard Stanton. He’s a land developer who now calls California home.”

  “California?” Del asked.

  She nodded. “Well, he has his residency there, but he rents his home in Napa for several thousand a week. He hasn’t really returned to the mainland for quite some time now. Actually, as far as I can tell, when he arrived here, it had been over six years since he had stepped foot on American soil.”

  “Is he a resident of California, in the legal sense?” Adam asked.

  She nodded. “And from the records, he has paid his taxes on time. He has no issues with the law—at least in the US.”

  “Him being here means nothing,” Graeme said. “What other connections are there?”

  “First, let’s talk about the locations.” She tapped a few more keys on her laptop. A world map appeared on the screen. “Mr. Stanton has been a busy man. He’s developed shopping malls and condos around the world. He started in the US, but moved on to other countries. He first hit Britain four years ago. At the moment, I don’t know of any cases connected to him there, but he moved on to Italy, and we have that arrest.”

  The arrest report came up.

  “Sexual assault?” Adam said.

  She nodded. “Del translated it this morning. Charges dropped because he claimed it was consensual. Next, he moved to Greece. There were three.”

  She brought up the pics of the three women. “All abducted, raped, then strangled. They were left in places with a significance to the goddesses. No DNA was found.”

  “That was three years ago.”

  “And they did not connect them until the third one; by that time, he was gone. That is when Stanton went on to Finland. There were three murders there. Again, it took them awhile to connect them. Then, Korea, which you all know about, and finally Japan.”

  “Why do you think we zeroed in on it so fast?” Adam asked

  She shrugged. “He spaced the murders much further apart then. Plus, think of the nature of Hawaii. While these other countries aren’t huge, Hawaii is just a small town where everyone seems to know everyone else. As they like to say, there is probably fewer than six degrees of separation between everyone on this island. Killing women here gets front page news. I’m not sure if he expected it, or it completely threw him off. He does seem to be thriving on the celebrity that he is getting here.”

  Cat nodded. “That makes sense with what you said, and what Elle and you were talking about the other day. Elle has a little background with serial killers, and the obsession is now a full-blown addiction.”

  “What do you mean, Elle has experience with serial killers?” Graeme asked.

  Cat frowned at him. “Ask her. I’m sure she’ll tell you.”

  “So, getting back on track, we have a rich man who has been in every one of the locations of the attacks. We have nothing else to connect him other than a rape accusation that was thrown out?” Marcus said. “Not enough for a search warrant.”

  Emma smiled. “No. But he is going to be at a charity event tonight. Amazingly enough, it is for women in need. The bastard probably gets a kick out of it. I found all kinds of t
hings referencing him giving large contributions to charities that helped women.”

  “And that is going to make it even harder to pin it on him,” Marcus said with disgust.

  She nodded. “Exactly, and he counts on that. But, I’m going tonight, so we can get a better handle on the situation.”

  A rush of fear swept through him, and a roaring sounded in his ears. Did she just say she was going to be in the same room as the suspect? Everyone kept talking, and Emma was giving logistics; Del just couldn’t make out the words. He was still trying to get his mind wrapped around the fact that Emma wanted to work surveillance on a man who got his kicks out of hurting women.

  “You are not going to go,” he practically growled.

  The pronouncement stopped her in her tracks. “Excuse me?”

  “You will not dangle yourself out there as some kind of treat to this man.”

  She looked at him as if he had lost his damn mind. Which he almost had at the moment. The idea of her being in danger made him think horrible thoughts.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she said, confusion filling her voice and her expression.

  “You’re just as stupid as your brother. And look what happened in that operation.”

  When a terrorist had targeted Sean months earlier, her brother thought using himself as bait had been the best idea. He had almost been killed in the process. Del was not about to have that happen here.

  “First, I keep telling everyone, the man isn’t going to be interested in me. He knows I am involved. He is looking for single women. Stanton might talk to me, but that’s about it. He wants to use me.”

  “What about Jin Phillips?”

  “I don’t know about her personal life, but she wasn’t actually out on the dating scene when she was taken,” Adam said. “All of her dating revolved around work from what I can tell.”