That evening, the young man came again. This time he disappeared into her apartment and didn’t emerge. At this point, Lucas couldn’t even muster the sentiment to be angry or hurt. It was all turning into a big joke.
Lucas got into the back of his cab and made himself as comfortable as possible, which wasn’t very. He drifted off to sleep and dreamed that he was sitting on a chair in the Marshals headquarters in Phoenix. He could hear people talking all around him, but he couldn’t see anyone.
“Michaelson arranged the detail.”
“Michaelson? That son-of-a-bitch?” he heard Fetsko say.
“Michaelson is a double agent.”
“You think it was Michaelson who shot you?”
“I thought you decided that your interview with Michaelson was just a figment of your imagination.”
“Michaelson was never apprehended.”
Lucas awoke in a cold sweat. He sat up, mopping his face with his blanket. He climbed into the driver’s seat and began to recall the dream.
What the fuck was my subconscious trying to tell me? But he had talked to Michaelson, more than once. And there was the piece of paper from his pocket. But he realized that his first experience with the man had been when he was nearly delirious, and that he could have been talking to anyone identifying themselves as Michaelson. Fetsko or whoever could have planted the paper. Was Fetsko even dead?
Lucas shook his head and reached down to start the truck to run to the convenience store when there was a sharp rap on his window. Startled, he looked out to see Audra’s boyfriend standing there.
He rolled the window down a crack. “Can I help you?” Lucas asked.
“I want to talk to you.”
“Talk.”
“I want to talk to you out here,” he said.
“Who are you?” Lucas asked.
“Neil McCreary. I’m a friend of Elise’s.”
“Elise?”
“Yeah, the woman you’ve been stalking?”
“I don’t know any Elise.”
The boy looked irritated. “Could you get out of the truck, please?”
“Why? I’m just getting ready to go to the store down the street.”
Neil glanced into the back of the cab, and Lucas realized he would see the blanket as well as numerous food wrappers.
Lucas took a deep breath in order to calm himself and put the window farther down.
“I think you have the wrong guy,” he said.
“Nope. Not only have I seen your truck here for the last two nights, I saw it behind us after the concert, and I saw it outside the restaurant last night, and I saw you downtown.”
“Lots of people have white trucks, Neil. I just moved in here.”
“Oh? Which apartment is yours?”
Lucas thought. The likelihood of them knowing many of the neighbors was slim, but he might choose the wrong one.
“What do you want? Why do you think I’m stalking your girlfriend?”
“Because my sister also saw you at Pike’s Place Market and the Mall today.”
“Was Au--Elise afraid?”
“No, we haven’t said anything to her. But I want to know who the hell you are,” he said angrily. Reaching inside the cab, he grabbed the front of Lucas’s shirt, breaking the chain on the rune necklace and keeping it when he removed his hand.
“Hey, that’s my necklace.”
“It’ll be good evidence to turn into the police. Maybe it has your DNA on it. Maybe they will find that you’re wanted.”
“I wouldn’t be in a hurry to call the police if I were you. You just assaulted me.”
“So sue me. My dad is a lawyer for the City of Seattle.”
“Oh, so you’re still invoking Daddy as your big club, are you?”
Neil set his jaw and clenched his fists. “I don’t know who you are or what you want, but unless you want me to tell Elise and get you in some pretty big trouble, you had better not be here when I come back tomorrow.”
Lucas simply closed the window and started the engine, pulling out of the parking lot. He went a little way and stopped to see if Neil would follow him, but he turned the other way when he left.
# # #
That night Audra dreamed of Lucas. She saw him in the coffee shop in the Mall and in Pike’s Place Market. But when she tried to see his face, it receded. When she woke up, she cried out for him. Where was he?
Later that morning, Neil came to gather her for their outing. They were going to take the ferry again and drive around the Key Peninsula and see Kopachuck State Park.
They weren’t very far out of the parking lot when she looked down at the cubby underneath the radio and spied the broken rune necklace. She snatched it up, looking at it, and turned to Neil. “Where did you get this?”
“Why? Do you recognize it?”
“Where did you get this?” she demanded.
“From some old reprobate.”
“Old what?”
“Some guy has been sleeping in your apartment parking lot for the last two nights. I think he’s stalking you.”
Audra couldn’t breathe. Lucas! Lucas was here?
“How did you get it then?” she asked, using a tone that told him she wasn’t in the mood to be toyed with.
“I had a little talk with him.”
“A little talk with him? And you ended up with this broken necklace?”
“I thought it would be good evidence if I had to go to the police.”
Audra closed her eyes, but she couldn’t hold back the tears that squeezed through.
“Do you know the guy, Elise?”
“Pull over.”
“What?”
“Pull the car over. Park it.”
He slid into a parking place, leaving the engine running, just looking at her.
“What is this all about?”
“Did you see him when you came in this morning?”
“No. I told him to clear out last night and not come back or I’d call the police on him.” With that, the dam burst, and she began to sob. “Elise, did this guy hurt you?”
She shook her head, trying to stop crying. “Take me home.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
“WHY?”
“Because I want to see him.”
“He won’t dare come back after what I told him.”
She shook her head again. “You don’t know him. He will come back, and I want to be there when he does.”
Neil tried to calm himself. He shut off the car and tried to take her hands, but she pulled away from him.
“Elise, I was trying to protect you.”
“I understand,” she said, “but why didn’t you tell me if you suspected something.”
“I thought maybe it was just some voyeur. I didn’t want to frighten you.”
She was still trying to get the sobs under control.
He leaned over to hold her.
“Don’t!” she said.
“What the hell, Elise?”
She just shook her head, opened the car door, and got out, running back up the hill to her apartment.
When she got to the parking lot, she looked around but didn’t see Lucas. She stood for a few minutes, hoping he would see her but nothing happened. She saw Neil’s car come back into the parking lot, and she ran up the stairs, unlocked the door, ran inside, and bolted it.
She walked over to the patio door, drew back the drape, and looked out. A white pickup slowly cruised the edge of the parking lot. Neil was halfway up the stairs. Audra stepped out onto the patio and waved at the pickup.
“Please, please, please, let it be Lucas,” she said under her breath.
The pickup slowly approached a parking space near the front of the lot and stopped as if he was unsure what to do.
“Lucas!” she shouted. “Lucas!”
She would have run to meet him had Neil not been standing on the stairs. Instead, Lucas was out of the pickup and bounding toward the stairs. She could see the
look on Neil’s face and saw him clench his fists. She left the patio and went back to the front door. She opened the door, and Neil flashed past her, turning to bolt the door behind him.
“Elise! I demand to know what this is all about.”
She turned back toward the door, but Neil stopped her.
“You’re not going out there until you tell me.”
Lucas started pounding on the door.
“I’m okay, Lucas. Just give me a minute,” Audra said through the door.
“Neil, all I can tell you is that I’m very, very confused and excited right now. I need time to sort some things out.”
“Time with him?”
“Yes.”
“And where does that leave me?”
“Neil, I…he’s the reason I haven’t been intimate with you.”
Neil’s eyes flew open. “You lied to me? Why would you do that?”
“Believe me,” she said, “that was just the tip of the iceberg.”
He stood and looked at her, a thousand emotions passing across his face.
“I need you to go now. I need to see Lucas. I will get in touch with you soon.”
“Please do. This will give me time to think about some things as well.”
She walked to the door, unbolting and opening it.
Lucas stood at the top of the stairs, leaning against the railing and giving Neil adequate room to get past. He gave Lucas a scathing look and sailed down the stairs to his car.
Audra and Lucas looked at each other for a second and then rushed together. It made her think of that first time when he had opened the bathroom door on the plane and come inside, except…there was far more than lust in this.
54
Lucas collapsed into Audra’s easy chair, pulling her down with him. He was exhausted, yet his elation at holding her in his arms again quickened him.
“What are you doing here?” she asked. “How did you find me?”
“The chief called me yesterday morning, implying you were in danger and told me where to find you.”
“Implying?”
“I’ve been through it a thousand times in my head. All he really told me was that someone had breached their security and viewed your file. I realize now that everything else he told me was simply implication.”
She fell on him, her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders, her head on his chest.
“You can’t imagine how I’ve longed for you,” she said, sitting up and wiping the wetness from her eyes.
“I can, if the longing has been anything like mine. Yet….”
“Yet?”
“Tell me about Neil,” Lucas said gently.
Audra blushed. How quickly she put Neil out of her mind the instant he was gone boggled her mind. She got up—now uncomfortable. She pulled up one of the café chairs near him.
“The first and most important thing I want you to know is that I’ve never been intimate with him.”
Lucas didn’t move or change his expression, waiting to see what else she had to say. Can I trust the truth of that statement?
“I met him through my friend, Joy. He’s her brother.”
“The redhead?” he asked.
“Yes,” she responded, her eyes wide.
Lucas nodded.
“I went to her home on Christmas Eve where I met her entire family,” she said, getting up and walking to the patio door, looking out.
“He seems to fit your new lifestyle.”
“My new…?” she said turning back toward him. Oh, yes, she thought. I must seem quite different to him now.
“Living in this new world has changed me,” she continued, “but not in the way you might think.” She looked out the door again, and then opened it to feel the warmer breeze and the April sun. She needed to breathe the clear air and relieve some of the tension.
“I know better who I am and what I want and don’t want out of life. Not absolutely, of course, but I’m exploring,” she said.
She returned to the chair and faced him. “Neil is handsome and kind. He’s been a good friend to me. He’s bright and a deep thinker. I know that with him, I could have a very successful suburban life with the 2.3 kids.”
Lucas looked away from her.
“But I’ve examined that over and over, and it makes me uncomfortable. I’m pretty sure that’s not what I want.”
“Pretty sure?” Lucas asked.
“Lucas,” she said, crawling back onto his lap and putting her arms lightly around his neck, “any time I ever even tried to think of making love to him, your face always replaced his. I want a chance to explore those ideas with you. Our time together has been full of fear, and the only comfort we had was each other. But in these last five months, I’ve come to realize that, on my part anyway, there is more than that. I want the opportunity to explore that.”
“You’ve realized that over the past five months, yet you were still with Neil.”
She stood, walking a few steps from him, unable to stay still.
“They separated us so abruptly, leaving so much unsaid, promises untold. I never knew whether that was the way you wanted it. Are you aware that they gave me the option of calling you at the six month point if I still wanted you? But I was so afraid…afraid to find out that what we had was not real. They said I could ‘call for you.’ What did that mean? What would that imply to you, that I could just crook my little finger and command your presence? I’ve been so unsure about everything.”
Lucas lunged from the chair, catching her in his arms and holding her head beneath his chin. “Audra…Audra, my fears have been exactly the same. The worst was when they handed me the necklace that I had given you such a short time earlier. I thought perhaps you were saying you didn’t need me.”
“I don’t know how it happened. I had it in the little pouch; I wasn’t wearing it that day, foolishly. I was beside myself when I couldn’t find it.”
She tipped her head back, and he kissed her, deeply and thoroughly. Then, he pulled back.
She grinned through tears. “I need to be sure you’re Lucas,” she teased. “Why don’t you shower and…shave?”
He grinned. “You’re not into the Grizzly Adams look?”
She disentangled herself from him, going into the bathroom and gathering a towel, bath sponge, and razor.
“I’ll need scissors, too, if you have them; otherwise it will take hours and several razors to get through all of this.”
She went to the kitchen and found the scissors.
“Do you want to shower with me?” he asked.
She shook her head, but smiled warmly and said nothing.
“I understand,” he said.
Twenty minutes later, he opened the bathroom door to let the steam clear off the mirror. He was wearing just a towel and heavy stubble.
“Why, it is you,” she said, standing in the bathroom door.
He grabbed her and kissed her. She squealed and struggled as he rubbed the stubble over her face. Trying to hold on to her caused his towel to drop, and she looked down. He was half-flaccid and half-stiff. She immediately felt her panties getting wet and her nipples standing up.
She dropped to a crouch, taking his member into her hand and guiding her lips to it. She looked up at him. “You don’t know how many times I’ve dreamed of this,” she said. Without further ceremony, she took him deep into her mouth and began to stroke and suck him. He held the sides of her head lightly and plunged into her mouth, and they quickly fell into a harmonious rhythm.
“Wait,” he said, opening his eyes, “I don’t want to….”
She responded to that by sucking him harder, more vigorously.
He grew in her mouth until she knew he was ready to explode. She clutched his balls, and he emitted a deep growl and strained forward as she felt him begin to spurt in her mouth. She swallowed quickly and took it all. Then, she brought her rhythm to a slow stroke—while ensuring she got the last drop.
She pulled her head back and looked up into his
rapturous but confused face.
“Why did you do that?” he asked.
“Because I know it has been a long time, and I’m sure a buildup of tension at least for the last couple of days, so I wanted to help you ‘unload’ so that we can take our time.”
He pulled her up, falling on her neck and showering her with sweet kisses. He let his hands run across her breasts and felt her hard nipples beneath her shirt and bra. He squeezed and buried his face in them. Then, he pulled back, looking at her. “Let me finish shaving,” he said. “I’ll be right there.”
# # #
He was surprised when he came out of the bathroom and a bed had appeared. She saw the look on his face and laughed.
“I wondered,” he said, “if there was a bedroom that I just hadn’t noticed.”
“Nope,” she said. “This is it.”
She shut the patio door and pulled the heavy drapes. The room was darkened with just enough light coming in around them that they could see each other. She lit the fireplace.
“Are you cold? Do you want heat?” she asked.
He laughed. “No, I left Arizona a while back. I’ve been living in the mountains in Northern California since Christmas. I’m quite acclimated to colder weather. It feels balmy to me today.”
She was in a blushing pink silk teddy. He eyed her as she moved lithely around the bed, fluffing their nest.
At last, she came to him. He stood fully nude, and she ran her hands from his groin up to his chest. He bent to breathe in her scent; it was that same delectable scent from yesterday, only this time mixed with her own scent.
He ran his hands over her breasts, the teddy so deliciously displaying her dark, hard nipples beneath its translucence. He bent down, putting his teeth lightly around them through the cloth.
She backed up, sitting on the bed then moving across it. She was on her knees, looking at him hungrily. It stimulated memories of their days in the dome—the flickering firelight and how primal it all was.
He lay down on the bed, and she moved over next to him, still on her knees. She began to kiss him furiously. He reached to unsnap the crotch of the teddy, running his hand across her wetness, testing by dipping his finger inside her. She responded by dropping the straps of the teddy which exposed her breasts. She leaned over, proffering her breasts to him.
BILLIONAIRE BIKERS: 3 MC Romance Books Page 70
