WindSwept Narrows: #22 Erika & Vianne

by Diroll-Nichols, Karen

  “You’re a show off.”

  “I got your attention?”

  “Show off,” she repeated through a gurgle of laughter when he executed another push up.

  “You weigh about five pounds…and I’m thinking most of that is hair,” he was laughing until she stuck her nails into his chest. All ten of them. He lost his focus and they both tumbled to the bed, his body turning in the move down and falling over hers. “Now see what you started,” he murmured, his mouth against hers and his cock resting along her thigh.

  Lying on her back, long blond hair fanning out in all directions, it still surprised her at how easily his kiss, his touch brought all the passion to the front, all else shoved far into the background. Her arms wrapped around his neck, their breathing ragged and kiss slow and sultry.

  “I’m going to be blamed for that all the time, aren’t I?”

  “Hmm…let me see…sweet, sexy woman lying next to me…hot…” his palm pressed down her side and onto her stomach, long fingers spearing the soft down. “Wet…now why do you suppose that happens? I guess I have to take credit for that one,” he whispered, trailing kisses down her throat. “I guess we both cause effects in the other.”

  “Zee…” She’d wanted it to come out more firmly. She’d wanted it to come out sounding in control. She definitely did not want it to come out like a puppy begging for a treat! But damn if he wasn’t right. She didn’t know when she lost control of her legs, the traitorous things parted for him like he was Moses, her hips thrusting up for those trailing, teasing fingers.

  “Bedtime…ten from now on. I promise. What hours will you be keeping at the resort?” He asked normal questions even as his fingers traced a slow, heavy line down the center of the damp crease, dipping inside just enough to flick over the little nub rising for his attention.

  “I…ummm…”

  “Hmm…tasty breakfast,” Zee covered one breast with his palm, stroking and teasing the taste from between her thighs with the soft, aroused nipple.

  “Zee…I have to shower…don’t you have to work?” She knew it was really her voice, though how it got that high she wasn’t really sure.

  “Eleven, Erika, and no commute time,” he chuckled against her breast, his fingers moving back down the length of her ribs and onto her stomach until she gripped his wrist. Reluctantly, he raised his head. Pale lashes opened to peer into the sleep softened features. He kissed her, long and slow, until she melted against him, her arms raised and circling his neck.

  He thought he was seriously filled with control at the moment.

  Then she tugged and pulled his ear next to her lips. Her teeth bit the lobe of his ear before she whispered sexily. Just two words had him reaching to the night stand and quickly sheathing himself before doing just what the lady wanted.

  Hard, demanding thrusts sent her over the edge a few minutes later, his body groaning and giving up the control when her muscles clenched and tightened impossibly around him. It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard those coarse, direct words from time to time from other women. But he’d never expected them from his sweetly innocent looking Erika. And damned if it didn’t send the intensity and passion soaring!

  Erika had her legs wrapped around his waist when the shout came from deep inside him, his body frozen in place and jerking at the same time before thick, low breaths broke from their lips and they both just melted to the mattress.

  “Perfect,” she whispered against his throat, her tongue out and stroking the salted moisture with a low purr. “An amazing way to begin the morning.”

  Zee collapsed to the side, dropping the condom into the trash beside the bed and rolling to his side.

  “Here I thought I was in trouble for keeping you up last night.”

  “You were,” she sighed, eyes closed. “You’re an evil influence.”

  “Evil, huh? How about a shower?” He had both brows arched when her head fell to the side, one eye open and peering at him. He shrugged. “I got evil to work on…”

  It was almost ten before Erika ran from the bedroom laughing, grabbing a chair and putting it between them.

  “Food! Food, you lunatic!”

  “You mean man doesn’t live by woman alone? I’m shattered,” Zee chuckled, pulling a brightly flowered shirt over the plain T-shirt and leaving the sides hanging open. “Come downstairs with me and I’ll make you a great breakfast sandwich.”

  Erika narrowed her eyes, backing up slowly out of his reach.

  “Food. No distractions,” she ordered firmly. “Promise me.”

  “I’m wounded,” he kept his expression light and when she moved to keep the counter between them, he went the other direction, his palm out and snagging the band on her jeans. The squeal filled the apartment when he pulled her back against him. “You do realize that wiggling doesn’t make me think of sandwiches.”

  Erika made her body go slack immediately.

  “I’m not sure sandwiches make you think of sandwiches,” she told him, groaning softly when his teeth nipped at her neck. “You’re like an addiction. Stop that right this minute.” She wasn’t sure how, but she managed to spin in his arm and shove. “Food. I have resolve, buddy. And trust me, you don’t want to tempt it. Now. Feed me.”

  “Resolve, huh? I’ll have to test that later,” Zee dropped a kiss on the upturned nose and released her. “Let’s go below and see what I can whip up for you. Having you expire from lack of nutrition is not on my list.”

  “You have a list?” Erika walked ahead of him down the wide stairs that led into the backroom of the restaurant, taking a hasty quick step forward when his palm tried gliding over her behind.

  “I have a list with your name at the top, Erika Vincent,” he told her, one brow up when she looked over her shoulder at him.

  “Should I ask?” She watched him go around, opening blinds and doors, starting the ceiling fans and occasionally grabbing up things that should have been put in different places the night before.

  “I guess it depends on how brave you are,” Zee winked at her, grabbed up an apron and began moving around the large, clean kitchen. He held up things for her omelet and she nodded or shook her head, smiling at him as her chin leaned on the upturned palms, watching him fix her breakfast.

  He leaned against the stove and stared after sliding the plate over to her. He’d never put crème cheese into an omelet before, but it certainly seemed to work for her. With his girl busily devouring the large omelet, he went to work getting things ready for the eleven o’clock opening.

  Erika listened to him working with the two teenagers who’d arrived just a little after ten, waving and pointing upstairs with a smile. She wasn’t sure why it felt good when he winked at her and continued working. But she liked it.

  She wasn’t crazy about leaving with nothing but a note on the table. If she was really lucky, she’d get back from having lunch with her mother before Zee finished his half of the day. If she was lucky.

  Xavier Moore considered himself extremely lucky at the moment. He was finishing up his Sunday morning and would spend the rest of the day and night with his girl.

  Then he found the note she’d left on the glass of the main entrance.

  “Gone to have lunch at the resort with my mother. I shouldn’t be long. Erika.”

  He’d spent too much of his life trusting the hackles when they rose on the back of his neck. Sometimes it felt like too much.

  And it stretched out when darkness claimed the spring evening and Erika hadn’t returned. He tried her phone but was thrown immediately to voice mail. He tossed his phone to the table and paced, staring out into the midnight sky dotted with stars.

  She had to be at work at seven, he remembered her telling him. She would never have stayed out somewhere without calling him. She’d unpacked her cases and hung clothes, deciding just what to wear for the whole first week.

  He almost laughed, thinking about it again. He’d lain on the bed watching her. Talking and listening.

  Who chose
their clothing for a week of what she’d told him would be fun manual labor?

  Evidently his girl did. Only it was one in the morning and she still wasn’t home.

  He wasn’t sure when he finally drifted off, half propped in the corner of the couch and facing the door. He’d hear her coming up the stairs since they creaked. Only there was no noise and at six when his body protested the position he’d been in most of the night, he rubbed his neck and did a quick search of the apartment, the stairs and the parking lot. Her car was still missing and he was still being dumped into her voice mail.

  He hit the shower, called his manager while finding clean clothes and was on the way to the parking lot when the phone jangled. He slipped it into the cradle on the dash and hit speaker, backing the SUV out and heading toward the resort.

  Chapter Nine

  “My very favorite HR girl,” Zee said with some seriously faked cheer in his voice.

  “Hmmm…you don’t sound well, Zee,” Abby Rollins continued working as she spoke. She knew her friend’s voice and this was definitely off. One of her many skills that had her running the department for the resort. “But we’ll start pleasant. How goes your morning?”

  “Shitty. But thanks for asking. I need to know where the new pharmacy is being set up, Abby.”

  “I should ask why?”

  “Erika Vincent.”

  “Our new department head. Friend of yours?”

  “She went to lunch with her mother yesterday and never came home. I’m…concerned,” he said carefully, taking the turns to the resort.

  “She called in this morning, Zee. Said she needed another two weeks,” Abby checked her calendar. “Since it’s all mechanical, it’s not a problem. She submitted the diagram and layout she wanted for the pharmacy and the satellite.”

  “She…the hell she did, Abby,” Zee parked the car and ripped the phone out on his way through the resort to her office. “She spent most of Saturday picking out her clothes for the week. She was so excited…”

  “Hold on…are you at the resort?”

  “On my way to your office as we speak,” he told her, long strides unbroken until he stood outside the large cluster of offices. He looked at the receptionist, smiled and went straight through to Abby’s office. “I’m expected,” he said with the young woman started to protest.

  “It’s okay, Jill. Zee is a little like Cade,” Abby sighed, her head shaking. “Close the door, Zee.” She sat back down and pushed the button on her phone, cycling through messages until she came to the one she wanted.

  “That isn’t Erika’s voice,” Zee said when the very short message finished. He was leaning over her desk, his hands gripping the edge tightly. He straightened up slowly. “Thanks, Abby. This isn’t resort business but I have a feeling I know where she might be.”

  “Hey, woman, it’s snack time!” Cassidy Parker-Lawson came through the closed door, silver hair hanging free over the light jacket and slacks. “Hey, Zee…hmm…that is not a happy face. What’s wrong?”

  “You have cameras in the restaurants?” Zee asked abruptly.

  “Zee, what’s wrong?” Cassidy closed the door behind her, instantly back in chief of security mode.

  “I don’t know. Erika is missing and the last I knew, she was having lunch here with her mother,” Zee paced the large office, two hands up and on his neck.

  Abby and Cassidy exchanged looks.

  “She had a confrontation with her family earlier last week,” Zee continued.

  “Let’s go down to the video office and see if anything’s off,” Cassidy suggested thoughtfully. Her and Abby knew of the strain between Erika and the ex-boyfriend. “We know about the ex-boyfriend, Zee,” she said carefully as they walked through the corridors. “You think her family would do something to her? Just because she didn’t want to marry Adam?”

  “What do you know about Adam Wayne?” Zee asked flatly.

  “I…he works for her father,” Abby said, frowning at Cassidy. “What did we miss?”

  “He’s got a boyfriend,” Zee said tonelessly. “Ross Richardson.” He saw both their jaws drop open. “Yeah. It makes the phrase, it’s complicated, seem bloody simple.”

  “She didn’t tell us why she ended it,” Abby said softly. “And we didn’t pry.”

  “I’m not sure that would be an easy thing to talk about,” Cassidy agreed, a long puff of air pushed between her lips. “I don’t suppose she mentioned which restaurant she went to?”

  “Again with the easy, Cassidy,” Zee muttered.

  “Okay…reservations are online,” Cassidy went to an empty computer and began tapping into the section she wanted. “I’ll search by her mother’s name…just on the off chance that we get lucky…yeah, like that. Okay…” She got up and moved to a larger screen and different control, selecting and finding the time frame she wanted for the entrance to the restaurant in the resort.

  Fifteen minutes later Zee was furious.

  Cassidy was close second and Abby was working on some kind of plan. She just wasn’t sure what kind yet.

  “We’ve got it on tape,” Zee said for the fourth time. “Are you telling me that’s not enough evidence to storm her parent’s house and get her back? Her own fucking mother put something in her drink!”

  Cassidy leaned both palms flat on the desk and glared at him.

  “With the connections he has in his pockets, before we could organize anything legally, she’d be moved and we wouldn’t be able to find her again,” she gestured to the program she was running. “Only because we have her cell do we know where she is now.”

  “Fine. Then I’ll do it illegally,” Zee pushed the words through his teeth and turned to grip the doorknob on the office.

  “Zee, will you wait!” Cassidy pulled him from the door, pushing him against the wall and inhaling deeply. “You can’t just go…go storming the place.”

  “I’m not leaving her there.”

  “I need a layout of the grounds,” Cassidy said quietly, moving to the computer and chewing her lip. She lifted the phone on the desk and tapped in a number. “Would you come to the video room, please, we have a problem and I know you can help. Thanks.”

  “I am going to casually return to my office and pretend I don’t know anything,” Abby said firmly, and then doing exactly as she said without looking back.

  Cassidy chuckled. She heard Abby groan as Faith came running down the hall in short coveralls and a T-shirt.

  “Whatever it is, it might not be my fault,” Faith said quickly, glancing back at the retreating Abby. “Hey, Zee…hey, hey, hey…” Cassidy had gripped one of the straps of her coveralls and dragged her to one of the computers.

  “I need a property lay out and if possible, the layout to the house on that property,” Cassidy said simply.

  “I am not doing anything illegal,” Faith announced in a huff. “I just happen to have a mind like a steel trap and know where all the best sites are for information.”

  “And how to get into the ones I need for information,” Cassidy provided with a small grimace.

  “That, too,” Faith admitted, slim fingers moving over the keys, one leg tucked beneath the other as she typed and located what her friend was searching for after she had the address. “Nice bit of country…they’re not big into security. Typical stuff. Cheap stuff,” she said with a shake of her head. “A few frontal diversions…the right kind of frontal diversions…and it’d be a cake walk to get in the back of the house.”

  “Show me the first floor,” Zee ordered, studying the plans Faith flashed on the screen. “Okay…now the second…we went to her room so I know where it is…”

  “The window would be easier for in and out, with the proper equipment,” Faith murmured, fingers still moving. “I’m not sure where we are…or who is there…”

  “I don’t know if I could get her out the window. Hell, I don’t know if she’s aware of where she is,” Zee said quietly, two hands once more on the back of his neck as he paced. “This i
sn’t resort business, Cassidy, Faith…I don’t want you to get into trouble because of your help.”

  “You don’t think it’s that easy, Zee,” Cassidy said firmly. “You’re one of Cade and Mac’s best friends.”

  All three heads snapped up in the small office, a tall, muscular blonde in a dark suit staring from one to the other, only a hint of humor on his lips when he nodded at Zee.

  “My wife tells me there’s nothing down here I need to know about,” Cade Rollins said with a chuckle. His gaze swept to a slightly twitching Faith and then the monitor and the blueprints of a house on the screen. “Hmmm…house hunting?”

  “Just leaving,” Zee said purposefully, his hands out and quickly blanking out the screen. “Nice seeing you, Cade.”

  “Can’t ask for help?”

  “Wouldn’t let my friends put themselves at risk. This isn’t the military,” Zee answered simply.

  “All the more reason to have friends,” Cassidy told him, stepping forward and blocking the door. “Friends volunteer. They don’t get drafted. If – for whatever reason we don’t know about – Erika isn’t where she wants to be, then you need our help getting her someplace safe. According to the log, her phone is still at that address. Are you going after her now?”

  “Dusk,” Zee answered, knowing neither of them would ignore his request that they stay out of it. “Look, according to Erika, her parents have influence.” He stopped when Cade laughed, low and deep.

  “You really don’t have a clue what we’ve started here, Zee,” his palm was out to clap his friend on the shoulder.

  “I know nothing is immune,” Zee said flatly.

  “I know someone who can provide a really nice frontal diversion,” Faith said, her grin feral and filled with mischief. “I even have some toys to play with, Cass.”

  “So if we provide the diversion and they come in the back way…”

  “They can take the boat and do a lake landing,” Faith said, the four of them walking slowly down the hall, the men turning their heads and looking at Faith. “What? I just have this brain that goes places…”