Talia’s cheeks turn red and she touches her hair self-consciously. “Um, good. I didn’t expect you to be up.”
I gesture to her couch. “The leather’s soft, but it’s not the most comfortable bed.”
Turning to take a cup from the cabinet, she says, “Why did you sleep there?”
“That’s what I want to know,” Calder’s deep voice resonates directly behind me at the same time his hands settle on the island, his warm body blocking me in.
A shiver rushes through me, but I calmly take another sip of my coffee. “Because I didn’t want to accidently bump your wound.” After I forced him to drink his juice, I told him that the only way I was sleeping with him was if he kept his hands to himself. Calder rumbled his displeasure and tucked my back against his chest. The second he slid his hand between my thighs and promptly fell asleep, I knew he’d lost more blood than he wanted to admit and needed his rest, so I quietly got up and moved to the couch.
Taking the mug from my hands, Calder sets it in the middle of the counter. “Here’s a fresh cup, Talia.”
“Hey—” I frown and lean to retrieve it, but big hands grip my waist and I’m quickly lifted and cradled against his muscular chest. “Put me down before you pop a stitch!” I want to struggle, but I’m afraid any excess movement will open his wound.
Talia snickers and reaches for my mug as Calder rumbles, “See you later, Talia,” then he carries me into the bedroom and kicks the door shut.
The moment he sets me down, I immediately touch his bandage to see if blood is wicking into the gauze. “Have you lost your mind?”
Calder clasps my jaw and tilts my face up, his intense gaze locking with mine. “Waking up to find you gone isn’t how I wanted to start my day.”
I fold my fingers around his wrist. “You need to heal.”
He swiftly pulls Talia’s long sleep-shirt over my head and hauls me against his sleep-warmed chest before the shirt hits the floor. “The only thing I need at this moment is you, angel.”
I want him so much I’m trembling inside, but the few times we’ve been together it has always been very physical. He will rip open his wound. I push against his chest and take a step back. “We can’t, Calder. Not until you’ve healed. We’re too…um vigorous.”
His lips curl in a predatory smile and he steps close to slide his finger along the curve of my breast. Tracing his beaded necklace up my chest to my neck, he moves to my jawline. “While I admit you definitely bring out my primal side, I promise to be gentle.”
The lethal purr in his voice shoots straight to my toes, but I shake my head. “I’m not worried about me, you obstinate man.”
“Determined, Raven mine.” He tips my chin higher while his other hand slides down the curve of my back to hook the edge of my panties. Lust flashes in his eyes and with a flick of his wrist, my underwear floats to my ankles “Very determined.”
I’m naked and tense with want, but I shake my head. “Calder, this is a bad idea.”
He glides his fingers into my hair, cupping the back of my head. “The only bad idea is making me wait, because then I won’t be gentle. Take off my pants.”
I exhale deeply as I tug his black silk pants down, and I can’t help running my tongue along his hard cock as I straighten.
Calder’s fingers tangle in my hair and he gently pulls me up and fully against him. “That’s playing with fire with the way I want you right now.”
I smile and slowly trail my palms over the hard slabs of muscle resting at his hips. “You need to take it easy. Do you think you can do that?”
When I trace my fingers down the side of his erection, he exhales harshly and closes his eyes, then snaps them open. As the deep green sparks with heat, he rasps, “Lay down, Cass before I toss you down.”
My limbs shake as I lie down on the bed and stare up at Calder resting his knee on the mattress, his thick cock jutting toward his defined abs.
He moves over me and I can see the mixture of pain and yearning in his face. My heart twists and I touch his biceps, then clasp his shoulders as he settles between my thighs. “Are you sure? I think we should wait.”
Calder nudges my entrance, then rubs the tip of his cock against my clit. “You’re soaked for me. How can you say you want to wait?”
I swallow back my whimper of want and resist the urge to clasp him against me. “Because I care about you more.”
A low rumble erupts from his lips as he eases himself in my channel. “At least that’s one thing we can agree on.”
I arch my back and dig my fingers into his muscular shoulders, panting through the blissful, simmering burn as my body accepts his unhurried possession.
Calder dips his head and captures one of my nipples, sucking the tip in a leisurely, erotic drag. Inching deeper inside me, he moves to my other breast and grazes the tip with the sharp edge of his teeth.
I gasp and pant, my hips wanting to move, fingers flexing against him. “Calder…God, just fuck me…I can’t take this.”
He runs his nose up along the curve of my breast, his voice gravelly with desire. “Slow and easy…that’s what you wanted,” he says, pushing his hips forward another inch.
I swallow and close my eyes, unable to look at his handsome face full of concentration. His arms are straining and his whole body is taut against me. Calder groans when he finally seats himself fully inside me.
As he lowers his head to my shoulder, I slide my fingers into his hair, my heart thumping rapidly against my chest.
He rolls his hips against me once, then twice more, and the tingling building inside me blooms in my belly, shooting straight to my center. I’m not sure how much more I can take; my pulse thrums and my stomach aches from the throbbing need in my sex.
Calder lowers to his elbows. “I feel your pussy flexing around me. You’re perfect, so fucking hot and tight. I love that your body is telling me what it wants. Now let me hear the words, Cass.”
I clench my fingers in his hair. “Move, Calder.”
He slowly pulls back, then slides inside me and we both groan.
Panting against my collarbone, he thrusts forward, his tone harsh with mounting desire. “Come for me, angel. I want to feel you telling me how much you love this.”
He rolls his hips and just as I explode, he slants his mouth over mine, muffling my scream as my orgasm takes over my body. My chest heaves with the need to let out my blissful cry as vibrations rock through me, but Calder’s tongue tangling with mine only jacks my heart rate higher.
While I’m quaking in post orgasmic euphoria, he breaks our kiss and pulls my hands above my head. As he folds his fingers tight around mine, his body tightens with tension above me. Yet even with elevated breathing, he somehow manages to pull back and ease inside me with focused control of his hips.
Tears slide down my temples and I press against him, amazed that my body is already revving up again. Calder’s shoulders and arm muscles flex as he dips his head and presses his jaw to mine, his words guttural with leashed hunger. “A long, slow fuck with you is going on the daily agenda. This feels so damn good I never want it to end. God, I fucking love you, Cass.”
I feel both possessed and cherished, and the combination is so stimulating, I press my breasts against his hard chest and circle my hips, giving us both another wave of ecstasy. “This is making love, Calder,” I say against his jaw. “But whether you fuck me hard and fast, or slow and tender, there’s one thing you’ll need to do the same no matter what.”
“What’s that?” He lifts his head to stare into my eyes, while his heart pounds hard against my chest and his hands tighten on mine.
I elevate my hips, tilting them to give him better access. “Always take me deep and brand me yours.”
I don’t get to finish speaking as he surges forward and thrusts impossibly deep. “Is this what you meant, angel?” His green eyes glitter with fierce need.
I swallow my gasp once the sudden pain of him hitting my womb melds into sheer pleasure. The
moment I tighten my thighs around him, an orgasm flashes over me in rapid-fire bursts of heat and tingling nerves.
“I love how orgasmic you are.” Calder releases my hands to spear his fingers in my hair, twisting the locks as he burrows deeper and deeper, each hip movement measured but intense. Pinning me to the mattress, he releases a throaty moan of sheer pleasure and shudders as he comes.
I’m so turned on by the contrast of the sensual toe-curling build of his lovemaking with the forceful rush of him pulsing deep inside me that I nip at his beard-roughed jaw and inhale deeply, drawing in his arousing masculine smell.
When Calder releases my hair to trace the tips of his fingers along my face, I kiss his fingers as he slides them over my lips and whisper, “More, please.”
Exhaling a dark chuckle, he tilts my chin up, his breath warm against the side of my throat and bites down with wicked intent.
I’ve had two days of living in a blissful cocoon with Calder and spending time with my best friend, and now I’m a nervous wreck.
Calder’s fight is tonight, yet all I want to do is jump on his back and tell him he can’t go. I want to remind him that he’s not healed enough and that he hasn’t been able to train the way he should, but once Sebastian told me about Thomas, I knew the fighter’s death only intensified Calder’s need to find out the other major players behind the EUC beyond Brent. Learning about Thomas at least helped me accept that I couldn’t change his mind, even if I didn’t like it. So yeah, I’ve been in a funk all day.
Talia looks up from her research spread over the island. “Why don’t you come help me look through this, Cass?”
I lift my gaze from the grid of photographs on my laptop screen. Talia’s editor asked me to put together a mock-up book for him to evaluate, so I’d set up my workstation at the coffee table to get work done, but also to be closer to the door. “I don’t have your investigative mind, Talia.”
“Staring at the elevator isn’t going to make them walk in any faster, you know.”
I’ve been waiting for Calder and Sebastian to return from his apartment since five. I refused to let Calder go alone to collect his fighting gear and insisted he take Sebastian with him to his apartment. He instantly hated that idea, so the sarcastic barbs between the two alpha males was definitely high as they walked out the door. I glance at the clock. It shouldn’t have taken them this long to get back.
“The sooner we find the shooter, the sooner Calder can get back to his own space,” Talia says. “I swear that man prowled around here like a caged animal all day.”
Even though I’m sure Talia and Sebastian are more than ready to have their apartment back to themselves, I know her comment was meant to be lighthearted, but it just jacks my anxiety more. I can’t help but wonder if things will change between Calder and me once he goes back to his normal life. As much as I’d like to hope there is a future for us, he hasn’t said anything about us beyond these last forty-eight hours.
That alone makes me tense, but not near as much as the fact we’ve had more than our share of unprotected sex the last couple of days. Calder is all I want in a life partner, but I need to know he feels the same. My cycle is like clockwork, so we should be safe, but until I know where we’re going, I need to get home and get back on birth control.
My concentration completely blown, I cut my gaze back to Talia. “What can I help you with?”
“The shooter’s partial shoe print they found turned out to be from a custom made shoe. She approaches the printer on a small desk in their kitchen, then holds up a thick stack of papers and staples it. “Elijah just sent me the list of customers who purchased from that custom shoe maker. This list goes back five years, which is the timeframe the shoe maker has been stamping this logo stamp on them. Why don’t you look over the list and see if any names jump out at you. I’ll have Calder do the same when he gets back.”
Standing, I arch my back and then walk over to take the stack. “I can’t believe it took two days to get this information.”
Talia taps on the paperwork. “We had to get a judge to sign off on a court order for the shop owner to turn over his client list.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Felicity convinced the judge, huh?”
“She sure did.” Chuckling, Talia gestures to the stool opposite her. “Now pull up a seat and start looking.”
I start at the top of the two thousand names and skim my gaze down the column of first and last names. Five hundred names and an hour later, I’m just getting through the first third of the alphabet, when my eyes feel like they’re crossing. I take a break and rub my eyes. So far…nothing jumps out at me.
Leaning over, I look at the folder that Talia’s flipping through. “What’s that?”
She lifts the folder up. “This is on Brent. We’re still trying to find out more about his financial holdings to see who else might be an investor.” Gesturing to the other thick folder on the island, she says, “I swear for as deviously secretive as Phillip Hemming was, he was still easier to investigate once I dug a couple layers deeper. This Brent guy is squirrelly-secretive. Beyond changing his last name, I found where he’s stashing what has to be his EUC funds, but I still haven’t figured out what this Scrape Corporation does. Whatever it is…it also makes a tidy sum.”
Talia’s phone beeps with a message. She immediately opens it, then sends a note back. Two seconds later, the printer starts running once more.
“Who was that?”
“That was Sebastian’s police contact.” Talia sets her phone down and walks over to retrieve the paperwork she just printed. “And this is Thomas’s autopsy report, the MMA fighter who was murdered.” Scanning the pages as she walks back over to her chair, she jerks her head up, her mouth pressed together. She tosses the folder down in front of me. “The report says he was strangled to death. The killer tried to wipe away his prints, but they were able to recover one partial print and you’ll never guess who it belonged to.”
I glance down at the report, then look up at her. “Brent?” I blink as I pick up the page the police officer had added where he matched the print in the autopsy report and listed Brent as the suspect. “How do they already have his fingerprints?”
Talia’s eyes light up. “That’s a good point.” She quickly flips through the background information she has on Brent. “It wasn’t from a passport, because he doesn’t own one.”
“Has he ever been arrested before?”
“Not that showed up in anything I looked at. Unless—” Talia frowns and then thumbs several more pages, pulling out one from the back. “That’s brilliant, Cass. I just didn’t look back far enough. I only focused on his adult years. This one was when he was in college.”
Leaning over, she grabs Phillip’s folder and slides it next to Brent’s. “We’ve been looking at these as two separate cases, when we should’ve been looking at them together.”
I shake my head, confused. “But they are two separate cases. Phillip’s is about Celeste’s disappearance and murder. And Brent’s is about running his illegal EUC business.”
“Now that we’ve found a connection…we need to rethink our strategy.”
“What connection?”
Talia sets the paper down and slides it across to me. “I was so busy focusing on all the money Phillip has amassed as part of Carver Enterprises. I forgot about his profession.”
I pick up the page she’d taken from Brent’s folder. It’s a police report showing that Brent was arrested for a DUI but never charged and his attorney of record was Phillip Hemming.
My eyes widen. “If there’s a connection between these two, then it’s only because of Brent’s friendship with Jake.”
Talia shakes her head. “After you told me what Brent and Jake did to you in high school, I went back and double-checked Brent’s background. Unlike Phillip and Brent’s paths and business dealings crossing, there is nothing on Jake. The only connection he has to either is that he works as a lawyer at his father’s firm.” She points to both f
olders. “He has no holdings or dummy corporations in his name whatsoever.”
I hold my hand up. “Wait…where did you find a connection between Phillip and Brent before now?”
She shrugs. “I didn’t. When I discovered that Phillip happened to own the abandoned Opera house where Thomas’s body was found left in a Dumpster, I passed it off as coincidence because Phillip owns a lot of properties. I assumed he was hoping to cash in on the revitalization project as it expanded in the Lower East End.” She pauses, her brow puckering as she rests her palms on both folders. “But now, I don’t think that’s the case.”
I pick up the stack of papers from the shoe business I was looking through earlier, my hands shaking. “If Brent killed a previous fighter for refusing to take a dive…who’s to say he didn’t try to again?” Setting the papers down, I quickly flip through them, then turn the page, pointing to his full name: Brent Tremmel. “Brent was the one shooting at us!”
When I pull out my phone to call Calder, Talia puts her hand over mine. “Wait, Cass.” She flips the pages forward, then turns the whole thing back to me. “Or it could’ve been someone else.”
I stare at her finger next to another name: Phillip Hemming. A comment Ben made about his father’s fury over his guns being been removed from his home comes back to me and I nod. “You’re right. It could’ve been Phillip.”
Talia’s face sets in determined lines. “This is what you call a pattern, where Phillip and Brent’s lives have crossed in multiple paths.” Lifting her hand from the paper, she nods. “Now you can call Calder.”
“Call me about what?” Calder says as he and Sebastian step off the elevator.
Once we fill Sebastian and Calder in on the details, Calder’s fist is clenched tight around his duffle bag’s strap. “After this fight is over, beyond running an illegal business, the charges against Brent will include Thomas’s murder and our attempted murders.”
Steel Rush (In the Shadows#5) Page 24
