“Feelings aren’t rational, Cass.” He said, as she walked in and sat down, the black silk sliding sensually across her thighs. It wasn’t intended to be seductive, but that didn’t stop him from responding to it.
“No,” she agreed, “They aren’t. Mine are certainly a mixed bag right now... I shouldn’t grieve for her. And honestly, I’m not even sure that I am. I can’t say that I miss her, or that I loved her. I wanted to, but she made it so hard... I’m angry at her... Angry that things will never be right. There’s no swelling music and heartfelt moment of reconciliation coming for Rowena and me... and to make it worse, she died in the midst of trying to destroy my life.”
“Not your life... our relationship, yes... your job, definitely. But men and jobs were transient in her life. I imagine that she thought it was that way for everyone.”
She chuckled. “You can’t spin this one, counselor, but I do appreciate the effort. Rowena was--well, Rowena. Selfish, self serving, brash and her morals were more flexible than overcooked pasta. The simple truth of it is that she wasn’t trying to destroy me... she just didn’t care if it happened in the course of her getting what she wanted.”
There was no argument for that, so he didn’t try to make one. “Which funeral home do you want to use?”
“Carlson’s... They did a nice job on Mamaw Rose’s service. I think I’m going to have Rowena cremated. It’s a damn good metaphor for the way she lived her life, at any rate.”
“Whatever you want to do, Cass. I’m just here.”
A tear slipped past her lashes then, falling onto her pale cheek. “I know. It means a lot too, but I can’t think right now.”
“No questions. No decisions about us. We’ll figure that out when you’re ready to... in the meantime, I just want to help you if you’ll let me.”
“Okay.”
IT WAS nearly two hours later that they left the funeral home, Cass still reeling from the exorbitant fees required to have only the smallest, simplest of services and a cremation. She climbed into Reed’s SUV and fastened her seatbelt.
“How long has it been since you’ve eaten?” he asked.
“Evie poured some soup into me last night.”
He glanced at his watch. It was just after noon. Without asking, he drove straight to the diner. “Come on. A sandwich will help.”
“Help with what?”
“It will help me worry less about you... so please, when they place it in front of you, pick it up, bite into it and chew,” he said.
“Fine.”
That she gave in so easily, without even a token protest, worried him. Cass was prickly. She didn’t like being told what to do as a general rule, unless it was in the bedroom, and she was never one to avoid conflict for the sake of avoiding it. As they got out of the car, his phone rang and he answered it quickly, “Yes, sheriff?”
From the other end, the call breaking up slightly, the sheriff said, “Reed, Crystal is still on the run. We have no idea where she’s off to, but you were dead right about the photos. The search warrant came through and we found stacks and stacks of photos in her room... And son, you’ve got some explaining to do.”
“Who found them exactly?”
“It was me and Wade Morris. I’ve told him not to breath a word to anyone, but hell, Reed, things have a way of coming out.”
“Just find Crystal and figure out what the hell happened at that motel.”
“You all be careful. I would never have thought it, but that little girl is plum crazy, Reed... and she’s mad as hell at Cass.”
When the call ended, Cass was looking at him expectantly. “It’s nothing. The sheriff was just updating me about their progress with Crystal. She still hasn’t been found.”
“What else? Don’t lie to me either,” she said. “You asked me once if I trusted you and I said yes. Don’t make me regret it.”
He cursed under his breath. “The pictures sent to me weren’t the only prints she had. They found more when they searched her room.”
“What the hell? I’ve always thought people in this town looked down on me... Now, I’ve at least given them a reason to.”
He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him, pinning her against the side of the vehicle. “I didn’t want this... I didn’t want what should have been private between us to be played out for everyone in this town like their own damn soap opera. But I don’t regret a minute of it, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to be ashamed of it... or you.”
Cass felt the intensity of his gaze all the way to her toes. There was more to it. More to him and whatever it was between them than she’d ever realized, but she felt it in that moment. It both comforted her and petrified her. Evie’s words were swirling in her mind then. Was she really so determined not to be disappointed that she wouldn’t even allow for the possibility of something more? “I’m not ashamed either. I loved every minute of it, but there will be fall out, Reed. There’s no denying it.”
He tugged her closer, pressing a kiss to her lips, tasting the sweetness of them. “Let it fall.” Cass slipped her hand into his and allowed him to lead her toward the restaurant.
Neither of them were aware of the Crystal watching them from the parking lot. She’d traded the Grand Marquis for a friend’s car, a small sub-compact that blended easily into the background. Tears streamed down the younger woman’s face as she slid the gear shift down into drive. She gripped the wheel tightly and let out a scream as she propelled forward, toward the object of her hatred, toward the woman who seemed to have taken everything that she wanted.
Reed heard the squealing tires and glanced behind him. He didn’t think about it, but simply reacted. He grabbed Cass, pulling her forward and out of the range of the oncoming car. They tumbled to the ground, the gravel of the parking lot tearing at their skin as they rolled to safety. He could hear the screech of metal and breaking glass behind them. Crystal had plowed the car into the signpost for the diner, wrapping the tiny vehicle around the concrete base. He struggled to his feet, and noticed that Cass was not moving.
Panic hit him then, hard and fast, rolling in his gut. “Cass? Baby, can you hear me?”
Her eyes opened wide and she nodded, but still couldn’t speak. She gasped for breath. “Oh, god!”
Realizing that she was only banged up and had the wind knocked out of her, the relief that flooded him was gut wrenching in its intensity. He wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and never let her go, but he knew that wasn’t what she needed. He tugged at the buttons of her blouse, popping the top two, and helped her to sit up. Her skirt was torn, her stockings shredded, and one heel was lying brokenly beside the remnants of her shoe. “Slow and steady, Cass. Breath out... just breath out.”
Somehow she managed to follow the instructions he gave her. She forced the air out of her lungs, and they burned like they were on fire. She fought the impulse to drag in gulping breaths afterward, but did the small shallow breaths he indicated. Eventually, the muscles of her diaphragm relaxed and she could begin to feel the oxygen coursing through her body. Without the panic, the pain began to creep in. Scrapes, cuts and more than a few bruises were already forming. Her hands began to shake, and then her body followed suit. It was simply too much. Everything that had happened with Rowena, with Crystal, and the desperate realization that she loved Reed and had almost lost him, not just to her stubborn pride, but to something even more permanent and devastating sank in on her, dragging her down. A soft sob escaped her throat, and she tried to fight it back, but failed. Another one soon followed, more intense, more guttural than before. She could do nothing more than give in to the great, gulping sobs that just erupted from someplace deep inside of her.
Reed tugged her close, holding her as the reality of everything that had happened simply took over. He could hear the sirens in the distance. “It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you.” She trembled in his arms. He’d seen Cass angry, hurt, disappointed, and even scared, but he’d never seen her like this. In that moment, she was
simply lost.
“Don’t let me go,” she whispered. “Just don’t.”
“Never,” he promised, and tucked her even closer to his chest. It was a promise that he meant to keep.
REED rolled over in bed and snagged the phone from the dresser before the loud buzzing could wake Cass. It had been less than twelve hours since her melt down in the parking lot and the near miss with Crystal in the borrowed car. In that time, he hadn’t let her out of his sight.
“Reed,” he said into the phone, keeping his voice pitched low.
“She confessed,” the sheriff said. “She finally broke down and confessed everything. Crystal stipulated to stalking, invasion of privacy, voyeurism, vandalism of the car. I might add, you didn’t even bother to let me know about that one.”
“We thought, at the time, that it was an isolated incident.” Even though he kept his voice low, Cass stirred. She rolled onto her side, the sheet slipping down to reveal the lush globe of one breast and the berry colored nipple that tipped it. His mouth went dry and all he could think of was the soft moans that had escaped her when he’d scraped his teeth over that furled bud. His cock stirred, hardening, the sheet tenting over him.
“Well, this is the interesting part. She denies the blackmail... I can’t imagine that she would have if she was going to own up to everything else. According to her, Rowena stole those pictures from her to get to you.... When Crystal found out what Rowena had done with them, she confronted her at the motel. Crystal says it was an accident, that they were fighting, Rowena was intoxicated, tripped and then fell down the stairs. Damned thing is, I believe her.”
Cass moved again, and this time, he knew that she was awake. She rolled onto her back, the sheet baring both breasts to his hungry gaze. When her back arched up on a yawn, thrusting the pebbled tips upward, he couldn’t resist. “Thanks for the info, sheriff.” He disconnected the call quickly and rolled over to pin Cass to the bed. It didn’t escape his notice that she’d greeted him with both open arms and parted thighs. Deliberately, he lowered his head to her breasts, laving gently at her nipples. He’d been rough with her earlier, rougher than he’d intended to be, but Cass had only begged him for more. They’d both been desperate and a little crazed when they’d made it back to her house. Recalling it made his cock ache.
Soothing her nipples with soft, gentle strokes of his tongue only managed to inflame other parts of her. Even as his hands were coasting over her hips, she was arching up, meeting his questing touch, seeking. Telling her would dredge up all the stuff she’d just finally managed to get a handle on, but he knew that if he didn’t, he would pay the price later, regardless of his intentions. “That was the sheriff... Crystal confessed to everything but blackmail.”
“And Rowena?”
He pressed soft kisses over the bruises that were forming on her shoulder, courtesy of their earlier tumble. “She says it was an accident and he believes her. We’ll still push for manslaughter charges at the very least, and considering that she attempted to kill us in the parking lot...”
Cass sighed and lifted her hips against, grinding them against his in a slow, torturous circle. “Then it’s all working out as it should.... and I don’t want to talk about her anymore.”
“What do you want to talk about?” he asked, pressing a kiss to the delicate shell of her ear.
“I want to talk about how long it will take for you to slide your cock inside me and make me cum,” she said.
Those words arrowed through him, straight to his cock. Her hands were only seconds behind, skating over the ridges of his abdomen until she could encircle the thick shaft with her hands. When she rubbed the swollen tip between the damp folds of her sex, his breath hissed out between clenched teeth. “Fuck, you’re killing me!” he said. When she only smiled up at him, coquettish and naughty, he accepted that he was an absolute goner. His life would never be the same. Before he could formulate the thought, or even say anything to that effect, she pressed her heels into the mattress, lifting her hips and allowing him to sink completely inside her. There was no rational thought after that. Only the wet heat of her body and the heady drag of resistance as he thrust and withdrew from her sheath.
It didn’t seem to matter that they’d spent the better part of the night arousing one another to the brink of madness before driving one another over the edge. Every time she touched him it was incendiary. Knowing he couldn’t last much longer, every fluttering contraction of her sheath around his cock pushed him closer to that precipice. He shifted slightly, guiding a hand between them to where their bodies joined. With deft, deliberate movements, he stroked the hardened bud of her clit as he pounded his cock into her.
“Yes!” she cried out, her nails digging into his back as she clutched at him. “Fuck me harder!”
Reed rose onto his knees, keeping his cock buried tight inside her. With her ankles pressed against his shoulders he began to pump into her harder and faster. Taking note of the delicately painted toes, he pressed his lips the sensitive pad on the underside and she screamed. He pressed his tongue between her toes and felt her pussy grow even wetter around him. With that spurring him on, he sucked two of her dainty, perfectly manicured toes into his mouth, thrusting his tongue between them, even as his cock speared deeper inside her. She screamed as she came, her body clenching him so tightly he couldn’t even withdraw. Instead he pressed deeper, letting the hot clutch of her sex send him spiraling with her, jets of hot cum spilling inside her.
In the aftermath, they were both boneless and sweating, collapsed together on the bed in a tangle of limbs. With his arm draped heavily over her rib cage, and on hair roughened thigh trapping her to him, Reed felt that familiar swirl of emotion again. No woman in his life had ever made him feel like Cass. There had been women who had been submissive to him, that he had wanted to dominate and possess, women who had needed him and whom he had been protective of, and women with whom he’d never been able to indulge his darker tendencies. Recalling the night before, when he’d pressed her into the mattress, fucking her as hard and fast while spanking her ass, he knew that Cass was unique. Never had he been with a woman who stirred both his need to control and his need to protect.
“I think every day should start this way,” she said with a languid smile and a stretch.
“It could. I kind of like the idea.”
She glanced over her shoulder at him, her eyes wide with surprise, but no panic. “What do you have in mind?”
“Well, I like my condo. But I don’t love it. You, on the other hand, love your house,” he said, stroking slow, lazy circles on the soft skin of her belly. “So, I could sublet the condo and move in with you... If you want.”
Cass felt the panic clawing then, trying to take over, but she fought it back. If there was one thing she’d learned from Rowena’s death, it was not to leave things undone or unsaid. She recognized that she only feared it because she wanted it so much. “Okay. But you’ll need an armoire or something because I’m not giving up my shoe closet.”
He glanced at the sexy red heels laying discarded by the door. “I think I love your shoes more than you do. I wouldn’t dream of evicting them.”
EPILOGUE The wedding had gone off without a hitch. There had been a few nervous giggles and titters as the very, very pregnant bride had walked down the aisle on her father’s arm. Cass personally thought that Evie had never looked more beautiful, and she was itching to get her hands on her honorary niece and spoil that baby rotten. Cass knew that there had been more than a few curious and even disapproving glances thrown towards herself and Reed, but she was finding it very hard to care.
“Champagne?”
Cass looked up to see the object of her musings standing only inches away, looking good enough to eat. Rather than tuxedos, Evie had chosen to put the men in gray trousers with white button down shirts and black vests with a gray suit jacket. They each wore red ties in honor of her lack of honor, as Evie had put it. Once the photos were over, the jackets had been di
scarded. Reed’s sleeves were rolled back, revealing tanned, muscular forearms. It was a little strange to realize that even his forearms turned her on, she thought. Keeping that thought wisely to herself, Cass accepted the flute of bubbling wine and sipped.
“I never got the whole thing about pregnant women being hot,” he said, “But Evie may be the exception.”
Cass snorted. “If Jackson hears you say that, there won’t be enough left of you to sweep up.”
He stepped closer behind her, closing his arms around her. “Just because she looks amazing, doesn’t mean I want her. There’s only one woman I want.”
Cass had a snippy retort on her lips but it died away quickly when she saw Evie’s face pale and her friend double over to grasp the edge of the table. “Oh, holy crap! Not now.”
They crossed the room quickly, and found Jackson in full on panic mode. “What’s going on, Evie? Talk to me.”
“Cass, I think I am about to have this baby... at my wedding reception. That is not acceptable.”
“Of course it isn’t. Jackson, go get the car... Now, please.”
Within minutes they had Evie tucked into the car with a petrified Jackson heading toward the hospital. Evie’s mother had taken over handling the guests. Margaret Harper was in her element, handling what could have been a social disaster. Cass had Reed drive her to Evie and Jackson’s house, where she picked up Evie’s bag before heading to the hospital. After that flurry of activity, time slowed to a crawl. They waited for what seemed like eons. It was full dark and close to midnight before Jackson emerged from delivery room, pale as a ghost and wearing a beaming grin.
“We have a beautiful, healthy, seven pound baby girl... Even more beautiful than her mother, though I’ll never admit I said that.”
Bad Boy Secrets Page 9
