Bad Boy Mystery Boxed Set (6 in 1): Dark and Crazy Mystery and Billionaire Stories (BBW Cozy Mystery Bad Boy Billionaire Romantic Suspense Series)

by Oscar Watson

  “I’m not sure. It just happened.” He let go of her at once and stepped back. “I don’t want-”

  His words were cut off by her lips pressing insistently against his. She suddenly just did not care what this was, why it started, or where it would lead. Ethan was offering her a moment of escape. He was offering her release. She needed this now, and she was not going to pass it up. She leaned into the kiss and ran her hand down the side of his body. She took a small step back as she swept her hand from his hip to his lower stomach, resting it on the waistband of his pants. She unbuttoned them. She unzipped them. She felt the air around them getting hotter and hotter.

  “Annie.” It was not a protest, but he was stopping her. He looked at her, wanting to make sure she knew where this was headed. She looked at him almost defiantly and hooked two fingers in the waistband of his boxers.

  “Stop. No questions. No wondering. Just let me have this escape.” He nodded slowly. She kissed him again, slipping her hand into his boxers and wrapping it around his already hardening shaft. She started to slowly rub him up and down. She kissed him more intensely. She heard him groan from the pleasure she was providing him. She felt her own sex quiver and grow moist.

  Instinctively, she started moving her hips slowly back and forth. She rubbed him a little faster. She held him with a little more pressure. He was full on moaning into her mouth now. Both of them were breathing loudly and heavily. Suddenly, he grabbed her arm and stopped her from continuing. He pulled her hand out from his boxers. She looked at him, half in confusion and a half in annoyance.

  He held up a finger and looked around the room. He pulled away from her to walk over to the window and open it up. The sheer curtains rippled softly in the gentle night breeze. The moonlight filtered into the room. He reached out and took her hand, leading her over to the couch. He pulled her into a kiss while his two hands slipped under her shirt and started pulling it up until he had to move back just enough to take it off her. He threw it off to the side. He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around, so her back was to him. She felt his lips press against the nape of her neck as one of his knuckles ran straight down her upper back until he stopped at the clasp of her bra. He unhooked it and stepped back to pull it off her, looking right at her bare breasts bathed in the glow of the moonlight filtering through the sheer curtains.

  She reached out and unbuttoned his shirt, pushing it off his shoulders and stepping forward to kiss him. She pushed her breasts against his chest and enjoyed the skin-on –skin contact. He ran his hands up her sides and all over her back sensually until he was pushing her down onto the couch. He pulled down her pants and threw to the chair beside the couch. He leaned down and kissed her belly button. She cupped his chin and pulled him up to kiss her. She sat forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, kissing him deeply and passionately.

  She pushed him sideways, so he sat on the couch beside her. She stood up only to kneel down between his legs, reaching out and pulling his pants and boxers down to his ankles in one swift motion. He kicked them away, and she stood up, making quick work of pushing her panties down and stepping out of them. She saw the way he looked at her with a strong desire and it only spurred her on more. She climbed on his lap and straddled him, moaning at the first contact of his erection against her wet sex. She positioned herself properly and reached down to grab hold of him, slowly guiding him inside her. They both moaned out at the feeling of initial penetration. She held onto his shoulder, and he held onto her waist. She moved her body slowly up and down, head falling back and moonlight casting a gorgeous glow over her exposed, milky skin. Her breasts heaved with her breath, moved as her body did. She started undulating her hips in a circular motion with her up and down.

  She moved faster and faster, her grip on Ethan’s shoulders tightening. He moved his hands down slightly and held her hips firmly, moving his own up in time to her rhythm. They moaned and gasped and dug their nails into the other’s flesh as the pleasure intensified. Annie’s body trembled and tensed up as the orgasm went over her and set her skin on fire. Ethan’s hips jerked uncontrollably, and his grip on her tightened as he came. She collapsed onto his body, draped over his shoulder, trying to catch her breath. The beads of sweat on her milky skin glistened with the glow of the moonlight. Everything looked beautiful. Everything looked peaceful. But she was already coming back to reality.

  Chapter Four

  Annie used all her willpower not to slam her fist on the table as she sat directly across one of San Sebastian’s detectives. She had been pulled in for a second line of questioning, but she quickly realized most were repeats, only phrased differently. She knew they were trying to catch her in some kind of lie. What they did not get through their thick skulls was that she was not lying because she had absolutely nothing to hide.

  “Do you mean to tell me that in all that time you spent alone with Mr. Russell, nothing ever happened between you two?”

  “No!” Annie dropped her hand on the table and rested her head on the other. She sighed loudly. She was tired of this. Nobody was actually listening to her as if they had already decided she was guilty but did not have enough to arrest her. “We were just friends! What’s so hard to understand about that?”

  “And you never wanted more out of your relationship with Mr. Russell? Perhaps you felt angry at being rejected-”

  “Oh, fuck! You think I’d kill a man because he didn’t want to date me? What the hell kind of messed up thinking is that? And, if you must know, it was the other way around. Luke liked me as more than a friend, but I did not feel the same way.”

  “So were you feeling harassed by the man who was pursuing you?”

  Annie gave up. She slammed both her fists on the table and stood up, pacing the room while tugging at her hair. “Miss Walker, we’re going to need you to calm down.”

  She rounded on the detective and stormed up to the table. She slammed her hands down on it and leaned forward. The detective jerked backward in the cold, metal chair. “Calm down? You want me to be calm? My friend is found dead, and the way I found out it was a murder is because you people drag me in here for ridiculous questioning. And then you don’t even listen to my answers! How can I calm down?”

  The detective stood up and straightened her blazer. “Let’s have a five-minute break. Hopefully, that’s enough time for you to collect yourself.” The detective looked at Annie in disapproval and walked out of the room. Annie sunk down on the chair and leaned her head on the table. The cold, metal table soothed her warm skin. She was sweating. This was all too much. Ever since the first moment she found out Luke was dead, everything had been entirely too much.

  But a five-minute break did not change anything. That was because a short break was not enough time for the detectives to realize they were heading down the wrong road. They were chasing after a theory that would never pan out because whether they liked it or not, Annie was innocent. At the end of a grueling nearly three hours, the detective stood up. “So, you’re not changing anything? You remain on record stating you are innocent and did not even know Luke Russell was murdered?”

  Annie looked up at her in disbelief. “I have no reason to change anything. It’s the truth.”

  The woman scowled and walked out, instructing security to escort Annie out of the station. Annie walked home slowly, trying to clear her mind of what had just happened. There was no point in thinking further into it. It had basically been a repeat of her first questioning. Only this time it had seemed a bit harsher. The detective was a bit more insistent. This time, it felt like the detective was trying desperately to twist Annie’s words and back her into an admission of guilt. She figured they were going crazy being unable to solve this and having absolutely no real leads.

  She paused in front of Luke’s condo, still sealed off with a police line. She hopped up onto the retaining wall and faced the sea. Maybe if she sat there in front of his place, it would almost be like being next to him.

  “You must really miss
him.” It was Ethan’s voice. She felt an icy shiver run straight down her spine. She turned to look at him and nodded. She wrapped her arms around herself and turned back to look at the sea. The sunlight was glistening off the little ripples. The sound of the waves crashing was failing to soothe her. This was not working.

  “You were with him until the end. I don’t know if that’s much comfort, but I suppose it’s something.” He placed a hand on her shoulder in reassurance.

  “What do you mean?” She still had not turned to look at him. She kept her eyes set on an indeterminable point on the horizon of the sea.

  “Just that it’s something you were with him even just before. You spent time with him. You were happy, just relaxing on your balcony. You spent a nice time together, and that’s your last memory. It’s a good one, isn’t it?” He rubbed her shoulder gently.

  She gulped. Suddenly, his hand felt too heavy. The breeze was too cold, and it felt like it had little shards of glass in it. Her skin was freezing, and it prickled. How did he know she had been on her balcony with Luke just the night before his body was discovered? She had a deeply uneasy feeling but, for that very reason, she needed to act normal. She did not want him to know she had just picked up on something. So she turned to look at him with a soft smile. “It’s true. At least there is that.”

  She leaned against his chest and looked at the sand beneath them. She fought back the urge to panic and cry. Her mind was spinning out of control. She had just gone through a very strenuous ordeal, and neither her thoughts nor her emotions were in the right place. She could not possibly think Ethan could know something, much less have been involved in Luke’s murder. But she did not feel comfortable now, so she looked for an excuse to stay away from him for the time being.

  “You know, today was exhausting. I think I just need some time to myself to reflect. I need to find a way to relax.” She pulled away from him and swung her legs over the retaining wall to stand up. For good measure, she leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips. “Thanks for always checking up on me.”

  He smiled and ran his finger down her cheek. “Anytime.”

  “Thanks for always checking up on me.” Those words she had uttered to Ethan now held an entirely different meaning. She thought back to the numerous times she had bumped into him at random places. Now, it seemed all too coincidental. Now, it was a bit unnerving. How had he happened to be in all those different places at the exact same time as her? And then she remembered how he would just leave anytime he was finally going to approach her, but then Luke would appear. She recalled the night she first talked to Ethan right outside her condo. He was there for a nighttime stroll, but he did not live in the complex. And now he knew she had been on her balcony with Luke the night before he was found. How could he have possibly known that?

  She wracked her brain trying to remember if she might have mentioned it, but there was not a single recollection of having done so. As she stood there in the middle of her living room running through all these thoughts, she heard a noise outside the door. Fear shot through her. She dropped down to the floor and crawled to get her cell phone from the coffee table. She did not even hesitate in calling emergency services. She whispered into the mouthpiece she could not talk for fear of being heard.

  Luckily, she lived close to the station. It was walking distance, after all. She heard the police arrive and just knew if someone had been out there, he would have escaped. What she did not expect was for the police to nab Ethan, who had hopped down over the retaining wall in hopes of pretending to be someone out for a stroll. “Miss Walker, do you know this man?”

  She looked straight into his eyes. He was silently pleading with her, but she could not ignore her stomach clenching up again because of him. “I do.” With that, she was back to the station for questioning but this time as a victim. She spared no detail. She did not care how wild it all sounded or how unlikely; she needed the police to know. Everything she said gave them enough motives to search his condo, just one complex over. They kept her at the police station as they searched. And when they returned, they had horrifying news.

  “Ethan Marcus has been found to be the primary suspect in the murder of a well-loved and respected local, Luke Russell. Police say-”

  Annie shut off the television. She already knew the story. She had been the fool to give the wrong man a chance while keeping the better man as a friend. She had been the woman who ignored her body sending her signals that something was wrong with Ethan. She had been the woman who had met a man driven to terrifying lengths to keep her to himself. She walked out of her condo and down to Luke’s. The police tape was gone. She walked up to the front door. Hand hovering over the doorknob she closed her eyes and tried to remember his voice. He would be the one to tell her this was not her fault. He would be the one to urge her to truly value and respect his memory by living a happy and fulfilled life. And, from that day forward, he would be the one to speak to her when she needed inspiration.

  When the Shivers Run Down Your Spine

  Chapter One: Plain, Kate, Period

  You could probably walk past her twenty times and never even notice her. This fact is painfully obvious to Kate. How painfully? The other day someone stepped on her foot- twice and didn’t even break stride. They didn’t even acknowledge the speed bump that was in all actuality a woman’s foot. It did not dawn on Kate that she might point out the fact that she was sitting there or that she did not enjoy being trod upon. She merely smiled to no one in particular and then went back to her boring work, just another boring day in her boring life.

  Poor Kate Plain was the stereotypical cubicle mouse in every way. Her work was boring – and she was quite convinced that if she simply stopped doing it that it would be days or even weeks before anyone noticed. She herself was boring, at least on the surface. Brown hair pulled back in a low-slung ponytail that was always threatening to pull loose, but not in that sexy, released way. No. Her hair would pull loose and then slip to hang limply around her face.

  Brown glasses sat perched on a nicely shaped nose. From behind them intelligent brown eyes peered out. She had a habit of crinkling her nose when she was speaking to people which tended to make her look like she was either sneering or smelling something quite terrible all of the time. Her lips were nice but she licked them nervously so much that they were chapped nearly all of the time. She was not unattractive, per se, just not attractive. There was nothing noteworthy about her and she liked that just fine. You see, Kate Plain does everything that she can to blend in to her surroundings no matter where she is because she is painfully shy and socially awkward. Even talking to her boss, a woman she has known for 7 years makes her break out into cold sweats. Kate was once asked to give a presentation at work in front of 3 people- she managed to speak for two minutes before she threw up on the desk and then fainted, hitting her head and dumping two water pitchers in the process. She was never asked to do that again.

  Very few of the people that she worked with knew her very well. The man who sat in the cubicle directly facing her only knew the very top of her head. Andy, the loudly dressed intern that delivered their paychecks every other Friday had to be reminded who Kate was every single time. He would give her a half-hearted smile and say “oh there you are” each time and two weeks later the whole skit would be played again.

  But, what they didn’t know about Kate might have made them stand up and take notice. Especially that awful Tom from accounting with his leering comments to nearly every woman in the office and his little pin-up girl calendar on his office wall. He would certainly be shocked if he knew the secret that Kate, Plain Kate with her brown glasses and her brown coffee mug (a gag gift from her Secret Santa) and her boring job was keeping from everyone.

  Every night Kate would finish up her job, down to the last detail. She would tidy her desk which held not a single personal item except for that ugly brown coffee cup. She would calmly push back her chair and she would get into her efficient, dependable, imm
aculately kept car and she would drive to her tidy, apartment. And once she was there she would slip into fluffy, oversized pajamas and make a cup of dairy free hot cocoa. She would carefully carry her mug to the little desk and she would turn on her computer. She would stretch a few times while the computer went through its startup process and then she would get to work on her true passion.

  What no one in the office knew and what would make Kate die of embarrassment if they ever found out was that she was secretly Sadie St. Clair, author of some of the steamiest novels ever written.

  Chapter Two: Sadie/Kate Gets an Offer she Cannot Refuse

  It was a Wednesday afternoon. The sky outside was a shade of gray that could best be described in a long and drawn out sigh. Nearly everyone in the office was either dazedly staring out the window or as equally dazedly staring at their computer, pretending to be working. Kate was typing a number on her screen but that was about as far as she had managed to get. Even she was feeling the overwhelming and suffocating ennui. And that was when something almost historical happened. A sound emitted from inside of the shapeless satchel that was haphazardly shoved into her empty desk drawer. The sound was a series of high-pitched chirps and it happened a few times before she realized with a start what it was.

  Kate’s younger sister, beautiful and half wild had bought the cell phone for her- so that she could call Kate whenever she needed her. Kate, ever the dutiful one had kept up the phone despite being humiliated at paying for a service that she never even used. Her mother had only called her home phone once per week and had recently passed away. Her dad had died when she was younger. And then there was her sister.

  Elyse was the kind of woman that people dreamed of being whether they liked her or not. More often than not they did not really care for her because she was absolutely devoid of any cares to give in this world or any other. She had been born a reckless and wild spirit and she had never had any hopes of being tamed. Heart would be broken, blood might even be spilled wherever Elyse might twirl through, a whirling dervish of a woman, a force to be reckoned with. Oh but was she ever a looker. Long red hair that swirled around her like flames and creamy white skin that looked like perfectly cast porcelain. Her eyes were unique in that they were deep and brown- the only thing that her and Kate shared. Her beauty was why Kate used Elyse’s picture on the back jacket of her every book and people just ate it up.