Girl Most Likely To

by Barbara Elsborg

  Floor drop away and earth swallow me now. Wren’s father patted her knee again.

  “I want my daughter out of sight,” he said to Julia and then turned to Wren. “We’ll talk about Brendan later. You should have told me.”

  She squirmed. “If I hide, doesn’t that show Marco he’s under suspicion? When you think about it, I can excuse everything I’ve done as being for Tomas or Jovana. I have this note from her. There’s no reason to think Marco knows I started this off myself.”

  “You should go into a safe house,” Tomas said. “I can tell Marco you dumped me once you found out you were teaching English to prostitutes.”

  “Dumped you?” Wren’s father raised his eyebrows. “I wasn’t under the impression you were going out with my daughter.”

  She wondered what Tomas would say.

  “I told Marco that so that he’d keep his hands off her. But it seems to have made the bastard even more eager to get into her p—personal life.”

  Her father cleared his throat. “If you dump Wren, what’s to stop Marco pursuing her?”

  “I think he only wanted to teach me a lesson.”

  Wren wished that didn’t annoy her, but it did. Not that she wanted Marco to fancy her but still…

  “Best if everything carried on as normal tomorrow,” said the DSI. “We need a warrant to search Ezispeke. I think Tomas and Wren are safe enough for the time being.”

  “Think?” snapped her father. “That’s not good enough. I don’t want Wren anywhere near the place.”

  “But it will look suspicious if I don’t go in. Anyway, I only have a couple of classes tomorrow.”

  “Then I want someone else in undercover,” said her father.

  The DSI nodded and handed Wren the note Jovana had written. “If pushed you can tell Marco the truth, that Jovana asked you to meet her and wanted you to search for her friend.”

  Wren’s father tapped her arm. “Tonight you’re coming home with me.”

  “It would look better if I was with Tomas.”

  That was greeted by silence.

  “She’s right,” the DSI finally said.

  Wren’s father turned to Tomas. “You let one hair on her head be harmed and you’re finished. No more chances. Understand?”

  “Ah,” Wren said to Tomas. “He likes you.”

  Her father was the only one who laughed.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Tomas clipped on his seat belt and turned to Wren. “Two calls and then we need to talk.”

  Well, he needed to talk, to apologize and convince her to leave Leeds. He called Adam first.

  “Found her?” Adam asked.

  “She’s with me now.”

  “Thank God. She’s okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Wren said.

  “Nice to hear your voice, sweetheart. I thought you must have forgotten how to use a phone.”

  “I lost it.”

  “Ah, right. Guess that’s better than leaving it on the roof of your car or dropping it in the toilet. Both of which I’ve done. We’ll have to handcuff you to your new one.”

  “Should be back in about thirty minutes,” Tomas said. “Adam? Don’t talk to anyone in the meantime. Stay in your apartment. Don’t open your door until we get there.”

  “Unless I set fire to the place?”

  Tomas mustered a laugh from somewhere. “You’re allowed to leave then.”

  “I need some clothes,” Wren said.

  “Make that forty-five minutes. We have to swing by Wren’s place.”

  “Okay.”

  After he ended the call, Tomas put her postcode in the sat nav. “I’m ringing Marco now. If he talks to you, go along with what I say, okay?”

  She nodded. He took a deep breath and pressed the button. Marco picked up immediately.

  “Tomas.” He tsked.

  “You fucking bastard,” Tomas snapped. He didn’t need to pretend to be angry. Fury bubbled in his veins.

  “Wh—?”

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know what I talk about. You scare her. Wren my girlfriend. You had no right to ask her for meal. No right to talk to her like that. She’d done you a fucking favor, you stupid asshole.”

  When silence followed, Tomas hoped he hadn’t gone too far, then wondered why he cared.

  “What are you talking about? What favor? Having dinner with me? She didn’t stay long enough to consume anything. Come to Cirque. I want to talk to you. Bring Wren and if I upset her, I’ll apologize.”

  “Not good idea. I too mad to talk.”

  “Calm down.”

  “Don’t you fucking tell me to calm down, you prick. Wren think you going to hit her. Last boyfriend broke her arm.”

  “I can be gentle.”

  Tomas sucked in his cheeks. He doubted the bastard even broke an egg gently. “You don’t need be anything with Wren. She’s mine. I race up and down motorway for nothing but speeding ticket. I had enough of this shit. She got what you asked for and you fucked up.”

  Please pick up on that.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You want to know about students and courses at Ezispeke. I ask Wren to get. Easy for her. She bring to Headingley tonight, had in restaurant, but wanted to give me to give you because she want you to be pleased with me.”

  “Bring them then. Make me pleased with you.”

  “I don’t care if you fucking pleased with me or not,” he yelled. “Now you wait. Tonight I busy.” He broke the connection. His heart hammered so hard it had given him a throbbing headache. “Shit.”

  “Is pissing him off a good idea?”

  “It’s the old cliché—attack being the best form of defense. He’d expect me to be angry. With a bit of luck, it might distract him from thinking too hard. I wish Marco was stupid, but he’s not.”

  He pulled up outside Wren’s building and switched off the engine.

  “I won’t be a minute,” she said.

  “Oh no. You’re not going in on your own. Stay behind me.”

  Once she’d unlocked her door, he made her wait while he checked inside. He felt reasonably sure he’d done enough to keep Marco at bay for the time being, but he knew better than to trust the guy. He paced as Wren put clothes and toiletries in a bag.

  “Want to bring those shoes?” He pointed to a pair of high heels in the bottom of her wardrobe.

  “Can’t walk in them.”

  “You don’t need to. Lying down will work just fine.”

  She smiled, but she was quiet and he wondered if he’d blown it. He ought to pray he had. She was better off without him.

  “Okay. Ready,” she said.

  He lifted the bag from her hand, put it down and stood in front of her. “I’m sorry.”

  Wren looked straight at him. “I know.”

  “I couldn’t tell you. It’s too risky.” He searched for a sign that he still meant something to her.

  “Does Adam know you’re a cop?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No, but he does know I’m affecting the accent. He thinks I’m doing it because Marco wouldn’t have employed me otherwise. He’ll be wondering why I wasn’t using it with you beside me when I called him earlier.”

  “Are you going to tell him the truth?”

  “Yes.”

  Wren stepped into his arms and pressed her face against his neck. “I don’t like you playing this game. It’s dangerous. Why don’t you do something safe like alligator wrestling or snake wrangling?”

  “Ha ha.”

  “I don’t want you to get hurt,” she whispered. “In a way, nothing’s changed even now I know the truth. I still want you to run, us to run.”

  Tomas choked up. He wasn’t used to being cared about. He lifted his hand to her face and traced the curve of her jaw, the line of her cheekbone, trailing his fingers over the arch of her brows.

  “Oh Wren,” he whispered.

  He almost felt as though he were seeing her for the first time. He let his fingers slip dow
n her forehead, over her nose to her lips. She opened her mouth and trapped the tip of his middle finger between her teeth, sucking the pad before she released him. He angled his head and kissed her. The ache in his chest was instant. His headache gone, lust roared along his veins as her tongue slid against his. She clung to him and he wasn’t sure if the groan came from him or her.

  Need, want, lust, love. Oh Christ. Some primitive part of him felt she was as essential to his well-being as the air he breathed. His already swollen cock went fully hard in a heartbeat, pressing against his zipper. She was so delicate and sweet, so different to Adam. His throat tightened as he danced his tongue against hers. They moaned down each other’s throats as they welded themselves together, each trying to sink inside the other.

  He wanted her now, this minute. He ought to wait until they were with Adam, but he couldn’t. He ought to wait until they were safe in Adam’s apartment, and couldn’t do that either. Still kissing her, he eased her arms out of her sweater, and only broke from her mouth to lift the material over her head. He struggled with the buttons of her blouse until he felt her hand caressing his cock through his pants, and then nothing was fast enough. He kept telling himself to slow down but Wren was just as frantic, tugging at his clothes as he wriggled to get free of them and squirming out of hers as he dragged them off her.

  They barely made it to the couch, Tomas hopping out of his boxers as they tumbled together, kissing and laughing. Once he’d pinned her against the back of the couch, he took a deep breath, forced himself to calm. He looked into her eyes and then kissed her while he drew circles on her stomach, his hand edging lower until it slipped under the waistband of her panties to the hot place between her legs. Wren pushed herself into his touch and he was lost.

  Soft, hot, wet. The words cycled in his head as he stroked her. He dipped his fingers between her soft folds and when he rubbed her clit with his thumb, her muscles tightened around him. Her breathing grew choppier as she rocked into him. Her clit swelled under his touch and he kept teasing until she stiffened and unraveled with a series of little breathy cries. Hard to think of when he’d ever seen anything so beautiful—apart from when he and Adam had played with her.

  Her face gradually relaxed as the intensity of the orgasm faded, but the look of satiated bliss remained, her lips curved in a smile. She opened her eyes and the need to come nipped harder at the back of his head. As he reached for his cock, she knocked his hand away. The pad of one small finger smoothed over his crest, scooped up pre-cum and brought it to their lips. His neck and spine bowed with longing, his heart clamoring to leave his body to kiss its mate in hers.

  “Wren?” Tomas could only manage one word and hoped she could interpret it.

  “Yes. Now.”

  He flailed one-handed for his pants, found them, retrieved his wallet and sheathed his cock with the only condom he had. Even touching himself to do that tested his mettle.

  “Fuck me,” Wren whispered.

  “Don’t talk to me. I can barely keep from coming as it is.”

  She laughed and the sound rippled through him.

  “Off that top board, Tomas. Dive straight in. Be brave. No testing the water. No checking how far you’re going to fall.”

  Oh God. She makes me so happy. He thrust deep into her and she exhaled as if he’d pushed the air from her lungs. A growl burst from his mouth as she tightened her muscles around his cock.

  “Fast,” she whispered.

  While he didn’t usually like women giving him orders, this time it turned him up another notch. Maybe he’d never had the right woman giving orders before. He shifted his hips in a lightning fast push and pull, the grip of her body around his cock sending shudders of delight rippling the length of his spine to trickle into his balls. On every down thrust, he jammed his hips tight to hers as she bucked to meet him.

  He couldn’t last long like this, but even as he felt the telltale tremors building in his head, he sensed Wren on the rise again too. Tomas tumbled in sensation, lost to the decadent pleasure of the act, and he moved faster, harder. He couldn’t think. He could do nothing but this until he’d driven them over the edge. He dropped his mouth to her neck and kept thrusting into her as she gasped and panted and dug her fingers into his back. Tomas wasn’t sure he was breathing, wasn’t sure he cared.

  Then he was coming, a rush of prickly warmth skittering down his backbone to his balls, triggering his release, and he spurted into her, crying out against her neck as the spasms racked his body. He pulled Wren over with him, the rhythmic clamp of her sex a mix of pain and pleasure.

  He’d stopped thrusting after he’d come, but once his pulse calmed, he moved again, slowly now, withdrawing until only his tip remained inside before he sank back fully into her silken warmth. He had to be careful not to spill from the condom. Wren sighed beneath him, rolling her hips into his.

  “That was lovely,” she whispered. “Lovely, lovely, lovely.”

  The sound of his phone rang out in the room and he snagged it without withdrawing from her.

  “Stop fucking each other and get over here,” Adam said. “And don’t shower.” He cut off the call.

  “Oops.” Wren widened her eyes.

  Tomas laughed and let his cock slide from her. “Let me go and get rid of this.”

  When he emerged from the bathroom, Wren stood waiting, wearing the high-heeled shoes and a knee-length blue coat. He dressed quickly and picked up her bag.

  “Sure you have everything?” he asked.

  “Yep.”

  “We’re going to be just as careful leaving as we were coming.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  He frowned. “I’m serious, Wren. We don’t know for certain Marco isn’t suspicious. I don’t want either of us in a position where we’re being made to tell the truth.”

  “Okay.”

  She did exactly as he told her and the ache in his shoulders eased after he’d driven up to the main road. His frequent checks in the mirror revealed nobody tailing them.

  “How long have you known who I was?” she asked.

  “Since last night. After bowling, before…”

  “The glass of wine?”

  He smiled.

  “And it didn’t put you off?”

  Tomas glanced at her. “Scared the hell out of me, but didn’t put me off. Though I think it might be wise to be careful what you say to your dad. I’m rather attached to my balls.”

  She sniggered.

  “Not funny. Assuming we survive this, we have to figure out what to say.”

  Wren gulped. “You think we’re in that amount of danger?”

  He slid his hand onto hers. “Yes, but I didn’t mean that. I meant assuming we survive as a three, but we are in danger because I don’t know how much Marco knows.”

  “I’ve been wondering. You think he might own Ezispeke?”

  Tomas frowned. “Then why would he want me in there undercover getting information for him?”

  “Maybe he thinks he’s being cheated. Olive’s husband ran the school when I first started. Everything was less expensive, much more laid-back. Maybe it wasn’t being run well, I don’t know, but he died, Olive took over, got in a hopeless mess and brought in Jolene to whip everything into shape. Jolene’s brother-in-law is Olive’s accountant. Prices went up, but students kept coming. Now Olive can’t stop talking about profit.”

  “You think she sold out?”

  “She might have. In more ways than one. Maybe Marco expected to be making more money.”

  “She’d be foolish to cheat Marco.”

  “He might just want to know they’re doing what he tells them. I wish I’d signed the damn registers without making a fuss. Now everyone’s going to be out of a job pretty soon.”

  He glanced at her. “You’re probably right.”

  Wren groaned. “I feel really bad about that.”

  “As bad as you feel about Marco abusing women and threatening their families?”

  “Yes, of
course, but they’re my friends and colleagues. They have families to support. And what about the students? They’ll be booked in for flights and accommodation for months ahead.”

  “There might be a way to let the school tick over, I don’t know. I’ll speak to Julia.”

  He doubted there would be. Once the police went into the building, it would be the end of Ezispeke. He took a roundabout route to Dock Street and only fully relaxed when they’d parked and were inside the building with the door closed behind them. In the elevator, Tomas dropped her bag and pulled her into his arms, her back to his chest. He slid his hand inside her coat and froze. Well, all but one part of him froze.

  “You’ve spoiled the surprise,” Wren said.

  “No, it worked fine.” He nudged her butt with the hard ridge of his cock. “If I didn’t think the concierge would panic, I’d flip the switch and stop the elevator.” He pulled up her coat and slid his hands onto her thighs. “Oh fuck. Maybe I should risk Bill having a heart attack, because you’re going to give me one.”

  The doors opened and Wren jumped out.

  “Damn it, Wren, wait. Let me check first.”

  “No one can get in the building. You need codes and keys. Is this one Adam’s?”

  As she raised her hand, the door opened and Adam reached out to pull her inside. “At last.” He pressed his lips to hers.

  Tomas closed the door and dropped her bag in the hallway. He wasn’t sure how long his nerves could stand worrying about her. “I need a drink. Something cold. Please tell me you have beer.”

  Adam lifted his mouth from Wren’s. “Forgetting something?”

  Tomas frowned.

  “Accent?” Adam mouthed.

  “Ah. There’s a lot we need to tell you,” Tomas said.

  “It can wait. I’ve been trying to figure out whether three of us will fit in the tub. It’ll be a squeeze, but I want to try.”

  “Wren has a present,” Tomas said.

  He watched Adam’s face as her coat fell to the floor. Adam’s jaw dropped with it. Tomas stared at her long, lithe body and the strappy heels on her feet. She looked tarty and sexy and yet he could still see a glimmer of insecurity in her eyes.