by Ravenna Tate
“Had enough yet, bad girl?”
“I don’t even know how to answer that.”
Houston rubbed the wounds he’d made, which forced loud moans from her as the intensity of the burn increased. “Not quite yet. You can take a bit more.”
Fire rained down on her ass cheeks as he struck her at least five more times on each cheek. He stopped for a second before starting up again. She lost count of the number he gave her because her brain no longer wanted to work. Nothing existed except the sweet feel of his hand on her ass.
Her clit was so sensitive that as each swat pushed her hips against his rock hard thigh, an orgasm started. It intensified with each stinging blow, until it poised there, teasing her, ready to burst wide open with the slightest pressure. Rosanna moved her hips on her own, pushing against his leg and crying out as the climax grew to its fullest potential.
The pain and pleasure were all mixed up in a fog of desire and passion, until she could barely breathe. When he stopped spanking her, it took a few seconds for that to register.
“Oh, babe. You should see your ass right now. It’s so red. Are you all right?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
A finger moved inside her pussy, forcing more loud moans from her. “You are so fucking wet!”
All she could do in response was whimper. If he didn’t fuck her soon, she would die from need. She was certain of it.
Finally, he gently moved her off his thigh and bent her over the edge of the bed. “I’m going to fuck you so hard, babe.”
“Yes. Please.”
He spread her ass cheeks, and she cried out in pleasure as his tongue licked her pussy from behind. “Oh, fuck me sideways. You taste so damn good.”
“Please,” she whispered. “Please fuck me.”
“I can’t wait any longer.” He plunged his dick into her pussy, and she gripped the comforter as he pumped into her hard and rough. His hands massaged her sore ass cheeks, intensifying the pain from the swats, but that only served to prolong the orgasm that was still going.
Each thrust sent wave after wave of delicious pleasure coursing through her, until she was certain she couldn’t take any more. But still he kept going, grunting and groaning as he pistoned inside her without mercy.
All she could do was whimper. Sweat dotted her hairline. She grasped more of the comforter as the fucking continued, deep and fast. Her throat was dry from panting. This was the most fucking incredible sex she’d ever had.
Droplets of sweat splashed her lower back, and his cries grew more desperate. When he called out her name his thrusting grew jerky, and she knew he had come. He lay over her, his breathing raspy and quick, and his shirt damp with sweat. Rosanna didn’t want to move. She never wanted this moment to end.
Houston was the only man she’d ever met who had swept her away with a single glance. She smiled, recalling that day in the courthouse three and a half months ago, when she’d rushed down a hallway, a Starbucks in one hand and a folder with documents that had to be in the judge’s hands that day in the other.
She never saw the tall, lean, handsome cop who was standing around a corner, talking with an attorney Rosanna knew by name only. Her focus had been on getting to the judge’s chambers, where she knew his clerk was waiting for the folder in her hand.
When she rounded the corner, she had barely enough time to register the fact that Houston was directly in her path before she tried to pull back. But it was too late. The Starbucks covered his shirt, and the papers she was waiting to deliver were all over the floor.
The attorney gathered the papers while Rosanna tried to use her scarf to wipe the coffee off Houston’s white shirt. He was laughing, and it took a few seconds before she realized he was also telling her not to worry about it.
Once her composure had returned, she thanked the attorney for the papers, and apologized so many times to Houston that he actually put his hand over her mouth. That gesture sent tiny jolts of electricity racing through her body. She remembered looking into those sapphire blue eyes and feeling the bottom drop out from underneath her feet. She had wanted to fall into them and never surface.
Two day later, he called her and asked her out to dinner. Apparently he had wheedled her name out of the attorney, along with the firm where she worked. She still had no idea who he had spoken with, or how he’d convinced them to divulge her cell phone number, but she was so glad he had.
They were together from that first night on. And now, she was on her way to healing and recovering her memories from high school. The man she loved, and who loved her back, was by her side, just as it should be. Life was perfect.
Chapter Fifteen
As fucking incredible as the spanking and sex had been, the guilt Houston experienced had the same weight he imagined a dump truck, lying on top of him and crushing the life out of his body, would have. He was the worst shit in the world. She was walking on air, believing her life would be perfect once those memories were intact, and he was letting her think that.
But what the fuck could he possibly do? It was only a theory, after all. A very convincing one, when all the pieces of the puzzle were lined up, but still nothing concrete. Not without her memory. Not without corroboration, of which they had very little.
All day, Annie gave him sideways glances. She wasn’t stupid. Obnoxious and crass, but definitely not dense. She knew something was wrong, and if past experience was any indication, she’d eventually force it out of him.
What he should do was take her out of the station where they could talk in complete privacy and tell her everything. He’d have to anyway, eventually. Was it right to withhold information of this magnitude from one’s partner? It was a ridiculous question, and one he already knew the answer to. If the tables were turned, he’d be pissed off as hell when the truth came out.
“How’s the search going?” she asked, pulling him out his reverie.
“Nowhere. I haven’t found one additional person we talked to twelve years ago. How about you?”
“One possibility. A guy who said in his statement back then that he was upstairs for most of the party. Name is Gareth Manning. He was a senior at the time, a frat member, and told us only that everyone was heavily partying and there were hookups with the high school girls, but said nothing about rape or non-consensual sex.”
Houston’s heart nearly stopped. Was this Manning dude one of the men who had raped Rosanna that night? “You found him?”
“Yeah, pretty sure.” Annie picked up her desk phone. “Let’s find out.”
Gareth agreed to meet them on Monday. Once Annie set up the appointment at a McDonalds in Parma, Houston returned to the names on his list, but his mind kept wandering to Rosanna.
Soon she would find out whether the tests revealed any lesions or other organic causes for the memory loss. Once they ruled that out, JoElle planned to hypnotize her. Someone needed to be with her, in case she was too sleepy to drive afterward. Houston had told her to let him know when, and he’d make sure he could take her to the appointment. He wouldn’t be able to stay in the room while she underwent hypnosis, but he didn’t want to at any rate. He didn’t want to hear what she might recall.
****
As Houston and Annie drove to Parma Monday morning, he tried to focus on what they needed to ask Gareth Manning, but his mind was on what would happen later, in JoElle’s office. She had called Rosanna over the weekend, while Houston was there, to give her the news that all the tests proved there was no lesion or other organic cause for the memory loss. They had also set up her first hypnotherapy session for Monday—today—after work, and Houston had promised he’d drive her.
The entire weekend, Rosanna had been over the moon with joy. Each time they’d made love, the guilt inside him had grown worse, until he was certain he’d cemented his place in hell for all eternity. He might as well do whatever the fuck he wanted while he was alive, because there was no chance of him escaping eternal damnation now. Not after the way he’d thrown caution to
the wind and fucked the woman he loved, all the while holding this horrible secret inside.
“You’ve been really quiet the past couple of weeks. Everything okay with you and Rosanna?”
Fuck you and your mind-reading bullshit. “Yeah. We’re fine.”
“Doesn’t sound like it.”
He forced his gaze toward her face. “Everything is wonderful, Annie. Just thinking about this case, like you are.”
“All right. You know, I’m here if you need to talk.”
Shit. He had to look away, so pretended to be interested in a couple walking down the street. “I know you are.”
Gareth Manning looked like a recovering junkie if ever Houston had seen one. He was already seated, wolfing down a double cheeseburger. Two containers of fries were next to him, along with a chocolate milkshake. Houston swore he felt his arteries hardening just eyeing the food.
The man was gaunt with sallow skin, and looked a hell of a lot older than thirty-four. Houston and Annie slid into the opposite side of the booth and extended their hands. He shook them, saying hello with a soft, tentative voice.
“Are you sure it’s okay to talk here?”
Both Houston and Annie glanced around. There were no more than a dozen people in the place, and none of them were paying any attention to Gareth or his two companions. “Sure is,” Annie said, taking out her notebook. She flipped it open. “Mr. Manning, like I said on the phone, we’re revisiting this case by speaking to everyone who gave us information that night.”
“Do you have new leads?”
“We do. How well did you know Brian?”
“Everyone knew Brian. He was suicide for Gamma Chi Kappa. That means he didn’t rush any other frat house. His father and two uncles were legacies.”
They had known about his father, but not the two uncles. “Was he well liked?” asked Houston.
“Not really. He was an arrogant little shit, right from day one. And because he scored so much, we were all like what the fuck, man? He’s a fucking freshman. How is he getting all this action?”
The hairs on the back of Houston’s neck prickled. “You sure it was legit? I mean, could he have been bragging?”
“Well, we all did to a point, you know? But he had chicks in the house all the time.”
Annie sighed out loud, setting her mouth in a hard line for a few seconds while she glared at Gareth. “Let me ask it another way. Do you have any reason to believe Brian Wayside’s conquests were non-consensual on the part of the young women he had sex with?”
When Gareth averted his gaze and shoved a handful of fries into his mouth, Houston exchanged a knowing glance with Annie. “We’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” said Houston. “Ever get in on any of that action yourself, Gareth?”
“What?” He almost choked on his fries. “No, man. I never had to force a girl, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“But you didn’t stop Brian from forcing them.”
“They were only rumors. I never saw him do anything like that. Only heard about it.”
“From who?”
“Just talk around the house, you know?”
“Talk around the house after that party?”
“Yeah. Lots of it.”
“He’s dead, Gareth,” said Annie. “Nothing you say can hurt him, but it might help us catch the person who killed him.”
They watched Gareth finish his fries and take a long sip of his shake. Before he spoke again, he leaned forward, his gaze cutting around the place, as if everyone was listening. Houston didn’t know whether to feel sorry for him, or slap the shit out of him for being so damn paranoid and secretive.
“The morning after that party, Brian was in the living room, tossing sofa cushions and shit around. I asked him what the fuck he was doing, and he kept saying he had to find the flash drive.”
Oh holy fuck…
“I said what flash drive, man? But he just kept repeating it. Still seemed wasted to me, if you know what I mean.”
“What about the rumors you mentioned?” asked Annie.
“Those came later. After the girl came downstairs and she and Brian left.”
Left with Brian? Whoa… “What girl?” asked Houston, hoping like hell that Gareth had no clear memory of her.
“Some girl who was there with one of the other freshman. Name of Mike, I think. She was still in high school, and had snuck out when her parents went out of town to some seminar. Drove up here from some place near Akron to stay the weekend with Mike, who was her boyfriend. But she came down that morning with her coat on and carrying a duffle bag over her shoulder, so I don’t think she stayed the entire weekend.”
Annie was scribbling like mad. Houston had to swallow several times to choke back the bile rising up his throat.
“You recall Mike’s last name?” she asked.
“Nope.”
“How about this girl? You remember her name?”
“Nope. But I remember her looks. Tall, thin, great body.” Houston’s hands clenched into fists under the table. “Dark, curly hair and real exotic looking. I think she was Indian or something.”
Annie gave Houston another knowing glance, and he had to pretend to return it. It was the same description Jessica and Hollee had given them. But Houston felt certain that Gareth was about to give them a whole lot more to go on that those two had.
“What else do you recall?” Houston asked. He might as well be the one to put the final nail in Rosanna’s coffin. Better him than Annie.
“She and Brian faced off. Man, I was like what the fuck is going on? Her eyes were all big and scared, and he gave her this look … like he knew she had that damn flash drive.”
“What was on the flash drive?” he asked. What do you think, genius?
“No clue.”
“What did they say to each other?” asked Annie.
“Nothing, man. I mean it was freaky. They just stared each other down and then the girl left the house, calm as can be. Brian stood there, staring at the front door. Then he said in this creepy low voice, ‘She has it. I know she does.’ And he left the house. I went to the window, but I didn’t see the girl. I think she parked down the street at a public lot because I remember other girls complaining there was no place to park the night of the party.”
“Did you watch Brian go after her?”
“I watched him walk away from the frat house, but I have no idea where either of them went.”
“What about the night of the party?” asked Houston. “You recall seeing her?”
“She was upstairs with Mike, but I was pretty wasted back then regularly. I remember seeing her during the party, but nothing specific.”
“Was the flash drive ever found?”
“No clue.”
“Did anyone else ever mention it?”
“Not that I recall.”
“What about Mike? Did he talk about it or this girlfriend of his?”
“Nope. Not to me, anyway.”
“So what were the rumors you heard?” asked Annie.
Gareth shrugged. “Just that there was a lot of sex that night with the high school girls, and Brian was keeping score. Like he had to bone each of them. It was some stupid game he and a few of the other freshmen were playing. And there was also talk that some of the girls hadn’t wanted to go along with it, but Brian persuaded them.”
There was no fucking way he wanted to hear the answers, but Houston had to ask the questions. “Did Brian have sex with this particular girl that night?”
“Well, I didn’t watch them have sex, but I’m pretty sure he did.”
“How about you? Did you have sex with her?”
“No. I wasn’t going near a high school girl, man. Too complicated.”
That was only thing that saved Gareth from Houston lunging across the table to beat the living shit out of him.
“Is it safe to assume this flash drive recorded Brian having sex with that girl and others?”
“I have no clue. Honestly. If I had to
guess, it had him on there having sex with someone, but I don’t know who. Because he was so freaked out about it, that’s why I suspect he had sex with that girl, too.”
They had taken Brian’s computer, but there was nothing on it to indicate he’d recorded himself with Rosanna or any other girl. What the fuck had they missed? Was it too late to look at the hard drive again, twelve years later?
“One more question,” said Houston. “Why didn’t you tell us any of this twelve years ago?”
“Man, there were underage girls there. We all thought you two were narcs.”
“Wait … you’re saying everyone we talked to lied to us?”
“Not lied, exactly. More like didn’t tell you everything.”
“So why should we believe you today?”
Gareth glanced down at his hands, which shook slightly. “Because now, I got nothing left to lose.”
Yeah. Recovering junkie for sure. Filled with regret and knows he fucked up by keeping his mouth shut. How differently would this have turned out if they had known about Rosanna back then? Would she have been convicted of murder, or would the DA have taken pity on her knowing about the gang rape?
Slow down, dude. You don’t know she actually killed Brian.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” asked Annie. Houston couldn’t help notice that the gentleness she’d shown toward Jessica and Hollee was absent with this piece of pond scum.
“No. That’s it. I swear.”
After Annie handed Gareth her card and asked him to call if he remembered anything else, they left. It was at least fifteen minutes before she spoke.
“Wonder where that flash drive is?”
Houston had to dig his nails into his palms. He needed to be alone right now, so he could process everything they’d learned this morning. “I wish we knew.”
“There was nothing on his computer.”
“I know.”
“And I doubt it would do us much good to take a second look.”
“If we can find it, we should anyway. Just to be sure.”
“We can try.” She nodded. “But if we find that girl, we probably find the flash drive.”
