by Amanda Boone
The thug cursed everyone as he stalked out of the bar.
Twin Set pursed her lips. “How many of those did you bring, my dear?”
T.J. regarded her steadily. “Enough.”
“Well, since I like you, I’ll drop out now. Go content myself with some young morsel that I don’t have to strangle afterward.” The older woman reached over and patted his hand. “If you’re ever in Newark, stop by Martha’s Chocolates. We make the best penuche on the east coast.”
As Twin Set left the bar, Consuela hauled Sarah to her feet and held out her hand. Once T.J. placed the diamond on her palm, the madam shoved her hostage at him.
“Come with me,” the madam said. “I’ll show you to the torture room.”
Chapter Three
Sarah ignored the nightmare cell she’d been shoved in and focused on the man saving her life. T.J. stood talking quietly to Consuela, who had sent his diamond to be checked. No sign of a rescue team yet. Getting out would be a bitch, too. The basement dungeon had no windows and only one exit. The sole avenue of escape meant going back up through the bordello. If T.J. meant to get her out, he’d need explosives – or a wrecking ball of a ruse.
Unless he wasn’t planning on getting her out at all.
The snotty European appeared to murmur something to Consuela, who beamed up at the hitman. “Absolutely flawless. Worth a bit more than your final bid, too, amigo.”
“Consider the overage a tip, Señora.” T.J. jerked his head toward the stairs. “Just make sure nobody interrupts me before dawn. I want the full night with her.”
“Enjoy,” Benton said, and took the madam’s arm to lead her back upstairs.
Sarah held out her bound wrists to T.J., who walked past her to look through the bars at the video camera set up outside on a tripod. He then swore softly as he made a complete circuit of the cell and then gave her a direct look, shaking his head a little.
“I know I can’t escape,” she told him, her heart sinking. “You paid a lot of money to get to me. So what’s first? Rape or torture?”
“What, you’re in a hurry?” He grabbed her and dragged her over to the manacles chained to one wall. “Let’s have some foreplay first.”
Sarah resisted enough to make it look real, but once he shoved her back against the bricks, she went still. T.J. pinned her there, his hands stroking her sides as he buried his face in her tangled hair. She braced herself for the mauling she expected.
“I’m for real,” T.J. whispered. “I won’t touch you unless it’s for show.”
She believed him now, primarily because he had no more reason to lie. “So how do we get out?”
“I was going to signal my guys, but my transmitter’s jammed,” he said, keeping his voice low. “She must have switched on a signal damper. But when my guys don’t hear from me, they’ll come any way. They’re good. They’ll get us out.”
“How long will they wait before they come?” she muttered back.
He lifted his head to look down at her, his gaze bleak. “Until sunrise. So we’ve got a long night ahead of us.”
“The madam won’t watch us, but Eurotrash will,” Sarah warned him. “He asked me to scream for him.”
T.J. muttered something vile and strode over to the bars, reaching out to yank the tripod over to him. “The only one she screams for is me, pal,” he told the lens and pressed a button on the side of the camera.
“I put it on mute,” he told her in a normal voice as he came back to her. “They can still see us, though, so we’ll just have to fake it, Rah-Rah.”
“For seven hours?” She felt like screaming now. “T.J., these people aren’t fools. Kink is their bent, and sex is their business.”
“Yeah, well, getting hostages out of hell is mine.” He gripped her waist and kissed her ear before he said, “Come on. It’ll be fun. Like when we played cops and robbers, and you frisked me behind your Dad’s boathouse. My turn to be the arresting officer.”
She almost laughed out loud. “That was a long time ago.”
“You were so cute as a cop.” T.J. lifted her bound wrists over his head, hanging her arms around his neck. “You stayed alive this long, and now I’m here. We’ll make it out of this, sweetheart.”
Sarah could feel the massive bulge of his erection now, and it made her go hot and achy between her legs. That he could arouse her so easily dismayed and thrilled her. “But there’s a good chance we won’t.”
“So we check out together.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “Better than dying alone, huh?”
Sarah saw the loneliness in his mismatched eyes and felt the echo of it in her heart. The extreme danger they were in, and what they were expected to do, made the next decision very simple. “I haven’t had sex in almost two years. You?”
He thought about it. “With someone else in the room? August.” He saw her expression and moved his shoulders. “I’ve been busy.”
“I want to do it for real,” she told him. “I want to have sex with you. Right now.”
His confined penis twitched against her, but he shook his head. “I don’t mind dying, sweetheart, but I’d rather not burn for all eternity.”
“I’ll be with you,” she promised. “We can burn together.” She kissed him.
T.J. didn’t move as she pressed her lips over his and parted them with the tip of her tongue. His chest billowed as she tasted him, and his hands tightened on her hips as she stroked his tongue with hers.
When she finally drew back, his blue eye blazed as hot as his green. “You’d really go to hell with me?”
“We’re already there, T.J.,” she said softly. “Now show me some heaven.”
T.J. reached behind her to unfasten her bra. “There’s an island where a guy I know lives. Ocean’s like liquid emeralds and sapphires. Sand like powdered sugar. Dolphins swim with you. I wish we there right now.”
The tender touch of his hands on her breasts made her shiver. “Is it hot?”
“Yeah. The good kind. Like how you got me now.” He tugged open his shirt, sending buttons flying and brought her up against him. “Oh, damn, Sarah. You feel so good.”
His rock-hard muscle against her soft mounds made Sarah’s nipples tighten. “What are the people like?”
“Dark. Beautiful. Voices like music.” He tugged her panties down and used the toe of his boot to slide them to her ankles. “I don’t want to do you against a wall. I want you under me.”
Sarah glanced at the options around the room. The autopsy table made her sick, and the mats covering the floor looked too thin. “Spanking bench.”
T.J. hoisted her up in his arms and carried her over to the long, narrow cushioned bench. “You’ll have to hold onto me,” he told her as he lowered her down onto her back. “So you don’t roll off.”
Sarah looped her wrists over his head, and twined her legs around the back of his strong thighs. “Not a problem.”
T.J. bent down to kiss her as he unzipped. “Got to keep my clothes on for when the cavalry shows,” he muttered. “Next time, we both get naked. On the sands. Under the sun.”
She loved how he wouldn’t give up. “Tell me about it.”
His hand shook as he fisted his erect shaft. “We’ll go to the islands,” he murmured as he moved in and pressed his heavy cockhead to her slick folds. “Look at me. Yeah, like that. We’re on the beach now, sweetheart. You and me and a towel. The breeze whispering over us. You can hear the waves washing in and out. Can you smell the water?”
Sarah’s eyelids fluttered as she felt him press in. “Yeah. It smells wonderful. Oh, T.J.”
He breached her and then brought his hands up to stroke his thumbs over her puckered nipples. “I’ve just rubbed you down with oil. Your whole body feels as hot and soft as your pussy is now, and you smell like coconut and flowers, and so do I. We’ve got all day to do nothing but make love on the beach.”
“Make love?” The thick invasion of his shaft made Sarah’s back bow. “Is that what you’re doing to me there?�
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“I tried to keep it just to sex, but you’re too sweet. I want your heart, too, baby.” He hissed in a breath as their body hair meshed. “Whenever we’re naked on the island, my cock is inside you. But I’m always in you, where it matters. Hold on tight, sweetheart. I’ve got to fuck you now.”
He drew out and pumped back into her, as smooth and relentless as piston. Sarah gasped as his thrust sent a burst of sensation through her sex and belly to flood her breasts. “T.J.”
“Right here, Sarah. I’m right here.” His hips caressed her inner thighs as he began working in and out of her. “Look at me, sweetheart, yes, I know. I know how much you need it. You’re so tight and wet on my cock.”
Sarah felt his body heat sinking into her, as hot and inescapable as his long, hard thrusts. The dungeon and video camera and the rest of their hell dwindled to a distant gray blur. His tough face and mismatched jeweled eyes became her world, and the delicious friction of his shaft inside her clenching softness their universe.
A dark bliss billowed inside her as he put his mouth to her breasts, nuzzling and licking her. Sweat from his brow mingled with the trickle between her mounds, adding a salty note to the musky scent rising between them.
She gripped his short hair in her fingers and urged his face up to hers. “Promise me,” she said, her voice unsteady. “Promise me you’ll go there. No matter what.”
He nodded, never looking away from her eyes. “With you. Only with you.”
Tears welled in her eyes even as the pleasure crashed over her. Sarah cried out as he plunged into her, giving her every inch of his girth as she shook and wept. Her contractions set off a series of slow, thick pulses from his penis, and he groaned with each one as he pumped her full of his seed.
T.J. held onto her, his shoulders trembling, his face hot against her neck. “Hello, heaven.”
Chapter Four
Several hours later T.J. leaned back against a brick wall. Sarah lay plastered on top of him, naked and dozing a little. His still-hard cock twitched inside her, eager to go for another round. T.J. didn’t know how many times they’d made love. He’d stopped counting after three.
His watch told him they had another hour before dawn. Mike and his guys were probably already outside the bordello, deciding on how they’d storm the place. Since the madam’s security consisted of a dozen young cartel thugs, T.J. figured they’d have little problem reaching him and Sarah.
Unless the plan they’d spent all night putting together worked first.
T.J. had kept an eye on the door at the top of the stairs all night, and as it opened, he gave Sarah a little shake. “Show time,” he told her. “You ready for this?”
She nodded and pulled aside his collar.
“I’m sorry to make you do something so gruesome,” T.J. murmured. “But we’ve got to make it look real.”
“I’ve done worse, trust me.” With a gentle press of her lips to his wound, which had reopened sometime between round two and three, she transferred his blood to her mouth. “Besides, I’ve already been drenched with most of your other body fluids.”
“There is that.” He smeared it between her upper lip and nostrils to make it appear more realistic. She disengaged their sexes, shifting down to place her face in his lap. As he tangled his fingers in her hair he felt her kiss his reddened shaft.
“You can fake this one, sweetheart,” he murmured to her as he watching Benton descend the stairs. He felt her nip him. “Or not.”
“Good morning, young lovers,” Benton said as he approached the bars of the cell. “I must say, if nothing else, the two of you certainly have stamina.”
“I’m not done with her yet,” T.J. told him as he pretended to force Sarah’s mouth up and down on his cock. “Gimme another half hour.” He sucked in a breath as he felt her engulf him with her soft lips. “Maybe an hour would be better.”
“If only I could.” Benton stepped up to the cell door and took out a key ring. “I never realized how boring torture and rape can become. Watching your clever seduction of our poor, doomed Sarah has changed my perspective.” He opened the cell door and stepped inside, his small eyes fixed on her bobbing head. “Did you promise to let her live? Is that how you persuaded her to show such enthusiasm?”
Sarah let him slide from her mouth and stared at T.J. in convincing horror. “You lied to me? You’re still going to kill me? You promised. You said we’d run away to the islands together.”
“Not my rules. Sorry, sweetheart.” T.J. tucked himself in and zipped up before he hauled her to her feet. Keeping her back to Benton, he plowed his fist into her jaw, pulling the punch at the last minute to keep from actually hurting her.
Sarah reeled back as if he’d done it for real, staggering into Benton and knocking him off balance. T.J. moved around the slender man, wrapping an arm around his neck to cut off the blood to his brain.
“Consuela,” Benton wheezed. “She’ll . . . kill . . . you.”
“Not today, pal.” When T.J. felt him go limp, he released him and let him fall to the ground. “God, I wish we could stay here for another hour.”
“You’d have to stand in line,” Sarah muttered, scowling down at the unconscious man.
T.J. stripped off the man’s clothes and shoes, handing them to Sarah, who quickly pulled them on.
“Video camera,” she told him as she dressed.
Once he removed the memory card T.J. pocketed it and glanced at the ceiling. “You think they were recording the video feed upstairs?”
“Can’t wait around to check.” She averted her gaze. “I’ll need a copy – I mean, don’t destroy it. The cops might need the evidence.”
T.J. frowned. “Right.” Before she stepped out of the cell he said, “Towel.”
“Oh, sorry.” She grabbed a towel, used it to rub the blood from her face, and then covered her head.
T.J. tucked her hair under Benton’s shirt collar. He then adjusted the towel’s drape to better conceal her face. “Upstairs, bend over and shuffle a little. Whatever you hear, keep heading for the door.” He felt something sticky on his fingers and brushed it on the front of his shirt.
She nodded, and then reached up on tiptoe to kiss him. “For luck.”
After tying up and gagging Benton, T.J. followed Sarah up the stairs and out into the deserted hallway. They got as far as the front room before Consuela came out of another door. She yawned before she spotted them and then strode over.
“What happened, Benton?” she demanded, obviously fooled by Sarah’s disguise.
T.J. stepped between them. “Things got a little ugly downstairs. The girl’s dead, but he’s gonna need stitches. Don’t worry, I got a guy across town who can fix him up.”
“I will go with you,” Consuela said, and hurried over to a heavily-loaded coat rack. She shrieked as a brawny bald man stepped out and held a gun to her forehead.
“Boss,” Mike said as the rest of his big, burly crew of fighters entered the room. “You forgot to check in.”
“Sorry, Mike,” T.J. told him. “Busy night. We got one downstairs locked in a cell. The rest are cartel newbies.”
“Pussies, you mean. We already took care of them, Boss,” Mike assured him.
When the madam saw Sarah remove the towel from her head she shoved Mike away and lunged, screeching in Spanish. When she got within striking range, Sarah grabbed her by the arms, pivoted, and threw her into a wall. Consuela hit hard, slid down and fell over unconscious.
T.J. peered at her. “Nice move.”
“Thanks. I took a self-defense course before I went off to college.” She used a curtain tie to expertly bind the madam’s wrists. “Will someone call the police, please?” She glanced at T.J. before she added, “I need to get out of here before the media shows up.” When he took a step toward her she shook her head. “Not with you.”
T.J. took out his keys and handed them to her. “Black SUV, a block south. Plate reads HOT4U2.”
“I didn’t know you were a fan
.” She gave him an odd, sad smile, and with a nod to the rest of his crew, she walked out.
T.J. issued instructions before he started after Sarah, unable to let her go without one last kiss. Yet as he trotted down the block after her, he saw the SUV still parked where he left it, and no sign of his lover. He stopped and clenched his fist.
He still felt something sticky on his fingers and looked down to see a tiny birthmark on his palm. When he checked his shirt, he saw it had acquired a birthmark, too. Careful examination revealed that both birthmarks were fake.
Together on a woman’s neck, however, they’d look just like a vampire bite.
A thousand things about Sarah that hadn’t made sense suddenly did. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”
He found the keys inside on the driver’s seat, surrounded by the bloody towel, which had been neatly folded and arranged in the shape of a heart.
#
Three days later T.J. sat in a too-small office. Across from him a heavyset man with good teeth and a bad toupee tapped the end of a pencil against the report T.J. had filed. He shifted before he made direct eye contact and held it, the way skilled liars did to make themselves seem more sincere.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Riley,” the head of the organized crime task force said. “Perhaps the lady you’re looking for was just a working girl.”
“A hooker? Really? That’s the story you’re going to run with?” T.J. leaned forward. “How many prostitutes in Boston do you think could pass as Sarah O’Hara’s identical twin? And how many get kidnapped outside Sarah’s college dorm? While they’re wearing Sarah’s clothes, carrying her backpack and phone, I mean?”
The older man smiled blandly. “Sounds like at least one.”
T.J. rose and walked out of the office, dialing Ashley in London as he did. “I need you to locate a woman for me,” he told her as soon as she answered. “She’s an undercover cop. Probably Boston PD, but she might be FBI or DEA.”
“Good afternoon to you, too, darling,” Ashley replied. “Can you give me a tad bit more to go on?”
