Cassandra saw the confusion on Jack’s face, and remembering what he had said about the tags and their mysterious disappearance, more of the puzzle pieces began to fall into place in her mind.
“So how come your ring ended up in Laura’s back yard?” Cassandra asked, advancing toward Max.
“I panicked. I wasn’t thinking straight. I tossed it in the bushes when I saw it all covered in blood. I went back to her place later, I tried to find it out in the back yard. When I couldn’t find it, I figured it wouldn’t be a problem. And it wasn’t, not until—”
“Not until right now,” Jack finished for him.
Cassandra looked at her bag on the desk, piecing through the information she had gleaned. At least half a dozen people in Laura’s life had testified to the woman’s fixation on Jack—the fact that Laura had been convinced that Jack was a real hero, the fact that she had wanted to get him into bed—some of her friends even believed they were sleeping together. The bartender and two of her friends recalled seeing Laura kissing Jack on the night she was murdered—further evidence which helped convict Jack.
“Jesus,” Cassandra said, thinking of the violent end that Laura had come to. She looked at Jack. “It must have been her,” she said, seeing the anger and the confusion on the fugitive’s face. “Jack—she must have been the one who stole them from your room. I don’t know how, but…” Cassandra shrugged. “She was obsessed with you.”
“You killed her,” Jack said, his attention shifting back onto Max. He stepped closer to the desk, his hand tightening on the handle of the screwdriver. “You killed her, and then you ruined my life—all because you couldn’t get over your ego!”
“He wanted to make as much money for the newspaper as possible,” Cassandra added, glancing askance at her boss. “Two birds with one stone: a huge story for the paper, and condemning the man he thought stole his girlfriend away from him. He’ll have plenty of time to think about the fact that he framed you for no reason while he rots in jail.”
“I promised myself that when I found out who did this to me, I’d kill them,” Jack said.
Cassandra’s heart stuttered in her chest; it was one thing to get to the bottom of the mystery, another thing to stand by while Jack used extreme measures to interrogate his suspects—but to watch him commit murder?
The familiar sound of sirens drifted through the open window, cutting through Cassandra’s abstracted thoughts.
“Jack,” she said, shaking her head and standing. “Jack—you can’t. The cops are coming, and they’ll catch you red-handed if you touch him. You can get your conviction overturned now—but what the hell will any of this matter if you go and hurt someone for real?”
“How can I get the conviction overturned?” Jack glanced from Max to Cassandra and back again. “What are you suggesting I do, show them a fucking ring?”
Cassandra smiled slightly and reached into her purse. She hadn’t realized until they had arrived at the building how lucky she had been that she always kept her voice recorder in her purse, in case of a last-minute interview.
“You play this recording for them,” she said, lifting the device out of her purse and showing it to the two men. “It may not be admissible as evidence, but they can definitely use it to find some more, don’t you think?”
Jack stared at the recorder for a moment, and Cassandra worried that the man was going to give in to his rage, but as the sound of the police sirens increased in volume, Jack’s hand fell to his side.
“You’re right,” he said, glaring at Max. “If I kill him, they won’t even bother investigating. They’ll throw away the key.” Jack looked at Cassandra, smiling faintly. “Think you can help me get the ball rolling on clearing myself?”
Cassandra mirrored his smile. “I think that’s very possible—but they need a living body if they’re going to investigate.”
Jack nodded. “They’ll have a living body, all right,” he said, glancing at Max with a satisfied expression. “But if you try to run, asshole, I’ll break you.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Cassandra hurried the last few steps along the hallway to her apartment, already smiling. The past two months had sped by in a flurry of depositions, talking to law enforcement, and court appearances. With the information she’d been able to provide about Max Adelman, including the tape of his confession, the wheels of justice had started to turn. Jack had been released from prison, and Max would face trial for murder in a few weeks’ time. The official pardon was Jack’s prized possession.
“I’m home!” Cassandra called out, after unlocking the front door.
Jack hadn’t needed much time to get back onto his feet. Once his conviction had been overturned, the public nature of his trial had actually helped promote his business—he was probably the best-known bounty hunter in the country after breaking out of jail to bring in the murderer responsible for framing him in the first place.
Cassandra had offered to let him stay in her place—an offer she had made not only out of guilt for her part in his original conviction, but also because she wanted to have as much sex with him as their schedules would allow, after their explosive debut in the backseat of her car.
The apartment was silent. Cassandra frowned as she closed the door behind her, hearing no response to her call. She had called it a night at eleven o’clock, wanting to be awake enough to enjoy Jack’s company before she fell asleep; she couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment that he wasn’t home.
Sighing, she strode toward the kitchen, tossing her purse onto the table by the front door on her way. The light was off, and Cassandra reached along the wall, feeling for the switch. She would reheat some leftovers and change into one of Jack’s tee shirts—with nothing on underneath it—and wait for him to get home.
Suddenly a hand closed on her wrist, and Cassandra found herself being spun around, her back colliding with the wall as another hand covered her mouth. She gasped, her heart beating faster in her chest with a mixture of surprise, fear, and instinctive arousal, as the memory of the last time filled her mind. Her body tingled as a large, broad body pressed against her, pinning her to the wall in the darkness. The hand let go of her wrist, and then with a muted click, the light came on, flooding the room and dazzling Cassandra’s eyes for a moment.
A heartbeat later, as her eyes adjusted, Cassandra took in the sight of Jack’s face, his bright eyes staring into hers.
“Don’t scream,” he said, his lips twitching at the corners with suppressed amusement.
Cassandra’s body heated up in an instant, and she smiled against Jack’s hand, pushing her hips down against his. Jack brought his hand away from her lips and covered her mouth with his own, pinning her even more firmly to the wall, lifting her up off of her tired feet.
“You didn’t mind me screaming last night,” Cassandra murmured, twisting her hips under his. She could feel the hardening ridge of Jack’s erection pressing against her, rubbing up against the crotch of her panties.
Jack smothered a laugh against her neck, his hands moving over her body in quick, devastating touches that made her shiver. He reached up under the hem of her skirt and tugged her panties down, ripping them as he got them off of her. Cassandra’s hands came to life, fumbling slightly as she struggled to pull Jack’s shirt up and over his head.
It seemed like an eternity, but only moments later, Cassandra felt the heat and hardness of Jack’s cock rubbing against her slick folds, his strong arms holding her up against the wall as he rocked his hips against hers.
“I’m so glad you wore a skirt today,” he murmured, smirking slightly. “Less for me to have to take off to get what I want from you.”
Cassandra laughed breathlessly, wrapping her legs around his waist and leaning against the wall as Jack guided the tip of his cock along her slit. He thrust into her all at once, filling her up in an instant, and Cassandra moaned out in pleasure, her inner walls tightening.
Jack started moving immediately, holding her in p
lace as he thrust into her hard and fast, pushing deeper and deeper into her body. Cassandra writhed, trapped against the wall and wrapped up in the pleasure that coursed through her with every hard pump of Jack’s hips. She kissed his face, his neck, everywhere her lips could reach, both of them abandoning the pretext of the little fantasy they’d had since Jack had first re-entered her life.
Cassandra twisted and writhed between Jack’s body and the wall, moving like an animal, moaning and crying out as the man she had come to love pounded harder and harder into her. He buried his face against her breasts, claiming each of her nipples in turn, sucking and licking until Cassandra thought she wouldn’t be able to hold back any longer. Every movement of his hips brought pressure and friction to bear on her clit; every third thrust made her almost shriek with pleasure as the tip of Jack’s cock collided with her G-spot.
In a matter of moments, Cassandra felt the tension coming closer to the breaking point, and she clutched at Jack’s shoulders, digging her fingernails carelessly into his skin as wave after wave of pleasure rushed through her, driving out all of the thoughts and cares of her long work day.
She kept moving as she sensed Jack approaching his own climax, twisting her hips down against his, her inner muscles rippling around him in uncontrollable spasms as her orgasm intensified. She felt the telltale twitching of his cock buried deep inside of her, the tensing of his muscles, and Jack groaned long and low, his face buried against her neck. Cassandra’s climax reached new levels as she felt the hot, slick gush of his orgasm flooding her, and she shuddered against him, panting and gasping for breath.
As they both reached the end of their orgasms, Jack’s hold on her wavered for a moment, and Cassandra came back to herself just enough to worry that he might drop her; instead he pulled her free of the wall and cradled her body against his, carrying her into the living room. Still panting for breath, Jack bore Cassandra down onto the couch with him, holding her body tightly to his as they both shuddered in the aftershocks of their mutual pleasure.
After a few moments, Cassandra opened her eyes to find Jack looking down at her, an amused smile curving his lips.
“You look so fucking hot like this,” he told her, cupping her breast and idly teasing the nipple.
Cassandra laughed, pushing her sweat-sticky hair out of her face. “You mean all sweaty and sexed-up like this?”
Jack grinned, nodding as he gave her nipple a firm tweak.
Cassandra gasped and shivered, already beginning to feel aroused again. “I am so glad it was you whose case I covered.”
Jack laughed. “Does that happen to you often or something?”
Cassandra shook her head, laughing. She curled up against him, sighing in contentment. “That was every bit as good as I thought it would be,” she told him.
Jack nodded, pressing an kiss to her forehead. “Now that we’ve settled that,” he said, draping an arm around her, “and now that I’m a free man, fully exonerated, what comes next?”
Cassandra took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Well right now, I’m going to have a cigarette,” she said, giving him a quick smile.
“That sounds excellent.” Jack answered her smile with one of his own. “But you know what I mean.”
Cassandra sat up, walking across the room on unsteady legs. She found her blouse on the floor and pulled it on. Jack rose from the couch as well, picking his pants up off of the floor of the kitchen. Together they went out onto the tiny balcony attached to Cassandra’s apartment and Jack sat down in one of the chairs, pulling Cassandra onto his lap. They lit their cigarettes and sat in silence for a moment.
“What do you think? About the future, I mean?” Jack said, giving her waist a squeeze.
“I think that I’d like to get to know you without our lives being on the line,” Cassandra said, taking another drag of her cigarette and exhaling slowly. “The sex is great, and we work well together.” Jack nodded slowly. “As for the future,” Cassandra considered the question for a moment before shrugging. “We’ll find out about that together.”
Jack kissed her lightly on the cheek and Cassandra felt his cock beginning to stir underneath her, telling her without words that whatever happened next, they were going to get to know each other very well indeed.
The End
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Buy Me, Bride Me
Layla Valentine
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Copyright 2017 by Layla Valentine
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author. All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.
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Chapter One
The morning always came too soon, and the alarm on Jada’s phone seemed like it was shouting at her rather than playing a tinny version of “Walking on Sunshine.” As she sat up in bed, her memories of the night faded. She stretched tall and her back cracked loudly.
I’m getting old, and at 25 that’s saying something, she thought. She rolled out of bed and put her bare feet on the soft rug on the floor. It was tattered and worn, but she loved it. The floor was freezing as she walked over to her closet to grab some clothes, and she hesitated for a moment before taking her pajamas off.
She went into her bathroom, examining her reflection in the mirror and groaning as she saw that her hair was the size of a small bush. She turned on the shower and waited for the water to heat up. As soon as it was warm, she stripped as fast as she could and hopped into the spray. The hot water felt fabulous, and Jada scrubbed up with her favorite shower gel, the gentle smell of berries and vanilla making her senses happy.
Once dry, she put on a red silk blouse and black pencil skirt. She dug in her closet, finding her favorite red heels and slipping them on. She ate breakfast in the car on the way to the office; a bagel with cream cheese that thankfully wasn’t too messy.
Jada tuned the radio to her favorite station, and it chimed in with a lovely combination of rock, college alternative, and regular alternative. It would have been a great morning, were it not for the giant meeting she had scheduled. She’d heard the client could be a bit tight-assed, and she dreaded the moment when she’d have to dazzle him with her proposal.
The JPH Tech building was enormous, taking up two city blocks on each of the two streets that it touched. Located on the corner of Madison and First, it was a traditional office of white and gray, filled with the paper, forms, hours of waiting, and caches of servers.
On the fifth floor, Jada followed along the rows of cubicles set up for her teammates and the associates of the office. They were each named for actual streets within the city, and Jada fought back a gag every time she passed them. The idea that each of the little padded cells was actually a home away from home made her want to cry, but that was how it went in the corporate world. No wonder she hated it.
She walked down to her glass-walled office, sank into her rolling chair, and turned on her computer. As she waited for the thing to start, one of her team members, Chelsea, came out from her cubicle and poked her head into the office.
“Hey, chica! How are you?”
Chelsea was always so ridiculously perky in the morning. Jada had to take a gulp of her coffee before she answered.
“Fine.”
“You do anything fun this weekend?” Chelsea asked.
“Not really; just chilled.” As Jada swallowed the crappy office coffee, she resolved to invest in her own new coffee pot. The office swill was just not good.
/>
“Jada! You sat alone again, didn’t you? How many times is that?”
“I’ve lost track. I really don’t want to think about it right now. How’s Randall been this morning?”
“Randall. You know how he is.” Their teammate could be quite creative when it came to matching a visual concept with words, but a social butterfly he was not. “Anyway, forget him; there’s a new guy.” Chelsea’s eyes sparkled as she mentioned the new coworker.
“Oh no. No more intra-office blind dates. You have terrible taste, honey.” Jada remembered the last time Chelsea had tried to introduce her to the new guy. He had turned out to be a bodybuilder, and gay to boot. “Don’t you remember your last attempt?”
Chelsea put her hands up in defense. “Jada, that was an accident. He looked totally straight.”
“Well, you know what they say about appearances. Hell, you thought I was Mexican,” Jada said, making a face at her.
“Well, you know I’m not good at that kind of stuff. And besides, how was I supposed to know he was gay? After all, it’s not like they wear a sign.” Chelsea’s voice had turned to total sales pitch with that last statement, and Jada had to laugh.
“Well, thank you, but no thank you. I’m taking a permanent hiatus from men. I am so done with dating and working and all the juggling those things entail. I like my relaxing life at home. I can read and enjoy a bubble bath whenever I want.”
Steal The CEO's Daughter - A Carny Bad Boy Romance Page 25
