White Hot Holidays 8: Holiday Bound

by Jaci Burton

  Chapter Six

  The sound of a cell phone woke Maria with a start. She sat up in bed and watched Colin reach for the phone on his bedside table.

  “Yeah,” he said, his voice gruff with sleep.

  She knew what it was because she received similar calls on the weekends.

  “Be right there. Call Maria Perez, too. She’ll be able to help.”

  He hit the button on his cell and turned to her. “You’re about to get a phone call.”

  She nodded and went for her purse, pulling it out just as her phone began to vibrate.

  From pleasure to pain in an instant. “I’ll just ride with you. There’s no time to take me home to get my car.”

  He nodded. They took a quick shower, dressed and headed to the scene.

  The uniforms were there and had the nosy crowds under control. Colin and Maria flashed their badges and identification and slipped beyond the barrier. The perp was already in the patrol car, so Colin went off to get the info on what went down there and Maria headed into the house to talk to the victim.

  When she stepped into the bedroom, the blood drained from her face.

  It was like a copy of the scene she’d just left at Colin’s house.

  Ropes dangled from a four-poster, handcuffs and lube and whips on the nightstand, and one seriously bloodied, cut and battered victim huddled on the edge of the bed, shaking like a leaf.

  Maria hurried over to her.

  “I’m Maria Perez from Domestic Violence.” She motioned to the uniforms. “Give us a minute alone, okay?”

  They nodded and vacated.

  “What’s your name, honey?”

  “Heather.”

  The girl couldn’t be more than nineteen or twenty. Her lip was bloody, both eyes blackened and already swelling. She had cuts all over her face. She had a blanket draped over her partially nude body so Maria couldn’t see any marks on the rest of her, but she had a pretty good idea the bastard had really worked her over.

  “What did he do to you?”

  “It’s not his fault,” she said, staring out the window. “I agreed to this. Sort of. We were just gonna play a little sex game. He was going to tie me up. I said it was okay. But I didn’t really want to. I mean, I know he likes that kinky stuff and all, and I thought it would be okay, but I didn’t know he was going to be this rough.”

  “Did you ask him to stop?”

  “Yeah.”

  “When?”

  “When he hit me in the face.”

  Maria pushed back her anger and forced calm. “When did he hit your face, Heather?”

  “As soon as he had the ropes secured. Then it just went on from there. As soon as he had me tied up I got scared. Told him I’d changed my mind. He just laughed at me. Said it was too late. I was his now, and he could do whatever he wanted with me. And he did. He did awful things to me.” She clutched the blanket around her chest and shuddered. “God, this is all my fault.”

  Maria kneeled in front of Heather. “None of this is your fault. He’s a sick, twisted bastard who took advantage of your trust in him. And you’re going to make him pay for what he did. He broke the law, Heather. He assaulted you. Now it’s up to you to make him pay for what he did.”

  The girl dropped her chin to her chest and sobbed. Maria sat on the bed next to her, folded her in her arms and let her cry it out.

  By the time Maria and Colin took Heather to the hospital and filled out all the paperwork on her boyfriend, Maria was exhausted, had a headache and needed another shower.

  She felt dirty, that scum of the earth who’d used and abused that little girl making her feel like he’d transferred some of his filth to her.

  That, and her feeling of déjà vu after coming upon the scene so reminiscent of what she and Colin had done. What the hell was wrong with her anyway? How could she counsel these women about violence when she welcomed it in her own life? It was wrong, deviant, disgusting.

  It had to stop.

  “You hungry?” Colin asked as drove away from the hospital.

  “No.”

  “What’s wrong, Maria?”

  “Nothing. I just need to get home, Colin.” And as far away from him, from the memories of what they had done, as possible. She couldn’t do this anymore, couldn’t tap into the fantasies of sex and depravity and then counsel women like Heather.

  Mercifully, he didn’t ask her any more questions. They stopped at his house, allowing her to pack her bag.

  “Maria, tell me what’s bothering you,” he asked, watching her as she threw her things into her bag.

  “Nothing. These cases always upset me, Colin. Besides, I told Heather I’d pick her up at the hospital and take her home. I need to go.”

  “It’s more than that. Talk to me.”

  She didn’t want to look in his eyes and see the hurt there. She was brushing him off and she knew it, but she had to. It was better this way. For both of them. Though she’d tried, really tried, she could never be the type of woman he needed. Kink was better left to her fantasies. She saw way too much of it in her reality and it wasn’t pretty.

  “There’s nothing to talk about. I had a great time. Please take me home.”

  She heard his sigh and closed her eyes, forcing back the tears stinging her eyes. Grabbing her bag, she walked out the door and spent the ride to her apartment looking out the side window, refusing to look at him.

  She felt horrible for treating him this way. He’d been so good to her, so gentle and caring. Colin had given her everything she’d ever wanted, and she thanked him by blowing him off as if he didn’t matter.

  He did matter. She loved him, loved everything about him.

  But she couldn’t have him. She couldn’t live with the darkness within herself couldn’t live this lifestyle and do her job at the same time.

  He pulled up in front of her complex and she unlocked the door, turning to him and offering a brief smile. “Thank you, Colin, for everything. I had a wonderful time.”

  “Maria. We need to talk about this.”

  “No, Colin. I can’t. Please.” She slipped out the door in a hurry and shut it, before she did something stupid, like burst into tears and throw herself in his arms.

  * * * * *

  Colin tapped his fingers on his desk, ignoring the Christmas cheer and frivolity going on around him. The squad room was loud and boisterous. Christmas Eve and everyone was happy.

  He wasn’t, though. He missed Maria. Still couldn’t figure out what the fuck he’d done wrong. And he couldn’t get her to talk to him about it. Since that morning when they’d gotten the call to go to work she’d been nothing but business. Polite and friendly and usual. Back to normal.

  Goddammit, he didn’t want normal with her anymore. He wanted what they had that weekend. Wild, passionate, out of control. He wanted her in his life on a permanent basis, but she wouldn’t talk to him outside of work-related issues.

  His phone rang and he jerked it out of the receiver. “Maguire.”

  “Well, Merry Christmas to you, too, Detective.”

  He smiled at Joan’s voice. “Hey, Joan. What’s up?”

  “Look, I only have a few seconds and Maria will kill me if she knew I called you.”

  He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

  “She is. She’s scared of who she is. You and I both know she’s a kinky little vixen. But she can’t bring herself to reconcile that with what she does for a living.”

  Ah. That was her problem. “It’s not the same thing at all, Joan.”

  “You know that, and I know that. Now it’s up to you to convince her. She’s found a really good thing with you, Maguire. Don’t let her screw it up, okay?”

  “Thanks. I’ll do my best. And Merry Christmas.”

  “Right back atcha.”

  Maria sat in her living room and sipped a cup of eggnog, listening to the sounds of oldies Christmas music and feeling miserable, alone and utterly stupid. Even her tiny little tabletop Christmas tree looked at pathetic as
she felt.

  She missed Colin, felt awful for the way she’d treated him and was dying to call him.

  Too late now, idiot. You screwed up. Big-time. You lost him and you deserve to be alone on Christmas. Her eyes pooled with unshed tears and she blinked them away.

  “You don’t get to cry. You don’t deserve to feel sorry for yourself, dumbass.”

  She jerked at the sound of her doorbell. Great. With her luck it would be Christmas carolers and she’d burst into tears.

  But when she opened the door, she saw Colin standing there.

  “Merry Christmas, Maria.”

  “Colin.”

  “Can I come in?”

  “Of course.” She couldn’t believe he was here.

  He stepped in, then turned to her. “I know you don’t want to see me, but I need to talk to you.”

  She looked at the floor, then back up at him, afraid to speak, afraid she’d say the wrong thing. She’d screwed up once and didn’t want to do it again, had to make him understand it was nothing he’d done. The fault had been hers. “I’m sorry, Colin. I know I treated you badly last weekend.”

  “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

  He stepped closer and she inhaled. Crisp, like pine trees. Earthy, like man. God, she loved him. “Yes, I do. I have this mental block, you see. These…desires I have. They seem so perverted when I see what happens to these women I counsel. When we went to that house and I saw those ropes on that bed, saw that beaten woman. And you and I had just done the exact same thing, I couldn’t…”

  He reached for her, pulling her against him. Just the feel of his hands on her back turned her on. She was butter, melting against his heat. How could something that felt so right be wrong?

  It wasn’t wrong! There was nothing wrong with how she and Colin felt about each other, dammit.

  He leaned back and searched her face. “Maria, when you and I made love it was consensual. You trusted me not to hurt you. You knew if you said ‘no’, or ‘stop’, that I would. Those bastards who hurt their women don’t stop, they don’t listen to the word ‘no’. The women who are hurt are suffering nonconsensual sex. They’re raped and worse. It’s two different things.”

  “I know.” Listening to him say it made it so much clearer, in her head and in her heart. “Maybe I just needed someone to tell me it was okay, that I wasn’t deviant and perverted.”

  “I like you a little perverted,” he whispered, then pulled back enough to show her his wicked grin.

  “I like you a lot perverted,” she said, grinning back.

  “I love you, Maria.”

  Her next inhalation was on a shudder as her world spun on its axis. “What?”

  “I love you. Your generous heart, the way you help these women. I love the way you smell like jasmine, the way you look at me when you think I’m not looking. I love the way you throw your entire body and soul into lovemaking. I love every inch of your skin and your body. I want to be with you, Maria. We belong together.”

  This time she let the tears go, but they were tears of joy. “I love you, too, Colin. Because of your trust in me, your acceptance, your protectiveness over the weak. I love the way you’ve mastered my body like you’ve known it forever, the way you are both gentle and fierce. Please make love to me. I’ve missed you.”

  He took her lips in a ravaging kiss, pouring out longing and need that she felt all the way to her toes. She cried into his kiss again, but held nothing back. She gave Colin all that she was, knowing there were no secrets between them.

  Clothes were shed and soon he had her bent over her sofa. She smiled at her tiny little Christmas tree that looked much more cheerful now as he pounded his cock inside her, slapping her ass with sharp, stinging swats that brought tiny pulses of quaking spasms to her pussy. When she came, it was on a cry and his name spilling from her lips. He dug his fingers into the flesh of her ass and thrust hard, spilling inside her, then turning her around and capturing her mouth in a warm, soft kiss.

  “I’m going to make all your dreams and wishes come true,” he said. “Not just at Christmas.”

  She wrapped her arms around his back and pressed her lips to his. “You already have.”

  “I needed you, Maria. We have a sneaky little elf named Joan to thank for bringing us together.”

  She laughed. “Yes, we do.”

  This would be her best Christmas ever, thanks to a very special friend and one extremely hot and sexy Santa.

  About the Author

  In April 2003, Ellora’s Cave foolishly offered me a contract for my first erotic romance and I haven’t shut up since. My writing is an addiction for which there is no cure, a disease in which strange characters live in my mind, all clamoring for their own story. I try to let them out one by one, as mixing snarling werewolves with a bondage and discipline master can be very dangerous territory. Then again, unusual plotlines offer relief from the demons plaguing me.

  In my world, well-endowed, naked cabana boys do the vacuuming and dishes, little faeries flit about dusting the furniture and doing laundry, Wolfgang Puck fixes my dinner and I spend every night engaged in wild sexual abandon with a hunky alpha. Okay, the hunky alpha part is my real life husband and he keeps my fantasy life enriched with extensive “research”. But Wolfgang won’t answer my calls, the faeries are on strike and my readers keep running off with the cabana boys.

  Jaci welcomes mail from readers. You can write to her c/o Ellora’s Cave Publishing at 1056 Home Avenue, Akron, OH 44310-3502.

  Also by Jaci Burton

  A Storm For All Seasons 1: Summer Heat

  A Storm For All Seasons 3: Winter Ice

  A Storm For All Seasons 4: Spring Rain

  Animal Instincts

  Bite Me

  Chains of Love: Bound to Trust

  Devlin Dynasty: Fall Fury

  Devlin Dynasty: Mountain Moonlight

  Devlin Dynasty: Running Mate

  Dream On

  Ellora’s Cavemen: Legendary Tails II anthology

  Kismet 1: Winterland Destiny

  Kismet 2: Fiery Fate

  League of 7 Seas: Dolphin’s Playground

  Lycan’s Surrender

  Magnolia Summer

  Mesmerized anthology

  Midnight Velvet

  Out of the Darkness (with C.J. Burton)

  Passion In Paradise 1: Paradise Awakening

  Passion In Paradise 2: Paradise Revival

  Passion In Paradise 3: Paradise Discovery

  Tangled Web (with C.J. Burton)

  Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.

  www.ellorascave.com