Dangerous Kisses (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Ramagos, Tonya

  He was too far gone to take it slow, too out of control to worry that he might harm her more. He used his grip on her ass and hair to direct her movements, holding her tightly as he pumped his hips, ramming the full length of his cock inside her sodden pussy with each powerful thrust.

  He fucked her. There was no other word for the carnal way he nailed her against the stilt. The sounds she made, sinfully sexy moans of pleasure, coaxed his inner animal out of its cage, and he let it run wild. He pulled her head to one side, buried his face against her neck, and sank his teeth into her flesh.

  She cried out, her nails digging into his shoulders, raking down his back as he licked the mark he had made on her neck and dipped his head lower for another bite.

  “Drake, please. I can’t, oh, God, I—”

  “Come for me, Megan. Now. Come all over me. I want to feel you come apart in my arms.”

  He felt her head attempt to thrash in his grasp and fisted his hand tighter. He might be out of control himself, but he still intended to dominate this moment. Hampering her ability to move only made her try harder, made her breaths more ragged, her cries headier. She liked it. He knew she was getting off as much on being restrained as she was on his cock furiously pumping into her pussy.

  It flat out did it for him, too. He wouldn’t come before he got her off, but if she didn’t let go soon, he would have to find another way to make her.

  She exploded. Her body jerked in his embrace as violent spasms milked his shaft in her pussy. She screamed, a strangled, erotic sound that told him she tried to hold it back, but the pleasure proved too great. Her juices spilled over his cock, down his shaft, dripped onto his thighs, and he let himself go. He spilled his seed inside her with an animalistic growl that split the night air.

  * * * *

  The delectable scents of freshly brewed coffee, bacon, and eggs drew Megan from a soundless sleep. She rolled onto her back, stretching like a cat, and her stomach gave a low grumble. She opened her eyes, drawing her brows together as she scanned her surroundings. Okay, this was her bedroom. She was in her bed. The air conditioner kicked on, and a cool breeze fluttered across her breasts. She was also naked.

  Memories of last night floated to the forefront of her mind, and her flesh heated. Moist little tugs of arousal stirred in her pussy as she remembered the way Drake had fucked her beneath the pier, the primal, possessive way he had handled her.

  She eased up to her elbows and looked at the empty mattress next to her. Drake had slept there last night. They had returned to the bar, picked up their cars, and he had followed her home.

  Where you fell asleep in his arms.

  Her face flushed at that memory. She had led him to her bedroom, and they had slowly undressed each other. He had been gentle, a complete opposite of the dominate man she had been with beneath the pier. He had kissed her, licked and fondled his way all over her body, then settled back with her head resting in the crook of his arm and started to talk. He had told her about money he had saved, an idea he had about investing it into the M.P. Colton Aquarium, how he was thinking about meeting with Marie, Brandon, and the other partners to propose his ideas.

  And you fell asleep.

  Sated and more content than she remembered feeling in her life, she had lay there listening to him, a part of her mind reeling while the other part, apparently the primary one, had drifted to la-la land.

  “Good one, Megan. You get the hottest guy you know in your bed and you don’t even go for a repeat?”

  Slightly amused at herself and thoroughly disgusted, she crawled out of bed. She found her Marvel Avenger pajamas draped over the chair in the corner where she had left them yesterday morning and put them on.

  Sizzling sounds greeted her as she headed out of her room and walked down the hall. Yes, that was definitely her hallway that opened into her living room. So her bedroom hadn’t been transported to some other place. That meant someone else’s kitchen had magically appeared in her apartment, because she knew hers was empty. When was the last time she had bought bacon and eggs? And the coffee, she had been out of that yesterday morning and never made it to the store to buy more.

  She rounded the corner separating the living room and kitchen and found Drake at the stove. Shivery sensations exploded through her body as she stared at his back. No man should be allowed to look that devastatingly sexy. It simply wasn’t fair to the female population on the planet.

  He wore the same clothes he’d had on last night and the muscles in his shoulders and back rippled beneath his tight T-shirt as he worked a spatula inside a skillet on the stovetop. She let her gaze fall to his narrow hips and firm ass, remembering how they had flexed as he had powered his cock inside her pussy over and over until she had been mindless with the orgasm that had torn through her, spilled out of her. A quick flare of that same heat slickened her pussy lips and compelled her to drag her gaze up again.

  She leaned a shoulder against the short wall next to the refrigerator and folded her arms beneath her breasts. “Hey there.”

  Drake turned, his lips stretching in a grin that stroked the fire already kicking to life in her channel. “Hey there. You hungry?” His voice sent curls of that heat whipping through her womb before they struck her clit and her nipples.

  Get a grip, Megan. Christ, she had barely made it out of bed and all she could think about was getting right back in it with him.

  “Starved. I think I missed dinner last night.”

  “Yeah, so did I.” He walked to the refrigerator, the muscles and sinew on his forearms tightening as he opened the door. He ducked his head, leaned into the fridge, and she angled her head for a better view of his ass, her hands itching to touch.

  Dear God, the man is built.

  He straightened with a jar of strawberry jelly in his hand, moving around her kitchen in decisive steps, each act methodical and clean.

  “Eggs are already done. I hope you like them scrambled. Bacon and toast will be finished in a second, and there’s fresh coffee in the pot.”

  “Scrambled is fine. I would offer to help, but it looks like you have everything under control.” Was there anything in the man’s life he didn’t have under precise control? Okay, she could think of one. He was, after all, still the prime suspect in Paul’s murder, but she wouldn’t dwell on that now.

  “You can fix yourself a cup of coffee.” He set the jar of jelly on the countertop, popped a couple of slices of bread in the toaster, and turned back to the stove. “I know you drank the cup I brought you yesterday black, but I don’t know if that was an exception or the norm.”

  “It’s the norm.” Megan pushed herself away from the wall, snagged a cup from the cabinet, and set it on the counter in front of the coffeepot. “I got used to drinking it that way at the station. For some reason, we never can seem to keep cream and sugar and all that jazz stocked around there.” She poured her cup and held it between her hands as she turned slightly, leaned a hip against the counter, and pursed her lips. “Did I get a visit from the grocery fairy this morning?”

  He chuckled as he scooped strips of bacon from the skillet. “I suppose you could call it that if you want. You didn’t have anything in here for breakfast and”—he shot her a wide-eyed look over one broad shoulder—“horror of horrors, you were out of coffee. You were sleeping like a baby. I didn’t want to wake you, so I ran out, got what I needed, and came back.”

  Megan chewed her bottom lip. “Yeah, about that. Sorry I fell asleep on you last night.”

  “You were exhausted,” he said, handing her a plate of eggs, bacon, and jellied toast. “So was I. We had a hell of a day. It’s okay.”

  “It’s not okay. Maybe I wasn’t done with you.”

  His expression filled with lust, dark promises, and something else she couldn’t define as he held her gaze. “We are a long way from being done with one another.”

  Christ on a pogo stick. That look sent her head racing with ecstasy. Juices gathered along the folds of her sex. Her pussy
was primed and ready for another round right here, right now.

  He tipped his chin at her plate. “Eat up. I have a feeling we’re in for another long, hard day.”

  Megan wished he would have picked different descriptive words. Long and hard had her gaze dropping to his crotch, to the bulge she knew was beyond impressive straining the material of his shorts. Cream seeped from her pussy lips as she took a seat at the small kitchen table.

  Get your head out of the gutter, girl.

  She took a bite of the eggs and moaned. They weren’t ordinary scrambled eggs. She tasted cheese, onions, and seasonings she couldn’t identify, but, whatever they were, they tasted divine.

  Drake took the seat across from her. “Good?”

  “I think I’m in love,” Megan said before her mind caught up with her mouth. Her cheeks heated and she met his gaze, saw his deep-sea eyes darken and spark with a primitive possession.

  Last night definitely hadn’t put out the fire between them. If anything, it ratcheted the flames to an all-new level. The sex had been stupendous, but it was those moments that she had spent lying in his arms and listening to him talk before she fell asleep that had started her true destruction. This was not going to be an affair she could easily walk away from. She had let him in too deep, allowed him to penetrate far more than her body, and the price she would pay for that was going to be huge when he decided he was done with her.

  Or when you find out he’s really Paul’s killer.

  She silenced the thought and picked up a slice of bacon. “Where did you learn to cook?”

  “My mother.” He dug into his own food, shoveling a large helping of eggs into his mouth. “She had my sister and me in the kitchen long before we were big enough to reach the stove.”

  “She must be a hell of a teacher. These eggs are incredible.”

  He shrugged. “She taught us how to turn the simple things into something with a little more pizzazz.” He grinned. “At least, that’s what she calls it.”

  They ate in a companionable silence for a moment before Megan spoke again. “I think, since you’re already here with me, that we should start at the aquarium today. I still want you to walk through the building with me, take me through what you remember about Friday night, see if it jars anything else in your mind.”

  “No problem. I have to go there anyway. The animals need to be fed and the tanks need to be checked.” He hesitated and set down his fork. “I’m going to talk to Brandon and the others today, too. I called him when I went to the store earlier. He said Marie has asked to meet with everyone at eleven o’clock in Paul’s office. Apparently, Cusack is letting them into the building to take care of the business end of everything.”

  “It’s awfully soon, isn’t it? Paul’s been gone less than two days, and the partners are already meeting to discuss the fate of the place.” She had expected Marie to take more time to mourn. The woman had just lost her husband, for crying out loud.

  “Yeah, they’re not wasting any time, are they?”

  “You realize if you step in today and tell them about your ideas, offer to buy in so the sell doesn’t go through, you’re going to be giving Cusack another reason to believe you killed Paul.”

  “Why, so I could take over his shares in the company? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “It doesn’t to me either, but I know how Jerry’s mind works.”

  “Yeah, he’s itching to find something else against me.” Drake raked a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, but Cusack can kiss my ass. If the partners are meeting today, then I’m going to be in Paul’s office with them. If I can do anything to keep that place from closing for good, I’m going to do it.”

  Megan nodded. “There isn’t any evidence they can disturb in that office. Cusack and I went through it last night after we left Robert’s. That’s one of the reasons I was late meeting you.”

  “I didn’t know you had come back to the aquarium.”

  “You were busy. So was I. I left before you did, swung by here to, you know, lock up the detective me, then came to the bar. Anyway, Jerry and I didn’t find anything except financial records that substantiated Paul’s concern over the fate of the business. Unless one of the partners decided to get him out of the way so he would stop fighting the sell, then we don’t have any more evidence than we started with.”

  “It would be a hell of a motive,” Drake said as he got up to refill his coffee cup.

  “I haven’t talked to any of them myself, well, except for Brandon. But, according to Jerry, both Joan and Walter have airtight alibis.”

  “What about Robert?” Drake took a sip of his coffee. “You never told me what happened when you went to see him yesterday.”

  “He’s still on the list. Part of me wants to say he’s now at the top. He admitted to borrowing the knife from you, said he stashed it in his locker, but it wasn’t there when he cleaned the locker out after Paul fired him. As for his whereabouts during the time of the attack, he claims he was passed out cold on his couch in his apartment. The bartender at the downstairs bar corroborated part of that. She said Robert came into the bar between six and seven o’clock, drank himself stupid, and she cut him off around a quarter after nine.” Megan ate the last bite of her toast and spoke around it. “She said he was barely capable of walking when he left, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t faking it.”

  Drake shook his head and chuckled dryly. “As much as I hate to say it, I don’t think that man has enough brains to fake being that drunk.”

  “Whether he does or he doesn’t, he’s still your best chance at being checked off the list. He threatened Paul, he was in possession of the murder weapon, and had after-hours access to the facility.” Though he wouldn’t have been able to get inside the building through the back door she believed the killer had used. Debbie could have let him in, though. So far, it was the only probable reason she had been able to come up with for the girl being in the building so late. “Did you know Robert and Debbie were an item?”

  “I’ve had my suspicions. I saw them getting pretty chummy around the aquarium a time or twenty. They tried to hide it, but they weren’t very good at it.”

  “She was at his apartment when Cusack and I got there yesterday.”

  “And now you’re thinking if Robert is the killer, she was his accomplice or something.” Drake looked doubtful. “I don’t buy it. She was there with me Friday night, doing her damnedest to pull Paul out of that tank. She wouldn’t have done that if she had helped someone murder him.”

  “Maybe, maybe not, but I’m not dismissing the possibility. She’s lied about why she was there in the first place. I know it. I just can’t prove it, and I don’t know what she’s trying to hide.”

  “Guilty by association.” Drake lifted a brow. “You know, she’s not the only one that’s going to be looked at that way if word gets around. What we did last night, my being here now, puts your badge on the line, doesn’t it?”

  “You mean the fact that I fucked the prime suspect in a murder case, yes, Cusack will have my head on a platter if he finds out, even if I’m not officially on this case.”

  “It was a mistake. We both knew you couldn’t really leave the detective at home. It shouldn’t have happened. It can’t happen again.”

  Megan’s heart tripped. “I thought we were far from being through with one another.”

  “We are but, damn, Megan. You’re putting your career on the line for me. That’s not what I want. I know it can’t be what you want. Cusack is ready to throw the book at me. I don’t know why in the hell he hasn’t done it already.”

  “I’ll handle Cusack.” Megan walked to him, wound her arms around his neck, and locked her gaze with him. “You can handle me.”

  A slow grin spread his too kissable lips. He dipped his head, his breath fanning her mouth when he spoke. “I’m actually starting to wonder if I can handle you.”

  “Hmm.” Megan nipped his bottom lip. “I guess we’ll have to find out
later, won’t we?”

  * * * *

  Megan stopped abruptly when she walked through the doors of the aquarium and Drake nearly plowed into her back.

  “What’s wrong?” He did a quick scan of the empty lobby, noting nothing had changed since the night before. Outside, he had spotted Cusack’s unmarked car along with a police cruiser, Marie’s Buick Regal, and a Chevy Avalanche he believed belonged to Walter Samuels. Brandon and Joan apparently hadn’t yet arrived.

  “Nothing.” Megan turned to face him. “You’re taking the lead from here. Walk me through it, tell me everything you did, anything you saw.”

  “Okay, we might as well start here. I already told you I was making my rounds, feeding the fish, the penguins, et cetera, when Brandon found me and asked me to let him out of the building.” He turned to the doors they had just entered. “These doors were already locked. I let him out, relocked the doors with my own key, and went to the back through that door over there.”

  As he started toward the employee door, he saw himself the way he had been that night, remembered how half of his mind had been ticking off the chores he still needed to finish while the other half had been fixated on Megan.

  “I didn’t pay much attention to the lobby. It was empty, and there wasn’t anything I needed to do out here.” He felt her walking beside him and shot her a glance. She had told him not to leave anything out, so he didn’t. “I was thinking about you, about how fucking hot you looked that afternoon, and how I was tired of keeping my distance from you.”

  She looked at him, surprise mingling with amusement in her eyes. “Was that when you decided to come by my apartment after you left here?”

  “It wasn’t a conscious thought at the time, but, yeah, the seed was apparently planted then.”

  “All right, hold up.” She stopped him before he pushed through the employee door to the back. “You just said this room was empty. You didn’t see Debbie in the gift shop when you passed by it?”