First Do No Evil: Blood Secrets, Book 1

by Carey Baldwin

  Having declared a moratorium on his usual teetotaling, Danny raised his second tumbler of whiskey to his lips and swallowed a long draught. Liquid fire trickled down his throat, and he figured the ache in his shoulder would ease up soon. When he set the glass down sharply on the coffee table, it clunked, and the sound was followed, in short order, by a swift kick in his side. Ah. He’d awakened Sleeping Beauty.

  “How long have I been asleep?” From her reclining position on the couch, Sky bolted upright, rubbed her eyelids with her fists. “I had an awful dream…”

  “About an hour,” he said warily, observing a shadow of vulnerability fall over her delicate features. He knew the exact moment Sky realized the truth—that her nightmare was no dream, that Edmond’s betrayal was real, because she jerked her mouth into a don’t-pity-me smile and stuck up her chin.

  That determined bravado he might have predicted, but he was completely unprepared for what Sky did next. Sliding next to him, she cupped his chin in her hand and brushed a kiss over his lips. He didn’t move a muscle, he couldn’t move a muscle, and deep in his bones, he knew he was in trouble. Because even though Sky had aimed it elsewhere…her kiss had landed in his heart.

  He’d simply grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her away. When Danny didn’t so much as wet his lips in response, Sky knew her kiss hadn’t impacted him at all. Covering her embarrassment, she pretended to admire the décor. A champagne-colored sheepskin sprawled across the planks beneath her feet. “Nice rug.”

  He went back to staring at her. She didn’t look away. Apparently, Danny had built a fire in the loft while she’d slept, and the warmth penetrated her core…or maybe the heat came from within. The firelight’s amber glow flickered over Danny’s rugged profile, playing with the catchlights in his eyes. Shadows ducked and danced behind the angles of his jaw, accentuating the raw masculinity of his features.

  A hard ache fisted around her heart, and she knew what she had to do—no matter the consequence. Fate was propelling her inexorably toward a solitary life…or a solitary death. But if she could grab onto one real moment of happiness, if, on that solitary journey, she could have but one good thing to carry deep in her heart, maybe that would be enough. All she wanted was one true moment—and she wanted that moment to be with Danny. Crossing her arms in front of her chest, she clasped the hem of her shirt.

  A spark of anger flashed in Danny’s eyes.

  Not exactly the reaction she’d hoped for.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “Trying not to let something wonderful pass me by,” she said. Her voice sounded husky, but that was okay. She didn’t want to hide, not anymore, not from Danny. “I’ve decided to take your advice and grab the moment by the balls. Remember, that’s what you said—”

  “The day we first met. But everything was different then. We were different then.”

  Her hands started to tremble, and she folded them on her lap. She wished they could go back. She wanted to be that girl who’d been drawn out of herself by a handsome stranger—the girl who’d laughed and flirted with an outlaw outside Jolene’s. And she wanted him to be that outlaw, that fearless guy who’d winked at her and leaned in to touch her hair. But tonight Danny was no outlaw. Instead of leaning in, he leaned as far away from her as he could get.

  But…he had remembered that first sweet moment between them, and for that reason, hope still flickered in her heart. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to protect me. But I don’t need you to protect me from this. This is what I want. You are what I want.”

  He lifted his glass and tossed back another slug of whiskey. “And what about what I want, Sky? Maybe you’re not the only one I’m looking out for in this situation. Maybe I’m not all that jazzed about the idea of making love to a woman who’s looking to revenge fuck a dead guy.”

  Lights. Curtain. That’s a wrap. Danny had just delivered her exit cue. Time to gather her things and go back to her solitary life. But…she didn’t want to. She wasn’t ready. “I’m not trying to seduce you to get revenge on Edmond.”

  “Then your timing sucks. And anyway I don’t believe you.”

  She dropped her hand to his inner thigh and despite the layer of denim separating his skin from hers, his body heated her palm. Unashamed she let her eyes follow the seam of his pants, travel up his inner thigh to his groin. She was having an impact after all. Casting aside any remaining fear, she said, “This has nothing to do with Edmond. It has everything to do with how I feel about you. That morning at the diner, before all hell broke loose, I wanted to touch you. I wanted you to touch me. I’ve wanted you ever since the moment you first smiled at me, but given what happened to poor Edmond—”

  “Poor Edmond was a bastard.” Jumping up, he raked his hand through his hair. “He proposed to you and then left you to go ball Barbie. If you have so much as ounce of sympathy left for him, if you can’t see him for the creep he really was, then you’re even more naïve than I thought.”

  Her cheeks stung like Danny had given her a rough slap, and he must’ve noticed her flush, because he eased back down beside her and gentled his voice. “I’m sorry to hurt you, Sky. But truth is truth. Running from it is never a good idea.”

  Blinking hard, she tossed back her head. “I’m not afraid of the truth, and I have no intention of running from it. But that was plain brutal. Who are you mad at? Edmond or me?”

  “Both of you, Goddamnit.” With his fingertips he pressed his eyelids. “And myself. I’m mad at myself.” It was his turn to blink away moisture from his eyes. “Because right now there’s nothing I want more than to believe you. I wish to God I could.”

  “This isn’t about Edmond.” In a soft voice, a voice so quiet he leaned forward to hear her words, she said simply, honestly, “I want you.” Turning her shaky hand up, she extended her open palm to him.

  He exhaled a long, rickety breath, and then his fingers tightened around hers. “Truth is truth,” he said. “Best tell it. So here’s mine: if I believed that you wanted me as much as I want you…I’d already have carried you into the bedroom, or maybe I’d have taken you right here on the floor.”

  Encouraged, she drew his hand up and cupped it beneath her breast.

  With seemingly great difficulty, he dragged his hand away, as if it were tethered by a heavy weight. “There’s something else that’s bothering me. How many lovers have you had?”

  “Fair enough question, I suppose,” she said. “Two. What about you?”

  “Considerably more than two, but none in the past year. I’ve got a clean bill of health…not that we’re going through with this, but, just so you know.” Scrubbing the back of his neck with his hand, he said, “You’ve only been with two men, Sky. Is that…is that because of…”

  “Because I was assaulted. Before the night my father was killed, I had a boyfriend, my high school sweetheart. Scotty Humphries, you probably know him… Anyway, we had sex a few times, and I liked it. I liked it a lot. But after I was attacked, even though I wasn’t raped, I never felt comfortable letting Scotty touch me again. Eventually we broke up. And I just didn’t have the desire to try again, at least not until I met Edmond.”

  “And with Edmond how did the sex go? Were you all right?” His eyes sought hers and held. “I’m not trying to embarrass you. It’s just I know the aftereffects something like that can have on a woman, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “I’m not embarrassed. I want us to be open with each other. That’s kind of the point isn’t it? But to answer your question, with Edmond, it was…okay. I felt comfortable making love to him, but I don’t think he felt comfortable making love to me. We were only together a few times, and he was always so restrained.” She dropped her eyes, and her hands twisted in her lap. Then she looked up and squared her gaze with his. “I thought maybe Edmond was unenthusiastic about sex, that it wasn’t important to him. But after watching that video, I see I was wrong. I think Edmond was holding back because of my past.
Because he thought he might frighten me. I think that’s why he went with Halston. He wanted to be with someone who wasn’t…damaged.” Her throat went dry, and suddenly she understood why her hands trembled. She didn’t think she could bear it if Danny, too, looked at her that way, like she was fragile and half-broken, like she was damaged goods.

  “Good God, Sky, don’t you understand what an amazing woman you are, how lucky any man would be to share your bed?” Rising with determined purpose, he pulled her up to stand beside him.

  “I’m not afraid, Danny. Not of you.”

  He raised her palm to his lips and kissed it softly. “Will you lie down with me? I just want to hold you a while.”

  She nodded and watched in silence as Danny tossed couch pillows onto the floor and then dragged the sheepskin rug directly beneath the loft’s skylight.

  “Christian installed this skylight especially for stargazing.” Danny switched off the floor lamp, and she let out a soft whisper of awe. Darkness swept the room, then broke where a spotlight of stardust beamed down from the windowed ceiling. Danny pulled her down beside him onto the sheepskin.

  She sighed and stared up at the starry night. “So beautiful.”

  He touched her chin and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Yes,” he said. “You are. And I don’t mean just on the outside.”

  She didn’t know how to respond, so she stayed quiet, and then, Danny started to talk. “You know Flagstaff’s a Dark Sky City. That’s why the stars are so bright, even in town. When I was a kid, Christian and I used to camp out in the back yard in the summer. We didn’t have a tent, but Mom had some old sleeping bags and she’d lay them out on the ground for my brother and me. We’d lie under the stars, and Christian would point out the constellations.”

  Aiming his index finger toward the ceiling he said, “See that bright star? That’s Jupiter, and that cluster up a little higher, that’s the Pleiades.” He grinned. “Christian never shut up. I’d fall asleep with my big brother rambling about the stars and about his dream of becoming a baseball player. Shocked the hell out of us all when he gave up that dream for medicine.”

  She shifted, rose on one elbow. “What about you, Danny? What did you dream of becoming?”

  “A cop’s all I ever wanted to be. I didn’t always have such a beautiful mug, you know. It took three surgeries to get my smile straight.”

  “It’s still crooked,” she flirted.

  “Maybe a little, but I’ve been told that’s part of my charm.”

  His fingers grazed her lips, and she laughed softly. “I believe it is… You were saying you always wanted to be a cop.”

  “Right. The kids used to make fun of my cleft lip—not all of them, but some. I got bullied pretty bad. And my old man used to wail on my mother. She put up with it for a while, but then he hit me, broke my arm. That’s when Mom kicked him out once and for all. She always protected Christian and me, and I wanted to protect her. I swore when I grew up, I wouldn’t stand by and do nothing while the bullies of this world got away with murder.”

  Nestling into the crook of his arm, she laid her head on his chest. As they lay in silence, his heart beat steady and deep against her ear. Her own heart was racing. Danny had given her her moment. Raising his hand to her lips, she kissed his palm, then lifted her head off his chest and moved away.

  He rolled toward her. “Sky,” he said, a ripple of movement apparent in his throat. “Do you still want to make love?”

  “Yes. But…what do you want?”

  He bent his head and kissed the hollow of her neck. She arched her back, and he darted his tongue across the pulse that beat out her body’s urgent rhythm. Whispering the words against her skin, he said, “I want to make the stars disappear.”

  At his words, her breath hitched, and a deep current of desire swept through her. Fearing that given time to reflect, Danny might change his mind, she hastily got to her feet and peeled off her shirt and jeans.

  “You’re in a hurry.” He stood up too and pulled his shirt over his head, then added huskily, “I like that.”

  She climbed out of her underwear, reached behind her and unclasped her bra, allowing her undergarments to pool on the floor around her.

  “Oh man.” Danny paused mid-strip, one arm in the air, his T-shirt dangling off his wrist. He stepped close and cast his shirt to the floor with a flick of his wrist. His arms came around her, pulling her hips against his stiffening arousal. One hand found her nape, and he wound his fingers into her hair. The other hand fanned across her bottom, stroked her with light, devastating touches. As he teased the sensitive skin of her buttocks, he bent his head and closed his mouth over hers, ran his tongue across her teeth, licked the inside of her lips—tasting, touching, probing. A deep, shuddering breath angled her chest into his. Their heartbeats collided, and she thought she’d never experience a moment more beautiful than this.

  But even then, even as she told herself that this was the memory she’d live on the rest of her life, she knew it wasn’t enough. She wanted more of him…much more. Breaking their kiss, she pushed her palms against his chest, opening a narrow space between them. Her fingers delved into the soft mat of his chest hair. His arms relaxed, allowing her room to explore, and she took full advantage. Her mouth wandered restlessly, tongued his wax-smooth nipples into peaks, nipped the tender skin of his flat areolas.

  As she reached for the fastening of his jeans, he groaned into her hair. Her fingers were slow and after a moment of fumbling, Danny undid the jeans himself and kicked them off along with his boxers. Slowly, slowly, she worked lower, dropping kisses over his hot skin. Falling down on her knees in front of him, she trailed the edges of her hands inside his thighs, parted them, and heard a soft, dark sound from above. Danny cupped the back of her head in his hands.

  She didn’t know if he intended to pull her up or urge her on, so she decided to issue a warning. “Don’t try and stop me.”

  His laugh came out low and guttural. “I wasn’t going to stop you.”

  “Oh.” And then, “What were you going to do?”

  He worked his fingers deep into her hair, close to the scalp. Exerting gentle pressure, he bent her head and arched his hips, bringing his engorged penis up to meet her lips. “I was going to do this.”

  His erection jerked, pulsed in anticipation, but now she wanted to take her time. Wrapping his steely length with her fingers, she squeezed firmly. She knew he was watching her, and she looked up and saw his eyes darker than midnight, his face taut with desire.

  “I’ve dreamed of you on your knees,” he whispered.

  The eroticism in his voice sent rushes of pleasure to secret places. She squeezed her thighs together and pressed his ruddy crown between her lips, ribboned the ridge with her tongue, tasted salt and male spice.

  “I’ve dreamed of the honeyed skin of your stomach, of moonlight spilling over your milky breasts. I’ve dreamed of your dark nipples brushing my thighs. I’ve dreamed of you taking me in your mouth, sliding over me again and again until I want to come so bad I think I’ll die.”

  His words aroused her as much as any touch, and she pulled him deeper, taking him fully into her mouth. He thrust his hips forward as she reached one hand through his legs, massaged his hard, muscular buttocks, and then let her fingers slip forward to cradle his testicles. As if he knew she’d never kissed a man like this before, he guided her with his movements, coaxing her gently. She followed his beat, sliding him in and out of her mouth until the muscles in his thighs shook. Swearing, he jerked his hips back, pulling his erection from her lips in the process. He was breathing hard. Still gripping her hair, he tilted her chin up. “When I told you I dreamed of this, it wasn’t bedroom talk, it was truth. Does that shock you, Sky?”

  “No,” she said. “I’ve dreamed of it too.”

  He tugged on her arms, and she rose from her knees, rubbed her face against his jaw. His smooth, freshly shaven skin felt soft and wonderful against her cheek. He bent her backwards over his ar
m until her long hair tickled the backs of her thighs. He licked her breasts, sucked on her nipples, caressed her lower abdomen. His fingers scattered through the curls between her thighs as she stared up into the black heavens at the stars. The pleasure intensified, and she closed her eyes, magnifying the sensations even more.

  As he jerked her against him, her pulses bounded erratically under her skin. His mouth came down hard on hers, claimed her with a fierce, possessive kiss. Breathing in the hot scent of male arousal, she smiled against his lips. He licked her smile into a moan, massaged her mons with his fingers, parted her, glided over her with long, lazy strokes. His terrible fingers taunted her, circling her entrance over and over, then shying away.

  That dark, erotic voice again. “Lie with me.”

  He guided her back down onto the sheepskin rug, and rose over her, between her legs. “Do you trust me, Sky?”

  She gasped a yes. With Danny keeping her safe, she could let go, let every muscle in her body unfurl. And she did—she uncoiled into a deep, deep softness.

  The blackness of the surrounding night, the rhythmic susurration of his breathing, lulled her into a trance-like state. He stroked her stomach, and she sank deeper and deeper. Then grasping her ankles, he opened her legs wide. The fleece tickled her aching sex, and his masterful hands were everywhere—over her, under her, inside her. Her knees bent, and his hands came beneath her buttocks, lifting her to meet his most intimate kiss. But the pleasure left her aching for more. “I need you,” she said. “Now.”

  Pulling him up, she wrapped her legs around his waist, reached between them and guided him to her opening. While his rock-hard penis nudged her, he kissed her, feeding on her with his mouth, his lips, his tongue. Then, with one powerful thrust, he pressed his whole length inside her. For a heartbeat, her body fought the fullness, the unfamiliar stretch, and then, all at once, she surrendered. Impossible to deny this man.

  Her head fell forward as Danny pumped into her with long slow strokes that lifted her up, demanded response. Greedily, she ground against him. He pumped and thrust and drove himself inside her, steady and deep and strong, all the while whispering words like tight and need and mine. Every word felt like a deep-rooted thrust, as against his flesh, she whispered words of her own.