by S. K. Lessly
“I was just thinking about Diane’s connection to him. Cross reference Diane’s known associates who could have had dealings with Cupid and his operation.”
Shane and I faced each other as we heard Nickels pound on his computer.
“Yeah, we’re already doing that. So far, we haven’t found a connection outside of just the two of them. We’re still looking, though. Maybe something will come up.”
“Good,” I said and then another thought popped in my head. “Hey, do you have a list of Cupid’s criminal activities? Maybe if we have that we can narrow the search between the associates of Diane’s and his organization of killers.”
“Yeah… Okay… Gimme one sec. Ah… So there’s not that much and nothing out of the ordinary.”
“Read it to us anyway,” Shane requested, sitting up in his seat. I think he knew where I was going, and as our eyes met I could see the fire igniting.
“Okaaay,” Nickels dragged out then huffed. “Let’s see. He’s into the typical stuff like drugs, guns here in the U.S. and Europe. Ummm…” He started typing frantically. “Oh shit! Damn, you’re good.”
“What?” Shane and I asked in unison.
Nickels didn’t respond right away.
“What Nickels?” I asked, prompting him to speak.
He still didn’t say anything. All we heard was him cursing as he hit his computer keys. I shifted in my seat and leaned closer to the dashboard of the truck, trying to make my voice louder without actually yelling.
“Nickels, I swear if you don’t start talking, I’ll castrate you,” I warned, and I meant that shit too. I’ve done it before.
“Yeah, yeah, Norma Bates, no need to threaten—”
“Then tell us what’s going on so she won’t be the only person you need to worry about,” Shane demanded, also leaning closer to the dash board.
So, it wasn’t just me who believed you got louder when you moved closer to the dashboard.
“Okay! Geesh,” Nickels replied, still typing away. Finally, he sighed and tsked through the speakers. “I think we have something.”
“No, shit Einstein. What do you have?” I rebutted.
“Cupid is into human trafficking and he’s not just into it. He’s like into it, into it. He’s a huge player; funding, connections, the whole works. I can’t be completely certain, but I think Dennis Simon worked for him. I was just searching for some type of connection between Simon and Cupid, but I came up short. Plus there’s no proof that Cupid is the head dude, but when you think about it—”
“Yeah,” I cut him off, looking back at Shane as I spoke. “Cupid is big time. He’s too much of a control freak to be either a partner or a cohort in this. He would be in charge. It makes sense.” I shifted in my seat, pushing my left ankle underneath my thigh as I turned slightly toward Shane. “Cupid has to be into something else other than assassinations.”
“Why? You don’t think killing people is enough?” Shane asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.
I ignored his comment and tone and replied, “Come on, Major Cooper, think. This man doesn’t have to do the dirty work of killing anymore if he doesn’t want to. He has minions to do that for him; men and women willing to do anything he says. When was the last time you heard of him getting his hands dirty? The rumor mill on him icing people dried up years ago. Oh, you hear that he had someone killed, but not that he actually did the killing.”
Shane nodded and quickly shifted his eyes from the highway to me. “Okay, I agree with you on that.”
“Yeah, so think about it. He needs to be doing something else with his time. He’s not just going to sit on some beach, catching the rays or shooting the shit. He’s going to be involved in other shit to keep his mind sharp and his enterprise relevant. He has businesses he’s running, either legit or illegal. The assassination business is booming for him, so why shouldn’t he indulge in other things? Human trafficking is right up his alley.”
I was on edge with this news. Things were starting to come together. If we could tie Simon to Cupid, then maybe we could back track Simon’s steps and it could possibly lead us to where Cupid was hiding.
Shane, understanding exactly where I was going with all of this, started smiling. I saw the tension easing up from his shoulders and arms as he became more and more vested in my unspoken theory.
“Nickels, I want everyone combing through Dennis Simon again. I want to know every place he’s been since he was a child.”
“Major, we looked for that stuff before and came up empty. It’s like he didn’t exist before six years ago when he first appeared on the FBI’s list.”
“Then that means he was either being protected or Dennis Simon wasn’t his real name. Comb through everything and I mean everything. I don’t care about the cost. Put everyone on it. Also, get Sweets on it too. Even though she only found legitimate financial details on Simon, there could be something of use there too.”
“Yes, sir,” Nickels replied.
I caught something strange in his voice, so, I asked, “What’s up?”
“Huh, oh…ummm nothing. We just… We’ll get with Sweets when she comes back.”
I looked at Shane. “Okay, but where did she go?”
“I’m not sure. She probably just went to get something to eat. You know how much she likes to think she’s eating for two.”
“She is, you idiot,” I retorted, frowning.
“No, I know. I—”
“Just get with her when she gets in,” Shane snapped, cutting Nickels’ back pedaling off. “Call her or something, but I want an update when I get to the office and that will be in about ten minutes.” He pushed a button on his dash that ended the call.
We looked at each other and couldn’t help the shit-eating grins that appeared on our faces.
“Thanks,” Shane said.
I didn’t need him to explain what he was thanking me for because I knew. “Any time.”
We continued to look at each other or rather I kept looking at him as he drove.
Just then, since I was on a roll, another thought popped in my head. It was completely off topic, but equally important.
“I need to ask you something,” I said.
“Okay.”
“Have you been thinking about last night? What I mean is, do you realize what happened between us last night?”
Shane looked at me. “Yeah, I was there. Remember?”
“Okay, tell me what happened?”
Shane gave me a strange look at first, but I guess he saw I was dead serious. He released a breath and said, “Well, since you seemed to have forgotten that quickly, we came to an amicable conclusion that it would be in our best interest to be friends with benefits.”
I swiped my hand across my face. “Ha-ha! Cute. But that’s not what I’m talking about.”
I saw the puzzlement in Shane’s features as he stared out into traffic. Getting directly to the point, I said, “We had unprotected sex last night, Shane. Multiple times, I might add.”
“Ahhh!” he looked at me. “I see, and you’re worried about…”
I nodded my head in affirmation. “Ah, yeah and so should you.”
“Why? We’ve both been tested. I’m clean and so are you, so…” His voice trailed off, and he looked at me as my concern finally settled into his brain. “You’re worried about being pregnant?”
I didn’t respond this time. I just looked at him. Frankly, I really wasn’t worried about being pregnant. That wasn’t the issue. What was the issue was his lack of freak-out.
Shane chuckled as he pulled into the parking lot of our building. He headed in the direction of some open parking spaces along the Potomac River away from our building. He backed into the parking space and turned off the engine.
I waited for him to explain the chuckle as he leaned back in his seat and looked over at me.
“Well, are you going to say something?” I asked, getting fed up with the silence and his unwavering staring.
Shane ran h
is fingers through his hair and left it at the back of his neck. “To be honest with you,” he began, “I hadn’t really thought about it until now. I usually don’t take those types of chances. I’ve never had sex with anyone without protection no matter how hot and heavy things got with a woman.”
I gave him my side-eye skepticism look and pointed out, “Oh no? What about your first time? You said it just happened, but you never mentioned that you used protection. How do you know you don’t already have a little Shane out there?”
“Ha-Ha, funny. Listen, I may not have mentioned protection, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t prepared. Malcolm gave me a condom when I first started hanging tough with Angela and told me to keep it in my wallet at all times just in case. And I did.”
“Okay. So what made it different with us since you are always controlling your emotions?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. However, if you haven’t taken precautions to prevent getting pregnant, I suggest you do so immediately.”
“Oh, you do? And why is that?” I sneered, folding my arms in front me. Typical man to make it the woman’s responsibility to take pregnancy precautions. I leaned my back against the door and frowned at him.
He laughed, which made my blood start to boil.
Shane, who continued to smile despite the daggers my eyes were throwing at him, removed his seat belt and leaned closer to me. He reached out to touch me, but I swatted his hand away from my face twice. The third time he caught me slipping and I swatted air instead of his hand.
He managed to find his target, the back of my head, and gripped me tight. I could get out of his hold easily, and we both knew that, but it wasn’t worth it. Besides, I was getting a bit turned on by the way he was gripping me. I didn’t show him I was turned on; I kept my face hard as stone. However, on the inside, I was melting like ice on a Texas sidewalk in the middle of summer.
Shane leaned in a bit further and said, “It’s like this, the feel of your pussy without any barriers was by far the best feeling I had ever felt in my entire life. It was like I was stroking silk; smooth, slick, and so damn good. And the way your eager pussy gripped my dick was so fucking tight. Baby, you can’t tell me you didn’t enjoy the way I felt inside of you too. That was some addictive shit and I refuse to deny myself the pleasure of releasing inside you again. No fucking way.”
Well…Umm…Shit…
Let me just pause for a moment and try to get my lungs to work for goodness sake.
I blinked at him unable to say anything. Damn, that by far was the sexiest thing anyone had ever said to me. I couldn’t think straight. My heart was in my throat. My stomach was doing somersaults. The large truck we were in suddenly felt like we were seated in a Smart two-seater car. There was only one thing I could do in this moment, to save myself: flee.
I looked away from him and released my seat belt. Shane let me go and I turned from him and got out of the truck.
Damn him!
This shit was getting complicated between us. I could feel the shift between us happening in that small space and I needed out. I mean, this was supposed to only be sex between friends and that’s it. We weren’t supposed to get lost in each other. We weren’t supposed to have unprotected sex and not care that we did. I shouldn’t love the way he called me baby and most of all, I shouldn’t love the fact that this man wanted me just as much as I wanted him.
I leaned against his truck, finally able to breathe, and closed my eyes. I needed to get myself together. I needed to put what we were doing into perspective and I needed him to do the same. This was just sex. This was just sex. This was…
I opened my eyes and turned to my left. Shane was standing there watching me; the look he had in the truck still prominent in his eyes. No, there was something else there. Something deeper, something…
“Why do you insist on running from me?” It was more like a statement than a question.
I didn’t reply. I couldn’t really, mainly because my mouth was as dry as the Sahara. His voice was doing me in. It was so deep, gritty, and dripping with desire and something that I dare not say out loud. This was too much.
I pushed myself off the truck and started walking toward him. Now, I could have backed up and gone around the truck parked next to his and made my way to the building, but I didn’t. I could have told him to move out of my way, but I didn’t. Instead, I headed in his direction, my eyes holding his, with every intention of walking past him. However, that also didn’t happen.
It wasn’t because Shane didn’t move. Oh, he moved to the side to let me pass. The problem was me. I jumped his ass. I jumped up in his arms, wrapped my legs around him, and stuck my tongue down his throat. I didn’t care that we were outside for all to see. I didn’t care that I was confusing myself even more. I didn’t care about anything else except being in the arms of the man I had wanted all of my life.
Shane held me tight against him, one hand across my back gripping me by my jacket and the other squeezing the hell out of my ass. I felt him walking, but I wasn’t sure where the hell we were going. I was too busy searing his mouth with my taste. Our tongues did what came natural to us; our bodies seemed to fuse together as if our connection was meant to be.
Goodness, I loved this man’s taste. The way he kissed me drove me mad. It felt as if he were giving himself over to me completely every single time. I held his face between my hands, tilting his head the way I needed so I could kiss him the way I wanted. Shane was kissing me back with the same intensity as I was giving him. I was two seconds away from ripping his clothes off and sheathing his dick into my throbbing pussy right here in the parking lot.
I was just about to suggest we get back into the truck, when I felt my knees rest on a hard solid surface.
I let his lips go and opened my eyes. We were sitting in the back of Shane’s truck, his hatchback raised in the air. I looked around to see if we could be seen by anyone and we couldn’t. The dark tinted windows of the truck concealed us from three sides; the Potomac River was to my back. Perfect.
I brought my eyes back to him and found him looking up at me, his green eyes fierce. The back of his fingers lightly brushed along my cheek as he held me with his gaze. My fingers were caressing his face too, running along his bearded cheeks and through his hair. I rested my forehead against his and closed my eyes. I took in a deep breath while Shane’s hands rubbed my back, palmed my ass, and squeezed it. He pushed me closer to him until I was right up against the boulder in his khakis.
“I wish you had on a skirt.” He breathed out slowly. “All I would have to do is push your panties aside and slide right in.”
I chuckled and shook my head. “What makes you think I would have any panties on for you to slide? How do you know I have panties on now?”
“Shit…” Shane gasped and leaned back from me so he could look me in my eyes.
I smiled and winked.
“What am I going to do with you?”
“Well,” I began and grinded my hips against him. “I can think of a few things.”
It was Shane’s turn to lose control. He grabbed me by my neck and crashed his lips against mine. We kissed and grinded against each other feverishly. He then released my lips and moved to my neck. He found a spot along my neck and sucked, causing my womanly parts to gush like a geyser. Things were definitely about to get interesting in this parking lot for sure. I wondered how much effort it would be to fold down that back-row seat.
Gripping Shane’s hair tight, I moaned softly just as he plunged his hands down my pants. He gripped the hell out of my bare ass and squeezed.
That’s what I’m talking about!
“Shane,” I whispered and moved to kiss him, but I abruptly pumped the brakes. I looked into his confused eyes.
“What?” he asked breathlessly.
I frowned. “Do you think it’s odd that Nickels didn’t know where Sweets was?”
“What?!” he asked more confused now than just horny.
I shook my head and
leaned back from him slightly remembering the uneasy feeling I had when Nickels mentioned Sweets. Shane’s bewildered eyes studied me, his hair a haggard mess.
“Sweets, baby. Nickels said he didn’t know where she was, but he assumed she’d gone to get something to eat.”
His wind coming back now, Shane said, “So?”
“So, don’t you find that strange? Those two are really close. If Sweets isn’t eating lunch with Josh, she’s with the Geek Squad. Something is up. I can feel it.”
“Yeah, something is up. I agree with you there. I’m sure you can feel it too.” Shane smirked and circled his hips against mine.
I laughed and removed his hands from my hips. I climbed off of him and stood, doing my best not to look down at his lap.
“Sorry, Shane.” I tapped him on his cheek. “We’ll have to continue this later. I need to find out what’s going on with Sweets.” I backed up from him quickly before he could grab me.
Too late...
Just before I got clear of the back bumper, Shane gripped my wrist.
“Shane…I,” I pleaded, dragging out his name as he pulled me to him.
“Just a second, Grace.”
Almost, Misty…
When I turned back around to face Shane, he wrapped one arm around my waist and walked me up against his truck. He placed his other hand against the side of my face. We stayed like that, him caressing me with his eyes and fingers. I looked into his eyes, trying my best to stay in control. I was failing miserably. With every soft stroke of Shane’s touch, I felt myself letting go. I melted into his arms. Shane tilted my face up to his, bent closer to me, and lightly brushed his lips against mine. When he pulled back, he licked his lips; his eyes closed for a minute as if he were branding his memory with this one moment.
Shane finally opened his eyes and gave me his deep intense bluish-green irises. “Meet me at my apartment after work tonight.”
I squinted at him, confused. “Okay, but what if you’re still working, or I’m—”
“I don’t care how late,” he interrupted. “I want you there. If it’s not too late, I’ll cook for you. If it is late, then I’ll give you a rain check.”