Damn it
“Karina. Open up.”
“Drop it, Brayden,” she said from the other side. “I don’t need you to play the Dom with me right now. Just go to bed.”
He let his forehead rest against the cold wood of the door. If he’d just kept his hands around the spindles. One touch, and she’d run like a scared rabbit. He should’ve known. She’d gone too long believing she couldn’t do sex in private, and although she’d felt comfortable enough with him to give him a blowjob, the second he’d touched her, he’d lost every bit of progress he might’ve made with her. If he’d made any at all.
“I’m sorry, Kay,” he whispered, even though he knew she wouldn’t hear him.
Early the next morning, Karina stood over the skillet frying sausage. She hadn’t slept since coming back to her room. The second she saw Brayden with his hand around his cock, she’d completely forgotten what she went in there to talk to him about.
She hadn’t intended anything sexual, but her mind had been plagued with something about the case, and she’d needed to talk about it. If Brayden was going to masturbate, she’d thought he would’ve done it long before then.
Seeing him like that, though, made her stomach clench for him. The head of his cock had been a deep purple, the vein running up from the base actually throbbing. He had to have been hurting, so she’d done what she did best, gave him a little relief and turned herself on in the process. Unfortunately, the second his hands had touched her, she’d lost any arousal she’d experienced and was suddenly gripped with a very strong desire to flee.
She supposed that answered her question. Even with Brayden, she couldn’t do sex in private.
A soft knock sounded at her door.
“Come in,” she said.
Brayden pushed the door open and stepped inside. She felt a wave of shock, as the sight of him made her pussy go warm from the inside out. He wore jeans and a T-shirt that fit tight across his wide shoulders. His hair was damp from his shower and his cheeks clean shaven. She actually preferred him with a little stubble, although that didn’t stop her from thinking how incredibly handsome he looked right now.
She turned her attention back to the skillet. He put his hands on her shoulders, and she jumped at the sudden touch. Her mind was so focused on her own churning emotions, she didn’t notice he’d walked up behind her. She tried to step forward a bit, but his grip on her shoulders tightened, holding her in place.
“Why did you run last night?” he asked softly.
She sighed. “When you touched me, I realized we were alone, and I freaked.”
“If you’d stayed, we could’ve worked through it.”
“Maybe.”
He gave her a shake. “No maybes, Kay. Positive thoughts on this.” He kissed the back of her head, making her grin. “And thanks for the blowjob, by the way.”
He walked to the fridge and pulled out the carton of eggs.
“You’re welcome. You just looked so pitiful, I couldn’t…” She shrugged. “I just couldn’t leave you like that.”
Brayden chuckled and reached for a bowl from the cabinet. “Why did you come in there last night? Did you want to talk to me about something?”
“Yeah, I—”
Brayden’s phone rang, and he glanced at the screen. “It’s the director. He’s probably wanting to know how things are going.”
She rolled her eyes. “They’re going nowhere.”
Brayden snickered as he answered his phone. “Hello.”
Karina returned her attention to breakfast until she heard Brayden exclaim, “Where?”
He turned to Karina and dropped the phone slightly so he could say. “They found another victim.”
Her whole body went tense. She started to ask him more, but he held his hand up, stopping her.
“I understand,” Brayden said with a nod. “We’ll be waiting.”
He hung up the phone and turned his attention back to Karina. “They don’t want us at the scene. There’re too many cameras around, and he’s afraid if we’re seen on TV, that someone will recognize us.”
Karina nodded in understanding. “What are the details?”
“Not sure on a lot of it yet. They’re going to send us all the info via email.”
“Great,” Karina grumbled.
She wasn’t used to being on the sidelines like this. She should be going over the scene, collecting evidence, looking for clues. She did not like the idea she had to rely on someone else’s gathering skills. Looking at a picture wasn’t the same as being there.
She added a couple slices of bacon to the skillet and began to angrily finish breakfast.
“Do we know anything?” she asked.
Brayden walked over and began to break eggs into a bowl. “She’s the same age as the others. Scene set up basically the same. This one hadn’t been dead long. Less than two hours when they found her.”
Karina shook her head in sadness. “Where was she found?”
“Don’t know yet. Nor do we know a name. All that should come soon.”
Karina froze. “I remember what it was I came in there to talk to you about last night.”
“What?” Brayden asked, as he added cheese and milk to the eggs.
She turned to look at Brayden and frowned. “I didn’t see Nathan last night. Did you?”
Brayden had a strange, almost pale look on his face as he turned to stare at Karina. “No.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Delacroix is not our killer,” Brayden said firmly.
Karina wasn’t so sure she agreed. “Think about it,” she said. “He knew my rape was ten years ago.”
“His psychic ability would explain that.”
“So would his firsthand knowledge.”
Brayden used a fork he pulled from the drawer to stir the eggs. “Do you really think Delacroix is the killer?”
She sighed and set the bacon aside on a napkin-covered plate to drain. Did she? Not really. She liked Nathan, but his disappearance left an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach she’d learned over the years to listen to.
“I don’t know. It just seems like an awfully strange coincidence. He’s not there and then we suddenly find another body? We should look into him. Find out where he was last night.”
Brayden tilted his head in acknowledgement as he poured the eggs into Karina’s skillet. “Fair enough, but how do you plan to do that without anyone finding out? Namely Josh or Frank?”
“Not sure on that yet, but I’ll figure it out.”
“Tonight is Harem night at the club,” Brayden said as he handed Karina a wooden spoon to stir the eggs. “Got a costume for that?”
She curled her lip. “I hate costume nights.”
Brayden chuckled and poured himself a cup of coffee. “It will take them a while to get all the information to us, so after we eat, why don’t we head to town and find something? I don’t have anything that would work, either.”
“All you need is a turban. I need an actual costume. Something ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ without the crotch.”
Brayden choked on his coffee, then grabbed a napkin so he could wipe his chin. “I like how your mind works,” he said with a grin. He flicked her nose with his finger. “As well as your mouth.”
She gave him a tight-lipped sarcastic smile that made Brayden laugh.
“Well, what do you think?”
Brayden looked up just as Karina stepped out of the dressing room and almost swallowed his tongue.
“Looks great,” he murmured.
What had he been thinking to come shopping with her? She turned a full circle, showing him how the hot pink trimmed genie pants hung low on her hips, barely covering her ass in a sheer, light pink material. The hot pink bra top lifted her breasts, making Brayden want to bury his face in her cleavage. The costume left her mid-section bare, exposing her scars.
Brayden frowned at the soft lines that covered her flesh. “Are you sure you want to show those off?”
She looke
d down at herself, then shrugged as she brought her gaze back to his. “Do they look that bad?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, Kay. That’s not what I meant. I’m just worried about you. What if he recognizes you?”
Karina rolled her eyes. “Would you relax? Please. You make me nervous.”
He snorted. “And you’re making me horny as hell.”
She smiled that sexy smile of hers that never failed to make Brayden’s heart race. “Isn’t that the general idea?”
“Yes, but you seem to take a sadistic delight in it today.”
“It’s fun watching you squirm,” she replied, then turned to head back into the dressing room.
He stood and walked to the curtain. “Just remember, kitten. Turnabout is fair play.”
He jerked the curtain open enough so he could stick his head inside. She was still dressed, which truthfully disappointed him, but the shocked look on her face made him grin.
“And tonight,” he added. “I plan on payback.”
He shut the curtain, not waiting on her response, and returned to his seat. Shifting slightly, he tried to relieve the pressure in his cock, but failed miserably. That woman was going to be the death of him. In more ways than one.
Karina sat cross-legged in the middle of her bed, staring at the pictures on the computer screen. She knew this girl. She’d met her the first night at the club.
Karina lowered the pictures, needing a moment to breathe after staring at all the gore and brutality. How could someone be so sadistic?
Her mind shifted back to Nathan Delacroix. He was such an enigma. Was he capable of doing this stuff? Was this why he was trying to get her to focus on submissives? To keep the suspicion off himself?
God, she hoped not. She really liked Delacroix. And after watching him with the subs, she found it hard to believe someone so tender could be so damn cruel.
Brayden walked into the room and tossed a stack of papers onto the bed. “I had everything printed out except the pictures, that way we wouldn’t have to keep flipping back and forth on the computer screen.”
Karina nodded and lifted the papers, which were clipped into two piles—one for her and one for Brayden. She separated them and set Brayden’s on the side of the bed.
“I’m going to grab some coffee. Want some?” he asked, as he headed into the small kitchen.
“When it comes to coffee, you never have to ask,” she replied as she flipped through the stack. “I live on the stuff.”
Brayden snickered as he walked back into the bedroom and handed her a cup. “I think you must have a cast iron stomach.”
She lifted the cup and grinned. “I probably do.”
He sat on the bed next to her, making it jostle. Karina held her cup out over the edge of the bed so it wouldn’t spill on their paperwork.
“Did you see anything in the pictures?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No. Everything is just like the others. I would much rather be able to go through everything in person. You miss stuff this way, especially if there’s anything just outside the shot the photographer may have missed.”
“We have a good photographer,” Brayden argued.
“FBI did this one.”
Brayden curled his lip as he reached for the stack of papers. “The girl came from our club. Why the FBI?”
Karina shrugged. “They’re territorial. Don’t know why you expected anything any different.”
“This girl wasn’t taken from the club either. Like the others, she was apparently followed and taken later.”
“From where?” Karina asked.
Brayden glanced at the email in his hand. “The parking lot of her apartment complex. Her car was found in her usual parking space. The lot didn’t have any cameras and there were no witnesses.”
“Of course not. That would just make it way too easy. This guy really knows how to cover his butt, doesn’t he?”
“Looks that way,” Brayden murmured.
With a sigh, he dropped the email he’d been reading and lifted his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. He looked really tired today, and the lines around his eyes seemed deeper. He was worried, and in truth, so was she.
He dropped his hand and adjusted his glasses back on his nose. She smiled slightly. She liked him in those, especially when he dropped them so he could look at her over the rim—just like he did now.
She looked back at the papers in her hand, the heat of a blush moving over her cheeks. She was embarrassed by the fact he’d caught her staring at him like a love struck school girl.
He reached up and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “We’re going to get him, Kay.” He leaned over and placed a soft kiss against her temple, his touch both startling her and jolting her senses to life. “I’m going to get a shower and get ready for the club,” he whispered in her ear, sending goose bumps down her back. “Want to join me?”
She turned her head toward him and stared into his eyes. God, it was so tempting, but that scared part of her couldn’t do it.
“Sort of,” she mumbled.
Brayden smiled. “That’s a start. At least it wasn’t a no.”
He placed a soft kiss against her mouth before climbing off the bed and heading to his own room. Karina lifted her hand and touched her lips, which still tingled after his way too brief kiss. She had a sinking feeling that tonight was going to be even more intense than the last.
Chapter Nineteen
Karina stared around the club, wondering where to start. It was way more crowded tonight than last, probably due to the costume theme. People liked to dress up. Usually she did, as well, but tonight had lost some of its appeal. Instead of paying attention to all the wild outfits, and in some cases, the lack thereof, all she could think about was Shandra and their unsub’s latest victim.
Even Brayden seemed a little more tense than usual.
The FBI had kept the girl’s name and picture out of the news for now. They didn’t want anyone making a connection yet to the clubs and tipping off the unsub. They needed to catch this guy…somehow.
But how did someone catch what basically amounted to a damn ghost?
Across the room, she spotted Delacroix in the middle of several women. He laughed at something one of them said, the deep sound carrying across the room. It was no wonder he was always surrounded by women. He had a very confident way about him that drew attention like moths to a flame.
She wondered what his girlfriend must’ve been like. What kind of woman was a man like Delacroix attracted to? And could he really be the man they were looking for? She frowned, trying to imagine him as the man who’d raped her ten years ago and as the man who brutally tortured women now.
Delacroix ran the tip of his finger down the cheek of one of the women surrounding him. She smiled up at him like a puppy in love. The other women eyed the young girl with envy, and Karina’s lips twitched. If he wasn’t careful, he would start a riot.
There was no way Delacroix could be that man. She had to be wrong.
As though sensing her eyes on him, Delacroix turned to her and smiled. Karina started to look away, pretend she hadn’t seen him, but changed her mind. Instead, she smiled back. He excused himself from the harem desperate for his attention and began to walk toward her.
Karina glanced around for Brayden and spotted him over by the bar. He caught her eye and lifted his chin in acknowledgement, just as Delacroix reached her side.
“You look good in pink, Karina,” Delacroix said.
Karina shook her head at him. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Master Delacroix.”
“Well, damn. I guess I’ll just have to come up with something else then.”
Karina snickered, despite herself. “We missed you last night.”
Delacroix’s smile widened, and Karina felt a prick of unease work its way up her spine. Obviously, she couldn’t hide anything from this man and that left her feeling way more exposed than she felt comfortable with.
“And I’m sur
e my absence caused a bit of unease. You want my alibi, don’t you?”
Karina scowled. “That ability of yours is way too unnerving.”
Chuckling, Delacroix nodded to two Doms passing by before turning his attention back to Karina. “I was with Frank last night, discussing a few things about the case. I was with him when he got the call about the body and had been for about three hours. He, as well as Josh and two others, can verify that, if you need them to. Before that, I was checking up on Claire.”
Karina nodded. She should’ve known better than to suspect him. “How is she?”
“She’s fine and anxious to come back. She should get her stitches out in a few days.”
“That’s good.”
“How are you holding up?”
She shrugged one shoulder and glanced around the room. “Can’t you tell?”
“Yeah, but I still like to hear it. I’m curious if you know yourself how you’re doing.”
“I’ve been better.” She turned her gaze back to his. “I’m sorry I suspected you.”
“I can understand why, I suppose. I know that you’re a good investigator and I know you can take care of yourself, but just to ease my own fears, stay close to Brayden. Don’t leave the club alone.”
She tilted her head and studied the worry in his eyes. “Why? Did you sense something?”
“No more than I have since the beginning, but…I guess I’m just being overly cautious.”
“Like Brayden.”
“Brayden cares for you, I think.”
Karina snorted. “Can you read him, too?”
“No, but it doesn’t take a psychic to get that. You care for him too.”
“I’ve known Brayden a long time. Of course I do.”
Delacroix’s lips twitched. “You need to be honest with yourself, Karina.”
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. “God, you definitely sound like Brayden now. What is it with you male Doms that you have to always make the subs admit things?”
Delacroix laughed. “It’s what we do. At least I’m not pushing you on the attraction you feel for me.”
Karina dropped her head back and groaned, making Delacroix laugh even louder.
Topping the Domme (Crime and Punishment) Page 12
