by Jami Alden
“I’m only going to ask you once,” Ethan said. “Where the fuck is Kara Kramer?”
“Kara? Is this what this is about? Shit, I thought you were one of Shorty’s guys—” he broke off as Ethan shot him a warning look. “I haven’t seen Kara for weeks. Not since she caught me in bed with the chick from my calc class.”
Toni folded her arms across her chest and widened her stance, as menacing as a micromini and platform heels would allow.
Ethan’s mouth went dry as the shimmery fabric pulled tight against her legs.
“We know you planned to meet her on Friday.”
Toby shifted his gaze between Ethan and Toni, looking for the friendlier face, coming up short. “Yeah? So?” Toby started to get out of the chair.
Ethan stopped him with a flat hand to the center of his chest. The kid bounced off the back of the upholstered armchair. “So she left her house at about two on Saturday morning and hasn’t been seen since. We think you might know something.”
“Are you the cops?”
“We hear she flushed your stash when she found you in bed with that girl,” Ethan pushed. “You were pissed. Maybe you wanted to hurt her, teach her a lesson.”
The kid’s face went pale. “I swear I don’t know anything.”
“Was she dealing for you?” Toni asked, coming to stand beside Ethan. “She cost you money—maybe you wanted to get even.”
Toby shook his head. “I don’t even deal anymore. You can’t prove anything.”
“Or maybe she was going to rat you out for posting nude pictures of underage girls on your Web site.”
“Kara’s eighteen.”
“Not until September she isn’t.”
“She told me she was. I took her word for it.” Toby sat back in his chair, lip curled in a sneer. “Besides, you can’t be sure it’s her, not with her face blocked out.”
Toni cocked her head and gave Toby an almost pitying look. “Here’s a tip. Almost nothing you do online is anonymous anymore. Remember that when you’re luring drunk girls to your room and promising to make them stars.”
Toby swallowed hard and looked up at them. “Kara was into everything. She tries to act like a good girl, but she’s into all kinds of shit. She wanted to do those pictures. She liked the idea of doing it behind everyone’s back. Especially her dad. Did you know he bought her a Mercedes after she signed the pledge? She loves driving around in that car, still getting away with everything she can.”
“Too bad the courts won’t care about any of that when you’re charged with statutory rape,” Toni said.
Toby snorted. “Can’t get me there. I never even fucked her.”
Now it was Ethan’s turn to snort. “You expect us to believe that?”
“It’s true, man. She had this whole virgin thing going, like she was some good girl.”
“Yet she let you post nude pictures of her for everyone in the world to see?” Toni’s voice dripped with skepticism.
Toby shook his head. “Don’t ask me. Who knows what bitches have going on upstairs, you know?” He risked a conspiratorial look at Ethan.
Ethan didn’t so much as blink.
Toby’s eyes scuttled away. “Anyway, she liked the idea of everyone thinking she was all straight, while she was out partying and posing for the pictures and stuff. But I never used her face, I promised I wouldn’t and I never did.”
He gave Toni and Ethan a self-righteous look, as if somehow that made him honorable.
Ethan backed up a few steps, a headache creeping up his neck as all the crap of the day finally caught up with him. “So you didn’t meet her the other night?” But he already knew the answer.
Toby shook his head. “I was a little late and I thought she’d already gone back inside or taken off without me. She didn’t answer any of my texts, so I figured she was being pissy and blowing me off.”
“Do you have any idea where she would go, who she might be with?” Toni asked.
Toby shook his head. “No clue, man. I swear on my life.”
Another fucking dead end.
They’d been chasing their tails for two days now, missing something, he just didn’t know what.
Now they were five hundred miles from home, no closer to finding Kara. Fucking great.
Toby stood up from his chair, but before he could move for the door, Toni stepped in front of him.
In her heels, she towered over him by nearly half a foot. In that dress, she looked like some kind of avenging Amazon straight out of The Matrix.
“Remember what I said about not being anonymous, Toby,” she said, her voice laced with menace. “I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”
She turned and strode for the door, all swaying hips and long, lean legs.
Ethan felt his irritation start to drain away as he found himself mesmerized by the shiny, clingy nothing of her dress. Two scraps of silver fabric that left most of her body bare. Held together in the middle by a few links of silver chain. Held up over her breasts by straps about as wide as a human hair.
Every smooth inch of skin, every soft curve and lean muscle was on display. Nothing was left to the imagination. Not the soft curves of her breasts. She couldn’t be wearing a bra.
He looked at her ass, at the material of her skirt—fuck, might as well have been a belt, as it barely covered her—as it shifted and clung. No lines, no bulges.
No evidence of panties whatsoever.
He was rock hard, raring to go, just as he had been from the second she walked out of the bathroom.
She stepped inside the elevator, pushed the down button, and leaned back against the far wall. Her arms were folded across her chest, one knee bent as she braced her foot against the wall. He wondered if she had any idea what she was doing to him with all that bare, silky skin, smoky, made-up eyes, and her mouth. Her mouth was killing him, lush, painted red, giving him all kinds of visions about what it would look like sliding over the head of his cock.
Those red lips parted, said something his lust-fogged brain didn’t quite catch. “What?” He said, shaking his brain back into focus.
“I said I really thought I knew her,” Toni said. “But the more I find out, the more I realize I have no clue what’s going on in her life.”
“You knew her. You said yourself, she trusted you—”
She cut him off with a shake of her head. “God, I’m so naïve, thinking I could help her. Just another clueless adult, trying to get into her business.” She laughed humorlessly. “So now I guess we go back home and start all over,” she said, as the elevator doors slid open. “Or hell, who knows. Maybe everyone is right and she’s back home already.”
He took in the defeated slump of her shoulders and the tired eyes that mirrored his own.
“We can’t leave tonight,” he said, starting for the registration desk as he felt her tension ratchet up about fifty notches.
“We’re spending the night? But I need to get home.”
He turned to look at her. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and licked her lips. Her gaze flicked nervously over his body, his face, snagging on his mouth. She licked her lips again.
He wondered if she was thinking what he was thinking. About the way her lips had parted so easily under his. About the way her nipples had gone rock hard against his tongue. His gaze slid down her chest, saw the firm peaks beaded against the bodice of her dress.
No fucking way was that the air-conditioning.
“I’m too tired to fly. It wouldn’t be safe, even if we could get the plane ready to go this late. We’ll crash here and leave in the morning. It’ll be fine.” Said the spider to the fly.
He ignored her sputtered protests as he walked up to the registration desk. She was a ball of nervous energy, about to start pinging around the room in her shiny heels. Fine. He’d give her one last chance for an out. He smiled at the desk clerk. “Two rooms, just for tonight please.”
“I can’t afford a room here,” Toni whispered through clenched teeth.
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“Jerry’s paying. And if he doesn’t I’ve got it. But I can’t fly when I’m this tired.” Not to mention that he needed more blood in his brain than her dress would allow.
The desk clerk affected a disappointed look. “I’m sorry, sir, but we have only one room available.”
And the gods of getting laid smiled down on Ethan from heaven.
Toni’s breath caught and held.
“It’s a suite, though,” the woman behind the desk said. “There should be plenty of room for both of you.”
Toni’s posture was ramrod stiff as they retrieved their bags from the bell station and rode the elevator up to the suite. The walls were slamming into place, her guard going up as clear to him as though she were girding herself for battle.
He unlocked the door, ushered her inside. She tossed her backpack on the couch and took a leisurely tour of the room. “You can have the bedroom,” she said, “since you’re paying.” She stopped in front of the suite’s massive window and stared down at the lights of the strip. But he could tell from the tension in her muscles, the way she fingered her skirt, that she wasn’t taking in the view.
“Why are you so nervous?” Like he didn’t know. But it was fun playing with her.
He tried to remember the last time he’d had to chase a woman, and couldn’t. His world had been full of lots of women like Gillian. Beautiful women. Bold, sexually confident, not afraid to go after what they wanted. And a lot of them wanted him.
But he’d never met anyone like Toni, with her brainy beauty and stealth sexiness. A sex goddess in a computer nerd’s clothing.
He liked her, a lot more than he’d liked a woman in a while. The way she gave him shit, her brash confidence and unexpected vulnerability.
Like now, sneaking nervous glances at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. Something tight gripped his chest, a sudden urge to pull her in his arms and tell her everything would be okay, that he’d never let anyone or anything hurt her.
He shoved the thought away. He was no woman’s hero, no knight in shining armor. Not in this lifetime.
“Did you know there are nearly fifteen thousand miles of neon tubing that make up the lights in downtown Vegas?” she said and looked at him over one bare shoulder.
He moved next to her, not looking at her as his hand curved around her waist. His palm slid over smooth skin and metal warmed by the heat of her body. The unfamiliar protective instincts melted away in the face of lust. Ethan seized on it. Lust was good. Desire, he could deal with. This was his territory. Sex and lust and bodies coming together in mutual satisfaction.
It shouldn’t be any different with Toni, even if he wanted her with an intensity that danced a little too close to the edge of need.
Her body was stiff as he pulled her to him, but she didn’t resist as he turned her to face him and tilted her chin up. Her cheek was baby soft as he cupped it, her cherry-red lips soft and hot as he closed his mouth over hers. That first taste, and he went right over the edge, needing her, feeling like he would die if he didn’t kiss her, touch her, taste her, get inside her.
It was too much, too strong, too soon, but he couldn’t stop the floodgates now that they’d been opened. Toni Crawford did something to him, made him feel things he wasn’t supposed to feel.
But he wasn’t about to pull over now and examine the reasons why.
His tongue slid into her mouth, tangling with hers as he drank in her soft sighs, her rich taste. Turning her, he used his body weight to pin her against the cool glass of the window. He bent his knees so his cock was aligned with the V of her thighs and rubbed against her, leaving no question about how much he wanted her.
His fingers tangled in her hair, tugging until she was at just the angle he wanted. He could feel her shaking as her lips sucked at his tongue, the pounding of her heart as he slid his hand over her rib cage, down the side of her dress. His mouth opened wide over hers, taking it in hot, hungry open-mouthed kisses, and he molded his hand over the curve of her hip. It was a short trip to find the hem of her skirt and tug it up to reveal the sweet curve of her ass.
He filled his hands with the firm, smooth cheeks, his thumbs brushing against a silky scrap of fabric riding the upper curve. “You are wearing underwear,” he whispered, grinning.
“Barely.” Her voice was a breathless whisper. “But no bra.”
“Yeah, I noticed.” And he sure as hell noticed now when her tight little nipples were burning holes into his chest. He wanted to feel her, skin on skin. He fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, heard a few ping against the window as he ripped it open so he could feel her, silky and hot and barely dressed, against his naked chest.
“This dress has been driving me insane all night.” He hooked a thumb in the strap of her thong, pulling it tight until she gasped. He wanted her naked. Now. Wanted to feel every inch of her long, sleek body against his. His hand went to the straps holding her dress up and pushed them off her shoulders. Silvery fabric pooled at her waist, and he felt the soft weight of her tits nuzzle against his chest.
His palms came up to cup her breasts and he slid his mouth down her throat as his thumbs teased the bullet-hard peaks. He nipped a path across her shoulders and chest, reveling in the soft gasps and moans that came with every pinch and roll of his fingers.
He felt her shift, wriggle, and the dress slid off her hips, down her thighs to pool at her feet. Ethan stepped back and looked at her, all long legs and soft curves, naked except for a pair of four-inch heels and thong panties that barely covered the sweet mound of her pussy.
He was so gone, any control he might have had was shot to hell as he pulled her against him, yanking off his shirt and fumbling with his pants so he could be naked, too, breaking off here and there to kiss her and stroke her because he couldn’t keep his hands off her for another second. Finally he was down to his boxers. He slid his hand down her thigh and hitched it over her hip. Her heels—those sanity-killing, lust-inducing heels—made her almost as tall as he was, the exact right position to cradle his cock against her hot core.
He was shaking, running hot, trying to cling to the control he took for granted. Failing.
Toni could barely think, barely breathe in the face of Ethan’s onslaught. It was like before, when he’d kissed her, but more. More raw. More out of control. And as much as she knew she’d regret it as soon as it was over, more irresistible. She couldn’t get enough of the taste, the feel of him. She’d never been this close to a man as beautiful as Ethan. Probably never would be again.
He was gorgeous, true, but that didn’t account for the total loss of common sense. There was the chemistry that popped and crackled like dry wood on a flame. There was something about Ethan, indefinable, that called to the wild, impulsive part of her that she kept so well hidden. The part of her that urged her to cast aside the rules and to do something for the pure pleasure of it, good, well-thought-out decision making be damned.
He was pressed hard against her, taking away all logic and coordination as his hands teased and pinched at her nipples in a way that had her wet, pulsing, craving the feel of him inside her. The hard ridge of his cock rode between her thighs, making her throb and clench with the need to feel him thick and hard inside her.
Common sense urged her to push him away, warning her that getting involved with Ethan was dangerous. But she wasn’t looking to get involved, she reminded herself. Why not indulge her craving for what he offered? Mindless hot sex, guaranteed to blot out the stress and worry and bad memories she could never run away from.
Her hands gripped his hips, one reaching down to trace the outline of his erection through his boxers. Marveling at the size, the raging heat, she pressed her palm against him and stroked him through the soft cotton of his underwear.
Ethan groaned, a harsh, almost plaintive noise as he stepped back. “Don’t,” he said, stumbling a little as he lifted a shaky hand and raked it through his thick, dark hair. Toni’s mouth went dry, as for the first time she got to see hi
s nearly naked body. His chest was thick with muscle, nearly twice as wide as hers. Smooth, tanned skin stretched tight over the muscles of his shoulders and arms. Her eyes eagerly devoured every inch of bared flesh, raking down his six-pack abs and lower.
Her breath caught at the sight of his cock, rock hard and tenting out the front of his boxers. She swallowed hard, nearly overcome with the urge to tug his boxers down his leg and suck him deep into her throat.
“You keep looking at me like that, and in about five seconds you’re gonna find yourself pinned up against the wall with me buried ten inches inside you.”
She drew back, startled. Intimidated. “Ten inches?”
His wicked grin made everything inside her go buttery soft. “Give or take a millimeter.”
She laughed as he lifted her thighs and wrapped them around his waist so he could carry her into the bedroom. Toni could feel the hard press of his cock against her behind, and swallowed hard. Christ, he might not be exaggerating. Then she didn’t care as the hard ridge of his abs rubbed against her silk-clad cleft, making her squirm and moan and ache.
She’d never felt like this with a man. Nervous and carefree, wanting to laugh and cry and beg him to make her come. Out of control. Exhilarated. Terrified.
He flipped on the bedside lamp. Smooth cotton met her back as he lay her down on the bed and gently removed her glasses and placed them on the bedside table. He shoved his boxers down his hips and his erection bobbed, long and thick as it reared up from between his legs as he peeled her thong down her legs. Even without her glasses, she could see the thick vein pulse its length, the smooth head engorged and slick with pearls of pre-come. She wanted to reach out, stroke its length, but before she could make a move, he came down over her and clamped his mouth hard over her nipple. She squirmed on the mattress, low, animal sounds she didn’t recognize emerging from her throat. His hand dipped between her legs, fingers parting her and finding her embarrassingly wet.
