by CC Abbott
"They do," Cedar said as she monitored the laptop.
"But as Cedar learned,” Dr. K added, “it's only part of the story. Beagles as a breed have excellent noses, but almost every dog is capable of scent memory. There must be a physiological reason for his prowess, other than scent receptors."
"Okay, I understand that," Boone said, "but what's the ultimate goal here?"
Cedar looked up from the laptop. She pointed at the over stuffed sock thing. "The N.O.S.E."
"Whose nose?"
"Not whose nose, the N.O.S.E. Remember when I told you about the whole device at Red Fox Java?"
"Um. Well. See."
"Basically, you didn’t listen to a word I said, and so you don't have a clue what I'm trying to accomplish here."
"Not exactly."
"Dr. K," Cedar said as she rolled her eyes, "I was wrong. Holding the dog is the only job he can do right. Boone, you can rest for thirty seconds. The first set of measurements is over."
"Hey," Boone said. "That was harsh. Did I deserve that?"
"You deserve a smack in the head," she said, "but you're holding my dog, and I don't want you to mess up my data collection."
Dr. K laughed. It took Boone by surprise. He jerked, and Chigger almost tumbled from his lap. The small piece of tape pulled loose, and one of the probes slipped out. A warning sound beeped on the laptop.
“Boone!”
"Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to scare him."
Chigger used the opening to paw the other piece of tape off.
"Dr. K?" Cedar peeled the tape off the dog's paws. "Do you have anything else we can use? This is annoying him, and I think it's messing up the readings."
She hopped up from the table. "I believe so. Let my check the first aid kit in the storage area. We bought some of that expensive material that allows the skin to breathe…"
Her voice trailed off as she disappeared into the room. Chigger hopped down and began canvassing the floor for smells, while Cedar got the probes ready for another round.
Boone cleared his throat. "I'm really sorry for not listening to you before."
She punched a key on the laptop. "If you don't want to take my research seriously, then don't, but I wish you would show more respect for the people it does matter to."
"I'm meant no disrespect, Cedar, and I’m not trying to ignore you.”
“Tell me then, what does N.O.S.E. stand for?"
"Non canine…Odor Sensing…Ergonomically…thing."
"Ha! See. Not even close."
In the other room, Dr. K screamed.
"What's wrong?" Boone said, standing.
The professor came out of the room, her face pink, hands flying around in an old-fashioned tizzy. "It's gone! It's been stolen!" she said, her eyes searching for the phone on the wall. "I have to call campus police. Get the dog out of the room quickly, please."
"What was stolen?" Boone asked before Cedar could.
"Our store of alkali metals!" she said. "Sodium, potassium, they're all gone!”
A campus cop arrived several minutes later, a cup of coffee and a Bragg Times Free Press in hand. The headline caught Boone's eye: WOMAN KILLED… But he couldn't read the rest.
Between the time that Dr. K called in the theft and the campus cop's arrival, Cedar had whisked Chigger out of the office and down to the faculty lounge. That left Boone to pack up Cedar's equipment while the cop filled out an incident report.
Guess I'm good for more than holding the dog after all, he thought.
"Who's got access to the storeroom?" the cop asked. She set her coffee down and dropped the paper on the table. Boone was still only able to read half of the headline. If only he could reach out and flip it over.
Dr. K, who was growing more skittish by the moment, said that only she and the custodial staff had keys. "There are no signs of forced entry," she added.
The cop coughed. "Let me determine that. What’s missing again?"
"The alkali metals,” Dr. K said. “They're very dangerous elements. Explosive material. It has to be stored in oil because it can react with water. There was a large amount of sodium. The chemistry faculty likes to use it to demonstrate exothermic reactions."
"Soda?"
"Sodium. With an…yes, that the correct spelling."
"Show me the room where the theft took place."
"Of course."
While they were in the storeroom, Boone took the chance to read over the newspaper on the table. The fire victim was a woman named Consuela Vega. Her daughter had been recently deported, and she had no other family in the area. The sheriff's office had been able to obtain her records from AFIS.
Boone pinched his lower lip, deep in thought. The dots were connecting. She was Mexican. She was elderly. Eugene was the first responder, and he knew the area better than he would admit. It wasn't farfetched to think that he would turn his back on a victim he thought was worthless.
Boone scanned the rest of the front page. Beneath the article about Mrs. Vega was a photo of his mom, standing in front of the row of open graves, her arms folded, staring down the photographer with a look Boone only saw when she was trying to take away his keys.
The headline read:
LOCAL VET FILES INJUNCTION.
(Stanford, NC) Local veterinarian, Mary Harriet Rivenbark, has filed an injunction against Landis Land Holding, LLC, to prevent the relocation of a small family cemetery in a remote area of Bragg County. "This is an atrocity," Mrs. Rivenbark says. "The county planning commission is nothing but a puppet for developers, and it's time for the citizens of Bragg County to stand against them." Rivenbark has organized a protest to (see A4)
So Mom had really done it. She was fighting Trey Landis. Wow.
Boone was about to turn to the rest of the article when the campus cop returned.
"When you said sodium," the cop told Dr. K, "I was thinking some kind of salt, not a pile of stuff that could be used as a bomb. I need to call Sheriff Hoyt pronto."
"Well, I did say it was explosive." Dr. K wrung her hands. She had always been petite, but now, she looked small, frail, and vulnerable. "The other metals are in smaller quantities, but they can be even more dangerous. There were several vials of cesium, as well. I should have discarded it years ago, but disposal companies charge so much, and the dean said we didn't have the monies in our budget."
"Uh-huh," the cop said. "I'll put that in my report." She picked up her coffee and tucked the paper under her arm. "Did you hear about that Mexican lady? They're treating the case like an arson now. They've got a suspect, too."
"Who?" Dr. K said.
"Some vagrant named Stumpy Meeks."
Dr. K gasped. She sat down at the table after the cop left, a faraway look in her eyes. She pulled a tissue from a box on the table and held it to her mouth, the way southern ladies used to do when they had the vapors.
"Are you okay?" Boone asked.
"Huh? Oh, yes. Boone." She managed a weak smile. "I'm fine, dear. If you will excuse me, I need to make a phone call."
Cedar came into the room as the professor hurried away. “That’s was weird,” she said.
“Lot’s of weird going on lately,” he said. “Wait until you hear what just happened.”
With nothing on their schedules for once, Boone made the impromptu decision to put Cedar in his truck and drive them both to Buxton Beach on Hatteras Island. It was one of his favorite spots, a quiet beach with a view of the famous barber pole lighthouse. He expected Cedar to raise a fuss about it since it was a spur of the moment thing, but she was didn’t object at all to being whisked away.
“Sounds like fun,’ she said as they drove down Highway 12. “I can use a break from my project.”
“Really?” he asked, the wind ripping through the open windows of the truck. “Thought you’d say no.”
“I’m not always inflexible, Boone.” She smiled and patted his leg. “Sometimes, I’m quite spontaneous.”
He cocked his head, as if to say, we will se
e about that.
They swung by Cedar’s house to drop off Chigger and to grab her swimsuit. He wasn’t surprised when she came out in a white cover-up and a large beach bag. What did surprise him was the bright pink bikini that shown through the cover-up.
“Do you have swim trunks?” she asked as she climbed into the front seat and shut her door.
“There’s a pair of board shorts in the back.” He pointed his thumb at storage box in the truck bed. “Old habit. I used to surf, so I keep stuff on hand.”
With traffic and a stop for lunch and drinks, it took the better part of two hours to reach Hatteras Island. The good news was that the tourists were beginning to leave in droves, having taken in too much sun for one day.
Boone bough Cedar a chocolate cone from a roadside store, where he changed into the swimsuit, then drove to the beach.
With the Hatteras lighthouse in the background, the two of them walked down to the strand at Buxton, holding hands. In addition to the pair of faded blue board shorts, Boone wore a broadcloth shirt, which he unbuttoned completely to let in some air, and to be honest, draw Cedar’s attention.
Cedar had ditched the cover-up and put it in her beach bag. With her tanned skin, the pink looked amazing on her. She had just the figure for it, with pert breasts just big enough to fill out the cups and give a little, tantalizing bounce when she jumped over waves that nibbled at their feet.
She took a lick of her ice cream. “So that's your secret for staying so buff? Drinking water while I eat ice cream?”
“This buff thing is all new,” he said. “When I joined the Navy, my arms were so skinny, I couldn't do five push-ups, much less the fifty my RDC made us do every time there was an infraction. A couple hundred every day for eight weeks, and you'd be buff, too. Not that you aren't.”
Boone stopped and took a long, admiring look at her backside.
“Hey,” Cedar said and gave him a playful slap. “Did you just ogle my ass?”
“Yes, ma'am.” He saluted. “Well, not just your ass. Your thighs and calves, too. But mostly ass.”
“And?”
“Nice.”
“Nice? Just nice?” She slapped him again, harder this time. “You can’t think of a more descriptive word?”
He grabbed her hand to slow down the assault. “If you quit treating me like a punching bag, I can think of lots of descriptive words.”
“Like?”
“Luscious. Firm. Cute. Bodacious. Inviting.”
“Inviting?” She pulled free and waggled a finger at him. “Don't press your luck, mister.”
He feigned injury by putting a hand on his chest. “You're the one who asked.”
“Don't flash those dimples at me, either. It's not going to work.”
“I think it already has.”
“Time to cool off, buster.” She pushed him into the next breaking wave, soaking him to the waist. “So tell me about the case. That’ll get your mind off my luscious ass. Stumpy Meeks? Is he really a suspect?”
“I doubt it, but let’s forget the case like we’re forgetting your research.” He put an arm around her. “I’ve got more important things on hand right now.” He bent down and kissed her as the waves flow under their feet, burying them in sand. “Want to come over and hang out tomorrow? Lamar volunteered me to help Mom with the horses.”
“That’s so inviting,” she said, pretending to be genuinely disappointed. “But I can’t. There’s that match in Charlotte tomorrow, so I'll be gone until late.”
“Too bad,” he said. “I was about to invite you to help muck out stalls.”
“Just my luck. You know how much I adore shoveling horse poo.”
For the next hour, they walked down the strand and then back. With sun setting behind the island, they climbed into an empty lifeguard stand. Technically, the beach closed at dark, and they weren’t supposed to be there. Boone had spent most of his life on this shore, and he knew as long as you didn’t do something stupid like start a bonfire, no one would bother you.
As the last light of day slipped away, the empty beach dark except for the glow from the lighthouse. They sat on the bench watching the waves come in. Cedar snuggled up close, shivering now that it was turning colder. Boone tried to warm her up by rubbing her arms and legs, which did nothing to get rid of the goose pimples.
“You’re freezing,” Boone said. “I’ve got a blanket in my truck.”
She shivered. “A warm blanket would be nice.”
“Sit tight,” he said and jumped down from the stand.
Boone jogged back to the parking lot and grabbed the blanket from his truck, along with the bottle of wine he’d picked up at the roadside place. When he returned, Cedar was wearing the cover-up, and her bikini was hanging from the stand, drying in the wind. That meant that under her thin cover-up, she was totally naked, but it was too dark to see her.
Damn the sun for going down so soon.
“Here we go,” Boone said as he spread the blanket over her.
She pulled the covers to her neck. A few seconds later, she stopped shivering.
Boone sat on the bench beside her and opened the bottle of wine. “Don’t have any cups,” he said, offering the bottle.
“We can share. It's not like I don't know where your mouth has been.” She took a long sip. “Are you going to join me under here or what?”
“Scoot over, ma’am.”
She lifted the blanket, and Boone got under the covers with her. For the next half hour, they shared the wine as the moon rose in the sky. The stars were so bright in the night sky, they looked like Christmas lights.
“That’s the end of the wine,” Cedar said and set the bottle down.
“How’re we going to occupy ourselves now?” he teased.
“I’ve got an idea,” she said and ran her hand on Boone’s bare chest, playing with his nipples, teasing with her touch, which caused a deep groan to slip from his lips.
The sound seemed to please Cedar. With a grin full of mischief, she kissed his chest, then his abs, barely stopping at his waistband.
“Come here,” Boone groaned and pulled her onto his lap.
She licked his lips and plunged her tongue deep into his mouth. His rough hands ran along the thin fabric of her cover-up, his palms rubbing her breasts through the cloth. She moaned, the sound filling his mouth. He slid his hands under the cloth and found her naked breasts. They were soft and buttery firm, the nipples growing rigid as he pinched them lightly, caressing them with his fingertips. Another moan from her, deeper and more wild. Her hips moved into his, grinding against his hardness.
“There is too much…cloth…between us,” Cedar said, softly panting.
Stepping off Boone’s lap, she tugged the cover-up over her shoulders and let it fall. The wind caught it like a sail and carried it to the waves.
“There’s no going back now,” she said and laughed.
If she was shy about her nakedness, Cedar hid it well. In the dim light from Hatteras, he could see the outline of her body—the arc of graceful hips, the curve of that luscious ass, the way her inviting breasts moved as she bent over and tugged his board shorts. With one movement, Boone was naked, too.
Pulling the blanket over her shoulders, Cedar lowered herself until she was siting on his knees. He could feel her wetness on his skin and could smell the musk, a scent that jacked up his senses, as she slid slowly forward. She reached out and took him in both hands, her fingers delicate but firm. He groaned again, head spinning, his eyes tight with the ecstasy of her first touch.
“That’s what I like to hear,” she whispered.
Boone wrapped his arms around her, rolling her to the bench. He pushed her legs apart, spreading them so that her soft place was open and vulnerable and his for the taking. He wanted her as badly as she wanted him, but he was in no hurry.
This moment was going to last.
Cedar grabbed his ass, trying to guide him in. He only went to the point of touching her flesh, but not entering. As
she shuddered in anticipation, he pushed his chest against her breasts, nibbling her shoulder.
Boone plunged his tongue deep into her mouth and oh-so-slowly drove his cock into her heat. She gasped and wrapped her legs around his back, locking her heels together.
“Faster!” she moaned. “You're killing me!”
But he wouldn’t go faster. Killing her was exactly what he wanted to do. Kill her by pushing an inch or two inside her wetness, then pulling out quickly. Then pushing slowly, achingly again. She would come first, he’d decided, and he would be able to watch her do it, knowing that he was the man who gave her pleasure.
Cedar’s breath was fast and hot in his ear as she dug her fingers into his back, while he rammed deep into her. She bucked and fought to lift herself, but his weight pinned her down, unable to move faster—he was in control, and he wanted her to know it.
“Please, Boone,” she whispered.
“Not yet.”
“But,” she panted, “I’m going to....come…like this.”
“That’s the idea,” he said and drew back quickly with one long stroke.
Cedar’s eyes closed, and her face tightened as she called his name. Her whole body went hard, then softened, then hardened again. He felt the rhythm of her rippling orgasm on his erection. Only biting his lip hard kept him from joining her.
Finally, she squeaked and let out a breath of air. Boone smiled and kept slowly thrusting.
“You're a quiet one,” he said, loving the warm blush of red that bloomed over her face, barely visible in the low light.
“The first time, yes.”
Let's hear the second one then, Boone thought and rocked back on his knees. With one hand, he lifted her ass off the bench and swung her around so that she was straddling him. He leaned back against the wall of the lifeguard stand and pulled the blanket over her shoulders.
“Fuck that thing,” she said and threw it aside. “I don't care who sees us.”
Whoa, Boone thought. He had a wild child on his hands—and he loved it!
Cedar put her feet on the floor for leverage and rocked forward. Slowly, she lifted her spot place off him, inch by inch like he had. Hands pressed on his shoulder, she leaned forward and bit his nipple, licking it quickly with her tongue and driving her short nails into his flesh. He growled like something feral and his body convulsed.
