by Fawn Lowery
He lowered his hands, stroking just beneath her mounds, sliding across her midriff and lowering to her abdomen. He poked one finger into the delicate pink shell of her navel and she jumped in surprise. He kissed her lips then, pressing her head to the wall at her back.
She felt the need to join in the play. She reached the soap and lathered her hands, then reached for his broad chest. Warm skin and muscles met her palms. She splayed her fingers and rubbed the lather across his male nipples, pausing to tweak the tiny points into tight nibs.
His hands slid across her hips, and into her crotch. His fingers touched her sensitive clitoris, stroked it briefly and resumed his touching down the length of her legs to her knees.
“Have you ever worn it bare?”
An arched brow rose. “You want me to shave?”
“Would you? I’d love to put my mouth on your pussy and suck smooth shaven lips.” He winked at her, a wicked enticing wink that sent her stomach pitching.
Why aren’t I surprised?
She reached for the razor on the shower shelf and hiked one foot up on the edge of the bathtub. Carefully, she raked the razor across the blond bush at her crotch.
“Mmmm. Here. Let me.”
She relinquished the razor and smiled as he dropped to his knees in front of her crotch. The hot spray from the shower cascaded across his head and splashed on his shoulders. He seemed undeterred as he placed his left hand atop her crotch and began stroking the razor across her skin, shaving the blond hair away in easy strokes.
She felt very turned on, aroused to the point of wanting to touch him while he shaved her pussy. She thrust her pelvis forward, opening herself up for him as he shaved lower on her sensitive lips. He worked carefully, moving slowly and following each stroke of the razor with a fingertip to make sure he wasn’t leaving any stubble behind.
His touch was driving her insane. His fingertips were so precise, being careful not to touch her clit as he maneuvered the razor across her bush and reduced it to nothing. She gazed down her body, watching his hands move on her, seeing the concentration on his face.
He was finished much too quickly, she thought, seeing him lay the razor on the shower shelf. He remained on his knees before her crotch, her leg still bent and her foot on the edge of the tub. He ran one palm across her bare pussy, looking up at her as he raked a finger against her clitoris.
She sucked in a quick breath and grabbed his hand.
He began to move his finger on her clitoris, rubbing in a light circular motion.
Janna spread her hand atop his, inching her finger atop his caressing finger.
She closed her eyes and savored the delicious sensations as they began to race through her body. She wiggled her hips, pushing her crotch against the massaging fingers.
“Mmmm. That feels good.”
Suddenly he pulled his hand away and replaced it with his mouth. Growling deep in his throat, he sucked in her clitoris and tickled it with his tongue. His hands grasped her buttocks and held her flesh to his mouth. He sucked and lathed her sensitive, bare folds, wetting them with his hot spit and making Janna knot her fingers in his wet hair.
She felt his finger slide inside her warm tunnel and begin to thrust around, causing her to open her mouth and pant with the barrage of new sensations racing through her insides. She felt the orgasm then, felt the first tingling sensations as they raced along her limbs, curling her belly and making her cry out.
His mouth ate at her flesh, sucking her bare lips inside and nipping at them with his teeth. He pushed another finger inside her cave, thrusting wildly, as she went over the top. She lunged against his hand, clasping her hands into fists in his hair so she could hold his mouth to her crotch.
He played at her crotch until the orgasm totally waned and she was on the verge of another, then he pulled his fingers out of her cave and stood up. His cock was rock hard, bobbing, ready. He pulled her against his chest and grasped her buttocks in either hand as he pressed her back against the shower wall. He entered her in one quick thrust, pinning her so she couldn’t move.
Janna raised her legs and wound them around his waist. He was wet and slippery and hot. He was all muscle, thrusting into her passage with forceful lunges that filled her insides, slicking along her sensitive passageway and ushering up another orgasm in no time. She pressed her breasts to his hair-roughened chest and hung on, feeling the onset of climax gather in her belly.
“I’m coming again, Rick! Oh God! I’m coming!”
* * * *
She listened to the gentle breathing beside her, wishing she could fall asleep. The arm lying across her stomach held her body against his side, pressing possessively. His right leg was bent at the knee and resting across her calves. She found it nearly impossible to move—but then she suspected he had that in mind when they finally went to bed—or when they were both spent from having sex.
She smiled and stroked the hair-roughened forearm lying across her stomach. Rick had definite ideas about sex. He knew what he liked and was eager to have her participate—or go along with. Either way, she had enjoyed his playing, and the final bouts of orgasm he wrought to her body.
She turned her eyes out the only window in the room. She had not drawn the drapes as she had in the other rooms of the small house. The moonlight streamed in through the upper sash, bathing the bed in silvery brilliance. She felt the inevitable urge to run, to throw up the window and jump to the ground and then bound into the small patch of woods just behind the house.
She lifted the arm holding her in the bed and slid her legs from beneath Rick’s, easing from the bed. She stole softly out of the room and padded into the living room. The neighborhood was quiet. The houses she could see from peeking through the living room window were dark. She turned her gaze up the wide avenue in search of cars—or Austin’s parked car.
She let a shudder of dread race across her bare flesh.
Nick Austin and his barrage of threats toward her was the reason she was finding it hard to fall asleep. She turned her gaze down the street, searching. Heaving a sigh, she let relief travel along her senses. She didn’t see his car parked anywhere along the street.
But that doesn’t mean he isn’t out there.
The thought shook her all over again. Yes, he was probably out there, concealed in the darkness, watching her house, hoping she would emerge for a midnight run—since darkness was the werewolf’s cover to roam.
She thought of her conversation with Lieutenant Barton. Another victim had been discovered. Austin had set a pattern with his horrendous killings. Every time he got pissed at her—or Rick—he took his anger out on some unsuspecting person. And to further add proof to her theory—he was staying within a certain territory—as though he had laid claim to one vicinity.
She combed her fingers through her hair. If he wasn’t stopped pretty soon—there was no telling where his murderous rampage would take him. Or how many other innocent victims would lose their lives merely because they were within his path of destruction.
If only Rick would see her plan in a different light.
It occurred to her then, Rick had her safety at heart and that was why he refused to listen to reason concerning her idea to trap Austin. She smiled, feeling the warmth his concern manifested inside her.
I’m really falling in love with him—whether I want to or not.
She silently agreed that there was something about Rick that she had not found in other men she had known—not that there had been a lot of men in her life. He was probably the only professional man she had known—aside from her father and her brothers. And Rick was by far the most imaginative man sexually that she had ever encountered.
She smiled at the thought of him shaving her pubic hair off. She skimmed her palm along her abdomen and lowered it. The smoothness beneath her fingers felt foreign…and sensual, she admitted, drawing in a slow breath. She felt aroused suddenly. She stroked her bare lips, inching her fingertip between the fleshy folds and caressing gently. She
could make herself cum with little effort, she admitted, raising her other hand to her breast.
She stood near the window, her hands stroking, caressing to the point of near orgasm when her eyes caught the slight glimpse of something moving beyond the glass. A tremor of fright zinged through her insides. She halted her play, and pinned her keen eyes on the object.
Had Nick Austin proved her suspicions right? Was he laying in wait for her just outside her house?
Chapter Sixteen
Janna drummed her nails on the desktop while she waited for Lieutenant Barton to pick up his phone. All night long she had worried whether Nick Austin was lurking somewhere outside her house and the sooner the police found out who he was, the sooner they could get him off the streets.
“Marlow, I have an ID on the woman killed yesterday.”
“Lieutenant, have you been able to find out anything about the man impersonating Nick Austin?”
“I gave his description to our graphic artist. She hasn’t gotten back to me with a composite yet. But keep in mind; she has a full time job. She teaches sixth grade art at the middle school.” He sighed. “Someday Madison will be big enough to afford a real graphic artist and not have to rely on a volunteer school teacher.”
Janna rolled her eyes in consternation. “Have you found out where he lives?”
“Yeah. He has a room in the Madison Hotel.”
A cold shiver of fear raced through Janna. Austin was in the same hotel as Rick—until Rick moved in with her yesterday. She bit her bottom lip. It almost made her sick to think that she felt safe in Rick’s room when a murderer might have been on the same floor—or in the next room.
“I’m checking on him, Marlow. Do you want the name of the latest victim so you can get some background info for your column?”
She grabbed a pencil and jotted down the name and address Lieutenant Barton gave her. She hung up the phone with a promise from Barton that he would call the minute he had more information on the man she knew as Nick Austin. She glanced at her watch and made plans to go interview the relatives of the slain woman.
Her gaze fell on the empty chair sitting in front of her desk. Nick Austin hadn’t made an appearance that morning and she was finding it rather curious—given the fact that he had stuck to her like glue for the past few days. She heaved a sigh, relieved that she didn’t have to defend herself against his lewd remarks or meet his threatening silver gaze every time she looked up from her desk.
She and Rick had plans for dinner and then they were going out to the building site to check on the progress of the work crew. She was looking forward to spending time with him and seeing his new house go up. She grabbed her purse and rose from her desk. They had driven to work separately, so that she could tend to business for the newspaper, despite Rick’s warning that she stay in his sight.
She worried that Austin was out there somewhere, waiting for her to let her guard down. The thought that she should buy a gun surfaced again. She raked her fingers through her hair, pushing the mass over her shoulder. She still harbored the idea that she would transform and run like hell, should Austin corner her, but that idea had faults.
She noted the address of Linda Martin, Austin’s latest victim, and got into her car. The address was very near the last victim, she noted. Yet if Austin was staying at the Madison Hotel, the fanciest place to stay in Madison, he was traveling across town to murder his victims. But then a murderer could be trying to throw the police off his trail by not killing close to home.
She shook her head, dislodging the thoughts. The more she tried to figure his motive, the less she understood about him. She only hoped Lieutenant Barton could come up with some information on him. Perhaps she should try to get his fingerprints—
A sudden thought assailed her. She reached into her purse and grabbed her cell phone. Lieutenant Barton might think she was crazy—but there was surely a multitude of prints on her desk! Austin had been camped out there for almost a week. Surely there were prints on her chair, on the desktop, even the extra chair he dragged in front of her desk so he could stare at her. And if that wasn’t enough, he could check out the storeroom. Austin had spent the night locked in it, thanks to Rick and his cool determination to protect her.
“I’ll send someone right over,” Lieutenant Barton said, a hopeful note in his tone. “And Marlow, watch yourself.”
The policeman’s warning to be cautious pulled at her curiosity. She wondered what Rick had told him yesterday when they talked. Perhaps Rick had conveyed his suspicions of Austin and the policeman had believed him. She replaced her cell phone in her purse and started her car. Glancing around the parking lot of the newspaper office, she felt certain that Austin’s car wasn’t on the premises, therefore she felt safe in assuming he wouldn’t be following her.
But then I can’t really be certain.
She drove across town to Linda Martin’s address, keeping a close eye on the rear view mirror. Pulling into the driveway of a modest house at the end of Elm Street, she shut off the car and opened the door. A man about thirty, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt suddenly came out the front door of the house and walked toward her. She prepared to meet Linda Martin’s husband, Dan.
“Are you from the police department?” he asked, a quiver in his voice.
“No. I’m a reporter. I came to ask you a few questions about Linda.”
He shook his head. “I’ve nothing to say. I’m scared that if I talk, the murderer might come after the rest of our family.”
Puzzlement pulled Janna’s brows together. Lieutenant Barton had not given her any indication that the murder victims were connected.
“Could we talk inside?” Janna asked, glancing around. Suddenly she sensed that someone—or some thing—perhaps Austin—was in the vicinity and keeping a steady eye on her.
“I told you no. I can’t risk it. I have two sons that might be in danger. You better go.” He turned and headed back to the house.
“Wait,” Janna called. She caught his arm with one hand. “What do you mean—your sons might be in danger?”
“You need to leave.” His teeth were clamped together.
“Mr. Martin, I’m not leaving until you explain why you think your sons might be in danger. Are you aware of the way your wife died?”
“That’s the very reason I’m scared that the murderer will come after the rest of our family.”
“This murderer has been killing at random.”
He glanced around, nervous. “No, it hasn’t!”
“It?” She sensed his fear and for the first time since arriving at the house, she thought she knew why.
“Listen, I’ve been reading about the murders—my wife was attacked by something last week—something that left teeth marks on her arm. I’m afraid her murder had something to do with that attack.”
Janna’s jaw dropped open.
Had Austin bitten someone and not killed them—merely infected him or her with the Curse?
“Why would you think that?”
He glanced around nervously. “Both my wife and I think it was a werewolf who bit her.” He stared at Janna. “Normally I don’t believe in such things, but—“
“Did you tell the police any of this?”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t think they would believe me.” He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know why I told you, lady, except to make you leave.” He turned abruptly and went toward his house, his steps rushed.
Janna watched him enter the house and close the door. She glanced around her surroundings again and returned to her car. Well, she certainly couldn’t write much of an interview for the newspaper with what Dan Martin had just told her. Her phone rang suddenly, making her jump in surprise.
Glancing at the dial, she was relieved to see it was Rick on the line.
“Where are you?”
She smiled at the sound of concern in his tone, and began to tell him her brief conversation with Dan Martin.
“That settles it. I’m buying
a fucking gun, Janna. There are more of us running around out there than I care to count. Are you coming back to the office?”
She put his mind at ease and headed back toward the newspaper office, no story for the evening edition, but a healthy curiosity about the Martin family…and a creepy feeling about being followed. She kept a close eye on the traffic, on the lookout for Nick Austin’s car. He was somewhere close because she couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling that he was watching her every move. Luckily she hadn’t relayed her fears to Rick.
* * * *
Janna sat in the passenger seat and stared at the side of Rick’s face as he drove out to the site of his new house. There was a rigid set to his jaw, a bit of a scowl forcing his brow low over his green eyes. She sensed his smoldering anger and knew it was due to Nick Austin and the threat to her safety—their safety.
She turned her eyes out the side window. Ever since she had spoken with Dan Martin she had been fighting the keen feeling that Austin was somewhere close watching her and the feeling remained, haunting and cold, even after she and Rick left the newspaper office for the day. And she had always felt safe in his presence. She glanced at him again, liking what she saw. Even in his angry state, he was handsome. She felt a quiver of excitement curl her stomach.
They arrived at the clearing and the scene unfolding was one of complete surprise. The walls were going up on Rick’s new house. Already the impressive structure was taking shape. The main entrance could be discerned with its wide gaping space where the double doors would open into a wide foyer. A large crane was in the process of raising a roof truss to set in place. A dozen or more carpenters swarmed about the area. The noise of nail guns and electric saws rent the stillness.
Rick looked quite pleased with the progress. They exited the car and the crew foreman headed in their direction. Janna recognized him right away as the man Rick had met earlier. He pushed the yellow hard hat to the back of his head and greeted them with a wide grin.
