When she finished, she climbed on top of him. Perched, straddling his body with her soft legs, his cock dying to be enfolded in her warmth. She held all the power of the world over him. If she wanted, he would beg.
But she didn’t make him. Taking his penis in her small hands, she pushed herself on top of him until she inserted his cock into her pussy. He closed his eyes. Her muscles stretched around him and after a few minutes he was buried balls deep inside her, pressed up against her womb, so fully contained that he could barely breathe for fear of ending the sensation too soon.
His balls ached and his cock begged for release. But this was about her, about showing his girl she could control their situation, could believe in it. It was also about watching her boobs bounce when she moved up and down on him. His needs could be basic and he didn’t feel shame about them.
Christian opened his eyes to find Dodie staring down at him. “You okay?” Her voice sounded husky.
“I am better than okay.” He’d never been so okay in his life.
She gripped her nipples, pinching them between her thumbs and pointer fingers. His mouth dried and for a second air left his body.
“You take my breath away.”
She pursed her lips. “Good.”
The she moved. Up and down she slid on his cock, clenching her muscles around him with the motion. He bucked his hips, driving deeper inside her. “Shit, baby. You make me so hot.”
His words seemed to spur her faster. She increased the speed of her movements until they gasped for air with each thrust. He considered himself to be in really good shape, but he could barely keep up with her.
“Oh.” She let go of her breasts, her hands stroking her face instead. “Christian.”
The way she said his name sounded sacred. He grabbed onto her hips, drawing her deeper down on him, and cried out when she moved all the way down his erection.
“It’s happening.” With her head thrown back, she looked like some kind of sex goddess. He had to possess her. “Oh Christian, I’m coming.”
Her pussy wept, her juices making their movements slick. He loved the noises their bodies made coming together. A true joining. And suddenly he couldn’t hold back anymore either.
Her orgasm spurred his forward. Soon, he couldn’t hold back. Someday he’d be able to last all night with this woman. He’d show her the control he valued so highly in himself. Someday, she wouldn’t be able to undo him so completely.
He cried out her name. Someday would have to wait.
* * * * *
Christian held her in his arms while she slept. She breathed deeply and steadily against him while he drew circles on her back with his pointer finger. The moon still lit the room and a glance at the clock next to him told him it was just after two thirty in the morning. He had to sleep. After all, he was supposed to look beautiful tomorrow.
He smiled at the thought. They’d Photoshop anything they didn’t like. She murmured something and he tugged her closer. Apparently his girl had some vivid dreams.
Rolling onto his side, he adjusted her until he had the outer spoon and then just for good measure, he swung his leg over her to keep her in place against him. Dodie could be skittish. He wouldn’t have her running away when he slept.
Kissing her shoulder, he closed his eyes and let the day wash away. Everything would be okay from here on in. It had to be. Life wouldn’t give him this woman only to take her away.
Chapter Seven
“Come on, Dodie. We don’t want to be late for all the fun.”
She whirled around at the sound, suddenly remembering where she’d heard the voice before. It was the clown. The one she’d put out of her mind when she’d woken up the day before. Now he was back? In another dream?
For some reason, she chased after him. That was the problem with the stories her mind told at night. They always started right in the middle of the tale and she had no idea why she ran after the clown when she should be going in absolutely the opposite direction.
“We’re going to be late and there is so much fun to be had.” He waved his knife in the air again. At least this time he wasn’t doing it to her.
“I don’t want to play with you. I don’t want to be part of this fun.”
But the clown busted through a large, red-painted door. She had no idea where they were or if she’d even been to this particular place before. Was she inventing locations to stick this clown?
She ran through the door. The clown stood in the living room, still wielding his knife. A family of four cowered in the corner. The father, a tall, balding man, tried to cover his son, daughter and wife from the painted-faced monster.
“One, two, three, four. I’m sorry that all of your time is up but you won today’s clown prize. A trip to hell for all of you.”
He lunged forward, sticking his knife into the father who stared down at it as if he couldn’t quite make out the fact that he now had a deadly weapon inserted into his stomach. The wife cried out, trying to lunge forward, while blood dripped from the man’s intestines onto the floor.
“Oh look, I have another knife.” Another slicer appeared in the clown’s hand. He giggled as if he’d just made a joke.
Dodie screamed out, shrieking as she never had before in her life. Why was this happening? Why couldn’t she make it stop?
“Dodie. You’re dreaming. Wake up.” Christian pulled her from her dream with his words and the dark safeness of her room enveloped her, shoving away memories of the house of horrors where she’d just been.
She shook and after a second grabbed onto him, pulling him even closer.
“Shhh,” he whispered in her ear. “I’ve got you. Did you have a bad dream?”
Dodie nodded, pressing a kiss to his chest. Never had she been so grateful for another person’s presence than she was for Christian’s at that moment. She kissed him again. Over and over.
“It’s okay.” He stroked her hair. “What was it?”
“Monster.” How else could she describe it? “I feel like a baby.”
He pulled the cover over both of them. “A monster?”
When he readjusted her so her head rested on his shoulder and her body fit to his, she didn’t object. If he wanted to baby her at that moment, he could go right ahead. Not since her parents hadn’t returned home from dinner one night had she felt so taken care of in the face of fear. “Sounds stupid to say it, but yes, a monster.”
“Tell me about it. As it is, I fight monsters. I make them go away forever.”
She laughed, this time rolling over to plant one more kiss on chest. “If only.”
“You might be surprised.”
His words were like a salve on the horrible dream she’d endured and she closed her eyes, listening to his heartbeat. Exhaustion won much faster than she anticipated.
This time she dreamed of nothing at all.
* * * * *
“Dodie.” This time when she opened her eyes, she stretched and felt deliciously immobile. Smiling up at Christian seemed exactly the right thing to do in the morning.
“Yes?” If he was up for another round so was she.
“It’s six. You have to get up now, right?”
Work. Damn it. She nodded before she groaned. Her legs felt like iron and it took several tries to get herself out of the bed. “Our late-night schedule is going to kill me.”
Christian rubbed her back. “I know. It’s just another couple of months. I guess I could try to back off until then, but I don’t want to.”
She laughed. “I don’t want you to. Maybe I’m going to have to figure out how I can fit in a nap at my desk every day.”
“No.” He got out of the bed. “I don’t want you in trouble. We’ll work it out. I’ll sneak in after you’re asleep every night. Wake you, take your hot body as many ways as I can think of, and then you can roll over and go back to bed.”
Dodie stretched her arms over her head. Not until after she’d enjoyed the sensuous movement did she realize how completely un
embarrassed she was to be naked in front of him. He might be the only one on the planet to think she was flawless, but for some reason Christian really liked how she appeared in the buff. “Sounds like a plan.”
He clothed himself quickly, which gave her a pang of disappointment. He had such a cute ass. “Except for tomorrow. That’s Saturday. You can sleep all day and let me take you out at night.”
A date? He walked out of the room and she let herself grin broadly. He wanted to take her out to eat, or for drinks, or wherever in front of people, just the two of them. This is really happening.
Christian put on the television in the living room and she heard him puttering around in the kitchen. He had said something about breakfast when he’d come the night before and apparently he planned on making good with his statement.
If he wanted to cook, she wasn’t going to complain.
* * * * *
Having showered and dressed for work in record time, she walked out into the living room. Christian sipped coffee while he stared at the television. His eyebrows were furrowed downward and he shook his head.
She walked closer and stood close next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.
The newscaster on television spoke. “If you’re just joining us, we are covering breaking news. A family in Northwest Austin were the victims of a horrific act of violence last night. From initial reports, it appears to have been a home invasion. All four members are reported dead at the scene.”
Dodie’s knees buckled and Christian caught her before she hit the ground. She gasped. Those poor people. Why did she feel as if she knew them? The faces of the family in a happier time, all of the family posing in front of Cinderella’s castle in Disney World, displayed on the screen. She did know them, but she couldn’t place how.
“Hey, you okay?” Christian set down his coffee on the floor and carried her to the couch.
“Yes. I just think I know them, but that’s impossible. Those poor people. What is happening in Austin? We’ve never had this kind of crime here.”
Christian nodded, kissing her cheeks. “I was thinking the same thing.”
He walked to the kitchen and grabbed a plate from the counter. He set it down on her coffee table. “Eat this.”
He’d really managed a small feast while she bathed and dressed. Eggs, bacon and toast. Usually, she settled for just getting coffee into her system and functioning. She dug in and eventually he sat down next to her. The clock read seven, which meant she had fifteen minutes before she had to leave.
“Do you believe in good versus evil?”
She choked on her toast and, when she stopped coughing, turned to look at him straight on. “What?”
“Good. Evil. The eternal struggle. Do you believe?” He leaned back as if he hadn’t just asked her a metaphysical question at seven o’clock in the morning when she’d had only a few hours of sleep.
“Well. I guess I don’t think about it very much. I’m not religious, if that’s what you mean.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I’m not concerned with religion. Some things just are, whether you believe in one thing or another. It doesn’t really matter. I’ve never been one for doctrine and I don’t know that anyone has it exactly right.” Christian scratched his chin. “That’s not really what I was asking you.”
“Then I don’t understand.” She stood up to put her now empty dish in the sink. When she got back later, she’d do a load of dishes…if she didn’t crash the second she walked through the door.
“I guess I’m talking about that family who died. And what happened to Mindy’s Brian. My parents’ murder. Do you believe in evil?”
She shuddered. The room felt five degrees cooler than seconds before. “How could I not?”
Once she’d uttered those words, she realized she meant them. As much as she would have dismissed the idea days ago, the things happening made her scared. She looked over her shoulder on the way to her car, she thought about those people who needed help in the hospital.
Maybe it didn’t matter what she called what was happening. What did words matter anyway?
“My parents were murdered in their bed while I slept in the next room.” He took a sip from his glass and then set it down. “With an ax. No one could believe I didn’t hear a thing. They arrested me, put me in jail. I lived there for a year while they prepared a trial. Even my lawyer didn’t believe that I hadn’t done it. I was a dumbass kid and had been in trouble the year before when my buddy and I set off a small pipe bomb in an old abandoned house. I’d been a jackass. Even as I’d done it, I’d known better. I have no excuse. Good parents, every chance.”
She interrupted him. “Kids do dumb things. I mean I’m not a mom and what do I know? But I remember just being stupid for no good reason.”
“Exactly. But they made it out to be a thing, an incident which showed an escalating pattern. They said I was some sort of sociopath. Anyway, a man named Jacob Foy came to my defense when he heard about it. In addition to being a top-notch lawyer, he’s a master in many forms of martial arts and runs a school in Chicago. He took over the case, pro bono, and pointed out I couldn’t have lifted the ax, let alone wielded it. They let me go. But no one would adopt me and I had no family who would even consider taking me in. A great-aunt who pretended I didn’t exist, a cousin who didn’t return calls—they all worried I might actually be crazy.”
“That’s terrible. When my parents died, I had my grandparents at least. You must have been so alone.”
“Master Foy took me in.” He shook his head. “There’s more to this story, but listen, I promise you, if there’s evil around, I’m actually a good guy to have in your corner.”
“For many reasons.” Of that she had no doubt.
He nodded, making love to her with his eyes. Something inside her body thawed, some part of her she hadn’t known was frozen.
“I put my cell number in your phone.”
She smiled. “Thanks.” Christian might even be addictive.
* * * * *
“Hey,” Christian called after her, chasing her out to her car.
She turned when she heard him and Dodie’s warm smile made the early morning seem even brighter. “What’s up?”
“Two things.” He kissed her on her nose, which was rapidly becoming one of his favorite places to plant one on her. “First, I needed one more kiss before I could let you go and second, what is the name of your company?”
“Dew Technologies. Why?” She smoothed her fingers over his shirt and he got hard. He wouldn’t make her late for work, but the ache she started inside him would make today a constant challenge. Unless he got into the shower and took care of it manually, although he suspected that would not work. Now that he’d had her touch, his own wouldn’t be the same, not even if he imagined her while he did it.
“How am I going to know where to send flowers when I want to surprise my genius of a girlfriend?”
She blushed and he grinned. It was so easy to make her turn red and he loved doing it. Now he would actually arrange a bouquet. Truth was, he just wanted to know where she stayed all day so he could know how to keep her safe, if need be.
Dodie leaned up and kissed him square on the lips. “No flowers necessary. Come down sometime and we’ll have lunch on South Congress.”
“Okay.” He nodded and waited for her to get in her car and drive off. The tires made a slight squealing noise when she pulled into traffic. They’d pulled the other night. “Note to self. Get Dodie’s car looked at for her.”
“Hey.” He whirled around, not surprised Jonah snuck up on him.
“Hey yourself.” Christian nodded to his friend. “What are you doing up here?”
“I drove Mindy home. Hope you don’t mind that I took your car.” Jonah held up Christian’s own keys. How the hell did he miss that his car had moved? Somehow he had to figure out how to be with Dodie and to not be so distracted at the same time.
“Mindy went home?” Dodie had assumed the other woman wa
s asleep and hadn’t wanted to bother her. He should have checked.
“She’s insisting on going to work. She wants the distraction.”
Christian shook his head. “Dodie’s going to take one look at her and insist she go home.”
“Well, she can argue with the stubborn lady. I did it all night.”
That stopped Christian in his track. “What did you argue with her about all night? You just met her.”
“Whether or not she should come to Chicago with me tomorrow.”
“Hold on. What?” Had he heard Jonah correctly? “Why would you suggest that? You just met the woman.”
“You’d been with Dodie once before you declared her yours to me. Before she apparently knew about it.” Jonah laughed. “And I’m not taking her to Chicago to date her, although I would if she wanted that, which for now I know she doesn’t. I’d take her to teach her how to be strong, to show her she can take care of herself.”
“You’d take her to Foy. That’s what you want to do. Are you nuts?”
Jonah slapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks for the vote of confidence. And she says she’s not going, so cool your jets. I’ll be going back all by my lonesome.”
“On that subject.” He walked back toward his apartment and Jonah followed him. “It got suddenly cold in her apartment this morning. And a family was murdered in their home last night. I saw it on the news.”
“Murders happen. They don’t have to be demonic.” Jonah had always been good at pulling him back to reality. Still, the idea that the family had been butchered like that for no apparent reason didn’t sit well with him. “And it could have been any passing ghost in the apartment. You know they come and go. I didn’t get the haunted heebie-jeebies when I was in there.”
“That’s good.” Jonah would have sensed something if there had been danger. Christian could relax, maybe a little.
“I’m going to be here today until Mindy gets home from work. I just want to make sure that she’s fine and then I’ll head back to Chicago. Did you tell the woman about your secret second, or make that third, career?”