Erin surprised him by giggling.
He lifted up, moving her onto his lap. Her hair fell in a sweaty tangle down her back. "You need to tell me why, Erin," he said gruffly, lifting her wrist to his mouth and kissing it softly. A faint bruise was forming there and he felt slightly sick to his stomach.
She pulled her hand away and stroked his cheek, his neck. "Don"t," she whispered. "I"m fine. I don"t know a woman alive who hasn"t fantasized about having the man she loves take her like that from time to time."
Her head fell and he caught her chin and made her look at him. "Then why aren"t you looking at me? Why won"t you tell me? Why didn"t you tell me?"
Her blue eyes were glittering, and Seth realized she was near tears. "I couldn"t," she whispered roughly. "I can"t explain it right now. If there comes a time when I can, I swear I will. But right now, I can"t."
His face fell into grim lines. "I won"t go back to the way we were, Erin. I want a life with you. A real one. You and me, together, one house, one bed. Marriage. Kids. I love you. You love me."
Her hands cupped his face and her lips met his as she moved to straddle him. She pulled his mouth to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and he took first one nipple then the other between his teeth, biting and nipping until she was squirming and rubbing her wet folds against him eagerly.
He groaned as her v.a.g.i.n.a slid down and took him inside, wet from her cream and his come. Her ankles locked behind his back and she rode him slowly. "You asked me to marry you once," she whispered as her eyes started to fog with l.u.s.t and need. "If you ask me again, not now, but when this is over...and it will be over...soon...I"ll say yes."
"Now," he growled, pushing up into her, his palms curving around her hips, biting into her soft skin. His swarthy face stared intensely up into hers, gleaming with sweat, his dark eyes burning hot with hunger and love and residual anger. "Now," he resisted, digging possessive fingers into her a.s.s, stroking and rubbing her intimately until she quivered.
She shook her head, her silken hair falling over them like a cloak, caressing his shoulders, face and neck. "When the case is over," she told him, then her head fell back as he speared up inside her harder, reaching down to rotate his thumb around her c.l.i.t. She hummed her pleasure, purring like a cat when he bent down and caught a stiff nipple in his mouth, sucking it deep while he stared up at her from beneath his lashes.
Pulling away, he moved up to kiss her again and whisper against her lips, "Tell me, then. Can you tell me again?" He laced his hands through her hair and pulled her back so he could stare into her eyes as she lifted herself up and dropped back down, taking his c.o.c.k harder and faster inside her wet p.u.s.s.y as she started to move closer to o.r.g.a.s.m.
She smiled, a slow, sweet curve of her mouth, still painted that deep wine-red and she said, "I love you, Seth. I loved you from practically the...oh, d.a.m.n...do that again..." He had slid one hand down and started to rub her c.l.i.t again and her eyes widened with pleasure. "Loved you almost from the first. I"ll always love you."
He groaned and crushed her mouth to his, pressing down hard against her c.l.i.t as he pushed up against her repeatedly, until she started to come again, those slow rhythmic sensations that quickly pulled him into climax as well, until he was gasping against her mouth and gritting his teeth while the muscles in her p.u.s.s.y squeezed around him.
"I"m staying with you tonight," he whispered against her hair. Then he forced out a weak laugh. "I don"t know if we"ll make it in to work tomorrow, though."
"Tomorrow is Sat.u.r.day," she murmured weakly. He was still inside her. A long, slow pulse echoed deep inside her v.a.g.i.n.a and she shuddered.
"Good. Maybe come Monday I can tolerate going a few hours without feeling my c.o.c.k inside you," he said, rising and carrying her to bed.
He let her rest for a while, curled up behind her, his c.o.c.k cuddled against her naked a.s.s. She was so exhausted. He had seen the dull shadows around her eyes for weeks, the faint lines of strain on her face. Others who didn"t know her lovely face so well wouldn"t have noticed, but he had. He had worried, even if he had forced himself not to acknowledge it. So he let her rest for a little while.
But she rolled toward him after less than two hours of sleep and he awoke to feel her hand gripping his c.o.c.k firmly, ma.s.saging it before she worked her way down his body and took him in her mouth. "Oh, f.u.c.k," he muttered, winding his hands in her hair and arching up into the wet cave of her mouth as she slid her moist lips back down on him. She stroked his sac with her cool fingers, wrapped the other hand around the base of his shaft and started to stroke a tiny, maddening ma.s.sage.
She pulled away to lick from root to tip and then she caught the looser flesh of his b.a.l.l.s in her mouth and sucked it between her teeth delicately, staring up at him over the flat plane of his belly in the silvery light that poured in through the skylight over her bed. The full moon was what had woken her, and she had lain there, staring at his handsome face, happy just to look at him again for a while, but need turned her blood to lava and she went down on him.
He used his hold on her hair to guide her mouth back down as he rasped, "Stop teasing, Erin. Suck it."
She slid his length in as far as she could, using steady slow strokes, picking up as he guided her with his hand, loving the satin smoothness of his skin, how thick his c.o.c.k was, how he stretched her mouth wide. The smooth, blunt head b.u.mped the back of her throat, slid down further and she swallowed, taking more and more before she slid back up, reveling in his groan as she started the motion over again. She could taste their s.e.x, his come, her cream, dried together on his c.o.c.k. She licked it off, washed him clean, swallowed him as far as she could. His hips started rocking up and he forced her head to move faster and faster until he cried out above her and then she tasted his come in her throat as she swallowed, forcing herself to take his c.o.c.k farther inside, and hold still. He shuddered and both hands went to her head, holding her still as he pumped furiously in and out, his s.e.m.e.n still spilling out from his c.o.c.k into her mouth while he cursed and rasped out her name.
She was startled when he tossed her onto her back and covered her, mounting her roughly and driving inside her as he caught her mouth just as she swallowed his come. She loved the taste of it, but was pretty sure he wouldn"t care for it. He didn"t seem to mind as he f.u.c.ked her furiously, his hands once more tangling in her hair and holding her still as he shafted her roughly. She was lifting up to meet him, hungry and desperate, needing him as much as he needed her.
She gasped for air when he pulled away to lean down and suck on her neck, biting the soft, pale skin. The thick ridge of his c.o.c.k drove deep inside her as he lifted up and stared down into her pale eyes, her lips wet and swollen and red. Her spine arched, her nipples stabbed into his chest. He planted his hands on the mattress and drove into her, using the powerful muscles in his back, his hips and thighs-she wrapped her legs around his hips and lifted herself for each thrust, screaming and pleading and praising, "d.a.m.n it, Seth, don"t stop, please, harder...oh, oh, oh...harder!"
He pounded harder, reaching down and grabbing one knee, shoving her wide open, shuddering as he looked down at the wet, open folds of her pale, glistening s.e.x, the darker gleam of his c.o.c.k burrowing inside. He found her c.l.i.t by touch more than sight in the darkness of the room and tugged it, squeezed it, plucked it, and said, "Come, Erin, let me feel it...make me come again...that"s it, baby...when you come it"s like magic...you could make a f.u.c.king statue come when you lock down with that sweet p.u.s.s.y...do it again...that"s it, baby..." He fell on top of her and pumped roughly as she started her climax, forcing his arms under her, burying his face in her neck while he held on for the ride.
He was shaking when she finished, when she let him finish. He could taste her sweet kiss on his mouth, but he tasted himself as well, and he groaned. "d.a.m.n it, you"ve turned me into a freaking lunatic, Erin," he accused, rolling off reluctantly. His c.o.c.k didn"t want to leave its sweet nest and raged at him. He forced himself to sit up and haul her limp body into his arms. "Kissing you after you give me a f.u.c.king b.l.o.w. .j.o.b, sinking my d.i.c.k into you every twenty minutes, I"m going to kill myself...what a way to go." He caught sight of his goofy grin in the mirror when he flicked the light on and she covered her eyes and squealed, "Hey!"
"We need a bath," he said.
He waited until she was good and clean before he decided to return the favor. After drying her pale, slim body, he smoothed her vanilla lotion on her body and spread her on the bed before he spread her thighs and lay between them. Opening her s.e.x, he stared at her pink folds before glancing up the long, slim lines of her elegant body, over the curves of her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the line of her throat, to meet her pale, glittering blue eyes. A hot smile curved his mouth as he looked at her with a gleam in his eyes.
She was swollen and still sensitive. She was sobbing by the time he slid two fingers inside her channel while he ate her c.l.i.t like a piece of cherry candy, sucking it greedily as he f.u.c.ked her into completion. Waiting until she started to come before he hungrily drove his c.o.c.k inside her writhing body.
When she calmed, he started all over again, riding her slowly...she was begging him to let her come when he finally let them both o.r.g.a.s.m nearly thirty minutes later. Then they slept.
Chapter Five.
Seth couldn"t sleep any more than a few hours. He was too f.u.c.king edgy. Erin was exhausted though so he slid quietly from the bed and prowled the condo before returning to watch her in silence for a while.
He found her journal while she was sleeping. He saw the leather book, lying there, like she had simply laid it down when she finished with it, the silver pen on top of it. He started to walk by it. But then he went back. He picked it up. Put it back. Gritted his teeth and swore in silence. Picked it up again and left the room. Then he walked back, got it and told himself he was a f.u.c.king jacka.s.s.
Within ten minutes, he was convinced Erin needed serious psychological help, so he was feeling better about snooping. She thought she was psychic, for crying out loud. She wrote down how she would dream something and later how it came true. Or she would be walking or driving and the knowledge was just there.
The woman he loved was certifiable.
That was okay. He could handle that. There were a lot of good shrinks around here and what in the f.u.c.k did he care if she thought she could see the future or read people"s minds?
It was as he kept reading that he started to care-she started mentioning him, his cases, things that only he and Eddie knew. A burning started low in his gut, and the blood started roaring in his ears. There was an entry that was six months old, about a drug dealer Eddie and Seth had been watching. They had seen him arrive and they were waiting for another to arrive before they went any closer.
Eddie had left to go get some food and Seth was walking, stretching his legs. He never left the car during a stakeout unless it was to get food and he had left the car this time, for no good reason but he had done it. A quiet, insistent voice, like a low-volume version of the one today, he realized, had kept whispering "Get out, Seth, get out."
He never walked this close without being certain there was a reason. But the voice kept whispering, "Closer. Closer."
If he hadn"t, he wouldn"t have heard the girl"s strangled scream before Pritchard cut off her air supply as he ripped off her denim capris.
She had been all of ten.
And Daniel Pritchard went from drug dealer to kidnapper and would-be child rapist in a heartbeat. And Seth had taken his first life. Guilt wasn"t something that plagued him at night, but the whispered voice in his mind had him doubting his sanity. It had taken him a few months to consign it to instinct and file it away.
It had been Erin.
No. Impossible. But as he kept reading, he read more and more that should have been impossible. And either Erin was suffering serious delusions, or it was all true. She knew another woman was going to die days before it happened and she agonized, but she never knew who until it was too late. Seth felt sick as he read of her guilt over Gloria and realized if she was this delusional, she may well be suicidal as well. If she really believed this, if she had really convinced herself of this, then she was holding herself responsible. He started to wonder if maybe he should talk to the department shrink.
Of course, whether the shrink was for her or him, he didn"t know.
Because he wasn"t quite certain she was crazy. He almost believed what he was reading. That made him certifiable.
He hadn"t realized he had come to today"s entry until he saw Eva"s name. Although her name was at the bottom of the page it leaped out at him-Eva is going to leave Seth.
He hissed. He had only been away from Erin for forty-five minutes. And she had been pretty d.a.m.n busy, her body smooth and oil slick from a bath and he remembered how long she liked to linger. The candles, the bath, simply the driving from his place to hers after she dropped him off would have taken nearly all of those forty-five minutes. Had she taken the journal with her? He had only just mentioned Eva . Had she heard from somebody else?
Something has changed. Something doesn"t feel quite so dark anymore.
I"m not sure, but I think it"s Seth. Having him and Eddie-but mostly him-around, makes me feel...safer. More secure. Something inside me feels a little different. A little less afraid.
I think I have a chance of living through this. And it is because of Seth.
Seth is planning on planting a bug on me without me knowing.
Eddie is going to be the one to do it, today at lunch. He"ll try to slip it into my purse, and another one on my body somewhere, I think probably my necklace.
The meeting with the chief is going to get ugly. Colton doesn"t like Seth, and he doesn"t want him on this case.
Seth"s going to be lucky if he doesn"t get fired before this job is over.
I need to talk to him, try to convince him to keep his cool.
Like he"ll listen to me. He"s a good cop-the best cop I know. But he"s so d.a.m.n hotheaded.
If I live through this, it"s going to be because of him.
I need him here, not in jail or in the unemployment line.
Eva is going to leave Seth.
That did it. She was crazy, he decided. He shoved all the logical reasons why he should believe to the back of his head. Because if he did believe, then it meant the impossible.
The impossible couldn"t be explained. What couldn"t be explained...he ignored. Seth closed the journal, fighting the urge to hurl the leather-bound book across the room. She was crazy-it wasn"t her fault. Of course, it was his fault that he had gone and read her journal. But all in all, it was a good thing- "I"m not crazy, Seth. Nor am I delusional, but, yes, it is your fault you read my journal." Her cool, quiet voice came from the doorway and Seth closed his eyes and felt blood rush up his neck.
"Erin, have you talked to anybody about these, ah...beliefs?" he asked, casually. Best to handle this calmly, quietly. He had to get her to understand the problem, so he could get help for her. The woman he loved had just gone and fallen off the deep end.
"Oh, I fell a long time ago, Seth," she said, laughing and moving out of the doorway. She paused and held a finger to her lips, smiling like a mischievous child as she removed her silver chain from her throat. Her mother had bought the hammered links for her, just before her parents had died in a car crash, and she never removed it...so that action, combined with the secretive ssshhh was a little bothersome.
Then she took her purse, dropped the necklace inside the bugged purse and carried both to the closet, wrapped them in a leather coat, effectively and completely m.u.f.fling them. But then, she dropped the bundle inside a garment bag, and rolled the garment bag into a ball and carried it to the closet in the spare bedroom at the far end of the condo before returning, drawling, "We"d better have the conversation about my sanity in privacy, don"t you think? I realize it was just supposed to be a transmitter on my neck, but I shouldn"t really take that chance, now should I?"
Her eyes were bright and snapping and flags of color rode high on her cheekbones as she strode naked into the room, watching Seth closely. She spied his shirt on the floor and picked it up, shrugging it on and b.u.t.toning enough of the b.u.t.tons to hold the larger garment on her slim frame. It skimmed her thighs, falling almost to her knees as she settled in a large, ivory leather chair. She stared at him in the dim light, her face still mostly in shadow, but he saw the play of emotions there and he wondered at it. Her face was always so blank-but her eyes were bright with anger, her cheeks flushed with it, a tiny vicious smile curving her mouth.
"Was it interesting reading, Seth?" she asked coolly, sounding almost like herself.
"Ah, Erin, maybe we should call Cat. She"s a good doctor and-"
"Cat can go f.u.c.k herself," Erin said smoothly. Caitlin Devore was the police psychiatrist and normally Erin would try to be a little more respectful. But she was a bit p.i.s.sed.
Seth"s eyes widened just slightly before he blanked his features. Her normally perfect composure had broken. That ice-queen facade had cracked and Seth could feel the fiery anger that rolled off her in waves. "Psychics don"t really exist, Erin."
"I"m not crazy, Seth," she repeated. "And I suspect you know that. Of course, I can prove it. And I don"t mind invading your privacy, just this once, since you have no qualms invading mine."
She moved off the chair and crossed over to him and Seth had to bite his lip to keep from yelping when her cool hands cupped his face. Her voice slithered through his head and to his shock, he felt his c.o.c.k harden as she spoke inside his mind. The touch was incredibly intimate, incredibly arousing, and his long body shuddered, his hands falling to the arms of the chair, curling involuntarily into the leather and gripping it tightly as his blood started to pound more heavily in his veins and his s.e.x.
Why did he suddenly feel afraid of her?
Like she had before, that afternoon, that morning, that night six months ago...she whispered, "Because you know I"m not lying, Seth. And people always fear what"s not normal."
Out loud, she said quietly, "The last time you slept with Eva was a week ago. She"s been on her period and you"ve been rather glad of it. Huh-me being on my period never stopped us. You don"t like that you"ve been seeing me around the office the past few days, with the case going on...you"re always worried you"ll end up calling her by my name while you"re f.u.c.king her. You"ve done it while you sleep though." Her voice, always so soft, so cool and calm, was hot again, almost pulsing with her anger and when he stared into her eyes, they were flashing with it.
He recoiled, flinching with the knowledge she had just shared, unable to argue, knowing it was all too likely to be true. Erin"s hands fell away and she retreated to her chair, curling her legs to her chest and staring at him. "I"m not a sideshow freak, but if you want more proof, I"d be happy to oblige. But if you"re satisfied...?"
His gut churned, his eyes stung, bile burned the back of his throat. And he still wanted, more than anything, to tumble her down and f.u.c.k her until they both died from the pleasure. "This afternoon, you knew something was up with Colton?" he asked roughly.
Her lids lowered and she nodded. "I don"t know why, but yes, I know he was gunning for you. He doesn"t care for you. He doesn"t want you on this case," she replied.
"What about after?"
She blushed. "No. I didn"t know about that. It"s not predictable, the way it works, Seth. Sometimes it"s like a digital movie, with sound effects, a picture that will blow your mind, full-color, the works. Other times, I only get words, or thoughts, or just the knowledge. And I don"t have any control over how it comes to me."
"Can you read anybody"s mind as easily as you just read mine?"
"From time to time. Touch makes it easier. If it"s something I need to know, then the knowledge comes. Other people have minds that are very...open. Cops don"t. That"s part of the reason I became one. And normally, I can"t get a glimmer from you. You"re one of the tougher ones. Your control is weaker now, from s.e.x, from shock, from being tired. But normally reading you is like reading a rock." She smiled briefly. "That"s part of the reason I agreed to go out with you, at first. I didn"t keep getting all these random thoughts from your mind."
He just stared at her, trying to reconcile what he had just learned to what he had known, not even reacting when she walked by him. Seth just sat there, staring into nothing. The little girl, f.u.c.k, she had saved that little girl. She had known. How many people had she been able to help that way? How many of the cops he worked with? He knew all too many of the cases they had that seemed impossible and suddenly, an odd, almost miraculous break came. And he wondered how many of them were miraculous, and how many were Erin.
She returned a few minutes later, wearing sand-washed silk pajamas and a robe, offering him his shirt. "You"re welcome to take my car," she said, gesturing to the keys.
His eyes traveled from the hand that held his shirt, up to her elbow, her shoulder, her neck, until he reached her face. "Are you telling me to go?" he asked gruffly, a hot slippery ball of fear in his gut. f.u.c.k, had he p.i.s.sed her off that much?
"Don"t you want to?" she asked with a sigh. She had sh.o.r.ed up her own defenses and felt her face falling into its familiar blank lines. Already, she had felt his fear, felt his confusion. Soon his rejection would come, and she didn"t want to feel it.
When his hand closed over hers and pulled the shirt away, tossing it aside, she met his eyes.
"No," he rasped, rising from the chair to back her up against the wall. His hands cradled her face and she shuddered as she felt the ma.s.sive onslaught of thoughts that battered her mind.
"No," he repeated, sliding his hands inside her pajamas pants and stripping them off. "I love you. I think I"d like it better if you were insane, but-"
His mouth covered hers and Erin"s whole world shifted as she allowed him to touch her for the first time without her defenses in place. Shielding herself was automatic, was instinct, and it was more difficult to let them down than to hold them up. Without the shields, the thoughts that would batter her mind out in the real world would be too much, and she very likely would go insane from it all, but here, with Seth, just Seth, all she felt was what he felt.
And he felt only her.
His hands slicked over the smoothness of the silk pajama top she had pulled on to cover herself from him and he hated it. He jerked it from her body while he fought to free his c.o.c.k from his trousers, fumbling and swearing, and Erin felt the ravenous need that filled his mind and just that was enough to make a long, slow pulse shudder through her v.a.g.i.n.a, enough to make her c.l.i.t swell in antic.i.p.ation. He groaned her name against her mouth as he freed himself and thrust home, arching his hips and driving deep. She pushed back and screamed, feeling the echo of how she felt around him, tight, wet, silky. He felt hot, huge, hungry as he started to pump his hips, working his c.o.c.k in and out of her as he kissed her desperately.
She caught his face in her hands and felt something damp on his cheeks, startled to find something else in his mind, a gut-deep fear that she would have thrown him out again, that he would have lost her. She pulled her mouth from his, gasping as he circled his hips against hers and rubbed against her c.l.i.t as she murmured, "No, I"m not leaving. You"re not leaving...G.o.d willing, we"ll grow old and die together."
Seth"s eyes stared into hers, as he drove harder and harder into her, pushing higher, until she was mewling and whimpering and begging. She felt the backlash of his own pleasure in her mind and it was devastating, the force of it constricting her lungs until she could hardly breathe from it. "Seth, please," she gasped as he rubbed her c.l.i.t, burying his c.o.c.k inside her p.u.s.s.y to the b.a.l.l.s and rocking against her.