“Shall we get back to searching?” she asked.
“Back toimplies we started in the first place.”
“Weren’t you looking while I got us drinks?”
I watched her as she sat on the edge of the bed, folding one leg neatly under the other. “Maybe,” I said, allowing myself a leisurely gaze over her body, “… or maybe I was watching your ass.”
She smirked. “Well, watch my ass as I get dressed, then come help me look.”
Lifting myself into a sitting position, I did exactly that, and memorized the lines of her body as she pulled on some clothes she had lying around, her others having been discarded in the living room earlier. The black tank and baggy three-quarter shorts did nothing to dim how hot she was. I knew what she looked like under those clothes now, and the image of her writhing underneath me, her lips pouted, and a small frown as she adjusted to my size was forever imprinted in my mind.
Sighing, I rolled off the bed and pulled my pants back on, not bothering with anything else. Something told me it wouldn’t be long before I’d be taking them off again. I followed her back down the hall into the living room, where Nikki immediately bent over to adjust a pile of books.
I couldn’t help myself.
Approaching, I grabbed her hips as she bent at the waist, her ass in the air. Pushing against her, I knew she’d be able to feel my cock through our clothes, and she moaned and wiggled as I ground against her, rubbing my cock along her pussy and between her ass cheeks. When she stood, her cheeks were flushed, and she grinned at me, dragging her teeth across her lip.
“Well…” I said, flexing my fingers on her hips, “… aren’t we going to search for the cuffs?”
She glared at me, unsure what game I was playing. When she bent again, I slid my hand down the back of her shorts, and she giggled until I cupped her cheek in my palm and pushed my middle finger into her ass. Nikki jumped away from me like a shot, and if possible, her cheeks were even redder. “You’re not going to find them in there!”
My lips lifted into a smirk. Her eyes were wide, but it wasn’t anger I saw there.
Arousal and curiosity.
Good to know.Store that information for later.
Nikki stared at me for a moment, and I waited for her to protest further. But she closed the gap between us, and when I snaked my arms around her waist, she didn’t stop me. She was so warm against me, a little fireball, and she ignited every part of me. A strangled cry was torn from me when she gripped my cock through my pants. Hard.
“You ready to help?” She smirked at me.
“Yeah,” I choked out.
Nikki’s grip tightened, and I gritted my teeth, the pain so sweet. “Yes,what?”she crooned.
Oh,fuck no.
My hand was around her throat, and she sucked air in sharply as I tightened my grip. My other hand grabbed her wrist until she was forced to release her grip on me, which had increased. “That’s not going to work on me, angel,” I said, a growl Icouldn’t control rumbling deep in my chest. “I’m the boss in that department.”
Her eyes flashed with disobedience, and she grinned. “We’ll see about that.”
Letting her go, we stared at each other for a moment longer, the challenge I had laid out hung heavy in the air between us. I debated if I should throw her over my lap and spank her or toss her over the couch and fuck her again. Then she bent, slowly and purposefully, turning back and smirking when she saw my gaze on her ass as if I had any chance of resisting. My cock twitched, but she began making a new pile of books next to the fireplace, moving and grabbing books and magazines from around the room systematically.
Steering clear of where I planted the stolen cuffs, I followed suit. Fear began to tug at my chest as I kneeled next to the couch, stacking up papers that were on the small table, covering the base of a lamp that looked to be antique but may have simply been designed to appear that way. I followed Nikki’s lead and built a pile of files next to the fireplace, my curiosity getting the better of me as the pile increased. Everything I pulled from the table, the couch, and under the couch was the same—folders full of notes and photographs, dodgy pictures that were so blurred and skewed they must’ve been copies of copies, and Post-it notes with questions scrawled across them.
It took me longer than it should have, distracted by my selfish thoughts of waiting to be caught out for bringing back the wrong handcuffs to realize these were Nikki’s investigations into her father’s death. I began to skim-read a few as I gathered them, aware that I was probably crossing a line into what was acceptable prying but unable to stop myself.
She’d followed the money—always a good start. But the ownership of the buildings which were once her father’s had changed and became complicated, being switched betweenprivate businesses, trusts, and names of people who didn’t exist, until she was going around in circles and ending up nowhere. Images of the buildings she either knew or suspected to have been her father’s were surrounded by notes in her scrawled writing, every slanted letter joined to the next and barely a space between words. It looked like no one was willing to talk to her, whether she tried to use her uniform to get through the door or not.
A file was snatched from my hand, and I looked up to meet her eyes, expecting to see anger but instead finding embarrassment and shame.
“I’m taking a break from investigating,” Nikki said, turning away from me.
Thank God.“Why’s that?”
Nikki sighed, adding the file to the stack I had already created. “I don’t think he’d want me to wile my life away trying to find his killer.” Before I could respond, she’d spun around to face me, her cheeks flaming again. “But I’m not giving up, not now, not ever. I’ll let things settle down at work, make themthinkI’ve stopped, and then I’ll keep going.” Her gaze dropped to the floor, and her jaw worked as she tensed and released like she was grinding her teeth. “I won’t give up on him.”
She was never going to stop.
