She licked her lips.“Yep.”
This time his kiss was harder.Not punishing or hurtful, just more urgent, more…desperate.He gently bit her lower lip and then sucked it into his mouth as he adjusted his angle to hit a spot inside her that made her back bow.
He gave her a knowing look.“You like that?”
She would’ve rolled her eyes, but she was in thrall, chasing the most intense pleasure she’d ever felt.“Do it again.”Her eyes closed as he obliged her.“Harder.”
Ford followed orders expertly, and soon their bodies were crashing together with abandon.Until he pulled back slightly, and she scrabbled to grab his hip, to keep him close.“I’m not going anywhere.”Instead, he slid his hand between them, caressing her clit.“Can you come for me, Nat?”
On command?The answer crashed through her like a storm surge, relentless and unstoppable.Above her, Ford groaned and grunted as his hips slapped against hers a few more times, and then he collapsed, sliding toward her good side, because apparently even in the throes of amazing sex he never stopped being a protector.
Her heart tumbled a little at the gesture, and she forced herself not to panic.She didn’t do panic.Especially not over a man.Not even this one.
Closing her eyes against the shining light from the ceiling fixture, she catalogued the sound of his quick breaths, the scent of his skin, the feel of his body pressing her pleasantly into the springy mattress, the way her leaden limbs still hummed and fizzed.She felt like a Fourth-of-July sparkler, all hot and bright and exuberant.She could happily stay like this all night.
Ford lifted his weight and rolled to his side, but before she could complain, he crowded up against her with an arm slung across her hips.Within seconds, his muscles relaxed and his breath evened out.
She almost laughed.“Did I tucker you out?”she whispered to herself, not wanting to wake him.
The poor guy probably hadn’t managed a full night’s sleep in days.Maybe weeks.She lay next to him for several minutes, enjoying the feel of his heavy arm lashing her to the bed, the sated, floaty feeling in her limbs, the sense of calm that had briefly shut off the constant chatter in her mind.
But the swirling thoughts returned, and she had to pee, so she carefully slid from his grasp, grabbed her clothes, and tiptoed down the spiral staircase, awkwardly gripping the rail with her good hand, even though it was on the wrong side.
After relieving herself, she washed her face and brushed her teeth, still startled by her changed appearance in the mirror.Her new, too-short hair was also annoying because she didn’t have a good way to pull it back.No messy buns or ponytails in her near future.She tried not to pout, and made a mental note to buy some barrettes or a head band next time they went shopping.
A few minutes later, she was back at the little table, fully dressed, hair tucked behind her ears as she accessed the Internet through the secure browser on her computer, and began her research, starting with Remy Blaze.
With Blitz lying heavily against her feet, Natalie created a spreadsheet to track information alongside the names of the dozen or so men she could recall that the Night Herons had exposed.
She spent hours scanning every bit of news she could find, taking note of what each man was doing now, where he lived—a few were in jail—his known associates, the details of his crimes, and anything else she could think of that might be relevant to finding a link or identifying the person behind the attack on her and Emma.
She also made a note to ask Dallas if there was a way to use AI to do this kind of analysis while maintaining the team’s anonymity.It would save a ton of time and probably find info or recognize connections that she missed.
“Couldn’t sleep?”Ford’s rusty voice came from the doorway.
Nat jumped, startled by his sudden presence.How had he snuck up on her?Pressing a hand to her chest to calm her racing heart, she looked at him over her shoulder.
“Sorry,” he said.“Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“S’okay.”She turned her attention back to her computer, because—goddamn—he looked good, all sleep rumpled, hair a little wild, plaid boxers doing nothing to hide his lean physique.
He grabbed a cup of water and came to stand beside her in a position where he couldn’t view her screen.“What are you working on?”
Sighing, she sat back in the chair and rubbed her suddenly tired eyes.“Trying to figure out who’s after me and my team.”
“Any luck?”
She shook her head.“So far, I just have a list of assholes who might blame us for destroying their good standing.Nothing jumps out at me though.”
Ford sat in the chair across from her, giving her neck a break from looking up.“These are all people you wrote about, and it ruined their career somehow?”
This was where it got tricky, because if he looked up her byline, she was on very few of the breaking stories.She had just enough articles to her name to support her assertion that she worked as a reporter for the Free Pen Project.
The FPP was a legit group that she and Emma had formed to support the often-underfunded investigative journalism work, but they kept that separate from the work they did for the Night Herons.The two of them always passed along the information and evidence they collected to someone at one of the major media companies.Sometimes it was the person who’d tipped them off to the crimes in the first place—usually when they couldn’t convince their paper or news outlet to let them follow the story.Sometimes it was a reporter they knew could bring the story to the widest audience.
At every stage, they went to great lengths to hide their link to those breaking the news, and spread out who they fed information to in order to protect their network.But someone had figured it out anyway.Maybetheywere using AI?
Regardless, Ford waited patiently for an answer, and he could easily verify her bylines with a quick web search.“Emma and I tend to work behind the scenes on the investigative side.For maximum impact, we usually pass on what we find to our network of writers at larger news outlets.”All true, it was just their methods and funding sources that might not pass muster if revealed.
