02 Madoc (8 page)

Sitting back on her heels, Shayna let her gaze run over Madoc’s naked body. Damn, he was hot! In fact, she could just sit there and look at him all night, she decided. When they had made love at the cabin, it had been so frenzied that she hadn’t had a chance to really appreciate how truly gorgeous he was, but now she wanted to take him all in. Wow, she thought, there wasn’t a part of his magnificent body that wasn’t perfect!

But no matter how good the rest of him looked, her attention kept coming back to his extremely hard cock, standing proud and erect between his muscular legs. Unable to resist temptation any longer, she decided to give in to it. Leaning forward, she wrapped her hand around his throbbing erection, and then, giving him a naughty look, she took him in her mouth. She wasn’t sure which of them groaned more loudly - Madoc because it felt so good, or her, because he tasted so wonderful.

Shayna took her time with him, slowing running her tongue first over the head of his cock, and then up and down the length of him. As she lowered her head to do it all over again, she gently cupped his balls with her other hand, lovingly caressing them. She ran her tongue up his cock as if he were a delicious treat. Which he was, she decided as she swiped her tongue over the glistening bead of precome she found on the head of his cock. Mmmm, she thought. He tasted so good!

She continued to tease him like that for awhile longer, slowly running her tongue all over him before she changed tactics and took his entire cock deep in mouth. As she felt him slide all the way to the back of her throat, she couldn’t help but let out a little moan. Madoc was obviously enjoying it, too, because he groaned as well.

Shayna could tell that he was getting close to coming, and she had to argue with herself about what she should do next. A part of her wanted to feel his come shooting into her mouth, but the other part of her decided that would have to wait. Right now, she wanted to feel that glorious cock of his inside her!

As she got to her feet a moment later, she couldn’t help but smile at the disappointed look on Madoc’s face. But just as quickly, his expression changed to one of eagerness as she climbed onto his lap and slowly eased herself down onto him.

He was so big that it was a wonder she could take him all, but take him all she did, and Shayna caught her breath as she felt him fill her completely. For a moment, she sat there unmoving, just enjoying the feel of him deep inside of her. But then she began to rotate her hips in slow, insistent circles. Madoc reached out to grasp her hips, clearly wanting her to move faster, but she playfully smacked his hands away.

“Hands off,” she ordered. “I’m in charge of this ride.”

Madoc held up his hands in a placating gesture. “Whatever you say,” he agreed, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

Despite his words, however, it clearly wasn’t in Madoc’s nature to sit back and do nothing, because soon after, he reached out and began to undo the buttons on her shirt. A moment later, he pushed it off her shoulders and tossed it onto the cushion beside them. Her bra quickly followed, and then he was cupping a breast in each hand.

Capturing each of her nipples between a thumb and forefinger, he began to roll them gently back and forth with his fingers.

As much as Shayna wanted to take things slowly, she couldn’t. Within moments, she found it impossible to sit still and began to move up and down in time with his caresses. But just because he had gotten her moving didn’t mean she couldn’t be the one to set the pace, she told herself with a little smile. With that in mind, she rode him slowly, grinding herself hard against him each time she came down.

But Madoc only let her torture him like that for so long before he took charge. Giving her nipples a firm squeeze, he slid his hands down her waist and over her hips to cup her asscheeks. Her breath caught in her throat as he began to massage her bottom. While her ass didn’t sting as much as it had right after the spanking, it still tingled just enough to make what he was doing with his hands feel even more incredible than if she hadn’t gotten spanked at all. Who knew that a good spanking could make sex so good?

Without realizing it, Shayna discovered that she had started to ride him faster and faster, and before she knew it, she was already approaching orgasm. For one, wild moment, she wondered if she should try to hold off or not, but that decision was made for her as Madoc gripped her hips tightly and began to pull her down even harder and faster against him.

Shayna closed her eyes and threw her head back as the first ripples of ecstasy coursed through her. They started somewhere deep inside of her, and then began to spiral outward, and by the time the pulsating waves of pleasure crested over her, she realized she was already screaming in ecstasy. And yet, despite how loudly she was crying out, she still managed to hear Madoc’s groans of satisfaction, and knowing that he was coming with her only made her own orgasm that much more intense.

Much later, as she lay draped against his shoulder, she heard Madoc whisper in her ear.

“You know,” he said softly. “I could really get used to this.”

Shayna smiled against his neck. “Me, too.”

As she cuddled up against him, Shayna couldn’t help but wonder what Madoc had meant by that comment. Had he just been referring to the sex? While it was amazing, Shayna realized that she was starting to hope for something more between them. And yet, at the same time, she was amazed she could even be thinking such a thing. She had just met Madoc days ago. Was she really falling for him, or was she just confusing gratitude for love?

Deciding that she didn’t have an answer to that question right then, Shayna closed her eyes and snuggled closer to the wonderful man beside her.

By the time he and Shayna roused themselves from the couch, the food Madoc had picked up from the Chinese restaurant earlier was cold, so they had to reheat it in the microwave. Rather than sit at the kitchen table to eat, though, they carried their plates into the living room and settled back down on the couch. Despite how hungry he was, however, it was difficult to focus on eating with Shayna sitting so close to him. She had pulled her knees up, which made the shirt slip down and expose the tantalizing skin of her thigh and hip. It also didn’t help that she kept letting out these sexy, little sighs of pleasure as she ate, either. They reminded him of the passionate noises she had made while they had been making love earlier. And all that did was make him want her again.

“I feel like I haven’t eaten in days,” Shayna said as she used her chopsticks to pick up another piece of chicken.

“You don’t know how tempted I was to eat every one of those cookies Mrs. Murray brought over.”

Madoc scowled. He still couldn’t believe that his sweet, nosy neighbor had been sitting there on the couch drinking coffee with Shayna when he’d come in. “You shouldn’t have let her in,” he said. “And you definitely shouldn’t have given her your real name.”

Shayna gave him an embarrassed look. “It just kind of came out. Mrs. Murray is so friendly that I just didn’t think, I guess,” she said, and then added, “You don’t think she’ll remember seeing me in the newspapers or anything, do you?”

From everything he knew about his elderly neighbor, the woman was probably more inclined to watch Dr. Phil than America’s Most Wanted, and even if by chance she had seen Shayna’s picture on the local news all those months ago, she probably wouldn’t remember. At least Madoc hoped she wouldn’t.

Realizing that Shayna was looking at him expectantly, he shook his head. “I doubt it,” he said, and then gave her a stern look. “But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to be more careful.”

Beside him, Shayna nodded. “I will. I promise,” she told him, and then as if she were afraid he would scold her some more, she hurried on. “So, were you able to find out anything that might help me?”

Madoc helped himself to more rice before answering. “I read through the police reports, but there wasn’t much to go on,” he said. “I’m thinking our best bet is going to be to take a look around your boss’ apartment.”

Her brow furrowed at that. “But if he had left anything incriminating around, wouldn’t the police have found it when they searched his place.”

Madoc shrugged. “Not necessarily,” he said. “When the cops were at his place, they were looking for evidence against you, not him, which means they could have missed something that would incriminate him.”

Though Shayna said nothing, Madoc could see the flicker of hope in her eyes. While he knew finding evidence linking Evan Mercer to the embezzlement was probably going to be a long shot, especially since the man had been so careful about covering his tracks up to that point, Madoc didn’t say that to Shayna. Instead, he told her that they could go check it out as soon as they were finished eating.

“You want me to go with you?” Shayna asked, looking at him in surprise.

Madoc nodded. “You’d be more likely to recognize something of a financial nature faster than I would,” he said.

“Besides, if I leave you here alone, you’ll probably just invite the rest of my neighbors over.”

Shayna made a face at him, but said nothing. In all honesty, she was thrilled that Madoc wanted her to go with him to check out Evan’s apartment. It was difficult to believe that two days ago he had been determined to toss her back in jail, she thought. Now, he wanted her to help him prove her innocence.

Finishing up with dinner, Shayna went into the bedroom to get dressed while Madoc took their plates into the kitchen. Ten minutes later, they were on their way to Evan Mercer’s apartment.

Shayna hadn’t given much thought to how they would get into the man’s apartment once they got there, and she was surprised when Madoc knelt down to pick the lock. Oh God, she thought, she really had turned the upstanding Marshal into a criminal. That made her frown. While she knew she would be too selfish to turn down his help now that he had agreed to give it, she would feel absolutely awful if Madoc got into trouble because of her.

She was still worrying about that when Madoc opened the door and ushered her inside the apartment. Closing the door behind them, he turned on the light.

Shayna whirled around to look at him. “Shouldn’t we be doing this with flashlights?” she whispered.

Madoc looked at her in confusion. “Why would we use flashlights?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “They always do that in the movies.”

His mouth quirked. “Yeah, well, a flashlight flickering around in a dark room looks way more suspicious than turning on the light,” he told her. “Now, you said he has a home office, right?”

She nodded.

“Then let’s start in there,” he said.

Having been to her boss’s apartment several times, Shayna knew exactly where Evan Mercer’s home office was, so she led Madoc directly down the hall and into a small room off to the right. Unfortunately, her boss wasn’t the most organized person on the planet, so searching through the stacks of books and papers on his desk took awhile. It didn’t help that Shayna had no idea what she was even supposed to be looking for. But when she asked Madoc, all he said was, “something incriminating.”

“That’s a big help,” she muttered as she pulled open another one of the desk drawers.

Like the others, this drawer was stuffed with stacks of old paperwork, both personal and business related. Letting out a sigh, Shayna took out a handful of papers and began to skim through them. She was just nearing the bottom of the stack when she saw something that caught her attention.

“I think I may have found something!” she said excitedly.

Across the room, Madoc looked up from the folders he’d been rifling through. “What is it?”

“Account numbers for an offshore bank,” she said.

Pushing the drawer of the file cabinet closed, Madoc came over to stand beside her chair. Resting one hand on the back of it, he leaned over to read the paper on the desk in front of her.

“Lawrence Mulrooney is the CEO of the company where I worked,” she explained, pointing to the man’s name at the top of the paper. “And these,” she added, pointing to the column of seemingly-meaningless numbers, “are overseas bank accounts.”

Madoc’s brow furrowed. “And what does that mean?”

Shayna tilted her head to the side to look at him. “It means that Evan Mercer wasn’t the one who framed me,” she said. “Mulrooney wouldn’t need to have all of these offshore accounts if he weren’t trying to hide something. He must have been the one moving money out of the retirement funds and Evan must have found out about it. Isn’t this what we were looking for? A list of overseas bank accounts is suspicious enough to get the cops to take a look at Mulrooney, right?”

Madoc shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. Not by itself,” he said. “The DA wouldn’t want to muddy up his case by looking at someone like Mulrooney. Not based on something like this. Especially when they already have the case wrapped up against you.”

Shayna felt her heart sink. What good was having proof if they couldn’t use it to get her out of this mess?

Beside her, Madoc was frowning thoughtfully. “Can you type up an official looking bank document showing money being transferred into these accounts from the retirement funds?” he asked after a moment.

She looked at him in confusion. “I suppose so,” she said. “But they wouldn’t stand up to any scrutiny. I don’t have any of the dates or routing numbers for the transactions. So, what good would it do?”

The Marshal shrugged. “I’m not trying to use it as evidence for the DA,” he said. “But if I can convince this Mulrooney guy that I have more evidence than I do, I might be able to get him to incriminate himself.”

Shayna’ brow furrowed. “But why would he admit anything to a U.S. Marshal?”

Madoc flashed her a grin. “Because he’s not going to know I’m a U.S. Marshal.”

Some of Shayna’s excitement at the prospect of finding out who had framed her waned once she had heard the rest of Madoc’s plan, however. When he’d first outlined his plan on the way back to his apartment the night before, it had seemed so simple. Madoc would get Mulrooney to admit on tape that he had embezzled the money and framed her. But as she listened to him set up a meeting with the CEO on the phone the next morning, she realized how much risk Madoc was taking to help clear her name. Madoc couldn’t tell any of his coworkers what he was doing, which meant that he was going to be completely on his own. That worried her. If they assumed Mulrooney had embezzled the money and framed her, then he had most likely murdered her boss as well. That meant he was dangerous, and she wasn’t quite sure she liked the idea of Madoc confronting him alone. While she was incredibly grateful to him for helping her, she was also getting more and more worried about something happening to him because of it.

She had spent the whole morning trying to figure out how to tell him about her fears, but for some ridiculous reason, she couldn’t seem to get the words out. And then after lunch, Madoc had announced he was going out to pick up some surveillance equipment for his meeting with Mulrooney that night.

While he was out, Shayna chided herself for not saying something to him. She would bring it up the moment he got back, she told herself. Of course, she didn’t really expect him to pay too much attention to her concerns. He had way too much testosterone to let his girlfriend’s worries get in the way.

That thought made her stop in her tracks. Girlfriend? Had their relationship already gotten to the point where she thought of herself as his girlfriend? Apparently, it had. She couldn’t help but wonder if Madoc thought of her the same way. Obviously, he was attracted to her, but would he want to pursue anything long-term with her after they had cleared her name? She hoped so, but she had no way to know for sure.

Shayna was still mulling that over when Madoc returned with a bag full of surveillance gear. Remembering her earlier promise to talk to him about her fears, she brought up the subject while he unloaded the bag.

“I don’t know if this whole thing is such a good idea, Madoc,” she said as she watched him pull a small cylinder-shaped item out of the bag and begin to pin it inside his coat.

He glanced at her. “Sure it is. We need evidence, and this is the best way to get it.”

She hugged her arms around her middle and chewed on her lower lip. “I know, and I really appreciate it, but shouldn’t you have back-up with you for this kind of stuff?”

Madoc’s mouth quirked as he shrugged into his coat and checked the position of the item he had pinned inside it.

It must have been some kind of microphone or something, she thought. “Mulrooney is a petty, white-collar criminal,” he told her. “I think I can handle him.”

Shayna sighed inwardly. What was it with guys and their egos? she wondered. “You’re forgetting that Mulrooney probably murdered Evan Mercer.”

“Based on what we know, I’d say that Mulrooney went over to talk to Mercer and panicked when he found out Mercer was on to him,” Madoc said. “It wasn’t like he planned to murder Mercer, so I don’t see him as the cold-blooded killer. Besides, I don’t plan on confronting him by myself. Once I get the evidence I need, I’ll call in the local PD and let them take care of him.”

Madoc made it sound so simple, she thought. “Well, I’d still feel better if you had back-up with you,” Shayna insisted, and then added, “In case things don’t go as planned.”

Madoc reached out to gently brush her hair back from her face. “I can’t bring anyone else in on this, Shayna,” he said. “Not without them finding out about you. Besides, everything will go just fine.”

She chewed on her lower lip again. “Maybe it would be a good idea if I went with you.”

“Absolutely not,” he said firmly. “It’s too dangerous.”

She frowned up at him. “You just said that is wasn’t dangerous.”

His mouth tightened. “I didn’t say that at all,” he corrected. “What I said was that I could handle him. But if you come with me, I’ll be worrying about you when I should be focusing on Mulrooney, and that would definitely make things dangerous.”

“But what if something goes wrong, and you need back-up?” she persisted.

Madoc sighed. “I’ll be fine. If I need help, I have my cell. I’ll call for backup.”

“But...”

He gently cupped her cheek with his hand. “I’ll be fine, Shayna. Really,” he told her. “I’m trained for this kind of thing, remember?”

She swallowed hard. “You’ll be careful, right?”

The corner of his mouth edged up. “Always,” he said. Lowering his head, he kissed her gently. “I’ll be back soon.

And if everything goes as planned, we’ll have all the evidence we need to clear you by morning.”

As the door closed behind Madoc, everything suddenly became perfectly clear to her. There was no denying it anymore. This was more than just wanting to be Madoc’s girlfriend. She was completely head-over-heels in love with the man. How else could she explain the fact that she suddenly couldn’t care less about him proving her innocence? She’d gladly go on the run for the rest of her life if it meant he would be safe. She wouldn’t be willing to do that for him if she weren’t in love, she told herself.

And now that she had finally recognized her feelings for what they were, she wasn’t going to just sit back and do nothing while he risked his life for her. Regardless of how glib he was being about the whole thing, Madoc was putting himself into serious danger. And she wasn’t going to let him do that on his own! Grabbing her coat, she headed for the door. Madoc needed her help, whether he wanted to admit it or not. And she wasn’t going to let him down!

The park had already emptied out by this time of day, and in the gathering dusk, Madoc glanced at his watch.

Damn, Mulrooney was late. Madoc hoped that didn’t mean the other man had decided not to show. This was their only chance to get the evidence necessary to clear Shayna’s name. If the CEO didn’t bite, then they were screwed.