Designed for Murder (Killer Style) (6 page)

Mika didn’t respond. Her breathing had turned steady. No doubt the adrenaline had drained out of her system and she was crashing. Sleep was the best thing for her. Now he could put in his headphones and get to work.

Two hours later and he was reading the preliminary report from the Harbor City crime lab, what little there was of it. The vestment had been logged in.

Rush Case: Yes

Color: Purple With Silver Thread

Length: One Yard

Weight: Three pounds

Notes: Light scent of mothballs. Material has little give, stiff to the touch.

He dragged his thumb across the middle knuckle of his pointer finger as he contemplated the scant information. Something was off. The weight seemed excessive, and the tidbit about the mothballs scratched at a deeply buried factoid. Right as he applied pressure to the finger joint, Mika mumbled in her sleep, yanking his attention toward her.

Damn it. She’d been right. He was popping his knuckles a lot lately. He flexed his fingers instead and rolled his neck from side to side before searching for more information on the crime lab’s network and coming up with nada.

His stomach rumbled. What he wouldn’t do for a tray of his mom’s enchiladas right about now. Or a chorizo on a hot-dog bun—a combination that made her turn up her nose in disgust. His mother had immigrated to Harbor City when she was three, but you’d never guess it by the way she clung to her Castillo Mexican roots. At his cousin Gabe’s wedding to Keisha a few months ago, his mother had cornered him and told him in no uncertain terms that she was too fabulous not be an
abuela
, so he needed to get moving on that pronto.

Not for the first time in his life, he was glad his cousin was a billionaire, because the custom fireworks show over the Harbor City Bay that had boomed to life at that exact moment had provided the perfect interruption, freeing him from having to explain to his mother for the fiftieth time since he’d shot Ivy that he wasn’t the marrying kind. That part of him had died when he’d fired that bullet.

Grabbing ahold of his focus with both hands before it spiraled into the darkness, he exited out of the crime lab’s network, careful to cover his virtual tracks. There’d be more tomorrow. Crime labs weren’t as fast as they showed on television, but the fact that Reggie had gotten a rush label put on the case meant preliminary results would be in sometime tomorrow. They wouldn’t be specific enough to take to court, but they’d steer the detectives—and Carlos—in the right direction.

His gaze wandered away from the screen, landing on Mika on the couch. She’d undone her thick braid, and her long brown hair tangled around her face. The blanket covering her moved up and down in a steady rhythm, and her face had relaxed into deep sleep. Like this, in the moonlight’s soft glow, she looked less like temptation personified and more like a dream—one he couldn’t let himself fall into.

Without thinking, he clicked the laptop’s touchpad mouse. Mika’s Internet history popped up on the screen. He gulped. There was plenty of what he’d expected—fashion blogs, design associations, LARP news—and then there was the porn. He shouldn’t click, but he did anyway.

He’d heard of female-friendly porn. He didn’t know if this was it, but the woman in the camera’s focus sure was enjoying herself. The man with his face buried between her legs was making her thighs tremble while the man playing with her tits narrated the experience, whispering exactly what was going on into the moaning woman’s ear. By the time she came, Carlos was ready to follow her lead.

Movement off-screen caught his attention. Mika had rolled so her back was to him. The move had drawn the blanket partially off her and the oversize T-shirt so he could see the dark green panties hugging her round ass. It was too much and too little at the same damn time—not that it mattered. She was off-limits. Even if she wasn’t the client, there was something about Mika that snuck through the chinks in his armor and got to his soft center. He’d sworn he’d never again be the sucker he’d been with Ivy, and he wouldn’t be.

Carlos exited out of the porn video, adjusted her Internet browser history so it didn’t look like he’d ever accessed it, and pulled the headphones from his ears. Time for sleep. The hard floor wouldn’t feel good, but it was probably what he needed.

He stripped off his jeans, dropped them by the pile created by his shoes and T-shirt, then got into the sleeping bag. Closing his eyes, he tried to think of what would explain the vestment’s mothball smell but came up with zilch. Especially not when images of Mika with her legs spread wide before him crowded out any other thoughts. He could feel the smooth silk of her legs, smell her desire, and see the evidence of how much she wanted him in the way her slick folds were dewy and plump.

His dick bypassed iron and went straight to a call-your-doctor level of hardness, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. No matter how tempting, he couldn’t jerk off with Mika only a few feet away. Gritting his teeth, he resigned himself to the fact that it was going to be a long and miserable night.

“Hey Carlos.” Mika’s sultry voice floated across the space between them. “Did you like what you saw on my computer?”

His eyes snapped open. That’s when he noticed the large mirror on the wall right behind the computer desk.

Fuck.

“Did you?” The sound of the blanket sliding off of her and hitting the floor accompanied her question.

“Yes.” No point in lying now, especially when he was pitching a tent in a sleeping bag.

The flutter of something hitting the floor pulled his focus toward her. Mika stood by the couch in only her green panties. Her tousled hair fell across her bare shoulders, the longest strands brushing against the pale brown of her hard nipples.

“Show me how much you liked it.” She hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her panties and slipped them off.

He didn’t need a second invitation.

Chapter Six

“A dress makes no sense unless it inspires me to want to take it off you.”

—Francoise Sagan

T
he cool night a
ir slid over Mika’s overheated bare skin. Watching him watching her favorite porn videos had turned her on more than she realized it could. When the three-way first reflected in the mirror behind the desk, a flash of embarrassment flared in her cheeks. But when Carlos didn’t turn it off…didn’t turn away…her core tightened in response to seeing the way he squirmed in his seat, how his jaw had tensed and his hands had tightened into fists as the scene played. By the time he’d ripped the earbuds out, she knew exactly what was going to happen next.

So here she stood, naked and aching for his touch to banish her personal demons and make her forget for a few hours that bad things happened. Their arguments had been foreplay, and now she wanted the main event. But he had on too many clothes. It might just be his boxer briefs, but it was too much. His hard length was outlined against tight cotton, the head pointing downward but straining against it. She hadn’t gotten the chance to take her time tasting his cock last night. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

Carlos trailed a finger across her collarbone, tracing it from shoulder to chest and leaving a steaming line of desire in its wake. “This will complicate things.”

“No.” She drew his hand lower so he palmed her breast, and the friction of his palm against her hard nipple was equal parts relief and teasing agony. “It simplifies everything.”

He cupped her soft flesh, then rotated his hand and rolled her nipple between his thumb and finger with just enough sharp pressure to make her knees weak. The temptation to close her eyes and just feel overwhelmed her, but she couldn’t. Not yet. Instead, she stared up at him, taking in the way his brown eyes had darkened to nearly black with desire as the hunger for her built.

“I can’t afford to lose focus.” His laser-beam attention was centered on her breasts, but judging by the tightness in his jaw, he wasn’t in danger of losing focus on her tits. “Not again.”

“So don’t.” It was a plea. It was a challenge. It was a prayer.

“We can’t let this affect the case,” he said, his voice straining with need as his hands slid down her sides to rest on the swell of her hips.

“You said you liked to work out while you thought.” Holding his face between her hands, she raised herself up on her toes and tilted her face so her lips were an inch from his. So close she could feel him without touching, an undeniable electricity tingling between them. “Neither of us is sleeping tonight anyway, so we might as well…think.”

She brought her parted lips to his, the need to taste him, all of him, taking the place of whatever need had taken her this far. Now it wasn’t about anything but Carlos. She swept her tongue across his bottom lip, and he teased it with his own. There was always an undercurrent of challenge with him, always a promise of something more. It’s what had drawn her to him at Feeny’s and what made arguing with him so exhilarating. He pressed turn-on buttons she hadn’t known she’d had.

She broke the kiss and lowered her heels back to the ground. She ran her hands down his chest, the springy curls of his hair prickly against her palms as she let gravity do its job and sank until her knees touched the ground between his feet.

Echoing her movements from earlier, she curled her fingers around the elastic of his boxers’ waistband and inched them down with a slowness that tested her own patience as much as his. He fisted his hands by his hips and inhaled sharply when she stopped just as the base of his hard cock appeared.

“Are you trying to tease me?” he groaned.

She wet her lips and then blew softly against the tight curls surrounding his thick base as she slid her hands around so she cupped the perfect curves of his ass. She squeezed, then slid his boxer briefs down at a glacial pace while her nails lightly scraped his sensitive skin. His ass tightened under her touch.

When only the head of his dick remained trapped underneath the cotton, she stopped, leaned forward, and extended her tongue until the tip barely touched his heated flesh and began a deliberate journey upward. On her reverse trip, she took his boxer briefs the rest of the way down and shoved them to the floor before taking him in her mouth and sliding forward until her nose brushed his tight curls and she could reach out the tip of her tongue and lap at his balls.

Carlos wrapped his hand in her hair and pulled her back. “Mika, what are you doing?”

“I’m trying to help you think. Remember? It’s a right brain, left brain thing.”

She licked his salty pre-come from her lips and wrapped her fingers around his thick girth, sliding her hand up and down his length. He’d closed his eyes and thrown back his head in abandon.

“The problem is…” he panted as he rocked his hips forward and back. “I’m not thinking with my brain at all right now.”

“Oops.” She kissed the head before taking him in her mouth again and watched him through her eyelashes. He was at the mercy of whatever it was that drew them together just as much as she was. They might be at opposite sides of everything else, but in this they were perfectly aligned.

“You look so good with my dick in your mouth,” he groaned. “Fuck, I’m about to come just from watching your pink lips wrapped around it—and I’m not nearly ready for that yet.”

The words flipped a switch inside her, made her breasts grow heavy with wanting, and sent a wave of thick lust through her core that made it clench in anticipation. Of course he’d watched the video, known she’d want to hear that, and he’d made it happen—for her.

A nearly desperate need overcame her. She didn’t want him to come, but she wanted him so close to the edge that he couldn’t think about anything else. She sucked him in deeper and squeezed his ass and pushed his hips forward until the head of his cock hit the back of her throat. Any difficulty she had breathing at the moment was more than made up for by the ripple of pleasure that made him shiver beneath her touch.

He tangled his hands in her hair and pulled her off his cock with just enough force to let her know that playtime was over. “I want to see you on your back with your legs spread wide.” Desire thickened his Spanish accent and added a slight growl to the tone. “I’m going to lick you and slide my fingers inside you until you’re begging me to let you come.”

After one last lick from the base of his cock to the tip, she stood. “Where do you want me?”

His large hand cupped the back of her head, and he pulled her closer, tilting her face so all she could see was him—the heat and need palpable in what little amount of air there was between them. “Everywhere.”

His lips crashed down on hers, and Mika gave herself up to the moment, to the pleasure, to the sanctuary she found in Carlos’s arms.

M
ika tasted like the sweetest forbidden fruit, and Carlos couldn’t get enough.

He glided his hands from among the long strands of her silky ha
ir, down the smooth expanse of her back, and over the soft rise of her ass, letting her mounds fill his hands as he lifted her up. She wrapped her legs around his hips, bringing her soft and wet center against his hardness. The temptation to slip inside her and feel her warmth wrap around him as tight as her legs encircling his hips was nearly overwhelming. He hadn’t been kidding with his answer. He wanted—no,
needed
—her everywhere.

But not yet. He wanted to hear his name on her lips before she broke apart—the first time.

He pulled her close against him, turned on his heel, and sat down on the oversize monstrosity of a purple couch so she straddled his lap. He slouched down, keeping her upright above him, as he dragged his lips along the line of her throat. He took his body lower so that his ass was barely on the couch, then stopped at her peaked nipples.

God, her tits were perfect, small, round, and high, topped off with pale brown nipples. He drew one hard tip into his mouth, grazing his teeth across the tender flesh. Mika inhaled sharply and shivered in his arms. Switching his attention to the other side, he repeated his moves, this time increasing the pull as he sucked the bud with just enough pressure that she dug her fingernails into his shoulders and threw back her head in ecstasy.

“You like it when I do that, don’t you,
mi cielo
?” He tugged her nipple lightly with his teeth, then lapped at it with the flat of his tongue. “This is just the beginning.” He squeezed her firm ass in his hands and pulled her round globes apart. “I can’t wait to get down here and taste just how sweet you are.”

She arched her back, moaning her agreement to his plan.

He slid farther down underneath her, licking his way south across her flat stomach until he was low enough that the tip of his tongue parted through her tight curly hair to lap against her clit. His position below her while she kneeled on the cushion, leaning forward slightly and gripping the back of the couch, gave him the perfect view of her swinging tits and the way she bit down on her lip every time he curled his tongue around her most sensitive spot. So fucking hot.

Taking his time, he explored her slick folds—licking, nibbling, sucking—as her thighs quaked on either side of his head. She was close. So fucking close. He licked the underside of her clit while tilting his head so his chin rubbed against her opening. God, she was sweet against his tongue. Tasting her was like getting a glimpse at the Dyrnwyn sword—he wanted to beat his chest in celebration and drop to his knees in amazement at the same time.

“More,” she pleaded. “I want your cock inside me.”

He relinquished her, missing her taste even though his lips were wet with it. “Not until you come.”

The near desperate look on her face would be comical if he hadn’t been skating on that same edge between building pleasure and being denied bliss. She undulated her hips, skimming her center across his lips, a silent appeal—one he heard but purposefully ignored. Wanting was half the fun.

She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth. “Are you going to make me beg?”

“No.” He let his tongue drift once across her soft, plump folds. “I’m going to make you scream.”

Not waiting for her response, he sucked her clit into his mouth and slid two fingers inside her, rubbing against the bundle of nerves at the front of her entrance. He could stay here, feel her grip him tight as she came, but that wasn’t enough. She needed to come so hard that it shook her free of everything that had haunted and hunted her today. So he withdrew and brushed his middle finger, wet with her juices, along the crack of her ass, then circled her asshole. Her legs tensed on either side of his face before she moaned, high and loud, then increased the speed of her hips until she was riding his mouth, hard and needy. At the same time as he sank his tongue into her wet center, he slipped the tip of his finger into her asshole, then rocked it in and out until her core clenched and she came screaming his name.

Watching her break apart was good, but it was just the beginning.

He pushed his feet against the floor and slid back up the couch until he sat once again on it, then pulled her down so her core fit snug against his hard cock. She dropped her head to his shoulders, and an orgasm aftershock rippled through her body.

Her breath, warm and damp, tickled his skin. “That doesn’t make up for snooping on my computer history when you shouldn’t.”

“I’m an investigator; snooping is a professional hazard.” He rotated his hips, wetting his stiff prick with her juices without sliding home inside her walls. Not yet. “Anyway, what I saw wasn’t something to be self-conscious about.”

“I’m not embarrassed.” She sat up, pink blooming on her cheeks. “I’m hot and I’m done waiting for you to fuck me hard with that big cock of yours.”

He filled his hands with her ass, tilting her so he rubbed against her clit, the island of hardness in the sea of slick velvet. The contrast, so much like her, kept him coming back for more, stroke after stroke. “Patience,
mi cielo.
”

The words were aimed at her, but he needed to hear them as well. The urge to bury himself so deep his aching balls bounced against her was so strong he barely had any control left.

“What is that?” She arched her back, giving him the perfect view of her tits as they swayed with each undulation of her hips.

“Patience?” Fuck if he could remember right now.

“Smartass.” She leaned down and nipped at the base of his neck. “
Mi cielo
, what’s it mean?”

“Stubborn woman.” He arched against her, squeezing her ass and grinding her softness against his hardness.

“Liar.” She lifted her hips and cool air swept across his cock. She hovered above him, her warm entrance millimeters from the head of his straining dick pointed straight up at where it wanted to go. “Tell me.”

He slid one hand around the luscious swell of her hip and up her smooth body until he could roll her nipple between his finger and thumb. “It’s nothing, just a word.” He pulled the sensitive nub taut, increasing the pressure of his pinch as he watched the blissful agony wash over her.

Playtime was over. He needed to have her wrapped around him. He dipped his head and grazed her nipple with his teeth before sucking it hard into his mouth. She shivered in his arms and sank low enough that just the tip of his cock slid inside her. A lightning rod of pleasure shot straight down his dick to his balls, and he clenched his eyes closed. It took everything he had not to grab her hips and shove her all the way down.

He stretched one leg as much as he could, snagged a toe on his jeans, and pulled them close enough that he could swipe them off the floor without losing contact with Mika. Somehow he managed to free his wallet from the back pocket and fish out a condom.

“Thank God.” Her thighs lifted, pulling her nipple from his mouth and releasing the head of his dick.

He ripped the foil open and rolled the condom on in what had to be a land speed record.

“Who’s impatient now?” she teased.

Carlos gripped her hips tight. “Both of us.” Then he yanked her downward, sheathing himself between her slick folds in one long stroke.