Guilty Secrets (Campus Love and Murder Sorority Eyes Romance Book 1) (7 page)

I had to think fast. As much as I wanted him, I had to take control. I slapped him across the face. Hard.

His hand flew to his reddening face. The hurt in his eyes was momentary before the arrogant smile returned.

"So Robyn... this is how it's going to work. Either you tell me right now who you really are, or I tell the Dean of Admissions you submitted your studentship under false pretenses."

"You wouldn't."

His smile said he would.

"The Dean and I go way back. And now I've got your fingerprints on your glass, my F.B.I. buddy can tell me who you really are. So which is it?"

CHAPTER TWELVE

I'd undertaken months of preparation to reach this point. I only had one shot at it. There was nothing else for it.

But could I trust Harry with the truth? Indeed, how much of the truth did I even need to tell him?

I took a deep breath.

"Madison Loxley was my sister. I'm Robyn Loxley."

He sat back against the hood of his car.

"I knew you reminded me of someone. So why the deception?"

"I believe Madison was murdered."

"Murdered? But we found no body."

"So what? You think she ran away because your bulging biceps drove her crazy? Oh please."

I realized I said it with too much conviction. As if I was implying he was some kind of god to women and had no heart.

His smile returned. But then quickly wavered.

"You're out to find Madison's killer?"

I nodded. "Will you help me?"

"Help you? How?"

I had to be careful how much I said here.

"Madison sent me her journal. It alludes to a list of people. Somehow they were involved in Madison's disappearance."

"People? Which people?"

"I don't yet know."

"But you did just say you have a list of their names?"

"Only their initials. The rest I need to work out. Madison was, well quite... secretive."

He sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his thick hair.

"You're telling me. So what can you tell me about Madison's disappearance?"

"Only that she was investigating the names on her list."

"Investigating what about them exactly?"

"Again, I don't yet know."

"So what's your plan?"

"I infiltrate. I take the same classes as Madison. I engineer ways to meet the same people she would have met. I gain their trust. I learn their secrets."

His eyes widened.

"So that's why you agreed to come out on a date with me? To learn my secrets?"

"You're not really in Madison's journal."

He looked at me with disbelieving eyes. "What does she say about me in her journal?"

"Nothing."

He sneered. "Oh come on."

"It’s not like that. Many pages are missing. So it really doesn't have anything to say about you or any of the names."

He shook his head. "So it's all conjecture. You have nothing to go on."

I took a deep breath and let it out. "Madison would never have sent me her diary unless she was in trouble. Deep trouble. Unless she knew there was no real way out of it for her."

"Why didn't she come to me for help?"

It was a question I should have asked myself more than once. Was I so blinded by his handsome swagger and rough charm to overlook his possible part in Madison's fate? She had, after all, voiced her concern that he was about to betray her. But betray her how? In love or death or both?

He turned away sharply and walked to the end of the jetty. He spent a good five minutes with his back to me.

The sun sank completely into the lake. I began to shiver. I walked out onto the jetty and stood behind him.

His shoulders were trembling. He wiped his eyes on the back of his hand.

"So she's really dead?"

"Harry, her disappearance is not some elaborate student prank, if that's what you mean."

He shook his head.

"For months now I chose to believe she had to escape. That her freedom was more important to her than our... than what I thought we had. She was so distracted. At first I thought there was someone else. She was so evasive all the time. But now..."

He turned to me with tears in his eyes. "I want to help you."

"It could be dangerous."

"You think I care about that now? I've already lost the love of my life. My own means nothing to me."

That was when I realized it's never a good thing to always be right. Harry was lost in love with a ghost. And to make matters worse, that was the moment I realized I was a little bit in love with Harry.

I silently leaned my head against his chest. I felt his warm embrace engulf my senses. I reminded myself over and over he could be lying to me as I was lying to him.

This game was getting harder and harder to play. And now, more dangerous than ever.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

We sat in Brad's car parked outside my apartment building.

An awkward silence hung in the air. We watched a fine rain pepper the windshield.

He turned his head to me and just as I prepared for our parting kiss, he hesitated and said, "Who's the first target on Madison's list?"

So the spark had vanished. In his eyes I was second best compared to my dead sister and who can compete with a ghost? I reminded myself that keeping it all business was fine with me.

I pictured the page of names in Madison's journal.

"Initials D.C. Female. Possibly a lecturer. My bet is Davina Cole."

"Madison's English literature professor?"

I nodded. "I signed up to her courses and hope to get close to her, but I need more background to go on. What can you tell me about her?"

Staring out the window, he seemed distant.

"Not much. At least not from Madison, anyway. But..."

"But what?"

"I've only been doing the job for two years. I could speak with Charlie."

"Charlie?"

"Sheriff Gonzalez. Everyone calls him Charlie. He's been sheriff for twenty years. If there's anything to know, official or otherwise, he's the man."

"A man of secrets?"

Harry stiffened in his seat and leaned back.

"Charlie's a good man. He's been like a father to me. Since Madison vanished, he's been a rock."

"Relax, he's not on Madison's list."

"If I don't speak with Charlie about Davina Cole, I don't see how you can find out a great deal about her. I trust him, Robyn."

"Fine, but I trust no one so keep your inquiries discrete."

Perhaps energized by my new partnership, and yet somehow dissatisfied with the way the date went, I flung open the passenger door and stepped out.

I was greeted by the warm soft autumn rain and felt it soothe my frazzled nerves.

Harry called after me, "You turn into a pumpkin come midnight?"

"Come again?"

"What's your hurry? We could go someplace..."

I shrugged. "Got to return these glass slippers."

"OK, Cinderella. See you around."

I sprinted for the building.

I let myself into the apartment. Low lights were on, but the place was empty. I assumed Mai had gone to bed.

I tiptoed down the long corridor in near darkness towards my room. Forty feet from my door I reached Mai's door. I paused to allow my eyes to adjust to the dark.

Her door was half open. Moonlight flickered across the room and crawled to the doorway, pausing at my feet. A strange low sound, followed by a series of high pitch gasps accompanied two shadows moving across on the bed.

I heard a low grunting sound from one shadow as it knelt behind the other. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized Mai was on all fours. Behind her, a man knelt and gripped her hips.

They were both facing me. I took a step back into the darkness.

Neither appeared to have noticed me. Mai began panting hard. She turned her head to look back over her shoulder at her lover's face. I couldn't make out his face in the darkness.

Mai moaned loudly. She gasped, "You're a bad boy. You want me to be your slave don't you?"

The man grunted.

I couldn't help but admire Mai's perfect physique as her breasts hung down in the moonlight. She caressed her face back and forth against the silk sheets.

"Bad boy make me do anything you want. You want me to go down on another girl don't you?"

The man grunted again.

She giggled. "Bad boy wants his slave to go girl on girl with my roomie Robyn? Want to watch? Want to spank me as I lick her out?"

My hand shot to my mouth as I stifled a sharp intake of breath. I needed to run back to my room, but my legs refused to move. I was frozen on the spot.

The man grunted harder, raised his hand and spanked Mai's ass.

Mai panted harder. "That's my bad boy. Anything for you."

The stranger reached under her and cupped her breasts. Caressing them both and sending Mai into spasms of ecstasy with each thrust. He pulled her hair and lifted her up straight into his arms. Nuzzled the nape of her neck and moved his lips in frenzied circles up and down her neck and shoulders.

Grinding on his manhood as she glided her body across his rippling stomach muscles and his taunt chest in a mesmerizing whirl of passion.

His hands never stopped moving across her body. Each caress seemed to expertly inflame Mai's pleasure. His fingertips could read her body's needs. He was a maestro and she was both his muse and his instrument. Playing her to perfection towards an inevitable climax.

But just as Mai was building up to explode with joy, he delayed her orgasm with exquisite control. He lifted Mai up by her hips and flipped her around so they were both positioned with their backs to me. He began thrusting into her, faster, harder.

I couldn't breathe. Did Mai know I was watching her? Was this performance all for my benefit? Surely she couldn't see me in the darkness?

Droplets of sweat on his powerful shoulders glistened in the moonlight. My eyes were transfixed. My legs quivered with tension. I clung to the far wall for support.

I felt a sweet and shameful stirring between my legs. My nipples ached for soft sensual lips.

I watched the sweat droplets trickle down the stranger's back and pool on his buttocks.

Mai and the stranger seemed in perfect unison. The union of two lovers very much in love and anticipating each other's sensual needs.

I couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. Caught in this unguarded moment of lust I imagined the stranger was Harry and that I was Mai.

My fingers slid up my legs and into my thong. My other hand cupped my nipples in slow circles.

The moonlight burst through the clouds. It was then I noticed the tattoo on the stranger's right buttock. It was the same symbol in Madison's journal.

The mask and two crossed swords.

Those buttocks clenched together as the thrusting motion became frantic and Mai arched her back. Crying out she buckled like a wild mare with her stallion.

He collapsed on top of her. It was then I saw the tiny bright crimson light like a devil's eye staring, at me. Then I realized it was a camera light. They were filming themselves and if they viewed the video at some point they might notice me half hidden in the background.

I forced my body against the far wall of the corridor before my knees collapsed beneath me. I slid slowly down the wall. On my hands and knees I crawled down the corridor to my room.

I collapsed on my bed and could finally breathe. I stared at the ceiling. Mai's orgasmic moans were still audible. Round two in the orgasmic games was clearly underway.

My mind raced with the sensual imagery of the two athletic lovers as I fought with the tension of knowing one or both of them was the key to Madison's murder.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I knew I was dreaming when sat in Harry's Mustang, turning to him from the passenger seat, only to see Madison driving.

There was so much I wanted to say to her, but I couldn't get my questions lined up.

Instead I asked, "Where are we going?"

She stamped on the gas pedal and the Mustang lurched forward. "You know where, Robyn."

I felt panic rising up inside me. "I don't know. Where are we going?"

She pointed through the windshield.

I glanced in the direction of her arm and realized she was gunning the car along the old wooden jetty.

I threw my hands at the wheel and tried to pull it around. Madison threw me back against my seat and aimed the Mustang at the lake.

As the car hurtled off the edge of the jetty, I screamed out, "No!"

The car hit the water and began to sink. I pulled at the door handle and it came away in my hands. I raised my legs to my chest and kicked out at the windshield.

It wouldn't yield. The car sank. Spiraling downward into a dark abyss.

"Help me, Madison. Help me, help us."

We kicked together and at last the windshield fell away. Water rushed in at us.

I kicked off the back of the seat and swam out onto the hood. I turned to reach for Madison. She was she sat in her seat, shaking her head.

"I can’t go with you," she cried as the icy water filled her lungs and the car spiraled downward.

I tried to swim after Madison, but the car vanished. The feeling of loss engulfed me as I screamed, "No!"

The lake reached inside me and filled my lungs with its icy fingers. I knew I was dying. But the worst of it was I was dying alone.

I woke up screaming in bed. As I slowly realized where I was, I felt the sweat pouring off me and onto the damp sheets.

I sat in tears until the dawn sunshine shook me to my senses. I ventured into the kitchen before my first lecture with Professor Davina Cole.

When I walked into the kitchen, the stranger from the night before sat with his back to me. He wore nothing but a small white towel around his waist.

At the stainless steel table he sipped coffee. On hearing me enter, he turned to face me.

My eyes widened. It was my hero from my first day. Brad.

His face broke into a smirk.

"Hey, Robyn. How you settling in?"

I avoided his eyes. "Fine, thanks."

He turned back to the view from the window. As I poured coffee, I heard Mai walk in behind me. "Robyn, you know Brad?"