Hot Pursuit (27 page)

Zoey might be a virgin, but she knew about sex. She’d read more on the act of oral sex than possibly most people had. Everything from smut and porn to sensual, soft romances. So she knew women always wanted this done to them. She hadn’t imagined it would be something she and Ben would do their first time together, though. Whenever she’d read about oral sex it seemed to happen between two people very familiar with each other. Unless it was porn; then there were no holds barred.

This wasn’t porn, though. She and Ben were making love, exploring each other’s bodies in an effort to know each other better. Zoey still thought there was no way she and Ben would have a chance at a lasting relationship. Her father would find her. No matter where she hid or for how long she managed to hide, eventually he would track her down. It would be bad when he did find her. Which was why Zoey wanted the most out of her freedom. She didn’t want to think about the hell where she had come from. She wanted only now.

Zoey wanted Ben naked also. Yet he still wore his jeans. She was spread-eagled, the most sensitive part of her body incredibly vulnerable. This made it very difficult to get his clothes off of him.

Ben’s mouth hovered over her clit. She could feel the heat of his breath. He wasn’t touching her, though.

Zoey opened her eyes, her muddled thoughts sending all kinds of mixed signals. Everything about how sex should be her first time and their first time together slipped from her mind. She didn’t care about any of that when she lifted her head and stared down her body at Ben.

“I feel so swollen—” She didn’t finish. How stupid did that sound?

Like she could think to form coherent sentences when Ben stared up at her, his face a mere inch at most from her throbbing pussy. His light blue eyes were wide and alert, watching her. They seemed to start glowing, becoming brighter, when she stared back at him. His bare shoulders were a rippling stretch of bulging muscle. She had a glimpse of his bare chest and a sprinkle of hair darker than his straight blond strands that framed his face.

“Exactly how you’re supposed to feel,” Ben told her.

The breath from his words tortured her enflamed entrance. Her swollen clit next to his mouth pulsed rhythmically, as if her heart had somehow managed to sink down her body and was now lodged there.

Ben pressed his mouth against her damp skin between her legs. He sucked Zoey’s small, swollen flesh into his mouth.

“Oh my God!” Zoey damn near flipped off the bed.

His chuckle flooded toward her on torrential waves that grew larger and larger until Zoey was swimming with them. She rode them hard, fighting to stay afloat and not drown. Ben’s tongue flicked over her all too sensitive flesh. He then stroked it, igniting even more pleasure inside her. When it became too much, when she cried out, it didn’t dawn on her how she’d grabbed and twisted the bedspread until she flew into a sitting position. She was drowning. But then the multitude of waves flowed over her and she was floating. As she convulsed, riding out what she knew for a fact was her first real orgasm, a tingling settled over her flesh. Her skin was damp from perspiration. Zoey’s hair stuck to her back. Ben’s long, strong fingers pressed into her thighs, keeping her legs spread. So many sensations washed over her but only one really mattered. That unbearable pressure was gone. Zoey crashed back onto the bed, sinking deep into the wonderful down as if she’d died and gone to heaven.

“I didn’t know it could be like that.” She was almost breathing too hard to speak and laughed at the panting sound in her voice. “Amazing.”

Something began swelling inside her again and she blinked and stared at Ben as he moved to kneel between her legs. His face was glossy with moisture. Her moisture. She wanted to kiss her cream off of him and pushed up to her elbows. It was as far as she got before laughing some more and collapsing again.

“I’ll kiss you in a minute,” she told him, waving her hand in the air before letting it drop beside her. Every inch of her was warm with sated delight.

“One hell of a compliment,” Ben growled.

She blinked to focus on him. There had to be the most stupid grin planted on her face.

“That’s something I’ll definitely want to do again.” This time when she raised her arm she had the strength to keep it extended. She reached for him.

Ben stretched out alongside her, staring at her breasts. After a moment, he lazily dragged his calloused index finger around her nipple. It puckered, greedy for the attention. The rest of her body sizzled back to life as well. Zoey purred like a cat and arched into his touch.

“Zoey,” he said, dragging her name out slowly on a breath.

“Mm-hmm,” she continued purring.

“Have you ever had sex before?”

She rolled to her side, draping her arm over him, then leaned her head back to smile up at him. “I will have here in a few minutes,” she teased. But when she tried pulling him on top of her, Ben remained posed where he was.

The glaze of sensual fervor dissipated before her eyes. Ben’s expression suddenly shrouded with a brooding mask, as if he contemplated what she’d just said and somehow found her lacking. Zoey could have kicked herself in the rear. A man like Ben probably had been with dozens of women. She almost blushed thinking she wasn’t sure how old he was and was about to have sex with him. It didn’t matter. The fact that they didn’t know every intimate detail about each other didn’t matter. She was a grown woman, and if she wanted to make love to this man, she would damn well do it.

She gripped his shoulder and put some force into tugging him to her. “Come here,” she whispered. The purr in her voice was gone.

Zoey tried another tactic. This was her moment of freedom. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to throw in her father’s face, once he finally found her and had her dragged into his despicable den, that she was no longer a sweet, pure virgin? She would decide who to lose her virginity to, not her goddamned father. She let go of Ben’s shoulder and reached down between them. The back of her hand grew wet as her damp curls stuck to her. Now wasn’t the time for embarrassment. Zoey gripped his dick inside his jeans.

Pure womanly satisfaction brought back her purr when Ben growled and his eyes rolled back in his head.

“I want you to fuck me,” she said brazenly.

She was going all the way, damn it. Come hell or high water.

Zoey swallowed thickly at the realization of how long his penis was. She pressed her fingers into him, running them along the length of his shaft. It ended at the top of his jeans.

So what. Size didn’t matter. That was the most overused cliché on the planet. She would put truth to it today. She tugged on his zipper, which wasn’t an easy task with a swollen dick pressed against it.

Apparently it wasn’t comfortable, either. Ben’s moan turned into more of a growl, and he grabbed her wrist—hard. Circulation cut off to her hand.

It wasn’t a punishing grip. She knew what that felt like. Zoey raised her gaze to Ben’s face and saw the desperation. It appeared in pinched lines that darkened the tormented look she saw there.

“I’ll be careful,” she assured, wiggling her fingers on the hand he still gripped to reach for his dick.

“No,” he choked out.

“Then you—”

“No!”

Ben released her hand at the same time he leapt off the bed. He moved so fast Zoey rolled over onto her tummy. She raised herself, pushing up and looking at him in time to see him zip and refasten his jeans.

“What?” she began.

He cut her off. “You’re a virgin,” he said, his tone harsh, almost accusing, as if virginity were some type of contagious disease.

She happened to know it was not. “Yeah, so?” she said, bristling.

“You won’t use me to take your virginity,” he snarled.

“I’m not using you!” How could he think such a thing?

Ben turned and stormed out of the cabin. It sounded as if he said, “Not like this,” before the cabin door slammed behind him.

*   *   *

Wolf stared at the pink piece of paper taped to the door at Angelina’s Bookstore.
Notice Of Eviction.

“What the fuck?” he snarled, and glanced down the street, beyond the small grassy area where the road curved in a circle before resuming the few blocks of Zounds’s downtown. There were a couple children up the street. A single skinny young man walked against the brisk wind, his face down, and disappeared into the hardware store. A car turned the corner, slowed, and pulled into a diagonal parking stall. A stout middle-aged woman got out and hurried into whatever store it was that she’d parked in front of. But that was it. Downtown was dead.

Wolf returned his attention to the slip as he pulled out his phone. Hitting speed dial, he listened as the phone rang, then went to voice mail. Wolf didn’t do voice-mail messages. There was never a reason to record his voice or any thoughts he might be having at that moment. He hung up and shoved his phone in his pocket. Angel would see the missed call. That was enough without leaving a message.

He reached for the pink piece of paper. But before ripping it off the door, he let his hand drop. Wolf wasn’t an expert on landlord/tenant law in the state of California, but he’d bet hard, cold cash that the eviction wasn’t legal. Sleet blew around him as he stepped back, pulled his phone back out, and took a picture of the eviction notice instead. The people of this town needed to take a stand against Cortez and call him on the stunts he pulled. It wouldn’t take too much effort to look up the laws and find a lawyer. One would think a good lawyer might take this case pro bono just for the shot of ending a crime lord’s tyranny and boosting their reputation. Wolf imagined the publicity would help any attorney’s career.

Wolf reached into his Escalade and grabbed his leather coat. Slipping it on, he then pushed the button on his key to lock the vehicle. The temperatures were dropping. He had to reach Angel. He stalked around to the back door of the store and pulled on the door to the storage room. Locked!

Damn it. Was she upstairs? Maybe she’d fallen asleep. Wolf pounded on the back door with his fist, putting some muscle into it. Angel would hear that upstairs. He hated waking her or her hearing someone pounding on her door after what she had to have been through while he was gone.

A sickening feeling twisted cruelly in his gut. Wolf could see Cortez’s men entering the store with that fucking piece of pink paper and shoving it in Angel’s face. They probably had waited until Wolf had raced out the back door to his Escalade. He had been so focused on following Maggie and finding the Mulligan Stew assassin, Wolf hadn’t bothered checking to see who might be outside Angel’s store when he had left. All of his attention had been on that little silver Honda.

“Goddamn it!” he roared, not caring at the moment who heard him. He did glance over his shoulder at the service alley. Sleet blew in circles over the ground, but no one was around him.

Downtown could be dead due to the weather. There was an eerie sense of abandonment in the air, though. Angel was a core part of this community. He’d seen her customers trail in and out all day. A lot of them made purchases, but there had been more than a few who had lingered at her counter, gossiping about the latest news in town. Angel had easily carried on conversations with each of her customers, as if she’d been waiting all day for that particular person to come in. Angel had known everyone who walked into her store. And all her customers loved her. None of what any of them had said had meant a thing to Wolf until Maggie had walked into the store.

She had changed her hairstyle and dyed it several shades lighter. Angel had called her Maggie, and the instant Wolf had seen her face he knew it was Maggie O’Malley, or whatever she was calling herself these days.

Wolf zipped his leather coat and headed back to the front of the store. The wind was getting fierce. He hadn’t checked the weather, but by the feel of it he’d say they were in for a serious drop in temperature. Already a thin layer of sleet blew down the sidewalk as Wolf started walking toward the rest of downtown.

He entered the Burger Stand without giving it much thought. Had they delivered Angel’s lunch to her? And the message? Did she get it? He’d been gone almost five hours, time in which Angel had disappeared and her store closed. He needed answers. Ignoring the thick smell of frying beef and the sudden warmth that embraced him, Wolf moved past the vacant tables in the small restaurant and stepped up to the counter.

A teenage girl walked around a food station where the cook put items under a heat lamp that were ready to serve.

“What can I get for you?” she asked.

“Where’s Ernie?” he asked, not knowing who had prepared Angel’s burger and deciding he would go straight to the top. That way he hoped he wouldn’t have to ask the same question over again.

“Who wants to know?” The young girl’s face hardened as she gave Wolf a once-over.

At the same time the man on the grill in the back poked his head up.

“Wolf,” Wolf said, making eye contact with the man.

The young girl simply raised one eyebrow. Wolf ignored her. If she didn’t like his name that didn’t bother him a bit.

“Did you deliver Angel’s lunch to her?” Wolf asked, directing his question to the man at the grill.

“I took it to her,” a skinny boy announced as he appeared to pop out of nowhere. “And I gave the part of the tip to Dad just like Angel told me to do.”

“Good to know,” Wolf told the skinny child, nodding his appreciation of the information.

The skinny boy straightened, his expression becoming as serious as Wolf’s, and mimicked Wolf’s nod. The man left the grill and put his hand on the boy’s head. He mumbled something the boy obviously didn’t like. The kid rolled his eyes but disappeared into the back of the store. Wolf couldn’t imagine growing up with a dad around all the time. The boy didn’t know how lucky he was.

“Where is Angel?” Wolf asked the moment the man faced him on the other side of the counter.

“Who wants to know? You got some ID?” With a glance the man scurried the young girl out of sight, leaving him and Wolf alone at the front of the store.

“ID?” Wolf was surprised, not that he hadn’t been asked that questions hundreds of times over the past, but this was the first time in Zounds. “Actually, yes, I do. I take it you’re Ernie?”