In Search of Grace (39 page)

             
“Hey
,
you
.
”

             
Seth smiled.  “Hey
,
yourself.”

             
“Tough day?”

             
“A bit.”

             
Alex shifted on the lounger
,
then patted the open space.

             
“Come into my
parlor
…?”

             
She burst out laughing at his comment
,
remembering when she herself had said th
at
not that long ago when she had gone looking for him.

             
“Come here
,
Seth, I promise I won’t eat you.  Tonight.”

             
Seth eased down on the chair next to her, sliding his arm underneath her shoulders so she was leaning on him.

             
Alex touched his cheek.  He looked worried.  “What’s the matter
,
Seth?
Do you need me to be your teddy bear?
”

             
Saying nothing, he reached
over
cupp
ing
her face,
turning
her mouth
up
to his.  His lips were hard and unyielding.  She felt a brief moment of wanting to pull away, but then relaxed
completely
against him, opening her mouth to give him more access.  She felt his fingers push into her hair cupping the back of her head as he drank from
the comfort
she offered.  She was lost in the embrace as she felt the now familiar need build up inside of her.  Tearing his mouth from hers
,
he trailed his lips along her neck, nipping at her
before burying
his face
in her hair
.

             
Something was bothering him
,
and she frowned.
 
“Seth
?
”  Groaning he flipped her over so that he was now on top of her
,
pressing
her
down.  There was no fear with him anymore.  This was Seth
,
t
he man that she loved
,
but he was heavy.  Easing her legs open to allow some of the weight to shift, she
realized too late that
moving
only seemed to
inflame
him even more
,
and she could feel him harden
against her
.  Groaning
,
he slid a hand up and under her to undo her bra before bring
ing
it to the front to squeeze her breast
while flicking the now
hardened
nub with his thumb. 
This time it was her turn to moan
losing all sense of reason
.

             
Tearing himself from
her
embrace
,
he stood and held out his hand.  Almost
shyly,
she reached out and let him pull her up, before heading to the back door of her house.

             
Within
moments,
they were standing next to her bed.  Seth pulled her close to him as he dropped his mouth back to hers
,
drinking deeply from her while his hands reached around and grabbed her
,
pulling h
er
hard against him.
  He needed her so badly.  Alex started to unbutton his shirt,
but her fingers were trembling
,
making it
slow going. 
Impatiently he pushed
her hands aside,
unhooked his gun belt before yanking his dress shirt out of his pants then
finished
unbuttoning
.
They both stripped until they stood facing each other.  His need was obvious.  Grabbing his
shoulders,
she pulled him down onto the bed with her.  Every
other
time with him, he always took it slow.  She sensed that he needed her today.  Reaching between
them,
she wrapped her fingers around him, loving the way he throbbed
in her
hands.  Seth moaned against her neck as she directed him to her
,
and he immediately slid in filling her up.  She gasped as pleasure filled every pore in her body.  Moving her hips, she encouraged him to move within her.  Pushing up onto his
hands,
he moved gently at first, before starting to love her with an urgency she had not seen from him before.  The bed shook with the intensity of his lovemaking, instead of being afraid, she matched him thrust for thrust.
“Alex, I don’t think I can wait…
” but
she was already over the edge.
H
e could feel her tightening around him
as he
tumbled
over the edge with her.

             
After their pulses slowed down,
Alex slid away from Seth,
sat up wrapping her arms around her knees.  “Do you want to talk about what is bothering you?”

             
Turning away from her, he climb
ed
out of bed and redressed himself. 

             
“
You’re
scaring me you know.”

             
“What do you mean?”

             
“Your silence
,
Seth
,
scares me more than anything
; t
hat and the fact that you are not even looking at me
right now
.
It is not like you. 
You said n
o secrets or half truths, remember?
”

             
Sighing deeply
,
he reached out his hand and pulled her up off the bed.  “Why don’t you get dressed and meet me in the kitchen.  We need to talk
,
Alex.”

             
Quickly, with nervousness
she threw on her clothes.  He seemed so serious.  Running
a
hand through her hair, she tried to calm the nerves that were starting to fray around the edges.

             
Stepping into the
kitchen,
she saw that he had already made two cups of tea, setting them on the table.  He was seated
,
looking at his phone frowning. 
Closing it with a
snap
when she walked in
,
he watched as she to
ok
a seat next to him
clasp
ing
her hands in her lap tightly waiting for him to speak.

             
“Look
,
Alex.  You know that we have been working on this case for
a while
now, trying to put all the pieces together to make them fit.  The problem is
,
the puzzle has a lot of holes in it
,
and some of the pieces don’t fit
.”

             
Alex cocked her head to one side and looked at him frowning.  The case
.  H
is
mood was because of the case and not her?  Relief coursed through her
veins
as she realized that he
was not
trying to break up or leave her. 
Relaxing
a bit, she waited for him to continue.

             
“We, everyone working on this case and I, believe that you are the missing link to the puzzle
,
Alex
,
and we need your help.”

             
Shocked she stared blankly.  “Me?  You need my
help?
 
There
is not
anything I can help you with
;
it
was so long ago
,
Seth.”

             
Taking her hand that was now resting on the
table
,
he moved his chair closer to her.
“I need you, no, I am asking you
to take me through
your
experience
,
Alex.
I need to see through your eyes
what you saw;
I need to smell what you smelled at the time
,
hear what you heard.”  His words started to come out more quickly when he saw her eyes start to glaze over.

             
Moving his chair in front of her, he leaned in, c
upping her face in his hands,
forcing
her to make eye contact with him. 
“No, Alex.  Don’t
disappear behind your wall
,
baby.”

             
“Do you even know what you are asking of me?” 

             
“I do.  I know I am asking a lot from you, but we need to find this guy
,
Alex
,
before someone else dies.”  Pulling on her
hands,
he steered her onto his lap.  She closed her eyes as he wrapped his arms around her.

             
“I will be with you the whole time
,
and we can go as slow as you want.  We will have officers placed all around the area as back up.  Nothing is going to happen except facing those demons of yours
and hopefully getting more clues to the identity of this person
so no one else has to die
.
”

             
Alex
’s
brain raced trying to figure out a way around the situation
but knowing deep down inside of her that there was no way to avoid this moment.
This has been years in the making
,
and she did not want anyone else to die
.
  

             
“When?”
Alex
asked quietly.

             
“Tomorrow morning.”

             
“Fine.
I will
go with you
.”

             
A figure moved quickly
,
ducking under the
gates of Break
heart Reservation.  Excitement caused his breath to quicken noticeably in the early morning air.  He felt light on his feet in anticipation of seeing her again.  Shifting the backpack on his body
to get more comfortable for the hike, while gently transferring the giant while lilies to the other hand carefully not
wanting
to break them
, he froze hearing the tools hit metal on metal.  Sweat broke out on his body
while his eyes darted around the area
as he waited
,
listening
and watching
to hear if anyone
had heard
him.  He had waited too long to screw this up now b
y
being loud and clumsy. 
S
taring into the darkness, the paved path
spread out
before him.  He had a ways to go before he would feel comfortable
enough to
turn on the
flashlight
without
fear of detection
.
  Walking briskly, he passed the
first
turn, which
would have led him to the area of one of his victims.  He sneered in the darkness remembering her fear.   She was nothing to him
,
and
he
could not
even
say that it is
what he would have considered a satisfying event.  All fight went out of her too soon.  He loved the fight.  It was the most
important part of the process
,
and
the fight was the only thing that
would fill the
empty
void inside of him.
The stronger the fight
,
the more they
’d
beg him to come back.  No, he never would come back no matter how much they reached for him or beg with their eyes.  He would leave her at the altar, just the way she left him.
Oh, how he loved
her
.  Shaking his
head,
he
sorted through his jumbled
memories.  He would not think of it now.  Today it would be over, and he would have her begging him to come back to her.  She was incomplete without him.  He knew it.  He saw it on her face everyday when he watched her.
Stopping suddenly
,
he looked around him.  Yes!  Here it was. 
A grin spread across his face as
he quickly stepped
off
the
main path heading deeper into the woods.  It was not far now.
They
would be there soon
,
and he still had
so much to prepare before then.
  So much to prepare for his bride.