Killer Among Us (10 page)

Sophie peeked through her peephole and her
hand went to her mouth. Her eyes darted around the apartment; it
was pin neat as usual. She looked down at the flannel pajamas pants
and sloppy tee shirt she wore and she spun around, poised to run to
the bedroom to change. Then anger took over, how dare he show up on
her doorstep? He probably expected that she would just let him in
and fuck him! Color hit her face as she realized she wanted him to
do just that.

He was turned toward the stairs, about to
leave and when he heard the click of the locks he felt his heart
beat a little faster but the sight of her face: Tear swollen and
angry made him bite back the words he had been about to say.

“
Can I help you?” She asked
haughtily.

He opened his mouth to say something then he
saw the madly cavorting purple ducks on the bright orange pajama
bottoms and he forgot what had been about to roll off of his
tongue.

“
Nice pajamas,” was all he
could manage.

“
Maybe the blonde you were
with today is waiting for you in something more seductive,” she
snapped, her hand coming up to slam the door.

“
What blonde?” He yelped as
the door closed on his hand, then he batted it open.

“
The one you were
with!”

“
Janelle?” He shook his
head, “Where the hell did you see her? Why are you so
angry?”

“
Why are you here?” Sophie
countered.

“
I wanted to talk to you.
I’m sorry if this is a bad time.”

“
Talk about what and why
don’t you go talk to Janelle?”

Kane was utterly perplexed. He had never had
a woman slam a door on him before, nor had he ever seen a woman
look so adorable in such ugly garments, he honestly wondered if he
would go blind by just looking at the oddly contrasting colors she
had on.

“
Janelle is likely in her
hotel room sifting through crime scene photos with John. I have had
enough of that case for one day. I wanted to talk to you, I wanted
to see you…shit I have no idea why…” anger flashed through him and
he turned to leave.

“
Wait!” Sophie took a deep
breath. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t…do…that…a lot. With
people, I mean with other people, not that I do it without
people…er….”

Her obvious embarrassment broke the tension.
“May I come in?” Kane asked and she nodded, stepping back to allow
him entrance to her apartment. “You have a lot of room here. This
is a Pre-War place; they’re hard as hell to get. Did you knock off
a listing agent or something?’

Sophie actually laughed at that one. “No. My
…Susan…I had a friend and she wanted to move here. We wanted to
move here. We had a plan and everything but she…”

“
She died.”

Sophie blinked. “How did you know?”

“
You gave me a fake name.
You used her ID at the club, you two look a lot alike, or you did
in the beginning. I was going over your report and …well I checked
it out.”

Sophie patted the deep recliner nervously,
“Do you want to sit down? I have some coffee if you want a
cup.”

“
That sounds
great.”

He watched her making the brew, she seemed
less nervous when she was working and when she brought it to him
she served to him in a way that was telling and she did it without
asking. The cup sat on a small saucer, the handle turned toward
him. She had put just enough cream into it and he took an
appreciative sip before asking, “Do you want to talk about it?”

She did. That surprised her; she had never
felt the need to tell her secrets. Sitting down on the other chair
she reached for Sassy, who gave her a wounded look and jumped up on
Kane’s lap instead. Kane gave the pooch a few pats and she settled
down, shooting her owner a satisfied glare.

“
Susan was my sister.
Foster sister. We ended up in foster together, at a home that
belonged to a preacher and his wife. They were the kind of people
that had two faces – one for the public and their true face, one
that was darker than anyone would ever believe.”

The way her lips thinned told him the rest,
that and the knowledge of Susan’s downward spiral but he sat
quietly, waiting to learn how much she trusted him.

“
Susan got the worst of it,
she wanted to protect me. She did protect me. She…she had been in
homes like that before and she was, this sounds so wrong but she
was hard even then. Please don’t take that to mean she was
…”

Words failed her. Kane reached for her hand
and she looked down at his long elegant fingers, surprised by the
gracefulness and strength of them. She knew he understood what she
was trying to say so she took a long breath and went on.

“
When he came into our room
she would throw herself at him, she used to pretend she liked it so
he would leave me alone. It didn’t always work, but sometimes it
did.

“
We were both working and
plotting to get the hell out of that place, to move here. Then
she…our foster father came for a visit one afternoon while I was at
work. It seems he decided our leaving was not going to stop him
from seeing her. She fought him, hard, but it didn’t stop
him.”

She paused for a moment but knew that if she
wanted to explain her life to him she dared not stop for too long,
otherwise she’d never have the guts to continue.

“
He stole whatever dreams
she had because if he could touch her…hurt her, even though she
believed she was finally free of him, then she felt she had nowhere
to hide. I think she just gave up entirely. After that day, she got
into the drugs, then the prostitution. She was running away from it
all and I knew it. I tried so hard to help her. I wanted her to be
whole and happy. This apartment was like our Mecca, well, not this
particular apartment but the city. She would get clean and then it
would all go wrong. One Sunday morning I found her on the floor in
front of the TV watching the broadcast from our foster father’s
church. She was laughing hysterically and singing. She had a knife
and her arms were hacked all to pieces. I think I knew then that
she was never going to recover. I tried to get her to move then,
she wouldn’t and I couldn’t leave her. I love her, and I owe
her…owed her.”

Swallowing, she inhaled sharply before
squeezing her eyes shut in a forced attempt to continue on.

“
I knew she needed more
help and I didn’t do anything. Don’t tell me not to feel guilty; I
know how I failed her. If I had just been willing to go with her,
to drag her into counseling she might have gone. I was afraid to do
that because I didn’t want to have to confront my own past. After
she died I decided it was time to go. She even encouraged me then,
she left me a note.” Her lips curled into a thin smile. “I found
this place out of sheer luck. The couple it belongs to took a
missionary posting. I hate to say I was not above using my years in
the church to help forward my application.”

“
It must have been hard for
you to lose her.”

“
It was.”

Silence spun out between them for a few
minutes. Finally Kane spoke, “Why did you use her name at the club
and a fake one for the report?”

“
I don’t really know. Too
many years spent living in the system makes me suspicious I
suppose. I’m sorry about that.”

“
It’s okay, I knew where
you lived.”

Sophie chuckled. “Would you like more
coffee?”

“
No, I should
go.”

He held the saucer and cup out to her, she
reached for it. Their fingers met and electricity sparked between
them. Goose pimples rose along her arms and she heard the long
inhale of her own breath. Their eyes met and held.

Kane knew he should leave. Sophie was
everything he had been waiting for, her beauty and her natural
tendency to serve, her feistiness, it all made her incredibly
appealing. With that thought he remembered the reason why he had
left the Bureau.

He stood, intending to leave. He knew if he
stayed he would never let her go, he wanted her that badly. “You’re
a cop and she will never be happy living the life of a cop’s wife,”
he told himself sternly.

Sophie set the cup on the table and took one
step closer to him. His black hair drew her attention and she
raised a finger, stroking it lightly along the coarse and short
strands. He reached up, running his fingers along the nape of her
neck before tangling them into her thick black hair.

He jerked her face forward none too gently
and she started then opened her mouth eagerly. Her nipples
tightened and wetness soaked into her panties. He plundered her
mouth, his tongue probing every corner and crease. Her eyes closed
and she slumped against his hard and strong body, surrendering to
him totally.

“
Do you trust me?” At her
nod he asked, “Are you very fond of what you’re
wearing?”

“
Huh? No, they are just
warm is all.”

“
Good,” an impish and
devilish grim creased his sensual lips. “Wait here.”

Sophie heard him rattling around in her
kitchen drawers but she was not sure what it was he had in mind
until he came back holding a knife. Fear exploded into her
bloodstream and she had to fight the urge to run. Kane went to her
window, yanked the drapes aside and then came back to where she
stood.

“
Close your eyes,” he
commanded.

It was a struggle and every part of her
resisted. Ingrained fear and experience told her to fight, to flee,
and to resist but she couldn’t. She took one long breath and closed
her eyes. Darkness, tinted by red, surrounded her. She held her
breath, waiting for his next move.

Kane knew exactly how hard she had just
fought. Passion ignited in him, as did another stronger emotion. He
took a small step toward her and ran one finger along the curve of
her pale cheek, feeling her shiver under his fingertips.

He kissed her ear then he reached for the
collar of the shirt she wore.

Sophie moaned as the shirt bunched against
the back of her neck. A long purring sound made her knees go weak,
she understood that he was cutting her shirt off but it was not
until cool air caressed her bare breasts that she realized exactly
what that meant. The blade rested against her aureole, making her
tremble and pant. Her pussy grew wetter and she felt slightly
dizzy.

“
Good girl,” Kane said and
the knife sawed into the waistband of her pajama
bottoms.

Adrenaline rocketed through her, her eyes
flew open and she screamed: a short sharp burst of sound as the
halves of her pajama bottoms fell to her feet. She stared down at
them, then up at his face, tracing the hard planes of his
cheekbones and the small patches of silver at his temples.

Her hands came up, a protective gesture, and
she cupped her own breasts. Her face flamed as she realized what
she was doing and she dropped her hands again.

Kane spent a few moments surveying her body,
appreciating her curves and softness. Her panties showed a
noticeably damp spot that made his cock stiffen even more. His
balls were tightening, making him aware of just how much he wanted
to fuck her. He set the knife on the table and grabbed the flimsy
panties. He ripped them, a sudden and violent rending that left her
soaked and moaning. She had no idea of what else was going to
happen and she didn’t care, she literally ached all over with
need.

Kane took his own clothes off and she sighed
with pleasure at the sight of his lean muscular body and hard
prick. She went to her knees and that surprised her, it was not
something she was normally inclined to do. Kane read her intentions
and instantly he positioned himself in front of her, using a
handful of her hair to help guide her face to his dick.

She subsumed his hardness, sucking him into
her throat and then using her tongue to tease him. Kane gasped and
bucked his hips into her face, her talented tongue swirled along
the shaft and across the taut helmet, and drawing drops of pre come
from him. She bobbed her head and applied even more pressure,
tightening her lips around him so that he was being sucked down a
tight and heated tunnel. The sensations were incredible and he
groaned, digging his fingers deeper into her scalp.

Sophie pulled away, her breath coming in
short bursts as she bent her head lower, licking at his heavy sack,
wetting the fine black hair that surrounded his groin with her
saliva. When his balls began to tighten and move upward she took
them both into her mouth, sucking and licking them.

“
Shit,” Kane growled out as
he forced her away. He would have liked to have let her suck his
cock until he came in her mouth but he needed to control the scene,
wanted to see her begging for her own pleasure.

He dragged her over to the windows and
pressed her against the chilled glass. Her nipples hardened until
they almost ached as he cupped the round firm globes of her ass in
his hands and began to knead them. When he slid a finger up and
inside her she cried out, her cheek resting against the window and
one of her eyes staring helplessly at the lit but blind covered
windows of the apartment across the street. What if someone saw
her? That thought made her come, a small and almost imperceptible
orgasm that was wholly involuntary and only served to whet her
appetite.

Kane felt her folds tighten and contract.
Slick fluid slid down his finger and he smiled, pleased by her
reaction. “You like being on display, don’t you?”

“
Yes.” She did. She had no
idea why but she liked it a lot.