Little Bird (The Tangled Series) (7 page)

There were three credit card statements, two of which were last used on Sunday. But the third account, which had only been opened the previous month, had been used yesterday right here in DC. The charges themselves didn’t reveal much. It had been used once Monday at a coffee shop in Chinatown, and it had been used yesterday at a department store in Columbia Heights. Cara was still in the area. Unless her card had been stolen, but that didn’t seem likely. A thief would have run up more than four dollars and eighty-five cents on a cup of coffee and seventy-three dollars and nineteen cents at a store. No, it had to be Cara. So that meant she was also probably safe and in hiding on her own. Or at least, she had been as recently as yesterday.

The credit report wasn’t helpful either. Cara had excellent credit, carried no balances on her credit cards, and paid them off on time every month.

Savannah heard a scratch at the back door and went to look. When she swung the door open, Toby stood on the porch looking up at her, wagging his tail. Laughing, she opened the screen door. The dog came in and went straight to the living room, jumping on the couch and curling up on one end. She was pretty sure Lee didn’t let him up on the furniture but he was cute and she didn’t have the heart to make him get down.

Returning to her seat at the table, her mind wandered back to the events of that morning, her skin warming as she thought about it. Raising her hand to her neck, her fingers trailed over the tender bruise where he’d sucked and bitten her. She smiled as she remembered the way he had completely possessed her body. That was the hottest sex she’d ever had and she was thrown off balance by the way it had affected her. She laughed, shaking her head, when she remembered what she’d thought that morning in the shower. Of course, she hadn’t known then how incredible the sex would be, but she’d been more than a little naïve to think she could sleep with him once and get him out of her system. The reality was fucking him had the exact opposite effect. She could barely concentrate on her work she was so distracted by thoughts of him.

Savannah groaned and shook her head in frustration. She’d behaved like an idiot this morning, having sex twice with a man who was not only off limits but, if Mike was to be believed, was also bad news. And now, instead of being regretful and ashamed about the whole thing, all she could think about was throwing herself into Lee’s arms and doing it again as soon as he got back.

A little more than twenty-four hours ago she’d thought Lee was an abrasive jerk. Hell, she’d still thought that when she found him in her living room this morning. But something had changed and she didn’t think it was just because of the sex. There was something about him she couldn’t quite put her finger on but whatever it was, it felt right. She hadn’t felt this giddy about a guy in a long time. She believed Mike when he said Lee was a womanizer and she didn’t think for a minute that was going to change just because of her, but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to make her want to stay away. The odds were really good that she was going to get hurt, but she knew she’d stick around for the amazing sex anyway. Clearly she was a glutton for punishment.

She couldn’t believe she’d lain on the floor in front of him, letting him watch her masturbate while he was on the phone. She’d never done anything like that before but the way he looked at her, the way he touched her, he’d made her feel like the sexiest woman alive and that did a lot for her confidence.

She wondered what it would be like to make love to him. This morning had been amazing, the best sex she’d ever had, but she was willing to bet making love with a man like Lee would be even better. She closed her eyes, imagining what it would be like to have him kiss her tenderly, his hands on her body, soft and caressing as he moved inside her. They’d be stretched out on his bed together, his weight on top of her, pressing her into the mattress. Lee seemed to like talking dirty to her, she wondered if he’d talk when he made love, too. Maybe he’d say she was beautiful. Or tell her how much he wanted her and needed her. Well no, Lee would probably never say that, but still, a girl could dream.

Savannah jumped when her cell phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. Picking it up, she glanced at the caller ID. Her cheeks flushed and her stomach did a somersault. It was Lee.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Little Bird. I’m back and I’m starving. I’m going to eat in about an hour if you want to come over.”

“Sure, I’ll be over in just a bit. I have one thing I need to finish up first.”

“Okay, great. Any luck today?”

“A little but not much. You?”

“Yeah, a little. I’ll tell you about it when you get here. Oh, hey, have you seen Toby this afternoon? I left him out while I was gone and he seems to have run off again.”

“He came to visit me for a while. I’ll bring him back with me.”

She could hear Lee laughing on the other end of the phone. Even his laugh was enough to give her goose bumps. “Okay, I’ll see you in a few. The back door is unlocked, let yourself in.”

Chapter Six

W
hen Savannah and Toby came through the back door Lee was standing at the counter drinking a beer and sorting through his mail. He looked up and smiled at her. “Dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes.”

“No problem.” Savannah crossed the room to his fridge, helping herself to a bottle of beer.

She hadn’t heard him move but when she closed the refrigerator door and turned around Lee was right in front of her. One hand found her hip, pulling her roughly against him, as he took the bottle from her hand and set it on the table.

“I’ve been thinking about fucking you again all goddamn day.”

“Me, too.” Savannah blushed. She felt silly admitting that she’d been fantasizing about him, but it came surprisingly easy despite her embarrassment. Maybe it was because it was great sex, but she thought it had more to do with him. He was so plain and upfront about his desire to fuck her. Probably he was that way with every woman. He didn’t seem to be the sort who was ever bashful. But no one had ever been that unrestrained with her before, that open and forthright about sex, and she liked it.

“Get those shorts off.” Lee grinned at her, his hands working his belt as he backed her toward the refrigerator. He had a head start because as long as he herded her backward she couldn’t take her shorts off without tripping. By the time her back came up against the refrigerator Lee already had his cock out and was putting on the condom he’d pulled from his pocket. She’d just unfastened her shorts, a little slow and awkward with nervous energy, when Lee growled, a low feral sound, and yanked her shorts over her hips. She was kicking out of them when Lee grabbed her around the waist, picking her up.

Savannah started to protest, to tell him to put her down so she could take her panties off, but before she could say anything Lee pushed one hand between them, shoving her panties to the side and thrusting into her.

“Sorry, sweetheart. Couldn’t wait for you to get those off.”

Savannah laughed, a throaty, joyous sound, clinging to him with her arms and legs while he held her firmly against him, both hands on her ass. She loved that he wanted her that much. That he was unwilling to wait the extra few seconds it would have taken her to get her panties off.

Lee carried her to the table, setting her on its edge and leaning her back until she rested on her elbows. Looming over her, with both hands on the table, Lee drew back and plunged into her. Savannah gasped, unwrapping her legs from his hips and spreading them wide.

Lee smiled and raised a brow curiously. “Is this what you were thinking about this afternoon?”

“Not exactly. Not on the kitchen table, anyway.” Savannah was breathless, finding it difficult to carry on a conversation, but she liked that he was a talker during sex. It made her feel more connected. This morning, when he’d been calling her all sorts of filthy names, she’d liked that, too, even if it had initially shocked her. But this was different; it was playful and flirty and made her feel giddy.

“Tell me then. After dinner I’ll make it come true for you, if I can.” Lee paused for a second, giving her a lopsided smile before adding, “I mean, if you fantasized about fucking on the pitcher’s mound at National’s Park that might take a little more planning, but I’ll do my best.”

Savannah grinned, reaching to bite his chin. “No, no. You’re definitely way more creative than I am. My silly little fantasies would probably bore you.”

Lee grunted, driving into her harder, his voice thick and deep. “Doubtful, sweetheart. As long as it involves my dick in your cunt it couldn’t possibly be boring.”

Savannah shivered, biting her lip. Not only did Lee know exactly the right way to touch her but he knew exactly the right things to say, too. He wasn’t romantic in the flowery poetic sense of the word. But Lee was straightforward and honest, simple and unapologetic about his desire, and that was something Savannah could appreciate. She didn’t always trust men who were overtly romantic; she’d been burned once by a jerk hiding behind pretty words and once had been more than enough. Lee’s candid and direct approach, although sometimes crude, was refreshing and put her at ease. She’d probably still get hurt in the end, but at least Lee had been upfront about what he wanted from her instead of trying to trick her with insincere romance. Still, as comfortable as she felt with him, she wasn’t about to tell him she’d imagined making love to him. No way in hell she was going to admit that.

“Still don’t want to tell me, huh? Want to know what I was thinking about?” Lee’s voice was hoarse and choked. Savannah nodded and he leaned closer, brushing his lips over hers, his pelvis grinding against her clit. “I’d planned to lay you out on my bed. Take my time with you. Kiss and lick and taste every inch of your body. I was so fucking hard thinking about licking your pussy ’til you came all over my face. I’m still going to do all that a little later but the minute you walked in, I just had to get inside you.”

Savannah panted, her chest heaving as she stared at him. “I’m not complaining.”

“Now it’s your turn. You know you want to tell me.” Lee cajoled, a devilish grin curving his mouth.

She liked hearing what he’d been thinking about, but that wasn’t enough to persuade her to share her private fantasies. Telling him she’d thought about making love to him was putting way too much on the line. Savannah shook her head, and Lee cocked a brow at her, his eyes narrowed.

“I’ll get it out of you eventually, you know, but I’ll let it go for now because I need to fucking come.”

“Fuck, yes.” The words came out on a lusty moan and Savannah quivered with anticipation, her pussy gripping him tight as he slid into her.

Lee thrust harder, the table sliding several inches across the tile floor. He laughed raggedly, grabbing the edge of the table and adjusting his position again. “Christ, woman, you make me feel like a goddamn animal. All I can think about is fucking you. Lie back. Wrap your legs around me again.”

Savannah lay on the table, her legs around his hips, the table rocking beneath her. Lee leaned over, biting her breast through her shirt, one hand on her hip and the other in her hair. She could feel her orgasm building, knew it would come at any moment, knew even before it came it would be devastatingly powerful.

Savannah screamed his name again and again, her body quaking with pleasure as her climax washed over her, wave after endless wave, until she thought she might die before it was over.

“Fucking hell, how do you do that?”

Through the haze of her own ecstasy she looked at him with confusion, not understanding what he meant. Before she could form the words to ask, he let out a low groan, his pelvis grinding against her. His cock jerked, his body shuddering, as he came.

“How do I do what?” Savannah sat at the table drinking her beer and leafing through a catalog that had come in his mail while Lee finished getting dinner ready.

“What?” He looked over his shoulder from where he stood at the counter.

“Right before you…uh…you know. You asked how I do that. I was just asking what ‘that’ was.” Savannah blushed furiously, her nose buried in the catalog. She didn’t dare look at him for fear she’d die of embarrassment, but her curiosity overrode her shyness and she had to ask.

“Oh, that. I’ll tell you later. If we talk about it now I’m going to have to get inside you again and I’m really fucking hungry.”

Savannah laughed; his crude honesty was amusing and flattering. “When is dinner ready? Do you want to call Mike now?”

“Sure. Ring him up and put him on speaker.” Lee crossed the room and got plates and silverware for them.

Savannah took a deep breath, trying to get her head in order, before laying her phone on the table and pressing “send.”

“Hello?”

“Hey, Mike. We’re reporting back, Boss.” She tried to sound like her normal self, despite the fact that watching Lee move around the kitchen, getting the food ready and setting the table, was enough to make her wet and needy. Apparently all he had to do was breathe and she’d get horny.

“Great. What have you got?”

Lee carried the food to the table and Savannah nodded at him, indicating he should go first.

As he sat down, Lee leaned over the table to get closer to the phone and Savannah blushed, quickly looking away, reminded of how he’d leaned over her just a few minutes ago. It took all of her concentration to listen to what he was saying as Lee told them about the journal.

When Lee finished, Mike grunted through the phone. “Makes sense. God only knows why, but she still trusts you and figures you can handle yourself. Maybe by sending them after you they’ll leave her parents and other more vulnerable people alone. What else?”

“She had a picture of my parents hanging in her hallway with a bunch of other pictures of her family and friends. She’d written a note on the back. It said, ‘Middleburg Bank, you idiot!’ and then she asked if I’d called you yet.”

Mike laughed. “Smart girl.”

Lee rolled his eyes. “Well, you aren’t the one she called an idiot. Although in this case, she wasn’t entirely wrong.”

“So, did you go to the bank?” Mike asked.

Lee told them about his trip to the bank and what he had found in the safe deposit box. Mike whistled. “Hartwell’s the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations. Did you bring the pictures back with you? Maybe Savannah and I would recognize someone else.”

“No, this must be what they were looking for the other night when they broke into my place. So it didn’t seem like a good idea to bring them back here. I did take pictures of them with my phone though. I’ll email those to you and show them to Savannah after we eat. That’s pretty much all I’ve got.”

“What about you, Savannah?”

“Not much. Over the last several months she’s taken several large withdrawals from her bank account of five hundred dollars or more. That may or may not mean anything.”

Lee snorted, leaning back in his chair. “She always had a weakness for expensive handbags and shoes. Unless she’s changed a lot over the last few years, that sounds about right.”

Savannah continued, “Well other than that there was nothing of note about her bank accounts. There were three credit card statements. Two of the accounts were old; she’s had them for years. Nothing unusual there. But the third account, she’d just opened last month and it’s only been used twice so far. Monday, someone used it at a coffee shop in Chinatown. And yesterday it was used at a store in Columbia Heights. It has to be her, if someone had stolen the card they’d have charged a lot more than that.”

Mike sounded proud as he said, “Good job, Savannah. I think you’re right. Anything else?”

Savannah smiled; it always made her happy to know she’d impressed Mike. He was a good boss and a good friend so she was glad to know he thought highly of her work. “Not really. Just before I came over here for dinner I emailed all of her co-workers at the
Post
saying I was trying to get in touch with her. If this is somehow related to her work, maybe one of them knows something. I’ll let you know if I hear from any of them.”

“All right, Lee, send me those pictures and I’ll see if I can figure out where that building is. It sounds like we’ve stalled out at the moment, though, unless Savannah hears back from one of Cara’s co-workers. But at least we know she’s probably still okay, or she was yesterday, anyway. And I’ll pull that credit card statement again tomorrow and see if she’s used it again. Maybe we can pin her location down based on where she’s using the card.”

After hanging up, they ate their dinner, chatting comfortably about the usual things people talk about when they’re getting to know one another, which had been a relief to Savannah. She’d been worried that it would be awkward and weird to have a normal conversation when so far they’d spent pretty much every minute they’d been alone together having sex. But Lee was so relaxed and easy to talk to, they quickly fell into the pleasant cadence of conversation.

Lee was funny, warm, and engaging and Savannah discovered she enjoyed learning about him and his life. He seemed just as interested when she told him about herself. In fact, the meal had passed with such amiable conversation, she was disappointed when it was over and Lee left the room to email the pictures to Mike while she did the dishes.

Savannah had just finished the dishes and was wiping down the counter when Lee came back into the kitchen and sat down at the table, putting on his boots. “I just sent the pictures to Mike. I need to go up to the barn for a bit. Frank’s off tonight and some of the mares need to be brought in. Do you want to come?” He grinned when he added, “We’ll see if we can get you over this irrational fear of horses you have.”

Savannah shrugged, suddenly regretting that over dinner she had confided in him about her lifelong horse phobia. “Sure, I guess I don’t have anything else to do. But I’m not getting close to the horses.”

Lee smiled, obviously pleased she wanted to go. “Fair enough.”

She followed Lee outside, Toby trailing behind them. As they approached his truck, Savannah asked, “So how come you park out here when you have a garage?”