Out Of Control (36 page)

“He’s
escalating, and I think he’s getting desperate.”

“I
think he’s losing control,” Scott added, “and won’t be satisfied until he gets
hold of Dana. Then he’ll stop. She’s his final target.”

“Here’s
another guess for you.” Cole showed him the book in his hands and explained
what they were doing about properties. “Think about this. If he’s the one
skimming from the human deliveries to feed his lust, he has to have a place to
take them. A place to hide the bodies when he’s done with them.”

Scott
stared at him. “I must be more tired than I thought. That should have occurred
to me.”

“We
need not only an isolated outbuilding, but a place to dump bodies without
drawing attention. Or wild animals.” He dropped his feet to the floor and
strode to the door. “Kelly!”

The
young deputy doing the property search turned at the sound of his voice.

“Yes,
sir?”

“We
need you to check locations for one more thing. Wells. Not the kind with the
pump above ground but the old ones. Those not used any more. Is there such a
place to look?”

“Yes,
sir. The water district should have a list going back fifty years. They’ve been
tracking those old wells to seal them.”

“Good
enough, Deputy. Don’t let me keep you.”

She
grinned at him. “Yes, sir.”

He
was still standing in his doorway when the front door to the station opened and
Harry and Wanda came in carrying a huge coffee urn and a stack of boxes.

“Thought
y’all could use some decent coffee,” Harry announced. “It’s all made and hot.
We just need to plug this thing in. And that’s all the donuts and rolls I had.
Lean pickings for breakfast tomorrow, but they’ll survive.”

“Harry,
if you weren’t so ugly I’d kiss you,” Cole said.

They
carried everything into the conference room and set it up on the long table. He
and Scott each drew a cup of coffee and went back to his office. The two men
drank in silence, just staring at each other across the desktop.

The
hot brew settled through Cole’s system, washing away some of the fatigue and
giving his brain a kick-start. But he felt as if he’d been up for days and
discouragement sat heavy on his shoulders.

“Why
don’t you take a break?” Scott suggested. “My guess is you’ve been short on
sleep since the Pritchard girl’s body was found. Gaylen’s going to need a break
pretty soon and if you’re dead on your feet, you won’t be able to give it to
him.”

“I
don’t know if I feel right about that,” Cole protested.

“Why
not? My guys are wrapping things up at the Marquez house, and they’ll be back
here before long. I’m going to the High Ridge Motel to crash myself.” He gave a
short laugh. “Maybe if I close my eyes as soon as I walk in, I won’t have to
look at that godawful spread. So go on. I’ll need you back here when the
chopper arrives.”

“You’re
right.” Cole drained his cup, crushed it, and tossed it in the trash. “I think
I’ll do that. I’ll get someone to spell Kelly on the computer, check in with
Gaylen, then get an hour or two of sack time.”

He
stopped to call the hospital and learned Stacy Corona was still under heavy
sedation. She’d woken up once and was so hysterical Barry had to put her under
again. Her husband hadn’t left her side, sitting in the chair next to the bed
clutching her hand in a death grip.

“I’ll
check back in the morning,” Cole said before hanging up.

The
circle of lives being damaged by this whole thing just kept widening.

After
telling the deputy handling dispatch to call him in four hours, he finally
headed out to the parking lot. He had to force himself not to speed as he
headed for his house. In front of the house, he speed dialed Dana’s number on
his cell and she picked up at once.

“Cole?”

“There
better not be any other man calling you at this hour of the night.” He tried to
inject a little humor in his voice.

She
laughed softly. “Where are you?”

“In
front of the house.” He beeped his horn twice.

“I’ll
be right there.”

He
wanted to see her. Needed to see her. He felt steeped in filth and needed her
presence to cleanse him.

The
front door opened, and she stood there in her sleep shirt, holding the phone to
her ear, a smile playing on her lips. “You gave the right signal so get
yourself inside.”

He
was out of the truck and on the porch in seconds, stuffing his phone into his pocket.
As if they’d been doing it forever, he reached for her and she wound her arms
around his neck. The kiss was so full of fire he thought they would burn up
just from touching each other. Lips and tongues and teeth collided. Hands
explored bodies that pressed hard against each other. When they broke the kiss,
they were both breathless.

“I
think the first order of business is a shower,” she told him. “Let’s get the
traces of the crime scene off of you.”

How
had she known that was exactly what he needed? He let her lead him to the
bathroom—
his
bathroom. Her small hands tugged at his clothes,
unbuttoning buttons, unzipping zippers, unbuckling buckles. When his clothes
lay in a heap on the floor, she let her eyes roam over him, taking in every
detail. When she got to his erection, her eyes widened and she wet her bottom
lip with her tongue.

“I
had a little more than staring in mind,” he said with a touch of humor.

The
pulse at her throat was beating harder. She reached around him and turned on
the shower, then waited for him to step inside.

“Go
on,” she urged. “It will feel good.”

“I
know something that will feel better,” he teased.

“I’ll
bet it will. Go on now.”

He
stepped into the shower and was just lathering himself up when the door slid
open again and she stepped inside, completely naked. The sight of her took his
breath away. He remembered how those full breasts with their wide, dusky
nipples felt in his hands. The soft curls covering her pussy sparkled with
droplets of water, and he itched to slide himself into her hot channel again. When
she turned to adjust the spray, he decided she had the finest ass he’d ever
seen in his life.

Her
hand trembled slightly as she took the soap from him, but when she looked at
him, her eyes told him any fear she’d had was gone now. Slowly, she began to
spread the lather over his skin.

Oh,
lord. Oh, Jesus.

Whoever’s
watching over me, I’ll be thanking you for the rest of my life.

Memories
of the previous night washed through Dana as she looked her fill of Cole’s naked
body. The sight of it made her mouth water—wide shoulders, narrow hips, flat
abs, sculpted muscles. The heavy dusting of dark brown curls on his solid
chest. And that magnificent cock rising from its nest of thick curls at his
groin.

All
these years, all the nightmarish episodes, and this man had walked into her
life with the key to unlock her hidden sexuality. Not once had her body frozen
into its protective mode, defying any attempt to coax a response. In the midst
of this horrific situation, she had finally been able to get past her fears of
intimacy. Because she’d found a man she knew she could trust implicitly not to
hurt her.

His
eyes burned on her skin as she stepped into the shower, but she didn’t try to
hide from his gaze. Starting with his shoulders, the highest point she could
reach, she worked the lather down the rich hair covering his hard chest and his
dark brown male nipples. Down past his navel where she twirled her finger in
the soapsuds, into the wiry hair surrounding the biggest erection she’d ever
seen. When she reached his cock, she slid her soapy hands up and down, cupping
his balls and teasing them with her fingers.

Drawing
a strangled sound from him. “Maybe one of these days when I’ve had enough of
you to take the edge off, I won’t be so much like a horny teenager the minute I
touch you.”

He
grabbed the bar from her and began to return the favor, soaping every inch of
her. He lathered her breasts, pinching her nipples lightly. Moved his hands
down her rib cage and forward over her stomach, then down to her already
quivering pussy. When he slid two fingers inside her and she clamped down on
him, he grinned. “You’re sure ready for me, darlin’.”

Ready?
She wanted him to throw her down on the shower floor and take her there. She
rocked back and forth on his fingers, lost in the waves of pleasure. She didn’t
even tense when he slipped one hand past her hip to the curve of her ass and
trailed his fingers through the hot crevice there. The dream burst into her
head the moment he touched the ring of her anus and a dark thrill coursed
through her. Not tonight, but maybe soon.

They
dried each other with frenzied haste. And then they were in his bed, exploring
each other, touching every intimate place. He teased her with his fingers and
his mouth, drawing moaning pleas from her. With two fingers inside her pussy,
he rubbed his thumb back and forth over her clit. The heat building inside her
was like a trapped animal screaming for release.

And
then, when she was already half out of her mind with need, he stretched out
between her thighs, gently opened the pussy lips with his thumbs and lapped the
length of her slit.

Every
pulse point in her body pounded, her nipples ached, her blood raced with
electrified intensity. But then he closed his mouth over her clit and sucked.
Hard. And without warning, her orgasm broke over her and she poured into his
mouth.

He
held her while she shook and trembled. His lips and tongue working her, drawing
every last response from her. She was still panting when she pushed at him and
moved so she could slide a hand down to find his cock, so thick she could
barely wrap her fingers around it. Her thumb brushed lazily over the broad
head, swiping at the tiny pearl of liquid. She lifted her finger to her mouth
to lick his essence, drawing a groan from him.

“Better
quit that, darlin’, or it’ll be over before it starts.”

Moving
her hand away, he went back to teasing her, touching her everywhere. He kissed
the line of her jaw, the column of her neck, the curve of her shoulder. He
licked the hollow of her throat where her pulse had ratcheted up again.

He
palmed each breast in turn, gently squeezing as he sucked her nipples, nibbling
on them with his teeth and licking them with just the tip of his tongue. He
cruised his tongue to her navel and licked the furled flesh before moving his
mouth lower again.

“Do
you like this?” He traced the crease of hip and thigh with his tongue then
kissed the inside of each thigh.

“Yes,”
she breathed, her hands fisting in the sheet.

“And
this?” He lifted one leg to nibble the back of her knee.

“Oh,
yes.” Her breathing kicked up a notch.

“How
about this?” He moved his mouth back to her pussy, lapping her juices.

“Yessss,”
she cried, arching off the bed to him. She felt like a flower that had been
waiting for years to open. But once unfolded, it opened without reservation to
the sun.

He
described to her in explicit erotic detail what he was doing to her breasts,
her nipples, her pussy. How her wet heat felt to him. His words drove her
crazy. Made her heartbeat pound furiously and her pussy quiver with need.

He
pulled one stiff nipple into his mouth again and sucked on it while his thumb
teased her swollen, sensitive clit and his fingers rested lazily in her wet
slit. Every pulse point in her body thrummed with anticipation.

He
kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks. Trailed the tip of his tongue
around the shell of her ear and down the column of her neck, taking one tiny
nip where neck and shoulder joined. Lapping at her nipples, pausing again to
ask if she was all right. If everything was okay.

Until
she couldn’t stand it any more.

“Please,”
she begged. “I want you. Now. Please, Cole.”

She
heard the nightstand drawer open, watched him pull out a condom.

“No,
I don’t make a habit of bringing women here,” he told her when she looked at
him curiously. “But I like to be prepared.”

His
voice was as unsteady as his hands, which were shaking so badly he could barely
get the condom out of the nightstand drawer. It thrilled her to know he was
that aroused. For
her.

He
stared at her slick center for a long time, the impact of his gaze ramping up
the heat blazing through her. Then he was right there, looking at her as if he
could see into her soul. And she into his. Something inside her, the last tight
coil, snapped, and she was free. Because he made love to her heart, not just
her body. Because her needs were more important to him than his own. Because in
his eyes, she saw everything she ever wanted or ever needed to know. The answer
to her future.

He
turned her over and pulled her to her hands and knees, then stroked her
buttocks with a slow glide of his hand. “Does this position frighten you?” His
tone was gentle, but there was no mistaking the need in it.