Hardline (32 page)

   
“Fuck, baby. I love watching my dick slide into you. So smooth, like this is where I was meant to be.” He rooted with a sharp exhale. “And you’re so fucking tight. Takes my breath away.”

  
My moan turned into a strangled cry when he slapped my ass again, harder than before. The responses of my body launched me into orbit as he began a rugged pace, driving deep into me. Our bodies molded tightly together. He banded an arm around my waist and slammed his hips into me from behind.
 

  
“Blake,” I cried out when he hit the end of me. Again and again, so quickly I was scrambling to the edge. At the brink, his hand slapped again, hard. I shuddered as the climax came down on me, shooting out into every limb. A second later, Blake was there. His cock buried deep with me, he groaned. He held himself there and the warm rush of his release filled me.
 

  
We lay there, wasted in the morning light.
What a way to wake up
.
 

  
After a moment, Blake slipped from me and rolled over to his back, his chest moving with the effort to catch his breath.
 

  
“Shower?” I asked, rolling to face him.

  
“Go on. I’ll join you in a minute.” He turned his head, catching my stare. “What?”

  
I traced a tiny circle over his shoulder. “I was just thinking that I’ll never get tired of putting that look on your face.”

  
He grinned. “You’d better get your sweet ass in that shower, before I make you put that look on my face for the rest of the afternoon.”

  
“You have to work, Mister.”

  
“Trust me. For that, work can wait.”

  
He twisted and reached for me, but I scooted away, barely missing his attempt to pull me back to him. Not that I would have minded much, but I had my own mountain of work waiting for me at the office.
 

  
I lingered in the shower, my muscles taxed and tired. I smiled when I thought about all the ways we could make up for lost time over the weekend. Finally, realizing he wasn’t coming, I finished up and turned off the shower.
 

  
I stepped out, and when he wasn’t in the bedroom, I went searching for him. Padding through the apartment, towel wrapped around my chest, I followed the sound of his voice and found him in the kitchen still wonderfully naked. His chest wore a few scratches from our weekend adventures, and his just-fucked wayward hair was adorable in a way only I could fully appreciate.

  
“All right, thanks. Let me know if anything else comes up.” He ended the call and dropped the phone down on the counter. I was in his line of sight but he stared ahead.
 

  
“Is everything okay?”

  
He looked to me, but I couldn’t tell what was going on in his head.
 

  
“Blake?”

  
He blinked, seeming to jar himself from whatever thoughts were buzzing through his head. “Everything is fine. More than fine actually.”

  
“Who were you talking to on the phone?”

  
He rubbed his forehead absently. “That was my lawyer. He wanted to let me know the charges were dropped. So the hearing was canceled.”

  
I lifted my eyebrows. “That’s it, just like that?”

  
He shrugged. “Just like that.”

  
“Why would Max drop the charges against you? He can’t possibly hate you any less that he did a week ago.”

  
“He didn’t drop them. The prosecutor simply dismissed them. The lawyer thinks maybe it’s because of the nature of the situation, with Max being charged for sexual assault. Even with that though, he seemed to think it was a pretty lucky break. But I’ll take it.”
 

  
My chest fell with a sigh of relief. “That’s great.”
 

  
My thoughts immediately shifted to the nagging reminder that I still needed to go to the police station to give a statement. The charges against Blake had been my motivation to actually go through with it.
 

  
“You’re still going to the police, right?”

  
He must have read the doubt in my eyes because he came to me. I stood still, paralyzed by the sight of his perfectly sculpted body. He stood before me and skimmed his palms down my arm. I shivered, his touch cool against my skin.
 

  
“You need to do this,” he said quietly.

  
“Why? Why do I need to put myself through this?” Tears quickly brimmed my eyes. Apprehension took root in my gut.

  
“You said it yourself that you still have healing to do. I’m here for you. I always will be. I’m here to love you in every way that you need to be loved. God knows, I can’t help myself. But telling me, telling Alli... It’s not enough. You need to be strong and stand up to what happened to you. Then and now. Every time I think about what Max did...what he could have done...my blood boils. But I can’t do this for you. This is your chance to make things right, and you’re the only one who can do it.”

  
I closed my eyes. “I can’t. Something about it...I don’t want to break down in front of a stranger. To admit how stupid I’d been...how vulnerable he made me. Everyone saw.” I choked over the last words.
 

  
He hushed me and pulled me close. I melted against him and let the tears fall.
 

  
“You weren’t stupid. He made you vulnerable, but you don’t need to be now. You’re strong.” He held me a little tighter then. “You can do this.”

Officer Bates led me away from her desk to a small private room. She might have been my mother’s age, a little heavy set. Her hair was pulled into a tight ponytail. A few short curls had escaped from it, framing a face that was lined.

  
The chair legs squeaked against the concrete floor, and we sat down at a table across from each other. I twisted my fingers together nervously as she opened a file and shuffled through some of the papers. My heart pounded at the walls of my chest as I waited for her. My meager lunch turned in my stomach a little. My pep talk affirmations were drowned out by the voice in my head that kept reminding me how much I didn’t want to do this.
 

  
What Max had done was the ultimate trigger threatening to dredge up the past that I wanted to stay in the past. This was part of working through it. But I didn’t know this woman. A stranger to me, she seemed as hard and cold as the room we now shared, and I didn’t want to be vulnerable now to her, or anyone else for that matter.
 

  
She scanned the papers and glanced over at me briefly. “You okay, hon?”

  
I regained my focus on her face. My breathing had become erratic. I licked my lips. “Yes, I’m fine. Just nervous, I guess.”
 

  
She pulled out a piece of paper and positioned her pen above it. “No need to be nervous. All you need to do is tell me what happened exactly how you remember it. I’m going to write it down here. I’ll read it back to you when we’re done. And if everything is accurate, you sign it and then we’re done.”
 

  
I nodded quickly. My mind had invented all of her coldness. In that second, she’d become someone different, someone who maybe wasn’t judging me in all the ways I was afraid she and the rest of the world would.
 

  
“Okay,” I finally said.

  
“Tell me what happened the night of the assault.”

  
I closed my eyes and let my mind travel back to the night.
 

  
Over the next half hour, I relayed to Officer Bates how the evening had unfolded. From talking to guests, and then Michael, to relenting to Max’s request to speak privately. I told her all I could remember until everything went black. Over the past week or so, fragments of the night had resurfaced. I would have rather they hadn’t, but any information might be helpful to paint a more complete picture of what had happened. The rest had been witnessed by Blake and several others. While she scribbled down the final pieces of my account, I cringed inwardly that anyone else had seen me so helpless.
 

  
“Is there anything else you’d like to add?”
 

  
I shifted my focus back to her and shook my head, unsettled by how little I actually remembered from the night. As promised, she read it back to me. I signed it, my hand trembling slightly as I did.
 

  
Nervousness wasn’t making me shake, but a flood of relief. This was over. Finally. She let me know that they would be in touch if they needed anything further and showed me out of the room.
 

  
As I left, the concrete block that had taken up residence in my stomach lifted. It was all said and done, literally. I couldn’t know if it would mean justice for Max, but it began to mean something more to me. I’d done something I’d never had the chance to do before. I’d overcome my fears and insecurities enough to tell my story. I wanted to believe it was an important step toward healing.
 

  
I made my way through the rows of desks and back out to the bank of elevators. I waited there a moment before I heard a man’s voice behind me. I turned slightly to see Daniel with another man who I recognized as one of the detectives I’d spoken with.
 

  
“Miss Hathaway. You must remember me, Detective Carmody?”
 

  
My hand twitched, but he didn’t reach out. Instead he maintained a casual stance, almost too casual compared to how shrewdly he was studying me. I forced an impassive look.

  
“What brings you here?” the detective asked.
 

  
My gaze flashed to Daniel. The displeasure in his countenance made my heart stop.
 

  
“A private matter,” I murmured.
 

  
“Fair enough. Well, Mr. Fitzgerald, thanks for your time. I’ll leave you two alone.” He shifted back to me and lifted his chin slightly. “I’ll be in touch.”
 

  
The elevator opened, and we stepped in together. I retreated to the back of the car, my hands going to the cold metal railing.
 

  
“Can’t say I was expecting to see you here.” Daniel’s expression revealed nothing.
 

  
Oh, shit.
What if he thought I was talking to someone about the still unresolved case of Mark’s suicide?
 

  
I stuttered over how to begin, not knowing what to say. “It’s nothing about Mark.”

  
He glanced up at the numbers descending above the elevator door. “Assuming it has something to do with Max Pope then.”

  
I stared at him stupidly, my brows knitted together. “Yes. But how did you know?”
 

  
His gaze fell back down to mine. “I run a law firm, remember? Who do you think he called first?”

  
My jaw fell open. I startled when the bell dinged, announcing our arrival at the ground floor. He stepped out and I released my death grip on the railing to follow him. We pushed through the heavy doors of the police station and slowed a few steps outside. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and tapped one out. I wrinkled my nose.
 

  
“You should really stop smoking.”
 

  
He shot me an annoyed look and took in a drag. “Really? I’m at risk of losing a race that I’ve sunk millions of my own money into. And you’re telling me to give up smoking. You’ve got to be kidding me.”
 

  
I took a defensive step back. His anger, however fleeting, still had the power to make me take pause.

  
“Why were you in there?” I asked, assuming whatever the reasons were tied directly to his presently pissy mood.

  
“Because
someone
is leaking information to the cops.”

  
I froze. None of that sounded good. “What information?”

  
“Someone leaked a tip that you’re my daughter. They know good and goddamn well how damaging it’s going to be to my campaign too. Pricks.” He grimaced and blew out a smoky breath.

  
That would have explained why Carmody looked at me that way, like he knew a secret. He did.

  
“You didn’t deny it?”

  
He laughed. “What’s the point? You clearly are, and if there’s any doubt, a simple DNA test would confirm it. The two of us drink a cup of coffee in their office and they would have their proof.”

  
“Who would have tipped them off though?”

  
He shook his head, a bitter smile twisting his lips. “Call me crazy, but I’ve got your fiancé at the top of that list. Unless you want to start telling me who else knows, because I sure as hell haven’t been advertising it.”

   
My stomach plummeted as I mentally ran through the list. Sid, Alli, Marie...maybe even Heath knew now. But none of them would have any reason to benefit from the information being made public.
 

  
Blake had his own reasons to out Daniel, but would he do that? Even after I’d made him promise me he wouldn’t? Maybe learning that Daniel had hit me would have been enough to nullify that promise. In the context of our new arrangement, maybe his promise meant nothing at all if Blake deemed it in my best interest. Still, that seemed an extreme position to take. The repercussions of this information going public would be damaging for Daniel, but I couldn’t see how Blake would want to bring the extra attention to me either. He wouldn’t do that to me. Would he?