Into the Fire (11 page)

In response, her tongue swept out,
licking at his fingers before circling the handle. His cock leapt
at the blatant invitation. Jesus, she was going to be the death of
him. He pulled the whip out of her mouth slowly, caressing her lips
with his thumb as he did, and then climbed back on the
bed.

Positioning himself on his knees
again, he dragged the red suede up the crack of her ass, drawing a
shudder in response, then smacked her with it, lightly, but enough
to bring a light flush to the cheek he’d struck.

He was almost paralyzed by the sight
for a moment; his cock surged as he viewed his mark on her. Then he
went on autopilot; his arm rose and fell, striking only hard enough
to raise the blood to the surface of her skin. With each lash, she
strained against her bonds; her pussy gushed cream as little moans
bubbled from her mouth.

When the flogger grew heavy, he leaned
forward, smoothing his hands over her ass, tonguing away the pain
until she sobbed, begging him wordlessly to continue. Hands
shaking, he grabbed the lube and drizzled it over her ass and lower
back, massaging it in with his fingers. Dipping one finger into her
rear entry, he groaned at the tight feel of her, at her sharp moan
and the whispered “more” he could barely hear.

Taking her at her word, he lubed the
plug and slid it between her cheeks slowly, almost stopping at her
muted hiss, but then she was pushing against the plug until the
thick part slid past her ring of muscles and the flared base was
seated.

He sat back on his heels
and viewed his woman. Her hands bound to 
his
 bed, 
his
 blindfold over her eyes,
the ridiculously sensuous bright pink plug
in 
his
 ass. 
His
 pussy glistened for him,
begging him to take her. He’d never seen anything
better.

His blood thundered in his ears as he
positioned himself between her legs and pushed into her with both
hands anchored on her hips. The sensation was exquisite, unlike
anything he’d ever felt, and from Charly’s barely-restrained scream
of pleasure, this was something they’d be doing again, and very
soon.

He thrust slowly, relishing
the way the dildo made her pussy even tighter, the way her ass
contracted around the base as her silken walls squeezed his dick.
Everything in him demanded he let go and hammer into her, but
he 
would
 have more control. He had to. Instead, he removed one
hand from her hip, grasped the base of the plug and began to twist
with each drive of his hips.

Charly writhed beneath him, her moans
now becoming begging. Then she snapped. “Jesus, Nate ... fuck me!”
she screamed, her voice ragged and harsh.

He abandoned taunting her with the
plug and finally let himself lose control. Pounding into her, he
covered her with his body, tweaking her nipples with his fingers;
his teeth anchored at her nape as he claimed her, body and
soul.

She jerked beneath him. Her wrists
broke the ties as she clawed. Her voice gave way to incoherent sobs
of need.

“
Come, Charly,” he commanded
and felt her walls close in on him like a vice.

He spurted into the condom helplessly.
His voice grew harsh as he chanted her name until they were both
spent and boneless. Finally, only their ragged breathing peppered
the silence of the night.

He spent a long moment relishing the
feel of her beneath him but then pulled away with a groan and rose
on shaky knees. “Stay right here,” he ordered and crawled to the
edge of the bed, almost falling over when his legs went weak. She’d
unmanned him, but in the best possible way.

He ditched the condom and returned
with a warm washcloth. He removed the plug gently and wiped away
the lube with long, gentle strokes. She groaned in response,
pushing at the blindfold with fumbling fingers. One hand found his
as he cleaned her; her fingers grasped tightly for a moment but
went lax as she slipped into an exhausted sleep.

Nate finished, removing the pillows
from beneath her boneless body and then sat back to stare at her
for a long time.

Her beautiful face was streaked with
tears, her hair pushed up crazily by the blindfold. She was the
most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Chapter Ten

An insistent ringing pulled Charly
from a deep well of sleep, deeper than she’d ever known. She swam
toward consciousness slowly, pushing into the weight of Nate’s hand
closed over her breast instinctively.

Then her brain went into thinking mode
and she squirmed out of his grasp. She grabbed the phone from the
bedside table, even as she registered morning light breaking
through the windows.

“
Davis,” she mumbled into
the phone, acutely aware Nate had sat up behind her, already fully
alert and ready for action.

“
Thank God you’re all
right!” a female voice all but screamed in her ear.

“
Emma?” Charly breathed in
response. Her heartbeat returned to a semi-normal level until she
heard her friend’s next words.

“
Where are you?” Emma sobbed
into the phone.

“
With Nate, why?” Charly sat
up, reached for her thong and squirmed into it while cradling the
phone between cheek and shoulder.

“
Your place, it’s
trashed.”

Alarm, fueled by pure rage, slashed
through Charly. CC, that bastard. He’d pay, and pay big.

An even bigger concern crashed through
Charly’s mind. CC wasn’t exactly stable at this point, and Emma
might be in danger. “Emma, get out right now. I mean it. Meet me at
the coffee shop,” she commanded, slipping into her slacks. “I’ll
have a uniform clear the house and then meet us there so he can
take your statement.”

“
I’m walking out right now.
It’s bad, Charly, real bad.”

Charly could hear the devastation in
her friend’s voice and knew that she spoke the truth. “Don’t hang
up this phone until you’re in the car and driving away.”

She reached out blindly and found her
blouse shoved into her outstretched hand. She hazarded a glance
behind her and saw Nate was already in his jeans and struggling to
pull his tee over his head.

“
Okay, I’m in the car,
pulling out of the driveway now. I’ll see you soon, right?” Emma’s
voice was beyond relief now; it bordered on fear.

“
As soon as we get this
called in,” Charly promised and disconnected. She took a moment to
shrug into her blouse, but then Nate’s fingers were buttoning it
up, freeing her hands to dial her precinct.

She shot him a smile of thanks and
relayed the basic information to the dispatcher: her house had been
broken into and no one should be there. That would give the
responding officers a green light if anyone were still within the
dwelling. Repeating her address and the location of the coffee
shop, she snapped the phone shut and whirled on her heel, finding
her flats and trouser socks placed on the bed.

Nate was toeing into his sneakers.
“Status?”

He was one-hundred-percent warrior;
she’d never seen him battle-ready before, and his ferocity made her
mouth go bone dry with unspeakable desire, despite the
circumstances. She shook off the gut-clenching lust and finished
dressing. As she slid her Beretta into its holster, she forced her
mind to focus on business rather than Nate’s delectable presence by
her side.

“
My house is trashed,” she
replied, fighting to keep the rage out of her voice.

“
CC,” Nate said
matter-of-factly with an ungodly light in his eyes. “We’ll get him,
Charly.”

“
Damn straight we will. That
house was the first real thing I’ve ever bought. I’ll take each
dollar out of his hide long before he ever sees the inside of a
jail cell.” She said the last word as they walked out the front
door, and then they were inside her sedan, pealing out of the
driveway.

The drive to the coffee shop was
almost too short for her to get a handle on her volatile emotions.
Nate, God bless him, understood her need for absolute
concentration. He could have joked with her about last night,
lightened the mood, but the warrior within him was loaded for bear.
She was glad Nate hadn’t said anything about last night, because
just the memory of it made her blood pressure spike and her head
whirl. She needed to tamp down her temper right now, and reminders
of last night’s passion would only push it into dangerous
zones.

She pulled into an empty parking space
and was out the door before the car had even rocked to a stop. Emma
rounded the hood of the sedan and threw herself into Charly’s
arms.

“
You’re alright,” Emma
sobbed, sounding as if her heart was breaking. For the first time
this morning, Charly felt a very real tendril of fear. Emma was
never this dramatic. Whatever she’d seen must have been really,
really bad.

“
Come on, Sweetie,” she
said, leading her friend through the doors to a bistro table. Nate
followed closely behind, his posture upright, ready for action.
While Charly doubted CC would accost them in such an obvious place,
she was glad for the extra set of eyes.

Right on cue her cell rang. “Davis,”
she said, glad her voice was cool and calm.

“
Officer Williams,
Detective. Your residence is secure, but I think you need to see
it. CSU is on their way.”

“
It’s bad enough for CSU?”
Dread settled into the pit of her stomach.

“
Uh, ma’am? I’ve never seen
anything like this,” the officer answered honestly, and she could
almost see his Adam’s apple bobbing nervously as he spoke. “Captain
needs to see this, too. He’s on his way.”

“
Thank you, Williams. We’ll
be there in five.” She pocketed the phone and braced Emma’s
shoulders in her hands. “Emma, we need to go back. Detectives are
there, and they’ll need to ask you questions.” Her friends
shuddered in her grip. Jesus. How bad could it really be? “You’ll
be safe. I promise.” She caught Emma’s gaze with her own and held
it until the woman nodded slowly.

“
Nate?” Charly asked, not
even bothering to voice the question, knowing he would
understand.

“
I’ve got your six,” he
replied, sliding in behind them as they walked back into the watery
morning sunlight. “Though I’d feel much better if I was
armed.”

Charly laughed, a short bark of sound.
“I’d lend you mine, but...”

“
Never mind,” he replied,
and she could almost feel his eyes sweeping the scene, assessing
threat levels.

She buckled Emma into the front seat,
then slid behind the wheel and pulled into the street after she
heard Nate’s door thunk closed.

“
I need you to talk to me,
Emma,” she said, sliding a glance at her friend. Emma still looked
as shocky as she had before.

“
I’ve never seen anything
like it,” Emma said, unconsciously parroting Officer Williams’
words. “It wasn’t just trashed, Charly, it was destroyed. I dropped
by to see if you wanted to go to breakfast. The door was partway
open, and even though I knew you’d never be that careless, I pushed
it open anyway.” She shuddered, as if the vision sickened her even
now. “There was red everywhere. I thought it was your blood, but
then I saw a paint can sitting right by the door. The whole place
reeked of smoke, dirty smoke, not like you’d get from the
fireplace. That’s when I called you. I couldn’t stand the idea of
you being in there. Your car wasn’t out front and...”

Charly clasped Emma’s hand in her own.
“It’s okay, Sweetie, I get the picture. I’ll need you to repeat it
all for the Detective, but don’t worry about it now. I’m okay. It’s
just a house. It’s just a house.”

“
Fuck,” Nate cursed lowly
behind her, and the sound of his voice strengthened her, where
Emma’s terror had left her weak. She never wanted to see her friend
like this again. Never.

The lights of the fire truck and squad
cars painted the houses of her neighborhood in strobes of red and
blue. One rig was on station, an attack line snaking from the truck
into her front door. Three black-and-whites, a CSU van and a
supervisor’s sedan were parked haphazardly on the street and her
lawn. Officers stood in clumps around the entryway.

“
Shit,” she swore beneath
her breath and put the car in park. She turned to Emma. “Stay here
until either I or one of the officers comes for you. Make them show
you their badge. No firefighters,” she said sternly.

“
Okay,” Emma replied
shakily.

“
Lock the doors after us,”
Charly ordered and then stepped into the street. Her precinct
captain was already on his way over. She met him halfway as her
inner cop rose to the fore.

“
Potential witness in the
car. She needs to be questioned, but she’s shocky.” She gentled her
tone. “She’s my friend, Captain. Be gentle with her. It can be
anyone but Williams.”

Captain Reynolds cocked his head at
her in question.

“
He was at the last scene.
I’m ninety-nine percent sure he’s clean, but we can’t take the
chance, not if it’s as bad as she says it was.”