Naked Risk (Shatterproof #3) (7 page)

Chapter Thirteen –
Catherine

Watts held my hand as he drove to the hotel.

“This is where you’ve been staying?” I asked as he pulled into a parking space.

He nodded. He’d been quiet
during the drive, his face taking on that intense expression of his.

We got out of the car and he grabbed the bag of stuff he had taken from my apartment. We
walked into the hotel through a side entrance, and took the stairs to the second floor.

The room was nothing fancy, but I hadn’t been expecting a penthouse suite or anything. I hadn’t been thinking about it at all, actually. I just wanted to be with Watts and nowhere near my apartment.

“Can I take a quick shower?” I asked. I still had some of Winnie’s hair on me, I remembered, the whole reason I had gone to my bedroom in the first place barely more than an hour ago.

“Of course. I need to make a phone call anyway.”

By the time I got out, Watts was sitting in a chair by the window, looking outside. He spun around and watched me walk toward him, wrapped in a towel. I sat on his lap. I put my arms around his neck and lowered my head to his shoulder. I shivered from the cold.

“Want me to turn the AC
off?”

“No,” I said. “I’
ll be fine.” I rested my head against his and thought about all that was happening. “Who would do something like that to me?” I asked, my mind going mostly with the theory that it was a random act.

“Someone you know.” Watts’s cold, matter-of-fact answer stunned me. I don’t know why that hadn’t crossed my mind. “I don’t really know anyone, though. You know that.”

“Tell me,” he said. “I need to know any men you know, any men you’ve been involved with—”

“None.” I cut him off. “You know how I live.”

He shook his head. I wasn’t sure if it was a sign of him not believing me, or him thinking that I wasn’t understanding him.

“What?” I said.

He sat straight up, putting his hands on my sides and holding me steady. He turned me just enough so that our eyes met and he stared intently at me as he spoke.

“Tell me some men you know. Some guys who’ve asked you out, or show
n any kind of interest in you at all.”

I hated to think of it, but the first name that came to mind was Tony
Alvedo, the security guard at work. He’d always been nosy and more than a little creepy.

“Maybe this security guard from work,” I said, tentatively.

Watts picked up on my tone immediately. “You don’t sound so sure.”

I shook my head. “I’m not.”

“Think,” he said. “Guys from the dating site?”

My stomach churned. I had never told Watts about the one guy I had met for coffee. The lawyer.
I had to tell him, so I did.

His reaction didn’t surprise me. His brow furrowed, his nostrils flared, his lips pressed together.

“I never told you. I’m sorry.”

He shook his head. “It’s fine. Do you have the guy’s phone number?”

“No, I never had it. We set up the…meeting using the messages on the site.”

Watts asked me more questions about Tony—if I had any reason to believe that he knew where I lived, if he had access to any personnel files that I knew of, any way he could possibly know.

“Only if he followed me,” I said.

“The guy from the site,” Watts said, switching course. “What was his name?”

“Jim…I can’t remember his last name.”

Watts was quiet for a moment. His eyes drifted over to the wall where he stared blankly at it for several seconds.
“Did he mention where he worked? Which law firm? Government or private, anything like that?”

I had to think back to it, but I couldn’t recall him saying anything about it. I knew I hadn’t asked, because I had barely contributed to the conversation. “
No, and actually he didn’t talk about his work at all.”

“Not at all?” Watts asked.

I shook my head. “No. I would have remembered that.”

“Did you keep the old messages
between the two of you?”

“I never deleted them, if that’s what you mean.”

He looked back at me. “I need your login name and password.”

I gave it to him and he went to his laptop, logged in and scrolled through my messages.

I looked over his shoulder. “Not much in there,” I said. “Mostly us.” He nodded, then stopped scrolling when I said, “That’s the one.”

Watts
grabbed the little hotel courtesy pad and pen, and jotted down the lawyer’s user name. He closed the laptop and stood. He said he was going to step out into the hall for a few minutes. I asked what he was doing but he wouldn’t say.

Chapter Fourteen –
Watts

I hadn’t heard
a single noise coming from Spencer’s room. He was probably getting some much needed rest.

I dialed Justin, my computer hacker associate.

He picked up: “Mr. Murphy, what brings you to the ultimate helpdesk of—”

“I need some information
,” I said, cutting him off. “This is personal.”

“Whoa, dude, I think you still owe me for the last personal search I did for you. The one on Ms. Catherine
…what’s her name again?”

I walked down the hallway, keeping my voice down.
“You’ll get your money. In fact, consider it doubled.”

“Hit me with it.
Whatcha need, dude?”

I stopped near the window at the end of the hall, looking out over the parking lot. “I need you to get into a dating site.”

“Wow, this really
is
personal.”

“I can’t take any jokes right now, Justin. This is life and death shit here.”

“Okay, okay, fine. Tell me more.”

I gave him the website and the lawyer’s username. “
He goes by Jim, but that could be a fake name. See what you can find out about this guy. Name, address, phone number, anything.”

“On it now,” he said. I could hear him typing. “I’ll call you when I have something.”

I hung up and stayed out in the hallway for a few minutes. I felt my pulse pounding in my ears, felt the tension in my jaw and neck. I was on the verge of rage, thinking about someone violating Catherine’s space, especially in such an overtly sexual way.

Years had passed since I’d felt this kind of anger, a near fury building in my mind, a desire to set this right and exact some measure of revenge upon this person.

I managed to cool down, setting my emotions aside, and letting logic do its thing.

I had serious
doubts about the security guard as a suspect. From what Catherine had told me, he sounded like a guy with poor social skills who was even worse at hiding his gawking of women. Some guys never learn how to look without getting caught.

Her
story of the date with the lawyer made him sound more boorish than dangerous, but the fact that he hadn’t talked about being an attorney struck me as odd. I’d never heard of a lawyer who didn’t like to talk about their profession, and I’d rarely known a guy who didn’t like to talk about himself in general, especially about their work. It seemed shady to me. Thin evidence, if it was evidence at all? Yes. But still I was skeptical.

Of course, there was always the chance that it hadn’t meant anything.

And there was a chance it was someone who wasn’t on her radar at all, a stalker who had noticed her in the dog park and followed her to find out where she lived. She thought she had a secure bubble of privacy and security, and it made her feel good to think that, but it wasn’t anywhere near the truth.

I felt bad that she had apologized for not telling me about meeting the lawyer from the dating site. I had told her all manner of things about my rendezvous with women—some true, some purely fantasy, which she was aware of now—but that didn’t mean she was obligated to tell me everything. Or anything.

It wasn’t any of my business.

Until now.

Chapter Fifteen –
Catherine

By the time Watts came back into t
he room, I was in bed. “Everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine,” he said, walking over to the window and drawing the curtains closed. The room darkened. A
thin line of light peeked through the space between the curtain and the window, backlighting Watts, making him appear almost like a silhouette.

I wanted to ask about the phone call. I knew it had to have something to do with the questions he had asked me. It wasn’t hard to figure out that he had begun to track down the lawyer.

I knew Watts was tired so I said, “Why don’t you get some sleep?” I looked at the clock. It was almost 4:30 in the afternoon.

“I’m going to try.” I watched as he undressed, only able to see the outline of his body due to the lighting.

He slid into bed next to me. He was naked, warm, and pulled me close to him.

“I promised nothing would happen to you,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

I put my hand up to the side of his face. “It’s not your fault.”

“It is,” he insisted. “I don’t know what it was, but I had a feeling that everything wasn’t okay. That’s why I’d been driving around the dog park and your place—”

“You drove by my apartment? When?”

“A few times last week.”

“Was I home?”

“Sometimes. But I mostly drove by during the day while you were at work.”

Under any other circumstances, I would have been upset with him for not coming to see me. But he had been right all along—something wasn’t right around my place. Plus, he didn’t exactly need me pressing him about not stopping in to see me.

It didn’t matter, anyway. We were to
gether again, alone, comfortable, safe.

“I don’t know if I can go back there,” I said.

“You don’t have to.”

I sighed, shifting my body so I could get as close to him as possible. “I will at some point. All my stuff is there.”

He kissed my forehead, the tip of my nose, and finally his soft lips pressed into mine before his head rested on the pillow again and he murmured, “It’s just stuff.”

Watts drifted off to sleep
while I stayed wide awake, thinking about everything that had happened. Watts was right. Everything that remained in my apartment was just stuff. I didn’t want any of my clothes. What else had been touched by the intruder? No amount of washing would scrub that thought from my mind.

As for my books, that was a different story. There were some that I treasured.
Some that I would truly miss. Watts could go get those.

What the hell was I thinking? Abandon my apartment? I couldn’t do that. I had a lease, I was in good standing with the property management company, and I couldn’t tell them what had happened
. They would ask me why I hadn’t called the police.

I was
feeling utterly violated, almost as if this person—whoever it was; I had no idea if I’d been right about the lawyer—had taken control of my life.

And I felt as though the
man had done something physically sexual to my body. That wasn’t literally true, but there was no doubting the intention of the intruder. I had every right to feel that way and I wasn’t going to beat myself up over it.

I wasn’t going to give up
control and lose all of my possessions. I could move, if I had to, even if it was just to a different unit in the same building. That was the most rational solution I could think of.

After a little while, I felt my eyes getting heavy and droopy. Watching Watts sleep so deeply, and listening to his slow, even breathing lulled me to sleep as well.

. .
. . .

I woke with a jolt, freeing myself from a nightmare—a close-up view of a hand reaching into my drawer and lifting my panties by one finger, turning them slowly as if inspecting every thread.

I looked at the clock and saw that it was 8:45 p.m. It hadn’t felt like I’d been sleeping that long. Watts had separated from me at some point, and he was lying with his back to me. I felt a cold distance between us.

My earlier feeling of being sexually violated by a stranger came flooding back. I couldn’t shake it. The dream had reinforced the feeling, and all I could think of was that this guy—possibly the lawyer, possibly not, didn’t matter—had managed to make me feel like I had been with another man, beyond my control and most definitely without my consent.

I moved closer to Watts, pressing my body against his. He was in a deep sleep. I didn’t want to wake him, but I felt an incredible urge to have him wrap me up in his arms and take away that feeling the stranger had inflicted upon me.

Only Watts could make it go away. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted him to make it go away now.

He stirred and looked at me over his shoulder. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not,” he said, rolling onto his back. “Talk to me.”

I could have gushed it all out right then, telling him how the intrusion had made me feel. But he had to know that already.

“I just want to look at you,” I said.

Part of that was true. Watts had enriched my life a little more than six months ago and that was just with words on a screen. Since then, he had become the one thing that broadened my world, bringing new horizons to my existence, making me see some kind of hopeful future filled with love and comfort, even though he was the most dangerous person I’d ever met.

Watts was the missing part of my life I had been waiting to find, without even knowing I was waiting for him.

I snapped out of those thoughts as I watched him give me a half-smile. “Just want to look at me?”

He was right to be skeptical. I wanted,
needed
, more.

I moved the top sheet off of him. His expression changed from a smile to one of seriousness, almost curiosity. I moved down between his legs and knelt, my face hovering just over his cock.

I reached for it, wrapping my hands around the shaft, stroking it a few times. I held it straight up, stuck out my tongue and tasted him.

Watts was looking down his body, watching me lick him. He made a sound that sounded like a combination of a moan and a growl, deep and primal, spurring me on.

I took the tip into my mouth, holding it there as I felt him growing longer and harder.

He reached down and brushed the
hair out of my face, holding onto the side of my head as I began to move up and down his shaft.

He didn’t let me do it for long.

“I can’t take this,” he said. “I need to be inside you.”

I wondered if he was thinking the same thing that I was—that this was sex to cleanse me of the stranger, that somehow it was Watts claiming my body again.

He turned me over, reaching for the nightstand,
then stopping.

“What?” I said.

“I don’t have—”

I shook my head. “
I don’t care. I don’t even want you to use one.” I didn’t want him to finish the sentence. I didn’t want one more second spent thinking about anything like that. I just wanted him. Inside me. Nothing separating our flesh this time. For the
first
time.

He pushed into me, filling me, and he made that deep moaning sound again. My eyes rolled back in my head and my eyelids fell shut. But I wanted to see him, watch his every mo
ve. I opened my eyes and saw him glaring back at me as he thrust into me again and again, pushing me back on the bed with his movements.

My breathing became
shaky as my anticipation grew stronger. As many times as we had been intimate, I had become totally comfortable with him, but each time brought something new. Sometimes just a small movement he changed up. Sometimes a feeling I would get—like the one that was bubbling up in me right then, that animal inside me that only Watts knew how to rouse.

I hooked my leg around one of his and tried to turn him over, but he was too strong when his entire body was flexed as he made love to me.

But he picked up on my attempt. He slid his arm underneath me, to my lower back, and turned us over in one smooth motion, his cock still buried inside me.

I sat up to ride him, grinding my hips against him, harder, harder, wanting him as deep i
nside me as my body would allow. His hands cupped my breasts, slid down my stomach and he gripped my hips, then let his hands fall to the side.

Watts had always been the one in control of our sex, but he was letting me take over.

“I want to see you get off on me the way you want,” he said.

I didn’t think I could have gotten any wetter, but his words brought
a whole new level to my arousal, heightened to the point that it sucked the breath out of me.

I moved my hips around in circles, then up and down the length of his shaft. I could feel his cock throbbing inside of me.
I slowed down, teasing him, moving agonizingly slow until I couldn’t stand it any longer. I needed to ride him harder.

My hands were on his stomach as I steadied myself, sitting upright on him. I found a rhythm that made his mouth form just the slightest hint of an O-shape, and I kept up that pace.

I felt his stomach muscles tighten against my palms and he started to move his hips up and down as I rode him faster.

So many times he had told me when to come and I had given him what he wanted. Now, more than wanting, I
needed
him to come inside of me, so I repeated the words he used so often: “Come for me,” I said. “Come inside me, Watts.”

I felt his cock pulsing inside of me. His stomach rose and
fell as he got closer.

I lowered myself onto him, my breasts pressing against his chest, my mouth on his.
He ran his hands through my hair, grabbing handfuls and holding them tightly.

Our lips were together, but we were just breathing heav
ily. I felt my own orgasm building within me—like a tight coil about to violently snap loose—as Watts thrust deep inside me.

I felt the warmth and slickness
as he came, groaning, and his movements became jerks more than even thrusts.

My knees locked onto his sides as my body almost seized up from the sensations running through every nerve ending. My back arched, I threw my head back, and I came along with him.

I collapsed, lying on his chest as we caught our breath.

Watts wrapped his arms around me, holding me against his body.

I listened to his racing heart drumming in his chest.