I ground against him, and he let me control the pace as he sucked a nipple into his mouth.His fingers got everywhere—tangling in my hair, whispering across my skin, massaging, stroking, circling… He knew exactly how to play me.I came before I was ready, unable to hold back, and he groaned my name as I clenched around him.
“Jessie, fuck.That’s three-quarters of the way.”
“I want it all.”
Ridge had always told me I was selfish, and maybe he’d been right?
Then I was on my back, my legs spread, Justin’s hips rocking against me as he searched for his own high.But he was in no hurry.I felt another orgasm building, building, until I detonated again, this time in a supernova.Heat spilled into me, and we collapsed in a sweaty mess, limbs entwined, minds blown, sanity lost forever.
If only I could have stopped the clock.
Frozen that moment.
Because happiness was fleeting, and hell was snapping at its heels.
CHAPTER37
JERRY
“This is shaping up to be a better day,” Brax said.
“Oh, you think?”Grey had acquired half the L.L.Bean catalogue over the past three days, and he was still whining.“It’s barely above freezing.”
“At least the sun’s out.”Jez whacked him on the back, and he lurched forward.“If you got moving, you wouldn’t be so cold.”
“This is pointless.Do you realise I left a woman in my bed to be here?I could be having breakfast with her right now.Or catching up on emails, or sleep, or sitting in a nice warm chamber, arguing with my colleagues and disappointing roughly forty-five percent of the voting public.”
“The House doesn’t sit on Sundays, dumbass.”
Another day, another patch of scrubby forest.Sin climbed out of the car, stretched the kinks out of her back, and reached for her coffee.Most people thought she’d gotten her nickname because she paid lip service to morality, which she did, but it actually stood for Super Intel Nerd.She had networks everywhere, she mined humint the way Echo trawled the interwebs, and she’d never met a conspiracy theory she didn’t believe contained a kernel of truth.
“Look on the bright side,” she said.“Today, you can get some fresh air and disappoint four women in one go.”
Kermit decided to join the team voluntarily for once.He jumped out of the back seat, twisting in midair to avoid a patch of mud, and after a quick check to see if anyone had snacks—they didn’t—he took off into the trees.
Sin looked at Jez.Jez looked at Sin.
“Hmm,” Sin said.
“That’s more enthusiasm than he’s shown all week.”
“We should probably follow.”
“Either he’s smelled a body, or he needs a potty break,” Spider joked.At least, Jez thought she was joking.
Sin was already disappearing into the undergrowth, heading along a narrow track, and Jez jogged after her.Spider brought up the rear while the men lounged by the cars, bitching about the weather and some set of cookware Nolan and Grey had both bought that was supposed to be non-stick but wasn’t.The last thing Jez heard was Ari trying to wrangle them into action.Good luck with that.
They found Kermit sitting by a pile of brush in a small clearing.The mutt barked once, then began sniffing at Sin’s pocket, searching for a reward.And he might actually deserve it this time because nestled between the branches and withered leaves was a fucking plant.The plant was pretty shrivelled, but the pink pot it was sitting in still added a splash of colour to the surroundings.
Uh-oh.
“Does that look like a dead orchid to you?”Sin asked.
“Yup.”
Spider cursed.Jez nudged the brush with a foot and revealed a piece of blue plastic.Despite the chilly temperatures, the faint whiff of decomp drifted on the air, which was probably what Kermit had smelled, and at least Grey would be happy.They could all sleep in tomorrow.
Jez began pulling at the branches with gloved hands, and the others joined in.The pile had been hiding a mummy-shaped lump, wrapped in a thick blue tarp and tied with rope.The package was the right size for an adult human, and the shape suggested the body was female.
