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CHAPTER 11
Celia barely made it out of the farmhouse without having to have breakfast first. “Riley, I really have to go.” She kept looking at the housekeeper who had a sour look on her face. He didn’t seem to care as he had his arms around her, his hands locked over her ass.
“You can’t work on an empty stomach, baby.” Her heart jumped when he called her that, and she got all soft and melting. But as she found herself being drawn in, she pulled back; the man is lethal. “I’ll grab something on the way in; I really have to go.”
She wouldn’t say he pouted, but he didn’t look too pleased. She guessed she could understand where he was coming from this was supposed to be her day off after all, and it would’ve been the first they’d spent together.
“Besides, I need to take care of your sore pussy. I saw the way you walked down those stairs.” Her face went up in flames, and she took a quick look at the housekeeper to make sure the other woman hadn’t heard even though he’d whispered it in her ear.
“Riley!” She admonished with a playful slap to his shoulder.
“Maybe you can come home for lunch, and I’ll lick it all better.” He nibbled on her neck, making her giggle like a schoolgirl.
“I doubt I’ll be having lunch today; there’ll probably be no time. And on that note, I really have to be going.”
She said this as her arms went around his neck and she pulled him down for a long lingering kiss to tide him over until she could get back to him. Celia loved that he was reluctant to let her go.
After the night they’d shared, she needed all the reassurance she could get. She wasn’t too good at this sex thing, but the way he was acting this morning told her that she’d been more than good enough. Not to mention the number of times he’d turned to her throughout the night. Her face blushed with the memory.
She was finally able to extricate herself from his grasp and was smiling like an idiot five minutes later when she drove down his driveway with the thermos of coffee he’d shoved into her hand before she walked out the door.
“I want you back here tonight when you’re done.” Those were the last words he said before letting her go, not giving a care to the older woman who was bustling around the room behind them.
By the time she reached the end of the driveway, she was in detective mode. Grabbing her earpiece, she put a call into her partner office Pete Bailey letting him know her ETA and to make sure crime tech was en route.
She felt just a little bit self-conscious as she approached the scene, wondering as everyone turned to look at her if they knew what she’d been up to the night before. But she breathed a sigh of relief when it was business as usual.
She did a walkthrough of the area surrounding the body before going to stand over the body of the woman who had been staked out on top of a hilly incline that was just off the main road heading into town.
“They really did a number on her, huh.”
“And then some. It doesn’t look like she put up much of a fight, no defensive wounds.” Office Bailey was getting good at shit for someone who’d only handled one murder case so far.
But she had seen him reading up on crime scenes the last couple of weeks, and he was showing more of an interest now that the job entailed more than rescuing cats from trees. She knew the fact that the town’s people were treating them both like local heroes had a lot to do with his new work acumen.
“Is that her car?” She pointed to the abandoned vehicle with the door still open, keys in the ignition. A closer look showed a slight scraping against the back bumper, and she figured that’s how the assailant got her to stop.
“Look here, Pete.” She pointed it out to him. It looks like whoever it is ran into her first, then she got out, the person attacked her. Maybe she was incapacitated in some way. That’s why there’re no defensive wounds on her arms. Maybe the ME will be able to answer that question for us later.”
She walked back over to the body as the crime scene techs, some of whom were working on their second murder themselves, were taking pictures and gathering up the evidence. “Do we know who called it in?”
Office Bailey looked at his notes and shook his head. “No name and dispatch couldn’t say if it was a man or a woman.” She furrowed her brow at that but said nothing as she got down in a crouch next to the body.
