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It washard to concentrate on lunch while Casey sat across from me with a dazed look on her face. The entire time she was eating, she kept her head down, looking for all the world like she was concentrating on her food, taking slow, small bites of the meal. But I saw her for what she was—a woman so desperate for friction that she couldn’t stop adjusting her position in her seat. A woman that kept looking at each of us under her lashes. A woman that was turned on as fuck.
I imagined that if I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, I’d be able to smell her scent. Brent and I carried on our conversation as if neither of us was tempted to yank her off the bench seat, throw her on the tabletop, and feast on her ripe cunt instead of the sandwich in front of me. Hungry for something else, I couldn’t even taste it.
“Mrs. Banks came into the police station today to file a missing person’s report,” I casually stated. As if I were just recounting any other case I was working on. Technically, it wasn’t my case, but I knew the officer that had filed the report. He would do his due diligence investigating the missing lawyer and close the case in just a few weeks. There would be nothing for him to find. Brent was that good.
There was an almost imperceptible pause that only I noticed before Brent took another bite of his burger with a grunt. After he swallowed his bite, he took a drink and looked me in the eye. “Was she upset?”
I hid my grin behind my own glass. “She looked okay, not very worried if you ask me.” I glanced at Casey and then back at Brent. “Apparently, he had a mistress in another county over. Mrs. Banks assumed that he was staying with her. Either that or one of the criminals that he has on retainer got pissed and did something to him.” I dipped a fry in my puddle of ketchup. “His little girl looked like she was having a good day. Doesn’t seem like she’s missing her daddy any. If you ask me, that family seems relieved that he’s gone.” I popped the fry in my mouth and wiped my hands on the napkin.
“They aren’t sad or worried?” Casey’s eyebrows furrowed.
“I had a domestic dispute call at their home a few days ago. Unfortunately, even though there were obvious signs that he had been abusing them, Mrs. Brady wasn’t inclined to press charges.”
“That’s awful.” Casey looked spitting mad at the situation and sad all at the same time. I knew how she felt. “You don’t think she did anything to him, do you? I hate that the ones getting abused are often the ones that get in trouble for fighting back.”
“It will be part of the investigation. But I would bet my life that she would never have raised her hand against him.”
“If he was hurting her little girl, I wish she would have,” she mumbled, and Brent grunted his agreement. It was a point of contention with him when the innocent weren’t protected; especially by the adult that could put a stop to the abuse in any form.
“Yeah, I think we all do,” I said softly, more to calm Brent’s rising anger than anything. I had spent the last several years being the one to protect him, first from his family, then from the memories that plagued him. The only thing that settled his demons fully, though, was the satisfaction he found in ending the abuse of other innocents.
“When is your shift over?”
Casey looked up at me, giving me her pretty blue eyes fully for the first time since I slipped into my side of the booth. “Oh, actually, I don’t know. I forgot to ask Grace how long she wanted me to work today.” She looked around the diner as if she would find the answer written on the walls.
Brent’s voice was gruff from the anger he was still holding back at the previous conversation. “Regardless of when, just call me when you are ready to leave. I’ll make sure I can pick you up, okay?”
“Are you sure? I don’t want to take you away from work.”
He finally smiled. The tension in his muscles relaxing, no longer poised to attack a lawyer that we both knew had already disappeared and wasn’t coming back. “I’m here for you any time, dollface. And if I can’t get away, I’m sure Mr. Detective over there would jump at the chance.”
Her face flushed as she looked from him to me and back again. “You guys are so nice to me.”
“You are worth it,” I assured her and pushed my plate away. “But we are both serious. Whenever you need us, all you have to do is call.” I gave her a wink and reached across the table to capture her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze just to feel her skin under my palm. “Consider us yours to command,” I told her. If I could, I would put her in my pocket and carry her around all day just to have her near.
She ducked her head, staring down at her lap again, and tucked a golden strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail behind her ear. She pulled ever so slightly on the hand I had captured, and I let it go with great reluctance. “Thank you.” Her words were mumbled so low I could barely hear her over the din of the restaurant, but I couldn’t miss the rapid beating of her pulse at her bared throat. Miss Casey Smith was deeply affected by the both of us. I hadn’t felt like this in a long time.
We had promised each other we would take it slow, allow her to get to know us, to become comfortable before bombarding her with our desires. We had also promised that we would show her in other ways that we would be interested in more. Interested in her–as a woman. I figured we were doing a pretty decent job at both.
It would be so easy to just tell her what we wanted. But Casey wasn’t ready for what we wanted. She was still obviously on edge. Even now, I could see her looking at the door and holding her breath as each person entered, as if she were expecting something terrible to happen.
I cocked my head and studied her carefully. I hated this game we were playing, even if it wasn’t one that intended to harm anyone, but I couldn’t help but wish it were that easy. Maybe it wasn’t us that she would be unsure of. It occurred to me that there was a possibility that she would be more open to a relationship with us than we first thought, especially after her reaction to the kiss Brent and I shared. Instead, maybe we had to be more concerned with her being ready to run away at the first sign of danger. A girl like her would think she was doing the right thing by running away. To protect us instead of allowing us to protect her. It was something to give more thought to later.
I took one more sip of my drink and slid it back next to my plate. “I have to get going.”
Casey practically jumped to her feet, sliding out of the booth and smoothing her hands down her jeans in nervous agitation. “Okay. Thanks for eating lunch with me.” She looked over at Brent, who was sliding to the edge of the seat. He was face-height with her tits, staring at them hungrily, as if he hadn’t just devoured a hamburger and a full plate of fries. “Both of you,” she stammered out and stepped back to allow him to stand up.
I put my hand on the small of her back to steady her and marveled at how my palm seemed to fill the expanse of her waist. She couldn’t step back without colliding with me, and she wasn’t able to get out of the way as Brent stood to his full height, looking down at her as his broad chest brushed against hers.
Over her shoulder, I could see her nipples pebble at the contact through the thick material of her shirt and bra. I had to close my eyes and bite back the groan that wanted to escape.
“Was your lunch okay over here?” The sweet, cheery voice of my mother was enough to send an ice cold bucket of reality over my rising lust. My hand jerked as I reluctantly pulled it away from the warmth of her back. I turned to look at my mother and gave her a cocky grin before bending, kissing her cheek.
“Lunch was perfect as always, of course.”
“Best in the state,” Brent added as he kissed her other cheek.
She laughed at our antics and waved her hands at us, shooing us like we were teenagers trying to raid the kitchen while she was making cookies again. “Get out of here and get back to work.” She looked at Casey, who was grinning. I loved that she got along with my mom so well, and Mom obviously had a fondness for her. I hoped it would be enough to help convince her to stay when the time came that she’d be ready to run. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off, sweetheart?
