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“Please, please suck me,” Teddi would beg, her hands diving for the lush, dark tresses. Vera had always been able to make her beg. Make her fold. But she never hated it even if she played it like she did. It felt like a glorious free fall to let go because she knew the safety net was there every time.
Vera would lift her head, staring into Teddi’s eyes as spit dropped onto her cunt, the hot liquid making her clench. “Have you missed this?” She would nod, desperate for release in her honesty. “I believe you but I think I’ve missed it more. Missed the taste of you.” Sucking one lip until releasing it with an obscene groan. “The sounds you make.” The same pull on the other side, “I missed how you smell and when you pulse around my fingers. How you beg like you’ve never come before this moment.” The words would strengthen that pulse as she dove for her clit, sucking hard and flicking with her tongue as her fingers paid tribute to her cunt.
Teddi wouldn’t be able to stop from crying out, from squeezing her thighs hard as the waves of orgasm began to push against her. Toes curling she’d watch as Vera moaned. Release finally met its master, stripping all sound as sensation took over. Vera would make her watch as she licked her cum, making hungry noises as she lapped at each drop.
Dropping her hand, Teddi panted, a sheen of sweat covering her body. Her nipples were reddened where she’d pinched them repeatedly. It wasn’t the first time she came from the concocted scenario. A mix between memory and desire, she never orgasmed as hard as when her fantasy Vera admitted how much she missed her. How much she wanted it, wanted them again.
Sex between the two of them transcended every expectation Teddi had prior to it. Sometimes they would laugh, other times they would play fight until the desire scorched them so hard they went at each other like they were starved. More than one item of clothing had been ruined in the process. It was fucking. It was raw. It was sensual. It was how they had told each other they loved one another in a hundred different ways.
Rubbing her sensitive clit once more, she checked her phone. Eight thirteen am. Plenty of time to still get showered and get to the office. Maybe she should feel ashamed about still coming to the image of her ex-girlfriend but she didn’t care. Sex never came close to what it was between them and she’d definitely tried. In the ten years since they were together, she had good sex. Great sex, even. But no one made her want to get on her knees for just one lick, to beg only because it made them wet. No one’s hair felt right between her fingers no matter how she pulled. Knowing Vera was closer than she’d been in years, that they’d almost touched, kept that post-orgasmic hum beneath her skin. There was no getting rid of it. There was no pretending it didn’t exist. Vera was back, making time feel as if it had collapsed in on itself. How could it have been ten years when it felt like yesterday?
Hopping into the shower, she lazily scrubbed herself clean as she forced her mind mind back to issues she could find answer for at the moment.
The suspicions she, Vera, and her team had about Sylen were only the beginning. Neither of the local victims were officially reported missing. She wondered what Sheriff Malis had told the loved ones of the men. The unofficial reports stated they were accidents but she couldn’t imagine a world in which one look at their bodies would agree with that. When the coroner ripped back the sheet yesterday, the first thing she did was look right at Alex’s eyes to find them missing. It felt like tripping over a crack in the sidewalk; feeling the dread of falling right before your brain caught up to save you. Missing eyes and organs were the kinds of things people noticed but that didn’t seem to be stopping Sheriff Malis.
Although all three bodies had differences in mutilation, the patterns between Maller and Grennan were undeniable. The prayer position they were forced into, the cutting out of vital organs and tissue. Stripping away their ability to talk and see and the emblem of their manhood savagely sawed away. Not to mention the as-yet unexplained disintegration of their hearts. They needed to know if Alex had all of the same signs of torture. The marks around his wrists, missing eyes, and lacerations around his mouth were a step in the right direction but without a proper autopsy, it was all speculation.
Her hands froze in her hair, shampoo bubbles sopping down her wrists. None of it made sense. While she’d joked about Colorado having the landscape to house all sorts of boogeymen, she didn’t believe there was a hidden killer on the loose at the time. And yet it was clear Sheriff Malis wanted them out of there as fast as possible. Out of his town and out of his dirty secrets.Tilting her head back she began rinsing the suds.
They were going back to Sylen. Maybe they should tell local authorities or even the FBI, but she saw how much Vera wanted to know for herself and Alex. Her gut whispered that there was more to uncover in that sleepy little town tucked away in the dark of the forest.
Plans were already underway when Ximena called late last night, long after Vera went to bed. Teddi listened, murmuring her support while she vacillated between heart-wrenching pain and blistering anger. She pinched her mouth into a tight line when Ximena railed against Vera.
“I don’t even know how I’m supposed to act with her,” she hissed the words, trying to keep her voice down. “I feel like I don’t know her. Who the hell avoids coming home when their family member disappears? What the hell is wrong with her?” Teddi recognized the real emotions beneath her anger: pain and betrayal. “I want to ask her why she wasn’t here five months ago but I’m so afraid she’s going to lie. I couldn’t handle it if she lied to me again, T.”
Teddi couldn’t prove it yet but she was sure there was more to Vera's story than either of them knew. Yet Ximena’s reaction was understandable. While finding Alex dead wasn’t the ending they wanted, behind her back, it was one Teddi prepared for. Whatever kept Vera away had been bigger than either she or Ximena knew. She trusted in that. Trusted in her.
She was going back to Sylen, with or without Vera. But she much preferred with. The wedge between the sisters wasn’t something she wanted to see grow any larger.
They couldn’t conduct a proficient investigation from Fort Collins. She just needed to figure out why Vera was so unwilling to use her FBI contacts or credentials to help move the case along. Legally, the FBI couldn’t step in unless invited or a federal crime had occurred, and as far as she knew they didn’t have enough evidence to suggest one had. Poor excuses could still be made for the lack of filing the local deaths and she didn’t believe in placing blame without a damn good reason. But the way Vera shut down at the mention of her job had raised alarms.
In the ten years since they’d last spoken, Ximena kept her abreast of her life even when she stopped asking. Asking after the first year had felt pathetic. Ximena began dropping details in casual conversation, “Oh, Vera passed the Special Agent phase one exam. Did you hear Vera got sent down to Florida temporarily? Vera said she’s doing some kind of training she can’t even tell me about. Vera finally got that position in D.C. she’s been wanting.”
The details kept piling up over the years of everything Vera did, and although Teddi would never begrudge her for making her dreams come true, there was always a sour taste in her mouth that she did it without her. That Teddi didn’t get to be next to her as she became the person she wanted to be. Vera went out into the world and made it hers and now the woman who showed back up in Fort Collins felt like she was larger than life.
A spike of curiosity piqued at this new version of her. Maybe it would mean a chance to draw closer again. Teddi shook her head, trying to shake the rampant thought. Vera was cold and distant, she wasn’t thinking of getting close. The idea dug its heels in deeper like a petulant child. She recognized the growing sensation. It wasn’t just curiosity, it was hope. Hope for what? To be together again? To be friends? To be work colleagues for a few days and then never speak again? The thought made her gut clench.
The stubborn balloon of promise whispered a dangerous idea. This could be a chance to do it right. There weren’t looming ambitions and life-changing choices standing in their way, they were adults now. There was enough stability in both of their lives that could make their relationship as solid as they wanted it to be a decade before. Maybe Vera still felt the same, maybe she saw the idea of them being stuck together as something hopeful too. Yeah, Teddi knew there were a handful of difficult conversations they needed to have but they could do it. They could talk it out. Once she explained why she ended things between them, Vera would understand. She would see that it had been a decision made in her best interest.
She felt the desire between them on the couch the night before. There was a fighting chance it could work out. It could also blow up in her face but the stubborn “what if” in the corner of her mind chanted louder than the pushback. The only way to know was to try. The attraction was still there, as immediate and strong as it ever was. Their history stood between who they were then and who they were now but there was a chance.
Determination fueled her as she shut off the water and hurried through her routine. She let her wheat blonde hair air dry as she dressed in jeans and comfy boots. Rifling through the pile of sweaters on her bedroom floor, she grabbed a dark one she thought was still clean.
The optimistic remodel she began on her closet a month ago hit a brick wall when it came down to choosing a paint color. The large space was now a hollow shell of color test stripes. Blues, greens, creams, black, each one at least a foot long. Her wooden floors had been covered in piles of washed and unwashed clothes since.
Just as she snatched her keys from the marble kitchen island, her phone pinged.
Hurrying to lock her front door, Teddi huffed a laugh at how ridiculous it was. As if she needed anyone else standing between her and Vera when Vera was doing a damn good job of it herself. She couldn’t blame her though. To her, it looked like Teddi had cut and run, unaffected by what had transpired between them. That was so far off the truth it was painfully laughable.
Fifteen minutes later, she was hurrying down the back hallway of Ophidian Investigative Agency’s building, sure it was darker than normal. Vera’s laughter greeted her like a light as she entered the office.
She, J, and Mackey were all seated in the reception area over a pile of snacks Teddi knew were out of date.
She saw Vera first. In jeans, hiking boots, a sweater, and a backpack, she looked ready to go. “Starting without me?” Tossing her bag on the floor by the remaining empty chair, her eyes caught the deep-V of Vera’s sweater. The navy blue was flattering against her skin. A slight bit of cleavage winking at her before she could look away. “Coffee, anyone?” Turning to the corner table with the drip machine, she tried to push away the memory of how she started her morning. Her neck heated at the cheap imitation her mind had conjured now that she could compare it to the real thing.
“I’ve got some,” Vera replied as J said something that made her laugh so hard her nose scrunched up. She knew it was illogical to be jealous but she didn’t like the idea of J making her laugh before she did. All she’d been met with was alternating ice and distance.
“Since you’re all having such a good time I’m going to assume you’ve got the plans all set?” Coming to sit, she smiled stiffly as her boss watched her.
