DEAD SEXY Read online

  Her courage came back and she surveyed her situation. There was nothing she could do with the guns pointed at them in such a tight space but once in her apartment she might have a chance. She had things she could use for weapons there, and more room to escape a bullet.

  She caught sight of Blake’s reflection again and her mouth fell open when he actually winked at her! The man was insufferable! He was probably plotting some grand scheme to save them both and come out looking like the hero right then.

  The car lurched to a stop in front of her building, an impressive brownstone in the heart of the Village. They got out, Jenna checking the street for any help but the residential district was quiet at that hour, most of the blinds drawn over the neighboring windows and while there was traffic on the major avenues that ran a block away on either side nobody could see down into the shadowy street on which her building sat, hidden almost completely behind a large tree.

  The breeze felt good on her sweating face, she had not known how hot she was until just then, or how often she had forgotten to breathe. The exhaust tinged air tasted sweet in her mouth and her lungs expanded, helping her mind to clear.

  Denise prodded Blake forward and Yancey gripped Jenna’s arm so tightly that she cried out but he stifled that cry with a swift blow to the back of her head. “You’re going to pay for that,” Blake said softly but with real menace.

  “Oh, shut up,” Yancey muttered but he looked nervous

  They went to the elevator and Jenna pushed the button. Had it only been a few hours before when she had been inside a different elevator car wrapped into a hot embrace with Blake? The whole night had taken on a surreal turn, and she was not sure she could handle much more; the stress was beginning to tell.

  She got into the car and then out on her floor. They plodded along the halls, Jenna trying to make eye contact with Blake in order to get some type of communication but he was always just a step too far behind. She unlocked her door, her resolve hardening and they went inside her apartment.

  “Well,” Denise said, “Isn’t this fancy.”

  It was. Jenna lived in a very large two bedroom apartment with a full kitchen and bathroom. At over a thousand feet the place was a prime location and had cost her over a million dollars. She thought it worth it, just for the spectacular views from her windows and the space.

  She said, “The file is in my kitchen. I’ll get it.”

  Yancey followed her. Her skin prickled with chills and her breath caught and held. She knew that the kitchen had a tiny ell, hidden from the sight of anyone in the living room, and it was there that she headed. Also in that ell was a miniscule breakfast nook, and a place setting for one which included a small but wickedly sharp knife.

  She pretended to be reaching below the table but when she came up only the knife was in her hand. She spun so suddenly that Yancey did not have time to back away and sank the blade into the hand that he held the gun with. He let out a loud piercing cry and the gun fell from his fingers. Jenna dove for it while he was still howling and trying to get the knife out of the back of his hand.

  “What is going on?” Denise demanded from the living room.

  “The bitch stabbed me!” Yancey cried.

  Blake saw his chance; he grabbed the gun in Denise’s hand and wrestled for it. She clung to it, her face set in a grimly determined mask and he heard Yancey cry out again. Had Jenna stabbed him again? Yancey’s yell of, “That was my balls!” assured him she had found a better target and easier way to inflict pain on the hapless man.

  Jenna ran from the kitchen, Yancey’s gun clutched in her fist in time to see Denise grappling with Blake. There was a loud bang, and a puff of smoke drifted up into the air.

  “Blake!” Jenna screamed and ran toward the two, who were still standing there locked into a deadly embrace. She was not thinking, she just reversed the gun in her hand and used it to hit Denise on the back of her head. She went down like a lead balloon.

  Blake had blood on his shirt and Jenna grabbed him, tears pouring down her ashen cheeks. “Don’t you die on me! I just found you! If you die I will kill you myself!”

  Blake held her tightly, “It’s not my blood.” Then he kissed her, a sound and deep kiss that left her speechless and shaking. “And I am not going anywhere. You could not get rid of me if you tried.”

  * * * *

  The police officers in Jenna’s apartment were all men that Blake knew—and trusted. When he told them that Kevin had a hand in the scheme one of them shook his head and said, “They have been trying to bust his ass for years. Maybe this time this will be enough.”

  Jenna was huddled into her leather sofa, a steaming cup of tea on the glass table in front of her and Blake’s strong arm wrapped around her slender shoulders. Yancey had had the sense to fall silent when the cops, called by a concerned neighbor, had shown up but it was obvious that he was in hot water.

  Denise had been shot in the hip and she would be fine, as soon as she got some medical attention she would be transferred to a holding facility. The cops taking the report were almost done and Jenna was exhausted, the events of the entire day had finally caught up with her and it showed.

  Blake was concerned, Jenna was beyond pale, her always delicate pallor had gone the shade of lilies left too long in winter, and her fingers shook as she tried to lift her cup to her lush mouth. Neither of them had told the cops that she still had the file, and with good reason—Kevin was still out there, and if they turned it over any of his friends on the force might grab it up, or he might be able to remove it from the evidence room himself.

  The police finally left and silence fell in the apartment. Blake knew he needed to get her to bed, but he also knew she needed to get away from that place so he helped her pack a bag and they took a taxi to his place.

  Jenna felt like she was walking behind a thick sheet of glass or ice. Everything was locked deep within her and she wanted to open up, to let it out but she was afraid to. Her entire life had been a study in being tough, in being strong enough to take anything, and she had had to be that strong to survive. Her heart literally ached and her entire body felt like it had been hit with a giant hammer. She was terrified of what would happen when those walls came tumbling down, and they would, she knew it.

  To stave that off she adopted her business demeanor as soon as they were in Blake’s living room. She removed the file from her bag and they sat down with it. “This is crazy,” she said. “Denise had full access to everything. She could have taken the money long ago and left, why did she stay?”

  “She was waiting for her son to get out of prison, I think.”

  Jenna closed her eyes. She did not want to feel any sympathy for Denise, but she did. What had it been like to watch her child grow up with another woman as his mother? To see him but to not be able to hold him, to comfort him or rejoice with him on holidays?

  Jenna’s childhood had been bleak, and she had often fantasized about a ‘real’ family that would burst in and announce that they had been looking for her for years and were ecstatic that they had found her. In those childish daydreams the house was always big, the parents were faceless but nice, and there was always hugs and kisses instead of punishments and fear.

  What had Denise fantasized about as she watched her son grow into manhood, and what would she have been willing to overlook? Had she loved his father? How much had it hurt to stay there day after day knowing she had not only given away her son but that the man she loved did not want her?

  “I did not make a mistake; it was him that was the thief, not his father.” Was she saying that reassure him or herself, she wondered. What if she had made a mistake?

  “Look at all these accounts. This started right after Jason went to prison, and look at all the signatures. They were yours. She as setting you up for a long fall.”

  “She knew about my past, didn’t she?”

  “If I could find out, Kevin could have too.”

  Jenna laughed a harsh and broken laugh that turne
d into a sob. Before she knew what was happening the dam broke and she was sobbing like a child. Blake pulled her into his lap, holding her and rocking her gently. “Let it go,” he said softly, “Let it all go.”

  She did. A storm of grief, anger and loss poured out of her. Jenna wept for things she did not even know she had been holding onto: her parents and their wasted lives, the abuse she had suffered growing up, the long lonely nights in the detention center, her own loneliness—the loneliness she could no longer mask with success and material things.

  Blake sheltered her, his arms providing her a solid space and his shoulder took the brunt of her sadness, becoming soaked with her tears. When her sobs tapered off and became small lost sounds he picked her up and carried her to bed.

  Jenna looked up at him as he laid her gently across the mattress. Her eyes were swollen and gritty and her head pounded but still she wanted him. She raised a hand to her face, “I look awful. I probably have snot or something…”

  Blake laughed; a tender chuckle that melted the last bit of reserve in her heart and his knees pressed into the mattress as he knelt beside her. “You look beautiful.”

  “You probably say that to every woman who winds up in your bed.”

  “No, but I do always say it to my cat.”

  “That is not a cat; that is a moose.”

  “It would be illegal to keep a moose as a pet.”

  “Maybe I should turn you in then.”

  “Would you really want Freddy to live in a zoo?”

  “I would be more afraid they would release him into the wild, not because I would worry about Freddy, but I would certainly worry about the havoc he would create on the eco-system.”

  “He is a greedy thing.” He wiped away her tears with a gentle knuckle. “I love you Jenna.”

  Her heart bloomed and her smile was wide and genuine. “I love you too, as crazy as that is.”

  “There have been crazier things in the world.”

  That was true. Jenna stopped thinking, she tilted her face up to his for a kiss and his lips pressed against hers, softly at first and then more demandingly. Her hand twined around his neck, pulling him closer and when he moved so that he was on top of her she arched her back, seeking his warmth, his maleness and he responded by pulling her closer to him. The kiss lengthened and intensified, the need that they both had, the emotions that were bursting through them exploded into a maelstrom of desire.

  Blake took his time. He undressed her slowly, exploring every inch of her body. He stroked her velvety skin, ran his tongue into the hollows behind her ears and kissed her neck. He kissed and caressed her, stroked her and coaxed her into a state of erotic wanting that left her panting and breathless.

  He took his clothes off and she looked up at him, at the hard lines of his body, the breadth of his shoulders and chest, the nip that his waist took and the placket of V-shaped muscle that led to his lower belly and cock. He came to her softly, his fingers guiding his dick to her waiting opening and he slid forward just an inch, letting her rise up to meet him when she was ready, and she was ready.

  Her slickness engulfed him, they both cried out and his tongue streaked across her nipples. Jenna’s legs wrapped around his waist and her heels banged against the upper part of his ass cheeks as he flexed and pumped in and out of her.

  The scent of their lovemaking grew stronger and Jenna closed her eyes, letting him make love to her, letting him take her away from everything except the feeling of his body moving on top of hers, his cock filling her, his breath against her cheek and his fingers curling into her shoulders as he groaned and began to move faster as a climax claimed them both and left them lying in a golden pool of warmth and light.

  She ran her fingers up and down his back, relishing the feel of his muscles and his skin below her fingertips. Their breath slowly became less harsh and rapid and he moved out of her, leaving a trail of his milky fluids running from her pink inner folds and into the covers. He curled around her in a protective gesture and she sighed, put her face against his strong chest and listened to the reassuring thudding of his heart.

  His fingers traced her jaw and he lifted her chin to kiss her softly and sweetly. Jenna wondered how it was possible for him to make love to her with such fury but still make her feel so cherished and safe. It was a rare gift and she knew it, and she did not want to lose it…or him.

  He fell asleep, his breathing tapering off into a gentle snore and she lay awake, staring at the ceiling and wondering what she should do about her job. She had the file, and she could explain her part in the whole mess and she might even be okay, but is that what she wanted?

  Of course it is, she scolded herself. This is all just a reaction to my secretary turning out to be some kind of psycho kingpin thief with…she closed her eyes. The whole thing was beyond surreal, it felt like some terribly bad dream or B rated movie. How could this happen in real life? Yet it had, and she still had no answers even though she knew all of the reasons. Denise had been wronged, but had that justified what she had done? No, not at all.

  She had been wronged by her parents but the truth, painful as it was, was clear. She had known better. She could have, should have, done any number of things. She should have turned her father in, or walked out and refused to help him cook that mess—she had known exactly what it did to people, the street they lived on was filled with addicts after all.

  She had not been a defenseless child by the time that arrest came along, and she could have walked, others had at that age and while her odds were not good—nobody’s were in that kind of life, she might have saved herself some misery.

  Or maybe not. Maybe this time destiny had a hold in it all. Maybe she was right where she was supposed to be and the only road to get there had led her straight through a prison for youngsters. It was part of who she was, like it or not, and she could not hide it anymore.

  If Denise had taught her anything it was that holding onto the past was akin to drinking poison—and eventually poison killed.

  Chapter Six

  Blake went with her to her apartment. In the cold light of the day it looked even more spare and dour. He was sure she had paid some decorator a good deal of money to furnish the place but as far as he was concerned she had gotten ripped off.

  Everything was done in ultra-modern furnishings that would not hide a speck of dust and he winced just thinking about what Freddy would do to the pretty but highly impractical leather sofa. The rug was even taupe in color, how did she stand to be so careful all the time and not spill things or…?

  Her bedroom was a mess. He frankly stared and then he began to laugh. Jenna glared at him. “I know, I never seem to get around to putting the laundry away before the next batch comes in and my cleaning lady has given up doing anything with this room, but she does clean the office and bathroom still.”

  “I am just glad to know you are not the kind of girl who walks on tiptoe just to make sure she does not mess up her rugs.”

  Her face flamed. “I do that in the living room. I hate that fucking carpet, the furniture too in all fairness but I wanted to make sure it was a perfect in case I ever had to entertain someone from the company.”

  He looked devilishly good in the light pouring through her windows, too good. She looked around at the mess and then at him, “I could be late for work once. I think being almost murdered by my secretary and her crew constitutes unusual circumstances, don’t you?”

  “I once knew a guy who called out hit by lightning. He had been hit by lightning, though.” His black eyebrow tilted rakishly, “Why would you be late?”

  “Because I think I want to seduce you in my shower.”

  “Oh, foaming bubbling fun, sounds fascinating.” He came closer and caught her chin. “You could always quit your job and come to work with me. We could even take on separate cases sometimes just to keep from getting sick of each other.”

  “I would never get sick of you. But I cannot quit my job.” Oh but she wanted to! How much of a rel
ief would it be to be able to just be herself? To not watch what she said in case someone was listening, to halt the constant work hours and maybe live a little and have some fun, and be around Blake.

  “The offer is always open,” his lips touched hers.

  “I might take you up on it one day.”

  “I cannot wait, and what is more now I cannot wait to see your shower.”

  “Good, because I cannot wait to get you into it.” Her fingers tugged at the waistband of his jeans. He followed her into the bathroom, watching as she turned on the taps and then shrugged out of her soiled clothes. He surveyed her lean and elegant body, wondering if he would ever get tired of the sight of her. Hs cock jumped to attention, assuring him that that was highly unlikely and he stripped, then followed her into the steaming shower.

  “Just so you know, you are going to be very late,” he murmured wickedly and then he began to kiss her.

  * * * *

  Window dressing, that is what she was saying. How this vibrant and glorious woman had managed to submerge herself the way she had was beyond him, although he knew exactly why she had done it.

  The office was silent. Jenna shifted uncomfortably in the chair and stared first at the file spread open on the blotter of Brad Dunning’s desk and then down at her hands. The money was still accounted for, still there and it could be put back where it belonged but there were larger issues at play here and she knew it.

  Jenna licked her dry lips and said, “So there is the file. Yes, I signed and did not read the papers that were given to me. I take full responsibility for that. There is also something else you should know. I changed my name…”

  Dunning looked at her and said, “I know that.”

  She blinked, “What?”

  He sat back, his bulk filling his expensive chair, his neatly manicured hands folded on his chest. “Do you honestly believe that I would take all the security precautions that I take and not run a deep background check on my employees? Especially ones who rise to the rank that you have?”