“What’s your theory?”
“I have a couple.”
I leaned back in my chair. “Tell them to me.”
“All of these cases were ones that the police asked you to help with. Every last one was one that was in your filing cabinet. So I think, either subconsciously or un-subconsciously, she was trying to help you. She might not even know why. But when you have more than one personality, sometimes memories overlap. Sometimes thoughts get parsed to the wrong persona. Or at least they did with Lynn.” She shrugged again. “I mean, really? What are the chances that this strange woman is going out killing people for no reason? It happens, but it’s not happening here. This is purposeful.”
“I thought Megan was the only malevolent personality.”
“Oh, Riley James might not be malevolent.”
I snorted. “She has been killing people.”
“That doesn’t necessarily make her malevolent. She probably thinks she had a really good reason for what she’s done. It’s probably to protect you, or to help you out in some strange way. She might not even know the reason.”
“I need to call John and tell him about all this.”
“Your old boss, John?”
“The one and only. He’s going to love you.” I leaned over and planted a wet kiss on her cheek.
“Eww,” she cried, as she swiped a hand down her cheek, but she was laughing. “I’ll call John and get him on the line for you.”
She picked up her phone and went through making the call, a dejected look on her face. “He’ll call you back in thirty minutes. He’s busy.”
“He’s pretty reliable,” I said. I stared at her so long that she started to fidget.
“What?” she asked. “Do I have something on my face?”
“A smile,” I replied. “It looks really pretty on you.”
“Thank you,” she said softly, color rising on her cheeks.
“You’ve blushed every time I’ve looked at you today.” My voice sounded gravelly even to my own ears all of a sudden.
“You think so?” she replied, her voice soft and quiet but strong like always.
I reached out and ran the backs of my knuckles across the apple of her cheek. “Why all the blushing?”
“This feels…different.” She shrugged and her cheeks turned an even heavier shade of pink. “I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Try.”
She shook her head and drew her lower lip between her teeth, giving it a squeeze. When she let it go, I realized she’d left little teeth marks in her tender skin. I leaned closer to her and sucked her lower lip into my mouth, tenderly swiping my tongue across where I knew the teeth marks were.
Then I pulled back and looked into her eyes. “I have barely gotten any work done all day,” I admitted. “All I can think about is you.”
She said nothing. She gave nothing away.
“Every time I blink, I can feel you and the way you wrapped around me this morning.”
She looked pointedly toward my lap, where my dress pants were growing suspiciously tight. “You mean your dick?”
I laughed. “That too. But mainly just you. The way you held on to me. The way we fit together. The way you make me feel. I like it. I like it a lot. I like you a lot.”
“I don’t know how to do this,” she said quietly. Then I realized how quickly she was blinking, and that her eyes were filling up with tears.
“Talk to me.”