“Fine, uh, watermelon. How’s that?”
The whispered need for approval made Grayson wish he could give it to her in person. “Good girl. Your words have my cock hardening as I picture your juicy, dark pink flesh. Putting an image into your caller’s head will egg them on. Now, using one finger on the inside of your thigh, up by your knee, start making small circles.”
“Why?” she questioned him again, her breathlessness leaving Grayson to wonder if she was imagining the erection she caused.
“Because I said to.” She huffed, but the sigh that followed told him she liked the light teasing touch. “Since your knee is bent, move downward, widening your circles with each shift toward your crotch. Does that feel good?” He spoke without pause to keep her from questioning herself too much. The time for introspection could come later, after they hung up.
“Yes, but sort of tickles. I’m… there with the next circle.”
“Excellent. Once you hit the crease where your bent leg meets your pussy, your circle should be wide enough your finger will glide up your spread labia. Do it.”
Jesus. That little catch in her voice was enough to turn his cock into a steel rod that threatened to bust through his fucking zipper. Biting back a groan of self-inflicted frustration, Grayson decided to reward her before turning her loose to fend for herself with the next caller. Although, after checking the time again, she may have just made enough with him to call it a night.
“Circle your clit next, pressing a little harder. Pretend I’m watching you and your main goal is to please and excite me. I want to hear you climax.”
“Oh, God,” she moaned, her low voice carrying a tortured undertone that tore at his composure and had him questioning, again, what trouble had landed her in such a desperate state.
“Harder now, sugar. A little faster.” Her breath caught again, a small sound that ripped through him before her cry resonated in his ear, ringing of both surprise and relief. He gave her a few more minutes to come down from the pleasure, to clear her head and remember he was there with her.
“I...” She sucked in a gasping breath. “I… never… thank you,” she ended on a long sigh.
“You’re welcome.” He paused a moment before asking, “Are you sure you don’t want to tell me what happened that you ended up with this as your only option?”
“I’m sure.” She didn’t hesitate over that answer, and he’d done all he could to help her but couldn’t resist offering one more boon before hanging up. “Look, if you’re ever near Willow Springs, Montana, stop and ask for Grayson Monroe. I might be able to help you.”
With her body still shuddering from small aftershocks of pleasure she’d never achieved before, Avery gasped at his generous, unexpected offer. “Are you serious?” He couldn’t be, she decided. He was just being nice. But his parting words gave her pause.
“As a heart attack, sugar. You take care.”
The sudden dial tone buzzing in her ear cleared the remaining euphoric fog clouding her head. When she saw how long they’d been talking, a different kind of warmth spread through her sated, quivering body. Dialing the number Esmerelda gave her to both check in and sign off, she took her number off the list for the night before they put any more calls through to her phone. Even if she hadn’t made enough with his call, after that experience, there was no way she could concentrate enough to talk with anyone else right now. Not only was she still reeling from a stranger’s generosity of time, money and concern, but her limited and disappointing sexual past hadn’t prepared her for such an explosive response to a deep, commanding voice giving erotic instructions.
He’d left her with just one burning question waiting for an answer. Where did she go from here?
Chapter 2
“We need to talk.”
Chad Banks’ voice echoed around the corner of the police precinct’s parking garage, halting Avery in her tracks. She’d never cared much for Darren’s partner and preferred waiting out of sight for him to leave before meeting the vice detective she’d been dating the last six months for dinner.
“What about?” Darren asked with clear irritation.
“I stopped in the evidence room this morning. Avery jumped and appeared unsettled at seeing me. When she left her desk to get the box I requested, I checked her computer to see what she’d been so engrossed with when I came in. You will not like it,” Chad warned, the menace in his voice sending a shiver of unease down Avery’s spine. She feared she knew what he would say next.
“Talk faster, Banks, she’ll be out here any minute,” Darren insisted.
“She had the Mendez interview pulled up along with the log-ins from that bust. I fucking told you Mendez’s accounting during the D.A.’s plea bargain interview would come back to bite us.” Anger vibrated behind every word Chad uttered.
Oh, God. Fear coiled through Avery like an insidious, slow crawling snake ready to sink its fangs into her. Detective Banks had entered her small office adjacent to the evidence room in his usual brusque, hurried and demanding manner earlier that morning. After insisting on her immediate retrieval of an envelope from the storage unit for his perusal, he left her no choice but to leave her desk unattended to obey his order. As a lowly IT clerk, all the detectives in Chicago’s busiest precinct were her superiors.
Just those few words confirmed her suspicions there had been something off between the money-laundering con artist, Josef Mendez’s testimony to the D.A. and what Darren and Chad had given her to log into the evidence room. She hadn’t wanted to believe what she suspected, but now might not have a choice. Darren’s silence unnerved her until he spoke again, and then his words chilled her to the bone.
“Damn meddling bitch. Hell, the only reason I’m fucking her is to keep her from looking too closely at things like that. It’ll really piss me off if my sacrifice turns out to be for nothing, but let’s not jump to conclusions.”
“Yeah, well that plan isn’t working so well, now is it? I say we need to fix this, and fast, before she goes digging deeper.” Banks sounded as angry and frustrated
as Darren as the two of them confirmed the suspicions she’d been praying were all wrong.
“Quit acting like a hothead. There’s nothing to panic over yet. I’ll feel her out. Once I get an idea of what she knows, we’ll go from there.”