The Cleaner (Professionals 9)

"Shit. I'm sorry," I said, unexpectedly embarrassed as I jerked back, stood, and moved several feet away. "I wasn't thinking," I added, rubbing at one of my eyes with my hand.

"Right," he agreed. I was a bit wrapped up in my mix of desire and disappointment, so I might have been wrong, but I could have sworn there was something almost biting in his tone.

I was pretty sure about that when, within two minutes, he had all his cleaning supplies gathered, and was making his way toward the door, grumbling something about needing to get to work.

Then there I was, alone in a sparkling house with a brain whirling, and unsatisfied desire throbbing between my thighs.

"Ugh," I grumbled, resigning myself to needing to use a battery-operated device for the foreseeable future.

It was just like me to finally get the hots for a guy who wouldn't want my hands anywhere on his body, or his on mine.

Yep.

That sounded just about right.

Crime Time with Poppy

"Hello, my beautiful, creepy people. This is Poppy—your friendly, local true crime peddler—and this is Crime Time with Poppy. It has been about ten days since we last had an update on Shelley Shannon, a missing mother of three, who vanished without a trace.

"So far, it seems like investigators have cleared Shelley's ex-husband, Michael, of any involvement. He has a verified alibi. And, well, he was never much of a suspect to begin with, was he?

"Now, with our last update, I talked about getting in touch with the detectives about Shelley attending her high school reunion. To my pleasure, they have followed up on that lead. And to my dismay, this has led to a slut-shamed-filled media attack on Shelley's character.

"See, Shelley had a high school sweetheart named Tyler Haverson. They'd met during their freshman year. I dug up some old yearbook pictures, and let me tell you, they were a lovely couple. Tyler's blond hair and blue eyes contrasted Shelley's lovely darker hair and eyes. From all accounts, their relationship had been the envy of the their classmates. In fact, everyone was shocked when the couple decided to break-up the first week of their senior year.

"It is an old and convoluted story that suggests that possibly Tyler was caught with a friend of Shelley over the summer, leaving her no choice but to break things off with him.

"It seems all ties were severed from that point on. I don't know about you guys, but that first heartbreak was a rough one. I didn't keep in touch with that ex either.

"But it seems that the years had soothed over those wounds from high school, and the two of them were seen hanging all over each other at the reunion. According to a few other attendees, they saw Tyler and Shelley heading across the street to a hotel. Where they weren't seen emerging until the following morning.

"Unfortunately for Shelley, it seems Tyler was up to his old tricks. Only this time, Shelley was the other woman. Tyler is a married man with two middle-school-aged children.

"Instead of focusing on Tyler as a possible suspect—or even Tyler's scorned wife—I have seen a disgusting amount of vitriol online about Shelley being a shameless home wrecker, about deserving whatever happened to her.

"The commentary got worse when, two days ago, another four flings of Shelley have come out of the woodworks, wanting to help investigators fill in gaps of her personal life leading up to her disappearance.

"It has also come out that Shelley has been exploring the fluidity of her sexuality since the divorce, and two of her casual dalliances have been with women. And, as far as we have come as a society, I think you can imagine what kind of ugliness is being said about a woman who has owned her sexuality, and has enjoyed the company of both men and women without attachment.

"All the hate-speech aside, though, none of Shelley's sexual partners have been arrested. All have willingly come in for comment. Well, all but Tyler, who needed to be brought in by investigators.

"Unfortunately, though, even with all these developments, all we seem to have is more questions, and no answers.

"No one has seen Shelley Shannon. Her loved ones are desperate for answers. And the world is determined to reduce the tragedy of her disappearance by slut-shaming her.

"I don't think I need to tell you that, at this point in time, things aren't looking great. Typically, if you are going to find a missing person alive, it would have happened by now.

"It seems that local law enforcement are of the same mind right now as well. There is a search scheduled for tomorrow. A thousand local volunteers are expected to show up, as well as scent and cadaver dogs, helicopters, and several local law enforcement agencies. If you are in the area, I urge you to help aid in the search.