Tricks Read online

  I had no idea what he was talking about, and I didn’t care. I didn’t care about anything as long as he kept moving. And he did, slow, lazy glides of his hips that had him moving just so – right up against my clit and other parts deep inside my pussy that lit me up in all the best ways.

  My breathing started to come harder and faster, and Nicco noticed. He seemed to notice everything. He let go of my hand and cupped my breast, tweaking and worrying the nipple until it was throbbing and stiff. Then he shoved my breast up, high enough until he could close his mouth around the stiff point.

  I cried out as he sucked me deep, licking and biting until each sensation arrowed straight down to my core.

  The climax hit me broadside, coming at me out of nowhere, and I cried out into his mouth, clutching at his arms, my nails sinking into his skin.

  He growled against my lips, swallowing the sound down greedily as he began to move on me, harder, faster.

  I started to go lax under him just as his body stiffened and his cock jerked inside me. My pussy clamped around him in reaction, and I whimpered as his shaft began to pulse and jerk in rhythm.

  He collapsed against me a few moments later, his head resting between my breasts.

  Without thinking about it, I curled one arm around his neck and cuddled him closer.

  He turned his head and kissed my nipple.

  I shivered and closed my eyes.

  Wow.

  Was I ever glad I’d waited.

  Nineteen

  Nicco

  Her heart pounded against my ear.

  If I was the romantic sort, I might have fancied the idea that it was pounding in rhythm with my own.

  But I wasn’t, so I brushed the thought aside.

  She blew out a sigh, and I forced myself to lift up and roll onto my side. “Sorry,” I said. “I must be crushing you.”

  “No.” She rolled toward me, cuddling in close. “I was enjoying it.” She craned her head back and studied me. “Is this where it gets awkward, and you get up and leave?”

  “Well, unless you want it to get awkward or you’re kicking me out, I was planning on staying right here for a little while.” I smoothed a hand down her hip and dropped a kiss on her nose. “I’ll be right back.”

  I slid out of the bed, and a quick look around gave me an idea where the bathroom was, so I disposed of the condom and washed my hands.

  She was lying on her back with the blankets pulled up under her arms when I slid back into bed. She obligingly shared some of them with me, and when I stretched out my arm, she pillowed her head on it.

  “That was…wow.” She gave me an easy smile. “Thank you.”

  “You’re thanking me?” I laughed, feeling self-conscious for the first time. “I don’t think you are the one who should be saying thanks. Are you okay? Sore or anything?”

  A faint flush washed over her cheeks, and she shrugged. “Maybe a little. That’s normal, though, right?”

  “I’d assume.” I brushed my finger down her nose, along the elegant line of her cheekbones. She was so fucking pretty. “I’ve never been in your position, precisely.”

  “Ha, ha.” Ravenna rolled her eyes and scooted a little closer, tucking her head under my chin.

  I could have stayed happily like that for an untold amount of time.

  She was the one who shattered the silence when she pulled back and met my eyes. “I want to ask you something,” she said, her eyes bouncing to mine, then away before she finally focused on me.

  She was nervous.

  That instinctively put me on guard.

  “Yeah?” Brushing my knuckles down her cheek, I managed a smile. “I’m in the mood to say yes to whatever, so go easy on me.”

  I was only partly joking.

  “I’ve been looking for your father for years, off and on. I need to find him.”

  I couldn’t say I was surprised. I’d known she was after this, almost from the second she’d asked if he was my father. When she came to a brief pause, I just lay there, waiting, although something lay like ashes on my tongue. Was this why she’d slept with me?

  “Will you help me track him down?”

  I hadn’t been lying when I told her that I was inclined to say yes to just about anything she asked, and it wasn’t just because of the sex. I’d felt drawn to her almost from the moment I laid eyes on her, and that pull was getting only stronger the more I was around her.

  This…wasn’t helping.

  “Answer me this first…was this why you slept with me?”

  Ravenna rolled her eyes and shoved me lightly against the shoulder. “No, you dumb ass.”

  As she rolled away from me and climbed out of bed, I allowed myself a small smile. I believed her. She struck me as too upfront to lie about it. She might bluster or try to change the subject, but to just outright say, No, you dumb ass?

  Who knew getting insulted could make me feel so much better?

  She climbed out of bed, and I watched her, just as much to appreciate the view of her ass as anything else.

  But then she started to talk, and I had to jerk my attention away from her very excellent physical features and listen to her voice.

  “Like I said, I’ve been trying to track him down for a while. I just got confirmation on his name a few days ago, and I think he’s living in or near LA. Now, I want to find him.”

  “Why?” I asked, although I wondered if it really mattered. I already knew what I was going to tell her.

  She grabbed a t-shirt from the foot of the bed and pulled it on, concealing that long, tight body from my eyes, which forced me to really focus on her face and listen to her as she replied, “I have my reasons.”

  “If you want my help, I’d appreciate a little better response than that,” I said dryly.

  She made a face, then turned away, crossing her arms over her torso as she stared off at something. Finally, after a silence that lasted what felt like forever, she said, “I had a friend when I was a kid. We were best friends. Her name was Mary Jo. When I was sixteen, Mary Jo’s family had some trouble. A lot of it, really. Turns out that Mary Jo’s dad had gotten involved with a con artist…he took them for just about everything they had. It devastated the family. I promised myself I’d find out who the guy was.”

  She delivered those words in a strangely flat, emotionless voice, and when she turned to look at me, her face was void of expression.

  But her eyes were filled with it.

  A long-buried anger.

  The sea-green all but seethed with it, a churning storm that spoke volumes.

  “It was my father,” I said, the words unnecessary, but I needed to hear her confirm it.

  She inclined her head. “It was your father. I found out for certain a few days ago.” Eyes narrowing, she commented, “You don’t seem surprised.”

  “That’s because I’m not.” I gave her a grim smile. “I’m well aware of what kind of life he lives.”

  “I’m going to make sure he never hurts another family, Nicco. With or without you.”

  I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed, staring out at nothing.

  “It doesn’t matter if you warn him or not. I’m going to–”

  My voice was sharper than intended when I cut her short. “I’m not going to warn him. I don’t owe Gabriel Marks anything, especially not some sort of family loyalty.”

  If she had any idea some of the shit he’d done to me, to my family…but I wasn’t going to go there, wasn’t going to get into that. I spied my pants on the floor and picked them up, dragging them on before turning to face her.

  “I’ll help you find him.”

  It wouldn’t be that hard, really.

  I already knew where he was.

  Twenty

  Ravenna

  “You want to take him in or just write him another ticket?” I asked Milo.

  My partner looked like he’d like an option C.

  I didn’t blame him. There was a number of unpaid parking tickets a
nd speeding tickets, along with a few other violations. But the guy was the son of a judge, and if we took him in, he’d be out in no time.

  “I think we should take the little shit in,” Milo finally said. “Little asshole was practically taunting us, did you see that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What do you think?” Milo asked, sliding me a look.

  I eyed the car in front of us, then shrugged. “If you think it might scare some sense into him, why not?”

  “Oh, I doubt it will do much of anything, but maybe it will get those violations paid, and if nothing else, it will piss him off, which sounds fun to me.” Milo grinned, clearly amused at the thought.

  “It will likely piss off his daddy the judge too.”

  “Maybe his daddy the judge should make sure his little boy was a better driver.” Milo smiled at me. “Come on. It will be fun.”

  We gave each other one last look, then shrugged.

  Decision made, we headed up to talk to the speed-demon who’d been driving seventy in a forty-five.

  I braced myself because sometimes, Milo’s idea of fun turned out to be a pain in the ass.

  The judge’s son turned out to be a bloviating showboat, and once we got him into the squad car, he started to bawl and beg. Once or twice, I think he even attempted to bribe us, but we decided to ignore those babblings.

  Tuning people like him out was something that had slowly gotten easier to do, although the first few months on the job, it had been like having an ice pick drilled into my ear.

  The trick was to have something else to think about, and man, did I ever have things to think about.

  Nicco had stayed over until well after midnight, and only some of the time had been spent sleeping. We hadn’t had sex again, but that hadn’t stopped him from bringing me to orgasm a second, then a third time.

  I’d returned the favor, finding it highly erotic to do so, feeling the heat and hardness of his cock in my hand, his body just barely trembling.

  My phone chimed, the sound jolting me out of my reverie. Pulling it from the cup holder in the middle where I kept it, I unlocked it and read the text from Nicco, unaware I was smiling.

  “You know, you’ve been acting loopy all day,” Milo said, his voice conversational. “Smiling at nothing, and now you’ve got a shit-eating grin on your face over a text. What’s up with you?”

  I gave him a lofty look. “What makes you think anything is up?”

  The courthouse and jail loomed ahead of us, and I glanced back at the crying man behind us. “We’re getting ready to take you in and get you booked. You want to be crying when you walk through those doors?”

  “You can’t do this!” he wailed. “Don’t you know who my dad is?”

  “I don’t care who your dad is,” I told him gently. “Maybe you should have thought about who your dad was before you started speeding around the city like your ass was on fire.”

  He opened, then closed his mouth, giving me a mutinous look.

  He did shut up for a few minutes though.

  I took advantage of the silence to quickly tap out a response to Nicco, then I shut down my phone and shoved it into the thigh pocket of my uniform pants. “Let’s get this over with,” I said as Milo parked.

  “Don’t sound so glum,” he told me. “This isn’t the first time a judge’s kid has gotten his ass in trouble.”

  We didn’t even make it through the booking process before the Honorable George Hennessey showed up, wearing a thunderous look on his hound dog face.

  I braced myself, but to my surprise when he entered the area, he didn’t head straight for us, the two uniforms leaning against the counter. He went straight for his son, who was still getting his picture taken.

  “What the blue fuck is the matter with you?”

  Milo choked on a laugh.

  The judge whipped his head around, glaring at us both.

  I stared at him soberly while Milo sucked it up and managed a somewhat deadpan expression. We waited until he was focused back on his son to make ourselves scarce, hurrying out in the afternoon sunshine to jump into our car.

  “Well. That was fun,” I decided as Milo started the car.

  “Told ya.”

  “Did you know Hennessey was going to act like that?” I asked him, eying him as he whipped the car around in a three-point turn and pulled out of the parking lot.

  “Nope. I’ve heard he’s a hard-ass though, so I figured there was a decent chance he wouldn’t be happy his son was being a dick out there on the roads.” He gave me a sly look. “Hang around long enough, and you get an idea which ones earned their robes and which ones wear them for decoration.”

  I laughed a little and stretched.

  My body panged, reminding me of the exertions I’d put it through the previous day. I managed, barely, to conceal my wince.

  “So, who was texting you earlier? New girlfriend?”

  I gave him a dour look. “No.”

  “A new boyfriend?”

  It was a little harder to summon up the proper look, so I just gave him a level stare. “Can you mind your own business?”

  “Ohhhh…did I strike the nail on the head there?” Milo teased. “Here I was thinking you swung the other way, Sinclair. So, who’s the lucky guy? Anybody I know?”

  I slid a little farther down into my seat and clamped my mouth shut.

  Milo chuckled, sounding delighted. “I’m going to take that as a yes. So…where do I start?”

  Closing my eyes, I braced my head on my fisted hand. “How about we just go get some lunch, Milo? You okay with that?”

  “Sure. I can guess on the way. Does he work with us? If so, let me tell you, honey…that’s not a good idea. As a matter of fact, it’s a capital, grade A, bad idea…”

  And so, he continued. Fortunately, I’d learned how to block him out too.

  Twenty-One

  Nicco

  “Yes…as you can see, the pattern is pretty solid. It’s subtle, so it took a while to pick up on it, but it’s definitely there.” I drummed my fingers on the table as I waited for the client to respond.

  He did, and he wasn’t happy.

  I remained silent through the expected blow-up, waited for the subsequent questions – was I sure, could I prove it in court, was there likely anybody else involved…

  I’d done this enough now to have the answers nearly down pat. Sometimes the answers themselves changed a bit, but even when they did, there was only so many ways they could change. Yes, I was sure. I never notified the client until I was. Yes, I could prove it in court. The third one was always the trickiest because it wasn’t as easy to prove whether two people were involved. One could always be the money man while somebody else directed him. One could be the fall guy.

  But in this case, it was almost cut and dried.

  “I’m positive, Mr. Cunningham,” I told him. “And yes, I can absolutely prove it in court. The evidence is solid, and I can either send it to your home via a private courier or I can take the next step and notify the district attorney. It’s up to you. It’s my belief that he was acting alone in this. There are nobody else’s fingerprints on this, and not too many people in your company have the know-how needed to do what he was doing.”

  I should know. I’d gone blind over the paperwork and background checks. While Cunningham Customs was a small-time company compared to some of the ones I’d worked with, there were enough people employed by the company to make it tedious work. I’d spent a fair portion of my time just reviewing the employees’ work histories and backgrounds.

  Sadly for the old guy, the only person who had the experience was his nephew.

  I hated to have to tell him. Elzy Cunningham was a decent man, worked hard and built his business into a small empire. Now his only surviving family member was stealing from him. That had to suck.

  “Very well, Nicco.” On the other end of the line, Elzy heaved out a sigh. “I do believe I’ll let you notify the necessary parties. I might change my
mind if it were up to me and that’s just not the thing to do.”

  No. It wasn’t. Not when other people had been affected as they had been.

  “I’ll take care of it. You’ll hear something within a few days, sir.”

  Once I’d hung up, I reached for my cell phone and brought up the message that had come through while I’d been talking to Elzy.

  The message was from Ravenna.

  Yes, we’re still on. I’ll see you at 7.

  That was it. Nothing else, the message short and polite.

  It was exactly as I’d expected from her.

  Leaning back in my chair, I put the phone down and closed my eyes. I’d surprised myself by even being able to concentrate on the work I had to finish that morning. Elzy had been patient, waiting the months it had taken for me to go through everything to make sure we had the data needed to prove somebody had been embezzling from his company for almost three years. I’d been eager to wrap it up for him.

  Thoughts of Ravenna had kept trying to intrude, but I’d buckled down and finished the report for Elzy, double-checked the data and contacted him.

  Now that I was done with that, Ravenna once more took over my mind.

  We were meeting for dinner in just a few hours.

  She’d suggested a restaurant. I hadn’t argued although I would have preferred to meet at my place or her place just so I could put my hands on her again.

  Chances were, that was why we weren’t meeting at her place or my place, though.

  Neutral ground. Ravenna struck me as somebody who’d appreciate neutral ground.

  I didn’t mind starting things off that way.

  Nobody said we had to end the night where it began, after all.

  I got a text from Ravenna just as I got to the restaurant she’d suggested as a meeting place.

  She was running a few minutes late, but she was on her way.