I spun around. Trace was standing naked in the shower stall.
He laughed. “You don’t have to look so damn shocked, Roxie. Got home early and heard you in here.” He pulled me into his arms. I stiffened. I hoped that he couldn’t feel my heart slamming against my ribcage. As his mouth groped for mine, I tried to calculate how long I’d been standing under the water. It had been nearly ten minutes. When the hell had he walked into the house?
After being kissed all night by Jericho, Trace’s kisses were especially repellant. I tightened my mouth as he tried to push his tongue past my lips. I hadn’t meant to fight him, but it came instinctually. I’d just been with a man who was pure heaven, and now the devil had stepped into my shower.
The more I resisted, the more frustrated he got. The water sputtered from hot to lukewarm as he spun me around roughly. He smacked the tile with his palm and leaned his mouth next to my ear. “I wonder how your brother, Sean, would do in a jail cell with a bunch of lifers.”
Bile rose in my throat. I swallowed it back. His threats grew uglier each day, but it was all I needed to hear. I placed my hands against the wall and waited for him to finish what he’d started.
“That’s better, sweetheart. Compliant and willing. That’s all I ask.”
My tears mingled with the water as he jammed inside of me. I bit my lip against the pain. Having to wrestle with me in the shower had made Trace even more ready, and thankfully, he came fast. I washed his seed from between my legs and sidled past him, nearly slipping on my ass in my hurry to get away from him.
I towel dried my hair and got dressed as fast as I could. Trace generally took long showers, but the warm water had been wasted.
He stepped into the bedroom wearing just a towel around his waist. “What’s the hurry?” he asked.
“No hurry,” I said. “I was just cold. I’ll go down and make coffee.”
“I’ll be right down.”
I walked down the hallway. I had no idea what had gone on once I’d stepped into the shower. I’d left Jericho naked on the bed in the guest room. The door was slightly ajar. My heart rate still hadn’t slowed. I glanced back up the hall toward the master bedroom. Trace was still getting dressed. I pushed open the guest bedroom door. There was no sign of Jericho, and the bed had been made. The room looked perfectly normal and untouched. Somehow, he’d managed to get dressed, fix up the room and get out of the house before Trace saw him. Relief washed over me.
I headed down to the kitchen. My hands were still shaking badly, and it took some effort to get coffee into the pot. I was nearly sick to my stomach thinking about what a close call it had been.
Trace came downstairs. I turned to the coffeepot, not wanting to meet his gaze. “I didn’t expect you so early,” I said, pretending to busy myself with the coffee.
“My business was done, and I needed to get back here. I’ve got work to do.”
“Me too,” I said too quickly. I took a deep breath. I needed to pull it together. “I’m going to help Pepper with stocking the bar shelves.”
“Shit, can’t she do that by herself? I told you to get someone to help her at Candy Strippers. You spend too much fucking time there.”
“Pepper is my one true friend.” I looked back at him. “Or would you take that from me too?”
He raised his arms. “No. I’ll let you keep your one true friend. Fucking drama queen, Roxie, really.” He walked out to the main room. “What the hell?” he muttered. He walked over to the door that led to the balcony. It was ajar. He took hold of the handle. “Why the fuck is this open? You left the house unlocked. Anyone could have climbed the balcony and cleaned the place out.”
“Must have been open all day yesterday. I never checked it last night.” I looked pointedly around. “And it looks like all your precious belongings are still here. Thanks for your concern about me.”
He walked to the coffee pot and ignored my barb. “You shouldn’t be so damn careless.” Trace walked out of the room with his coffee cup. I collapsed against the counter and took my first real breath since he’d stepped into the shower.
chapter 19
Jericho
I woke to an unfamiliar and slightly annoying giggle. Jacko was laughing along with the giggler. I climbed out of bed and got dressed. After I’d gotten back from my night with Roxie, I’d fallen into bed to sleep. A few minutes after Roxie had walked out of the guest bedroom, I’d heard a car pull into the driveway. I pulled on my clothes and straightened up the room. Gamble’s self-important footsteps had snapped along the hardwood floor of the hallway. He walked past the guest room to the master bedroom. I could still hear the shower running. Roxie had no idea that he’d come home early.
I’d listened for him to shut the bedroom door, and for a fleeting second, I considered barging in to let the fucker know that I was taking Roxie away from him for good. But Roxie still had me in the dark about why she was with him. I had to wait. I had to make sure that no one else was going to be hurt or suffer when I took her from him. Which I would be doing, and soon.
I’d snuck out of the house the same way I came in. Just as I was heading out to the balcony, the housekeeper was coming in through the kitchen door. I couldn’t shut the balcony door without her hearing, so I’d left it slightly ajar, hoping she’d shut it on her way through the house. I’d swung over the balcony and lowered myself until I could jump down to the ground without busting a leg. The night before, I’d left my bike around the corner from the house. At the time, I’d done it so that Roxie wouldn’t hear me pull up. I’d wanted to surprise her, so she wouldn’t have time to reason herself out of spending the night with me. It had turned out to be a good thing. If my bike had been in the driveway, it would have been hard trying to explain to Gamble why I was at his house at seven in the morning.
Jacko was sitting on the couch with a cute redhead snuggled against him. There was a half eaten pizza in a greasy box on the coffee table. I leaned down and picked up a piece.
The redhead whistled. “Holy shit, he’s hot. Who is that?” she asked as if I wasn’t standing in the room.
Jacko made a point of lifting his arm from her shoulder. “I think it’s time I take you home.”
She grabbed his arm. “Oh, come on, I’m just asking. Besides, he’s not as hot as you.”
Jacko waved off her comment. “Too late. I’ll give you a ride home.”
“On your bike?” she asked with starry eyes.
He looked at her. Jacko tired of girls easily, and this one had obviously overstayed her welcome. “No, I’m going to give you a ride on my fucking spaceship. Get your shoes.”
“Shit.” She got up and stomped toward the second bedroom. “What a grump.”
Jacko picked up his coke can and leaned back against the couch. “Why the hell were you skulking around at seven in the fucking morning?”
“I wasn’t skulking. I was going to bed.”
“At seven in the fucking morning?”
“Yeah, Ma, at seven in the fucking morning. I don’t need you keeping track of my extracurricular activities.”
The redhead returned with her shoes. Jacko sat forward and plunked his soda can down. “Extracurricular activities, right. I would have stayed through graduation if my high school had offered those kind of after school clubs.”
I tossed my uneaten crust back into the box. “Where’s Reed?”
“He’s out working on his bike. Go on out there. He’s got some interesting shit to tell you. Our buddy Pete gets even more talkative when he’s had a couple.”
“Oh yeah? I’ll head out there now.”
Jacko glanced at the redhead. “Fuck, are you done staring at him?” He shot me an annoyed glance. “Shit, I went down on her twice last night, and she’s going to spend the rest of the afternoon daydreaming about you.”
She shrugged. “Well, you turned out to be sort of a grump.”
Jacko picked his helmet up off the chair. “Here. Would a grump offer you his helmet?”
 
; Her eyes lit up as she put it on. “O.K., you’re forgiven.” He opened the door for her. “And that second time didn’t count because there was no satisfactory conclusion,” she said as she walked past him.
“That’s because you were leaving fucking fingernail marks in my scalp,” Jacko replied.
I got a soda from the fridge and walked outside to find Reed. He was draining oil from his bike. “Yours probably needs an oil change too,” he said.
“Yeah, you’re right. Feel free.”
“Fuck you. You can do your own.”
I popped the can open. “So, Jacko said our buddy Pete did some talking.”
He sat up and pulled his sunglasses down off his head and over his eyes. “Sure did, but some of it was hard to understand. A few whiskey sours and he was closer to gibberish than to English. He said just over a year ago there was a murder out behind Gamble’s casino, the one near Reno. There had been some kind of an argument. Some blowhard was mouthing off to everyone, accusing people of cheating him out of his money. Anyhow, he ended up dead in the parking lot. No witnesses, supposedly. And get this, on that particular night, Gamble had forgotten to turn on his security cameras. He told the cops he never turned them on until closing. Pete said that was bullshit. The guy’s paranoid, has cameras everywhere, and they’re always on. But he claimed there was no video of the murder.”
“Not sure what this has to do with anything,” I said.
“Turns out a couple of Griffin’s guys were in the casino that night. They were part of the argument. Pete said the one guy had white blonde hair and a big chunk taken out of his chin. What’s that dude’s name from Bent for Hell, the one who left some chin on the highway?”
“Rowan?”
“That’s him. Didn’t he have white hair too? Supposedly turned that color when he saw his mom and sister get killed when he was just a kid.”
“Sounds like Rowan, all right. So you think the murder was the reason they stopped hanging out in Gamble’s casinos?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Don’t know for sure, but the timeline seems to be there.”
I nodded. “Something tells me we’ll find out soon enough what the hell is going on. There’s no way Gamble hired us to do this supposed security detail for good money just because he was feeling generous. It would explain why he sought us out to do this job.” I turned to go back inside.
“And how was your night?” he called to my back.
I didn’t answer and went inside. Unfortunately, the information hadn’t gotten me any closer to the mystery of why Roxie was with Trace. I pulled out my phone. While I was putting my number in her phone, I’d memorized her number. I dialed it. She picked up on one ring.
“Hello.” I could hear glasses clinking and Pepper talking in the background.
“Uh, yes, this is Tony’s Salon. I’m calling to remind you about your appointment at two o’clock today down at the Stateline Marina.”
I could sense she was smiling through her phone. “Yes, Tony, but I only have an hour so it will have to be a quick cut.”
“That works because I only have the boat, I mean, the chair, for an hour. And wear a sundress. Panties are optional.”
“Wow, the salon has adopted an interesting dress code.”
“Damn right. Oh, and, baby, don’t be late.”
chapter 20
Jericho
I looked up from the deck of the motorboat. A breeze kicked up the hem of Roxie’s dress as she stared down at me from the dock. She looked every bit as intoxicating as she had this morning, naked in my arms.
She pushed the dress down hastily. “Jeez, I guess it’s good I opted for the panties.”
“Hmm, and I was just thinking the exact opposite.” I pushed the sunglasses up on my head and held my hand up for her to take. I couldn’t wait even a second. As soon as her feet landed on the deck, I pulled her against me and kissed her.
Her long lashes fluttered open when I finally pulled my mouth from hers. “I’ve missed you,” she said.
“That makes two of us. Something tells me you’re going to need a lot of haircuts because I’m not stopping this. Us. I’m not giving up on it.”
She bit her lip as if she was holding back some tears. “Jericho, if only it were as simple as not giving up.” She forced a smile. “You’ve got this for an hour?”
“Sure do.”
“Great.” She smiled up at me. “Because I know of a small inlet where the only other eyes around are forest creatures. And chipmunks never gossip.”
“Sounds good.” I reached up and untied the boat from the cleat. “They never gossip? Then what the hell were Chip and Dale squeaking about to each other in all those Disney cartoons?”
She laughed and helped me push the boat away from the dock. “Nuts and trees. You know, chipmunk stuff.” She sat in the passenger seat. I plunked down behind the steering wheel and started the boat.
“Somehow, I can’t picture you sitting down to cartoons.” She waved her arm around me. “Doesn’t exactly fit with this menacing looking image sitting across from me.”
“I have many layers. I’m a complicated man. And somewhere in all those layers is a guy who loved cartoons.” I turned the boat toward the open lake, and we puttered out past the buoys. It was late in the afternoon, and the glass lake from the early morning had shifted to a small sea of ripples. The bow lifted and fell as we coasted over them.
She pointed ahead. “See that massive outcropping of granite with the three trees on top?”
“Yep.”
“That’s where the quiet inlet is.”
I turned the boat that direction and pushed the throttle forward. Once we were a third of the way across, I put the boat in neutral. “Since you know where we’re going, why don’t you drive.”
“I’ve only driven a boat a few times.” She got up and moved to the captain’s chair.
I positioned myself behind the seat and leaned down to point out everything she needed to get the boat moving forward. We took off.
She laughed. “Forgot how fun this was.”
I knelt down behind the bucket seat and reached around to touch her. “Me too.” My hands smoothed over the swell of her breasts.
“If this is part of the boat driving lesson, we might have a problem,” she said. “Don’t blame me if I run it ashore.”
“Just keep it going straight ahead, and I think we’ll be fine.” I scooted between the seats, still kneeling beside her.
She looked down at me. “What are you doing?”
I wagged a finger at her and pointed through the small windshield. “Keep your eyes on the road.”
“Right.” She straightened her posture and gazed straight ahead.
I scooted the hem of her dress up her thighs, exposing the blue lace panties beneath. Her breaths were already coming in short spurts without me even having to touch her. I gazed up at her as she pretended to concentrate on driving the boat. My hands parted her knees. She bit her bottom lip and looked down. I redirected her attention to the water. “Stay alert. You’re the driver, after all.”
I sat at her side, looking down at her sleek, tanned thighs. My cock was already throbbing with the thought of being between those thighs. My hand slid up to her panties. I drew the crotch aside. She was already wet with need, and I groaned in response. “God, baby, you’re ready for me.” My hand caressed the moist slit of her pussy as I got up on my knees and kissed her shoulder and her neck. “I want you to be wet like this every time you fucking think of me. Just like I grow hard at the mere thought of you.”
The sound of my voice and the feel of my fingers grazing through the folds of her pussy caused her eyes to drift shut. She forced them open again. The boat was moving slowly over the small ripples. The private inlet was in view now.
I drew my thumb over her clit and teased it until she let out that soft, appreciative mewl that made me nuts with wanting her. “When we get to that quiet, little place,” I said, “I’m going to slide these panties off and
I’m going to make you come so hard, even the fucking chipmunks will start to gossip.”
She started a giggle, but it turned to a gasp as I dove my finger into her. She slid her bottom forward on the seat more and spread her legs wider. She always opened so readily for me. It made me crazy for more of her. I fucked her harder with my fingers wanting to make sure she felt all of it.
She gripped the steering wheel and pulled in a stuttering breath. “Jericho, I can’t drive this anymore.” Her head swayed back on her neck, and her eyes drifted shut.
Reluctantly, I pulled my fingers from her. She murmured in disappointment. I pushed the boat into neutral. I hauled her up and stuck myself into the captain’s seat, pulling her down on my lap. She clung to me and kissed my neck while I piloted the boat to our destination. We were just fifty yards from the inlet.
As she’d promised, it was isolated and out of view. I pulled as close to the shore as possible, turned the boat off and pushed the anchor button.
I stood her on her feet in front of me and yanked down her panties. She stepped out of them. I got up and took her hand, and she followed behind me to the stern. My groping hands went under her dress to her perfect, naked ass.
Roxie kissed me urgently as she reached for my fly. She had my jeans open and around my thighs in seconds. Her hand wrapped around my balls as I pressed my cock against her. A motorboat in the distance reminded us it was a big lake, and we were not completely alone.
I sat down on the deck and leaned against the padded bench that ran along the stern. Down on deck, we were almost completely out of view of passing boats.
She ran her small white teeth across her bottom lip as she stared down at me. The thin cotton fabric of her dress was being pushed about wildly in the breeze, exposing her naked pussy. My cock stood straight up begging her to put it out of its state of misery. I reached into my pocket for a condom and her fingers took hold of it. She opened the package and crouched down, giving me my own private show of her pussy.