Chapter 10

 

With a pleased smirk Keisha ticked off another milestone in a file just as her office door was knocked on. Without looking up she gave the permission to enter.

Lila stepped in and Keisha glanced up with surprise to see her assistant half hidden behind a large bouquet of pure white lilies and royal purple orchids backed by a bed of maiden hair ferns and settled in a translucent blue crystal vase.

Her chair rolled back as Lila placed the extravagant composition on her desk. Lila had a brimming smile on her face as she stepped back.

“Someone really likes you,” Lila grinned, “I mean this is really over the top.”

“It really is,” Keisha replied while actively scanning the arrangement for any indication of who sent them but a part of her already knew who the sender was. "Thank you, Lila."

Her assistant smiled but then her expression slipped to somber, “Keisha… how it the…”

Knowing the young woman’s tactics, Keisha smiled softly, "It's fine Lila, it's being worked out. You know as well as I do that I'm not guilty of any crime."

Lila's face shifted to a bit more settled, "I'm glad then. If you need me to send a reply to the sender, I'll be happy to do it."

“I know Lila,” Keisha replied while standing up, “But I’ll deal with this myself.”

With a nod, Lila left the room and softly closed the door behind her. Keisha ran her hand over the delicate lilies and the deep orchids and knew who had sent them; it was Etienne.

A long time ago she had confessed to him that her favorite flowers were these two and whenever they had an argument or something to celebrate about; he presented her with a bouquet of them.

She searched the stalks and found a half-hidden off-white card with a large elaborate ‘E’ scrawled over it.

It was a gracious gesture but that in itself concerned her. What was Etienne trying to accomplish with this? Was it a simple expression of thanks for their outing yesterday or was it an indication of something more?’

Last night she had gone through every moment of the meeting between them yesterday and had come to the cold conclusion that the emotions she thought were completely dead for her ex had undeniably been unearthed.

She had felt sympathy and concern for him, a mix of emotions that in her anger after the breakup, she had sworn would never happen again.

Etienne had been born with a gift of natural charm which when employed was just a lower level from hypnotism. She had witnessed firsthand how he had sweet-talked many people into giving him what he wanted.

The man was dangerous when it came to manipulating people’s emotions and she knew she had to steer clear of him- even though being under that seductive power had been more addictive than drugs.

She had felt it yesterday when his eyes had met hers but she had been strong enough to pull away. Sighing she took the bouquet and placed it in a corner of the room and then went back to her work.

 

*****

 

Hunter pressed two fingers of both hand to both of his temples trying to massage a brimming headache away. This morning he had come to work only to find that he now had a deadline; he had to find who was behind the Al-Habar case in ten days exactly or the case would be transferred to the FBI.

God knew he didn't want the federal bulldogs to take over what was now a personal mission for him. Keisha had gotten under his skin, in more ways than one. The sex they had was phenomenal but it was more than that.

She was just a different kind of woman; so young but strong enough to hold her own both physically and mentally and he really admired that. At twenty-six, she had grown the balls to break into a field that was predominantly run by men and went on to excel in it.

Keisha was a force to be reckoned with. In the business world, she had fearlessly methodically and meticulously forged her own path. But on the personal affairs side, she played it on the safe which led him to believe that under her strong exterior was a soul that yearned for love and companionship but she didn’t lower herself to beg for it.

She was a proud soul and Hunter knew she wanted a man on her level to match her academically, soothe her emotionally and satisfy her sexually. But was that him? There was no doubt that he developing something more of an attraction for her but could he do it, could he be what she needed with all the scars in his past?

The phone on his desk rang and Hunter snatched it up, “Blake.”

"Um, Detective, it's Jackson, on that matter you asked me to look into…I haven't found much… if you could get me more than that, like a surname, that would be great."

Damn it, Hunter felt the migraine surge a bit more. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you.” Jackson said, “On the other hand, I’ve found that Ares Inc., is just a registered company with a website with no psychical presence in the country at all.”

“It’s a dummy corp, just like I figured," Hunter remarked. "Has the account been checked since we seized the desktop?"

“No,” Jackson replied, “I place a flag on it to alert me of any activity but so far, I’ve got nothing.”

“Whoever it is had Intel,” Hunter realized as his agile mind ran over the whole situation, “But I wonder how...”

“Maybe whoever it was had some kind of surveillance on the property.” Jackson suggested, “I know if I had a comp that was linked to an illegal account in a location like that, I'd have a ton of cameras all over that place.”

“Son of a bitch,” Hunter swore in full realization, “Jackson, do you have a mobile unit?”

“Um, yes, we all do,” the analyst replied with clear hesitation in his voice, “Why?”

"Because I'm putting you in the field," Hunter said standing up and grabbing his jacket, "Get your kit and gear up."

 

*****

 

The following day Keisha entered her office to see another resplendent bouquet of flowers, a box of rum filled white chocolates and a thicker envelope. The setup had Etienne all over it.

Lila was pressing her lips together trying to stifle a smile but she felt cold. She shoved the envelope into a lower drawer in her desk and didn’t even think of eating the chocolates; she would have to find some way to dispose of them and the new bouquet joined the older one in the corner too.

There was no doubt that Etienne was up to something but what the thing was she had no idea. The worry was a constant thought in the back of her mind all day until she got home in the dusk of five p.m.

Inside, she attempted to try and figure out what her ex was up to. It was the same thought that had taken set in her mind from the moment she had gotten home from their meeting came again. How was it that all of a sudden, he popped out of the woodwork and came to her for what, to ask her forgiveness?

Keisha stayed in the apartment for an hour and a half but realized that staying there wasn’t going to help. Etienne was slowly getting to her and she knew if she stayed by herself and occupied her mind with him, it would only get worse.

She needed a distraction and besides from that the urge, a deep itch under her skin, that she had felt from the moment Hunter had left her bed surged again.

This was out of the norm for her but God knew she wanted Hunter to distract her from the real world.

She wanted him to put it on her, hard and so mind-blowing that she would temporarily forget that there was an outside world. She wanted the cocoon they had forged that first night to get even stronger where it was just her and him and pleasure.

But could she just show up at his home out of the blue, with such a flimsy reason as being sorry for blowing him off? Biting her lip, she decided that she wasn’t going to know if she didn’t try.

 

*****

 

She knocked on the blue painted wooden door of the one-story building with a hand that wasn’t occupied by the bottle of tequila and the Chinese takeout. Standing on a man's doorstep with her heart pounding in her ears was a thing Keisha had never imagined herself doing

But there she was, standing nervously on Hunter’s step. The urge to turn and leave was cramping her gut but she knew if she did, it would only make her sink harder.

It felt like slow motion scene in a movie when the door was opened and Hunter looked at her with slight surprise.

With one hand she twisted the bottle of tequila to show the message scrawled with a thick black marker on the bottle, it read, ‘For You.’

Hunter leaned on the door and it was only then she really took in what he was wearing; he had on a pair of sweats that were hanging dangerously on his hips. The defined cut lines of his pelvis bone were arched over the waist and his chest was so deliciously bare. On his chest were his silver metal dog-tags and they were resting between two dusky nipples.

“Hm,” the detective grinned while taking the bottle, “Trying to bribe me now?”

"It more apology than a bribe," Keisha replied looking up from under her lashes while lifting the bag of Chinese, "This might be more a bribe than that, actually.”

“Come in,” Hunter said stepping back while reaching for the bag, “I’ll take that.”

Relieved, Keisha stepped into the one-story house and looked around the wide living room. The room was decorated with utilitarian blacks, woods, and whites.

A solid black leather sectional couch, recliner and love seat dominated the space with a glass coffee table and matching lamp tables which rested on squares of white carpet. A muted ash entertainment center was in the middle with a large set of black speakers and a sixty-inch TV on the wall between them.

The off-white wall was mostly bare but in the center of the long inner stretch was a framed Purple Heart medal on a velvet bed and was surrounded by a collage of pictures of four men in army uniforms.

One had the soldiers relaxing in the front yard of a bunker, two showed them armed and standing before a tank and a large one showed them in scuffed clothes and mussed war paint on looking tired but victorious. A younger, buzz-cut Hunter was in all of them.

“My old cell members,” Hunter said beside her, “They’re good men, all of them.”

“I figured,” Keisha said quietly while trying hard to not fidget. She knew what she wanted, but how was she going to come out with it?

Thankfully, the choice was taken from her as Hunter slowly turned her around and backed her up against the wall.

Caging her head with his arms, Hunter’s voice dipped, “I doubt you came all this way just to give me liquor and Chinese.”

Tilting her head up, she smiled, “I didn’t.”

Her hands rose up to slide over his abdomen to his chest, starting from his rock-hard abs and over to his strong chest and then her arms reached up and circled his neck, “I need you.”

“I figured,” Hunter replied darkly.

His hands then dipped to her thighs and grabbed them. Keisha, braced on the wall and feeling his grip, took the hint and with a smooth move wrapped her legs around his waist.

Hunter grasped her ass and buried his head in her neck, his mouth finding purchase on a tender spot and attacked it with his teeth and tongue mercilessly. He then pressed himself unto her and there she felt his hardening erection.

“Yes.” She hissed as warmth surged to the gut. With her sex pressed directly on his growing cock and feeling his hands massaging her ass so strongly paired with his mouth working despicable pleasure into her system, Keisha felt fire race all through her body.

Her waist was softly rolling on the stiffness between them and her breast felt so full and heavy. She needed him in her so bad that her mind had degraded to its base animal need. She placed her mouth to his ear and whispered filthy words of what she wanted him to do to her. How she wanted him to give it to her, how hard, how long and how mercilessly.

She told him that she wanted him to take her so hard that she could feel him for days inside her and how she needed it raw.

“Really now,” Hunter had said in soft disbelief. “Aren’t you concerned about-”

“Let me worry about that,” she hissed while gyrating harder on his filling member, “I just need you thick, hot and buried deep inside me.”

Wordlessly, Hunter took her off the wall and carried her to his bedroom. Inside the room he let his grip slip a bit and she slid down his chest to the edge of his bed.

To fulfill a growing need in her, Keisha reached up and tugged his sweats down and was glad to find he was going commando again. Hunter was thick and long enough to grace almost nine inches. His uncut and reddening head was peeling back and unashamed, Keisha reached out and held him and then started to pump his firm length from the base.

When a drip of pre-cum beaded Keisha licked her lips bent forwards and took his head into her mouth, sucking softly while running her tongue over the tip. His crown was just inside her mouth and she lapped at the droplet; he was all musk and salt. With a deep groan Hunter’s hand fisted in her hair as she eagerly took more of him inside.

While using her tongue on the bottom of his shaft she sank down even more and allowed his crown to slip down her throat briefly before she pulled back and started to bob her head while using her hand on his base.

Dimly she heard a guttural groan come from above and his hand tightened into her hair as his hips flexed with the urge to thrust. And she let him; with her jaw relaxed she let him thrust into her hot mouth before she took control back and began to suck harder.

Taking him deeper and deeper while using her tongue she greedily sucked his rock-hard dick to the point where she knew he was about to come and then, on the brink of his explosion, she lightly applied her teeth.

Hunter released a low curse and he thrust sharply and emptied all of him into her mouth. Warm and salty liquid slipped down her throat and Keisha hummed erotically. When he was done, she slowly tilted her head to look up at him as she pulled her lips back and when he fell out of her mouth she wantonly licked her lips.

Hunter grabbed her chin and forced her head up as his eyes took on a devilish gleam. “You want to play slut tonight, huh.”

“A dirty one,” Keisha replied arching down and dragging her top off and unhooked her bra.

“I’m not going to go easy.” He warned darkly.

“And I don’t want easy,” Keisha replied, “Sometimes, I know what’s best for me but sometimes I don’t want what’s best for me.”

Hunter grabbed her jeans and dragged them and her undies off. Keisha was a lustful sight before him, with her full and taut breasts up and her endless legs bare before him.

He crawled between them only to see her grin, lock him in a grip and spin him under her. With her sitting on his hard cock and feeling her wetness Hunter grabbed her legs assuming that she wanted to ride him but was surprised when she bent over and started to pleasure him.

She kissed her way from his neck to his clavicle and then to his nipples. A strong surge of lust seared through him as she took the tags between her steel teeth and bit them. She then traced her mouth over his abs then kissed the base of his now engorged cock before she rose up, positioned him to her and slowly sank down.

With his member seated so deep inside her Keisha arched back with a cry as the raw feel of him, so thick and throbbing felt so real. Her belly and thighs were trembling before she braced her hands on his chest she started to rock. Her slow rocks then matured to her wild lifting and sinking on the hard pole inside her.

His heat and thickness were so addictive that she started moving faster and harder until Hunter grabbed her and spun her onto the bed under him. With the new change of position, he started to deliver some back-breaking thrusts into her. His lust so ravage, that hips were a steady pumping engine, slamming into her wet canal.

Keisha was a mess under him, crying out, gaping, thrashing and begging for more. Her belly was trembling with the depth that Hunter had breached within her and she felt white fire start to sear under her skin.

Her hands grabbed him as white was under her eyes. She felt the last slam that reached an extreme depth as her whole body locked up and she came with a force that nearly blinded her. Hunter’s ragged shout was in the air too as he with his cock pushed inside to the hilt he emptied himself.

The two were in rigor coitus until Keisha’s channel slowly relaxed, even though her muscles reflexively tightened and released over his semi-hard length. Her legs, which had locked over his thighs slowly let go and she placed them back on the bed.

Her hand was softly rubbing Hunter’s wet skin and felt his sweat drip from his hair to the crook of her neck. The feel of his slick skin on hers and his compact weight pushing her down into the mattress made her feel so... safe; safe and wanted.

Her eyes were still closed when she felt Hunter kiss her softly on the neck before his hips started moving again. Inside her, she felt his member gradually harden and this time the sex was soft and sweet.

Gentle movements and slow and long thrusts that made her pleasure take a slow rise to the peak. They were so close that their heated breaths mingled and once or twice their lips bushed but didn’t bloom into a kiss and then the soft mount came to its apex and then soothing fall over. Keisha was trembling when her last orgasm took control of her and extremely exhausted she barely had the strength to tug the sheets over her before she fell into a blissful sleep.

 

*****

 

When she woke it was the artificial warmth generated by the blankets cocooned around her. Hunter was gone and a slice of pain of his absence ran through her for a moment; it hurt.

Then the memory of the past few hours filtered in her mind and a twinge of shame curled in her chest at the memory of how slutty she had acted.

She hadn’t performed fellatio on a man in a long time but last night, a searing and uncontrollable need to have him in her mouth had taken her over. After that, she had gone an unexpected end to pleasure him, with her even taking his flat nipples in her mouth.

She remembered the smell of his sweat, the feel of his skin on hers and the hardness of his length inside her and the combination of it all made a deep tightening in her gut.

She had frankly told him that there was a time when she knew what was best for her and the other times when she didn't want was best for her; this feeling in the middle of her belly was telling her what she was now feeling was that.

Her emotions for Hunter had taken a dangerous turn and she wasn't quite prepared for it. Not wanting to examine herself anymore she untangled herself from the bed sheets and looked around in a search for some clothing.

Her eyes spotted a large white t-shirt and a pair of boxers folded with military precision on the pillow next to her. Smiling softly, she took the clothes and put them on and then left the bedroom in search of her absent lover.

The smell of heated noodles and sweet and sour sauce met her nose and she followed the smell to the kitchen.

Hunter was there pulling some container out of the microwave to add to the ones already on the counter.

"I was just about to wake you," Hunter said over his shoulder.

Keisha grimaced at the red nail marks on his bare back and arms and reached over to touch them. “I’m sorry.”

Hunter laughed, “Why? These are a badge of honor.”

She shook her head, “Not about those… it’s just… I was a bit too…”

“Needy,” Hunter supplied with a smirk as he set the containers on the table and handed her a pair of packaged chopsticks, “Desperate, horny… hungry?”

Keisha’s head ducked as she swirled her noodles, “All of that, yeah.”

She took in a soft gasp as Hunter lifted her head with his fingers and looked deeply into her eyes. The emotion so apparent in his gem eyes was something she dared not try to decipher unless she was a sucker for inviting pain.

“Don’t feel sorry,” Hunter said quietly, “It was refreshing to have a woman who went for what she wanted. Too many of them act too coy when they really want it hard. And remember, I wanted it too. I wanted you and all of you.”

The feelings from before in the bed surged again and she saw his eyes dart to her half-open lips. Her gut tightened with the wild hope that he was about to kiss her but disappointed when his thumb pressed on her lips. "You must be hungry."

Numbly, she nodded and he pulled back and smirked at her, “Let’s eat then.”