Dylan

TWO WEEKS AFTER we’d gotten home from Lakeview, Jake whisked Addison off on a beach trip. The first night they were gone, Asher showed up on my doorstep with a bottle of wine and some takeout. I’d barely seen him since we got back. He’d been playing catch up, and I’d missed him beyond reason. Now, looking damn sexy in his suit, he whisked past me to set the food on the table and I decided dinner could wait...so I attacked him.

Lacing my hands behind his head to bring his lips to mine. It had been too long, we were alone, and there were all kinds of things I wanted to try with him. Untucking his shirt, I slid my hands beneath the fabric, desperate for the feel of his skin.

Asher smiled against my lips. “Missed me, did ya?” he asked.

Too crazy with need to answer him, I dropped to my knees and unbuttoned his pants. Asher’s expression immediately turned serious. By the time I unzipped his pants and slid them, and his boxer briefs, down, his cock was almost fully hard.

We’d had sex twice, but I’d never seen ‘it’ up close before. Curious, I wrapped my hand around him and brushed my thumb over the tip. Asher moaned.

I had missed him, and I intended to make sure he didn’t stay away so long ever again. With my hand still wrapped around him, I leaned closer and licked the head of his cock.

He hissed out a breath.

This was gonna be fun. I dropped my hand to play with his balls while I licked up and down the length of him. Then, I took him into my mouth.

“Fuck,” he breathed out.

Encouraged by his reaction, I took him deeper into my throat until my eyes started to water.

“Holy shit.”

Obviously, he liked that too. I pulled back and then did it again. A few more times, and Asher started moving himself into me. Loving that I was able to give him so much pleasure, I grabbed his ass, anchoring myself to open wider for him. Grabbing my head, he fucked my mouth. After a few minutes, he tried to pull out, but I gripped his ass tighter, wanting everything he had to give me.

With a deep groan and a powerful thrust, he came in my mouth. I swallowed back the saltiness and licked off his cock once more before smiling up at him.

“Oh my god,” he said, leaning against get the table.

“Missed me, did ya?” I asked, turning his own question against him.

He picked me up off the floor, standing me beside him and kissed me. “You have no idea, love.”

“Good.” I turned toward the table. “Now what did you bring me to eat.”

“Nope.” He scooped me up in his arms. “You don’t get to do that and turn away from me. I’m taking you into your room where I am going to fuck you until you scream my name.”

Heat pooled between my thighs. I’d never seen this side of Asher before, and it excited the hell out of me.

“Promise?”

He laughed, kicking off his shoes, then stepping out of his pants and boxers. “Absolutely.”  He carried me to my room and stood me by the bed to undress me.

There was something so intimate about the way his hands slid reverently over my naked body that my entire being thrummed with need for him. Picking me up again, he laid me on the bed and began working his way down my body with his lips and hands. Sliding two fingers inside me, he sucked on my clit until I came.

“You didn’t scream my name,” he said, his voice husky.

I grinned. “Guess you’re not finished yet then.”

“Oh, I’m far from finished.”

He flipped me over on my stomach, lifting me to my hands and knees as he knelt behind me. His hands traced my sides and then squeezed my ass. “You have the perfect ass,” he said, smacking me.

I gasped, surprised and turned on even more. Chuckling, he grabbed my hips and slid inside me. Not only had I missed Asher, I’d missed the feel of him connected to me like this. He buried himself to the hilt. Torturously slow, he slid in and out of me several times before pulling out completely. Missing his cock and longing for the climax he’d been slowly bringing me to, I looked over my shoulder to find him watching me.

“What’s wrong, love?” he asked, smirking.

He knew damn well what was wrong. Refusing to answer, I stared at him.

“What? You want this?” He asked, sliding into me again.

He grazed some sort of sweet spot and I arched my back to take him in further, desperate for release. He pulled out of me again.

“Yes,” I said, frustrated.

“All you had to do was ask.”

He slammed into me, and I almost lost my mind. Gone were the slow, controlled thrusts as Asher gripped my hips tighter and fucked me. As my climax built, he began stroking and pinching my clit. The pain and pleasure launched me over the edge, and I screamed his name and squeezed him inside me.

“Fuck!” Asher shouted as he came.

We collapsed on the bed and he held me until a different kind of hunger drove us out of bed to explore the boxes he’d left on the table.

* * *

Asher stayed the night with me, and left early the next morning. Without Addison to talk to, I spent the day alternating between computer games and mafia novels. I was hoping Asher would spend the night again, but he called and said he had to work late and wouldn’t make it over.

The next day held the same boring routine. By the time Asher called and told me he had to work late again, I was so desperate for real life human contact that I started reading pizza delivery reviews to figure out who had the friendliest driver. It was a little after five p.m., and I was plotting out how to trap said driver into a conversation. Thankfully, my phone rang with an incoming call from Lakeview.

“Hey, Dyl, it’s Dakota. How are you?”

“Dak!” I said with no doubt way too much enthusiasm. “I’m so glad you called. Hey, how are you?’

“Good. I called to give you an update on the damage your little tornado did in our town.”

I chuckled. “We did shake things up a bit, didn’t we?” Dad was in the slammer awaiting trial. Apparently he’d known about the DA’s plan to kill off the nursing home elders, and had no trouble stealing jewelry from people who were about to knocked off, including his own mother. I was having a hard time coming to terms with that. My dad had a girlfriend in Klamath who was unloading the jewelry off onto the pawn shop, which explained why they had no record of him ever selling anything. Dad’s girlfriend was also currently a guest of the state.

“How’s the town dealing with Dicky’s arrest?”

“It’s a circus. Half the population has stepped forward to snitch about other things he was wrapped up in. By the time Klamath County gets it all figured out, I reckon he’ll have more cases against him than that old actor accused of date-raping all those women.”

I felt a little proud of my home town then. “I’m glad people are finally finding the balls to nail him. That’s encouraging.”

“Yeah, me and Brandy are stepping forward, too.”

“Wait, what? You and Brandy?”

He chuckled. “I’ve liked Brandy for a long time, Dylan. No offense, but you weren’t exactly my type.”

I’d suspected as much. No matter what Dakota had said, there’d never been any sort of spark between us. “It’s because I wouldn’t sit on your lap when you told me you were the real Santa Claus, isn’t it?”

That earned me a good belly laugh. “You sure got my number.”

“So why did you act like you liked me?”

“At first, it felt expected. You and I were gonna get married, like everyone said. Then I took a likin’ to Brandy, but ol’ Dicky’d already laid claim to her.”

“What?” I asked. “How old was she?”

“Sixteen. But what were we gonna do about it? Who could we tell, Dyl? You know how things are down here. So I kept tellin’ everyone you and me were still together.”

“And the kid? Is he Dicky’s?”

“That kid is the spittin’ image of me. If anyone would have looked twice at him, they would have figured it out.”

“But they didn’t, because you were supposedly sprung on me. Man, I feel used. But no wonder Brandy hated me so much! Sheesh, you guys could’ve told me.”

“You know how this town is. You can’t tell a damn soul. The goddamn walls talk.”

He had me there. “Did anyone ever figure out what Wyatt’s role in all this is?” Even thinking about Wyatt made my chest hurt. You think you know a guy...then he cuts your cinch and tries to get you and your bestie trampled to death.

“You remember Lizzy?” Dakota asked.

“Wyatt’s little sister?” They’d always been close, and I hadn’t even asked Wyatt about her. Maybe Wyatt wasn’t the only bad friend in this relationship. “Is she okay?”

“Not really. She got arrested last month for using and selling meth.”

“Holy cow. Is everyone in that town messing with that crap?”

He sighed. “Sure seems like it sometimes. Anyway, she’s got a trial coming up and Wyatt came forward and said Dicky promised he’d drop the charges and help Wyatt and his family get her into rehab if he distracted you from the case. And when that didn’t work...”

“I get it.”

“He didn’t want to, Dylan, but you know he’d do anything for Lizzy. He asked me to apologize for him.”

I sighed, trying to put myself in Wyatt’s shoes. I didn’t have any sisters, but I’d do whatever I could for Addison. My anger and hurt melted into frustration and irritation. Desperate for a subject change, I asked, “Hey, how’s Grandma?” It had to be difficult for her to know Dad had been locked up, and that he’d been in on the plot to kill her and her friends.

“Don’t you go worryin’ about that ol’ woman. She’s doin’ just fine. She told me to tell you to call her once in a while.”

I smiled. “I will, Dak.”

“Now?” he asked.

“No, not now. I’m on the phone with you.”

“Not you. Just a second, Dylan.” There was some muffled talking, and then he came back on the line. “I’m supposed to tell you to turn on your laptop.”

“My laptop?” I glanced at it sitting on the coffee table.

“Yeah, you know the thing that runs Quickbooks.”

I got the feeling invoicing clients was probably the extent of Dakota’s computer prowess.

“Why?” I asked.

He chuckled. “Good luck.”

I pulled the phone away from my cheek to see that the call had ended. Dakota had called to update me, given me some cryptic message, and then hung up on me. Intrigued, I tossed my phone on the sofa and opened my laptop.

As I did, words typed across my screen and a computerized voice said aloud, “Hello, Dylan. Shall we play a game?”

It was from one of my favorite geek-out movies, War Games. Very few people knew about my geeky side, and Dakota was definitely not one of them. And there was no way he’d be able to hack into my computer. Only one person I knew could do that—my gaming buddy, Quentin. I called his cell phone, but it went straight to voice mail.

I stared at the blinking curser, wondering what Quentin was up to and how he’d gotten Dakota in on it. In the end, boredom and curiosity pressured me into playing along. It wasn’t like I had anything else to do.

“Love to,” I typed.

“Good, answer the door.”

The knock came immediately. I looked out the peephole and saw a delivery man on the other side. Wondering if I should open the door, I glanced back at the laptop. Again, boredom and curiosity won out. This was the most excitement I’d had in three days.

I opened the door and the delivery man handed me two boxes and left. I carried them back into the room and opened them up. The first box held fitted black cargo pants, a black baseball cap, and a black tank top. The second box held new black combat boots. The sizes were perfect, which told me that whatever was going on, Addison had to be involved.

“Get dressed,” my computer said as the words typed across the screen.

I called Addison, but it went straight to voice mail.

Too curious to stop now, I dressed quickly, putting my hair in a ponytail and pulling it through the back of the cap. Because I still had no clue what was going on, I even put on some makeup so I wouldn’t look like a boy. When I was done, I typed, “What now?”

“Answer the door.”

Another knock. I wiped the stupid grin off my face and looked through the peephole. Addison’s driver, Jimmy, was standing on the other side. I grabbed my keys, phone, and purse and headed out.

“Where are we going?” I asked Jimmy.

“You’ll see,” he said, rolling up the partition between us.

Rude. Left to my own devices, I called Asher. Again, straight to voice mail. Frustrated that nobody would answer my call, I group texted them all, asking what the heck they were up to. Nobody texted back.

The driver dropped me off at an unmarked warehouse where a man dressed just like me waited.

“Dylan James?” the man asked.

“That’s me.”

“Can I see some ID?”

Weird. I flashed it for him anyway.

“I’m Sergeant Hernandez. I’ve been sent to brief you on our situation. Please come with me, Ms. James.”

Before I could reply, he entered the dimly-lit warehouse and I had to practically run to keep up. I passed a laser tag sign and realized what was up. Someone was playing a game with me, and I was thrilled!

“We have a hostage situation,” the sergeant said as we walked past a handful of black dividers. The lighting was awful. Overhead fluorescents were mostly burned out.

“Who’s the hostage?” I asked, playing along.

“We’re not sure, but we were told that you can help us out with this.”

“Okay, what do you need me to do?”

He picked up what appeared to be a bulletproof vest and handed it to me. “Put this on. We’re sending you in to rescue the hostage.”

That sounded fun. I strapped on the vest and he handed me a laser gun. “Take this. You’ll need to fight your way in. It’s the fourth door on the left, past the dividers. If you hit the back wall, you’ve gone too far. The place is full of hostiles, so shoot anything that moves until you get to that room.”

“Got it.” I checked my weapon and made sure it didn’t have a safety.

Sergeant Hernandez smiled. “I see you’ve done this before?”

Played laser tag? A million times, but it had been a few years, and I was really looking forward to it. I nodded.

He took me to the entrance, patted me on the back, and wished me luck.

The first hostile was only a few feet from the entrance and standing in plain view. I shot him and jumped behind a divider. I took out two more on my way to the next divider. Three more went down over the next three minutes. I was feeling pretty cocky by the time I rounded the fifth divider and almost ran smack into another hostile. I startled him, and before he could get his gun off, I shot. His vest pinged and went dark.

The obstacle course was longer than any I’d ever seen, and it took me almost fifteen minutes before I reached the first door. As soon as I sneaked past it, it opened, and I shot the hostile coming out. A cardboard cutout flew down at me from the ceiling between the second and third doors, but I got a headshot off on it. I was having the time of my life—and getting in a decent workout—by the time I reached the fourth door on the left.

Holding the handle, I put my back against the door and slowly turned the knob. The door creaked open. It reached the halfway point before a body came flying at me. I fired two shots and pushed the dummy aside.

Asher was sitting in a chair in the middle of the room, holding a giant bouquet of tiger lilies, Gerber daisies, and others I didn’t know the names of but loved.

“Are you my prize?” I asked.

He set the flowers down on the chair and dropped to one knee. “Actually, I was hoping to be more than that. Like your husband. Marry me, love.” His hand trembled slightly as he pulled a small box out of his pocket and held it out to me.

My heart leapt into my throat. “For real??”

He laughed. “Yes. For real.”

Tears formed in my eyes. I blinked them away and nodded as I gestured for him to get up.

“This is the part where you say yes,” he said, rising.

“Yes!” It was all I could manage before his lips were on mine and familiar voices cheered in the background. I laughed, and tears ran down my cheeks, as Asher kissed me silly. By the time he finally put me down, Addison and Jake had emerged from their hiding spot behind a corner divider.

Asher slid the most gorgeous old-fashioned engagement ring that I’d ever seen onto my finger and took us all out to celebrate. I’d never been happier in my life.

“I missed you last night,” I said while we waited for our food.

“I wanted to come over, but that first night...you dropped to your knees and I swear I almost asked you to marry me right there and then. I would have been so pissed at myself for ruining the surprise.”

I laughed, my cheeks burning at the memory of that night.

“Wait, what?” Addison asked, butting in. “Dropped to her knees?”

She’d been deep in a conversation with Jake and I didn’t think she’d hear me. “Uh...” Shit! I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

“Dylan Linn James, you had sex and you didn’t tell me?”

I didn’t answer. Keeping my gaze locked on Asher, as I silently prayed we’d poof to Asher’s house now, so I could avoid this whole conversation. Nothing happened, and the air around us was charged with tension.

“She’s staring at me, isn’t she?” I asked Asher.

Laughing, he nodded.

“Dammit.” Turning, I smiled at my bestie, hoping to derail whatever train of embarrassment was about to come roaring from her mouth.

“You know what, forget it,” Addison said. “You two can get freaky tonight, but tomorrow you have some serious explaining to do, missy. You can tell me all about this on the way to our new job.”

“New job?” Asher and Jake both asked, sounding horrified.

“Yes. One of my cousins is in need of our amazing detective services. We start tomorrow!”

Asher and Jake both groaned.

“What? It’ll be fine,” Addison assured them. “We’ve handled a bucking horse, taken down a corrupt DA, and un-framed Dylan. What could possibly happen that we can’t handle?”

“One of our cousins?” Asher asked.

Addison’s smile faltered. “Point taken. Still, relax, Ashey. We’ve totally got this.”

I smiled up at my crazy bestie, hoping she knew what she was talking about. It could happen, right?