Chapter 25

Abby

I woke up with my back to him, his hand stroking my waist, fingertips tracing up and down the line of my naked skin in feathery soft touches, barely there at all. I shivered under his touch, feeling heat spreading beneath my skin, lower and lower until my pussy gushed with desire even from a hint of his fingers on me. I thought about pulling away but didn’t, instead scooting backward, rubbing my ass against him. My breathing felt ragged as his hand moved down, tracing my breasts, stroking my nipples as I squirmed.

“How are you?” he asked, his voice deep in my ear. I responded by further wiggling against him, taking his hand in mine and sliding it down so that he was cupping my pussy in his palm. He didn’t hesitate to start stroking my clit with his fingers, straddling either side of it and rubbing at the sensitive edges, avoiding direct contact.

“I’m—fine,” I breathed, grinding against his hand. I felt his lips on the back of my neck, then on the side, turned my head so that he could take my mouth in a kiss that I knew I shouldn’t want. Two of his fingers slipped inside of my pussy even as I whimpered against him, curling upward, touching the sensitive spot deep inside of me while his palm rubbed against my clit. My whole body shook and trembled against him and I whimpered as I came, biting my lip, clenching around his fingers as he pulled them away from me. I juggled pain and pleasure, like I was a professional at it.

“Hi,” he said, looking away from me, down at his singed clothes. “I’m going to go get you something to wear.”

“What exactly are we supposed to do?” I asked him. “What now?”

He didn’t say anything, but stared at me for a moment. There was a hard look in his eyes, though it softened when I chewed on my lip.

“Now we take care of Paul,” he said.

“What does that mean?” I asked him. His voice was dangerous and his jaw was solid and tense.

“It means I have work to do.”

“What should I do?”

He sighed, ran his hand through his hair.

“I’ll be right back,” he said, and before I could say anything, he had thrown on his clothes and left the room. I stared after him, not knowing what to say or do. There was nothing in the room—I hadn’t gotten a chance to grab a bag. Everything was gone. My clothes, my mother’s letters, and Paul especially. A lump formed in my throat that I tried to fight down but couldn’t. I got up out of bed and went into the bathroom, turning the light on to see that my naked body was dirty and covered in ash and soot, black streaks from where I’d been touched by the fire. I turned on the shower and climbed in, closing my eyes as the cool water fell over me.

It was a few moments later that the bathroom door opened and I peered out the shower to see Cohen standing there with clothes in his hands. I glanced out at him and he met my eye.

“Hi,” he said. “I got you some souvenirs.”

“Thanks,” I said to him. “What about you?”

“Yeah, I—I thought I’d take a shower before I got dressed.”

“Hm,” I said, staring at him. “You might have to wait.”

He raised his eyebrows, a small smile on his lips.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Yes, Mr. Ashton,” I said to him. “You’ll have to wait your turn.”

He cleared his throat, pulling off his clothes as I watched. He, too, was covered in ash, his skin marked with streaks of soot and sweat from the night before. I stepped aside and allowed him to get in the shower with me, pressing me backward so that his body was under the cool water. I looked up at his face as he started to wash himself off, a small grin on his features, his eyes challenging me as the water ran over our heads.

“Seems like there’s plenty enough for both of us,” he said. I took the soap from his hand and lathered mine up, keeping eye contact as I started to soap up his body, to wash his soiled skin clean with my bare hands. All he did was watch my face as I touched him, avoiding his cock, teasing everything else. The timing wasn’t right to play with him, yet I found that it was almost irresistible. I wanted to make him feel better, to take his pain away, and the best way I knew how to do that was to give him the comfort of my touch.

We stayed like that for a long time, letting the water run over us, staring at each other and touching without doing any of the touching that we really wanted to. After we’d finished, he wrapped a towel around me and dried himself off. He was quiet, the look in his eyes far away while we got dressed in the oversized souvenir clothes, giant matching T-shirts screaming “I Love Texas” for all the world to see.

“So what now?” I asked him.

“We need to find Bella and Gregory, first thing,” he said.

“Did you tell the cops about them?”

“No,” he said firmly. “No, we’re not going to the cops about this.”

“What?” I asked him, furrowing my brow. “What do you mean? Cohen, they set the house on fire. They killed Paul.”

“I know,” he said sharply. “I know that. And they’ve done it before. They’ve gotten away with it before and moved on. I’m not going to let that happen again.”

“How do you know that? And what exactly are you going to do, Cohen?”

He gave me a hard look.

“First, I’m going to find them. Then, I’ll deal with them. This has nothing to do with you.”

“It has nothing to do with me?” I asked him, lifting an eyebrow. “Like I wasn’t there? Like I didn’t almost burn to death last night?”

“Paul was my uncle. My family. This is my revenge to take.”

“Revenge, Cohen?” I asked him, going to him and taking his face in my hands. “You can’t really mean—”

He pulled away from me, rubbing his hand over his mouth.

“I won’t go to the cops. I’m not going to risk scaring them away and never being able to find them again, or letting them slip through the cracks like rats. I’m taking care of this.”

“What, are you going to kill them?”

He didn’t say anything. I stood up from the bed then, taking his face in my hands.

“It’s OK to be upset, Cohen,” I said to him. “But this isn’t—”

“How much money do you need to go home? Get out of here?”

I stared at him.

“You want me to go?”

His eyes softened. “I want you to be safe.”

“I’m not letting you get into anything dangerous. I’m not going to leave you here to do something stupid.”

“Why not?” he asked, running his hand through his hair. “What stake do you have in this? Paul is gone, Abby. Your job is done.”

“I loved him too,” I said to him. “And I—”

I cut myself off, afraid of the words that were coming next. “I’m not going to leave while you’re acting like an idiot. You’re going to get yourself into trouble, Cohen.”

“I don’t care,” he said fiercely. “I’m going to do what I have to do.”

“Well, you’re going to do it with me,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’re not going to take care of this alone. Paul was important to me. It’s important for me to—to get closure, too.”

“So that’s why you want to stay with me, want to follow me around on this job?” he asked. “For Paul?”

“Yes,” I said to him, trying to keep my voice from shaking and betraying me. He stared into my eyes, a sadness passing behind his gaze.

“You’re not going to leave,” he said. “You’re going to stay with me.”

“Just until you’re done with Bella and Gregory. Then I go.”

“And what if I decide I want to kill them?”

“Will you?” I asked him. He took a deep breath.

“I don’t know,” he said, looking away from me. “But first, we have to find them. I have to call my assistant and give him the information so that he can deal with the insurance and police at the house. It looked—it looked like it was totally gone. I’m not sure there’s anything left. But I don’t have time to deal with it right now.”

“Call your assistant,” I said to him. “Don’t worry about that. How are we going to find Bella and Gregory?”

“I’ve had a guy on them, a private eye. He’s the one who told me they’ve been pulling this scam in the past. He didn’t mention the part where they intended to murder my uncle. I wanted to know what he missed and why he missed it.”

“Maybe they’ve never done this before?” I asked. “Maybe it wasn’t even them—”

“It was them,” he said, meeting my eye with a fiery look. I nodded, not arguing. I knew it, too, that no matter what the investigation said—Bella and Gregory had set that fire, had wanted to kill Paul to gain his inheritance.

“OK,” I said. “So we find them. Then what?”

He shrugged. “We’ll figure it out.”

“I want to know what I’m walking into here,” I said to him.

“You don’t have to come,” he said.

“Yes, I do.”

“And are you going to be like this the whole time?” he asked.

“Like what?” I asked him.

“Belligerent,” he said, peering into my eyes. There was a hint of a smile on his lips, teasing.

“Yes,” I said. “You’re no longer my boss. We’re equals. I don’t have to bow to you.”

He laughed. “As if you ever bowed to me.”

I gave him a small smile, pleased to see humor in his eyes.

“We were always equals, Abby.”

“Well, now you start treating me like one,” I said firmly.

“I did—”

I gave him a hard look. “No more arguing. Go call your assistant. Then, we’ll talk to your detective.”

He grinned again. “Oh, you think you’re the boss now?”

“I have always been the boss,” I said to him with a wicked smile. He shook his head, picking up his phone and leaving the room for a minute to make the call. I sighed and sat down to wait for him, wondering what was coming next, and if I was going to have to stop him from doing something dangerous and stupid.