Chapter 25

Jenny woke with a start a few hours later.

She had been dreaming. Chloe was there with Isabelle. Jenny was trying to catch up with the two of them, but they always seemed to be a few too many steps ahead, just out of her reach. She had just managed to grasp a good hold of Chloe when she had been startled awake.

She lay there dazed and confused for a second or two. Roy was still slumbering beside her, his chest rising and falling with each breath he took. His snores were gentle and soft.

Jenny realized with a start that what had woken her was coming from the hall. The shrill sound of a telephone was muffled but determined through the bedroom door. Cursing under her breath, she climbed out of bed and grabbed Roy's housecoat from the back of the door. The fleece felt warm against her skin as she walked out into the cold hallway.

The caller was not letting up. The phone continued to ring as she trudged down the hall toward it. She picked it up, her voice still slurred by sleep.

“Yes?”

The liquor store owner, Lawrence, was on the other end of the line. His voice crackled. He sounded distressed.

“Miss Dale? It's Lawrence from the store in town. I think I made a terrible mistake yesterday.”

Jenny placed the phone against her other ear, using her free hand to tighten the housecoat belt.

“What do you mean?”

“I gave you the wrong information when you asked about the wine bottles.”

“Well, what did you mean to tell me instead?” she asked. “You can tell me anything, Lawrence.”

“I'm not going to say it all over the phone. It isn't safe. Can you and Roy come down to the shop this afternoon around five p.m. I'll be closing then, and we’ll be able to talk freely.”

“Okay. We'll be there.”

Jenny couldn't wait to hear what Roy would make of this. She went back to the bedroom to wake him up in her own special way.

She saw him lying there, looking as sexy as ever. His muscular chest, its tattoos, rising up and down with his breath.

She climbed quietly onto the bed, got under the blankets, and crawled up along his body, careful not to wake him. She stopped when she reached his boxer shorts and carefully pulled them down, letting his long cock fall out.

He moved slightly in his sleep but didn’t wake up.

Leaning close over him, she ran her tongue along the length of his cock. He moved again but still didn’t wake up. She was surprised to see that his cock was stiffening and growing, even though he was still asleep.

She ran her tongue all the way along it, from the base to the head, tracing the line of the vein on its underside. Roy moved but still didn’t wake up.

She felt very naughty and mischievous as she took the head of his cock into her mouth and began sucking on it gently. As it grew in her mouth, she brought it further and further into her throat, taking his full shaft into her throat.

“Oh, god,” she heard him groan up above the sheets.

He was beginning to wake up.

She ran her tongue in circles around his head, and then massaged the head of his cock with her tongue as her hand reached up to cup his balls.

He began to thrust very slowly and gently toward her, and she paused to see if he was awake. Miraculously he was still fast asleep.

She smiled and continued sucking, working the head of his cock skillfully, thinking about how much fun it would be to make him cum without even waking him. Would he even know it had happened?

She wasn’t sure.

She let his cock slide all the way into her throat and she could feel the early pulses and throbs of his orgasm getting ready to explode. She didn’t stop, she kept sucking and rising her mouth up and then back down on his shaft.

In a few more seconds, she tasted the first pulse of his semen flowing into her mouth. She swallowed it as another load throbbed out of his cock and into her mouth. His orgasm was gentler than when he was awake, but the thought of having coaxed it out of him without his knowledge gave her a strange thrill. It was naughty, like something she’d stolen, and it also gave her a feeling of control and power over him. She could do this to him any time she wanted, and he’d never know any better.

He’d love her more and more, need her more and more, and never know where it came from!

She waited for his orgasm to finish and licked him clean. Then she crawled up and snuggled in against his chest. He was still only half awake and she wasn’t sure if he knew what she’d just done to him.

“I love you, Jenny,” he mumbled.

Her heart jumped with joy.

“What?” she whispered.

But he was back asleep. He pulled her close against his chest and breathed deeply in his satisfied slumber.

Jenny had never felt so safe in a man’s arms.

* * *

Roy was eager to call the police commissioner straight after breakfast. He had dug through his old files in the study the night before and located the phone number on an old sheet of foolscap. He hoped it was still operational.

It took him by surprise when Jenny told him they should wait. He listened to her account of the curious phone call early that morning and agreed with her to meet Lawrence later that afternoon.

“I don't like holding off on this,” he told her as they collected up the breakfast dishes together. I feel like we should act fast. The longer we leave it, the longer Chief Cartright has to get his ducks in a row.”

“I agree, but Lawrence’s information may make our case even stronger.”

Roy shrugged as he took a seat at the kitchen table.

“What if his information turns out to be not so helpful after all? The police badge is enough to put Chief Cartright at the scene of Chloe's murder. It won’t matter how hard he's worked to keep their relationship a secret across town.”

“But what if Lawrence can give us more information on the blue wine bottle? If Chief Cartright orders it into the liquor store, then it also can place him at the scene of the fire. It could prove he tried to kill me.”

Roy put his head into his hands with a sigh.

“Fine. You're right.”

“Wouldn't be the first time.”

“We’ll wait it out until tomorrow morning.”

He held up a finger.

“But then we have to act. I hate the idea of that smug bastard sitting in his office thinking he's king of the heap when Joey is confined to a metal box.”

When is the last time you saw Cartright? Jenny asked

“Not for a couple days, now that I think about it. Not that I’m complaining. That guy has a knack for ruining a man’s day.” Roy said. “It’s possible he was the mysterious stranger in the woods the other day. If so, I think I hate him even more than I did before for what he did to my ankle.”

Jenny laughed.

“Then you must not have seen what he's been sporting on his face lately.”

“A soul patch? A new tattoo across his forehead that reads I'm a giant prick?”

“A black eye.”

He had to chuckle at how clearly overjoyed Jenny was about it.

“Joey took a pot shot at his face.”

“What makes you think it was Joey who took the shot? I can think of a few people who’d love to punch the smirk off that asshole’s face..”

“Joey had bruises on the knuckles of his right hand when I visited him at the station. I never thought to ask him about it, but it was as clear as day. I got a kick out of it.”

“Well, good on Joey.” Roy sat back in his chair, impressed with his friend’s guts. “He is my new hero.”

Jenny smiled sweetly across at him.

“Damn, and I thought it was going to be me.”

“You make a very close second.” he said as he reached across and squeezed her hand.

“I would have thought this morning’s interaction would have made me top-dog.”

“Ah, but you’ve never taken a shot at Cartright. You go see to that, and I’ll be waiting here with your crown.”

She raised an eyebrow with a laugh.

“I think if I did that I’d be sharing a cell with Joey. ”

“Not for long,” Roy reminded her. “When the police commissioner hears all of our evidence, Joey won't be staring at those four, stone walls much longer. He will be a free man and Isabelle will have her daddy back.”

Jenny nodded in response, but he noticed she had grown quiet.

“What's the matter?” he asked.

“It just doesn't seem real,” she admitted. “A week ago, I was offered the job of a lifetime. In a flash, it all disappeared, and I was forced to return to Ombrea to care for some young kid I had barely even met before. Now I'm trying to prove my brother's innocence, so I can get him out of jail. I'm a genuine aunt, I have you as a friend, and Ombrea doesn’t seem as bad as I had made it out to be in my mind. It's like my life took a U-turn. I'm in upside-down mode.”

“It's not so bad, is it”

Roy had been wondering what Jenny would do when the case was over and Joey had his freedom back. It filled him with dread.

“I miss what I had, yet I like what I’ve found here, too. I wish I could have both”

Jenny and Roy sighed deeply in unison, regarding each other fondly.

“How about we fish?” he suggested, rising to his feet. “It’ll help take your mind off things. Plus we have time to kill before we meet Lawrence.”

“It’s going to be worth the wait, believe me. He has to know something that will make our case even stronger.”

Roy hoped she was right.