Broken Falcon, page 21
She raised her head, releasing his mouth. Her hair hung down, brushing his cheek. He gazed up into her face and tucked the soft dark strands behind her ear.
There was so much he wanted to say, including words that would probably terrify her. His brain might not be good at processing emotions or figuring out what to do, but he knew better than to say that now.
He wasn’t foolish enough to believe he’d get more than a few days with her. She’d invited him into her bed to fulfill a temporary need. Fine with him. He’d take anything and everything she was willing to give.
“What do you say we have dessert first?” Her voice was throaty. Sultry. But not Desiree’s sexy tones he’d heard many times. No. This was pure Eden.
“I thought we just did?”
She laughed. “Oh no. I’ve got plans for my ice cream.”
“I need to clean up and get rid of this condom first.”
She nodded toward the attached bathroom as she removed the padded cuffs from her wrists. “You take that one. You’ll find washcloths and towels in the cupboard.” She grinned. “FYI, I do not like the taste of spermicide, and I intend to go down on you as part of my dessert.”
“Duly noted.”
She kissed him softly. “I’ll clean up in the hall bathroom and get the ice cream.”
She left him on the bed, and he lay there, watching the swing of her perfect ass as she slipped from the room.
The moment almost didn’t seem real. As if it was one of his fevered fantasies from the before. When his mind wasn’t his.
He did all the mental exercises he’d learned last fall, to check his own reality. He mentally reviewed the hours that had led up to now and found no gaps. There was a logical progression to getting here.
He rose from the bed to perform the final test, but first he needed to lose the condom that was making him itch—another sign this was real—so he stepped into the bathroom, tossed the condom, then jumped in the shower for a quick rinse.
Clean, he pulled a thick towel from the cupboard and dried off. The feel of soft terry cloth on his skin was another reality check.
This was real. Eden had made love with him. And she wanted to again.
He assumed this was nothing more than a convenient arrangement for her. She wanted sex, and he could provide it. He was okay with that. But still, he wanted more. He wanted everything he’d never dreamed he could have. With her.
In the bedroom, he plucked his cell phone from his pants pocket and performed the final test. He dialed a phone number from memory—something he’d always been incapable of in the fevered dreams. Any attempt to get help was impossible. His brain had been wired to fail.
Those wires had been cut nearly a year ago, but he still didn’t trust it.
Mothman answered immediately. “Do you have intel on Penelope?”
“No. I’m having an Inception moment.”
“Got it. You dialed from memory?”
“Yes. Went through on the first try.”
“Running the scan on your Raptor phone. You’re in Fairfax. Looks like Eden’s address, if memory serves. You drove there straight from the compound, making two stops on the way. You arrived just after six.”
Eden entered the bedroom, completely nude, carrying a pint of ice cream and one spoon. She cocked her head in question at finding him on the phone.
He had a moment of panic. Did he want her to know he was so messed up, he needed to call a friend to act as the spinning top in Inception to figure out if he was caught in one of Parks’s mind fucks?
Did he have a choice?
“Last test,” Mothman said. “Tell me the last thing you ate.”
Eden. Chase flushed red. Mothman was referring to the lunch they had together earlier.
“Pizza.”
“What did Tricia eat?”
This was a trick question. “She wasn’t there. She was at PT.”
“You’re good to go. No gaps, no confusion. Vehicle and phone are at the same coordinates. Enjoy your evening with Eden.”
“Wait. One more thing.” His gaze met Eden’s. Maybe he could pass this off as a work call. He lowered the phone and addressed her. “Can you tell Mothman everything you know about Penny? We don’t even know her CamDames name.”
“Mothman? You mentioned him before.”
“He’s the tech wizard for Raptor. He’s trying to track her down. Her cell number isn’t pinging. She’s probably gone off the grid.”
Eden nodded. She set the ice cream on the side table, then stepped into the bathroom. “Let me get a robe on first.”
He nodded. It was an awkward conversation to have while nude, even if she was talking on the phone.
To Mothman, he said, “Just a sec.” He handed Eden the phone when she returned in a silk robe that draped over her perfect body in the most enticing way.
She took the phone and sat on the bed while Chase pulled on his jeans.
“What do you need from me?” She hit the speaker button so Chase could hear both sides.
“Anything you can tell me. How long she’s worked for CamDames, her aliases, where she lives. The address I found through Vivace Coffee was fake.”
“Fake? Shit.” She looked at Chase, and he saw the sadness in her eyes. “I was sort of hoping there was some sort of mix-up and she didn’t set me up.”
“It’s not looking that way.” Mothman’s voice held the brisk tone of someone who didn’t catch the social cue that called for a sympathetic response. He still missed that one, especially at times like this when he was listening for data that would set him on a technical hunt.
It made Chase feel less alone to know he wasn’t the only one who had problems with communication.
“She’s worked for CamDames for…I don’t know…eighteen months? Maybe a little longer. She started a few months after me, but I gathered she had experience from elsewhere. I was concerned because I think she was only eighteen at the time.”
“I’ve found conflicting ages for her. It’s possible she was only sixteen eighteen months ago.”
Eden let out a soft gasp. “Sixteen? You mean she’s only now eighteen?”
“It’s possible. I haven’t been able to find a birth certificate and believe the name Penelope Madison is an invention.”
Chase plucked the pint of ice cream from the nightstand to return it to the freezer. They wouldn’t be picking up where they’d left off when Eden got off the phone.
It was selfish of him to regret it. This was why he’d come over, after all, and it appeared Penny was as much a victim as an accomplice.
Eden followed him to the kitchen and sat on a barstool with the phone on the counter. Chase began unpacking Thai food and sorting it for microwaving to reheat.
“The only screen name I know of is Penny Candi. She has a new name now that I don’t know, but she said she uses full baby-doll makeup and looks more like a cartoon than a person. She told me the makeup is because she had a stalker who found her real-life identity.” She met Chase’s gaze. “Her stalker used the alias Falcon.”
A rush of emotion—he guessed this one was shock, because it felt a lot like what he’d earlier dubbed tornado—washed through him. Yeah. He definitely wasn’t dreaming this.
“She said that after we met?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“She was trying to make you suspicious of me.”
Eden glanced at the phone, clearly uncomfortable with what Mothman was overhearing.
Chase said, “One second, Moth,” and hit the Mute button. To Eden, he said, “He knows about Falcon. Or at least, he knows I found you online. He did a search on you that first night and discovered you were Desiree, who was on our list of people to investigate at CamDames eight months ago. You dropped off the list when you left.”
Eden’s face blanched. “You said you didn’t run a check on me.”
“I didn’t. And I didn’t know Mothman had. He didn’t tell me the results. He figured I’d recognized you and had my reasons for keeping mum.” He ran his fingers through his hair, praying she would believe him and would understand. “I didn’t say a word to him until last night. After.”
He rounded the counter and stood before her. “He doesn’t know any details about Falcon. He doesn’t know we just made love. All he knows is I told him not to share anything he learned in your background check because everything I know about you, I want you to have a say in me knowing it.”
He studied her face, her delicate features expressing more emotions in this moment than he would be able to process. This was where the numbness had protected him. He ached with fear, his heart surged with hope, and anxiety threatened to put him in a cyclone.
He wanted to touch her, to assure himself he hadn’t lost her already with this revelation.
She studied his face, then slipped from the stool, stood before him, and wrapped her arms around his neck.
He pulled her flush to his chest, his arms sliding over the silk robe as he took her in his arms. He buried his head in her hair, breathed in the flowery scent of her shampoo combined with the scent of sex on her skin.
Her words were muffled against his chest. “Okay. And thank you for giving me some choices here.”
“I’m sorry Mothman invaded your privacy to begin with, but the work we’re doing made it necessary.”
“Has he…seen Desiree?”
“I don’t know. Probably.”
“Is he the judgmental type?”
“No. He doesn’t give a damn. What you do with your body is your business.”
She nodded, and he knew there would be more to this conversation. A lot more if they were going to continue seeing each other, which he wanted more than anything.
“Okay. Let’s finish this conversation so we can get back to the fun part of our meeting with food.”
He smiled. It sounded funny when she said it.
He released her and unmuted the call. “Sorry about that. Okay, where were we?”
“Penny told Eden that she had a stalker named Falcon, which was also conveniently the name you used as a login on Desiree’s site. Which means it’s likely that someone at CamDames had figured out that you are Falcon.”
Mothman delivered it as straight facts, and his cold delivery was probably a lot easier for Eden to take than if he’d shown any kind of concern.
“How would they know any of that?” she asked.
Chase shrugged. “That’s why we need to dig into Penny. As far as we know, the first connection anyone would have made between us was when I drove you home the first night. Or if not then, then when I visited you at the coffee shop a week later.”
“When did Penny tell you about Falcon?” Mothman asked.
Eden pulled out her phone and checked the call log. “I’m not sure. Either two weeks ago or just one. Probably just one?” She sighed. “The day after I filled in for Penny, she called me at work, and I told her about what happened and mentioned that Raptor had responded.”
“So they could have started connecting dots then. And Falcon could have been suggested because they knew you had a regular named Falcon. They could have been trying to throw you off.”
They wrapped up the call with Mothman and loaded plates with the various Thai dishes Eden had ordered, then took turns heating them in the microwave.
Eden poured them each a glass of wine, and they ate dinner on the couch in front of the gas fireplace.
“As much as I was disappointed by the change in direction from my plans to seduce you with ice cream, I’m glad we got that conversation over with and Mothman has what he needs to keep searching.”
Chase took a sip of his wine. “Me too.” He set the glass on the coffee table as she did the same.
He had so many questions about how to navigate this after-sex and possibly before-sex moment in time. He didn’t know the process. What was normal.
Would she expect him to go home tonight? Or would she let him hold her all night long? She’d said she wanted cuddling, and he hadn’t delivered on that promise yet.
She ate a bite of Pad Thai and then looked at him in confusion. She set down her fork and finished chewing. After she swallowed, she said, “You look…concerned.” She glanced at his plate, which showed he’d barely taken a bite. “Is the food too spicy?”
He shook his head. If she could see it on his face, he might as well come clean. “I don’t know how to do this.”
“Do what?” Her face suddenly blanched. “Oh no. You’re going to start the ‘it’s not you, it’s that you’re a camgirl’ conversation already.”
He jolted. “What? No! Not at all.”
“Then why are you breaking up with me an hour after we got started?”
“Who said I was b-b-breaking up w-with you?” Shit. Now he was stuttering again.
“What don’t you know how to do?”
He ran a hand over his face. “You are m-m-…” He paused, took a deep breath, and tried again. “Making my point. This—navigating the transition from bed, to talking, to, hopefully, bed again—I don’t know how to do it. I want you, Eden. I want to make love to you in front of the fire. Against the wall. In the shower. And I’m not sure how to navigate because I’ve never really done this. At least, not that I know of. How do normal guys behave? Are there rules? I want to pull you on my lap and kiss you, but what if you’re just trying to figure out how to send me packing?”
She gave him a soft smile. “It sounds like you should trust your instincts on this one.”
“But that’s the problem. I have no instincts.”
She shook her head. “What was the last thing you said you wanted to do?”
He searched his brain. Sex in the shower? No. “Pull you on my lap and kiss you?”
“Spot-on instincts.”
He reached for her and dragged her the short distance until her ass settled on his rapidly growing erection.
She let out a soft, happy sound as she wiggled her butt, then draped her arms around his neck, settling into place.
Her robe had come open revealing her perfect right breast with its pert, pink nipple. Instead of kissing her, he took that nipple into his mouth as his hand cupped her other breast still covered in silk.
“You have very good instincts.” She let out a soft groan.
He raised his head. “You aren’t bothered that I’m interrupting your dinner?”
“Not at all.”
“Well, in that case…” He tugged on the sash of her robe, opening it wide, then lifted her, setting her in the corner of the couch with her back against the armrest. He spread her legs and scooted down so his face was level with her pussy.
Her eyes were lit with heat and humor as she held his gaze. “I’m afraid your dinner is getting cold again.”
“That’s what microwaves are for.”
She laughed, and he licked her, turning that laugh into a gasp of pleasure.
He spent the next ten minutes devoting the entirety of his attention to ensuring he made her feel so damn good, she would insist he spend the night so he could do this to her again and again.
He wasn’t great at communicating, but he was starting to think she was right, and he did have good instincts when it came to Eden.
Chapter Twenty-Four
For all that Chase was a badass warrior with a dangerous hobby and emotional scars, he was proving to be the sweetest, most attentive lover she’d ever had.
And yet he did it with the same take-charge manner he’d had as Falcon. He really did have good instincts—he always knew what she wanted, just as Falcon had known the commands to give to make her come.
It took them an hour to get through dinner, and during that time, she had two orgasms to his one.
His was her favorite, though, because she’d gone down on him in front of the fire, and the glow of his skin in the firelight as she pleasured him, the intensity of his eyes as he watched his cock disappear in her mouth, the way the flickering flames highlighted the hollows beneath his perfect cheekbones, had all blended together in a hot, intimate moment that was an entirely different kind of pleasure.
Giving him pleasure had instantly become her favorite thing in the world. It was better than ice cream and pizza.
And then later, she got to have him with ice cream, and damn, she was in joy overload.
They drifted off to sleep around midnight with promises of fulfilling her wall fantasies in the morning.
She woke early on Saturday and watched him sleep, his muscled chest bare as only a sheet was tangled around his hips. He must run hot, as the blankets were all on her side of the bed and askew.
She could fall in love with him. It was possible she already had. It felt like a daunting thing, loving someone, but at least with him, she could believe he cared about her too. Could maybe love her back.
It did make the prospect of returning to her night job a bit harder. It wasn’t cheating. He knew about her work. She wasn’t emotionally involved with her clients. Well, except Falcon.
She would snicker aloud except she didn’t want to wake him. She’d given him quite a workout yesterday and had plans for him today. He needed sleep to build his strength.
She closed her eyes and relived some of her favorite moments from last evening.
She had her time as Desiree to thank for her easy, positive sexuality with him, something she knew he needed after what had happened to him. She also had Desiree to thank for finding him at all.
She would never regret her work as a camgirl. It had taught her a lot about sex positivity, and that might be the type of therapy she would practice someday, working with survivors of sexual abuse to develop a healthy sexuality. It would be meaningful.
A warm hand wrapped around her ankle, causing her to gasp as he pulled her down the bed toward him and his tangle of sheets.
She smiled and kept her eyes closed, and her belly fluttered when soft lips touched her ear as he whispered, “Tell me if I’m doing the morning thing right. All I’ve got to go on is instinct.”
His mouth trailed across her chin and down her neck. He kissed her breasts, and within minutes, he was rolling on a condom and sliding deep inside her. The sex was languorous, perfect for fresh-from-sleep lovemaking.
