RetroCog

Chapter Seven

Lara couldn’t breathe as she watched Noah get closer and closer with that tiny dildo. No, not a dildo. A butt plug. She’d always been curious about anal sex but had never engaged, not trusting her partners enough to do it without hurting her. She didn’t know why she trusted Noah, but she did.

With him, everything he wanted to do to her seemed right. It was natural for her to submit to him, and she trusted her instincts. They’d never led her wrong before.

Who knew she had such a thing for kink? She’d never before even been tempted to try clamps or rougher sex. Noah worked her like he knew her, like he owned her.

She trembled, perilously close to coming. “Noah, please.”

The loving look on his face took her aback. Lust and excitement, yes, but affection as well. He might not know it, but the big guy was softening toward her. Not physically, she amended as she stared at his thick erection. So big, and just as aroused as before. But emotionally, he’d started to tear down those walls keeping his feelings at bay.

“With your legs spread, I can see how wet you are.” His raspy voice did strange things to her insides. “That clit is full, baby. You need to come. And those tits. You have no idea how hard they make me. I love your breasts, Lara. You have to be the prettiest woman I’ve ever seen.”

“Prettier than her?” she had to ask. She still had a hard time believing she’d allowed him to tie her up and give him an orgasm after another woman had walked out of his hotel room.

“Who?” he asked, distracted as he leaned closer to her groin.

Do it, please. She forgot what she’d been saying when he sucked her clit into his mouth.

Primed to explode, she came hard, all over his mouth. And then she felt it, an intrusion into her anus that pinched.

“Hmm. So good.” He licked her and toyed with her clit some more, amping her climax. “Relax and push out while I slide it in.”

Her orgasm ended just as all four inches of the plug seated inside her. She felt full yet empty. Her orgasm had satisfied, but not the way it did with Noah filling her.

“Don’t move. Fuck. I wish I had a camera.”

That startled a laugh out of her, which dislodged some of the plug. It burned a little as it slid out, but when he pushed it back in, it wasn’t so bad.

“Let’s get you used to it, hmm? And while it’s in there, I’m going to eat. I haven’t had dinner yet.”

“What—Oh, not again. It’s too soon.”

But Noah didn’t seem to care. He sucked her clit and tongued her pussy while tugging at the chain holding the clamps. The contrast of pain and pleasure pushed Lara into a strange, sensual world. Her body became one giant pleasure center. Sensation tingled in places leading directly to her core, and as Noah’s demands grew rougher and more intense, she found herself once again on the edge of orgasm.

“Yeah, that’s it. For me. Good girl.” He finally released the chain tugging her nipples only to find the plug. As he ate her, he toyed with it, giving her little thrusts that soon turned into plunging strokes. “Fuck. I need more.”

In seconds he shoved the plug back into her ass and mounted her. He pushed into her pussy one inch at time. She felt so full, so incredibly tight as he wedged himself inside her, that thick cock clenched inside her channel.

“Lara, you feel so fucking good.” He groaned and started thrusting, taking care as he moved with deliberate slowness.

“Noah. Yes, yes.” She couldn’t stop her mewls of pleasure as he took her to a new high. Her entire world was different, saturated with Noah and his wicked, arousing touch. She wanted him, all of him, and she gripped with her inner walls and heard him curse again.

She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes until she opened them to see him staring down at her with a look of pain. “I’m trying to be gentle, but fuck it all. Baby, I need to move.” He kissed her and thrust deeply. No longer easy, he took her with a rough desperation as he licked and sucked the breath from her.

He broke away from her mouth just as she came hard, shouting out her pleasure. Then he tensed above her and shuddered, coming as well.

They remained joined several moments after, their heartbeats racing. She felt his hot breath on her neck when he tucked his head against her own. Panting and sweating, they were a matched set of satisfied lovers.

“Fuck me. I didn’t think you could be any more perfect. I was wrong.” Noah leaned up on his elbows and kissed her, his touch so light, she barely felt it.

“You’re so sexy.” She sighed and kissed him back. “So big.”

“Not so big now. I filled you up, baby. And I’m all over you. You’re a mess.” He sounded smug and not at all displeased.

“I am. I need a shower.” But she didn’t want to get up. She wanted to look up into his hazel eyes, to watch as they shimmered from brown to green in the light. To watch his lips curl as he looked down at her, sated with pleasure.

“You’re okay?” he asked, his voice gruff, and kissed her again. “I didn’t hurt you, right?”

“Other than the fact my bones melted, I’m good.”

He chuckled and eased up off her, and she felt a sting far from pleasant.

“Shit. I forgot about the clamps.”

To her surprise, so had she.

“This won’t feel good. Sorry.” He removed a clamp and sucked the sting out of her nipple before she could protest. The sensation would have revved her engines again if she hadn’t been so exhausted from their lovemaking. He did the same to the other until she felt like herself again.

“I can’t believe I let you put those on me.” She clenched her ass and grimaced. “Or that in me.”

His grin stirred her affection into something deeper. Something stronger. To her surprise, she saw a dimple she hadn’t seen before on his face. “Noah First. You have a dimple.”

He laughed. “No one but my family has ever seen that dimple, and not for ten years or more. And Lara, if you think the plug is uncomfortable, wait until I’m in there. If I wasn’t so tired from your hot little body, I’d show you right now.”

She blushed. An idiotic reaction, considering what he’d already seen and done to her, but she couldn’t help it. “I’m not sure it’ll fit.”

“Oh, it’ll fit. I’ll lube up real nice for you.” His grin did that thing to her insides again. Butterflies everywhere. “But we need to clean up, and I know you have questions. I sure as hell do.”

With care, he withdrew from her and removed the plug. Then he untied her.

She groaned and moved to rise when he lifted her in his arms as if she weighed nothing. “Noah.”

“Relax, baby. I’ll take care of you.” He carried her to the hotel bathroom, then preceded to clean her in the shower with gentle hands. To feel his strength, to know he could overtake her yet touch her with such reverence, tipped the scales even further.

Her mind screamed at her to listen. Not love. Just sex! Physical attraction, nothing more here. But her heart refused to listen.

Noah liked the way Lara continued to blush as she stared at him. The woman had a heart of gold; he could see it. She touched him, she really did. Hell, she’d spotted his dimple. When was the last time he’d smiled that wide? Even his own mother hadn’t seen such happiness the last time he’d seen her, over a decade ago. Had Noah ever felt so close to anyone before? He didn’t think so. And what made this entire emotional quagmire even worse was that he felt as if he had an end date stamped to his forehead.

He’d been sent here—and technically, he hadn’t even been sent here, he’d been sent to Superior—to retrieve a rare painting. He had a job and a life in Oregon. Lara had a life and a job in Arizona. But what would he be rushing back to? A life spent watching the past? His present filled with free weights and the new fitness crazes?

“That feels so good,” Lara crooned as he massaged her scalp.

He worked the shampoo in and stood back to let the water rinse it away. Then he let her wash him with the soap, since she kept batting his hands away from it when he tried to clean himself.

“Your body is just beautiful.” She sighed, and he felt himself blush. “Noah, how are you still single? I mean, you’re handsome, built, and smart.” A small pause. “Who was that woman earlier?”

The smile he’d been fighting returned full force. Lara was jealous. He’d bet a lot of money she would see that dimple if she glanced up past his abs. “That was Chloe, a friend of mine.”

Lara whipped her gaze to his. “A friend? What does that mean?”

He coughed to conceal a laugh. He didn’t laugh or smile. Noah did pensive, not cheer and that happy bullshit. But hell, after sex like they’d had, he’d give himself a break. The woman had rocked his world. “Chloe King. She’s a clairaudient and the night manager where I work.”

Lara blinked. “A clair-what?”

“She hears voices. Not like a schizophrenic does, but like a psychic does. Kind of like you do,” he mused. “And she’s my backup.”

“Oh. Your backup.” Lara rubbed soapy hands over his chest and arms. Hell, the woman was making him hard again. It was almost spooky how much he continued to want her. He should have been too tired to get it up.

Her hands moved down, lower, to encircle his stiffening shaft. “Just a work friend?”

He groaned. “Baby, I’m too tired to come again.” Or so he kept telling himself.

“So she’s not just a work-friend?” Lara’s strokes grew more demanding.

His cock thickened, his arousal painfully obvious. “Fuck. No, she’s just a friend. I don’t know her that well, only from working together. Lara, oh shit. I’m going to come if you keep doing that.”

“So she doesn’t touch you like this?” Lara teased her fingers under him, fondling his sac. She turned him, and the water rinsed off most of the soap, but slick from the water, her hands slid over his flesh like silk. “She doesn’t make you hard?”

“You’re the only one who does that. It’s been so long since I’ve had this much sex. Must be the reason I can’t stop coming around you.” He tried to hold on, but then she grazed the crack of his ass and teased him. She rimmed his ass, then penetrated him with a sharp push. “Oh Lara. Fuck, yes. Yes,” he yelled as he came, his cum landing on the tile before sliding away with the water.

She removed her finger, cleaned up, and reached around him to turn off the water.

Still panting, he needed a minute to recover. A towel brushed against his chest. “No. I wanted to take care of you.”

She ignored his halfhearted attempt to grab the towel. “I think I just took care of you.” She grinned at him. “Now who’s in charge?”

Noah turned and leaned his head back against the shower wall. He groaned as the realization dawned. He was well and truly fucked, because he knew. And now she knew as well. “Oh Christ. You are.”

He wasn’t pleased. Not at all. When would the bitch learn? He made the rules. He decided how fast and how far they’d go when they finally got around to fucking. The woman he’d treasured for so long, his ideal wife and future mother of his children, was nothing more than a dirty whore. He’d prayed against the idea, not wanting to face the probable truth. She was just like his mother, may the bitch rot in hell.

Enraged, Michael drove back to his house, then walked up the porch steps, ready to kill, when he remembered his current girlfriend lived in an apartment. The old one, the one he’d had so much fun with, lay bagged in the local morgue. He needed to do something. The urge to destroy overwhelmed him. Killing Cecilia’s lover would help, but the timing wasn’t right. He needed to teach the whore a lesson. He’d wait until she started showing the lovesick signs women always wore when they met a man who pretended to love them back. Then he’d make her watch him kill Finn again. She’d learn a vital lesson. He knew more than most that pain was a great teacher. She would hurt, and she’d learn.

He pushed past the front door and stomped upstairs, all the way to the attic. There he sat and stared at the painting, studying the cruel smile and lying eyes that mocked him even as she dared him to man up and take what he wanted. She was a bitch, yet she listened. He loved for her that, but he hated the way she’d made him fall for her.

“Mama shoved me in that closet for days, listening to me say I was sorry. Her belt hurt, but the knife became my friend.” He absently stroked the scars on his chest through his shirt. “She taught me good, Cecilia. She did. Just the way I’ll teach you, you filthy whore,” he whispered, desperate to show her how much he loved her. His mother had loved him somethin’ fierce until the day she’d died. The day he’d shoved her off the roof and watched her neck snap like a twig when it hit the hard earth below. She’d danced in the fires of hell, like Cecilia would once again.

Finn couldn’t have her. Not this time. No sir. He’d have to die again. And maybe Michael would find out just who that pretty newcomer was. She’d thought no one had paid much attention to her at the cantina. But he knew everything that happened in this shitty little town. Time to investigate. And to have some fun.

He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a familiar number. “Hey, Shelly, honey. Let’s get together tonight. I’ve been missing you.” His hand tightened around the switchblade in his pocket. “A lot.”

Chloe couldn’t have said why, but when a shiver crept over her spine, she felt as if someone had walked right over her grave. Shee-it. No wonder Noah had wanted backup. The bad vibes in this town were enough to send her packing like yesterday. The plane trip from hell, followed by a beer can on wheels, then that crappy little motel Noah had so “thoughtfully” booked for her, added up to a major downer of a vacation.

She’d been jealous when Keegan and James left a few months ago to do a PWP job that Jack insisted wasn’t PWP. Keegan had been bitching about working at the gym since day one, so it made sense to send him. Plus, she knew Keegan irritated Jack more than anyone else at the gym did. James tagged along to keep Keegan out of trouble. Too bad it hadn’t worked.

She snorted with laughter, remembering how annoyed Jack had been when the guys returned not only with the locket they’d been sent to retrieve, but with some woman who claimed the locket belonged to her. Apparently their client had settled things with Rory, and now she and the guys had some happy little threesome going on. That kinky, crazy Keegan.

Chloe grinned, thinking she wouldn’t mind being Rory in a James-Keegan sandwich. Oddly enough, all the guys from the PWP were hot. Handsome or intriguing and now totally buff, muscular because they had to exercise—physically and mentally—to keep the psychic demons away.

She strolled near another art store and decided to go in. As she perused the pottery and glass sculptures, she wondered about Lara Graham, Noah’s lady friend. The woman was tall, pretty, and intense, just like Noah. No wonder they fit. She didn’t need voices to tell her what her intuition clearly noted.

To be honest, she was glad Noah had found someone to bring him back to life. Unlike the rest of them, he didn’t get crazy from lack of psychic or physical stimuli. Instead he retreated into the past. She’d be talking to him at the gym, and his eyes would lose focus. He’d just drift away, and she worried one day he might not come back. That’s why she’d ratted him out to Jack. Not that she’d needed to. Their enigmatic boss saw everything. But she was in charge of the night shift, and she didn’t like the way Noah had been ghosting through life lately.

No longer a problem, she thought as she remembered what the voices had told her. Noah and that chick had a future together. But depending upon what Chloe did here, that future might be no more than a few days at best. Time to figure out who was who and what was what before it was too late.

So thinking, she smiled at the shopkeeper and edged her way out of the store. Then she followed the voices to a charming little apartment. The name on the mailbox said Frank Hanover. She climbed the outer staircase to a second-floor landing and knocked.

A handsome man opened the door. His eyes widened when he saw her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

She should have been more surprised, but she wasn’t. She sighed, and to the voices in her mind, sent the thought, “Sometimes I wonder if you’re trying to make me crazy.” As usual, she got no response. She faced the man calling himself Frank. “Trust me. If I’d known you were on the other side of this door, I would have run the other way.” She pushed her way past him, not surprised to see that after he shut the door, locked it, and turned back to her, he had a gun in his hand. “So when did you get paroled?”

Noah lay back on the bed with Lara, wondering where to go from here. “Chloe is going to scout out the town and see what she can pick up. You know, since you and she have a similar vibe going on, you might learn some things about your abilities from her I can’t help you with.”

It didn’t surprise him when she tugged her hair out from under his arm and scooted away. Lara didn’t like to talk about being psychic. He could relate.

She sat on the edge of the bed, looking so damn beautiful he couldn’t look away. That long dark hair, those soulful eyes, that soft mouth that would curl into a smile with the slightest provocation… Sexually sated, his mind didn’t jump to carnal analogies as swiftly as it had before, but he couldn’t help remembering just how good her lips had felt, snug around his cock.

“Good Lord, Noah. Does that thing ever go down?”

He cleared his throat and tried to act like he had a shred of discipline in his body. “Just ignore it.”

“I’m trying to.” But she didn’t look away from his erection, now encased in jeans. “Oh man, you’re smiling again. When you do that, I just want to give you whatever you want so you don’t stop.”

He chuckled. “Good to know.” He sobered as he decided how to say what needed to be said. “As much as I would like to shut the world out, we have some serious problems to deal with.”

“I know.” She sighed and leaned down to kiss him. So tactile, his woman.

His woman.

She cleared her throat and glanced from his face to his crotch again.

His cheeks heated. “It’s not my fault. It’s you. Before I came here, I used to get lost in history and the past. Now I’m lost in you,” he grumbled.

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me yet.” Lara grinned. “Now finish telling me all the bad stuff so we can go get something to eat. I barely touched my sandwich with Bill because I was worried about you. I’m starving.”

Male satisfaction threatened his attempt at staying on track. “Okay, then. This is what we know. Someone killed to steal the painting. They brought it here and killed again, but this time it’s less about a theft and more about connecting the victim to the subject of the painting—who looks like you.”

“Good summation. Now what?”

“I spent the day waiting for Chloe to show up. While waiting, I did some digging into the town’s history. Did you know that Mike Buckman and Bill Knowles are cousins?”

“Really?” Bill had never mentioned that. Nor had Mike, but then, she and Mike rarely conversed. He leered; she avoided.

“Yeah. Did you also know their mothers died in a fire some twenty years ago?”

“That’s horrible.”

“And I think one of them is the killer.”

“What?”

“I told you before, I see the past. Snippets of it. But I’m much better now at directing my focus than I used to be. I saw the art dealer who owned the painting die. I also saw the painting disappear from his gallery. In both instances, there was a greasy energy, a darkness to the person committing the crimes. I felt it here too. In my room.”

“What? When?”

He told her about the earrings he’d found earlier that morning. “The energy in the room was the same. Our guy is here in town. He knows I’m here, and he doesn’t like me with you.”

“I don’t like this, Noah. Maybe you should leave town.”

Her concern surprised him. When was the last time anyone had worried about him? His mother never had. Deirdre didn’t even merit a thought. Kitty, maybe, or Chloe. But they hadn’t connected to him like Lara did. “If I’m leaving, you’re coming with me.”

She didn’t look happy about it. “But my job is here.”

“Are you that attached to it that it might mean your life?”

Lara sighed. “No. In fact, even before you got here, I’ve been questioning whether or not I’ve done the right thing by coming here.”

“Why did you?”

“Because I needed to prove myself. I’m not that freak the neighborhood kids teased me about being. I had to work for twelve years to put that behind me and move on. To show my folks I’m not a nutcase, that I can and will amount to something, I moved far away to live on my own.”

“Why do you need to prove anything to anyone?” But he knew. Hadn’t he done the same until he’d found the PWP? “You’re smart, Lara. I just met you, and I know that.”

She stroked his jaw. “Thanks, but you have to admit, we know each other better than makes sense. I feel like I’ve always known you. And that freaks me out.”

He tensed. “Yeah?”

“For years, I’ve struggled to not hear the voices. I put them out of my life. Then I moved here because I was guided. I have no other explanation for it. I’m not from here. I went to college in Charleston, for God’s sake. Across the country. But something drew me here, and I’m afraid it’s Cecilia.” She took a deep breath, then explained, “In some way, I’m Cecilia, Noah. And I think you’re Finnegan Fury, her one true love.”