Beg for Mercy (39 page)

“We have to get him out of there. I can’t let him die in there like a beaten dog.” Megan scrubbed at her eyes as she watched Joe lead Sean back to his cell.

Cole felt an answering tug in his chest and gently took her arm as they waited for Joe to return and lead them out the way they came.

He was grateful when she fell asleep a few miles into their drive. He kept his gaze glued to the highway as his brain slowly sifted through the past forty-eight hours. In one bucket were facts, things they knew for certain about all the victims and all the cases. In another were the new pieces of information that raised more questions than they answered.

Questions that cast a serious shadow over those so-called facts.

He’d be doing Megan and Sean—hell, even himself—a serious wrong if he didn’t step back and reexamine everything he thought he knew about the case.

Megan didn’t rouse until they’d reached the outskirts of the city. He didn’t realize she was awake until he started to pass her exit. “Wait,” she said around a yawn. “I need to go to my place.”

“It’s not safe.”

“We don’t need to stay long, but I need to get more clean underwear. I packed only one pair.”

“Fine, but I get to pick it out.”

She let out a muffled chuckle. “P.”

It felt good to hear her laugh after the night they’d had.

A winter storm had blown in off the coast, soaking the ground and whipping branches around. In the time it took them to sprint from his Jeep to her door, they were drenched. They were in and out of her place in five minutes. Megan didn’t let him pick out her underwear, but the glimpse he got was enough to get him as hard as a spike thinking about getting her in—and out of—the bits of silk and lace.

Even so, he was determined to play the gentleman, for what was left of tonight anyway. Their visit with Sean had put her through the ringer. The last thing she needed or wanted was him going after her like a Neanderthal.

He parked the Jeep in his garage and ushered Megan through the door before setting his alarm code. “You can have the bed,” he said, and tossed his keys on the table. His dick twitched in protest, and he knew he wouldn’t get much sleep.

It was bad enough before when he could only imagine how it felt to bury himself deep inside of her. Now that he knew… sleeping under the same roof as Megan and being unable to touch her was going to be fucking torture.

Sean Flynn’s face flashed in his mind.
Suck it up, asshole. Could be worse. You could be on death row trying to decide whether to go ahead and end it all or sign up for another stretch of spending twenty-three hours a day alone in an eighty-one-square-foot cell.

That thought alone kept him from trying for a repeat performance of last night. That and Sean’s jab about Cole’s motivations for staying close to Megan. He wanted her safe, sure, but it was a rush being close to her again. At the heart of it, Sean was right. Cole was a selfish prick, taking
advantage of her in her weakest state. He’d take any piece of her he could get, for as long as she’d let him, and so what if they had no future?

Cole would get over that when the time came. He would have no choice.

“Are you doing okay?” He tugged at his collar, overheated even though his house was cold. A sheen of sweat coated skin that felt two sizes too small. “Are you hungry or anything?”

Megan shook her head and leaned against the kitchen counter. Cole looked away, trying not to imagine how she’d looked last night, naked, legs spread as she guided him inside.

She unraveled her braid and ran her fingers through the strands, filling the air with the scent of her shampoo. “I just wish Sean would have a little more faith in me. In us.”

The sadness in her voice ripped him out of the fantasy. He knew it was a bad idea, but with her chewing on her plump lower lip and looking at him with sad green eyes, he couldn’t keep from taking her in his arms. God, it felt so good, the way she melted into him.

“We’re close to something,” Megan said as she leaned into his chest. “I can feel it. All we need is a little more time.”

Cole started to get stuck on that “we” thing, then found himself fully distracted at the feel of hr hand sliding up his back.

He tried to stick his butt out so she wouldn’t feel him hard as a club against her stomach.

Get a goddamn grip. You’re acting like you haven’t gotten laid in months, instead of hours.

And that was the problem, wasn’t it? He’d had sex with Megan less than twenty-four hours ago, and instead of satisfying the craving, scratching the itch, it was like a junkie’s first hit of meth. Now all he could think about was having more. More of her skin under his fingers and tongue. More of her, tight and wet, stretching for the invasion of his cock.

Pull it together.
He’d promised himself he wouldn’t try anything tonight.

He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, but couldn’t stop his hand from stroking the silky length of her hair. He wanted to wrap his fist in it to hold her in place for his kiss, then guide her head slowly down to kiss his chest, his stomach.

He coughed to cover the groan as she hugged him tighter.

“Are you okay?” Her question was muffled against his chest.

“Yeah,” he said. “Just tired.”
Just dying to know how it would feel to have your lips around my cock.
He wished he could escape, go out for air, a drink, anything to give himself a little space to get himself under control.

He gave her a hard squeeze and forced himself to step away. “You must be exhausted.”

She shook her head and wrinkled her nose in that way he’d always found too damn cute. “I am, but I’m feeling kind of wired.” She stared at him thoughtfully for a moment. “Are you sure you’re okay? You look a little… strange.”

“I’m fine.” As fine as he could be with all of the blood in his body pulsing in his groin.

She smiled tiredly up at him. “Thank you again for
getting me in to see Sean. For everything you’ve done in the last few days.”

It was all he could do not to jerk her back into his arms and tell her exactly how he’d like to be thanked.

“I’ve been alone with this for so long. You have no idea how good it feels to have someone I can count on.”

Cole’s breath caught in his chest as she slid her hands up his chest and rose on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his chin. He willed himself to accept the gesture for what it was, a kiss of gratitude, not a sign she wanted a repeat performance of last night. He’d seen the look on her face this morning. He didn’t want to put that look of guilty shame back on her face.

The press of her mouth was like a brand against the skin of his jaw. Her hand slid higher and her fingers grazed the bare skin of his neck, sending a jolt of heat straight to his cock.

In the next breath, her lips slid one inch up and to the right until they covered his. Cole groaned and slanted his mouth over hers. His hands slid around her back, pulling her close. The hot slide of her tongue against his, the soft press of her tits against his chest. And, Christ, her hot palms sliding up under the hem of his shirt, scorching the skin of his chest and back. It was nearly enough to make him spontaneously combust right then and there.

“You don’t really want this, Megan.” He tore his mouth from hers and struggled for breath.

“Don’t tell me what I want.” She yanked his shirt up his chest. Her head bent and he felt the hot slide of her tongue against his abs and nearly crumpled to his knees.

“You don’t owe me this.”

“I’m not doing this out of gratitude, Cole.” She straight
ened and slid her hands down over his ass to pull him close. “I’m doing this because I want you.” She rubbed her stomach against the hard ridge of his cock straining behind his zipper.

“You’re going through an emotional time. You’re not thinking straight.”

She whipped her long-sleeve shirt over her head, slipped off her bra, and stood in front of him, all smooth pale skin and tight pink nipples. “That didn’t stop you last night. Don’t tell me you’re going all noble on me.”

“I was going to try.” For her sake. Shit, for both their sakes, because God knew he was getting sucked in deeper with every second he spent with this woman.

He didn’t know if he grabbed her or if she grabbed him, but suddenly their arms were tangled around each other, their kisses fierce and frantic.

“Don’t,” Megan said in a frantic whisper. “I don’t want to think about anything tonight except how much I want you.” She kissed him again. “I need you, Cole.”

The words sent the final, crushing blow to any noble restraint he might have had.
I need you.
Christ, he couldn’t imagine anything sweeter coming from her lips. Except…

I love you.

Don’t even go there.

Between the two of them, they got his shirt off and Cole managed to steer them down the hall to his bedroom. But as soon as the backs of her knees hit the mattress, Megan halted him. “Shower,” she said, breathless. “I can’t stand the idea of being with you with the stink of that place on me.”

Sean’s face flashed in Cole’s brain at the reminder, and for a split second the sting of guilt threatened to burst
his lust-fueled high. But then Megan kicked off her boots and tugged her jeans down her legs. As he watched, she turned her back to him and hooked her thumbs in the waistband of her panties. She gave him a naughty look over her shoulder and slid them down, revealing the pale, luscious curve of her ass to his hot gaze.

The scrap of silk and lace slid down her sleekly muscled thighs and slim calves, and then the only thing covering her was the curtain of dark, silky waves tumbling nearly to her waist.

She cocked a dark eyebrow at his hands, frozen on his own waistband as he drank her in. “So, are you going to join me or what?”

Cole snapped into action, kicking off his shoes, shucking his jeans, boxers, and socks in one long tug, and followed her into his bathroom. She stood with her back to him, slightly bent as she adjusted the water temperature, offering a mouthwatering, unimpeded view of her ass and thighs. The little space at the top gave him the sweetest glimpse of her sex, as pink and luscious as her pretty pink mouth. His mouth watered at the thought of kissing her there.

Last night he’d been in such a hurry, desperate to get inside her before he lost control. Tonight he was going to explore every inch, not stop until he knew her body as well as he knew his own.

He pressed himself against her from behind, rubbing his dick against the silky curve of her ass as his hands slid around front to play with her nipples. He nipped at her shoulder, loving the little sounds she made as he pinched and rolled her nipples between his fingers. Steam billowed around them as Megan swept back the shower
curtain and beckoned him inside. Water cascaded down their bodies as he pressed her back against the tiles and grabbed a bar of soap.

She sucked hungrily at his lips and tongue as he covered her skin in rich lather. He kneaded her breasts, loving the look of his tanned hand as it swallowed up her pale curves.

Her nipples were hard, begging to be pinched by his fingers, sucked into his mouth. He bent his head, drew one firmly between his lips, tasting salty-sweet flesh and the remnants of soap. Her cry echoed off the tiles as he sucked hard, first at one breast, then the other. His cock bobbed between them, slipping against the soap-slicked skin of her stomach.

He straightened and grabbed the bar of soap again, working up a fresh lather as he ran his hand up and down her back and lower, over the plump swell of her ass, down her thighs, up in between. At his urging, her legs parted, and he ran his palm up the inside of one inner thigh, almost but not quite touching her sex as he went down the other side. Teasing, stroking, alternating kissing her mouth and sucking her tits until she was breathing hard, her hips rocking with every stroke as she urged his hand farther between her legs.

Cole wasn’t the only one doing the teasing. Megan grabbed the soap from him and ran the bar over his back, chest, ass, thighs. Then it was just her hands, sliding over his skin, her mouth chasing rivulets of water with her tongue as they skated down his stomach. She ran her hands over his butt, down his abs, her fingers tracing the dark line of hair leading down from his navel. Her tongue slid into his mouth as she slid her palm between his legs,
grazing, teasing, but not quite touching the heavy sac pulled tight against his body.