Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels (100 page)

“It sure seems like it matters to you. What was that little comment about half the people on the docks seeing me without my clothes?”

“Well, I
want
it not to matter,” he said. “That should count for something. If it mattering means I lose you, then I’ll find a way for it not to matter.”

“So it
does
matter?” I said.

“For fuck’s sake, Cecily, it would matter to every man on earth.” He shook his head angrily. “I think of you as… mine, and—damn it, now that just sounds creepy and possessive, and it’s not how I meant it.”

Actually, it had sent a shudder of pleasure through me. I liked the idea of being possessed by him.

I swallowed. “You were with Blake. I saw pictures on the internet. You had your hands on her—”

“You were spying on me using the internet?”

“It’s not exactly spying when you’re all over her in public, Callum.” My voice sharpened.

“I was not ‘all over’ her,” he said.

“And I saw you last night with The Phantom behind this building. I saw you talking to him. The things he said to you. Why are you the only person that understands him?”

“You saw me?” He glared at me. “What, are you stalking me or something, Cecily?”

“Stalking you?”

“For someone who claims she thought things were over between us, it doesn’t seem like you did much except follow me around.”

“I didn’t mean to see these things,” I said. “Airenne showed me the pictures, and I was here checking into information about Maria Shaw yesterday. It was a coincidence that we ended up here at the the same time.”

He pressed his lips together.

“You know, Callum,” I said, “maybe the truth is that I’m just not sure if I want to be with you, because you have too many secrets. Tell me about your connection to The Phantom. Tell me right now.”

He turned away from me, looking out the window. “That’s not fair. You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to make this all about—”

“You know everything about me now. You know all of my secrets—”

“Yeah, because of a newspaper article,” he said. “Otherwise, you
never
would have told me.”

“Not the point,” I said. “The kinds of things I was hiding and the kinds of things I think you’re hiding? I’m not sure that they compare.”

His jaw worked. He wasn’t looking at me. “It’s hard to talk about.” His voice was barely a whisper.

I lowered my voice too. “Tell me the truth, Callum. Have you ever fantasized about… hurting women? He said that you wanted—”

“No.” But he still wasn’t looking at me.

“When you put on that mask,” I said, “and you lose all your insecurities—”

“Stop.” He drew in a noisy breath through his nose. “Don’t ask me questions like that, Cecily.”

I pulled away from him, feeling unsure. Feeling a little frightened. “I think you should let me out of this car,” I said.

I spent the rest of the day at
The Sun-Times
office, digging up everything I could possibly dig up on Hayden Barclay and Callum Rutherford. Looking for anything I could find that connected them.

Mostly I came up empty. My search queries got me nowhere.

Near as I could see, the two of them had never been in the same place at the same time, not ever.

At one point, I thought I had something. I was searching for “Rutherford and Barclay.”

I got a few hits.

But what came up was simply the same picture, over and over again.

It was Frank Barclay and Veronica Waite Rutherford, Hayden’s father and Callum’s mother. They were standing together at some charity benefit, both holding drinks. Frank had apparently cracked some joke, and Veronica was laughing about whatever he’d said.

That was it.

Everything else I put in brought up nothing.

When I got sick of hunting down that angle, I turned back to Maria Shaw.

I didn’t understand why he’d killed her, or why he’d hidden her legs somewhere else, or any of that stuff.

Nothing made sense.

I was frustrated.

It was late, way after hours. The janitor had come by and turned off all the lights. I was working in the bright circle of my desk lamp. No one else was here anymore.

I guessed that I should go home. I had just as much access to the internet there, and that was how I was doing most of my searches. I did have access to all the old issues of
The Sun-Times
here, all the way back to 1924, when
The Aurora Sun
and
The Aurora Times
had merged. (And if it mattered, the old issues of
The Sun
went back to the 1800s, I was pretty sure. But it didn’t matter. I didn’t need information from anything that far back in time.)

I started to gather my things together. I’d go back to my apartment, and I’d do a bit more looking online, and then I’d go to sleep. And maybe I’d dream the answer. Maybe I’d figure out what all of it meant if I relaxed.

I slung my purse over my shoulder, looking around my desk to make sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything.

“Cecily.”

He was in the shadows, across the room from me, dark and hulking. He moved towards me, all muscles and black spandex.

My breath caught in my throat. I’d forgotten how powerful he looked when he moved. “Vigil.”

He caught me by the shoulders. “I didn’t know where you were. You’re hard to find these days.”

“I’m working,” I said again.

He crushed me against him, his lips coming for mine.

I put my hands on his chest, my heart banging away in my rib cage. “Wait. I’m still looking for answers when it comes to you.”

He shook his head. “This afternoon didn’t go well. But you can’t say no to me in the mask, Cecily.”

And his lips were on mine.

Resisting wasn’t even an option. He was sweet heat, pouring through my whole body, making feel lightheaded and warm. I opened my lips to him.

His tongue swept in to claim me.

I went limp in his arms, surrendering completely to him. His lips incited me, awakening my body to him.

He kissed my jaw, my neck.

I moaned.

“You’re mine,” he muttered between kisses. “Say it.”

“I’m yours,” I said. And I was.

His fingers found the top of the buttons on my shirt. He unbuttoned the first button.

“Wait.” I tried to push at him. It was like pushing a mountain.

He pulled back, making an irritated noise. “I want you, Cecily. You’re going to give yourself to me.”

I touched his lips. “Yes. I am.” I was. He was right that I couldn’t resist him in that damned costume. He was dark, deep sensuality. He unleashed my most secret desires. When he touched me, I felt lost. He consumed me. He controlled me. “But you have things to answer for.”

“I do?” He let go of me entirely, sounding even more annoyed.

“Yes,” I said. “And we can’t get it on in my office. Someone might come in.”

He looked around. It was dark everywhere. There was no one around. But he shrugged. “Fine.” He picked me up, swung his arms under my knees and swept me off the ground.

I let out a little startled cry.

He carried me to the elevator, set me down, and hit the button for the top floor.

The doors closed.

He stalked over to me and went back to unbuttoning my shirt.

I struggled to gather my thoughts. My breath was going shallow from his proximity. From the fact that he was undressing me. “You were with Blake.”

He undid more buttons. “She and I had a conversation about how she needed to stay away from you. And how I didn’t want to see her anymore.”

“You were alone with her in your car.”

“I didn’t want to have the conversation in public and bring more attention to the whole business with you and the article about your past,” he said. “Of course, I had no idea you were going to publish a little tell-all about it.”

“I… I thought it was better than trying to pretend it didn’t happen.”

He finished unbuttoning my shirt. He yanked it open, peering greedily at my skin, at my bra. “I have no feelings for Blake except bad ones, Cecily. Please tell me you believe that.”

I was dazed by the hungry way he was looking at me. “I believe it.”

“Good.” He pulled my shirt over my shoulders and arms. I was only in my bra now.

It wasn’t a particularly exciting bra. It was nude, and it was made of cotton. It stretched a thin layer over my skin.

He cupped one of my breasts, weighing it in his hand.

My nipple hardened instantly, and a little thrill went through me.

The elevator dinged, and the door opened.

I cried out again—startled. I grabbed my shirt off the floor, trying to cover myself.

Vigil ripped it away from me. He pulled me out into the hallway. Then he dragged me to the end, to the window.

“Where are we…?” I said softly.

He opened the window. He slid one arm around my waist, encircling me. He leaned out, shooting off on of his cords.

And then we were swinging out over the city. The sunset was deep purple against the horizon. The lights of the tall buildings winked and blinked.

My shirt fell away from us, fluttering on the breeze, down, down,
down
.

Vigil swung us up onto the roof. He set me down.

I let out a shaky breath. “You know, I’m never going to get used to that.”

“You think anyone will walk in on us here?” he asked in a gravelly voice.

I peered over the edge of the roof, at the distance to the ground. I shook my head.

He put his hand back on my breast. He squeezed it. “You’re beautiful,” he said in my ear.

I shut my eyes. With Vigil, it was always danger mixed with sex. I was never sure why my palms were sweating and my pulse was pounding. Was it because we’d just swung out forty stories over the city or because of his hands on me?

“Listen, Callum—”

“No. Call me the name you gave me.”

“Vigil,” I murmured.

He let out a pleased sigh. “That’s right.”

“It was hypocritical of you,” I said.

He reached behind me and unclasped my bra. He tugged it off of me. “What was?”

The night breeze hit my bare breasts. I gasped. “Being angry that I was a stripper.”

Both his hands on me, cupping my sensitive flesh. “Who said I was angry?”

I sighed at his touch. “Well, it upset you, anyway. And it was hypocritical, because you hired all those strippers to date you.”

He stroked one of my nipples. Gently pinched the other. “Cecily, I don’t see you like those girls. They didn’t mean anything to me.”

I lost myself in the sensation of his caresses for a moment. I closed my eyes, feeling jolts of delight travel down my torso to my clit.

But then I couldn’t help but ask. “The Phantom said you wanted to hurt them.”

His fingers stopped moving. “No.”

I bit my lip. “And when I asked you in the car—”

He turned me suddenly, turned me in his arms and pulled me close. Now my ass was pressed into his groin and my back was against his chest. One arm banded around my waist, keeping me secure against him. The other roamed over my breasts. “In the car, I don’t you not to ask me questions like that, didn’t I?”

“Yes, but…” I gulped. “But it’s kind of important for me to know.”

His voice was dark and velvet at my ear. “You told me you trusted me once when I blindfolded you. Do you remember that?”

“Yes,” I said in a small voice.

“Then trust me, baby. I would never hurt you. I would never hurt women the way he does. I promise you that.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Okay?”

“Yes.”

He loosened his grip, and he turned me around to face him again. His gaze raked my body, settling on my erect nipples. He let out a little sigh. “Oh, Cecily, you are so fucking exquisite. You have such perfect breasts. You have no idea how much I’ve missed them these past few days.”

My clit pulsed in response.

He reached out, and he ran his forefinger over one of my nipples.

I quivered.

“I can see why someone would pay to look at them.”

I shook my head. “It was never like—”

He swept in and caught the other one in his mouth. He sucked eagerly at it.

I groaned, the bliss wringing through me.

He let go and kissed his way over to my other nipple. He sucked that too. He opened his eyes and looked up at me with my flesh still in his mouth, and it was the most provocative thing I’d ever seen.

“It was never like that,” I gasped. “I didn’t… like it. I didn’t like them looking at me.”