Sleight Mistake (Stone Investigations Book 2) Read online

  He didn’t shy away, he kept his hands on her and didn’t retreat. ‘It’s my job. You’re my responsibility. I love you. I told you I want to help. I want to be there for you, for everything. You said I was easier to talk to rather than all of the therapists. If you need—‘

  ‘You’re missing the point,’ she said, shaking her head and covering his hand on her face. ‘My terror, it came from the obstacle between us. My night terrors, the darkness, it’s not the isolation I fear or the threat of harm, it’s you.’

  He didn’t follow and she didn’t blame him. ‘I scare you?’

  ‘I…’ Trying to make sense was difficult given her mental state. ‘I don’t need to be with you every minute of the day, but I like knowing that you’re out there… For me.’

  ‘What—‘

  ‘I wasn’t scared until Elijah stood between us. I got out of bed and tried to get to you, but I couldn’t get past him. He was an obstacle between us. His men wouldn’t let you in… He wouldn’t let me out. My throat closed. I couldn’t get to you… just like on that street when I couldn’t come to you… when they forced me to get into that car without you… I didn’t know if I would ever see you again…’ He hadn’t said anything and she couldn’t tell from his expression if he was following her train of thought or worried that she’d finally lost it. ‘You’re staying quiet. Am I weirding you out?’

  ‘No,’ he said, tucking her hair back behind her ear. ‘I don’t ever want to be kept apart from you either. We belong to each other. No one gets in between us.’

  Pleased that he could decipher her, despite her confusion, she relaxed. ‘Take me home, Ryder, please. I want to sleep in your arms. I don’t want people and hospitals and rules. I want you. Us touching all night with no interruptions or interference. All I need is you.’

  His lips curled upward. ‘You got it.’

  Ryder understood her and if there was real cause for concern about her physical wellbeing then Ryder would insist on her staying where there were doctors. Unlike Elijah, Ryder gave her respect and listened to her opinions. Being at home in their familiar bed would do far more to speed her recovery than being here in this sterile environment.

  On entering the kitchen, Lacie saw all of Ryder’s men standing around, drinking coffee. They silenced when she came in and she took that to mean they were discussing something they considered might upset her.

  ‘I woke up alone,’ Lacie said, expecting a response from Ryder.

  Ty got there first. ‘Thought it was best I duck out before your old man caught me there,’ Ty said in his typically flirtatious way, then focused on Ryder. ‘Sorry, man.’

  Ryder wasn’t in the mood to joke but he smiled along. ‘Are you working?’ Lacie asked them, expecting to be dismissed if they were.

  ‘Getting everything in place for you,’ Will said.

  Suspicious Will had taken his time in warming to her. Eventually, when he realised she was sticking around, he grew to love her as much as the others did. He liked to needle her and she would needle right back, they had a sort of sibling-like relationship. Falling in love with Ryder had earned her five big brothers and Sonny’s servitude.

  ‘You’re all here,’ Lacie said, moving towards Ryder. ‘I assume your conversation has been lively, it always is. The fact that none of you are continuing with it means you were talking about me.’

  Most of the men averted their attention, Will wasn’t shy. ‘Your situation came up,’ Will said.

  Satisfied that someone else had admitted the truth and she hadn’t had a hissy fit, the others relaxed. ‘We have to keep you safe,’ Ty said.

  ‘Which means finding the threat,’ Gabe said.

  These men had been working together for so long that she wasn’t surprised when they finished each other’s sentences. ‘You have other cases,’ Lacie said because she didn’t want them to feel obligated to prioritise her.

  It seemed that she was too late to assert that fact. ‘Not anymore,’ Gabe said. ‘You get the elite team. The new starts can pick up the slack.’

  ‘You’re going to take over my life, aren’t you?’ Lacie sagged against Ryder. His hand slid up her arm.

  ‘There’s a threat, someone wants to hurt you,’ Gabe said.

  ‘We don’t know that he wants to hurt me,’ Lacie said, using Ryder as her leaning post while she addressed the other men who were growing more serious. In a return to the conversation they had no doubt been having before she came in, they lost their ease.

  ‘The guy wanted to get close to you,’ Will said, putting his coffee mug on the kitchen counter.

  ‘He’s got his eye on you,’ Ty said. ‘We were arguing the merits of how long he’s been watching you.’

  ‘Does it stem from Wallace?’ Rocco asked, Ryder’s hand fell away from her arm. Lacie kept herself propped back against his chest but he’d been conspicuously quiet thus far.

  Clearing her throat, she inspired herself to be as serious as these men were when they worked. ‘That was when the attention started. But that was when people outside the arts community heard about me, about what happened.’

  They had all been around when the media started calling and people tried to seek her out. They’d ridden the wave of that publicity together and had probably considered the matter closed, as she had.

  ‘So you don’t think last night is connected?’ Gabe asked, returning to his interrogation tone.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Lacie said, feeling more like she needed to go to bed than she’d just left it. ‘The man last night didn’t threaten me. This could all be a big palaver about nothing.’

  All of the men bristled. ‘You can’t shrug this off, the guy made contact,’ Toby said.

  ‘What did he say to you?’ Gabe asked. ‘In person, in the museum last night.’

  ‘I don’t even get a coffee?’ Lacie asked. ‘You’re straight into the interrogation?’

  The phone on the kitchen table buzzed and began to skitter across the surface. Toby read the device screen, then looked past her to Ryder and her leaning post tensed further.

  ‘What is it?’ Lacie asked while the gang all exchanged a pissed look. Turning to look up at Ryder, Lacie expected an answer. ‘What?’

  When she slid her hand up his neck, he brought his aggravated attention down to her. ‘Graden’s been phoning your cell all morning,’ Ryder said.

  ‘Ignore him,’ she said, rushing over to snatch her phone from the table. Once she had it, her intended destination was the sink to drown the device, but Ty stilled her progress. Grabbing her wrist, he took the phone away from her. ‘What?’

  ‘He’s eager,’ Gabe said.

  Scanning them all, she observed a series of serious company faces ready to take on a fight. ‘You’re kidding,’ she said. ‘You think Elijah could be behind this?’

  ‘His phone calls are more persistent,’ Will said, stating fact.

  Taking his turn, Toby highlighted another point. ‘Ryder says he’s been pursuing you.’

  This was supposed to be her home, and these men were supposed to be her friends. Ryder wouldn’t even look at her and the rest of them were looking at each other like there was some question they didn’t want to ask, maybe because they were scared of how she’d respond.

  Examining them all, she asked a question of her own. ‘Are you accusing me of something?’

  ‘No,’ Ryder said in his authoritative tone. ‘Give us a minute, guys.’

  The men did as they were told, just like they always did, and they left her and Ryder alone. After a beat, he poured her a coffee then sat at the kitchen table.

  ‘I didn’t know we lived in an interrogation room,’ she said, annoyed that these men she trusted with her life might not trust her. ‘I don’t like feeling unwelcome. I thought this was supposed to be our home. If you have something to—‘

  ‘Shh,’ he said. Stealing her hand, he pulled her into his lap. ‘We’re pissed at Graden, no one’s pissed at you. We’re worried.’

  ‘None of them lo
oked worried,’ she said, hooking her arms around his neck.

  Lowering his mouth to kiss the mound of each of her breasts, Ryder exhaled as he rested his face in her cleavage. She stroked his hair and was unsure of the cause for this interlude, but it wasn’t unwelcome.

  Wriggling her rear over the growing lump in his jeans, she let him know that she was not only aware, but eager. ‘The boys are right outside the door,’ Ryder mumbled. His mouth was muffled, so she laughed at his moist breath seeping between her breasts, but that action made him groan. ‘Your laugh is…’ He didn’t finish his thought with words, he used actions instead. His hands crept under her skirt to curl around her ass, which was exposed by her thong.

  Getting off his lap, Lacie didn’t leave him with his disappointed expression for long. She re-adjusted, pulled up her skirt and straddled his lap. Unzipping his jeans, she reached inside to pull out his dick, then raised herself up. Meeting his eye, she sank down, spearing herself to his hilt. Her satisfied breath brought her head back.

  Ryder’s arms hooked under hers and around to her shoulders giving her a secure lever point to lean back. Squirming up and down on him, their union remained shrouded under her skirt.

  ‘We should be talking,’ he grumbled and bowed forward to kiss her chest.

  ‘Mm,’ she said, hooking her heels on the chair crossbar and pushing up then sinking down onto him again. ‘You once said you were my sex toy.’ She wrapped her arms around his neck and forced his face into her cleavage. ‘BOB doesn’t talk.’

  ‘Bob?’ he mumbled.

  ‘Battery operated boyfriend,’ she said, lifting up and sinking down. ‘God you feel so good inside me.’ She pumped up and down, Ryder kept kissing her breasts until she grabbed his hair and delved her tongue into his mouth. Rocking forward, she rubbed her clit between them and moaned out at the piercing pleasure that shot up inside her.

  She froze when the kitchen door opened to reveal Gabe and Rocco. The men didn’t get two steps into the room before they stopped, damming the others who travelled behind them. Rocco grinned, but Gabe made them back up, thus pushing everyone out and closing the door again.

  ‘Oops,’ she said.

  Luckily the door was at the far side of the room behind Ryder, meaning she was the only one to have seen the men, but Ryder’s frown betrayed his knowledge. Of course he knew everything. Probably her cessation of motion alerted him. He was still sheathed inside her, but she’d been fixated over his shoulder. Still standing as proud as steel inside her intimate space, Ryder wasn’t ruffled enough to stop. Lacie undulated her hips in a figure of eight and began to bounce that frown off his face.

  ‘I’m removing all of their security clearance for up here,’ he said.

  ‘Stop thinking about the boys,’ she whispered, brushing her thumbs over his lips. ‘You’re in me, Baby. You’re fucking me.’

  Ryder stood up, forcing Lacie to grab for him to steady herself. Keeping an arm around her hips to keep them engaged, Ryder’s chair clattered to the floor and he pinned her with his fierce glare.

  ‘Not yet, but I will be,’ he growled.

  Thrusting his other arm out, he cleared space on the table to shove her down onto it. Withdrawing, he slammed into her, and his arm around her body forced her to arch into his driving stabs. The ferocity of his propulsion brought her to climax after climax.

  The men knew what they were up to, so they had the kitchen to themselves now and there was no point in hiding their passion. She whipped her top up over her head and he went immediately for her breasts. He sucked her nipple so hard that she squealed. His rough touch sent spikes through her until she yelled his name. Sitting up, the only way she could muffle herself was to close her mouth around his arm. The sensation of her teeth dragging on his flesh made him call out and shove into her again, holding until she’d milked him of every drop.

  Both of them took a few panting breaths. She circled her arms all the way around him, and rested her cheek on his torso.

  ‘Baby,’ he murmured. Kissing the top of her head, he ran his hands into her hair, stroking it down her back. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘For what?’ she asked, rubbing herself closer and kissing his tee shirt.

  ‘I was rough.’

  ‘So?’ she asked, leaning back on her hands while keeping her legs up over his hips. His sorrow faded a little when his attention was drawn to her bare breasts. ‘We just had sex half a minute ago.’ His penis grew upright between her thighs.

  ‘You’re so fucking hot,’ he said.

  ‘I’m really not,’ she said, laughing. He hooked his elbows under her knees and drew a chair across from the side with his ankle to seat himself. ‘What are you—‘When she tried to sit up, he pulled her legs higher, making her lie back on the table again. ‘Ryd!’

  ‘I’m going to say sorry,’ he said. Snagging her panties, he pulled them down out of the way and dropped them to the floor. ‘I maybe should have done that already.’

  Running her hands over his, she soothed his worry. ‘You have nothing to be sorry about,’ she said. ‘We’ve been rough before.’

  ‘Not today,’ he said, hooking her legs over his shoulders and stroking his hands up her thighs. ‘Not after last night.’

  Managing to angle herself up, Lacie kept her weight on her hands to accommodate the awkward angle. ‘I love you,’ she said, testing the texture of his hair. ‘I trust you. I like it when you want me that much.’

  ‘I always want you that much.’

  Lacie wasn’t ignorant to the feral force that compelled him to consume her. His intensity humbled her, but she didn’t fear it. She enjoyed being such an integral part of it, of him. He’d chosen her as his mate and this was a guy who mated for life.

  ‘Distract the guys for five minutes,’ she said, sliding her legs down his arms. ‘I’ll get changed then we have to talk. I’m taking this seriously. I’ll play nice.’

  Resigned to her sense of responsibility, he tried one more tease. ‘We could just stay home and have more sex,’ Ryder said.

  ‘What will the guys do?’ she murmured, bending to steal his mouth. ‘They’ve got nothing to do if the others are looking after the other cases.’

  ‘They can stand guard,’ Ryder smiled.

  ‘I’m going to get changed.’

  Kissing him again, Lacie popped down off the table and grabbed her top from the floor. After she had it back in its rightful place, she slipped out of the kitchen with a huge smile on her face.

  Chapter Eleven

  ‘You guys ever think about knocking?’ Ryder asked when he strolled through to the living room, which also served as an entrance foyer, where the guys were seated around in the various couches.

  ‘You’re a legend,’ Toby said. It was unlike their meeker member to say something so triumphant. Ryder could only assume that he and Lacie had made quite the impression.

  ‘I agree with Toby,’ Ty said, nodding and pointing at his colleague. ‘You’re a legend. You’ve been together a couple of months at least and you’re still at it like rabbits.’

  Dropping down into an armchair, Ryder let his arms fall onto the wide arms of the red chair. ‘It’s worse now,’ Ryder said, tipping his head onto the backrest. ‘I can’t get enough of her. I want her more and more every day.’

  The elevator pinged and because everyone with clearance was present, the men fixated on the metal doors, waiting for them to open. When they did, Sorcha was revealed and she appeared to be more aggrieved than she had been last night.

  Scurrying out of the elevator, she addressed everyone in the space. ‘What’s going on? Did no one think to phone me?’ Sorcha declared.

  Always on the ball, Gabe straightened and slid forward in his seat. ‘How did you get in here?’ Gabe asked.

  ‘I watched Lacie put in the code last week,’ Sorcha said and the elevator doors closed at her back.

  The men muttered and shook their heads. ‘Practising your covert skills?’ Rocco asked.

  Ty didn’t se
em as pissed as the others, but he’d had very little interaction with Sorcha in the past. ‘You’re hot,’ Ty said.

  Rocco spoke again before Ty could slide into his practised seduction. ‘She’s pregnant, engaged, and having an affair. I think you need to take a number.’

  ‘I am not having an affair!’ Sorcha exclaimed. ‘Where is Lacie? It’s ridiculous that you would try to keep me locked out of here anyway. She’s my best friend. There’s nothing she wouldn’t let me see.’

  ‘You weren’t in the kitchen ten minutes ago,’ Rocco murmured.

  ‘I have to speak to her,’ Sorcha asserted, ignoring Rocco. ‘It’s extremely important.’

  It wasn’t like the socialite to be flustered, but she was now and that intrigued Ryder into a frown.

  ‘Has Graden been on your ass too?’ Ty asked.

  ‘Elijah’s been in touch with me but this isn’t about him,’ Sorcha said, righting her purse on her arm.

  ‘So what’s it about?’ All of them turned to see Lacie loitering in the doorway. ‘What is it, Sorch?’ she asked.

  Rushing over to her, Sorcha flouted the men who had been questioning her. ‘We have to talk,’ Sorcha said, grabbing her wrist. ‘Let’s go into the kitchen.’

  Lacie caught Sorcha’s arm to adjust her trajectory with an obvious push toward the recreational space in the back of their home. ‘Let’s go into the den. Ryder has to clear up in the kitchen.’

  Twisting to make eye contact with him, Lacie glared, and he huffed through his grin as though clearing up was an inconvenience. But he slapped his hands on the arms of his chair to push up to his feet. If Lacie wanted him to take care of the mess in the kitchen, then that’s what he would do.

  Sorcha and Lacie left the reception lounge. Only after they were gone did Rocco speak up. ‘Do you want us to listen in on the girls?’ Rocco asked.