"I parked somewhere else."
"Did you? You weren't thinking of sticking around? You know, seeing if there were any late arrivals."
"Now, why would I do that."
"Why, indeed."
Long, long, long pause, during which Xhex stared at the statue that reminded her of Marie-Terese. "You want to give me a ride to my car, Detective?"
"Yeah, sure."
The unmarked sedan was as serviceable as the detective's wardrobe, but like the guy's heavy coat, it was warm, and like what was in the detective's clothes, it was powerful, the engine growling like something you'd find under the hood of a Corvette.
De la Cruz looked over as he gunned it. "Where am I going?"
"To the club, if you don't mind."
"That's where you left your car?"
"I got a ride here."
"Ah."
As de la Cruz drove them along the winding road, she stared out at the headstones and for a brief moment thought of the number of bodies she'd walked away from.
Including John Matthew's.
She'd done her best not to think about what they'd done and the way she'd left that big, hard body of his sprawled all over her bed. His eyes as he'd watched her go out the door had been full of a heartbreak she couldn't allow herself to internalize. It wasn't that she didn't give a shit; she cared too much.
That was why she'd had to leave, and why she couldn't afford to be caught alone with him again. She'd been down that road before, and the results had been beyond tragic.
"You okay?" de la Cruz asked.
"I'm just fine, Detective. You?"
"Good. Just fine. Thanks for asking."
The gates of the cemetery loomed up ahead, the iron latticeworks split and pulled to either side of the lane.
"I'm going to be coming back here," de la Cruz said as they braked and then surged forward onto the street beyond. "Because I think Grady will show up eventually. He's going to have to."
"Well, you won't be seeing me."
"No?"
"Nope. Count on it." She was just too good at being hidden.
When Ehlena's phone made a beep in her ear, she had to take it away from her head. "What the-Oh. Battery's going dead. Hold on."
Rehvenge's deep laughter had her pausing while she reached for the cord, just so she could hear every last rumble of the sound.
"Okay, I'm plugged in." She resettled against her pillows. "Now, where were we-oh, yeah. So I'm curious, exactly what kind of businessman are you?"
"A successful one."
"Which explains the wardrobe."
He laughed again. "No, my good taste explains the wardrobe."
"Then the successful part is how you pay for it."
"Well, my family's fortunate. We'll just leave it at that."
She deliberately focused on her duvet cover so she wouldn't be reminded of the low-ceilinged, ratty room she was in. Better yet...Ehlena reached up and clicked off the light that sat on the milk crates she had stacked next to her bed.
"What was that?" he asked.
"The light. I, ah, I just turned it off."
"Oh, man, I've kept you on way too long."
"No, I just...wanted it dark, is all."
Rehv's voice dropped so low she could barely hear it. "Why."
Yeah, like she was going to tell him it was because she didn't want to think about where she stayed. "I...wanted to get even more comfortable."
"Ehlena." Need suffused his tone, changing the tenor of the conversation from flirtatious chitchat to...something very sexual. And in an instant, she was back on his bed in that penthouse, naked, his mouth on her skin.
"Ehlena..."
"What," she said hoarsely.
"Are you still in your uniform? The one I took off of you?"
"Yes." The word was more breath than anything else, and it went so much further than just an answer to the question he'd asked. She knew what he wanted, and she wanted it, too.
"The buttons on the front of it," he murmured. "Undo one for me?"
"Yes."
As she popped the first of them free, he said, "And another."
"Yes."
They kept at it until her uniform was open down the front, and she was really glad the lights were off-not because she would have been embarrassed, but because it made him seem right there with her.
Rehvenge groaned, and she heard him lick his lips. "If I were there, you know what I would be doing? I'd be running my fingertips down to your br**sts. I'd find a nipple and I'd draw circles around it so it was ready."
She did as he described and gasped when she touched herself. Then she realized..."Ready for what?"
He laughed long and low. "You want to hear me say it, don't you."
"I do."
"Ready for my mouth, Ehlena. Do you remember what that felt like? Because I remember exactly what you taste like. Leave your bra on and pinch yourself for me...as if I'm sucking on you though those pretty white lace cups of yours."
Ehlena squeezed her thumb and forefinger together, trapping her nipple in between the two. The effect was second-best to his warm, wet sucking, but it was good enough, especially with his having told her to do it. She repeated the pinch and arched up off the bed, moaning his name.
"Oh, Christ...Ehlena."
"Now...what..." As her breath shot out of her mouth, between her thighs she was throbbing, wet, desperate for whatever they were going to do.
"I want to be there with you," he groaned.
"You are with me. You are."
"Again. Squeeze for me." As she shuddered and called out his name, he was quick with the next command. "Take your skirt up for me. So it's around your waist. Put the phone down and do it fast. I'm impatient."
She let the phone fall onto the bed and swept her skirt past her thighs and over her hips. She had to pat around to find her cell and then she rushed it to her ear.
"Hello?"
"God, that sounded good...I could hear the cloth moving up your body. I want you to start with your thighs. Go there first. Keep the stockings on and stroke your way up."
The hose acted as a conductor of her touch, magnifying the sensation just as his voice did.
"Remember me doing that," he said in a dark voice. "Remember."
"Yes, oh, yes..."
She was panting so hard in anticipation, she nearly missed him growl: "I wish I could smell you."
"Higher?" she said.
"No." As his name left her lips in protest, he laughed the way a lover did, soft and low, with both satisfaction and promise. "Go up the outside of your thigh to your hip and around the back and then down again."
She did as he asked and he talked her through the caresses: "I loved being with you. I can't wait to go there again. You know what I'm doing?"
"What?"
"Licking my lips. Because I'm thinking of me kissing my way over your thighs and then running my tongue up and down where I'm dying to be." She moaned his name again and was rewarded. "Go down there, Ehlena. On top of the stockings. Go where I want to be."
As she did, she felt all the heat they'd generated through the thin nylon, and her sex responded by welling up even more.
"Take them off," he said. "The stockings. Take them off and keep them with you."
Ehlena put down the phone again and didn't care if she ran the hell out of the hose as she stripped them from her legs. Scrambling for the cell, she barely got it in range before she was demanding what was next.
"Slip your hand under your panties. And tell me what you find."
There was a pause. "Oh, God...I'm wet."
When Rehvenge moaned this time, she wondered if he was erect: She'd seen that he was capable of that, but then, impotence didn't mean that you couldn't get hard. It just meant that for whatever reason you couldn't finish.
Christ, she wished she could lay some commands on him, ones that were consistent with whatever sexual level he could function at. She just didn't know how far to take it.
"Stroke yourself and know it's me," he growled. "That's my hand."
She did as he asked and orgasmed hard, sprawling all over her bed, his name leaving her lips in as quiet an explosion as possible.
"Get rid of the panties."
Roger that, she thought as she yanked them down her thighs and ditched them God only knew where.
She lay back down, looking forward to doing that again when he said, "Can you hold the phone against your ear with your shoulder?"