Jaded (19 page)

He ran his hands down her waist to her hips, then pressed his growing erection against her belly. “You’re about to find out.”

He maneuvered her against the wall and pulled down the top she wore. With one swift movement, her breasts popped out from her bra and he ravaged them. Jade moaned and arched against him, her ardor ferocious. He palmed her mounds and suckled her nipples. His fingers reached up and dug into her hair, disturbing the neat ponytail. Jade threw her head back and ran her hands down his back to his ass, his muscles clenching beneath her palms. She slid her hands between the fabric and his ass. He was so hard, so toned, so much a man, which made her feel the epitome of woman. Jase shoved down her jogging pants and dipped a finger into her waiting heat. Jade moaned and rose on her tiptoes. “Jase, that feels so good,” she moaned.

He pushed her pants all the way down to her ankles and followed, resting on his knees before her. Her warm sultry scent swirled around his face, beckoning him to her. “My breakfast,” he murmured against the hot flesh of her thigh. He parted her nether lips with his thumbs. Her soft weeping pussy called to him and he answered with his lips.

Jade jerked against him, the sensation of his mouth on her causing spasms to rack through her being. Her knees shook and her legs felt like butter. His tongue teased her clit and his lips sucked at her, but when he slid a finger into her, the motion in perfect synchronicity with his voracious mouth, she came.

At the same time, Jase’s cell phone rang. He ignored it. It beeped a minute later with a voicemail, then his house phone rang. His body stiffened. He had the hottest woman on the planet coming in his mouth and his damn phone was ringing off the hook. It was nearly seven in the morning, who the hell was it? His answering machine clicked on. “Buddy, we got another stiff at the Fairmont. Same MO as the other two.” Ricco’s voice sounded solemn and impatient. Jade gasped and Jase pushed away from her and grabbed the phone. The answering machine clicked off.

“Say again?” He kept his left hand on Jade, not wanting to lose the connection with her. Until he heard who the victim was. “Otis Thibodeaux. Castrated and hog-tied, within the last five hours. Captain wants us down there with Kowalski,” Ricco said.

Jase’s fingers tightened around Jade’s waist. “I’ll call you back in a few minutes, Ricco.”

Slowly, Jase hung up. He turned to face Jade, who had lost most of her color. She’d pulled her pants up and adjusted her shirt. She looked guilty as hell. She pushed back against the wall, shaking her head.

“Where did you really go this morning?”

She opened her mouth, then a storm cloud of emotions crossed her face. Her color lightened. “Who’s dead?”

“Your buddy Otis.”

Jade gasped again, putting her hand to her mouth. It shook. “I—I don’t know what is happening, Jase, I swear to you, I didn’t kill him!”

“He died the same way as the other two.”

She tried to move away from him but he stopped her and realization dawned. Jase grabbed her by the upper arms. “You played me! And I walked right into your trap!” He pushed away from her, disgust twisting his face in anger. “You came over here last night, pretending to want me, and you fucking used me as an alibi!”

“No! That isn’t true.” She stepped toward him, he moved back. She read his face as plainly as if he’d written the message in plain English. She disgusted him and he believed she was a murderer.

“I came here last night because you were the only person I felt I could trust! And I don’t trust anyone! Then you throw this crap in my face? You think I used you? What about your postcoital info pump? Does Miranda only stand for the moment? You knew I had an attorney, and yet you pumped me for information!”

“Go fuck your attorney, Jade, and make it a good long hard fuck, because you’ll need it to convince him you’re innocent.” She slapped him. He caught her hand when she pulled back for another one. “You’re going to be arrested this time, Jade, for the murder of Otis Thibodeaux. And I’ll be damned if I’ll be your alibi.” He shoved her away from him. “Call Lover Boy and tell him to meet you downtown.”

Jase moved past her and walked upstairs to his bedroom and slammed the door behind him. He called Ricco and told him to meet him at the station. When he hung up, he heard his front door slam shut. Good riddance. The last thing he needed in his life was another lying scheming woman. He’d become celibate before he allowed another black widow near him. He jumped in the shower and emotionally shut down.

Less than an hour later, Jase walked into the Twelfth and found Ricco ready with fresh coffee. Kowalski paced the tile floor, scowling at Jase. Twenty minutes later, Jade came in with her attorney, Branford Pettigrew, who did not look happy in the least.

“Now what, Detectives?” he asked none of them in particular.

“We’re charging your client for the murder of Otis Thibodeaux,” Kowalski said, then added, “and as soon as we get the lab work back, Andrew Townsend and Katsuo Hiro.”

Branford looked bored and asked Kowalski, “Do you have a time of death for Thibodeaux?”

“Between three a.m. and six-thirty a.m.”

“Where was the body discovered?”

“The Fairmont in San Jose,” Jase said.

“Fascinating,” Branford said. “My client has an airtight alibi from one a.m. this morning to seven a.m. this morning.”

Branford looked from one detective to the other, settling on Jase. “Would you know anything about that, Detective Vaughn?”

Jase scowled and looked to Jade, then to his partner, and finally to Kowalski. Both detectives lost considerable color in their faces.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Kowalski demanded.

Branford smiled like he had won the world in a simple sleight-of-hand competition. His eyes focused solely on Jase, and he knew he was screwed. “My client claims she was in your presence at your home from one a.m. until five-thirty this morning. Shortly thereafter she was seen by the proprietor of the Blue Orchid and the checkout clerk at the Whole Foods on Bascom. There was no way she had the time to get to the Fairmont in downtown San Jose to kill Otis Thibodeaux and make it back in time for breakfast.”

Ricco speared Jase with a shocked glare. “She was with you, man?”

Jase worked his jaw. “I fell asleep around three, she could have left then.”

“But I didn’t.”

Jase turned to Jade, her dark hair and big green eyes telling him she didn’t give a shit what he thought. She had retreated emotionally, as well. Then he remembered waking up and feeling the bed empty beside him. The bathroom light was on, and the clock read 3:32. Fuck! He couldn’t say for absolute certainty that she had or had not been in his damn house!

“Was Miss Devereaux at your house all night, Detective Vaughn?”

“She was, up until three-thirty.”

“How do you know that?”

Jase’s eyes narrowed. “The sheets were still warm and the bathroom light was on when I woke up. The clock read three thirty-two.” He turned his hard gaze on Jade. “I didn’t give you enough credit. You knew I’d placed a GPS device on your car. It’s why you took my truck.”

Jade only stared back at him, no emotion flickering across her features. Jase’s fury mushroomed. He’d been played by a pro.

Branford smiled, his look that of the cat who’d swallowed the canary. “When you have physical evidence and not all of this bullshit circumstantial crap, let me know and maybe I’ll talk to you.”

Kowalski stepped forward. “We want to question your client.”

Branford slid an arm around Jade’s waist and pulled her toward him, his look of possession pure male. “I’ve informed my client she doesn’t have to answer squat. This song and dance of yours is getting tiresome. Either charge my client or we walk.”

Pettigrew pulled Jade along with him. All three men stood rooted to the tile floor.

“Hold on, Pettigrew!” Kowalski shouted. Like a big charging bear, he strode up to them. “I’m arresting her for this one.”

Jade gasped. Pettigrew smiled tolerantly at the detective. “Arrest her and I’ll go to the
Mercury News
and let them know where my client spent the night, and how your detective seduced information from her while she was still under the protection of Miranda. I’m sure the DA will love having his PD’s
indelicatos
aired all over the wire.”

Jase fumed. Kowalski turned a murderous glare on him.

Pettigrew was good. Real good.

“Now,” the snot-nosed kid started, “if you continue to harass my client, I’ll slap all three of you with civil and criminal suits.” Then they disappeared through the doors.

“What the fuck, Vaughn!” Kowalski screamed.

Ricco whistled and shook his head. He turned to his partner. “Man, what the
fuck
were you thinking?”

Jase shook his head and sat down at his desk. He gave the coffee a scornful look. What he needed was a few shots.

“How the fuck do I know? I’m drinking myself into oblivion last night, she shows up at my door, all weepy and looking too damn good for her own good, and the next thing I know we’re going at it like two teenagers on the floor.”

“Holy shit, Jase, you need to take yourself off the case. Your ass is gonna be in the wringer over this.”

Jase shook his head. “No shit.”

And it was. Shortly thereafter, he was removed from the case and given a box of thirty-year-old cold cases.

Jase managed to give himself a decent workout at the gym before he called it a day. When he entered his empty dark house, he realized the absence of Jade’s energy was palpable. For the short time she’d been there, she’d lit up the place. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. His body yearned for her and his gut was twisted up like a pretzel. He refused to acknowledge the ache in his heart. He was, quite simply, miserable. Lovesick, as it were. He wanted Jade and couldn’t have her. He didn’t trust her and she despised him. His blood quickened as he remembered her calling out his name as she came in his mouth that morning. He’d wanted her at the station, he’d wanted her as he lifted fifty-pound dumbbells at the gym, and he wanted her now. And nothing short of having her would make the ache go away.

He changed into his usual jogging gear and hit the street. Maybe he could run out the heat in his blood and run out all thoughts of her.

Two hours later, sweaty, hot, and wired to the hilt, Jase jogged up his driveway. He took a hot shower, then an ice-cold shower. Still, his body burned with a deep bone-crushing ache. He wanted more than her body, he realized. He wanted her to take him where she’d never taken anyone before him. He wanted her to open up to him to tell him what scared her, why she was holding back. Who was Otis to her, and why did she want to keep him secret? What did Otis know that scared her, and had she killed him to keep him quiet?

Shit!
He turned off the cold water and toweled himself dry. The ringing of the doorbell had him hustling downstairs with only a towel wrapped around his waist.

He looked through the peephole and went still.

The doorbell rang again.

“I can hear you breathing, Jase, open the door.”

Jase stood on the other side, his hand reaching for the knob, afraid if he opened it his entire world would go on full tilt and he would be unable to right it again. Afraid if he didn’t, he would not survive another day.

He touched the brass knob, then slowly turned it. When he opened the door, Jade smiled up at him, the smile of a woman in full control. For the first time in his life, he was afraid of what a woman could do to him.

He stepped back. She stepped in. He closed the door behind her. She faced him.

“You may not trust me—and that’s okay, I don’t trust you, either—but…” She stepped up to him and yanked the towel away from him. It hit the floor and his cock sprung up full and ready to ride. “You can’t stop thinking of me.” She wrapped her fingers around his shaft and squeezed. “And you still want me.”

She stood up on her toes and nipped at his bottom lip. When he failed to respond, she bit harder. The copper taste of his blood mingled with her saliva. “You can stand there like a statue, Jase, but your cock doesn’t lie. If you don’t want me, it does.” She slowly pumped him. He hissed in a breath. “See? You want me, and if I let you, you’ll take me, right here on the hardwood, like two crazy kids who can’t get enough of each other.” She looked up into the hard gaze of his eyes. “Admit it, Jase. You’d go to hell and back to fuck me again.”

His hard stare unnerved her. But she pressed on with her assault. The look in his eyes that morning, the look of utter contempt, was too hard a blow to take. She needed to know he still wanted her. If he wanted her, he didn’t hate her.

“Who hates you enough to set you up?”

She could only think of one person, and he—She closed her eyes and shook her head. He was dead.

“I have no enemies here, and even if I did, why would they kill my dates?”

“To mess with you, taunt you, watch you squirm, a form of torture.”

“I
didn’t come here to talk, Jase.” She pushed him down the hall. He resisted. She walked past him and halted at the bottom of the staircase and turned to face him full-on. He’d wrapped the towel back around his hips.

“Right here, Jase. Right now.”

Jase stood stock-still. Then he took a step toward her, and another. He stopped several feet from her, unable to go farther. He couldn’t.

Jade reached out and tugged at the towel. His hand tightened around the knot. She tugged harder. It loosened. She tugged again, this time freeing the fabric. The only sound was the soft thud of the heavy fabric as it hit the hardwood floor. Punctuating the room was their panting breaths. He had yet to touch her, but his chest moved with his rapid breath. A smooth sheen of perspiration slicked his skin.

When his cock sprung free, he nearly came there on the spot when Jade wrapped her warm fingers around his shaft. She smiled up at him and let go. Jase jerked toward her and her smile widened. Stepping up to the fifth step, she leaned back against it. With her knees spread, her miniskirt slid back against her thighs, she touched herself. Sliding her fingertip up and down the damp fabric of her panties, she held Jase’s intense gaze. “I want you to do that to me, Jase. Your finger, then your mouth, then your cock.”

She slipped out of her shirt. Her full breasts rose high, the nipples taut, teasing, beckoning. He dared not touch. Jase held his breath as Jade slipped the thong panties down her thighs to her calves and then to her ankles. Her pink pussy glistened with want, and he wanted to give it what it craved. Jade lay back against the carpeted steps. Her long hair hung around her shoulders, her full lips pouted, and her tits rode way up high, but his gaze lingered at the sweet spot between her thighs. His cock ached and even if he didn’t touch her, he’d come right there in the hallway. Jade ran her hand down her belly, softly moaning, teasing him. When her fingertip dipped into her hot wetness, he groaned. Her hips rocked, the air swirling around them growing heavy with tension.

“Jase, that feels so good. Do you want to touch me?” Her gaze caught his and held. Yeah, he wanted to touch her, and a whole lot more. Her hips rotated, beckoning. Her moans infiltrated him, the primal call almost more than he could bear. The ache in his body grew unmanageable.

“Jase!” she screamed as she climaxed. He stepped closer. And when she rolled over and wagged her sweet ass under his nose, he broke. He stepped into her, kneeling on the third step, and speared her with his cock. He closed his eyes, the sublime sensation of being inside of her as one consumed every cell in his body.

Her muscles clamped around him, milking him, pulling him deeper inside. Jade cried out, the pleasure in her voice urging him on. He grabbed her hips, his hands fitting perfectly in their cradle, and pumped into her.

Jade cried out again and again, the feel of him driving deep into her from behind too poignant for words. She keened out a long cry as her muscles constricted and her orgasm exploded deep within her, sending currents of blistering electricity to every nerve ending she possessed. Jase’s hard body encompassed her, and his hoarse call as he came sent her senses reeling.

She collapsed against the carpet with Jase on top of her, but he kept the bulk of his weight from her. She rolled over until they were face-to-face and couldn’t help a slow, sated smile. She reached for her discarded panties. Taking them, she wiped him from between her thighs. She pushed away from him, slipped her shirt on, and stood, adjusting her clothing to more modest proportions. She started for the door.

“Where are you going?” Jase called, his voice raw.

Jade turned, the balled-up panties in her hand. She tossed them at him and he caught them. “Home.” Then she proceeded to do just that.

Jase stood naked in his hallway, his dick still wanting her. His gut felt torn up and empty. He yanked up the towel from the floor, cursing. He’d never had such a chemical reaction to a woman in his life. And while having had her should have put the craving to rest, it only intensified the effect. That and more. Much, much more.

For the first time in his life, he knew what it must feel like to be an addict with the hunger for another fix driving you to the brink of insanity. Jase ran up the stairs and turned the shower on, and several minutes later his teeth chattered under the icy shards of water. He looked down at his raging hard-on. He took matters into his own hands. Only when he’d depleted himself did the edge of tension ebb. An hour later, it was back. Like he’d been drugged, the heat between his legs unbearable.

A hand job wasn’t enough. He wanted to possess and to be possessed. There was only one way he could get longer relief, and the only way that was going to happen was to track the object of his obsession down and have his way with her. And god help him, the way he was feeling right now, there wasn’t anything on this earth he wouldn’t do for one more moment with her.

With superhuman will, Jase dressed and went back to the PD. He had more cold case files than he could go through in a decade. He opened the first folder. DOA Jane Doe, the date nearly twenty years ago. He tossed the yellowed folder onto his desk. Frustrated, he put his hands behind his head and locked his fingers together, then leaned back in his chair and set his feet up on the desk, crossing them at the ankles. Every time his thoughts drifted to the black-haired, green-eyed beauty, he squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth. His dick twitched and he squirmed in his chair. He glanced at the clock: 10:00 p.m. Was she at the club? Was she laughing with another man, rubbing those fantastic tits of hers on his arm, batting her lashes, making sweet promises? Was she allowing the man to touch her? To kiss her, to dig his fingers into the hot wetness of her? Jase jerked up, the impact of his movement knocking him off balance. He caught himself against the desk. “Son of a bitch!” He couldn’t concentrate, he couldn’t eat, and he couldn’t sleep.

All because of a woman.

His mother and sister would have the last laugh. He’d sworn years ago never to be led by the nose by a woman. He didn’t need them, and they didn’t need him, and yet here he was, unable to do his job, unable to function normally, unable to do anything but think of his dick in her.

Despite three murders in a week, and despite the fact that she was nearly charged with the murder of one man, with two others hanging over her head, and despite the dark mood of the club, Jade worked the members with a confidence she had never felt. Her coup over Jase earlier infused her with such a feeling of power, of indestructible immortality, that she felt she was unstoppable.

After a particularly engaging verbal sparring match with RomAire CEO Ken Rhodes, Jade strode back to her office, the smile on her face ear to ear. She opened the door and stopped in her tracks.

Sprawled out in her chair with his trousers around his knees was Simon Mueller, and locked onto his considerable cock were Genny’s lips. The girl jumped up, wiping her mouth, but Simon only smiled and relaxed back into her chair. “Genny promised me a bonus if I paid top dollar, but I never expected it to be you, Jade.”

Fury infiltrated her cells. Jack Morton had reduced the club to nothing more than a brothel.

Instead of answering Mueller, Jade looked at Genny, who had the decency to look chagrined. Barely. “Genevieve, I’m going to get a glass of wine. When I come back to my office, the only person I want in here is you.” Jade smiled at Mueller. “Mr. Mueller.” Then she backed out of the office and closed the door soundly behind her.

Several thoughts ran through her head. First and foremost, how long had Genny been turning tricks in the club? It was one thing for her to take her business elsewhere, but on premise? No. Never! Under no circumstances. Genny was not going to like what Jade had in store for her.

When five minutes passed and Simon Mueller hadn’t emerged, Jade became angrier. Obviously, her word meant nothing. Now she’d have to make a scene.

Just as she started for her office, Mueller came out, tucking his shirttails into his trousers. He had the audacity to grin at her. When he walked past Jade, he grabbed her ass.

When she entered her office, Genny smiled and looked up from her compact as she expertly applied fresh lipstick.

“You’re fired, Genny.”

“I doubt it,” the little blonde absently said.

Jade raised a brow and stepped closer. “I don’t think you understand. I am the manager here and I say you’re fired. If you would like to take it up with Mr. Morton, be my guest, but rest assured if he doesn’t back me on this, I’ll let the press know exactly what’s going on here.”

Finally, Genny looked afraid. “Jade, you can’t fire me! I need this job. I have my brother to take care of!”

“You should have thought of that before you gave Mueller a blow job.”

“How can you do this to me? I’m the biggest earner here!” Genny demanded.

Jade held her ground. “I can’t trust you now, Genny. If I can’t trust you, I can’t have you here.”

The blonde’s angelic features morphed into those of a hard-edged harpy. “Hah, you’d be surprised what everyone here is doing behind your back! You think you’re so damn perfect! Well, you aren’t!”

“Genny, you need to leave now.”

Vehemently, she shook her head. “Andy told me all about you. How you were a frigid bitch, and so did your friend Otis. Even Mac says it!”

Her hurt feelings and Genny’s firing forgotten for the moment, Jade pressed for other answers. “When did you see Otis outside of the club?”

Genny lost some of the flush in her cheeks.

“Genny, tell me.”

“I—I saw him a few times.”

“Did he pay you for sex?”

Genny straightened. “I have a disabled brother to take care of. We don’t have insurance. I
have
to date outside of the club!” Tears streamed down Genny’s face and Jade felt a wave of compassion run through her. She could well relate to the girl’s plight. Jade let out a long slow breath.

“I’m sorry, Genny. That doesn’t change anything.”

“No! You can’t do this!” Genny’s hysterical shrieks were enough to raise the roof. Jade slapped her. Not out of anger, although she would have loved to put her hands on her and shake her, but more to get her attention, to shut her up.

“I want you to leave this minute. I’ll escort you to your locker. If you so much as look like you’re going to create a scene, I’ll have Mac carry you out. You decide how it will play out, Genny.”

Genny choked back a sob as she rubbed her right cheek. She stared up at Jade. “I can’t believe you hit me! Who the hell do you think you are?”

Jade moved in closer now, nose-to-nose with her ex-employee and not feeling the love anymore. “If you continue to raise your voice, I’ll not only slap you again, but I’ll slap you so hard your teeth will rattle. Now, let’s go get your belongings and get you out of here.”

“You’ll regret this, Jade. I know all about you!”

Jade stiffened. Ignoring the barb, she would not let Genny know there was anything to know.

She opened the door and held it open. Giving Genny a sharper glare, she softly said, “Act like the lady I know is hiding in there.”

Genny walked haughtily by, stopping at the end of the short hallway to meet Mac’s eyes. Her bar manager looked from Genny to Jade, then back to Genny again before he gave Rusty, who had just come in with a case of wine, a nod for the boy to set the case down. Jade watched how the kid slipped in then out from behind the bar. He was good that way. Nearly invisible. It was how the club worked. Food and wine service mysteriously appeared and disappeared. Except for the girls, the employees were not to be seen or heard. The boy caught her eyes and she softened her face. He gave her a fleeting smile before looking at Genny beside her. Then his eyes got all dopey-looking. The kid had it bad for her. Genny acted like he didn’t exist. Poor kid.

Genny gave her no more fight except for her parting shot. “You have no idea how much you’re going to regret this.”

Jade nodded as she watched Genny walk toward her little Mustang parked next to her own BMW. “I already regret you are not the person I had hoped you were.”

Shaking her head, Jade retreated back into the back of the club as Genny peeled out in her car, the screeching sound of rubber hard on her ears.

Just as she was about to step into the main lounge, Rusty stopped her, an empty box in his hands. “Miss Jade, is Genny okay?”

“She’ll be okay, Rusty.”

“Why did she leave?”

Jade sadly shook her head, wishing with all her heart Genny hadn’t brought her trade into the club. “She did something wrong, Rusty. I sent her home.”

“When will she be coming back?”

“I’m afraid she won’t be coming back.”

The boy looked stricken. “Why not?”

“She doesn’t work here anymore.”

“What did she do wrong?”

“I can’t really answer that question, I’m sorry. It just didn’t work out.”

The kid stepped back and there was a flash of anger that rose and fell quickly in his eyes. Jade wasn’t sure she’d really witnessed it. “Rusty, don’t be angry with her. These things happen.”

He shook his head. “I know, it’s just that, well, I really liked her.”

“So did I.”

Suddenly, Jade felt exhausted. She was tired of carrying the weight of the world around on her shoulders. She wanted to unload, to let it all out, puke it up and be done with it. But that was impossible. She also realized that her time at Callahan’s was running out. Genny was sure to tell Morton she had been fired, and Morton would turn around and fire her. There was no way she was going to become a madam. He could buy her out of her contract, or she would go public and he could kiss his income good-bye. She let out a long breath and as she sat at the bar and looked up, she found Mac’s friendly brown eyes staring at her. “Do you think I’m a bitch, Mac?”

He smiled slowly. “I think you’re firm.”

Jade nodded her head and looked past him to the bottle of Grey Goose. “I’d like a martini, Mac, you know how I like it.” Mac nodded and looked past her. She could tell he was focused on someone by the hard look in his gaze. It changed when he realized she was watching him. “Your cop friend.”