Crime and Punishment 4: Burning Submission (15 page)

Normally, he never went anywhere without his bag of sex toys, but he hadn’t expected this to happen, so he’d left it behind. He pulled out his phone and sent Nathan a text.

Would you overnight me some toys?

Nathan responded,
Sure. Do you want Hot Wheels cars or Star Wars dolls?

Smart-ass
, Josh replied.

LOL. I’ll throw some stuff together. Send me the address.

Josh sent the address and set his phone down just as Jennifer walked back into the room. She eyed the phone, then him. “Is everything okay?”

He could hear a hint of nervousness in her voice, so he was quick to reassure her. “Everything is fine. Just answering a text Nathan sent me.”

She nodded and walked over to the fireplace. She set the armload of stuff on the floor and plopped down on one of the cushions. For a few minutes he remained where he was on the couch. He wanted to touch her, pull her into his arms, take her hard and deep on the floor. Hell, he wanted to take her everywhere: on the kitchen table, the front porch, the damn barn. Every time he saw her, he couldn’t stop the rush of desire that burned through his body.

His need to fuck her sometimes drove him nuts. Every time she walked into a room, the energy around him sparked to life, sending little stinging pricks all along his skin.

She tried to open the bag of marshmallows, but she tugged too hard. Marshmallows popped from the bag, landing on the floor all around her. At first, her eyes widened, and then she laughed—harder than he’d heard her laugh since he’d been here. It was such an adorable sound that Josh couldn’t help but chuckle himself.

He hated to spoil her happy mood, but he needed to get a little more information out of her about her captivity. Maybe she knew more about her kidnappers than she realized.

“What can you tell me about your time as a hostage?” he asked.

Her smile faded, but she kept her gaze on a marshmallow as she slid it onto the stick and then placed it above the flame. “Not much,” she finally said. “The only men I can describe, I…I killed when I escaped.”

He could tell by the anguish in her eyes that what she’d done haunted her. “What about prior to that? You said you moved around?”

“We did. Twice. Each time it was quick, as though we were running from someone.”

“Who do you think you would’ve been running from?”

“I don’t know. Although”—she pulled the marshmallow from the flame and placed it between the chocolate and crackers—“there was this one guy in the beginning. He was actually nice to me, considering…” She gave a shrug and continued. “I remember hearing him arguing with someone. After that we moved, and I never saw him again.”

Josh frowned. Could that be who they were running from? And why? “Do you think he was possibly having second thoughts? Or against what they were doing?” he asked.

“No… Maybe… I don’t know, really, but I think it was more a disagreement on the objective.”

“Meaning the plan for you?”

“Maybe.”

She smashed the marshmallow between the crackers and handed it to Josh. He moved to join her on the floor and watched as she began to make another one.

“Could you describe that man?” he asked between bites.

Jennifer sighed. “I’m not sure. So much of it is like the replaying of a dream. It’s hard to know what was real and what wasn’t. For all I know, I imagined this guy, because at one point, I even thought he was going to get me out.”

“That must’ve been right before they moved you the first time.”

“Yes,” she said.

Was it possible that man was still trying to find her, but for what purpose? To kidnap her again? Josh certainly didn’t want that to happen, but he did believe that focusing on this man just might be her ticket to freedom.

“Think on it. Try to remember,” Josh said.

She scowled at him. “Why?”

“So I can find him.”

“Why would you want to find him?”

Josh swallowed his bite of s’more before he answered. “Because you want to be free of hiding, and I think this guy just may be the one who can help make that happen.”

The glimmer of distrust that sparked in her eyes hurt like a bullet to his chest.

“Jenn,” he said firmly, hoping to dispel her fears. “I’m not going to turn you over to him.”

“Then why can’t we just leave this be? By hunting him down, you may lead him right to me.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing.”

“How the hell is that a good thing?” she yelled.

“Because that makes us the hunters and him the prey.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jennifer narrowed her eyes as she stared at him. Could they really pull something like this off? And should they? The marshmallow she held over the flame caught fire, and she quickly pulled it from the heat. “Crap,” she grumbled.

Josh grinned and made the butterflies in her stomach flap wildly. What was it about him that had her all crazy horny for him? Why couldn’t she seem to get enough?

He reached out and slid the burned part of the marshmallow off and popped it into his mouth, leaving the melted, gooey part still on the stick. She stared at his mouth, wondering what it would be like to have him kiss her everywhere.

“Use that part,” he said as he sucked the excess from his finger.

“What?” she asked, completely spellbound.

Instead of answering her, he grabbed two graham crackers and a piece of chocolate. He placed the marshmallow between them and pulled it free of the stick. She felt her face heat with a blush as he mashed the pieces together and passed it to her.

Pursing her lips, she took the cookie. “Thank you.”

He just continued to smile as though he knew exactly what effect he had on her. She hated that about him. She hated that he could read her like a book, but she couldn’t him. She wasn’t as experienced as he was, and that too bothered her. What would he want with an innocent?

“Are you trying to decide on what we talked about, or is there something else that’s causing you to stare a hole through the s’more?” he asked softly.

She refused to talk to him about her insecurities. She focused on the man who might be after her instead. “How would we even do a sketch of him? I’m not a sketch artist. Are you?”

“No, but I know a few.”

“So we would have to bring other people in on this?” she asked, unsure how she felt about that.

“One or two. Nathan’s already involved. We would just need one more. Whoever I brought in, Jenn, I know we could trust. I wouldn’t bring in someone who would put you in danger.”

She took a bite of the warm cookie as she tried to avoid his stare. He wouldn’t let her. He put his finger under her chin and lifted it. “Look at me.” When she did, he asked, “Do you trust me?”

She shrugged one shoulder. “I suppose. You haven’t given me a reason not to.”

“Good. Then relax.”

He dropped his hand, and she curled her lip at him. “Easier said than done.”

“I know it is,” he replied as he grabbed another marshmallow and placed it on the stick. “Want one?”

“I haven’t finished the one I have.”

“Good,” he said with a smile. “More for me.”

“Where do you put it?” she asked as her gaze wandered down his frame. There wasn’t any fat on him that she could see, yet he ate like a horse.

He chuckled. “I’m actually twenty pounds down from what I was before I was shot. I lost a lot in the hospital. The food sucked.”

She snickered as she took a bite of her s’more. “Hospital food is always bad.”

“Yeah, plus I wasn’t hungry. It’s just been the past few days that I’ve really gotten my appetite back.” He glanced at her with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Probably all that sex.”

She blushed but grinned. “That will definitely do it, I’m sure. Especially the way you have sex.”

Josh laughed and removed the marshmallow from the flame.

“So…” she began as she licked the sticky chocolate from her finger. “When do we do this sketch thing?”

“Let’s find out.”

He grabbed his phone from the coffee table and quickly scrolled through his list of numbers. When he found who he was looking for, he hit Call and put the phone to his ear. She could hear a deep voice on the other end but couldn’t make out what was said.

“Hey, Nathan. You up for doing me a favor?”

He pulled the phone away from this ear and placed it on speaker, allowing her to hear Nathan on the other end.

“Depends on the favor,” Nathan replied.

Jennifer tried to imagine what a man with such a deep, powerful voice would look like in person.

“We need a sketch artist. Off the record.”

“One of
those
favors,” Nathan drawled, but Jennifer didn’t miss the amusement in his dry tone.

“Yes, asswipe. One of those.”

Nathan chuckled. “When do you need him?”

“Tomorrow?”

“Wow, nothing like asking for the improbable.”

“I know, but I also know a couple of artists who owe you one.”

“Yeah, so do I,” Nathan said. “Are we doing this via Skype?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll get to work on it. I’ll send you a text as soon as it’s set up.”

“Thanks, Nathan.”

“Anytime.”

Josh hung up the phone.

“What does he look like?” Jennifer asked.

Josh glanced at her and raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“I was just curious,” she replied. “His voice is so deep he sounds like he’s a very large man.”

Josh snickered. “He’s tall and more muscular than I am. He has more time to work out than I do.”

“You don’t have any pictures of him on your phone?”

There was a brief spark of something in his eyes that Jennifer couldn’t decipher. Did he not like her asking about his friend? Was he jealous? Did he even get jealous?

He opened the pictures folder on his phone and enlarged one of a man and a woman. “That’s Nathan with his fiancée, Connelly.”

She took the phone and stared at the smiling couple. He was large with broad shoulders, dark hair and eyes, and a light growth of stubble that covered his jaw. The man was gorgeous, and so was the woman. They looked happy and very good together.

“They’re both stunning. They seem happy,” she said.

“I think that’s probably the happiest I’ve seen him,” Josh said as he took the phone back from her grasp.

He closed the file and set the phone back on the table.

“Is he a Dom as well?” she asked with curiosity.

“Oh, yeah. Probably more so than me. Nathan’s dominance goes clear through to his bones.”

She snorted. “And yours doesn’t?”

Josh smiled. “I enjoy playing the Dom, but it’s not something that’s ingrained in me, like it is him. Nathan is dominant in everything he does. I’m not sure he could be anything else.”

“Could
you
?” she asked.

She could tell he was thinking about that as he put the s’more together and then gingerly broke it in half. He handed her a piece as he said, “I’ll admit, I may not be quite as dominant as Nathan, but I definitely like sex a certain way. I believe that if you’re going to be involved with someone, you should be fairly equal in your needs and wants. So, in answer to your question, I probably couldn’t be anything else either.”

She took the half he handed her.

“But you like the way we have sex, right? So what are you worried about?” he asked.

She wasn’t sure “worried” was the right word. She knew she’d only seen a small portion of what Josh was capable of in the bedroom. He didn’t have anything to tie her up with or any toys to torture her with. Despite that, he’d done amazingly well with his hands and mouth. She did like what he’d done so far, but what would it be like to get the full effect of Josh and his sexual torture?

“I’m not worried. I was just curious. I don’t understand a lot of how it works.”

“Ask me anything you want. I’m an open book.”

She gave him a brief smile and then took a bite of her s’more. The warm marshmallow had melted the chocolate, and she had to reach up with her finger to keep a piece from dripping out from between the crackers.

As she chewed, she tried to come up with something to ask, but all she could seem to think about was touching him or, better yet, him touching her. They’d had sex earlier—amazing sex. What would he think of her if she wanted it again? Was it bad that she did? God, she was so new to all this; she felt incredibly inept.

If she didn’t say anything, would he make a move? Because he was a Dom, would he like it if she made a move? She wanted to. She could feel herself getting wet just thinking about the things they could do here on the living room floor.

“How often do you go to the clubs?” she finally asked.

“If I have time, more so than when I don’t,” he replied.

She frowned at his cryptic response.

He chuckled. “I guess you were looking for a little more detail than that, huh?”

“Just a tad.”

“In the beginning, I went often. Three or four times a week. It was new and exciting, and I was still learning. Now…Nathan’s club was probably the last one I went to, and that was several weeks ago. Actually, now that I think about it, his is usually the only one I go to. I hit his about every few weeks, sometimes sooner, sometimes later, depending on my schedule.”

“Is that the only place you have sex?”

“You mean besides here?”

She slapped his leg, and he smiled.

“Lately, yeah. Work has been very busy.”

“That’s a shame,” she said.

“What? That I have sex once every six weeks?” he asked with amusement as he leaned forward and stoked the fire.

“No, that you’re so busy you never have time for a life.”

The humor dimmed in Josh’s eyes, and Jennifer felt a pang of regret for the direction their conversation had taken. She didn’t want to make him sad.

He sighed. “It’s the reality that comes with the job.”

“Why don’t you do something else?” she asked.

He set the poker aside and leaned back against the coffee table. The cool evening breeze coming through the window mingled with the heat of the fireplace and ruffled the edges of Josh’s hair. In the flickering light he looked younger.

“I’ve thought about it a time or two. After this last incident, now my father is on my ass about it as well.”