Guilty Secrets (Campus Love and Murder Sorority Eyes Romance Book 1) (20 page)

I needed his hands and lips on my nipples and allowed him to slip me out of my dress. The ceaseless teasing of his lips on my nipples forged my desire for more. Cradling his head against my forearms I rocked gently back and forth, stroking his neck and knowing I wanted him inside me.

But I wanted to delay the moment of full union until I was completely unaware of where each of us began and ended.

Sure of his delicate, but persistent tongue I pushed his head down between my legs.

He parted the lace of my thong as if parting a cloud and I watched his eyes as he feasted on me. Slow then gently quickening the pace. But never too quick. Always easing back before the intensity of the wondrous sensation became too much to bear.

Guided it seemed, by the intensity and rapidity of my breathless panting, he knew just how fast or slow to move his tongue. He was keeping me teetering against a wild wind on the edge of a cliff with only the prospect of falling into an abyss of fear and ecstasy.

Until eventually I began to lose complete perspective on where I began and he ended.

It was as if Harry was inside my mind. Feeling my fear like a tour guide of my own body. Showing me the hot spots but never dwelling too close to the danger. Building up my desire for him along with my confidence in his control of his own animal passions to avoid hurting me.

Until, at last I invited him there where my heart and body feared him most. He sat up as I pulled off his shirt and unzipped his pants.

His manhood sprang out, hard and erect and masterful. He directed his penis to tease all the pleasure spots between my legs as I felt myself slowly yielding to my hunger. Grinding against the tip of his manhood.

He lifted me up into his arms and firmly held my hips so I was hovering gently above his cock. Slowly, almost imperceptibly he gave me the illusion of control by lowering my hips down onto his stiffness.

He wasn't taking me. But we were taking each other on a glorious exploration of each other. With each movement I cried out in soft, whimpering gasps of desire. All the while he kept his gaze locked on mine. Making me feel safe in his eyes, until at last he was deep inside me.

He lifted me gently up along his thick shaft, and back down again. Slowly at first, then with increased passion. Grinding my hips against him as I wildly kissed his toned chest and neck. Craving his ferocious kisses on my nipples, I leaned back.

He gently lowered my back on to the soft sheets as he lowered himself on top of me. Keeping his body weight off my hips and chest, he allowed me to cling to his thrusting passion the way a butterfly is intoxicated by the pollen of a flower.

His firm but slow thrusts mastered me. Releasing my hunger for everything that he was and could be. The urgency of my fingernails on his back, scratching up and down his rock hard ass, needing him to unleash this frenzied ecstasy building up between us.

He locked my gaze to his as I felt myself falling in slow motion over that dreamlike cliff edge into that wonderful and terrifying abyss. Dragging him over with me. It was like falling through clouds into an ocean. My entire body convulsed with waves of pleasure and agony as he poured his seed of desire into me.

As the waves subsided I resurfaced with blissful laughter escaping my lips. I felt the clouds raising me up through the sky. Our eyes and our entwined bodies silently spoke of a shared desire for overwhelming closeness to remain like this forever.

We cradled each other like we were the most precious things on earth. Safe in the knowledge that he understood me perfectly without a hint of judgment. He accepted me for what I am. He always had. I was just too blind to realize.

I bathed his face in my tears of joy as we kissed.

CHAPTER SIXTY

I was standing at one end of the old wooden jetty. I had no idea how I arrived there. When I looked down at my bare feet I suspected I was dreaming. A young woman in a crimson dress stood at the far end of the jetty with her back to me.

I felt compelled to walk to her. As I approached within touching distance, I reached out and tapped her shoulder.

Madison turned to me. The smile on her face said everything I needed to know.

"I miss you, Madison."

"I'm always here."

The sun broke through cloud and as each ray of sunshine crawled across the lake, Madison slowly dissolved into the air. Until at last, I could see right through her to the lake.

"Don't go!"

"I'll be here for you, Robyn. When they come."

"When who comes?"

She vanished.

"Madison? Madison? When who comes?"

I woke up in Harry's arms. For the first time in a long time, life felt blissful. The first time I could remember waking and feeling perfectly relaxed. No signs of any remnants of lingering nightmares.

I had woken in a truly strange new land. I think they call it love.

"How do you feel, Robyn?"

I had no words for Harry. Only kisses.

Harry's long, tender kisses down my neck led to more love making. Until he realized he'd be late on his first day as Sheriff.

He leapt from the bed, tripped over my heels and hopped to the shower.

Eventually, I stopped laughing and slumped back against the mountain of pillows doused in winter sunshine. My mind wondered to Madison. I hoped wherever she was, she was happy for me.

I felt a small warm feeling in my stomach as if I was bursting to tell someone how happy I was. But I had no one to tell. Madison was gone. So too, my parents.

I felt an odd tingle in my stomach when I tried to imagine our future together. Somehow it wasn't materializing. I rationalized it was just a natural apprehension and would settle soon enough.

I hoped the more we learned about each other, the deeper our love would grow. The more certain and secure I would feel.

My thoughts were abruptly interrupted. While Harry was still in the shower, the doorbell rang.

I found a sweat top from Harry's closet and pulled it on. It was way to big for me, but felt just right.

The doorbell rang again. Short sharp stabs of urgency.

I called out to Harry, but he couldn't hear me from the shower.

I went to the door, rubbing the sleep in my eyes. After the little sleep I'd had, the early morning sunshine was not doing me any favors. I peeked out through the window.

I couldn't see who was at the door, but there was a new black sedan with federal plates on the drive.

My stomach back flipped.

I opened the door and felt my eyes pop open. A tall young man in a grey suit stood glaring at me over the rim of his sunglasses.

"Long time, Robyn."

"Ben? What are you doing here?"

"It's official F.B.I. business, Robyn. Where's lover boy?"

"Can't you be happy for me?"

"I'm not here about you, Robyn. It’s your boyfriend I've come for."

"What business do you have with Harry?"

I heard Harry pad out of the shower. I turned to see him wearing nothing but a small white towel around his waist.

"Robyn, who's this?"

I shrugged. "Ben, my ex."

Harry stared over my shoulder. He marched over to Ben and held out his hand.

"Kind of early for a social visit, don't you think, buddy?"

Ben took Harry's hand and instigated a macho crush-shake. Neither Ben nor Harry would let go it seemed until one of them had snapped the finger bones of the other.

A trickle of sweat rolled down Ben's forehead. Ben then reached into his jacket and retrieved a pair of handcuffs. He slapped one cuff over Harry's wrist.

"Harry Gunn, I'm placing you under arrest."

Harry scoffed. "What's the problem Agent? Can't take a little hand squeeze? Quantico's recruiting standards are slipping these days."

I prodded Ben hard in the chest.

"What's this all about, Ben? Do you hate me so much you can't stand to see me happy for once in my life?"

Ben stared hard at me.

"Robyn, this is not about us. This is about your parents."

I felt myself blink like a rabbit in headlights.

"What about them? What have my parents got to do with Harry? He never even knew them when they were alive."

Ben's eyes glazed over. He turned away from me and looked hard at Ben.

"Harry Gunn, I'm charging you on two counts of kidnapping and murder"

"Murder of who?" I shouted.

"Your parents, Robyn. We've finally got the man who killed your parents."

Ben slapped the other cuff around Harry's other wrist. He wheeled a stunned looking Harry around and pushed him into the arms of another agent.

I screamed, "Ben, this is crazy! Harry? Harry, tell them this is ridiculous."

As both agents walked Harry to their car, he glanced over his shoulder at me. "Robyn, I'm innocent. You've got to believe me."

"Ben, where are you taking Harry?"

Once Harry was in the back seat of the sedan, Ben walked up the drive and gave me his card.

"You might want to hire lover boy a lawyer. He's gonna need the best. A real miracle worker."

Ben drove Harry away as I felt my legs weaken and collapse under me. I slid against the front door to the floor. I stared after their car through the branches of the cherry tree as it disappeared up the road.

Right at that moment I had never felt so alone.

The sun broke through a cloud and I knew right there and then that somehow, whatever it took, I'd find a way to prove Harry's innocence.

CHAPTER SIXTY ONE

Eight years ago.

Shard always killed to a slow blues death march. It organized the sniper's thoughts to the rhythm. It brought with it calm for the kill shot.

Shard knew the music like a second skin. Imagining an old blues master like Muddy Waters making his ax bleed the solemn death march.

Dum dah di dum.

Load and take a deep breath

Dum dah di dum.

Be at one with your rifle.

Dum dah di dum.

Identify target.

Dum dah di dum.

Focus on their eyes.

Dum dah di dum.

Make love to their soul.

Dum dah di dum.

Measure target velocity.

Dum dah di dum.

Pick out your wind marker.

Dum dah di dum.

Adjust for wind speed.

Dum dah di dum.

Squeeze sand bag for elevation.

Dum dah di dum.

Caress your trigger.

Dum dah di dum.

Pray for a clean kill

Dum dah di dum.

Hold your breath and squeeze.

The recoil pulsed through Shard's body like a sudden, forceful ejaculation. Shard watched through the telescopic lens of the sniper rifle as the bullet traveled almost a mile along the highway and shattered the windscreen of the fast moving car. The car spun wildly out of control.

It hit a street sign and flipped on its roof.

Shard rejoiced in the passenger's look of terror.

The car skidded across the wet asphalt and crashed through the barrier. In less than three seconds it vanished off the road and plunged down the steep side of the ravine.

The rush of a kill felt orgasmic. In this case; multiple. F.B.I. Special Agents, Irene and Robert Loxley would no longer stick their noses in other people's business.

Shard suppressed a gasp and waited for waves of ecstasy to subside.

Shard slowly stood in the shadows and shed the second skin of camouflage. Shard changed the song. It was time for the post kill music. An up-tempo John Lee Hooker standard.

As a fiery cloud soared out of the ravine and burned up the sky, Shard sent the cell phone text message:

Boom, boom!

CHAPTER SIXTY TWO

Present day.

No sooner had I found the love of my life, than he was taken from me.

My ex, Ben, an agent with the F.B.I. had arrested Harry on charges that I could not come to terms with.

Ben held Harry in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's field office in nearby Kimberley Falls City. A grey granite building built in the nineteen thirties. I stood at the imposing steps and swallowed hard.

The shock of Harry's arrest waned. A very real sense of foreboding now gripped me. But before I could contemplate Harry's possible guilt, I needed to view the evidence against him.

At the marble reception I asked for Ben. I was shown through to the corner office on the second floor. I was introduced to Ben's boss, Special Agent in Charge Jacob D. Jackson. A large man with a firm grip on my hand; if not his waist line.

He waved his bucket size hand at an empty chair. "Sit, Ms. Loxley."

Jackson squeezed into a leather chair behind a pine desk.

Ben stood by the window with a clear view of the outskirts of the city extending to woodland area surrounding the university campus. In the months since I had last seen Ben, he had sharpened up his image. His suits fitted his athletic figure perfectly. His hair was neatly slicked back as if he'd been watching too many Leonardo Di Caprico movies.

I felt a certain amount of unease at this. After all, he knew Leonardo was my favorite actor.

Ben had even perfected his bad boy pout of his bottom lip that he knew always propelled a wave of lustful longing through my body. But the upper lip sneer that had over our months together slowly come to signify his vile arrogance and selfish disdain for everyone, including me, was still prominent. Perhaps even more so since we'd last set eyes on each other.

And now he was using Harry to get back at me for leaving him. How low can an Ex go?

I sat on the edge of my seat. "Jackson, when can I see Sheriff Gunn?"

"First things first."

"Meaning?"

"You graduated from Quantico. You know how this goes down. So please, do me the courtesy of dropping the pretense.
I
ask the questions."

I smiled. This was going to be a game of cat and mouse. But who was the cat?

"So you intend to use me to build a case against Harry? That's a nonstarter. So perhaps you enlighten me on why we're meeting. What do you
really
want from me?"

Jackson glanced over to Ben. "I can see why she graduated top of her class."

He reached into a drawer in his desk and placed a slim file before me.