P I Honeytrap (13 page)

Paolo grimaced as his hands involuntarily protected his own soft tissues.

Hayley knew she wouldn’t be sitting down for a while without applying ice to another part of her anatomy. She just needed to go home, take a really hot shower to get the smell of that excuse of a man off her skin, and sleep off the thumping headache developing behind her eyeballs. It took a long time to convince the team that she would be fine to drive herself home and that they could get off home too and not worry about her. She even had to sit torturously in her office chair to pretend she’d recovered sufficiently.

Frankly, she was relieved when the last of them left. Popping a couple of painkillers, Hayley took a little time to go over the events of the night in her mind. It was important to come to terms with everything. She wasn’t a victim here. She would never think about herself like that again. But it had been one of her toughest assignments.

Satisfied that the precious digital recording was backed up securely on an external server, and the original well protected in the safe, Hayley looked at herself in the mirror, just as she had done at the start of the evening.

No longer did she look the sexy little rock chick whore. She looked tired and beaten. She wondered for a second what Reuben would think if he saw her like this. Not that he ever would. She would never share this life with him. No man would understand it.

Hayley caught herself mid-thought. It was none of his business anyway. Just because they had a healthy sex life, and now had a sort of understanding as friends, didn’t mean it would ever be anything more. That life and this one would never cross over.

The thought made her feel bone-achingly weary. It would be so good to rest securely in Reuben’s arms right now; to let him caress and soothe her pain away. But this wasn’t his problem, and Hayley’s career as a PI was none of his business.

She jumped in her car after locking the compound, determined that tonight, for sure, she’d go the long way home. She drove up the street in the opposite direction to the gym.

Across the street, sitting with an old friend from college in the window of a local bar, Reuben took a long draught of his ice-cold beer. Hayley had made it clear that she wouldn’t be by for a day or two, so he had locked up early and gone out for a drink with the guys.

He couldn’t believe what he had just seen. It was definitely Hayley’s car going up the road. But it certainly didn’t look like Hayley at the wheel. Except it did.

She had big, messy hair, not the sleek ponytail that Hayley usually wore. Her face was caked in cosmetics. Huge, dark eyes. Lashings of thick, black mascara. Tons of false lashes too, if he knew anything about it. And she looked like she’d been crying, her make-up all streaked everywhere. Except Hayley didn’t wear much make-up. She preferred the natural look.

That girl looked like a – He didn’t even want to think it. It couldn’t have been Hayley. Just another girl with the same car. Travelling up the same street, at about the same time of night that Hayley often did. He scrubbed a hand over his face. It was none of his business. And she wouldn’t thank him if he tried to make it his business either.

Yet he thought for a moment – hell, he was certain. That girl had a real black eye. Swollen too. Someone had hit her. He found himself getting riled and protective, even knowing that Hayley would be mad at him if he tried to interfere. If anyone ever hurt Hayley, the way they’d hurt that poor girl, he would rip their head off their shoulders. He knew it for a fact. And what did that tell him? He was just one of the good guys? Or that he really cared about Hayley? Really cared.

It was a night for mirrors. Hayley came out of the shower having scrubbed herself down to the second layer of her skin. It seemed no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t get tonight’s events far enough out of her mind.

Her skin was devoid of cosmetics and there was no disguising the ugly, black bruise beneath her left eye, nor the swelling around it, that stared back at her. It would be at least a week before it went away fully. She’d taken her own photographs of her face and the state of her beaten posterior for the record. Miss Winstanley was going to get copies as a clear reminder that she didn’t want to be inviting that sort of trouble into her fairy tale world.

The team would look on Hayley’s wounds, the ones they could see anyway, as a badge of honour, in the line of duty, but Reuben was another matter. She could easily avoid him for a couple of days, but what if he came looking for her? And what if he didn’t? Would he think she’d changed her mind about them being OK?

In her reflection, her hand went to her lips. She’d let him kiss her. She’d never allowed a man to do that her whole life. And damn Solar. He’d forced his mouth on hers. Tonight brought back a heap of bad memories. She shuddered. It was as if her evil stepfather was standing in the room right now.

Damn it.

She’d promised herself that vile man would not take up another single moment of her precious life. Yet hadn’t she allowed him to continue to do just that? Hadn’t he always been there in her subconscious, dictating what she would and would not do?

Hayley twisted the cork on a bottle of that champagne. To hell with headache pills. She was going to get good and drunk, if it killed her.

It killed her fretful mind. Hours later, she slept like a baby. A very drunken baby.

On the other side of town, Reuben couldn’t sleep at all. He couldn’t get out of his mind what he had seen. Or what he intended to do about it.

Chapter Ten

Hayley phoned the office nursing an even worse headache the next morning. Her eye looked as bad as her head felt. Whispering down the phone, she said she’d edit the footage at home and arrange to go directly to the Winstanley place to report and hand over the film. It wouldn’t hurt Abigail to see the damage Solar had done to her, while it was still fresh and obvious. A clear warning about how he treated women.

She hoped the impact of her black eye and swollen face would shock their daughter out of her complacent attitude. The parents made Abigail sit through the whole sorry business. Hayley had more trouble doing the same, for less obvious reasons, until the photographs came out.

It was satisfying to see the girl was truly shaken. She ran up to her room crying, insisting she never wanted to see Solar again. As long as she wasn’t climbing down the drainpipe to be with the guy right now, Hayley decided her assignment had been satisfactorily concluded. Her clients were pleased anyway. It had been so much worse than they’d imagined, thinking Solar was only drinking heavily, taking drugs, and whoring. Only.

The agency got a large cheque to compensate Hayley for her injuries and, of course, to keep the Winstanley name out of any dealings. As she was nothing if not totally confidential, Hayley almost told them to shove it, feeling distinctly uncharitable at this particular moment in time after what she’d just been through, but decided her team deserved that money for all their hard work and unpleasant activities. Not to mention the potential dangers they’d faced.

A copy of the evidence, with her own features well-disguised, was sent to a large media group which dealt in dirty linen. She intended to draw a line under the case. And take another few days off to recuperate.

It took all Alice’s expertise in the cosmetic department to cover up the fading, yellowing bruising around her eye, once the swelling had gone down. It wasn’t perfect, but it would have to do. She couldn’t avoid seeing Reuben any longer without making him ten times more suspicious.

Besides, she found she had missed him when she couldn’t go running over there as soon as she felt like it. And lately she had felt like it a lot.

Hayley decided seeing him in broad daylight while he had the distractions of the gym going on around him would be better initially. She didn’t want any close focus on her face. Despite the fact she dealt in covert activity, she found lying to her friends more difficult to handle.

Arriving around noon, laden with a box of couscous salad, focaccia, and crisp red apples, Hayley went straight to see Tammy at reception.

‘Hello, Tammy. I was looking for Reuben. Wondered if he’d have time for some lunch.’ Hayley waved the bag of apples at Tammy. ‘Join us if you’d like. There’s plenty.’ She hoped that the friendly approach would work to mend any rift between them.

‘He’s busy.’ Tammy went back to her bookings on the computer, ignoring Hayley completely.

‘I’ll just go and ask, then, shall I?’ Hayley’s overtures weren’t exactly working.

Tammy acted in her usual off-hand manner, shrugging. It was probably the closest Hayley was going to get to a woman-to-woman agreement that Tammy must concede defeat where Reuben was concerned. At least the girl hadn’t stared at her eye injury, so it passed the first test.

Hayley wandered through the gym until she spotted Reuben assisting with the free weights. She stood quietly in the doorway as he finished fixing the load for one of his female clients. He got plenty of admiring glances from women as he worked. It would seem she wasn’t the only one who found him hot, but that was to be expected when he had a physique like a Michelangelo statue. Most of it already on view in his cut-off vest. She was getting horny just thinking about running her hands over those ripped muscles and letting him run his hands over her.

The lunch box in her hand suddenly seemed like a feeble excuse for what was really on her mind. She waved it at him when he glanced up and saw her, and his face broke into a sunny smile. He, at least, was pleased to see her.

‘I wondered if you had time for lunch?’

Reuben stepped away from the bench, and Hayley saw a frown of irritation cross the pretty features of the woman who’d had his undivided attention until she arrived. She bit back a smile of her own. Reuben made her feel good about herself even when he wasn’t trying.

‘Always got time to eat,’ he told her, approaching. His intonation suggested an appetite for something other than food, but perhaps that was her overheated imagination working furiously. Just being near him made her heart pick up pace. ‘It’s a lovely day. We could have a picnic in the roof garden.’

Her face must have registered disbelief. She’d been up on that flat, grey space once before. ‘Roof garden?’

‘What?’ he queried, laughing at her. ‘You don’t believe me? Come on.’

He swept her through the gym, stopping to raid the fridge for a couple of family-sized cartons of yoghurt.

Hayley looked stunned. ‘I know you must eat plenty to maintain a physique like yours, Reuben, but honestly. Two? Half-litres?’

He had a wicked glint in his eye that made her shiver in anticipation. ‘It’ll all get eaten, don’t you worry about that. I don’t intend to waste a drop.’ He grabbed a couple of bottles of spring water in his other hand, as his final contribution. With Reuben leading the way, they went up the back staircase and through the doors. She stepped out into a paradise filled with pots of palms and acers, troughs of colourful flowers, water features, and sun loungers.

‘I’ve been working on it for a couple of months,’ he told her. ‘Thought it would add an extra dimension to the spa facilities.’

‘It’s beautiful.’ She turned around in the space, taking in all the plants. She turned into Reuben’s arms.

He tried to hug her, still holding on to the food. ‘You’re beautiful,’ he said.

Suddenly he was too close, too intense. She was conscious of the fading bruise around her eye and pulled away, pretending to look for somewhere to put the food down.

‘I hope you’re hungry.’ Sitting on the edge of one of the loungers, she placed the lunch on an adjacent table.

Reuben stepped astride the lounger she was on and swung her legs up, pressing her back into the recline-angled back support. ‘I plan on being a really naughty boy and starting with dessert.’ He put his warm hands on her knees and pushed them apart, sitting down between them. His thighs rested over the tops of hers, sitting close. He reached for a carton of yoghurt.

‘You’ve forgotten to bring spoons,’ she murmured. Her mouth was dry, breathing erratic.

‘Don’t need a spoon for what I’ve got in mind. I’m going to eat mine off your body and you can eat yours off mine.’

He pulled his T-shirt over his head, retrieved the carton, and peeled off the lid. ‘I intend to get you all messed up. You might want to lose the clothes.’

Instantly, her body went on alert. Her nipples throbbed and her pussy began to seep its gentle slickness. It had been days, and she was ready to be touched by Reuben. Ready to be tasted by him. Gripping the stretchy fabric of her top, she stripped it from her body. Reuben waited still and silent, controlling his breathing, his responses. She knew what he was waiting for. He communicated it to her through his shallow breath. She slipped the straps of her bra off her shoulders and reached between her cupped breasts to unclip the front clasp.

The full weight of her firm breasts sprung free as the garment parted to expose her body to his gaze.

‘Oh yes. That’s it, princess.’ His eyes fixed on her nipples as they hardened. The slight, warm breeze encircling the roof shivered across her body as it stirred the fronds of the ferns beside her.

Reuben brought the uncovered pot up to her breast and tilted it slowly. They both watched as a thick, creamy dollop dropped over her nipple. The cold intensity hit her nerves and she arched her back, encouraging him to stimulate her further with his fingers, his tongue.

But he waited.

The soft wetness moved slowly over her skin. Gravity drew it down her curves, outwards, trickling over the sensitivity of her flesh until she squirmed.

She lifted her full breast in her hand, offering it to Reuben to feed upon. Begging him with her eyes to begin what she longed for.

‘Reuben?’ Her hips moved minutely beneath him at the urgent insistence of her teased pussy.

He grasped the shorts at her hip bones and drew them gently down, taking her panties with them as she raised her body and his heavy thighs off the lounger. She lay back, watching his eyes travel over her nakedness with her thighs bound by her open shorts. He watched as the yoghurt continued rolling slowly down the curve of her breast, tickling her skin, like a butterfly crawling across it.

He bent over her, placing his tongue at the underside of her breast. Its warm wetness followed the trail of sweet cream upwards, towards her peaked tip, veering off around it. He circled the rosy centre, avoiding the direct stimulation of his touch. Hayley’s frustration mounted at his patient approach. Wanting his mouth on her nipple, she offered her breast to him again, pointing it upwards, silently begging his services. Her tongue snaked out and moistened her lips, making him stare heatedly at its movement.

Reuben tipped the icy yoghurt once more over her nipple, making her groan out her longing, but he waited once again as it slithered downwards, following the tormenting path it had travelled before. The too-subtle stimulation clawed at her nerve endings. Her hips ground upwards, bucking beneath Reuben’s body.

‘Gentle,’ he crooned. ‘We’re going to take this slowly.’

‘I want you.’

Her pleas drew from Reuben a tight smile. ‘You want sex with me. That’s different.’

She heard the censure in his words but she knew he wanted her body too. What she didn’t know was why he seemed angry with her, even as he wanted her? She knew he would make her wait. It was punishment and pleasure.

Hayley plunged her fingers into the pot and drew out a slippery heap, which dripped between her fingers. She smoothed the sweet cream over Reuben’s hard nipple, massaging it into his bulging pectoral muscle. Her fingers fretted against the tip over and over, making his breath catch. She sat up, fixing her tongue to his flesh, and lapped, drawing the tight tip firmly into her mouth. His groan of ecstasy rumbled deep in his chest.

Suddenly he pressed her back, detaching her greedy mouth from his body. He pushed himself up on his feet and, clasping her behind her knees, pulled Hayley down until she was lying flat on her back beneath him. He manhandled her shorts off her lower legs and spread her knees wide.

Taking the carton, Reuben poured a steady trickle of yoghurt over her pussy mound. It oozed through her hot slit, teasing her clit with slow, cool trails of movement. Reuben bent to lick the deluge from her creamy fissure with long, firm strokes of his tongue. Once more he tormented her, raising her expectations yet avoiding any direct stimulation of her clitoris.

He opened her pussy lips with his fingers, exposing her hooded swollen clit. He let the thick, sweet heavy yoghurt seep drip by drip, allowing it to hit precisely from a height. Each weighty, wet globule that dropped ratcheted her tension higher. She moaned and writhed, longing for Reuben’s tongue to soothe the unbearable craving from her rhythmically pulsing centre.

‘Please, Reuben. Touch me.’ Her fingers strayed to the aching need between her legs. She parted her folds and looked up at him, inviting Reuben to pleasure her directly. ‘Please, baby.’ She panted through her need.

Reuben pushed her hands aside and, holding her pussy lips apart with one hand, trailed another thin stream of iciness over her clit, through her labia, which pooled at the entrance to her vagina. Her hips rose to catch and contain as much as she could. The slow prickle over her nerve endings made her mewl with frustrated longing for a firmer, more defined touch.

Hayley’s sexual frustration built into temper. ‘Reuben, I swear, if you don’t make me come right now, I won’t be responsible for my actions.’

He barked a laugh at her mounting need, revealing his own. ‘We’ve got a long way to go yet, princess, before I’m going to let you come.’

‘Why, Reuben?’ This wasn’t the way they played the game. She came over when she needed him. She got what she wanted. They both did. But she was excited by his control and crazy scared to admit it.

His expression looked stern. It was more than just his need for sex. He was really glaring at her. ‘Because I don’t want to be your quick fuck any more.’

He sounded angry. What the hell was this? He wanted to fuck her too. She knew he did. His cock was jumping right out of his shorts.

She wasn’t about to let him play mind games with her. Not Reuben. Hayley began to push him away. He thrust her back down on the lounger and lowered his head to her pussy, his tongue to her clit, and lapped long and sucked hard. She sank back into the mounting sensations that coursed through her, moaning long and low. She couldn’t think about what he’d said, right now. She just wanted to come. A mind-shattering orgasm to blot out everything else.

Reuben inched his tongue into her vagina, gathering the vanilla and the slickness of her come and distributing it across her valley in slow swirls. Hayley clasped his head between her hands, driving him on. He pulled back.

‘I told you. You’re not ready to come yet.’ His voice sounded harsh.

‘I am,’ she insisted. ‘Please. I want to.’ She panted out the words.

‘Today it’s what I want that counts too.’ He sounded mad. Mad at her? What the hell was going on here?

She’d make him give her what she wanted.

Hayley struggled out from beneath him. He moved backwards, not trying to restrain her. With a force even she didn’t know she possessed, she pushed him round to lie in her place. He was still angry with her, even though he complied. It came off him in waves. She didn’t know why he was so mad with her, but she knew how to make it better. It was frustration. What else could it be?

Grasping the second pot of yoghurt from the table, she ripped off the lid. ‘Take off your shorts,’ she ordered.