P I Honeytrap (14 page)

She knew he wanted her. The speed he ripped his clothes off revealed need as well as rage. His rock-solid erection confirmed it. She poured half the carton across his cock and over his balls. He winced as the icy cream landed on his overheated skin. With both hands, fingers interlinked, she slicked tightly up his shaft, circling the tip with her thumbs, rubbing the chilled dessert over every inch of his organ. It pulsed under her caress.

Her palms encircled his balls, massaging the yoghurt over the entire surface. She varied the pressure on those orbs from light and tormenting to a firm squeeze that made Reuben glare at her in warning, holding his breath, lest she planned to crush them completely. He dared her to choose, keeping his arms folded behind his head. He trusted her, she knew, even if something made him infuriated with her.

At last, she rewarded his dominance. Lowering her head, she began lapping at him. Her tongue slowly teased across his sensitive balls, recovering the yoghurt, and he moaned her name aloud. He wasn’t angry with her. He wanted her. The wait had just been frustration, that was all. She trailed her tongue slowly up his erect shaft and heard him groan.

‘You’re not ready to come yet, Reuben. Don’t even try.’ She whispered his own words against his thrusting shaft.

He grunted out a harsh laugh at her mockery. ‘You have no idea, princess. Better not put me to the test.’ His taut stomach muscles clenched as he fought to hold himself in check.

Hayley pressed her lips around the tip of his cock and sucked it slowly into her mouth, just beyond the ridge, before expelling it again.

‘Oh yeah. That feels so good.’

She tipped around it with her lithe tongue. Reuben reached for her nipples and started to play their creamy stickiness through his fingers, making her cry out. Her need for firm stimulation had not abated, and the delay in his touch had only made her more responsive when it finally arrived.

She revelled in the sensations that ripped between her nipples and her pussy as she took his member deep into her mouth. He rose up gently to slide his cock along the back of her throat. She could tell he was near to coming and withdrew her mouth completely.

‘Am I ready to come yet, Reuben?’ she mocked, sitting well back from any body contact between them.

She held her hands in the air as if to warn him she would not touch him again if she didn’t get the answer she wanted. Then she slowly caressed her own breasts, manipulating them hard, writhing beneath her touch and moaning at the contact of her thumbs over her nipples. He grew tense and hard as he watched her erotic act.

They stared deeply into each other’s eyes. He nodded his answer, beyond speech. It was her triumph and they both knew it. Hayley knelt astride him and guided his erection through the sticky, sweet folds of her pussy, drawing the silky head over her clit repeatedly before sinking over his shaft as it engorged in her tight passage.

Her slow, hip-grinding movements rapidly grew in speed until she was fucking his shaft with an intensity she had rarely felt before. The tension stiffened her thighs and swept across her nerve-centre, tightening her belly, in elevating waves. Reuben twisted her nipples between his fingers and sank his mouth over one, sucking firmly. He drew it into his mouth, pulling and tugging until she heard her own scream erupt as she came more violently than she had ever done before.

Reuben’s hands lifted her hips and ground her pussy onto his cock until his features contorted and his come exploded through her hot cavern. He yelled out how much he loved to fuck her tight pussy. Spent, he hugged her tightly to his chest and they both hyperventilated in the intense aftershocks of orgasmic delay. Hayley could feel his heart thudding through her consumed body.

When their breathing finally returned to normal, he brushed the hair gently back from Hayley’s face and kissed her mouth slowly. She let him. It was as if Reuben was reaffirming that he had crossed that barrier and was not going back over it again.

‘Now are you going to tell me how you got that black eye?’ he asked.

She stiffened. ‘Was that what all this was about?’ Her head flipped around to encompass the garden, the sun lounger. His anger. She struggled out of his embrace and reached for her shorts. ‘Just to find out about me?’

‘Of course not.’ He sounded really pissed that she would think that. ‘All this, as you call it, is about how much I care about you. And I’d like to know how you got hurt. Because I care.’

Hayley knew she was being touchy. Defensive. It had become her default mode and she didn’t want it to push Reuben away any more. But she couldn’t tell him what she really did for a living. And she was one black eye too close to having to do just that. ‘It was just a mistake. One of the hazards of the job.’

‘I’d like it if you would tell me about it.’

He sounded totally reasonable, as always. Somehow that made her want to be more secretive. ‘You know what I do.’

‘Do I?’ Reuben sounded like he wasn’t messing.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘I saw you the other night.’ Reuben’s voice was soft. He got up and stepped towards her.

She crossed her arms over her naked breasts. A defensive posture. ‘Were you spying on me?’

‘I wouldn’t do that. But I did see you driving home.’

The thought of him seeing her dressed up like a whore, returning from that horrendous assignment, shot a bolt of rage through her. She wanted to keep her two worlds completely apart. Didn’t want to sully the good one with the bad. ‘It’s none of your business.’

‘I’m sorry you think that way, Hayley, because I want to make you my business. Especially if someone’s hurting you.’ He bent over, retrieved her top, and handed it to her.

She snatched it from him and turned her back to put it on. Even she knew it was a bit late to act coy.

‘No one is hurting me. I’ve got it covered. I don’t need any man looking out for me, so you can get that idea out of your head right now.’ Her stepfather was supposed to have been looking out for her too and she knew how that one ended.

He looked hurt. And sounded pissed. ‘I’m sorry to hear that.’

If it kept him from getting closer than he had any reason to be, she didn’t care if she hurt him. ‘Thanks for the fuck. It was sensational. As always. See you around.’ She started for the door, feeling really lousy.

Reuben caught her by the arm. ‘Don’t do this. Can’t we sit and eat lunch like you planned and talk about it?’

‘I’m not hungry any more, and my business activities are none of yours.’ She pulled her arm from his grasp and Reuben watched her go without trying to stop her again. She couldn’t resist one final barb. ‘Stop trying to make this more than it is.’

‘Which is?’

‘Casual sex.’ She just had to keep pushing him away. It didn’t make her feel any better either. In fact, it made her feel so lousy she wanted to run back, throw herself into his arms, and tell him everything.

Only she couldn’t. Just couldn’t.

Hayley was glad the office was empty when she returned. She couldn’t tell Reuben the exact nature of her PI speciality so how dare he try to make her reveal it? He would never understand. What man would? Then they’d start to control you. Hayley couldn’t handle living with a bullying, controlling man ever again. Stepfather or lover.

Why did she have to keep pushing him away, though? Deep down she admitted her feelings for Reuben might be stronger than she pretended. It scared her.

She was a fool if she thought she could have any sort of relationship with Reuben. Even a casual sex thing. She had been right all along. It had to end. She wasn’t going round there again, no matter how much it hurt. It would hurt a whole lot more to fall for Reuben only for him to reject her, saying she was little more than a whore.

It was what her stepfather called her innocent mother just because she couldn’t live with his bullying ways any more. And if Reuben really had seen the way she was dressed the other night, then he was clearly thinking it already about her. It was why he wanted to know what she was up to. It was why she could never tell him.

Or see him again.

Reuben stood motionless as Hayley fled once more. He had handled it badly. Very badly. He had let his feelings for her get the better of him. And that wasn’t how to handle Hayley. He didn’t know why, but she was hurting and he wanted to help her.

He had to fight every instinct in his body not to go after her and drag her back. Hold her tight until she listened to him. Until he made her hear that he really cared. Not about what she was doing, but about what it was doing to her.

Close up, he could see she had the remnants of a black eye. However much he tried to kid himself that he was mistaken, it really was her he had seen that night driving along the road. He wouldn’t even pretend to be happy about what he thought had been going on, but she had him all wrong. He wasn’t trying to control her. If he was, he would never have let her run from him again. It was her life to lead whatever way she chose. But he cared about her safety. He cared because he thought he was falling in love with her. And he had no idea what he was going to do with that either.

Chapter Eleven

Hayley’s week only got worse. After her unkind words to Reuben, his strange attitude, and her decision to end the pain for both of them, she wanted only to throw herself into the oblivion of work. Except now she had to deal with Alice’s emotions as well.

Not everyone could handle the feelings that inevitably got involved in their line of work. Marty, of course, was going around like the cat that got the cream. That made Alice moody as all hell. Hayley blotted out everything but the task.

‘I don’t see why I couldn’t take on this assignment,’ Paolo pouted.

Hayley quickly put him straight. ‘You’re not ready yet. Besides, you’d look like my toy boy and I need you on coms. That’s where your talents lie.’

‘Are you sure about that?’ Paolo gave Hayley what he thought must be a sexy, smouldering grin, waggling his eyebrows at her. Hayley laughed at him. If he knew how much he looked like an ageing lothario, a dirty old man in a 23-year-old body, he would have laughed too. ‘Who says I’m not ready?’ he demanded.

‘I do and I’m the boss.’ Honestly, the kid had no idea, beyond what went on in his fertile imagination, just how emotionally exhausting these assignments were. She often made light of it for the benefit of crew morale, but it took its toll. Hayley had to be in a strong place emotionally to deal with it. She shoved rising thoughts of Reuben back down into the black depths of her mind. Her feelings for him had weakened her; she had to fight them. ‘Besides, you’ve got exams coming up. They’re more important.’

‘You sound like my mama.’

‘Then be a good boy and do as mama tells you. There’s time enough for you to take on live action in the field. I really need you for the technical stuff. OK?’

‘OK,’ Paolo conceded.

‘And you can stop being so smug,’ Alice remarked to Marty. ‘You’re not getting what you think you’re getting.’

‘Who says I’m not?’ he responded, provoking Alice deliberately.

‘I say,’ Hayley butted in. She didn’t need any more dramatics to handle. She had quite enough in her own life. ‘Let’s get this whole scenario straight before we all start scratching each other’s eyes out.’

The team took notice of the no-nonsense tone in her voice and settled down. Everyone knew when the fun and games were over. This business meant everything to Hayley, and nobody intended jeopardising it for her. She knew that.

‘Cheryl Stanton, our client, and her husband, Tony, are swingers.’

‘They have parties where everyone throws their car keys in a bowl and pairs off with the owner of the set they pull from the pile.’ Alice gave her customary succinct appraisal of the situation.

‘So what’s the problem?’ asked Marty. ‘Why would she hire us?’

‘Even swingers have ground rules, Marty.’ Alice glared at him. She still hadn’t fully accepted that the guy she was sweet on would be so thrilled about being the one to partner Hayley on this particular honeytrap.

Hayley settled them with a stare and glanced at the file. ‘Cheryl suspects that Tony isn’t playing by the rules. It was his idea in the first place that they experiment in this arena. She allowed herself to be persuaded.’ The look she trailed around the ensemble ensured they knew exactly what she thought about that.

Alice continued. ‘Mrs Stanton agreed as long as they followed those rules.’

‘So which one has he broken?’ Paolo interrupted.

‘That’s what we’ve been hired to find out. Now we know the place, because this time the couples are meeting at the Stantons’ own property. That makes the setting up of recording equipment easy.’

Hayley handed Paolo a slip of paper. ‘Here are the details and the times when Tony will be away from home today. You’ll have plenty of time to work. And no wise cracks to the client.’

‘Who, me?’

‘What will I be doing?’ Alice asked.

Hayley knew Alice’s emotions were brittle but this was the deal. If she wanted into the business, she had to know that you couldn’t afford to let personal feelings get in the way. If she could cast her feelings aside, then so could Alice. Even if it meant leaving Reuben.

‘You can stand down tonight, Alice. Perhaps before you go, you should take Marty to one side and explain that he may be acting as my partner and getting paired up with our client tonight, but we’re not investigating her.’

‘So he better not try anything on with Mrs Stanton.’ Alice got the message and, picking up with the double act, made sure Marty did too, with another glare.

Marty put his hands up, palms out, in surrender to Alice. ‘I get it. What I don’t get is how we are going to make sure we get the right pairings?’

‘It’s all taken care of. The women get to choose the men’s keys. Cheryl knows what Marty’s will look like.’ Hayley held up a new Porsche key ring with Marty’s old Jeep keys attached, to Alice’s snort of derision. ‘But we’ll hold them back to the end. And I know what Tony’s look like and will pick them out pretty darn quick, before some other woman gets the chance to. Anyway, Cheryl Stanton will give us first dip in the candy jar, as the new kids on the block. That should make it easy.’

‘What exactly are we looking for, boss?’ Marty asked.

‘The Stantons’ agreed rules are straight sex, only at parties, and no follow-ups.’

‘Sounds like my sex life,’ Paolo moaned, making Hayley roll her eyes and Alice pinch his cheeks in mock sympathy.

Hayley continued. ‘If Tony deviates from their agreed path, I want to get it on camera.’

‘But she must suspect him of breaking those rules already, if she’s hiring us,’ Paolo stated.

‘Looks that way,’ Hayley agreed. ‘All I know is she wants everything we can get on him and there’s nothing like proof on camera, luckily for us, or we’d be out of business. Anyway, that’s her business. Now, is everyone clear on their role tonight?’

A murmur of assent circulated. ‘Great. Paolo, you’d better get out there now and do your thing. Marty, take a break before tonight. Alice, can you man the office and lock up as soon as we set off for the job?’

‘Can I go with Paolo in the van?’ Alice wondered.

‘Sure. If I take a holiday, it may be you on camera one day.’

Now it was Marty’s turn to look put out, to Alice’s smug satisfaction.

Perhaps those guys were made for each other, after all? The thought of happy couples made Reuben flash through her mind once more, but Hayley shoved him firmly back out again.

Reuben wasn’t so lucky. Hayley drifted into his thoughts so often that day he found it difficult to focus on the gym. He finally took a break and went up to the roof garden to get away from everyone and think.

It was a bad move. The only thing he could think about up here was Hayley. No one had used the garden yet but them, and everything about the place reminded him of her. Especially the way she responded to his touch. She wanted him, he knew she did. And it was more than just sex. Whatever she said.

Reuben stared at the lounger and pictured Hayley lying there. He recalled himself tipping yoghurt over her sweet, tight nipples and felt the sensations in his mouth as he sucked them to hard, hot berries over his tongue. He could almost hear her soft moans; see her languid posture.

Reuben felt his erection burgeoning as he stood there and thought about her sexy body. He lay down on the lounger and shut his eyes for a moment, but only conjured her more vividly into his thoughts. He visualised her reclining, remembered his hands at her hips as he drew her shorts and panties down her thighs, exposing her shaven pussy.

His cock throbbed its own need now and he craved Hayley there with him, underneath him, as he thrust his hot weapon into her tight, silken sheath. He recalled the slickness of her cream as it poured like sweet honey from her vagina; felt himself smearing it around her responsive clit with his horny fingers.

Reuben’s fingers moved, re-enacting their fucking of her pussy. He groaned out loud, missing her. Wanting her.

His hand dipped beneath the elastic waistband of his sweat pants. He smiled ruefully as it readily found his hard shaft. He had taken to leaving off his boxers in anticipation of Hayley coming to him. He wanted his body available to her, even for snatched moments. He remembered what he’d said to her, the words born of temper and frustration. That he didn’t want to be her quick fuck any more. But it wasn’t the whole truth.

What he’d wanted to say was that he wanted to be so much more.

God in heaven, why couldn’t he have just told her how he felt? He’d been so thrilled to see her; so happy that she’d chosen to come to him again. But he couldn’t wait to get her clothes off. Just couldn’t wait to fuck her. When she was around him, she made him feel so crazy with lust that he had no patience at all.

He’d tried to hold back but even that had turned around on him. It was her completion he’d tried to delay. And what was that all about? Was he as angry with her, wanting to punish her, as he was happy to see her?

He remembered the night he’d seen her drive past, dressed like a streetwalker. Beaten up. Hurt. And it had made him hurt. For her. For him. What the hell was going on, and why couldn’t she trust him?

Except the way he’d behaved the other day meant she was right not to. She’d run from him again, but this time it was his own fault. He had to be the one to make this better. He couldn’t leave things the way they were. He needed her too badly, and he knew she needed him.

He wanted her. Here. Now. Around him. Under him.

His mind summoned up her warm little hand encircling his rigid cock, in place of his own. She was the one he felt lifting and rolling the skin over the steel rod, rampantly surging above his balls. His breathing grew laboured as he fulfilled the task for her, stroking up and down. Pulling and pushing.

He wanted his fingers between her soft thighs, drawing her hot come over her clit, agitating her wet pussy to a bucking, thrusting frenzy until she was begging him to penetrate her, hard and fast. Reuben speeded up his manual movements back and forth.

Two fingers on his empty hand curled upwards again and thrust as, with closed eyes, he imagined penetrating her hot, damp tunnel. In and out, faster and faster, until she was moaning and yelping for him to fuck her, the way she did with that throaty, sexy little cry. He loved the husky sound of pure need in her voice whenever she begged him to thrust his body into hers. To make her come hard.

Reuben twisted to his knees and thrust into her imaginary vacuum, bucking his hips in furious desire as he kissed her fantasy lips and thrust his tongue into her willingly hot, open mouth as she suckled on his tongue.

‘Hayley, I want to fuck you so bad. I need you. I love you.’ He growled deep and low as hot semen shot through his fingers and he spent his lonely frustration.

He sank back onto his heels on the lounger, breathing hard, coaxing the last of his emissions from his twitching shaft but feeling more unsatisfied than ever; so obviously alone. Hayley now existed as his lover only in his dark imagination. It was a lonely place to be.

He righted his clothing. To hell with giving her space, letting her call the shots. He was going around there tonight, after she got through with work, to tell her exactly how he felt about her.

He was going to tell her that he loved her and wanted her. That he needed her. Mind, body, and soul.

*               *               *

Hayley and Marty arrived at the Stantons’ door, hand in hand, like any wedded couple who were making pretence of their undying love while eagerly anticipating getting their rocks off with other partners. Hayley found the whole farce spectacularly hideous. It was cheating, plain and simple. And who would have thought that a girl like her, with a job like hers, would be so straight-laced, hold such old-fashioned views of what a relationship should be? But maybe that’s what comes of having a cheating stepfather who broke her mother’s heart.

She wanted no part of any sham connection with a man. If you want casual sex, there should be no doubts, like with her and Reuben. But even that couldn’t last.

The thought stopped her in her tracks again and she had to force her mind back on the job. What was it with her lately? Why couldn’t she get that man out of her head? Especially now it was well and truly over.

Cheryl and Tony answered the door together like any good hosts. It was probably a charade for their neighbours in the suburbs. People never knew what went on behind closed doors, even if it was right under their noses. Now another hateful image of her stepfather filtered in under her mind’s control. Damn it. Get out. You have no place in my life either.

She felt ready to nail Tony Stanton, the bastard. No matter that he looked harmless. She knew they all looked pretty harmless from the outside, even when they were ruining women’s lives.

‘Welcome to our home …?’ Tony said.

‘Joy and Will.’ Hayley supplied the agreed aliases.

Tony ignored Marty as he took Hayley by the elbow and led the way inside. He ran his eyes with pleasure over her body, making her feel really uncomfortable, especially as she could sense his wife getting quietly irritated by his attentions.

It was already clear that Cheryl really wasn’t into this sharing scenario, but was that because Tony was pushing the set boundaries and her buttons, or because she had been unwillingly persuaded in the first place? She guessed they were all about to find out.

Marty did his job of diverting Cheryl’s attention a little, complimenting her on her outfit. Hayley presumed there could be nothing worse than getting paired off with someone who found you unattractive. Or vice versa.

Hayley wore a pretty dress that was reasonable enough for a dinner party to delude the neighbours, but tight and short enough to hint at the sexual pleasures waiting beneath. It did the job it was meant to do. Tony’s stare of admiration as her hemline rode up her bare thighs when she sat down was evident.

‘Drinks, Tony? Cheryl enquired. There was already a faint hint of irritation in her voice.

Perhaps Cheryl’s suspicions were nearer to a certainty than a suspicion, which didn’t make the job any easier. It was never fun working under the spotlight of the offended party. They might be there at Cheryl’s request, but Hayley thought the looks she was getting suggested the lady wanted to kill her.