Читать книгу Private Investigations - Tori Carrington, Tori Carrington - Страница 7

SLICK FINGERS slid down the length of the long, hard surface then back up again. Moist heat swirled up and around, dampening her skin, making her long for something that was taking far too long to achieve. She gave a good squeeze, gauging the liquid ready to ooze out, then rested her cheek against the familiar object she’d been longing to get her fingers around all day.

Ripley Logan finally judged the bathtub water deep enough, uncapped the bottle of bubble bath in her hand and upended it. She watched, mesmerized, as the contents mixed with the rapidly falling water. She couldn’t wait to sink in and soak away the weariness that had built up through the long day.

Okay, she admitted, maybe she’d made more informed decisions in her life. Sitting on the side of the hotel room bathtub, she took a deep breath, allowing the smell of peaches to wash away some of her exhaustion. Who would have thought being a private investigator would be so grueling? Exciting, yes. That was the whole reason she’d learned how to handle a firearm, taken six months worth of specialized classes and studied up on the finer points of surveillance equipment. But her first case, and second day on the job, and she was wondering why no one had told her about the long hours, the countless people who wouldn’t talk to her even if she threatened Chinese torture treatment and, well, the plain loneliness of the job. Turning the nearly empty bottle upright, she capped it then stretched to her feet. Muscles she’d forgotten she had hurt. If the reason for her tired state had been interesting, that would be one thing. Pounding the pavement looking for a woman who didn’t want to be found was quite another.

She glanced at the time, then took off her watch and laid it on the sink. After midnight, and she was no closer to finding out anything more about a certain missing person, Nicole Bennett, than she had been twelve hours ago, roughly the time her plane set down at Memphis International Airport.

Ripley could practically hear her mother saying, “Maybe they’ll take you back at your old job, honey. You do have six years in there. And you’re a reliable and skilled worker. I’m sure they’ll understand that you’ve had a change of heart.”

Merely imagining the conversation with her mother was enough to snap Ripley’s spine straight. The company she’d worked for had been bought out by another company, and a good third of the employees had been offered early retirement or attractive severance packages. She’d been the first in line to take one of the latter. Of course, the part she’d never tell her mother was that she’d seen the offer as a sign that she should stop chomping at the bit and run full out. The perfect opportunity to do something more exciting with her life. Something that didn’t involve carrying an extra pair of nylons in her purse and hours shopping for dress shoes that wouldn’t kill her.

Not that she expected her mother—or her father either, for that matter—to understand her recent decision. Vivian Logan had been forty-five when she and Fred had given up trying to have a child of their own and adopted Ripley. They’d always been out of step with her friends’ younger parents. While classmates were having cool birthday parties with roller-skating or movie themes, she had suffered through Kool-Aid and cupcake get-togethers with games of pin the tail on the donkey—or worse, piñatas. It wouldn’t have been so bad when she was five. But she’d been fifteen.

After the last humiliating experience, when her mother had introduced crazy string to the party and emptied an entire can on top of Jason McCaffee’s handsome blond head, she’d talked her parents into the notion that she was an adult and no longer needed parties, and her birthdays were marked with a quiet dinner out with her parents.

Yes, she knew her latest career move would worry the hell out of them. But the thought of continuing with her blah life the way it was scared the hell out of her. It would be one thing if she actually made her parents happy by leading her life the way she thought they wanted her to. The problem was that they seemed ceaselessly exasperated by her decisions, especially during her very brief but frequent streaks of rebellion that neither began nor ended with adolescence. Rather, Ripley had come to suspect that the alter ego behind those streaks was the real her. And she’d found it was fun finally letting her out to play.

She unstrapped her brand-spanking-new nickel-plated 9mm from her shoulder holster and weighed the two and a half pounds of steel in her hands. Despite how many times she held it, she couldn’t get used to seeing herself holding the firearm. She felt like a kid playing cowboys and was ceaselessly filled with the urge to point it and mouth, “Pow, pow!” Only if she did it now, the pow would put a very real hole in something or someone.

The pad of her index finger easily slid to rest against the trigger. Her thumb checked the safety. It was all she could do not to hold it out, close one eye and aim at an imaginary tobacco-chewing cowboy. Instead, she pushed the cartridge release, caught the magazine, then thrust it into place, shivering at the metallic clicks and scratches. She let the powerful firearm drop to her side, then placed it on the sink beside her watch. The way things were going, the only shooting action she’d ever see was at the range. She twisted her lips. Not that she thought she could shoot anyone if the situation called for it. There was a big difference between a black-and-white outline of an individual and an actual flesh-and-blood human being. But just the thought that she could if there was absolutely no other choice made her smile.

And to think, only last week her biggest physical risk had been getting a paper cut.

The problem was that right now she’d be downright ecstatic with a paper cut.

Ripley sighed and pushed her auburn curls from her face. Okay, so today hadn’t been as thrilling as she’d hoped. But that didn’t mean things wouldn’t liven up tomorrow. If foul play was involved in Nicole Bennett’s disappearance, then Ripley was going to uncover it. All she needed was a nice long bath and a good night’s sleep. Things couldn’t possibly look as bad in the morning.

Suds flooded over the side of the tub to pool at her feet. Ripley rushed to shut off the faucet. The water level was midtub. Perfect. She stripped out of her slacks, shirt and panties, then gingerly stepped into the tub. As she stood there, growing accustomed to the heat of the water, she glanced in the bathroom mirror, then did a double take. What was it about hotels that they had to position every mirror so that you had a view of every corner of the place, much less of your personal self? Choosing to ignore the bit of cellulite that begged for exercise on her right thigh, she noted that the bathroom mirror reflected the mirror on the bathroom door that in turn reflected off the mirror in the bedroom, which then revealed a view of the sitting room. She supposed some guests found comfort in seeing their surroundings—and perhaps even their stubborn cellulite. For Ripley it only served as a reminder that she was alone in one of the best hotel suites Memphis had to offer.

She reached out and pushed the door to close it. Only it didn’t close all the way. As she sank into the silky bubbles she still had a sliver of a view of the rest of the suite. She closed her eyes, blocking it out.

Bubbles tickled her nose. She wiped them away with a bubble-laden hand. Well, that worked, didn’t it? She grabbed for a towel and cleaned away the fragrant bubbles, then lay back and relaxed again. Her feet felt as if she’d just run the Boston Marathon. Either that or walked the entire distance between her home city of St. Louis to Memphis. Her body felt like she’d swum the Mississippi, which was visible just beyond the open balcony doors of her bedroom. What she wouldn’t give for a thorough massage right now.

As far as she was concerned, massage was a highly underrated skill when it came to choosing members of the opposite sex. Out of the three guys she’d dated in the past five years, a total of zero had known what to do with his hands. She groaned, finding her mood going from bad to worse. After the last dating disaster, she’d given up trying to find that one guy for her, that soul mate magazines touted, the storybook prince little girls dreamed about. She’d gotten to the point where she’d accept companionship. The problem was none of the guys she had dated had been interested in that, either. So she’d decided that her entire life in general needed some livening up. Her friend Nelson Polk had made the fateful mistake of agreeing with her.

“Never found a woman who lived up to my idea of one, you know?” Nelson had said, the steel-wool-like tufts of hair above each ear not stirring as he shook his head and considered his next chess move. The late autumn weather had been mild, the St. Louis park teeming with people out to store up memories to see them through the winter ahead. “Took me three divorces and two bankruptcies to figure that one out. Don’t let the same happen to you, Ripley.”

That conversation had taken place seven months, two days and ten hours ago. Ripley could pinpoint the exact moment because it had been the only time Nelson had revealed a clue to what had led to his hanging up his P.I. hat and ultimately calling a homeless shelter home and the park his backyard. That moment would be forever locked in her mind because she could envision her life turning out just like his if she didn’t do something about it…now.

She had immediately voiced her thoughts to Nelson, expecting objections or arguments or even exasperation. Attempts to talk her out of her silly idea. Instead, he had smiled, neither encouraging her nor discouraging her. And she remembered thinking that if one day she ever did become a mother, that’s the type of parent she would be. She wouldn’t try to stuff her child into a mold. She would give her son or daughter the freedom to make his or her own decisions.

That conversation had opened an irreparable and irresistible crack in the mold she’d felt suffocated by her entire life, and she’d stepped right through it. She’d looked up shooting ranges in the phone book and held a gun in her hand for the very first time. A life-altering experience. Not because she harbored any secret desire to go around blasting people to kingdom come. That couldn’t have been further from her mind. Rather the act of standing there with her feet planted at shoulder width pointing a .22 at the target a mere five yards away shined a spotlight on her and her life. In that one moment she’d known she was solely in charge of the direction she was going. That if she continued going with the flow, making as few waves as possible, she’d end washed up on shore somewhere wondering how in the hell she’d gotten there. She’d been a secretary because… She frowned into the bubbles. It seemed so long ago even she could hardly remember. Her degree was in computer science. But she’d signed up with a temporary agency to get a feel for various companies and ended up staying a secretary.

Going with the flow.

A brief knock sounded on the hotel room door. Ripley snapped open her eyes. Room service forgot something, maybe? The bathroom mirror revealed her chef’s salad still on the table in the sitting room, untouched, the requisite glass of water, side order of dressing and bread sticks all there. She reluctantly began sitting up when she heard what sounded suspiciously like a room key being slid into the lock mechanism, then an ominous click she was afraid had allowed entrance.

Someone was coming into her room.

Ripley stared wide-eyed into the mirror even as she slowly sank lower in the tub. The first thing she saw was two hands holding a nasty-looking gun. One that made her 9mm look like a toy.

This didn’t make any sense. She’d spent all day beating the bushes, hoping for some sort of revealing reaction to her questions about Nicole Bennett’s whereabouts. The most exciting response she’d gotten was a belch from the pawnshop owner whose coffee cup probably hadn’t held coffee. At least she thought she hadn’t caused any interesting reactions. She’d have to go back over her notes on reading people. Obviously she must have brushed past that section. And now there was one—now two…and three—gunmen slinking into her room.

Speaking of guns…

Sloshing as little as possible, Ripley reached out and grabbed hers from the sink. Then disappeared completely under the bubbles.

Talk about being in over her head….

OH, BOY, was this ever a night to remember.

Joe Pruitt tossed the shoe catalog to the hotel room floor then switched off the bedside light and lay back, folding his hands behind his head. Pale moonlight streamed in from the open balcony doors, reminding him of the overly bright sliver of moon he’d seen earlier. A moon made for lovers, he remembered thinking. He grimaced. Lovers. Yeah, right. For the past ten years his only lover had been his athletic-shoe company, Sole Survivor, Inc. Well, okay, maybe he wasn’t being completely honest. There had been Tiffany in Texas. Nanette in North Dakota. Wendy in Washington. He just now realized the correlation between the names and the states, and his grimace deepened. Anyway, his relations with each of the women had lasted no more than a couple of weeks. Long enough for them to figure out that his company came first and everything else a very distant second, and for him to discover that once sex was out of the way, he had very little in common with any of the women. Not that it made much difference. He’d figured out a while ago that settling down wasn’t in his blood.

Home base was in Minneapolis, but he had a house in San Francisco, an apartment in Chicago and a condo in New Jersey, and he probably couldn’t recite the phone numbers of any of them. His cell phone. Now that was the important number.

Although recently an altogether different number had begun resonating through his brain. The number one. The Three Dog Night song of the same name had been playing right along with it. Where one had been more than okay with him before, now it seemed to be emerging the loneliest number, indeed. He noticed it during his last trip to New Mexico, when he’d landed the big deal with Shoes You Use. Deals like that one always planted a grin on his face. But for some reason, the three months of courting the account, wining and dining the company’s reps, then the bigwigs, had felt anticlimactic somehow.

Anticlimactic. Now there was a word. Yeah, well, if he’d paid more attention to the girls at the strip joint earlier, maybe even now he’d be experiencing some real climactic moments. Instead, he’d spent the four hours at the men’s club staring at the dancers’ feet, fixated on his plans to expand his collection of sports shoes to include daily wear. It was then he knew something was really wrong with him. Here were fantastically sculpted women with perfectly bare breasts, and he was fascinated with their feet.

Joe shifted uncomfortably. He was reasonably sure that the account reps he’d been schmoozing hadn’t noticed his distraction. Then again, why should they have? They’d been doing all the things normal men did when a naked woman was shaking her wares in their faces. Namely hooting, hollering and stuffing sweaty bills into barely there bikini bottoms.

Maybe he’d just been to one too many strip joints, he reasoned. There was nothing wrong with him. It was normal to encounter the odd rough patch, wasn’t it? Times when things didn’t make much sense? When a guy stopped cold in his tracks and asked himself just what it was all about, anyway?

Yeah? Well, then, why had he never experienced one before?

He’d always been happy with his bachelor status. Very happy. A jock of all sports throughout high school, he hadn’t allowed his physical capabilities to get in the way of his education and he’d graduated in the top ten percent of his class. An injury while playing college basketball had left him facing a long recovery period. But rather than wallowing in self-pity, he’d traced his injury back to the shoes he’d been wearing and had designed the first of what would be many pairs. He’d graduated, was featured in Forbes at age twenty-five and for all intents and purposes was one of the most successful bachelors on either side of the Mississippi. He’d even finally managed to earn his father’s stamp of approval a couple years back when he’d finagled a sponsorship deal with a top player with the Minnesota Timberwolves. A basketball fan from way back, his retired Army colonel father had grinned from the courtside seat the entire season. It was the first time Joe had ever seen tears in his father’s eyes, the day when the entire team had posed for a picture with the old man in center court.

Joe found himself grinning. Yes, that had definitely been a highlight. And his actions had earned him an ally against his mother whenever she launched one of her “I want grandchildren” attacks.

Joe figured he’d had it pretty good. An only child. A successful entrepreneur. A relatively problem-free existence.

Then why in hell did he suddenly feel like he was missing the point? That there was something he just wasn’t getting?

A shadow fell across his bed from the direction of the open balcony doors. Probably a cloud. He rolled over, away from the balcony, and folded the pillow under his head. He had a full day on tap for tomorrow. Another tour through the target company’s inventory warehouse. A look at charts and graphs of how their other products were doing. Another night spent playing the good old boy.

The sheet around his midsection stirred. He grimaced and looked at it. What the hell?

His thoughts stopped completely when a slender female hand circled his waist from behind. Simultaneously, he felt a hot, wet body slide against his back. A very naked, hot, damp body.

Had he fallen asleep? Was this a wet dream, like the ones he used to have when he was seventeen?

The hand rested against his abs between his ribs and his navel. His stomach automatically tightened. The smell of peaches teased his nose. The details seemed very real to him. And if he was asleep, he wanted to get a glimpse of this dream girl.

He moved to turn around.

“No, don’t!” a female voice whispered, the arm tightening around his waist, the hand slipping a little lower.

Joe swallowed hard. Definitely not a dream.

Sounds of footsteps on the balcony, and more shadows fell across his bed. Then suddenly, where he’d been pinned in place moments ago, the same arm was flattening him on his back and the woman was straddling him.

Breasts. Bare breasts. That’s the first thing Joe saw as firm thighs squeezed his hips. The same type of breasts that hadn’t moved him one iota at the strip joint earlier but now made his mouth water, the stiff, peaked tips swaying a mere inch or so away.

The woman bent forward. “Stay still,” she quietly ordered.

What did she mean? He was still.

Oh. Well, maybe there was one part of him that wasn’t completely obeying.

The sound of the balcony doors being slid open, then the woman was kissing him.

No, she wasn’t kissing him. She was on the brink of devouring him. The instant her lips pressed against his, her tongue darted shamelessly inside his mouth, along the length of his, then around the interior like it was a hot, dark cave she was determined to map out.

Joe stared at her, bug-eyed in the dim yellow light. Lots of dark curly hair, wide, dark eyes—her tongue dipped again, flicking against his—and a hotly decadent mouth.

He groaned against the mattress and lifted his hands, burying his fingers in the mass of damp fragrant curls tickling his face.

Sweet Jesus, but this was better than any dream. Forgotten were the strangers on his balcony, the identity of the woman straddling him, the bizarre notion that he didn’t have any idea what was happening. All he could think about was the rush of heat to his groin, the thunk thunk of his heartbeat in his chest, the taste of the mouth even now plundering his, the feel of soft curls clasped in his fingers.

Then she moved.

Oh, God, she moved.

Joe had to break contact with that incredible mouth and groan as his erection pressed into the V of her thighs. He grasped her bare hips and held her still, his hips jutting upward against her.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized the shadows were no longer at the balcony doors.

The dream nymph on top of him moved again. But this time it was away.

Joe reached for the shadowy silhouette but missed as she padded toward the balcony. A dull click, a rasp of fabric, then the light next to his bedside table was switched on.

Joe blinked at the woman standing in front of the backdrop of the closed balcony doors and heavy maroon curtains, finding her visually every inch as delectable as she had felt. Wild, curly auburn hair framed her oval face, contrasting against her pale skin, the length brushing her shoulders. Breasts full and pouty stood high on her chest, shadowing the slender waist below. The triangle of fleecy curls between her toned thighs was just a shade darker than her hair and seemed to point toward her legs—wondrously long, shapely legs that ended in a pair of sexy feet.

But it was her eyes, almond shaped, brown and large as chestnuts, that told him what had just happened was an aberration.

“I need your help,” she said, her voice void of the sexy whisper of moments ago and filled with what he could only equate with panic.