Collin Page 3

  Noah tried to look brave as he said, “Right, like I’m afraid of a 110-pound, barely-over-five-foot-tall woman.” Noah was scared to death and Collin knew it. He laughed again. He knew Noah’s pain well.

  “I won’t tell her we talked about it. Just let me know if I need to kill anybody.”

  “Will do,” Noah told him. By the time he headed back over towards Hayden, the man had already eaten half his sandwich. “Nice, you invite me to lunch and start without me.”

  “You’re too busy gossiping. I don’t have that luxury. I’m still a cop. I have to get back to work.”

  “Yeah, yeah, poor overworked civil servant.”

  “There was another killing last night.”

  “Damn!” That sobered Noah quickly. “M.O. was all the same?”

  “Yeah. Some poor kid…junkie. Found her in the alley behind 22nd Street.”

  “Let me guess, no clues.”

  “Nothing but the necklace.”

  “Shit.”

  “You said it. So, you met Kyla?”

  “I did. What I’m most interested in knowing is how you know Kyla.”

  “She’s a friend of my wife. Pervert. Get your mind out of the gutter.”

  “You’ve seen Kyla, right? Where the hell else was my mind supposed to go?”

  “Yeah, okay. She’s hot and I’ve noticed. Lola has chewed my ass about ‘feeling her up with my eyes,’ more than once. I love my wife, though. I would never go there.”

  “I was sure you wouldn’t. Besides, I think Lola would kill you.”

  “You and me both. So what did she tell you?”

  “That she thinks her husband is the Valentine Killer. I’m confused, though. Why not go to the police…or just you?”

  “She came to me. She’s so worried about the publicity for her family. She wants to keep it on the D.L. The thing is, I’ve checked this guy out. I don’t think it’s him.”

  “So I shouldn’t take the case?”

  “I didn’t say that. Kyla’s loaded. If she wants to pay you to follow Sir Priss around, I say go for it. I just didn’t want you getting your hopes up. I know how you feel about the Valentine Killer.”

  “Hey, Noah, you eating today, or liquid lunching?” Kimmie, Noah’s favorite little server, asked as she walked by.

  “Give me a club on wheat and an iced tea,” he said.

  “An iced tea? Really? Are you okay?”

  He laughed, “Yeah, just under orders to not overdo it today. I need a haircut.” After she left, he got a look from Hayden. “What?”

  “You don’t even have to say her name or be in the same room with her to get that moonstruck look in your eyes when you talk about her.”

  “Who? Kimmie? Been there and done that. We’re just friends.”

  “You know who I’m talking about. A certain little Irish belle that owns you.”

  Noah snorted. “She only thinks she owns me. I’m the boss of that establishment.”

  Hayden took the last bite of his sandwich and drained his Coke. “I have to stand in on the autopsy in about fifteen minutes. I say take the case. Make some dough, put Kyla’s mind at ease, and admit you’re in love with Ava. See ya later.” He was almost to the door before Noah processed what he said.

  In love with Ava? No way. He liked them soft and sweet. Ava was prickly like a cactus…and hot like sitting on the sun….

  “Here you go, handsome. You want to come by Friday night? My roommates are going out of town.” Kimmie was hot too, but Noah wasn’t in love with her.

  “Seven okay?”

  “Perfect. Chinese?”

  “Right on. I’ll bring the beer.”

  “See you then,” she said, picking up the twenty Hayden left on the table and stuffing it into her bra. There was hardly room for it in there. Kimmie was fun. Ava was…complicated.

  3

  “I didn’t think you were going to make it,” Brian Zane said as Ava slid into the booth facing him.

  “Like I had any choice. You have to resort to bribery to get a date. How pathetic are you?”

  “Aw, come on, baby. Don’t be so mean.”

  “Call me baby again and you’ll see mean. What the hell do you want from me, Brian?”

  “I just want us to be friends again, Ava. We were good together.”

  “Friends? Do friends threaten to post…those kinds of pictures of their friend online if she doesn’t agree to do what he wants her to? That’s what passes for friends these days?”

  “I tried just inviting you out. You wouldn’t even talk to me. You changed your number. You moved. I was so lucky that Sean and I happened to start working together.”

  “Happened to? Really, Brian? You’re telling me you didn’t request that post?”

  “Someone is full of herself.”

  “Listen to me very carefully, Brian. I didn’t come here today to argue with you. I’m only here to tell you what I’ve already told you. I don’t date married men. Had you mentioned your wife back in college, I would have told you then. I had to stumble upon you two holding hands in the park and then you acted like you didn’t even know who I was. You can threaten to post those photos all you want, but let me tell you this…you post one of even my big toe and I find that pretty wife of yours and tell her all about you and me. All of it. Got it?”

  “You’re so pretty, Ava. I’ll bet our son looks just like you.”

  Our son? How the hell did he know…? No, she wasn’t even going to go there. Instead she said, “Do not talk about him, and stop calling me that. Go home to your wife, Brian, and don’t show back up at my parents’ house again. You may find yourself the center of my three Irish brothers’ attention.”

  “Ava…”

  “Goodbye, Brian.” Ava got up and walked out of the diner with her back straight and her head held high. She was shaking inside and felt like she wanted to throw up. Brian was the worst mistake she had ever made and now he was coming back to haunt her, and bringing her horrifying past with him.

  She got outside and sucked in a lungful of the fresh air before looking over her shoulder to make sure he hadn’t followed her. He was still in the booth where she left him. Good. She started walked up the street toward the park. She had another look over her shoulder when she got there. She was having a hard time remembering what she ever saw in that guy. Now, he just gave her the creeps. She found a bench and sat down, realizing that her hands and legs were shaking too.

  Brian and Ava dated in college. She lived on campus at Berkley in California for four years. It was her first time away from home and not under the watchful eyes of a father and three older brothers. She went a little crazy. Her sophomore and junior years were a blur to this day. She had drunk a lot and even experimented with drugs. She looked at it as finally having a little fun. It was something that she always felt she’d been denied at home. She met Brian at a frat party. Now, she let her mind drift back to that night…

  “Well, hello there, woman of my dreams.” That was what she heard. What she saw when she looked up was a hunky blond with pretty blue eyes, built like a football player. Her young hormones went crazy.

  “Hi.” She’d only had one beer at that point and was still feeling a little shy.

  “Did you just fall out of the sky? You’re like an angel.” She blushed the color of her hair. She hadn’t known what to say to that. She was still trying to think of something when he put his arm around her and said, “Why don’t we step out and get some fresh air?”

  Ava let him lead her out the side door of the frat house. They were in some kind of courtyard and it was dark. As soon as they were outside, he was all over her. He pressed her body against the wall and started kissing her. She was shocked by that, but much more so by the fact that he was also grabbing a handful of her ass while he probed her mouth with his tongue. She finally put her hands on his chest and pushed him back. She could hardly see his face because it was so dark, but she could tell that he was grinning at her.

  “What the hell do
you think you’re doing?”

  “I’m sorry. You’re just so pretty, I couldn’t resist.”

  Ava’s good sense told her to be very, very pissed and run away. Her inexperience and poor self-esteem at the time made her second-guess herself. “Thank you,” she finally said, “but I don’t even know your name. I’m not going to be groped by a complete stranger.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said again. That time he actually sounded sincere. “I’m Brian Zane, who might you be?”

  “Ava Kelly,” she said.

  “I am so pleased to meet you.” He took her right hand in his and shook it. Then he leaned in close and said, “Now that we’re not complete strangers, can I kiss you again?” There is no substitute for the stupidity of youth.

  “I suppose,” she told him, “but no ass grabbing.” He grinned again and put his hands up on the wall behind her. He kissed her then and that kiss was so good that her panties were soaking wet by the time he finished. Ava was sure it had something to do with the position of his body as well. He wasn’t grabbing her ass, but he was sure as hell grinding his erection into her. By the time he let her up for air, she was ready for anything.

  “I want to make love to you, Ava,” he whispered. Maybe there was something in that one beer. That’s what she liked to tell herself anyways, but she didn’t hesitate, she just nodded. She didn’t even consider the fact that she was a virgin and she had just agreed to give it up to a stranger. Brian grabbed her hand and led her across the courtyard into a gardener’s shed. He pulled a cord and a dim yellow light came on, illuminating his gold hair and giving him kind of an ethereal glow. Silly college girl. Ava saw it as a sign that he was supposed to be her first.

  Brian didn’t waste any time. He pushed her against the wall again and put his lips on her earlobe. She shuddered as he kissed and nibbled his way from her sensitive lobe and down the side of her neck to the top of her shoulder. He had his eyes closed and he looked like he was savoring every bite. She leaned her head back into the wall and enjoyed the sensations until she felt him stop. She looked up at him and he was staring at her lips. He licked his own and that caused another warm gush between her legs. He reached out and took her face in his hands. He kissed her sweetly then, little whisper kisses all over her face until he got to her lips. When their lips met again she was finished playing coy. Ava may have never gone all the way, but she knew about kissing. She opened her mouth and sucked his tongue in deep. She felt him shudder against her and she delighted in what she was doing to him. She let her hands run across the muscles in his back and down his arms. After a minute or two he broke the kiss and stepped back and pulled off his shirt. His body was beautiful. He was taut and smooth in all the right places. She reached her hand out and ran it across his chest, letting her fingers trace a trail around his aroused nipples. He moaned and when she traced a path down to his stomach he said:

  “My turn, beautiful.” He took hold of her blouse and pulled it off. Then with an “Mmm” noise, he reached in back and unhooked her bra. She was standing there with her breasts naked in front of a complete stranger and for a second she imagined that her Catholic grandmothers…both of them…were turning over in their graves, but that didn’t stop her. In fact, she arched her back and when his mouth came down to suck in a nipple, she wrapped her fingers up in his hair and encouraged it. She cried out as he sucked her greedily, taking nearly the entire breast into his mouth. Ava opened her eyes when he switched breasts and watched him. It was the hottest thing that she’d ever seen.

  “Oh, Brian, yeah, it feels so good,” she heard herself breathe out from some place far away. She could feel him getting harder and pressing against the inside of his jeans and into her upper thigh. She whimpered as his mouth left her breast and traveled down, licking her belly button and making her giggle. He continued on, suddenly grabbing her skirt with both hands and ripping it down. She heard the zipper break, but at that moment, she couldn’t have cared less. He licked her then, soft and slow and through the thin satin of her wet panties. He inhaled deeply once and then he ripped those off as well. The next thing she knew, he was on his knees and his tongue was conducting a full-on assault of her virgin pussy. She remembered thinking that if all sex felt that good, she should have started a lot earlier. Her hips were moving of their own accord as his tongue stroked up and down her slit. Then he stuck his tongue inside of her and she thought that she might pass out because it felt so good. He tongued her for a while and then she felt him sliding a finger inside of her. When he hit her hymen, he looked up at her and grinned.

  “Well, well. You are an angel, aren’t you?” Ava was drunk with desire at that point and she just nodded right before her head exploded. That was when he grabbed her ass with both hands and pulled her onto his face, sucking her swollen clit into his mouth and holding it there while he flicked it back and forth with his tongue. Her chest actually hurt, because all that pleasure had nowhere else to go. When the orgasm hit her she had no idea what it was…but after it ripped through every nerve fiber in her body, she wanted to have another one.

  Brian let his tongue trace slow circles, guiding her through it until she finally finished and relaxed back up against the wall. He brought his face up to hers then and kissed her. He put his tongue deep into her mouth and she could taste herself on him while feeling him working his finger back up inside of her. He slid his finger in until he felt resistance and then he kind of crooked it and started rubbing. He reached up with the other hand and pinched and pulled on her nipples while he was doing that. Ava actually had to stuff her own fist in her mouth to keep from screaming out in ecstasy.

  “You like that, beautiful?”

  “Oh yes…God, Brian, it feels amazing.”

  “I’m gonna go a little deeper, baby. It’s gonna hurt a little.”

  She nodded, thankful he was being so sweet about it, and still not regretting her choice. He slid in another finger and it felt good again, until he suddenly pushed them both in deep. Then, he was right, it hurt like a son of a bitch. She cried out, but he kept going. He was pounding his fingers into her and although it was still uncomfortable, her body began to respond all over again. Before long, she was the aggressor, clamping down on his hand and thrusting her hips down against him.

  “That’s it, baby, make it feel good,” he whispered against the side of her face. He thrust his fingers in and out of her hard and deep until another orgasm exploded. He moved his hand gently then, slowly taking his fingers out until the juices were running down the insides of both of her legs.

  She opened my eyes and the first thing she saw was blood on his fingers. “Oh no! I’m sorry,” she said. She thought she had started her menstrual cycle. He looked at his hand and reached behind her to grab a roll of shop towels off a shelf on the wall. He cleaned off his hand and kissed her again saying:

  “Don’t be sorry, baby. That always happens the first time.” Ava understood what it was then, but she was still a little embarrassed until he took a step back, pushed down his jeans and then his boxers and set his cock free. She had never seen a real one…at least not a real grown-up one. Ava had three brothers and she’d seen them when they were little, but this was entirely different than that. It was huge and she had no idea how it would fit. He kissed the side of her face and as if reading her mind he said, “It’ll be okay, beautiful. You’ll stretch. You ready?”

  “I think we need…”

  “A condom?”

  “Yeah…yes, please.”

  He reached into his pocket and took out a little colored package. He tore it open with his teeth and slid it on with one hand. Ava wanted to touch him, but she was nervous. Again reading her mind, he said, “Go ahead, baby, touch me.” She reached down and took him into her hand. He shivered and that encouraged her to run her hand up and down along the shaft. It felt strange, probably because of the condom, but she liked the way it felt…hot…and the way it twitched in her hand.

  “Oh, Ava, I need to be inside of you,” he said.r />
  She nodded again and he lined himself up with her, placing just the tip of it against her opening at first. He looked into her eyes and said, “Are you okay?” She nodded again and he started pushing, slowly. She was so wet from the two orgasms that he was sliding in pretty easily. She gasped when he hit bottom and so did he. He asked her again if she was okay. She thought he was being so sweet.

  “Yeah, I’m good,” she told him in a husky voice. He kissed her deeply then as he started moving against her. He reached up and took a breast into his hand and played with her nipple while he filled her up. It burned at first, but the more he moved and the wetter she got, the more pleasure she began to feel. He would pull back, almost all the way, and then let it slide back in until she was full once more. He went slowly at first, giving her a chance to get used to him. Her body knew when it was ready, and when it was, she surprised herself by reaching back and grabbing a handful of his tight ass and pushing him tighter against her. He groaned and suddenly he wasn’t moving slowly any longer.

  He began to pound into her and she thrust her hips forward to meet him each time. He reached behind her, crossing his arms around her hips and using them to lift her up and down on his cock. Her back was pounding into the wall and she knew it would be bruised and scraped but she didn’t care. The pleasure of what he was doing to her overrode all other feelings and thoughts. He had his eyes closed and was biting down on his lip. After a while he said:

  “Oh, baby, you’re so good. I can’t last any longer.” He opened his eyes and started really pounding her, slapping his hips against her thighs as he plunged in and out of her. She was making loud noises and his voice quivered as he said, “Oh, baby, I’m gonna cum. Oh God! Oh…Ava!” He was bucking against her violently as he came. She could hardly breathe; she was panting and gasping. He kept moving, slower then, until he’d rode through the orgasm. Then he let his sweaty body collapse against her and for a few seconds she was afraid he was going to suffocate her.