Carter Reed Part 14

"Emma," he groaned.

"You killed more men tonight."

He dropped his forehead so it rested on mine. His breath caressed my skin. "I did."

My hand went to his chest where I felt his heart. It was strong, beating fast. "You were protecting me."

"Emma, if you don't want this to go any further, you have to stop now."

I looked up. I didn't say a word. He was giving me an out, but I didn't want it. I couldn't, not anymore. All I wanted was to be with him.

He saw my answer and his eyes darkened.

I held my breath as he stepped back and slid his hands underneath my dress. As his hands slid up, against my skin, he lifted it over my head. I raised my arms so it cleared my head and then he tossed it aside. My bra went next. With my b.r.e.a.s.t.s freed, he cupped one in his hand, his thumb rubbing over the tip. My heart was beating so fast. The ache for him spread through me, but I couldn't do anything. I stood there, wanting more, needing more. When he bent over and took my nipple in his mouth, I couldn't hold back a moan. My hands slid through his hair and took hold, but I was the one held captive by his mouth. He teased me, his teeth biting down gently on the tip as his tongue swept around the nub.

My back arched, giving him better access as my head fell back. The sensations blinded me. My desire was almost overwhelming and my legs began to tremble.

He kept kissing my b.r.e.a.s.t.s. One of his hands slid down the front of my body. As he cupped me and his fingers went inside again, he lifted me up so that my legs wound around his waist.

He stood to his fullest height. I was wrapped around him as he turned to walk into the shower. When he stepped underneath the water, I wasn't fazed. It didn't register over the fire heating up inside of me. He stroked in and out, fanning the flames. His teeth released my nipple, and he went in search for my mouth. I gasped, feeling his lips slam into mine, and he swept inside as his fingers stroked deeper with each thrust.

"Carter."

He kept thrusting. I kept building.

I slammed my back against the wall and dug my nails into his shoulders. I was almost there, just at the peak. Then it hit me full force and I cried out, unable to stop myself. I couldn't do anything. Carter held me in place as the waves rode over me. Each one sent a pulsating sensation through me, and in the end, I was reduced to a puddle. It was then, when he saw that my o.r.g.a.s.m had stopped, that he moved and sat me on a seat inside the shower. With heavy eyelids, I watched as he stripped off the rest of his clothes. The rest of my pants came next. As he bent to pull it from my feet, his shoulders bunched and bulged before me. I bit my lip, already wanting to touch him again. I wanted to feel those muscles against me.

Before he stood, he pressed a kiss to the inside of my thigh. I gasped as another burst of pleasure soared through me, but he stood and sent me a smug smirk. He was very aware of the effect he was having over my body. My eyes narrowed, a smart comment on the tip of my tongue, but he stepped back into the shower spray and the words died.

Hunger stirred in me as I watched the water slide over his body.

I thought earlier that his had molded his body into a weapon and I'd been right. He was perfect, from the cut between the muscles in his arms to how his obliques curved down his lean waist. Every muscle stood out underneath his skin. He was perfect.

He watched me as he washed himself. I couldn't tear my gaze away. By the time he was done, my body was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with l.u.s.t again. The first o.r.g.a.s.m had only intensified my hunger for him.

When he came back for me, he pulled me to my feet and stepped underneath the spray with me. He lathered shampoo into my hair and rinsed it as I stood touching him. I closed my eyes underneath his tender ministrations. Then he turned and washed my body, every inch. As he cleaned my core, kneeling in front of me, he glanced up and met my eyes in a heated look before he placed his mouth there. I gasped and surged to the tips of my toes. His tongue swept inside of me and a guttural moan was ripped from the bottom of my throat.

He held me anch.o.r.ed in place with his hands on my thighs as his tongue swept in and out. He nibbled and licked as I trembled, clutching him until a second climax swept through me, cras.h.i.+ng over all senses in my body.

He swept me back up in the air. Temporarily sated, my head rested on his shoulder and I wrapped my arms and legs around him as he carried me from the shower to his bedroom. He lowered me down and then toweled me dry. I couldn't look away from him as he took care of me. His touch was loving. As he dried himself, I wanted him to slide into bed with me. I wanted to show him the same care, but he disappeared into his closet and came out dressed in black clothing.

"What are you doing?" My voice was raspy. My body hummed with pleasure and my eyelids grew heavy with each word I asked.

He came over and pulled the comforter from underneath me. As he tucked me into the bedding, he kissed my naked shoulder. His lips brushed against my skin. "Sleep, Emma. I will be back."

"Wait." Suddenly panicked, I caught his hand before he slipped away. "Where are you going?"

"I have to take care of some things. I will be back." He glanced out the door. "If you need anything, the men are here." He brushed some of my hair back from my forehead. "Sleep, Emma. You've been through enough tonight."

"Carter." I wanted him with me. I didn't want him to leave, but he was gone the next instant. As he turned off the light and shut the door behind him, I was left with my heart constricting in fear. I didn't want him to go, that was the bottom line for me. I wanted him with me. I wanted to sleep a night with him, especially after the night we just had. But, as I lay there for another hour, I knew he had things to do.

I wasn't going to get any sleep that night.

He didn't return for the rest of the weekend. Sat.u.r.day pa.s.sed, then Sunday. I spent both days wandering around the building. I sent a few text messages to Amanda, asking how Mallory was, but they went unanswered. I wasn't surprised. Theresa called me Sunday afternoon and asked if I wanted to come for dinner, but I declined. She saw Carter with me. She knew that I knew him and had kept quiet when she discussed him earlier. An explanation, albeit short and mostly fabricated, was needed to smooth out our co-working relations.h.i.+p; along with any friends.h.i.+p I felt was burgeoning. However, as I rose Monday morning and dressed for work, I didn't have the energy needed to dredge up a lie that made sense.

Mike had the morning off so a new guard was beside me. Two more were inside the home, while another two were outside the elevator. I wouldn't have been surprised if Carter had an entire perimeter around me. He extended messages through his men to me: that he was alright, that he wished me goodnight, and that he would return as soon as possible. I didn't know if they were actually from Carter or something he told his men to say if they sensed my growing restlessness. I had no idea, but I tried to keep myself from becoming angry. I knew he was a busy man. After an attack like we had, I knew he would have more pressing matters to attend to, but I missed him.

And I worried about him.

I'd been in my office for ten minutes before Mr. Hudson barreled through. He didn't knock. Again. "What'd you do?"

"Excuse me?"

"What'd you do?" He tossed a paper on my desk. "We were taken off the Bourbon account. What'd you do? Miss Webber requested it and since she's higher than you and her boss is higher than me, we got pinched. What'd you do, Emma?"

I picked up the paper and saw it was an email from the Director of Sales sent to Mr. Hudson. There it was, it said in three short sentences that the group had been rea.s.signed. The team had two new names and we weren't on it. I checked the bottom of the page. It was sent from Noah Tomlinson himself.

I gulped.

Theresa really did have a problem with Carter, and she knew I was connected to him. s.h.i.+t. We were off the account because of me.

"So?"

I lied, I had no other choice. "I have no idea, Mr. Hudson. Theresa and I were getting along fine. She even invited me over for drinks Friday night. I went to Octave with her."

He started a huff, but froze midway. "You went to Octave? You got into Octave?" He was taken aback. "Well now. My girls say that's the place to get into and you got in?" His head bobbed in some form of a nod, but then he frowned. "Well something happened between then until now. We're out. I want you to fix it. I want to be on that team, Emma. Make it happen."

I picked up my phone, ready to call...who? I had no one to call. Mallory was the one I usually called. If she didn't answer, I went to Amanda. But since the bathroom a full week ago, I hadn't heard from her, and Mallory had never been one to reach out. Who was my other friend? Theresa, for one week, and Carter but I couldn't even call him. He was off doing what Mike had termed, athe clean-up' from Friday night's attack. I didn't want to know what that meant and judging by the grim set of his shoulders, I saw that he didn't want me to ask. But it made sense since there'd been no coverage of our attack. I checked the news over the weekend. Nothing.

I put my phone back down and sent Theresa an email instead. An automatic response came back stating she'd be out of the office all week. A few days pa.s.sed with no results. It wasn't until Thursday, the day that I was supposed to be leaving for New York that I even glimpsed Theresa.

I pushed the b.u.t.ton for the elevator, and it opened. My eyes popped out when I saw Theresa inside, with a pencil in her mouth and two large suitcases beside her. She was holding onto a large poster, but it started to slip out of her hands. "OH!" She scrambled to catch it, losing her other grip on the briefcase. It fell to the floor and opened, scattering papers, pens, folders, and flashdrives all over the floor. "Oh no." She bent and started to grab for her stuff.

I got in, hit my b.u.t.ton, and knelt to help her.

"Oh gosh. You don't have to do that. Really, Emma." She gave me an awkward smile around the pencil still in her mouth.

I settled back on my feet. That wasn't the reaction I had been expecting. "Oh, no. It's no problem." I glanced down at some of the papers in my hands and saw the logo for the new Richmond Bourbon. The two suitcases seemed ominous next to her. "So you're going to the airport from here?"

"Oh yeah." She brushed her hand back and smoothed her hair from her forehead. It only pulled more out of the ponytail. "Since Noah added Allison, this week has been h.e.l.l. I meant to call you the other day and see if you wanted to meet at Joe's for a drink after, but I never got time to do that. I haven't had a chance to check my email. Can you believe that?" She groaned. "I know that once we finish this, I'll have a week's worth of email stuff to catch up. And that's on top of everything we're going to be doing after we present to the board."

"Wait." This wasn't making sense. "Noah pulled me?"

"Noah pulled Mr. Worthless. He didn't want your boss to get the credit so he added Allison and Harold instead. Talk about being ineffective. With you, we would've had a great week and had all this done by Monday. With her, I'll be lucky to get it all done by the time we walk into that boardroom. I wish you were coming, trust me."

"Oh." That was unexpected. "I thought it was you that requested the switch."

"Gosh no! I wish you were still on it. We could've been relaxing poolside with margaritas by now if you were on the project." When the last piece of paper had been picked up, Theresa stood, smoothing out her skirt and her hair. More strands were pulled from her ponytail. "By the way, who was the hottie getting into that car with you?" She laughed, "Next thing I know, I'm returning from the bathroom and Noah's says you got a ride home. Imagine my surprise when we leave later and there you are, holding hands with Mr. GQ himself."

Mr. GQ himself? Did she really not know? "Uh," I laughed. "It was kind of sudden."

Theresa snorted as the elevator slid open. "You can say that again." After she stepped out and saw that I remained, she caught the door. "Aren't you coming?"

My exit was a floor down. "I forgot something by the lobby. I'll see you next week."

"Oh. Okay. See you! Let's have wine when I get back!"

When the doors closed behind her, I was left with one very confused thought. What the h.e.l.l had just happened?

I should've gone through the back exit I had come to use since Carter came back into my life. I should've gone home, but I didn't. Feeling rebellious for some reason, I went out the main entrance and turned into the cafe where Amanda worked. With a quick scan, I saw that she was working. She was placing cookies onto a tray for their display case so I rounded the counter and leaned against its side next to her.

She kept sliding the cookies onto the tray and ignored me.

I had sent another text earlier that morning, but it went unanswered. Again. I wasn't sure what she was doing, pretending I didn't exist, but I knew Carter advised against communicating with all three of them. He said they were a risk. They could hand me over to ensure their safety, but when I glanced over my shoulder, I saw Mike pretending to study the menu by the door and one of the other guards just came out of the bathroom. I was safe. I had no idea how they moved that fast, but they were good and since my visit to Joe's they had upped their surveillance over me.

"Amanda."

Nothing. She rearranged a row of the cookies now.

"You can't ignore me."

She sighed and moved an entire row of cookies to the side on the tray.

"Why are you mad at me?"

She shot me a dark look, moved the same row back to their original spot.

Okay. I got the message, but I wasn't going anywhere. I was tired of being alone. Since I got the boot from the account, the other girls I'd previously been friendly with had taken her cue. They stayed away. I didn't get a h.e.l.lo in the break room anymore so my week had literally been spent by myself in the office. Mr. Hudson hadn't come back to the office since he gave me that warning and his secretary only shook her head every time I popped in to see if he was in or not. I had sent Theresa emails and considered emailing Noah himself, but he was the Big Man. Before last Friday, I would've p.i.s.sed my pants at the thought of sending him an email without having it approved by Mr. Hudson. I didn't think it was appropriate now.

Maybe it was my sorrows at disappointing my boss or thinking that Theresa had been the one to boot me from the account. I didn't know, maybe it was just that Carter had been gone all week and life felt lonelier to me now, but I missed Mallory. I missed Amanda and I even, only slightly, missed Ben. I wasn't going anywhere, not until she said something to me. "How's Mallory?"

The entire pan fell off the counter. As it crashed to the floor and everyone in the cafe looked over, Amanda knelt down and starting grabbing all the cookies with frantic hands. I knelt beside her, she was blus.h.i.+ng. The back of her neck was bright red. She smacked my hand. "Don't!"

"Hey." My eyes lit up. "Hey!" She talked to me.

She cursed under her breath, reaching for the cookies that went the farthest. "Go away, Emma."

"No." I frowned. "Why?"

"Because Mallory and Ben are gone," she hissed. We were still on the floor. Most of the cookies had been collected.

My hand jerked and the few that had been in it were now crumbs. "What?"

"They're gone. Like you. You're gone too. Everyone's gone." She stood and brushed off her pants. "You should take that as a clue and stay away. I should take that as a clue and get a different job."

"I don't want to stay away," I mumbled. I felt ridiculous.

"Yeah, well, I don't care." She glared at me before she took the tray into the back room.

I followed. I heard a groan come from the bathroom hallway, but I didn't look to see if it was the guard or not. I didn't care.

When Amanda saw that I had followed her, more curses fell from her lips. She took the tray to the sink and wiped all of the cookies into the garbage beside it. "I know you texted on Monday, but I tossed my phone. Things don't feel right to me."

"You said that Mallory and Ben are gone?"

She jerked her head in a tight nod before she turned the water on. "Yeah. I packed all your stuff at the apartment and took a few things to Ben's on Sunday, things that I thought Mallory would want, but his place was empty."

"Empty?"

"They were gone. His clothes looked packed. He had boxes out in the kitchen with dishes. I went back Monday and everything was locked up. I tried the extra key, but they changed the locks. From what I could see, even his furniture was gone. They took off, Emma." The pan was in the sink and the water was on, but she didn't move to clean it. She studied me instead. "You look good. I'm glad someone's doing okay with this whole ordeal."

I stepped back, as if slapped, but she didn't know. She hadn't pulled the trigger, that'd been me. "I'm sorry that you got dragged into this."

"Into what?" she snapped. "Doesn't seem like anything happened. The body's been missing, who the h.e.l.l did that? Then you left, now those two. It's just me. I didn't even know what to do with your stuff so I put it all into storage."

"You need me to pay for that?"

She shrugged, putting the pan underneath the water now. "It doesn't matter. Ben gave me enough money so it's paid for a year."

"Wait." I grabbed her arm. "Ben gave you money?"

"Yeah. Why?"

He wasn't the type to give money, much less have money. "Where'd it come from?"

"I don't know. He didn't say, just tossed me a big envelope and told me to take care of Mallory's stuff. I didn't question it. After you took off, I learned that maybe it's better if I don't ask any questions."

My eyes narrowed. "How'd Ben look?"

"What do you mean?" She grew weary now, more than she had been at the beginning.

"Was he his normal grouchy self?"

"When's he not his normal grouchy self?" She paused with the pan in her hand. "Actually, now that you mention it, he looked happy last week." She shuddered. "I don't even want to know what that means. I took the money and did what he said. I told you before that I would take care of your apartment. Two of my co-workers helped me clean and I left your keys on the counter. Your landlord seemed fine with that."

I nodded. I tried to tell myself that things were fine. I was safe. Amanda seemed fine, p.i.s.sy, but fine. However, I couldn't shake what she told me. Mallory and Ben were gone. What'd that mean? That had to mean something. And Ben had money. Ben never had money. Something was off, well, considering the situation, something was really off.

She bit her lip, eyeballing me. "You don't look too good now. What's wrong, Emma?"

I jerked my head up. "Nothing. It's fine. Thanks for taking care of the apartment."

"Look," her shoulders dropped and her voice softened. "I'm sorry that I didn't text you or call you. You gave me that new number and I know you were never one to really call, but I was mad after you took off. I know you did something to keep us all safe and I know that I'm not supposed to ask what that was, but Mallory went off the deep end a few days after you left. She got real bad again. Ben wouldn't let me call you. He said that you deserted us so we would make do without you." She blew out a deep breath. "Anyways, so I was mad at you for a bit. And I missed you. I miss making fun of Ben with you. He's so weird sometimes."

I grinned, despite myself. This wasn't a funny situation, but I missed those moments too. "You said he was happy? What's Ben like when he's happy?"

"Oh, you know." She chuckled. The pan had been cleaned and put on the drying section. "He was walking around, strutting like some peac.o.c.k that got laid by a swan. I dunno. He had some weird new walk, thrusting his hips around." More chuckles poured from her. "I know he thought he was hot stuff, but he looked ridiculous. Like a plump turkey that got stuffed and liked it."

My grin widened, and I relaxed. I had missed this. I missed our camaraderie. "He thought he was hot stuff?"