“How can I help you today?” I said.
13
Laney
Easton parked the car in some shadows and cut the engine.
“Normally,” he said, “we don’t go out this quickly after getting a case.”
“Why?” I asked.
“You need time to plan, to research. But Mrs. Smith said her cheating husband would likely be here today, so we have to follow it up.”
“Think that’s her real name?”
He grinned at me. “I don’t ask that sort of question.”
My body was still buzzing from hours earlier. Easton had come at me like a hurricane, his body pressed against mine. I could still feel the deep daggers of pleasure winding their way through my spine and taste him in my mouth. He was intense, strong, and so attractive that it almost made it hard to sit next to him without throwing myself across the seats.
As soon as Mrs. Smith had shown up, he was all business. It was almost like he hadn’t been eating my pussy out just a few minutes earlier and I hadn’t had his thick cock in my mouth. But the sly glance he gave me as we descended the elevator told me that it was as much on his mind as it was on mine.
At the time, any thoughts about him being my stepbrother were totally buried in the overwhelming desire I’d felt for him. I knew we weren’t really related or anything, but a relationship between the two of us would be a huge scandal. In a small town like Mishawaka, anything out of the ordinary was news.
And letting your handsome, dark stepbrother get you off on his desk was one of those things.
In retrospect, I couldn’t believe Mrs. Smith hadn’t said anything about the mess. We had just cleared off the desk, throwing papers and pens onto the floor, but she made no comment. It was almost as if none of it existed.
That made sense. In a private detective’s world, there were secrets within secrets and things you simply didn’t talk about.
“Where is he?” Easton mumbled to himself.
We had been sitting in the car, parked outside a hotel, for the last two hours. The sun was beginning to get low in the sky, casting long shadows across the lot. Easton had moved the car a few times, just to make sure we didn’t look suspicious.
He pulled out the picture Mrs. Smith had given us and looked at it again.
“Busy,” I said. “Cheaters aren’t exactly punctual.”
“That’s the thing. They usually are.”
“Doesn’t seem like a cheater would much care if he was a few minutes late.”
“Actually, they do. When you’re cheating, you’re hyper focused on not breaking any rules, almost to the point where it’s suspicious.”
I nodded my head. That made sense. Sometimes following the rules too closely could look almost as weird as breaking them.
I looked down at my lap, at the thick file folder resting there, and opened the cover again. Easton had agreed to let me page through it while we waited, although I had resisted getting too deep into it. I felt strange reading about his life right next to him, especially about such a difficult thing.
“You know,” I said after some time, “you never did explain to me why Seed screwed up on that body you found.”
He shrugged. “You never got a chance to ask.”
“But you have a theory?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Let’s hear it.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re the budding detective; you can figure it out.”
“Come on, Easton. You had months to get into this guy’s head. I can’t do it in a few minutes.”
“Maybe not,” he said, “but what’s the fun in me just telling you?”
I sighed. “Don’t be a jerk.”
“How about this: You can ask me one question and I will answer it honestly, but in exchange, you have to take off an article of clothing.”
I raised an eyebrow, my heart suddenly beating fast in my chest. He had spoken in such a matter-of-fact way, almost like he were describing a crime scene to me. But he was suggesting that I got naked in exchange for information, right there in the car while we were out on a job.
“You’ll answer honestly? One question for one piece of clothing?”
He nodded. “That’s the deal.”
I bit my lower lip. “What if someone comes by?”
He shrugged, looking around. “That’s not happening anytime soon.”
I nodded. “Okay. Fine.”
The smirk that played on his lips drove me absolutely crazy. “Clothes first.”
I could feel myself get absolutely wet as I slowly slid my shirt up off my head and tossed it into the backseat. Fortunately, I was wearing a tank top underneath.
“Why did Seed mess up his early crime?”