The Mojave Desert
Though thought to be arid and lifeless, the Mojave held many secrets. With Vegas and its outwardly spreading fingers, it served a purpose: to contain the city's sins and hide the evidence.
However, for whatever reason, the desert coughed this one up.
Detective Aiden West rested on his haunches and surveyed the corpse—or what was left of it. Unfortunately, the vultures had been the first to discover him. Someone didn’t just want to kill Mayor Prescott but expose him. And from the looks of things, humiliate him.
Having lived his life in the brutal desert, the detective ignored the sweat settling in his lined forehead and mumbled, “Just when I think I’ve seen it all.”
The body lay curled in the fetal position, mixing plenty of red into the grayish-brown sand. The word “DEVIANT” had been messily tattooed in black ink across the victim’s belly, and “CHEATER” was barely readable on his shriveled penis. But that wasn’t the worst of it. Crimson lips were drawn on his ass cheeks with arrows pointing to his crack labeled, “OPEN HERE.” And inside his crack… a lipstick case and casino chips from The Lucky Leprechaun were stuffed inside his torn and tattered asshole.
Cameras flashed from all directions, trying to capture the most dramatic picture of the gruesome scene partially hidden by the sea of officers. Detective West rose to his imposing six-foot-four height and barked, “Get them outta here!” For sure, the press were spurting in their underwear with this one.
XXX
On the west side of Vegas near the Strip, a familiar symphony competed with the rattling of the air-conditioner at the No-Tell Motel. Two fuckers grunted like animals. Perspiring flesh slapped against even wetter flesh. A scratched-up wooden headboard thumped against a paper-thin wall in a tell-tale cadence.
The one surprise—the identity of the woman grinding her cunt down on that fat cock in room 114A. No one would have expected her to be there with the likes of him.
She was only naked from the waist down, and his eyes moved from his disappearing dick up to the badge that rose and fell with her heaving breasts.
“Wearing the badge… is so fucking hot.” His breath caught in his throat.
“Shut up.”
A phone dinged, and with a grunt, she unstuck herself from his cock to reach for it on the nightstand. A moment later, she sank back on him, reenergized. She liked being on top, lording over a man. The rhythm was hers. The depth. Everything.
Almost there, she promised her desperate pussy. She closed her eyes to the man beneath her with the python tattoo coiled around his midsection. It wasn’t that he was ugly—quite the opposite. It was just that he didn’t matter. All that mattered was the thickness stuffed inside her, so she emptied her mind of her surroundings and centered her thoughts between her legs. With each forceful descent, she leaned forward and ground her swollen clit on his pelvic bone.
Then, the spring tightened…
She came—hard.
After panting out each powerful spasm, she rolled off his sweaty body.
His eyes shot impossibly wide, “You’re leaving?” while she quickly slipped on her pants and heels.
With a smirk, she tossed a money roll onto his chest. “You’ll have to finish yourself. I have a crime scene to get to.”
Then, she grabbed her gun and walked out the door, leaving a pair of heavy, purple balls behind.
XXX
The vultures circling overhead drew the attention of Detective Jones (Jonesy to his peers). “Hideous raptors. They want another bite, boss.” He stood and surveyed the sand-coated crime scene. “This one drew a crowd, huh? Never seen so many—now who is that?
Aiden looked in the direction of his subordinate’s gaze and couldn’t peel his eyes from the approaching blonde-haired beauty. FBI Agent Samantha Stone approached the detectives, somehow stomping gracefully up the dune while wearing stilettos. But it was the silhouette of black lace underneath her cream-colored silk blouse, not to mention the two tented peaks in the fabric, that no doubt seized the detectives’ attention.
“Jonesy, go check with the boys in blue about the whereabouts of Mrs. Prescott.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
Agent Stone anchored herself with her heels in the sand after she reached Detective West. Their lips remained tightly sealed as they sized up one another. He couldn’t deny she was sexy with her sun-licked skin and untamed, long, curly hair, but her tight lips and jaw gave away her stubbornness. As for Agent Stone, she’d always had a thing for older men. Wrinkles meant life experience. She smiled to herself when he moved between her and the corpse. I see you, Detective, being territorial. She wondered if he’d pissed all over the crime scene.
Unable to restrain his displeasure, Detective West spoke first with a tone edged with accusation. “What happened to Agent O’Connell?”
She smiled, baring her teeth. “He took an unexpected leave, so I’m in charge now.”
Aiden wondered if this was the woman his friend O’Connell had complained about—a thirsty woman who had joined his office and was fucking her way up the ranks with cut-throat ambition.
“I see. Well, Agent…” he gestured for her to reply.
“Stone.”
“Agent Stone, this is my investigation. Agent O’Connell and I worked very well together and had an understanding of our respective roles.”
“And as I said, Agent O’Connell is no longer here. So… let me spell it out for you, Detective West: I’m the top. You’re the bottom.”
Detective Jones appeared before Aiden could respond.
“Boss, Metro just brought Mrs. Prescott to the station. They apprehended her trying to board a private plane to Rio.”
“Then, let’s go have a word with the grieving widow,” Sam said, brushing past the detectives. She left one in the stirred-up sand, gritting his teeth, and the other gawking at her crack-eating trousers.
XXX
Detective West and Agent Stone immediately felt the splotch of coldness that the widow added to the already chilly, sterile interrogation room. Sherie Prescott clutched her designer bag against her chest and stared at them with her expressionless, botoxed face.
Sam started with the introduction, “Hello, I’m Agent Stone, and this is Detective West,” before choosing the chair opposite Mrs. Prescott and sitting down.
Seeing the late mayor’s wife in person only solidified Sam’s original suspicions that she was no grieving widow. Mrs. Prescott’s raven-colored hair was meticulously styled, and her makeup flawless. With her lithe figure, she resembled a model fresh off the runway.
“Please, call me Sherie. Everyone does.” She withdrew a tissue from her purse. “Mrs. Prescott is a name used only for political events, and I guess there will be no more of those for me.”
Aiden offered his condolences. “Sherie, we’re very sorry for your loss.”
“More sorry than you, apparently,” Sam added, cutting to the chase.
“How can you say that? I’m heartbroken!”
Yet, no tears trickle down those mile-high cheekbones. Sam cocked her head to the side and mocked her. “Oh, your broken heart is very evident by attempting to leave the country while his body’s still warm.”
Sherie dramatically clutched her chest with one of her well-manicured hands. “I was afraid for my life! Someone murdered my husband, and I thought maybe whoever would be coming after me.”
“And when did you last see your husband?” asked Aiden.
“I saw him around six last evening. He was going out, as usual. I had a migraine, so I took an Ambien and went to bed early. I slept through the night until Edward, our lawyer, called to tell me the news. I became frightened, packed a suitcase, and just wanted to escape!”
“Can anyone corroborate you were home all night?”
“No, but I had nothing to do with his death!”
Aiden started to talk, but Sam interrupted him. “Why don’t you tell us about your marriage. Were you happy?”
Sherie shrugged, looking away from Agent Stone. “What does “happy” mean in today’s world? I mean all couples have problems, right?”
“Was one of your problems the fact that he cheated on you with strippers?”
She rolled the tissue in her fingers. “Oh, that. Those whores meant nothing to him. You see my husband had some fetishes… things I wasn’t into. So I was more than happy for him to satisfy those needs elsewhere. As long as he was discreet.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. Sam continued this line of questioning. “Were you still having sex with him?”
Sherie fluttered her fake lashes at Detective West when she answered. “No, not anymore. At first, he was very romantic.” She smiled, winking at the detective. “I’m a great lover. Dirtied my knees for him. Rubbed his cock all over my face while looking up at him, smiling like all the porn stars do. I liked the heat of him. I didn’t just kiss cock. I devoured it. But he began pushing my limits. Not letting me up for air. Before long, my pussy wasn’t enough. He wanted to stick it somewhere inappropriate… wanted me to do things to that part of him that I didn’t want to do. He kept pushing! Always needing more!” She paused to dot an invisible tear with the tissue.
Aiden responded to the intimate information. “So, why did you stay?”
She lifted her chin and drew her shoulders back. “I was a somebody when I walked into a room with Charles. And I lived in a big house. Wore Louboutins. See my Prada bag?” She held up the red leather tote, then continued. “Traveled. I had everything I needed with Charles.”
While Sherie was cooperating, Aiden decided to dive into another of her late husband’s favorite pastimes. “And did you know about his gambling habits?”
She looked away. “No. I didn’t concern myself with finances.”
“Why not if his money afforded you all the things you loved?” Sam pushed.
Just then, the door flew open, and a man stomped in, looking like a linebacker stuffed into a suit and bellowing, “Don’t say anything, Sherie.” He moved behind her and placed his hands atop her shoulders. Sherie’s cheeks and the top of her chest flushed when his thumbs stroked her neck.
“I’m her lawyer, Edward Blackburn, and unless you intend to charge her with a crime, she’s leaving. After all, she just lost her husband.”
Aiden rose from his chair and nodded to them. “You can go, Sherie.”
Agent Stone wasn’t going to let them sneak away so easily. “One more question: how long have you two been fucking?”
Sherie shot a look back at her lawyer, who scowled at Agent Stone. “That’s enough. Let’s go, Sherie.” He offered his arm to her, and she quickly wrapped her arm around his and let him lead her out the door.
“And don’t leave town,” Agent Stone yelled before the door slammed shut. She looked up at Aiden. “Yup, they’re fucking. I wonder what her orgasm face looks like considering—“
Aiden cut her off, raising his voice. “What the hell is wrong with you? She just lost her husband.”
Sam shrugged. “My money’s on her as our killer, or rather the person who hired someone to kill him. She’d never dirty her fancypoo nails to do it herself.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Just call it a woman's intuition.”
“I know you are new here, but people are innocent until hard evidence says otherwise.”
“I’m not new here. I grew up in one of the many small towns in the desert. And while Vegas’s dirty claws scooped up more and more of the desert, the desert took it out on us and swallowed up town by town until very few were left.” She sharply inhaled and exhaled before offering her final retort. “And no one who stays here for long remains innocent.”
“Does that apply to me too, Agent Stone?”
“Jury’s still out on you.”
Aiden thought he saw her eyes mist before she turned and stalked away. Had he witnessed the first crack in the ice queen?
XXX
Detective West and Agent Stone stepped off the elevator on the tenth floor of The Lucky Leprechaun Casino and Resort, but the secretary was nowhere in sight. They soon heard noises coming from behind the closed office door.
A high-pitched scream.
Smack!
Another scream.
Smack!
Smack!
Smack!
Aiden and Sam looked at one another, then drew their guns and burst through the office door.
“FBI!” Detective Stone yelled.
The scene before them was not what they had expected. A bleach-blonde young lady was bent over a desk holding a paper, and a heavyset man in a suit was spanking her naked ass from behind with one hand while holding his dick poking through his unzipped pants with the other.
“For fuck’s sake.” Sam loudly sighed and tucked her gun away. “Well, who do we have here? Miss Holloway and Mr. Grey, I presume?”
The lady flipped her skirt down and rose, straightening her black-rimmed glasses on her nose. “Oh, no, officers, my name is Poppins. Cherry Poppins.”
Sam looked at Aiden and rolled her eyes.
The man had zipped himself back up and cleared his throat, feigning professionalism. “That will be all, Miss Poppins. You may return to your desk.”
“But, we were—“
“Get out!” he roared, and Miss Poppins jumped and scurried away.
As soon as the door shut behind her wiggling ass, Mr. Craven barked, “Now, what’s the meaning of barging into my office like this?”
“Mr. Craven—“ Sam started.
“Rex,” he interrupted. “Call me Rex. Hello, Aiden; it’s been a while.” He extended his hand to the detective, dismissing Agent Stone.
Aiden shook it, catching a questioning side-eye from Sam, before he spoke. “Rex, as you’ve no doubt heard, Mayor Prescott has been murdered.”
“Yes, yes, what a shame. Now, what does that have to do with me?”
Sam ignored Mr. Craven’s eyes resting on her tits and shot to the reason for their visit. “We understand Mayor Prescott frequented your establishment.”
“And why would you think that, doll, although I’d be honored if he did.”
“Well, it might be your chips we found shoved up his ass.”
Rex chuckled, then took a long drag from his cigar, raking his gaze up and down her body.
You don’t intimidate me, you fat fucker. With a steady tone, she continued, “So how do you explain that?”
Rex stepped forward and blew smoke in her face, at which she didn’t flinch. “I’d say someone’s setting me up. If I was gonna off him, I wouldn’t leave evidence behind.”
“Really? It sounds like you have some experience with offing people. So, how do you do it?”
She sparked his temper with that comment, and his teeth clenched as he lunged at her, thrusting a finger toward her. “I know what you’re trying—”
Aiden quickly moved to step in between them and put a hand on Rex’s chest. “Look, we’re just gathering information, not accusing you of anything. We’ve been told he liked to gamble here, and you spotted him quite a bit of money, which he then lost in a poker game a few weeks ago.”
Rex sharply exhaled and took a step back, shrugging his shoulders. “Okay, so the mayor came here a time or two to unwind. My hostesses are very friendly, and I hear his wife’s a real bitch. He liked to play the games. You know, to let off some steam from the pressures of his office. I loaned him some money. Word had it he’d fallen out with a few of the other loan sharks on the strip—Damion and Marco—so I spotted him some chips. Sometimes, he won. Sometimes he lost. But I don’t operate like those other loan creeps. The mayor and I, we always squared up in some non-violent way.”
“It’s the ‘squaring up’ that bothers me, Mr. Craven.” Sam tested his anger again. “So the mayor engaged in prostitution and exchanged favors in lieu of debt forgiveness? Is that what you’re saying, Mr. Craven?”
“No!” Rex glared at Aiden. “Why is this broad here? Maybe you should explain to her how things work in Vegas.”
Aiden started to open his mouth when Sam jumped in. “No, why don’t you explain it to me.”
“Look, Miss—”
“Agent Stone.”
“Alright, Agent Stone. Look around. We kind of operate as our own private island here.”
“And that’s become a problem for the FBI.”
“Wake up. We’re in the desert, and that desert keeps people’s secrets. ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,’ as the saying goes. People come here because they can find pleasures denied them by the rest of the judgmental world.” He walked over to the large window and gestured to the outside. “A guy can find what he needs to get his rocks off here. Nobody cares where he sticks his dick. A gal can be a whore. Nobody cares. Celebrities can host their freak-offs. Nobody cares. So what if the mayor liked gambling and maybe had a few kinks, and maybe he got those kinks worked out in my casino? There’s nothing wrong with that. Nobody gets hurt.”
Sam responded, “Except someone did get hurt… murdered, to be precise. So, would you tell us your whereabouts on the night of the twenty-fifth?”
“I was here in my penthouse or downstairs in the casino. I’m sure lots of people saw me. Agent Stone, I got nothing to do with his murder. If you have proof otherwise, arrest me; otherwise, get the fuck out. I got work to do.”
Aiden extended his hand. “Thanks for the information, Rex. We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions.”
Sam led the way out the door, and Rex picked up the phone as soon as the door shut behind them. “Hey, get me the security footage from the night of the twenty-fifth.”
Miss Poppins rose from her desk and hurried to intercept them.
“Oh, Mr. Detective, Sir,” she tugged on his collar to whisper in his ear. “I know some things you might be interested in knowing.”
“Miss Poppins, get your ass back in here!” blew through the door.
Miss Poppins jumped. “Oh, but I can’t tell you here.”
Aiden reached for one of her delicate hands and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Come by the station tomorrow morning, and we’ll talk. Okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered, then hurried inside Mr. Craven's office.
XXX
Aiden moved in front of Sam. “Let me lead. She’ll respond better to honey than vinegar.”
She cocked an eyebrow. “Then I better lead. After all, I’m the one with the honeypot.”
As Sam brushed past him, he couldn’t help but gaze at what would be two handfuls of her backside and think how delicious her honeypot might taste. He adjusted the uncomfortable rod in his pants before entering the interrogation room.
Miss Poppins began spewing information as soon as Detective West sat across from her. “Okay, Detective, you know the Watering Hole, right?”
“I do.” Aiden turned to Sam. “It’s the strip joint next to Mr. Craven’s casino. He owns it as well.” Looking back to Miss Poppins, “Please, continue.”
She gave her tits a quick plumping before beginning again. “Well, I used to dance there, and my friend Juicy Lucy told me that the mayor played with a dancer named Peaches. Now, Peaches developed a real thing for the mayor and threatened the rest of them if they played with him. She said she loved him, and the mayor said he loved her. She’d kept waiting for him to leave his wife, but he never did. And Lucy told me that they had a fight a week ago. The mayor told her he couldn’t leave his wife, and Peached pushed him and yelled, “If I can’t have you, then nobody gonna have you!”
“And you think Peaches is capable of violence?” asked Sam.
“Well, I don’t know her, but Juicy Lucy said everybody tiptoes around Peaches 'cause she knows people—the kind of people that can mess you up,” Cherry leaned toward them, offering them an even closer view of the deep cavern between her overstuffed breasts and lowered her voice, ”if you know what I mean.”
Aiden nodded, knowing all too well what she meant. “I assume Peaches works in the speakeasy below the club.”
“Ooo, Detective, you know about that?” she shook her tits and playfully winked at him. “You got the passcode, too?”
“I do.” Aiden felt Sam’s eyeballs on him and refused to look at her. He rose from his chair, “That will be all, Miss Poppins, and thank you for helping with our investigation.”
Before Cherry could rise from her chair, Sam reached across the table and patted the top of her hand. “Miss Poppins, one more thing.” She waited for Cherry to peel her eyes off Detective West’s crotch before continuing, “Even though he’s your boss, that doesn’t give him the right to put his hands on you.”
Miss Poppins giggled. “Oh, I know that, silly. But it’s the main perk of working for Mr. Craven. I love a good spanking. I mean, love it!” She paused to adjust her oversized glasses atop her pert nose. “I’m a smart businesswoman and made it one of my stickylations in coming to work for him.”
“One more question, if you don’t mind. What does the ‘A’ on your necklace stand for?”
Cherry fondeled the initial. “Abigail. It’s my birth name. Although I'm Cherry now, I don’t want to ever forget Abigail.”
Sam leaned back in her chair and smiled. There was something about Cherry Poppins that she liked.
She didn’t notice Aiden intently watching her and also smiling. He’d witnessed another unexpected bit of warmth as an icy layer of Agent Stone melted.
After Miss Poppins left, Aiden sat down on the corner of the desk, looking down at Sam. “Be careful; it appeared as if you cared about her.”
Sam stood up, wanting to match him in height for once. “Let’s just say I know how men can treat, or rather mistreat, women in the workplace.”
His smile quickly faded, and he rose to his feet and touched her shoulder. “Have you been mistreated?”
“Look, I’m sure your friend, Agent O’Connell, mentioned me. Said I fucked my way up the ladder. Well, it’s true.” She waited for his gaping mouth to close and continued. “But, I didn’t fuck to get the promotion; I had to fuck just to be considered for it. Now, I’m going to leave, and you stand here a minute and let my words sink in, Detective West.”
XXX
Detective West and Agent Stone had just walked inside The Watering Hole when Aiden placed his hand on Sam's lower back and steered her through the crowd to a long hallway trailing off to the right of the joint. It dead-ended at a bookcase.
“Wait, don’t tell me. You’ll knock; a peephole opens; you give a password, and then we’re let into a secret room.”
“Your FBI training is showing,” he winked at her, then rapped his knuckles on a vacant space between two books.
As Sam predicted, the block of wood opened, Aiden rattled off a password, and the bookcase opened back into a small nondescript room with a staircase. Aiden led the way down the narrow stairs to what looked like the mouth of a cave. Just inside, there was an elaborately carved wooden door.
Sam tugged on his arm when he reached for the brass handle. “Before we go in, I want to know your connection to this place.”
Aiden wore his emotions in his eyes, and Sam saw sadness in them this time.
“Look, Sam, I don’t participate; I just watch. I tell myself I’m here ensuring things don’t get out of hand, but in truth, it’s just an escape. You might not understand, but sometimes I need to be around these kinds of people. Like me, many are looking for a reprieve from pain in their lives. ”
In an unexpected gesture, she touched the side of his arm. “Pain from what? The job?”
He momentarily shut his eyes. When they reopened and locked onto hers, Sam knew not to press him.
Aiden spoke in a quiet voice. “Let’s just go inside, alright?”
They walked through the door, and it was apparent everything about that underground club screamed hot, pounding sex. A purple haze saturated the room. Music played with no lyrics and a heavy boom boom boom beat. Shadow figures moved in the corners. And the wait staff roamed the room with tank tops and their ass cheeks stuffed in webbed stockings.
Aiden tried to yell over the music, “Let’s split up to find her.”
Sam reached up and turned his head to the right to where a stripper with the most enormous ass she’d ever seen was performing on a stage shaped like a cock with balls. “Bet you that’s Peaches.”
Aiden’s jaw dropped. “Wow, I bet you’re right.”
The two stood with their eyeballs glued to her performance. The stripper didn’t need to be topless because all eyes were on her backside. Her perfectly round orbs kept time with the music's bass as she gyrated against the pole, squatting to where her cheeks grazed the floor before she lifted them back up again. But her best move was when she got down on her knees and crawled backward, bouncing her big booty toward the horny crowd. Her ass crack siphoned the bills from their hands, giving the words “dirty money” a whole new meaning.
“I may need a change of underwear,” Aiden whispered in Sam’s ear.
“Me, too,” she replied with a bright smile.
He raised his eyebrows, “Agent Stone, did you just flash me a genuine smile?”
She hip-bumped him. “Maybe. You might be growing on me, Detective West.”
Cheering drew their attention back toward the stage. “She’s done. Let’s grab her coming off the stage.”
They maneuvered their way through a maze of red velvet couches piled with writhing bodies and past the bar to reach the stripper as she was walking down the back steps from the stage.
She was slipping a black robe over her naked body as Aiden approached and asked, “Are you Miss Peaches?”
The stripper turned to show him her ass. “Now what do you think?” Before he could answer, she continued, “Oh, I know you thinking, ‘That ‘ass can’t be real.’ But it is.” She grabbed his hand and splatted it against her right cheek. “Give it a squeeze.”
He tore his hand away. “Are you Miss Peaches or not?”
“Who wants to know?”
“I’m Detective West, and this is Agent Stone. We have a few questions for Miss Peaches about her relationship with the mayor.”
She stopped and reached up to run her acrylic fingertips through his hair. “Sure thing, handsome. I’m Peaches, but we’d better talk in the dressing room. Follow me.”
When they reached the dressing room, Peaches plopped her plump ass down in a padded chair in front of a small makeup table. Other strippers were scattered about. Some were struggling to stuff their silicone parts into skimpy costumes; others were hurriedly fixing their hair and face.
In the bright light, Peaches resembled an anime character with eyes and a mouth too big for her face. However, it matched her atypical body proportions, with her bottom definitely being too big for her petite frame and tiny waist.
Peaches looked at them in the mirror. “Ask your questions. I got another show to get ready for.” She reached for a lipstick case and began applying the crimson lipstick.
“May I see that, please?” asked Sam.
Peaches handed it to her. “Sure, but it ain’t the right shade for you, baby.”
Sam looked at the label—130 Ruby Fire, then turned her head and whispered in Aiden’s ear, “Same as the lipstick we found up our vic’s ass.”
Peaches spun around in her chair to face them. “You can keep that ‘cause it's evidence.”
Aiden and Sam looked at her in surprise.
“My lipstick went missing a week ago, and I had to buy this new one. Forty-five dollars that lipstick cost me!” Peaches swirled her arms in big sweeping motions. “All these bitches know this is my brand of lipstick, and one of them stole it. They all wanna be Peaches. So when you find the mayor’s killer, maybe you can find who stole my lipstick.”
Aiden filed away that tidbit for later and was anxious to ask his questions about the mayor. “Speaking of the mayor, what was your relationship with him?”
“Oh, my honey boo—that was what I called him—he was freak nasty, if you know what I mean.”
Aiden shook his head. “No, I’m not sure I do.”
“That man was really into ass play, and not just mine. He wanted all kinds of stuff in his ass. Sometimes, I got my friend Gerome to play with us. Gerome’s got him a monster dick. Not many can take it all in, but honey boo could.”
“Did you love him?”
“I did. Honey boo kept sayin’ he’s gonna leave that frigid bitch he married to, but I got tired of waitin’, and we had a big ugly fight.”
“You were overheard saying something along the lines of if you couldn’t have him, nobody could have him.”
“Those were just words, Detective. We would have made up.”
“Where were you the night of the twenty-fifth between midnight and two in the morning?”
“I was here. Ask anyone. I’m the main event, baby, and I hit the stage every forty-five minutes.” She started gathering her long brunette hair up in a ponytail. “Now, I gotta get ready for my next show. Anything else, you’ll have to come back later.”
“That’s all for now. Thank you for your time,” said Sam.
Peaches had been looking Agent Stone over and offered, “Girl, you got nice tits and ass on you. You ever think of slidin’ up and down that pole, then come see me.”
“I have a job, but thank you.” Sam felt the blood rush to her face and didn’t look at Aiden, knowing he had a big stupid grin on his face.
Peaches again met their eyes in the mirror and added, “Alright, I see you got your own hot gig going with handsome. Fuck, a blind man could see the sexual tension flying between you two.”
XXX
Sam was reviewing the case in the evidence room with Detective Jones. “So Jonesy, tell me more about West. He’s a hard one for me to read.”
Detective Jones beamed at her calling him by his nickname.
Sam couldn’t deny he was cute but too young to be of any genuine interest to her.
“Everybody likes him. And he makes us feel more like a family than just co-workers, you know.”
She nodded, having witnessed that in him. “Does he have his own family?”
Jonesy shook his head. “He had a wife a long time ago. She died of cancer. Since then, the job seems to be his life.”
“That’s so sad. I had no idea.” She assumed that was the pain Aiden had mentioned in the strip club.
“It is sad, and I know you two didn’t get off to a great start, but it’s just because he’s loyal to his friends. He’ll eventually ease up about you replacing O’Connell, especially if you show him your skills as an agent and if he thinks he can trust you.”
Skills were no problem, but getting him to trust her was something she wasn’t sure she could pull off. Detective West had gotten under her skin in a particularly uncomfortable way. She’d begun to care what he thought of her. And the initial attraction she’d felt for him was growing exponentially.
Aiden walked into the room, “Jonesy, why are you still here? Don’t you have an anniversary to celebrate?”
“I do, boss, just working on the case some more.”
“Well, stop. Go. Get out of here.”
Jonesy put away the folder he was looking at. “Okay, okay. Thanks, boss.” He turned to Sam. “Goodnight, Agent Stone.”
She waved him off with a smile, “Go have fun, Jonesy.”
Aiden turned to Sam, “He’s celebrating the first anniversary with his girlfriend. His longest relationship so far.”
Sam nodded. “I’d celebrate a year with someone, too.”
“Nobody in your life?”
“Nope.”
“You said you grew up outside of Vegas. Is your family still nearby?”
“Nope. Mom’s dead. Dad’s dead. End of story.”
Despite her poker face, Aiden heard the pain in her voice. He wanted to wrap her in his arms, but instead just said, “I’m sorry.”
“Be sorry about Mom, but not Dad. He was a douchebag who threw us away like trash.” Venom seeped into her tone.
“His loss.”
She could tell he meant that, but immediately regretted sharing facts about her parents with him. “So, back to the case. Who do you like the best as our killer?”
He wanted to ask her more about her family, but her lips tightly cinched together warned him against it, so he answered her question about the case. “I feel like we’re missing something. All the suspects’ motives are too easy,” he remarked with his eyes canvassing the wall of suspects.
Sam moved alongside him. “Most of the time, it is easy—money or cheating.”
“I know, but this case feels different to me.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“I couldn’t help but notice you and Mr. Craven were pretty chummy.”
“Sam, Vegas is called “Sin City” for a reason. Those of us trying to keep the peace look the other way on many of those sins as long as nobody’s getting hurt but trust me, if Rex is in any way involved in the murder, I'll nail his ass to the wall.” He rapped his knuckle on his picture, then turned back around to face her. “That said, I don’t think he did it. The way the mayor was killed and the body left looks more like a crime of passion.”
“Or someone went out of his—“
“—Or her.”
“Or her way to make it look that way.”
Aiden pointed to the picture of Mrs. Prescott. “What about the wife? You liked her as the killer?”
Sam had been studying her face. “Did you notice Mrs. Prescott’s lips are always slightly parted… like in silent invitation. So, her husband may not be fucking her, but she was getting her cunt filled from someone. I think the lawyer, so I’m starting to think she was telling the truth about not caring about her husband’s cheating.”
“What about Miss Peaches?”
“Unless she smothered him with her ginormous ass, she didn’t do it herself. Could have hired out, though.”
Her comment brought a chuckle from Aiden. “She does wear the same shade of lipstick found in our vic’s ass, though. Maybe her story of someone stealing her lipstick was meant to throw us off her tail… I mean trail.”
Sam laughed out loud. “She did have a nice ass, I give her that.”
Aiden laughed with her. They looked into each other’s eyes and fell quiet. Neither could deny their attraction. And neither knew what to do about it.
It was Sam who directed them back to the case. “So if she wasn’t the killer, the killer knew about her affair with the mayor, and both the chips and the lipstick are tied to businesses Rex owns.”
“But Rex wouldn’t leave evidence on the body incriminating himself. The killer planted the evidence to expose his secrets. Buried the body shallow enough to be found.”
“The media is having a field day, aren’t they? A new dirty revelation about the esteemed mayor is popping up every day. I doubt his father, Senator Prescott, will be reelected now.”
Aiden shook his head. “No, not with the scandal around his son.”
She moved away to retrieve another box they’d taken from the mayor’s office, and Aiden grabbed the next folder in the box he was checking. When he opened it and saw what was inside, he looked up at Sam. Seeing her engrossed in other documents, he said nothing and tucked the folder in his notebook.
They continued to sort through documents for the next several hours, enjoying small talk and each other’s company.
Aiden couldn’t help but lock his eyes on Sam’s lips: plump, expressive, and inviting. He wanted to kiss her tonight more than ever. She had a hard shell to crack, but the softness he believed was underneath made his cock ache.
Sam had been studying him, too. She liked his strength, of course, but there was also a kindness within him. He genuinely cared about the people in his city. Does he care about me, too?
Maybe he read her mind because he rose from his chair and approached her. “It’s getting late. Let’s break for the night. You look tired.”
She yawned and stretched her arms overhead. Aiden moved behind her and began massaging her neck and shoulders.
Sam melted as soon as his hands touched her. “God, that feels good. Don’t stop.”
“I never stop until the lady’s ready for me to.”
She enjoyed his fingers for a long time, then told him they had better call it a night. He reluctantly withdrew his hands from her.
They walked together, and when they reached the door, Aiden turned off the light switch and stood facing Sam in the dark. Only a sliver of moonlight entered the room through a hole in the blinds. Neither moved to open the door.
It was hard to tell who made the first move, but two shadows met and kissed. A delicate, gentle kiss at first that quickly turned into a passionate make-out session. Their hands were everywhere, wanting to touch every inch of one another. Aiden felt the heat of her hands through his pants and moaned while Sam rocked against his hand on her crotch. Lust ravaged them, spiraling them toward—
“Aiden… I can’t.” Breathless, Sam squirmed away from him and hurried out the door.
XXX
Sam tossed and turned in the sheets later that night. They’d become a tangled mess around her legs. No matter what she tried, thoughts of Aiden tortured her mind.
Thirty minutes later, she stood on his doorstep in sweats and a tee. She tried box breathing to settle her nerves, but as soon as the door opened and she saw him, she lost control.
Caught off guard, Aiden stumbled backward when she flung herself against him and mashed her mouth against his. Once he realized what was going on, he maneuvered them inside and kicked the door shut.
It was a blur to the bedroom with clothes flying. In no time, Sam was naked on his bed with her wrists held captive by one of his strong hands while he kissed the sensitive area between her jaw and collarbone.
Click.
Sam’s eyes shot wide, and she struggled to free her hand from the handcuff. “Release me. Now!”
Aiden sat back on the bed beside her, enjoying her reaction to the handcuff. “And have you run away again? I don’t think so.”
She twisted her body and tried to yank the handcuff from the spindle with her free hand. Aiden sat on her stomach and wrestled her other hand into the unoccupied dangling cuff. That enraged her even more.
“Release me, you fucker!”
“Calm down. I’ll release you if you really want in a few moments, but first, we need to talk.”
“You’re enjoying this!”
“Maybe a little. You’re always in control, Sam. If you calm down, you might enjoy giving control to me for a little while. Consider this an exercise in trust, as well.”
She huffed and puffed, then finally felt her racing heart slow. “You don’t trust me either.”
He stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, and she surprised him by leaning into his touch.
“I’m close, Samantha. It would help if you let your defenses down and gave some trust to me.”
Her fists were unclenched, and her arms relaxed against the soft sheets.
“That’s better. Give me five minutes, and I'll uncuff you if you still want that.”
Damn, I wish you weren’t such a sexy man. “Five minutes,” she agreed.
His fingers traced circles around her areolas. Light-as-a-feather touches. Just enough. He intently watched her face, noting the slightest changes in her expression. “Clear your mind. You don’t need to think about anything or do anything. Just lay here and let me pleasure you.”
Over the next few minutes, while he continued his light caresses, her tightly raised eyelids drooped, and her upper body began to sway. When her lips parted, he pinched her nipple hard, and she cried out. He bowed his head to her breasts, and she moaned. It was the desperate moans of a woman needing sexual release with his teasing kisses on her breasts—kisses he planted everywhere except her nipples.
“Please,” she whimpered, the anticipation driving her mad.
He granted her wish, showing her she could trust him to give her what she needed, and took turns stiffening each little bud to a peak while his hand slid downward to her pussy.
His fingers dipped inside her, gathering her wetness and bringing it to his lips. “Mmmm,” he moaned. “Delicious.”
Aiden sank two fingers back inside her pussy, and she began riding his hand hard. Neither spoke while listening to the slippery sounds of his finger fuck. Soon, what was a warm tingle became an urgent ache. He felt her growing wetness against his finger.
He couldn’t wait any longer to taste her and moved down between her legs. He started with gentle licks behind her knees before traveling up her thighs. Her begging began again. His hands lifted her ass off the mattress, so his tongue could slide up and down her crack before finding her asshole. She hissed when his tongue made contact with her dirty hole.
“I can’t get enough of you, Samantha.”
Aiden’s heart wildly thumped in his chest, and his cock hurt more than he thought possible. Enough with the teasing. He hooked her legs over his shoulders and ravaged her pussy with his lips and tongue. Sucked her lips into his mouth. Tongued her clit.
Her hips bucked off the bed, and he heard the rattling of the metal cuffs against the spindles of the headboard. The heat from their arousal had both their bodies dripping with sweat.
It wasn’t until her knees started trembling, bashing his head about, that he withdrew and climbed up her quivering body.
“You’re so ready for me, Samantha. Just relax and let me fuck you.”
She gasped, eyes wild. “Hard. Fuck me hard.”
The dirty things he then whispered in her ear with his smooth voice made her pussy gape.
He placed one hand beside her head to support his weight while the other positioned his cock at her opening. Just the tip he gave her. It was excruciating how he teased her with just the head. As she writhed and begged, he finally gave her what she needed and sunk deep within her sopping wet pussy. Sam couldn’t believe how good he was making her feel. No one had made love to her like Aiden. Locking eyes with him while he fucked her unlocked emotions that had fallen dull so long ago.
Unable to use her hands, she dug her heels into his pumping buttocks.
“Fuck,” he moaned.
With control that proved more difficult than he’d expected, Aiden used his hips to bring her to the edge, then pulled her back. Over and over and over again, he edged her.
She finally quit screaming and begging each time he withdrew and gave herself over to the fuck… and to him. Aiden continually pulling her back from the brink of her orgasm brought her arousal to new heights. All thoughts and worries disappeared. There was just the sensation of his cock inside her pussy. He saw it in her eyes and then fucked her harder than he’d ever fucked anyone before.
Aiden and Sam were racing toward something they hadn’t experienced in a long time, and they couldn’t get there without the other. When her eyes rolled back, he kissed her hard as she orgasmed, swallowing her screams with his mouth. Her pussy spasmed around his aching cock until it burst inside of her.
XXX
Agent Stone arrived at the address Aiden had texted her. It was a rundown building in the seediest part of Vegas. She wrinkled her nose from the unknown stench in the air as she surveyed the surroundings. Calling cards of whores littered the crumbling sidewalks. Drunks stumbled back to alleyways.
She finally spotted a familiar face in Detective Jones and approached him. “What’s with the animal control truck, Jonesy?”
The young detective shivered, “Snakes. Geez, I hate snakes.”
Sam didn’t flinch as a man holding a wiggling bag brushed against her on his way to his truck. She followed the trail of officers into the building and up the stairs to an office. Aiden was standing just inside the door, handing plastic bags containing a tattoo gun and needles to an officer.
“Get these to the lab ASAP to check for blood, particularly any cells matching the mayor’s DNA.”
“What the fuck?” Sam’s eyes shifted from the dead man on the floor with the snake tattoos to the numerous surrounding empty reptile containers.
Aiden almost greeted her with a kiss before he caught himself and smiled instead. “This is a whole lot of crazy, huh? It gets even crazier.”
She gestured around the room. “How could it get any crazier than this?”
“Well, remember how Rex Craven mentioned the mayor falling out with loan sharks Damion and Marco?”
“Yeah, so?”
“Well, our dead guy is Damion Domingo. It appears he snorted some bad coke and died. We’ve learned he had a snake obsession, tattooed them all over his body as a hobby, and let them slither around him while he worked. Someone reported a foul smell emanating from this office, and the building maintenance man found him dead on the floor this morning, with his pets all over him. And our mayor was covered in two pretty amateurish tattoos, right?”
Sam couldn’t help staring at his lips while he talked and remembering how they’d felt between her legs. Shifting her stance, she struggled to stay focused. “Now that is pretty crazy. So, you think he’s our killer?”
Why the sudden red cheeks, Samantha? Aiden hoped he was affecting her the way she was affecting him. He flashed her another warm smile. “Looks that way. We’ll see if we luck out and find DNA on his needles. If it is Damion, he did one helluva job running us in all different directions with the way he’d left the mayor’s body.”
For the first time since she could remember, Sam’s taut muscles relaxed, and she released a satisfied sigh. “It all makes sense. Some of these sharks get nasty when you don’t pay them back—want to make an example for others who don’t make their payments.”
“Now we wait for the lab results.” Aiden stepped closer to her with passion in his eyes and dangled his handcuffs in front of her face. “Any idea how we can pass the time?”
XXX
As soon as Aiden slipped out, he missed her warm pussy. He rolled off her onto his side, facing her. Sam smiled at him. She loved how he dominated her in the bedroom. He’d fucked her so hard, and she was celebrating more than a closed case.
He reached over and lightly massaged her neck, and she released a satisfied sigh, then drifted off to sleep. Beautiful Samantha, he thought to himself. You look so peaceful—the kind of peace usually only the innocents experience. She had a soft, purr-like snore, and he wished she was on her back instead of her tummy so he could watch the gentle rise and fall of her breasts. In time, he fell asleep, too.
He awoke hours later to see she hadn’t moved. His cock stiffened again, laying so close to her naked body. Sam triggered so many emotions in him—maybe even love.
He moved his fingers that had been resting on her ass to brush her curls back from her face. The gesture made her eyelids flutter open, and she found him staring intently at her. Conflicted was how she read his eyebrows drawn together paired with a smile.
“Are you okay?” She wondered how long he’d been watching her sleep.
“Just thinking about the case,” he replied, settling his hand on her backside once more.
“The case we just wrapped up? Why?”
His hand began tracing the ridges of her spine. “I found something else interesting about Prescott. It was in a folder hidden in his office.”
“What did you find?”
“He had a secret child—a daughter.”
Sam’s heart beat faster, pounding in her chest so hard she feared Aiden could hear it.
He continued with an even, soft tone, “He was young, just starting a promising career, and his father paid off the woman to go away, have or not have the child, but never contact them again. The family kept tabs on the woman for a while until she tragically died in a hit-and-run. The daughter was placed in foster care, and that’s when the surveillance ended.”
Aiden held her eyes, saying nothing more.
After a few moments of awkward silence, she shrugged her shoulders. “Well, none of that matters now that he’s gone and a killer’s dead.”
“Don’t you want to know the daughter’s name, Samantha?”
Not answering his question, Sam continued toying with his chest hair with her left hand while she dropped her right arm over the edge of the bed, slid her hand underneath the mattress, and grasped her gun. “So, who has seen this information?” She struggled to maintain a steady voice.
A long pause. Neither blinked, locking onto each other’s eyes and maybe hoping for a glimpse into the other’s soul.
Then, the lines around Aiden’s eyes softened. “Only me. Like you said, none of that matters now. A bad guy is dead, so I had myself a bonfire and gave the secret in the folder to the desert.”
She exhaled louder than she’d intended, released the gun, and climbed on top of him.
A moment later, they joined the other desert dwellers, washing away their sins with a hard fuck
