Page 8 of To Have and to Hold

An hour and a half later, I scraped the last of Noelle’s meatballs from my plate, sat back in my chair and patted my stomach, recently flattened by Noelle’s penchant for spin class which I pretended to hate but was okay with doing. Just don’t ever ask me where I am on Monday and Wednesday mornings. I’ll never tell.

“Isn’t this against my diet restrictions?” I asked her.

She perched on her seat beside me, still clad in her birthday suit and licking her fork clean. The tip of her tongue had me thinking I wanted it around my dick again. “You’ve had a stressful week, and for that you get a pass.”

“Thank you for that,” I said, catching her hand and kissing her fingers.

“I haven’t seen you for days and knew that topless spaghetti and meatballs would give me at least two hours with you wide awake.”

I grinned over her hand.

“I admit it, I missed you.” She gave an exaggerated head tilt, sending her brunette strands tumbling around her shoulders. Yet there was a thickness in her statement, not all joke. We’d been dating a year and while three years younger than my wise old twenty-nine, she’d been leaving clues everywhere as to her hopes for our future. Noelle Fields was hot, smart, funny, witty, and all my buddies loved her. She stimulated my brain on important matters like politics and world issues and was often a big help when faced with a legal conundrum. Noelle was also second year associate at one of the biggest law firms in the country, and, like me, enjoyed taking out her frustrations through sex. She was a stunner naked.

Except, there was something I couldn’t put my finger on.

I liked messy. Passion and anger with the satisfying conclusion of leg-tangling submission. Noelle didn’t fight; she understood. She never talked back and thought any problems could be solved by a good meal and warm conversation.

“You’re wrong,” I said to Noelle, and pulled on her forearm until her breasts molded against my body.

“Am I?”

“You’ve gained at least three hours with me at your service.” My other hand played, flicked, massaged her nipple ring.

“Spence…” she said, tipping her chin back.

I scraped my teeth down her neck, nicking that spot behind her ear that elicited the kind of noises from her I’d think about later and get hard just remembering, and found her clit with my fingers, building her up. She was slick, hot, and I slipped in…

My phone rang. And not that cute la-la-la type ring that is all harmony and pleasant interruption. It was a submarine alarm, bleating out its urgency because that was the only sound annoying enough to get my attention and make me answer.

“Who the hell’s calling you at midnight?” Noelle groaned, and unfortunately moved away.

“Anyone,” I said, heading to my bag leaning precariously on my front door. “My supervisor, fellow ADAs, paralegals, cops, the President…the law has no timetable, honey.”

“Spare me,” she said and picked up our plates. But laughed anyway.

I answered. “Yeah?”

“Spence?”

“Knox, buddy,” I said, and tried to sound friendly to my childhood sidekick, a man who should’ve known never to call me in the middle of the night during a big case, because more often than not I’d be taking out my stress by screwing my girlfriend’s brains out. “This better be the emergency of a lifetime, because you just—”

“You sitting down?”

An almost-frown touched my expression. “No, I’m standing ass-crack naked in the middle of my living room. Why?”

Noelle caught the concern and lowered the dirty dishes slowly into the sink.

“That scene I was called out to? The kidnapping in the financial district?”

“What about it?”

“It’s Emme, Spence.”

That name.

Eyes the darkest shade of green. Cascades of ink-black hair. A smile to melt me.

“Nope.” I said. “You’ve spent a few too many hours off the clock and twice that amount on booze and now you’re blowing up my phone because you’re hallucinating. Right? Right, Knox?”

My tone became rougher the further I committed to this storyline.

“You heard me,” Knox said, though not with unkindness. He sounded tired, resigned. Scared. “It’s been confirmed. The abducted woman is Emme Beauregard. It’s Em.”

My knees slammed to the floor.

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