Page 55 of Crash and Burn

He was pulling back before she was ready. “More … please.”

Those breathy sounds were hers, the groans of surrender his.

They moved together, straining to get closer until she was begging him to send her over the edge. Holding himself up on one arm, he reached the other hand down until his thumb found her slick and wanting. He stroked her while pushing into her and on the third time, she screamed his name.

Chapter Forty-Five

Sebastian sat nestled into the corner of his couch with Maggie settled between his legs, leaning back against his chest.

He held his tablet in front of them, his arms looping around her as though the couch were its own private island and she was safe in whatever small shelter he’d made.

He’d packed the tablet at the bottom of his bag when he’d hastily left Maggie’s house. An officer with the Redemption PD had searched the bag and either not found the tablet or not worried about it. Since their laptops had spent the night on the dining room table, they were getting dusted for prints and neither of them had been able to bring their computers.

This was their only way, aside from their phones, to search for information on Merrit Geller now. Their first problem was that they weren't sure who the man they’d seen last night was. But it was one of the best leads they had.

That and William Sanders, one of the other pictures that Marina Balero had produced as a suspect. When Maggie said she thought she remembered that name from Sabbie’s records, that doubled down their suspicions.

Marina had produced three photos. That two of the men not only had ties to the boarding house, but had been renters there made Sebastian wonder if maybe they had the names of the Blue River Killer and the La Vista Rapist and the only thing left was to gather enough evidence for arrests.

Not that anyone had arrested anyone yet. Both men were still free.

Everything was shit right now.

He and Maggie were staying in his apartment because her house was being searched once again. It was the middle of the afternoon, and they'd slept late because they'd been up all night, dealing with break ins,once again. Maggie was losing work and time and possibly her reputation around town, once again.

He was losing work. But he wasn’t going to leave her alone and, frankly, Sebastian had never felt better.

Having Maggie here, being with her, and knowing that she felt the same way he did more than made up for all the rest of it.

She leaned back into him, even as she reached up to tap buttons on the screen of his tablet. Sleeping with her in his arms last night had felt amazing, but while he’d been finally falling asleep, doubt had crept in at the edges.

Was she just tired or did she not want him anymore? Was she with him because she needed someone to keep her safe, and he could do that? Was she one of those women who couldn’t stand to be single and flitted from boyfriend to boyfriend?

He’d reminded himself that none of that sounded like the Maggie he knew. It sounded like his own fears talking. He’d slept on it, but when she’d woken up, she’d cleared all of that up for him.

They were together.

Officially, she'd said. And the idea of Maggie telling people that she was with him was plausibly the best present he'd ever gotten. There was something very, very right about the feeling of her in his arms, whether that was naked and making love or curled up on the couch right now.

Though he had no idea if she felt it as deeply as he did, he was willing to wait to find out. And he was willing to do everything in his power to make sure that even if she didn't feel that way now, she would in the future.

“William Sanders has a horrible name,” Maggie told him.

He couldn’t help but laugh at her proclamation. “At leastMerrit Gelleriskind of unique. It helps to find him. That's why they three-name them, you know.”

“Three-name?”

“Yeah. Like John Wayne Gacy and Lee Harvey Oswald and Mark David Chapman. If they have common enough names, the media three-names them so they don't get confused for other, innocent people who are unlucky enough to have the same name.”

“Interesting,” Maggie said as she pushed his hands out of the way. Breaking the loop of his hold, she hopped off the couch and headed across the room to her purse. Her ass looked good in those jeans. He wanted so much more than this, but it was way too fast and there was too much up in the air right now. So he kept his mouth shut and his eyes on the back pockets of her jeans.

Within moments she was on the phone. “Hey, Marina. Tell me you've got a middle name for Sanders?... Ah, perfect. Thank you! What? Oh? Okay, thanks.” The exchange sounded more like she was calling for clarification on a cake recipe than information on a possible serial killer.

“Treat.” Maggie smiled as she turned back to Sebastian and then spelled it. “He's William Treat Sanders and he's currently living in Lincoln.”

“Marina gave you all that?”

Though Maggie nodded. Her voice said the opposite. “Noooo … No, of course not.”

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