Page 36 of Outlaw Ridge: Reed
He gave her exactly what she needed. He clutched onto her hips so he could thrust even harder into her. Moving faster. Deeper. Until the pleasure consumed every inch of her. Hallie didn’t even try to slow it down. Didn’t try to stop it. She just let Reed and that pleasure send her soaring.
The climax raced through her, but she kept moving. Kept riding him until she heard Reed murmur her name.
Then, he went right over that edge with her.
----- ? ----
Chapter Fourteen
----- ? ----
Reed stood at the window in Hallie’s kitchen and watched the rain continue to come down in buckets. It was just past six in the morning, but it looked more like midnight, and judging from the forecast, the rain wouldn’t be letting up anytime soon.
Normally, he wasn’t a fan of stormy weather, but he was still carrying that slack, sated feeling that came with great sex. And the sex with Hallie had indeed been just that.
Great. Amazing.
And a whole bunch of other things that had temporarily made him forget about murders and investigations. About dangers and threats. But as he stood there, of course, all of that returned. It had to. He couldn’t let great, amazing sex cloud his mind enough to forget that a killer was gunning for Hallie.
He turned when he heard the footsteps and saw Hallie making her way toward him. Not naked as she had been earlier when he’d left her sleeping in her bed. She was wearing pants and a top, complete with her badge and shoulder holster. Obviously, she was ready for work.
She stopped when she was still a few feet away from him, stared at him a couple of moments and then smiled. He hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath, waiting to see what herreaction would be. Reed had thought she might have regrets. But nope. There was none of that. She went to him and kissed him.
“You look far too good for someone who’s only had a couple of hours of sleep,” she murmured with her mouth against his.
“I could say the same about you.” Except she didn’t just look good. Hallie hit the incredible mark.
She eased back enough to meet his gaze, and while he saw the heat in her eyes, he saw something else. “What’s wrong?” he couldn’t ask fast enough.
“Nothing about us,” she was equally quick to say. “I’m not sorry about us landing in bed, but…”
Hell. He hated thatbut, and while he did more breath holding, he waited for her to explain.
“But,” she repeated, “I can’t think about the personal stuff right now. I can’t promise you anything.”
Another round of relief came. “I don’t expect promises. Or you dealing with the personal stuff. That can all wait. What’s wrong?” he repeated.
Her forehead bunched up. “The prison sent me a report on my father’s murder. And, no, I’m still not mourning anything about his death, only the horrific pain he caused so many people.” She paused. “He was killed by a fellow inmate, Barry Hopkins, who isn’t on death row, but he shouldn’t have been in the exercise area the same time Kip was. There was some kind of security lapse.”
That got his attention, and it’d clearly gotten Hallie’s as well. “Security lapses are rare in a prison like that.”
“I agree, and so far, this Barry Hopkins is saying he killed Kip because a beef between them. Since they had little contact with each other, the prison officials did some digging. Two weeks ago, Barry had a visitor. Corman. The conversation wasn’t recorded, but Corman listed the purpose of the visit as personal.”
“Personal,” he repeated. “What’s Corman’s connection to Hopkins?”
Hallie shook her head. “Unknown at this point. It’s possible they worked together since Corman’s a gaming software engineer, and Hopkins was a tech in that particular field.” She paused. “There are some more possible pieces to this puzzle. Hopkins had just gotten a diagnosis for pancreatic cancer, and he’s the father of two teenage girls who’ll be heading to college soon.”
Reed didn’t like the way the puzzle pieces were coming together. Corman had money so he might have paid Hopkins to kill Kip. The motive for that was obvious. Kip had murdered Corman’s mother, and Corman wanted revenge.
But why now?
Why wait a decade to end Kip’s life?
Maybe because Corman hadn’t had the opportunity for that before now. But Reed didn’t like the timing.
“When are you bringing in Corman to question him about all of this?” Reed asked.
Hallie checked the time. “He’ll be at the station with his lawyer in about four hours. In the meantime, I’m going in to read through any updates…and try to find a killer.”
