Vanishing Girls (Detective Josie Quinn #1)(19)

He reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

“I’m fine, but I could really have used some company the last two days.”

One of his hands found hers, his fingers stroking her palm and sliding over the band of the engagement ring she’d remembered to wear. “I’ll make it up to you,” he promised.

She raised a brow. “When?”

He laughed. “Starting now. I wanted to take you to lunch.”

But she didn’t want to go to lunch. She didn’t need food. She didn’t need to talk about her feelings. She needed him. Lacing her fingers through his, she tugged him away from her car and the parking lot, toward the thickest copse of woods she could find surrounding the barracks. Reluctantly, he let her lead him. “Josie,” he said. “What’s going on? Where are we going?”

“You’ll see,” she said over her shoulder.

They picked their way over branches and rocks. Every few feet, she glanced over her shoulder, ignoring the look of confusion and concern blanketing Luke’s face, to check if any part of the barracks was still visible. When the building finally disappeared from view, she stopped walking and turned to Luke.

“What are we doing out here?” he asked.

Her jacket dropped to the forest floor, followed by her faded Rascal Flatts T-shirt and bra. Luke didn’t speak, but he smiled nervously as she kicked off her boots and unzipped her pants. His hands were on his hips. “You’re bat-shit crazy, you know that?” he said, but his eyes roved greedily over her body as she stripped off the rest of her clothes.

“I don’t see you running away,” she challenged.

His voice was husky. “Never.” His gaze moved from her breasts to her leg, which she had had the good sense to wrap with an ACE bandage that morning. “How’s your leg?”

“It’s fine.”

He nodded, continuing to stare. “You’re pretty bruised up. You feeling okay?”

“I’m fine,” she replied, a tinge of impatience creeping into her voice.

He glanced around briefly. “We’re in the middle of the woods.”

“I know.”

She knew these woods, she trusted them. She and Ray had been exploring them since they were nine years old. They’d even named a few places where there were distinctive cliffs, valleys, or rock formations. There were few places in the county she hadn’t scoured. This was a more private place than either one of their vehicles.

Luke started to unsnap his holster belt. It was secured to his pants belt by four belt keepers and held his SIG P227, baton, mace, handcuffs, and portable radio. “You have any idea how long it takes to get this damn thing on and off?”

Her eyes narrowed and she licked her lips.

He stopped unfastening his belt, looking suddenly confused, as though he didn’t recognize the woman before him. “What’s going on with you?”

She strode toward him. “Shut up,” she said, yanking at the keepers and divesting him of his belts. She dropped them onto the ground beside them. He was still looking at her like she was a stranger. Before he could speak, she rocked up onto her toes and captured his mouth, kissing him hungrily. Her hands tore at his zipper.

Luke gripped her upper arms, breaking the kiss but keeping her close to his body. “Josie,” he rasped, searching her face.

“Make it up to me, Luke,” she said, her tone a challenge. “Right here, right now.”

For a long, pregnant moment, her command hung in the air above their heads. She wondered if he was going to shut her down. She plunged her hand into his pants and took hold of him. Regardless of what his brain was telling him, his body was ready for her. “Do it,” she said. The next thing she knew his pants were around his ankles and her back was against a tree. He lifted and held her there as if she weighed nothing, pushing inside her with a gentle firmness that quickly turned urgent. The bark of the tree scraped into her back, hard and rhythmic, smarting against her earlier injuries.

“Harder,” she breathed into his ear as the pain went from sharp to exquisite and exhilarating, blotting out every other feeling in her mind and her body. As her own body tightened around him, she let out a long cry of pleasure. This, she could always count on. As they walked back to her car, disheveled, sweaty and satisfied, Josie felt more clear-headed than she had in days.





Chapter Fifteen





They ate at a diner a few miles from the barracks but in the opposite direction from Denton. It was a relief to be somewhere else for a while. Josie ordered a half-pound cheeseburger with fries and a side of mozzarella sticks. Sex always made her ravenous, made her buzz with energy. She felt like she could do anything. Ray always said that’s what cocaine was like. They’d taken a break from one another in college—she had tried other men and he had tried drugs. Sex with Luke had always been good but never near what it had been like with Ray. Until today. She felt high, like she was on top of the world with no chance of falling off.

Across from her, Luke picked at his own burger and used the longest French fry on his plate to marshal the smaller fries into formation.

“Something on your mind?” she asked.

He didn’t look up. “Ray sign those papers?”

“Not yet. You know he’s busy with the Coleman case, and now with this Spencer thing…”