Dad's Private Investigator Best Friend Read online

  “What the fuck!” Spit collects at the corner of Hunter’s mouth as the cap he wore perched backward on his frosted tips tumbles off and to the floor. “You can’t— get your hands off me!”

  “No.” It’s one word; a complete sentence. I tighten my grip slightly, watching as his eyes widen. I’m not restricting much of his airflow, just enough to make sure I have this little fucker’s attention. “How do you like it when someone bigger and stronger than you ignores it when you tell them to leave you alone?”

  Behind me, I hear a sharp intake of breath, and I can’t tell if it comes from Faye or Hunter’s friend with the body paint. I don’t think it matters much. The red haze of anger threatens to cloud my vision again as I remember that this is the asshole that’s been stalking Faye, the guy that gripped her arm hard enough to leave an actual bruise.

  Vaguely, I’m aware that someone has lowered the music. I imagine if I could be bothered enough to look around, there’d be more than one set of eyes fixed on the sight of us at the top of the stairs. Good. Maybe getting his ego slammed is what it’ll take to get this little punk’s head out of his ass. The roar of laughter and general party ruckus begin to dim, quieting down altogether as I lift Hunter bodily off the ground. By the time I slam him into the wall at the top of the stairs, the only sound is the rattle of football trophies dancing around on the console table.

  And the high-pitched pleading of a very large quarterback.

  “Look, I’m sorry, man—”

  “You will be,” I get in close to Hunter’s red, sweaty face. “If I ever catch you so much as breathing the same air as Faye again. Do you understand?”

  Hunter nods, his motions jerky in my hands as my thumb and forefinger apply pressure to the area above his throat. The tips of his shoes are brushing the stained carpet at our feet. Even in the silence that surrounds us in the crowded house now, I lean in close, teeth grit and voice low enough so that only Hunter can hear me before I let him down.

  “I won’t be so nice if I have to talk to you again.”

  Chapter 4

  Faye

  Don’t you know? Girl, you’ll be a woman soon. Please come take my hand. — Urge Overkill, ‘Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon’

  The sun is shining bright when I get out of class the next day.

  The morning haze has burned off, revealing a perfect day on the bay, as if yesterday’s storm were nothing more than a bad memory.

  If I were the kind of girl who believed in fate and fairy tales, I might think it has something to do with Finn. Then again, there isn’t much good in my world I haven’t wanted to find a way to attribute to Finn Walker.

  I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him since he brought me home from the party at Delta Xi last night. The sight of Finn bodily picking Hunter up and growling at him to stay away from me is something I might never be able to get out of my head. The visual is imprinted on my mind.

  I’ve always known that Finn is the very essence of the word masculine. I’ve seen him in action before. I’ve watched him take down suspects, deftly dodge cars in motion and single-handedly unarm people intent on harming innocent civilians. But until last night I’ve never known what it feels like to be the single-handed focus of all that protective masculinity.

  If I had it bad for my dad’s ex-partner before, I may never get over him now. And therein lies the problem. I don’t want to get over Finn. I want to get under him. There’s a reason I’m one of the only twenty-two-year-old virgins I know. It’s not that I haven’t found what I want yet— it’s that I’ve always known exactly what— and who— that is.

  After he confronted Hunter last night, Finn drove me home. I wanted to invite him in.

  Into my tiny apartment, into my bed. Into my life, forever.

  Instead, he’d hugged me, told me I was safe now. It was such a rare glimpse of emotion from him that it almost felt more intimate, somehow. I can’t remember another time Finn ever pulled me tight, or that I ever allowed myself to cling to him for just a moment that way before. If I close my eyes now, I can still pick up the scent of the rainy night sky and leather jacket that clung to him.

  He didn’t come inside my apartment— or me— the way I wanted.

  I woke up in the middle of the night, mouth dry and heart pounding in my chest from a nightmare I couldn’t remember. When I made my way to the window, there was the unmistakable light of a motorcycle in the rainy haze below.

  So I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see the familiar black shape of the Harley, cruising to a stop in front of the lecture hall as I make my way out into the warmth of the afternoon sunshine. Still, I can’t tamp down the bubble of relief that floods me at the sight of him.

  “How are you, Faye?” Finn asks as he pulls up in front of me.

  He looks even better in the afternoon sun than he did last night. It’s unfair. He’s got to be close to forty— I remember him being a couple years younger than my dad. But somehow, he’s only gotten more handsome over the years. His eyes a brighter, more crisp shade of green, his hair just long enough on top to catch in the breeze blowing in off the ocean. There’s the very beginning of salt and pepper kissing the shadow of stubble along his cheeks. It looks good on him. Everything looks good on him

  “I’m ok,” I hug my organic chemistry textbook to my chest as I come up on the side of the bike. “Better. It feels good to be able to walk out of class without having to look over my shoulder.”

  Something unreadable flashes behind his eyes. It’s that same electric fire that snapped and crackled there just before he’d had his long fingers at Hunter’s throat last night.

  “I’m here for you, Faye. Anything I can do to help—”

  “Anything?” Seizing my chance, I cut Finn off with a wry grin.

  I’m on the back of the bike before he has a chance to rethink his offer, my textbook already bundled and forgotten into my backpack. Finn tenses beneath my fingertips, his muscular chest tightening and flexing in the snug white tee shirt he’s wearing. There’s a singular satisfaction in that, a wholly feminine pleasure in knowing that the same man I watched physically subdue a beefy football player can also be brought to goosebumps by my touch.

  “Anything, Faye.” It’s quiet, but I hear him. His hand comes up, long fingers squeezing my wrists where they’re wrapped around his middle. It’s enough.

  The way he holds onto me, the way he’s come back for me today— hell, the way he got into Hunter’s face last night. Finn isn’t immune to this thing between us.

  The fact that Finn isn’t unaffected by my touch gives me hope. It lets me know that he feels the spark, the crackling chemistry between us just as much as I do.

  “Will you take me for a ride?” I rest my head on his shoulder and enjoy the thrum of the motorcycle rumbling up from between my legs. Beneath my palm, Finn’s heartbeat doubles, stutters, and then slams against his ribcage.

  “Yeah. Let’s go to the beach. Hold on.”

  The hope in my own chest swells in response.

  I don’t ever plan on letting go.

  Chapter 5

  Finn

  A younger girl keeps hanging around, one of the loveliest I’ve ever found. Blowing my mind, stealing my heart. Somebody help me ‘fore I fall apart. — Jefferson Airplane, ‘Come Up The Years’

  “Here, put your hand higher. Let me show you.”

  Faye is sweaty, her honey blonde tresses piled up on top of her head in a messy bun. Her glasses are sitting on the side table, carefully set aside so as not to get cracked in the tousle. The firm set of her face as she concentrates on taking me down is endearing. Like so much about her, it reminds me of a younger version of myself.

  “Like this?” Her fingers find their purchase on my forearm.

  I can’t count the number of times in the last few days I’ve pictured having Faye on her hands and knees just like this. Her back arches beneath me, her hip thrusting out as she gives her all over to trying to leverage my sizable bulk ont
o the floor. It takes every ounce of my self-control not to groan audibly. I want to tear off her jeans, bury myself to the hilt inside the slick, tight walls of her slick young pussy.

  Instead, I force myself to focus.

  Faye came to me for help, and that’s what I need to be doing. She trusts me, and I’ll be damned if I’ll break that trust. Even the protective hunger, the need she’s awoken inside of me isn’t enough for me to breach the relationship I have with her.

  Or with Jake.

  As much as I don’t want to admit it to myself or the curvy, determined minx currently writhing around beneath me, my old partner is one of the few good friends I’ve ever had. Jake is a good man. He trusted me enough to send Faye to me when she had a problem.

  Thwack!

  Taking advantage of my distracted state, Faye gets a good hold on the grip I demonstrated, bringing us down together as we crash onto the padded floor of my home gym in a tangle of arms and legs.

  For the first time all week, I find myself looking up at the ceiling alongside her.

  Like every other night this week, she came straight over after her shift at Raise a Glass. The self-defense lessons I’m giving her are simple, basic instruction on introductory martial arts and easy ways to help keep herself safe. I should have known she’d be a natural; picking things up quickly and wanting to practice until her technique is perfect.

  “Yes!” Faye pumps one arm up in the air from her position flat on her back on the gym floor. “I did it— I can start my Olympic career now, right?”

  My mouth turns up at that. Long strands of hair have come loose from her top knot, sticking to her forehead as Faye draws in deep breaths. There’s a red flush to her skin, the glistening tint of perspiration. Even after going to school all day and putting in a full shift at the bar, Faye still gives the impromptu self-defense lessons her all.

  I’m starting to realize that she doesn’t do anything by half-measures. There’s no way to dim the fire behind her coffee brown eyes, nothing to be done with all the passion inside her. It’s the same reason Faye left home to come out here in the first place, I suppose. There’s too much damn life in her to be bottled up, contained.

  “Yeah, you’re ready to take on Ali.” I glide onto my feet and reach out a hand to help her up onto hers. “But how about you drink some water first, champ?”

  Faye makes it a point to look right at me while she rolls her eyes. But she accepts the cold water bottle I offer her anyway, taking a long swallow before pressing the icy plastic to her flushed skin.

  Somehow, I manage to tear my eyes away from the place where the cold bottle touches the pale flesh at the top of her scoop-neck tee. The creamy skin of her bountiful breasts prickles into goosebumps at the contact, droplets of water clinging to the cotton and creating pockets of translucency.

  Need hits me like a freight train. It’s more than lust, more than just my cock.

  Though God knows that throbs painfully in my loose grey sweats.

  No, this is so much more. This is realization. It feels like coming home. It’s the culmination of the past few days, the last three years. It’s looking at Faye, standing under the warm lightbulb of my basement gym, and realizing the feelings I feel for her are real and intense.

  She’s young, yes. She’s Jake’s daughter and fuck that kills me. If she were anyone else, I would already have my hands buried in her long blonde hair, my lips pressed against the plump heart-shaped temptation of her mouth.

  “You don’t have to look away, you know.” Faye’s voice is low, rough with something that sounds like it mirrors my own need.

  When I look back at her, those big brown eyes are fixed on me. She’s still holding the water bottle, pressing it to the flushed skin of her collar as icy droplets find their way down her cleavage. I can visualize, with painful clarity, the way it would taste to drag my tongue between the deep valley of her plentiful tits.

  I manage to drag my gaze back up to her face, there’s heat flashing there that has nothing to do with our workout.

  “Yes I do, Faye,” I frown at her.

  I wonder if she realizes how much I mean that. In how many ways. I have to look away from her. I have to look away now. Because if I don’t tear my eyes away from the way her hips dip and curve, the way her ass juts out just so, the way her gorgeous tits sway in that snug black tee-shirt, I won’t be able to keep my hands off her.

  “I don’t want you to look away, Finn.” Faye’s voice isn’t hesitant anymore. It’s all challenge. There’s tension snapping between us. The entire room feels thick, tension flaring in the hot air.

  She pads across the floor towards me, the fire in her eyes turned up to a blazing inferno.

  For the third time in our lives, Faye wraps her arms around my neck.

  Chapter 6

  Faye

  Kiss me in the D-a-r-k dark tonight. D-a-r-k do it my way. — Lana Del Rey

  His kiss is reluctant, but nothing else about him is.

  His lips are hesitant on mine, but his hands rove all over my body. They grab my hips, pulling me harder against the stiff bulge I can feel swelling in his pants. They move to cup my ass, squeezing and kneading my cheeks. His hips buck against me, grinding the steel in his pants against the heat blasting out from between my thighs.

  “You’re not my Dad, Finn. Just his friend. You can’t tell me what to do.” I whisper against his lips as I rub myself against him, arching my back to press the front of my body against his. A muscle jumps in his cheek even through his clenched jaw, his pulse leaping wildly in his throat.

  “Get off of me, Faye. I’m not going to tell you again.” His voice is pure sex. Distilled, hundred-proof frustrated, aching man.

  “Good. Then I won’t have to ignore you again.” I fire back, grabbing his hands and dragging them up from my ass to my tits, forcing them closed around them.

  “I’m warning you, Faye…” His voice trails off, unable to put into words exactly what dark things he’s warning me of.

  “Warning me about what, Finn?” I ask, grinding my hips in a circle against him.

  “You don’t want to play this game with me.”

  “Who said I was playing?” I ask, smirking down at him.

  “Little girls like you love to play games. I’m not having any of it. If you weren’t Jake’s daughter I’d have already thrown you out.”

  “You don’t mean that, Finn.” I reach down with one hand, giving his cock a squeeze through his sweatpants.

  His groan is two parts frustration, one part raw need. Shaken, not stirred.

  “Get off of me, Faye.” Finn moves beneath me. He could overpower me in a second, but he’s still holding back.

  He’s always held back with me. Held himself apart, away, aloof.

  But I’m done with that. I’m going to push him all the way.

  Because I need to know if he feels the same way I always have.

  “Make me, Finn,” I growl back at him, moving my other hand down to slide up his shirt and trace the lines of his chest and abs.

  God, he’s even hotter now than he was when I was just a horny teen who had no idea what she liked. It’s unfair how much more attractive men can become.

  “God damn it, girl, enough!” Finn shouts. One moment I’m straddling him, feeling him up and down. The next I’m on my back, staring up into those green eyes that have haunted me for half my life.

  “Finally,” I mutter, before wrapping my arms and legs around him as tightly as possible and kissing him like my life depends on it.

  Finn isn’t reluctant now. His lips are savage, demanding more and more. His tongue plunders my mouth, his teeth sinking into my bottom lip on the way out in a mix of pain and pleasure that has my pussy throbbing, even though he hasn’t so much as looked in its direction.

  His hands grab my wrists, bundling them together and pinning them up above my head with one big hand. His other reaches down, grabs my shirt, and rips it off of my body.

  Oh, fuck. I might have pu
shed him a bit too far.

  I look up into his eyes and the raw hunger there scares me and arouses me. Scarouses me?

  They’re the eyes of a starving wolf about to feast for the first time in a long time.

  I swallow around a suddenly dry throat, a lump forming in my throat, robbing me of all my witty words. There’s no doubt in my mind that teasing this man right now would be the biggest mistake of my life.

  Somehow, I still want to. To keep pushing and prodding him just to see how much more I could goad him into.

  My sports bra strains under the pressure of containing my generous breasts. It’s thick, a cotton and spandex weave that’s designed to be sturdy. Finn’s free hand grabs it, and for a moment I think he’s going to rip it off of me too. Instead, he just tugs it up, freeing my tits to spill out beneath his heated emerald gaze.

  I can feel his eyes on me, drinking up the smooth expanse of pale flesh. I flush beneath him even more, growing redder and redder, as if his stare is melting me with heat vision.

  Finn certainly could pass for superman. He might not be able to fly, but he’s definitely a man of steel. I can feel him pressing against me, trapped between us.

  His eyes sweep up from my tits to my eyes, pinning me in place with just a look. His hand moves down, tracing the curve of one and then the other, trailing his fingertips along my achingly hard nipples.

  “You want this.” It’s not quite a question, more of a statement tinged with disbelief.

  “I want you, Finn. I have for a long time.” I whisper back. Shame and arousal combine to turn my face as hot as my pussy, but I don’t break our eye contact.

  I don’t think I could if I tried. His gaze is mesmerizing, hypnotic. There’s so much emotion swimming just beneath the surface, the flecks of gold in his green eyes flashing with intensity.