Page 99 of Necessary Evil

Steady, Marla had said. He sure was.

Lucy accepted their scornful looks. It was well worth it to walk into his apartment with him. He handed her the bourbon and she took a sip. But she didn’t really want it.

“I’m just afraid the detectives are going to make up evidence in these cases like they did with my father because Bobby is the perfect suspect,” she said, admitting her greatest fear.

“You’re too good to let that happen,” he said.

“Do you really believe that?”

“I always did. There’s a reason why the detectives in my old precinct hate going up against you.”

“I just want him to have a fair trial,” she said. “I want him to be innocent until proven guilty. Well, I want him to be exonerated. But if he did do it, I want him to be judged by a jury of his peers and punished according to the law.”

He rubbed his thumb across her cheek. “If he’s responsible for three murders, you’ll never see him again, except through Plexiglas.”

“Maybe not even then,” she said, saddened, but realizing too that if Bobby had in fact done it, he wasn’t the brother she’d once known.

“Would you miss him?” he asked.

“He’s my brother. The only family I have left.”

“You have us now. The SOBs are your family.”

“I have you. I think everyone else just tolerates me because I’m with you. They’re probably afraid you’re going to beat the crap out of them.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, sweetheart. You’re a force to be reckoned with in your own right.”

Suddenly she didn’t want to talk anymore. She wanted the sweet oblivion of making love to him. “Take me to bed?”

“Always.”

She walked into his bedroom. Lucy heard a jingle and looked over her shoulder to see Evan dangling a pair of handcuffs from his finger.

“Am I under arrest?” she asked when he gave her a light shove toward the bed.

He didn’t answer, pushing her again so that she sprawled onto his bed. Following her, he made short work of stripping her out of her clothes.

“No fair,” she said softly, “you’re fully dressed.”

“You’re going to let go.” He clicked the handcuff around her wrist.

“I’m not holding on to anything…yet.” Lucy reached for his belt, but he took her other wrist and held it over her head.

Leaning over her, he threaded the handcuff chain through the slats of his bed and secured her other wrist with the other cuff.

“Cuffed to my bed.” Evan spread her legs wide and kneeled between them. “Do you know how often I’ve dreamed of you like this?”

Lucy gave an experimental tug on her wrists and felt the slight bite of the metal against her wrists. With her arms above her head and her legs open, she felt exposed and vulnerable.

“I want to touch you,” she said, a little unnerved by his intense stare.

He rubbed his palms over her thighs. “Not tonight. Tonight you’re going to just take all the pleasure I’m going to give you.”

With long, sweeping caresses Evan touched her from her ankles to her breasts. Thumbing her nipples, he pressed kisses over her belly. She raised her hips, needing to feel his body against hers.

Chuckling, Evan stepped off the bed and undressed.

“Evan,” she moaned, feeling needy and restless.