Mommy's Dearest (Black Rose Book 3) Read online

  He yanked her back against his face and issued another stinging smack to her backside. She took a deep, shuddering breath and winced as she pursed her lips and held it. Harold had never spanked her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it.

  She didn’t want to like what Brian was doing with his mouth, but it was hard to ignore the slithering work of his tongue against her folds and around her clit, especially when she’d thought for so long that those sensations were a thing of the past. Harold never ate her out and when he did it was like he had no idea where her clit was. Before she could gather her wits to express her discomfort about being spanked, however, he abruptly stepped up his efforts between her legs. His tongue fluttered and swirled around her clit, erasing all her anxiety about being spanked. It had been so long since Harold had gone to any trouble to please her sexually. And it felt so good. Really, she could hardly say no.

  But he wouldn’t let her come. Every time her muscles tightened when she got close, he would stop. It was maddening. She was soaking wet down there. Her flesh craved the release and she was starting to get frustrated. She launched into a whiny tirade about needing to come, needing to get home, needing to start dinner, needing…whatever. Her needs didn’t fucking matter and it was time she knew it.

  That was when he spread her legs wide and started fucking her in earnest, ramming his full length deep inside her in a single thrust. She yelped as the end of his dick bottomed out and demanded entry beyond her limits. He pistoned his dick into her frantically, knowing that the pain usually reduced them to weeping and whimpering, which was fine with him.

  But not her. No matter how hard he fucked her, this one wouldn’t shut up. He wrapped his hand around her neck in warning, but she still wouldn’t shut up about not liking it, about needing to get home to Harold’s pot roast. So he choked her until she passed out. He didn’t want her to die, though; not quite yet. Not until he was really ready for her.

  When Sheryl came around some time later, she was groggy and, understandably, confused to find herself on the floor of his bedroom, unable to move as he stared down at her. He was fully dressed and she had been…shrink wrapped?!

  With her arms straight at her side and her legs pressed together, she was immobilized by layer upon layer of tightly wound gauze. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t move a muscle and slowly realized that something else was layered directly against her skin, something that didn’t allow her to loosen the fabric that covered her body. Brian believed in being consistent and had started with a thick layer of plastic kitchen wrap, topped by a layer of bandage gauze that had her looking like…a mummy.

  Her terror-filled eyes slowly lifted to his smug ones. As the truth of her plight became obvious to her, as the certainty of her demise settled around her like a shroud, her bottom lip wobbled. Mummy Man had wrapped her so tightly that she could barely breathe. She was starting to feel overheated and sweaty, which only added to her distress.

  “M-Mummy Man. W-Why?” she rasped on a shallow exhale before drawing another ragged breath. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “Oh, it’s not so bad, little wifey. At least you can still breathe. You know what’s worse?” he asked, his tone belligerent. “Being a bad boy, so bad that my bitch of a grandmother didn’t just make me stand in the corner or put me in Time Out. Oh no, she rolled me up in her smelly old Oriental rug and shoved me under her bed. And I had to stay there all night, until I could be her good boy again. At least you can still see, still breathe. You’ve got nothing to fucking complain about.”

  She frowned as he knelt down next to her head. As he unzipped his pants, his gaze roamed over her tightly bound curves with smug satisfaction. He reached inside his pants and made a show of stroking his cock, running his index finger and thumb up and down the long, slim shaft.

  He dropped to his knees and straddled her shoulders, then sat on her chest, laughing softly as he looked down into her horrified, panicked eyes. He stroked the tip of his dick along her lips as if he were painting them, smiling at the glossy trail of pre-cum on her skin. “So pretty,” he whispered. “Let’s see how you look when your mouth is full of me.”

  For the next few minutes, he braced on his hands and knees as he used her mouth. He had learned long ago that there was nothing like being bound from head to toe to make a victim cooperate. But he had other plans and was growing impatient. He pulled his length from her gasping mouth and moved down to straddle her tightly bound thighs.

  He slid his free hand between her legs, pressing his finger into the hole he’d left in her bindings, just over her pussy. Enthralled by her panic-stricken eyes and gasping breaths, he smiled sweetly at her wide-eyed horror and shoved his finger inside her.

  “Oh, now, don’t worry, Sheryl. I’m good at this. You’re wrapped up tight, yes, but I can still get inside you,” he cooed as he added a second finger. “Fuck, yes. You’re nice and tight with your legs together like this.”

  “You’re crazy! Let me go! My husband will be looking for me.”

  “That’s right,” he said conversationally, nostrils flaring as he fed his long, skinny erection into the hole in the gauze. “He will probably look. But he won’t find you.” He began pushing his way inside her. When she instinctively tried to squeeze her legs tighter together to somehow block his entry, that was all it took for his demeanor to change. He became unrecognizable.

  He lifted her head slightly and awkwardly worked to wrap a length of plastic wrap around her head to cover her mouth. He left her eyes and nose free, though, in the interests of making her final moments more…personal.

  “That’s it. That’s it…” he grunted as his dick bottomed out inside her, over and over. He soon grew tired of her muffled noises of distress, so he pinched her nose closed. Leaning his head back and closing his eyes, he savored the moment when she began to panic in earnest. He glanced down at her and his eyes narrowed. Her eyes were leaking tears, then the whites of her eyes began to strain as tiny capillaries began to burst.

  But she was still alive. Her bulging eyes pleaded with him as she struggled and jerked beneath him.

  “Stop it!” he bellowed, slamming his hips against her for all he was worth. “Stop looking at me!” he snarled. “I can’t come when you’re looking at me.”

  His thighs were burning and tingling with the prolonged effort, even as his dick throbbed with pleasure that threatened to consume him. He groaned in frustration as he glared at her. “Why. Won’t. You. Die?!” he bellowed. He wrapped his free hand around her neck and squeezed with all his strength. He had already cut off her air, true, but the extra effort made him feel like he was doing something to help things along.

  Later he would wonder if he might have blacked out briefly. When he looked down at her again, his dick was still hard as ever inside her, but the whites of her eyes were a bloodshot mess as she stared off at nothing.

  “Finally,” he sighed, smiling happily to himself. He rested his weight on his elbows and struggled to catch his breath. Then he relaxed and savored the utter stillness she had achieved in death. “I don’t have to be a good boy. I can do whatever I want. By the time I’m done with you, you’ll be cold and raw—just like poor old Harold’s pot roast. No wonder he never touched you. All you do is lie there.” Laughing at his own joke, he settled in to enjoy the ride.

  Thinking back on his interlude with Sheryl Harmon, a tinge of regret tugged at his chest. Maybe he should have kept her. Maybe she was the one. No, she couldn’t be. Could she? He really felt like Teegan was the one. Definitely. Taking Teegan was the right thing to do for two reasons: she was the only one for him and that fucker Thomas was the enemy.

  Thomas had the audacity to deceive her with his worldly riches. She had been so innocent until he came along. Men like Thomas didn’t deserve to live. They didn’t get their women with true love. They lured them with promises of money, promises of prestige and a Happily Ever After. No woman could resist that bullshit.

  He hadn’t made up his mind a
bout whether he would kill Teegan or not. It all depended on whether or not he could win her over. Deprogramming, basically. He’d read about that in crime novels and he believed he could do it.

  He missed her. That bastard was keeping Teegan under lock and key in that fortress he called a house. The fucker was obsessed with her. Brian recognized the emotion because he felt it too. The more inaccessible she was, the more he wanted her. That was the moment the reality hit him: Thomas Wentworth was as sick and depraved as he was. They were two men cut from the same serial killer cloth. No wonder he was such a formidable opponent. This was going to be even more interesting than Mummy Man had first anticipated.

  It all made sense now. No wonder he and Thomas were in love with the same woman. They were the proverbial two peas in a pod.

  He sat down at the computer, typing in the website for Black Rose, grinning as he saw the familiar poem posted on the blog’s cover page.

  Though a single black rose ‘tis his kiss of death, for her it holds no power. For when she doth receive, ‘tis not a mere black rose but a bouquet thereof.

  Could it be? Was Thomas Wentworth the killer known as Black Rose? No, too many killings over too many years. But it could be his father. That would certainly explain why Thomas had all the traits of a serial killer: he had been raised by one.

  Chapter Forty

  Teegan looked at the computer monitor in disbelief. It took a moment for her to realize the shrill scream bouncing off the walls was her own. Thomas ran into the room, grabbing her and holding her against him as he read the e-mail.

  I know who he is, Teegan. He’s the spawn of Black Rose. Either he gives you to me or I’m going to the police. I’m sure you’re reading this, Thomas. Giving her up is a small price to pay for my silence. I’m afraid I really must insist. I love her. Just let me have her and you’ll never hear from me again. It will be as if I never existed. Otherwise, I will destroy your world, starting with your father. I’ll take good care of her. All of her. Every beautiful inch of her. I’ll make sure she forgets all about you. Your life will go on as it did before, and I will finally have the life I deserve.

  “I’ll kill him. No, let me rephrase that, he’s a dead man.”

  His wife was sobbing in his arms, trembling like a child frightened by a storm. He wished he could tell her there was nothing to fear, but she was indeed in a storm: one of his own making. Rage seared the center of his chest like a hot poker. This man, this killer, was obsessed with his woman. No! His wife.

  “He’s fishing. No one knows who my father is but me and two other people. We’re all vowed to silence. I will take the truth to my grave and so will they.”

  “Five.”

  “What?”

  “Five people know. Did you forget about me and your mother?”

  He pressed a kiss to her temple. He remained where he was, still holding her protectively. “I could never forget about you. From the moment I read that e-mail and saw your courage and your insight, I knew you were mine.”

  “How could you know something like that from just an e-mail?”

  “Because I said to myself that any woman with balls of steel like yours had to be special. I’ve always known that if I ever got married, my wife would have to be extraordinary to be a part of my life.”

  “Oh, is that what they’re calling serial killers nowadays, a crazy lifestyle choice?”

  Her body felt good wiggling against his as she laughed. He was glad he could distract her from the fear and help her find some humor in their situation. “We need to talk to my father. I think it’s time we pay this bastard a visit.”

  “You’re not going to confront him, are you?”

  “I’m not sure what we’re going to do yet but doing nothing isn’t an option. Come on,” he said. “My father doesn’t like waiting to hear bad news.”

  Chapter Forty One

  “You keep wiggling on my lap like that and I’m going to fuck you senseless,” Charles murmured.

  “Promises, promises.”

  He slid his hand around Melanie’s neck until his thumb was stroking her carotid. “The life is in the blood,” he whispered.

  He still caused her heart to race when he entered a room; partly from fear, and partly from animal lust. He was the only man in her world from the first day she laid eyes on him. Theirs was the love of a lifetime. Her husband was a force to be reckoned with and no amount of time together would do anything but deepen the respect she had for him. He was the first man she could ever say she truly looked up to.

  They both looked up from their playfulness when the atmosphere in the room changed. Thomas and Teegan stood in the doorway as if awaiting permission, and they didn’t have good news judging by the look on their faces.

  “Well, it’s good to see my son hasn’t forgotten I don’t like waiting to hear bad news,” Charles remarked, speaking from years of experience in reading his son’s emotions. Though Thomas hid his mind’s inner workings from the outside world, they couldn’t be hidden from family.

  “Exactly what I told my wife.” Thomas decided the words felt good rolling off his tongue. Teegan was his now, and he was hers. He stepped up to the desk and placed a copy of the threatening e-mail in front of his father.

  Charles read the e-mail twice before responding dismissively. “He’s bluffing.”

  “That’s what I think, too, Dad.”

  Charles had never looked at the boy as anything but his own flesh and blood. He had made a point of spending time with his son: baseball games, basketball games, hikes, water skiing, and horseback riding. He had come to learn that Thomas was a chameleon. Each year as the boy grew, his interests and his focus changed and Charles was careful to allow Thomas to become his own man so he could meet life on his own terms. Like any parent, Charles knew he wouldn’t always be around. Thomas needed to be ready for that day when it came. Charles liked the idea of his son not facing that day alone, but he didn’t know this woman. At a glance, she appeared to be more than a mere fuckbuddy. He trusted his son’s judgment, but he didn’t like variables. Variables were unpredictable.

  “I still don’t like it,” Charles said. “I have to admit, having the discreet backing of the FBI agents will certainly work on our behalf. This man is irredeemably damaged. Soulless. Our problem isn’t him being a tattletale”—his voice dripped with contempt—“the problem is that he’s a loose cannon and he’s obsessed with your wife. My daughter-in-law. Unacceptable.”

  Teegan couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride at her father-in-law’s declaration. It meant acceptance and that was something Charles Wentworth III didn’t give unless it was deserved. He was a hard man and Thomas appeared to be very much his father’s son, complete with all of his dark attributes. At first glance, both men were impeccably groomed businessmen, bred and raised in old money traditions, but a deeper understanding revealed a primal animal lurking within that was kept under barely leashed restraint.

  “I dare say his obsession is an extension of his fascination with you two.” This time it was Melanie who had spoken, and both men listened intently. They had learned long ago she had good instincts. All eyes were on her as she continued. “We all know men are competitive.” She looked at Teegan with a glint in her eye as if they shared a secret. “Perhaps our killer is going for some one-upmanship.”

  “So we cater to his ego,” Charles murmured, as if speaking to himself.

  “Is there any other way to a man’s heart?” Melanie chuckled.

  “I can think of one or two.” Charles’ heated gaze landed on his wife and her cheeks warmed.

  “To draw him out,” his son said, finishing Charles’ theory about egos. The two men enjoyed this shared moment of revelation. Both men knew getting into his psyche was going to be the killer’s undoing. His narcissistic ego would be his downfall.

  “He’s been getting away with murder,” Charles said with his eyes on his son.

  Thomas nodded. “Every kill gives him more confidence.”

 
The men were volleying back and forth, their two minds unified in the same purpose. Profiling was such a big part of what they did. Was this how their favorite FBI agents, Turner and Murphy, felt about their lives? There was such a thin line between love and hate, good and evil, darkness and light.

  “You need to contact him, son. It will take her out of the equation without him realizing what you’re doing. Appeal to that narcissistic attitude of his. Bruise his ego and you’ll own him. Once a thin-skinned man becomes angry you can easily knock him off of his game.”

  “I agree, Dad, but I worry,” Thomas said with a glance at Teegan. “It’s dangerous.”

  “Yes, it is. It could compel him to kill again. It could even cause him to escalate his activities.”

  The women looked at each other, horrified.

  “I don’t want to be the reason he kills more people.”

  Both men looked at Teegan and spoke in unison, “He’s going to kill anyway.”

  Thomas touched her arm and she jumped, startled. “Teegan, the agents are already working on it.”

  She shook her head. Oh, the irony—criminal and crime fighter working together. Bound by blood.

  Chapter Forty Two

  Nighttime was the worst. Goldie’s loneliness was oppressive, as if murky clouds were hovering above her and she could almost reach up and touch them. I deserve it after what I’ve done.

  Goldie had gone over it in her mind from every angle and she always came to the same conclusion. She’d betrayed the only people who had ever been there for her. It all came down to one night. The night she’d made the decision that would forever change her life. That night not so long ago when she’d first met Brian Reed and shared a table with him at Shady Ladies…

  Brian spoke just loud enough for her to hear him over the music. “You’re so jealous of your best friend’s happiness. You’re probably wondering why all the good things happen to Queen Bee. I’m just saying, I’m offering you an easy way to fix it.”