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

  As Queen Bee took to the stage, Charles studied his wife as she beamed at her friend and joined the crowd in enthusiastic applause. After twenty years of marriage, he was more in love with her than he had been at the beginning. His obsession with her ran just as deep too.

  “You’re staring again,” she said as she smiled over at him. “I can’t say I’m not flattered, though. But I would think after all these years…”

  “That’s the point: after all these years, I love you even more. I want you to be careful. Something about this case is different and it has me on edge.”

  “It’s not like you to fear a target.”

  “Like I said, something’s different about this. I hate it because the only way I’m going to figure out why I feel like this is by waiting.”

  “Well, we both know how much you hate being out of control.”

  He turned sinister eyes in her direction. “I’d kill for you, wife of mine. Make no mistake, I will not tolerate anyone coming after you.”

  She touched his hand, her expression solemn. Her husband wasn’t one to make loose assessments about criminals or cases they were working on. His sixth sense when it came to the criminal element was spot on, always, so she knew to take him seriously. “Coming after me?” she murmured, keeping her voice low. “What, do you think we’re being watched?”

  “Yes.” His expression was impassive, yet it held a resolve she knew all too well. “I can feel him. Sometimes it’s like I can feel him watching us. His eyes are on us. I’m certain of it.”

  “There’s no way anyone could know who we are or that we were planning on being here tonight. We’ve been so careful.”

  “Well, let’s hope it’s just me being paranoid. Melanie,” he said as he gathered her close in his arms. “You’re the only good thing I’ve ever had in my life.” She arched a brow at his words and he smirked as he clarified, “You and our son. You know what I mean. You’re my life’s deepest happiness. I truly hope I’m just being overly cautious. I love you so much.”

  “I love you, too.” She tilted her chin for his kiss. “Now, come on, while it’s still raining men. Stop worrying and let’s watch the show.” She patted his hand and he let her quiet reassurance put his mind at ease, for now.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Hey, you work at Shady Ladies, baby? What, you some kinda fucking freak? You look like a ten-foot-tall Barbie doll or maybe a store mannequin!”

  “Yeah, man, it’s like that old movie where the mannequin comes to life…”

  Queen Bee glanced worriedly over her shoulder. Three men were following her through the alley, picking up their pace as they moved in closer. By the way they were shuffling along, they’d been drinking heavily.

  “You damn sure don’t look like any regular woman I’ve ever seen,” another voice cackled. Their laughter was a cruel reminder of the hostility that was all too often directed at the LGBT community.

  “That’s because I’m nobody’s ‘regular woman’, asshole,” Queen Bee muttered under her breath. She kept her eyes straight ahead as she walked calmly through the alley. She tried to maintain a steady pace that didn’t transmit the fear that was clawing at the base of her spine.

  Normally, she would have been driving home right about now, but her piece-of-shit car had broken down again so she had to walk. She had left the bar too late to catch a ride with anyone. So here she was, being harassed by the Three Bigoted Stooges.

  The catcalls continued. “Hey, baby! You still got a dick under there? Come on over here and sit on Dan’s dick! He don’t care if you still got a dick, do you, Danny boy?” The guy snickered at his own joke, then started complaining loudly as Dan shoved him like he meant it and called him an asshole.

  She needed to get the hell out of there. In one swift move she kicked her shoes off, leaving them behind as she took off running.

  The chorus of catcalls and jeers behind her spurred her on to the end of the alley. She didn’t see the car pull up when she exited the alley, but she heard tires screech as a deep voice called out to her. “Get in. Hurry up!”

  She looked up and staggered slightly as she took in the sight before her: a beautiful man had pulled up to the curb and was pushing his passenger door open as he beckoned her over. She couldn’t move because that would mean looking away from the knight in shining armor in the Escalade. He exhaled with a frown, moved the gear shifter to Park and got out. In the time it took for Queen Bee to look over her shoulder to check on her pursuers in the alley, she was being scooped up into thick, strong arms.

  “Oh!” she gasped, clinging to the corded muscles that held her as if she weighed nothing. Queen Bee’s curves were slender but, at six feet tall, she was statuesque. Cradled in this man’s arms, she felt…petite. Delicate, even. She liked it.

  The handsome stranger opened the car door and deposited her gently onto the passenger seat.

  “Oh my God, thank you so much,” she gushed, her voice breathy and almost childlike as she stared up at him. “They would have killed me if you hadn’t come along!” She stilled as she looked over his shoulder into the alley. The men had congregated on the sidewalk and appeared to be still bickering amongst themselves about Dan’s lascivious intentions toward her. Her eyes narrowed and her voice took on a decidedly more adult tone as she huffed angrily, “And those bastards made me ditch my favorite shoes!”

  “No, they didn’t,” he said. “You stay right here. Don’t you go anywhere.” He shut the car door and strode toward the group. One of the drunks nudged the other two and pointed. The three men took one look at the tall, ominous figure moving steadily toward them and practically stumbled over each other as they ran in the opposite direction.

  Moments later her hero returned to the Escalade, a twinkle in his amber eyes and her shoes dangling from two fingers. He opened the car door and offered her a shoe. As she reached for it, he pulled it away and shook his head with a smile.

  “Please. Allow me.” He raised an eyebrow as if seeking her permission to proceed. At her nod, he dropped to one knee and gave her a smile that revealed perfectly aligned, sparkling white teeth and a deep dimple. Smooth mahogany skin clung to high cheekbones. His shaved head gleamed beneath the streetlights and it was all she could do not to reach out and stroke the sleek curve of his skull. She decided that she had never seen a more beautiful man in all her life.

  “Oh my,” she breathed as her fingertips fluttered along her throat and she extended her foot toward him. His hands were big and warm as he cradled first one foot and then the other as he slipped the shoes into place. His hand lingered just a moment too long on the delicate bones of a slender ankle before he rose to his feet, closed her door, and rounded the car...grinning the whole way.

  He slid into the driver's seat and reached over to fasten her seatbelt, then leaned his head back against the headrest and gave her a long, steady look. He rested his arm along the back of her seat and asked, “You okay, my lady?”

  “I’m fine…now.” She bit her lip and smiled at the handsome stranger, her eyes twinkling. “My hero,” she sighed and impulsively kissed his cheek. “Thank you for rescuing me and my shoes.”

  “My pleasure,” he murmured. “Now, where to?”

  Queen Bee's toes curled as she considered the answer to a simple question that she somehow knew would change her life. It was too good to be true, a handsome stranger rescuing her and her shoes from those bigots. That sort of thing never happened. Not to her, anyway.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Oh boy. That second drink had really gone to her head. Surely she didn’t hear what she thought she’d heard. Teegan looked at the handsome stalker she’d made the mistake of crossing. She felt like she was looking through a haze of fog and his words were distant like they were coming from some faraway place.

  “I’ve set you up in your own room. You know, you’re a self-made woman. You have a career that gives you so much flexibility. I like that, particularly because it means no one will be looking for you.”<
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  She couldn’t be hearing this. She shook her head as if it would clear the fog and dismiss the craziness this man was talking. “Teegan, I think now is as good a time as any to let you know you won’t be going home tonight. Or ever…” Had he really said that? Yes. He had.

  “Um, I’m sorry. I need to go. I think I drank too much.” She couldn’t think of anything else to say after trying to process his bold words.

  “No, no, I won’t hear of such talk. I’ll take care of you. I sure as hell can’t take a chance on you fighting me, and I damn sure won’t have you telling the authorities that you think I’m Black Rose. I’m really trying to be nice about this, Teegan.” His voice was soothing, yet it held a razor-edged warning.

  “Nice!?” She shook her head in disbelief. “You’re being nice?” Her words sounded slurred to her own ears.

  “Yes,” he said solicitously, “very nice, in fact. Now, you can stay in the beautiful room I’ve set up for you…” His voice turned grim. “Or you can stay in the fucking dungeon I have in the basement.” No more Mr. Nice Guy. There was nothing nice in that statement.

  “I have to go,” she said stubbornly, even as her tongue began to feel thick and dry. “I think I drank too much,” she repeated, as if it would explain her foggy thinking.

  He smiled indulgently as he rose to his feet and picked her up. With a nod to the butler, he carried her up the staircase to the guestroom. She relaxed in his arms, feeling strangely safe and secure, even laughing out loud when he carried her over the threshold. She felt euphoric and free as she looked around the room that was more like a honeymoon suite.

  “It’s so beautiful,” she whispered. The room’s style was so feminine and yet subdued and classy. Soft hues and gentle lighting made for a peaceful atmosphere. A floral duvet graced the bed and the makeup table had a matching skirt. This room had clearly been intended for a woman. It reeked of femininity. And, despite her groggy state of mind, that bothered her.

  Before she could stop to think, she turned to look up at him with a pout as the words tumbled from her lips. “Have any other women stayed here?”

  “I told you I had the room set up for you, not another woman.” His tone was stiff.

  “That offends you that I’d ask about that?” She cocked her head to the side almost as if challenging him. Yes. She was playing with fire and she knew it.

  “I’m not in the habit of abducting women and forcing them to stay with me. It may come as a shock to you, but I don’t have to resort to such extreme measures for feminine companionship.”

  “I’m sure you have your pick of women. That’s why it makes no sense that you’d do all this for me.” She could feel her head clearing. She studied the blonde god who was gazing hotly down at her.

  No doubt, he was a looker. She’d always had a thing for blondes, the opposite of her, and his blonde hair with copper undertones was pushing all her buttons. His face had taut, angular lines, as if it had been chiseled in granite, and those arctic blue eyes that stared right through her captivated her. Now he was telling her that he’d handpicked everything in this room for her.

  “I watched you, you see,” he said as he stepped toward the bed with her cradled in his arms. “I think I fell in love with you from afar. So you see, my stalking of you has backfired magnificently, my love.”

  “Love?”

  “Obsession, love. It’s all the same to me. You’re special, Teegan. I couldn’t let you go if I wanted to.” There it was again, the melody he put in her name whenever he said it. “You’re so beautiful.” He gently laid her on the bed. He’d been holding her as if she weighed no more than a child, his breath tickling her neck and causing her body to overheat in places she’d assumed were frozen. Whether she liked it or not, she had to admit she enjoyed the attention he was giving her. And she couldn’t deny that her body craved his.

  Yes…maybe obsession wasn’t just something written about in romance novels. Perhaps there were those whose primitive passions drove them to take the object of their obsession. Deep down inside, she was just as drawn to him, in no small part because of what she believed he was: a serial killer.

  Her fascination with serial killers had finally reached the point of no return. He would never let her go; she knew that now. Risking her going to the authorities was a chance a man like him would never take.

  “You’re crazy,” she mumbled, shaking her head against the persistent haze that muddled her thoughts and slurred her speech.

  “You’re making me crazy.” When he bent down and kissed her she didn’t resist. She met his tongue eagerly as he explored her mouth. Liquid heat flooded her core as his fingers trailed over her skin beneath her dress, past her thigh-highs. He stroked the slick silk of her panties before pushing them aside to press his finger deep within her creamy heat.

  Her hips rose in response to the thick finger he thrust inside her. His thumb slid through her arousal to circle her clit, igniting the flames of desire that had been dormant within her for so long. First one, then two fingers vigorously stroking the bundle of nerves along her inner walls was all it took to send her body into a spasm of pleasure.

  He covered her lips with his own, groaning against her mouth as he breathed in her cry of pleasure. The probing rhythm of his tongue matched the thrust of his fingers. As a second orgasm rolled through her, she struggled to breathe. What was this man doing to her?

  “I want to be inside you so badly.”

  “I want you inside me,” she gasped, dizzy with the intense sensations he was stirring within her. “I hate you for keeping me here, but I hate myself for not fighting you. Damn it, you’re making me feel too good,” she moaned huskily as she rolled her hips against his fingers that were still deep inside her.

  He raised up on his elbow, slipping his glistening fingers between her lips. As she sucked on them, his aching cock was hard as bone, so hard he worried that he would come in his pants like an inexperienced teenager. “I won’t take this any further, not while you’ve been drinking. I had to see you come, had to see you take your pleasure even if it was just from my hand. But I won’t take things any further than that; I won’t be the reason that you wake up in the morning filled with regret.”

  “How do you know I’ll wake up regretting making love to you?”

  “What I’m feeling right now has nothing to do with making love. If I touch you, I’m going to fuck you so hard, I may split you in two. Don’t tempt me, Teegan. You will surely regret it.”

  “Then fuck me,” she challenged him with narrowed eyes. “Fuck. Me.”

  Oh how he wanted to, but he wouldn’t allow himself to take her, not like this. He hadn’t planned on even going this far, but she was like a drug he couldn’t resist. The plan had been to get her to drink enough to need to stay. She knew too much about him and he couldn’t take a chance on her going to the police.

  “No. I’m not fucking you,” he repeated, as much to convince himself as to convince her. “I am, however, dressing you for bed.” He rose from the bed and walked over to the dresser and retrieved a cotton nightgown just like the one she slept in at home.

  “Hey, that’s jus’ like mine, little pink flowers ‘n all,” her voice slurred. “Have you really been watchin’ me? Hey!” she exclaimed. “Have you been in my house?!”

  “Yes and yes,” he declared as he approached the bed with the nightgown in his hand. “This isn’t a game, Teegan. I’m dead serious about making you mine, not just keeping you here for the night. I’m a man undone. Let’s just say that when you poked your nose where it didn’t belong online, you got more than you bargained for.” He stared down at her as her eyelids drooped and her breathing shifted to the easy rhythm of slumber. “I think we both did.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  He sat in his car for hours, waiting for Teegan to come out. She never showed up.

  Whore.

  That whole innocent persona was nothing but a façade, concealing her true, slutty nature. Of course she was whoring her
self out, especially when the guy obviously had money. Typical woman.

  It was going to be impossible to stalk her properly if she hooked up with this guy. His house was probably like a fortress, if the surrounding real estate was anything to go by. She had made it so easy when she was at her place, but this was going to be a problem.

  There was only one way to take the edge off and that was to go trolling. Normally he didn’t like picking up hookers. They were too easy. A man needed a challenge in his line of work. It helped to hone the skills.

  Reluctantly abandoning his true quarry for the moment, he turned the car around and headed downtown. Twenty minutes later the neighborhood went from well-manicured lawns to city streets and graffiti.

  He couldn’t believe his luck when he saw the redhead up ahead. This one was new. He hadn’t seen her on the streets before. Maybe she was new in town. Long red hair and legs that went on forever. She was perfect. Finally, a challenge.

  He pulled up next to her, giving her his benign boy-next-door smile. “Hey, do you need a ride somewhere?” He put on his best ‘How can I help you, ma’am?’ smile. He’d gotten good at this game. Practice makes perfect.

  She rested her forearms along his open car window, bending down to give him a nice look at her cleavage, just enough to reveal a light dusting of freckles across her chest. He wondered if her tits had freckles too, or if her skin there was flawless alabaster. He would’ve bet those nipples were tight and pink, freckles or not. God, but she was beautiful.

  “Sweetheart,” she purred, “I’m looking for a hell of a lot more than just a ride.”

  “You mean, you’re out here wor-working?” he stuttered in disbelief. “But you’re so beautiful.” Some elusive shred of mercy stirred deep within him; an unfamiliar emotion. What could have happened that was bad enough to prompt this beautiful creature to leave the safety of her home to sell her body on the street?