Full Body Contact (17 page)
Authors: Carolyn McCray,Elena Gray
“Move on? Well what if I wasn’t?”
Alexis’ mouth went dry. He couldn’t possibly be implying what she thought he was implying.
“Wasn’t what?” she asked, not wanting to know the answer.
“Innocent.” He kissed her neck, moving upward. “Would you still want me, then?”
“Quit joking, Dekker.” She tried to laugh it off like his other comedy routines.
“Who said anything about joking?” he retorted, and then went back to nibbling on her earlobe.
Alexis brought her hand up his neck, threading her fingers into his hair. “Don’t make light of this, Dekker. This is our future.”
He ignored her, though, as his hand settled on her hip, rocking it toward him. “Haven’t you ever wondered what it would feel like to have a life wavering in your hands?” His other hand found her pinkie. “Knowing that with just the slightest, precise move it could snap? It’s a technique you know. I could show you—”
The chime from Alexis’ cell phone interrupted Dekker. It clattered to the floor. She used the distraction to break away from him. He expected her to go for the safe, but instead she dove for the dresser. She snatched up an antique letter opener, wielding it like a switchblade.
Dekker lifted a brow in amusement. “And what exactly are you going to do with that?”
“It doesn’t have to end like this.”
“Of course it does,” Dekker stated flatly. “You were stupid enough to believe I was innocent.”
He took a step closer as if she didn’t have a weapon. “You just ate up my stories didn’t you? This I got in a knife fight in Tijuana.” Dekker lifted his shirt, pointing to the scar on his rib cage. The one that she had run her fingers across last night. Her stomach heaved at the memory. The acidic taste of bile hit the back of her tongue.
“I did it, you know,” he confessed. He really didn’t expect Alexis to live through this. “Killed them all. All those broken, bloody bodies were
my
work.”
Alexis slid along the edge of her dresser, inching toward the door.
“And Reggie? That was you, wasn’t it?”
Dekker laughed, proud of himself. “And pinned it on Campbell, to boot. Nothing better than killing someone, and then hanging it on someone else.”
Alexis couldn’t believe that this was the same man she made love to last night. The same man who carefully cleaned her wounds and cradled her in his arms. How could a man like that snap a woman’s neck without an ounce of remorse?
“Why, Dekker?”
“Why not?” he chuckled. “I could do it, so I did.”
Dekker took another step toward her. Alexis tightened her grip on the letter opener. It wasn’t her gun, but it was something.
“Don’t come any closer,” she commanded.
“Or you’ll do what?”
Before she could answer, Dekker dove at Alexis. She slashed outward, but he easily deflected the blow, slamming her against the wall. With an iron grip around her wrists, he pinned both arms over her head. Her shoulder screamed like hot coals were rolling inside the joint.
He leaned in, inhaling up the length of her body.
“You’ve still got my smell all over you. Don’t you?” he whispered.
Alexis bucked against him. Dekker squeezed her wrist until the letter opener clattered to the floor.
“You won’t get away with this. Too many people know …”
“Know what? That you screwed the prime suspect?” He ground his groin against hers.
“I love necks.” Dekker kissed the back of her neck forward. His tongue licked across her jaw. Alexis squirmed, but he wouldn’t be denied.
“Everything about them. How they smell, feel, how easily they break.” His hand clutched her by the throat, squeezing. Alexis gasped for air, her legs lashing out.
He released her throat and tipped his head to the side.
“Maybe I should pay a visit to your boyfriend.”
Alexis tried to hold back her tears. She didn’t want to give Dekker the satisfaction of making her cry. But they fell unchecked, splashing onto his hand.
Dekker ran his hand up and down her side before finally resting between her legs. “Oh, yeah. I know everything about you, now. Everything.”
Alexis squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away.
He gripped her by the jaw and forced her to look at him. “You really are pathetic, you know. I can feed you anything, and you’d swallow it. Wouldn’t you? You’re a swallower, aren’t you?” Dekker let his hand slide back down to Alexis’ neck. “But we’ll never find out, will we?”
As he squeezed his hand tighter again, Alexis knew this was the end. There was no way she could fight him off. He was too strong. Too brutal. But maybe there was another way.
“We could,” Alexis whispered. Instead of shrinking away from his body, she brought her groin to meet his excitement. Alexis was betting that his anger wasn’t just because she had lied about being a cop. He was pissed because he had
cared
. That she had unnerved him. Alexis could see it in his eyes and feel it in the bulge of his pants as she rocked against him.
“Come on. One last time,” Alexis coaxed. “I’ll do anything you want.”
Dekker closed his eyes. Alexis worried that he wouldn’t take the bait. But when his eyes opened, they were ripe with desire. Dekker’s mouth slashed over hers. His kiss was so hungry that his teeth scraped against her lips. Alexis kissed him back, pouring all of her anger into his kiss.
When Dekker broke away, they were both breathless.
“We could be partners …” Alexis whispered as she licked her lips.
Dekker eyed her warily. His hand cupped her breast, slowly massaging it. “You’d really screw me again? Knowing everything you know?”
Alexis moaned. She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth. “Yes …”
She draped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. Alexis made sure that he was fully captivated by his task before lifting her knee, ramming it into his groin.
“Just joking!”
As he doubled over, Alexis shoved him away. She threw a right hook at his face, her ring splitting his lip. Before he could recover, she landed a side kick to his stomach.
Dekker grabbed a fistful of Alexis’ hair, yanking her back. He threw her into the nightstand. She crashed into wood, knocking the lamp over and smashing it to the floor.
Dekker threw a combination backhanded slap and roundhouse kick. Alexis’ head jerked, spraying blood on the wall. Before she could regain her feet, he had one hand on her pinkie, and the other on her neck. Dekker leveraged the digit to the point of breaking. Alexis’ knees buckled. Only his fingers gouging into the flesh of her neck held her up.
“God, you are so much more exciting than Jessica was,” he said, rubbing his stubble over her cheek. “Just imagining the things I am going to do to you. But alas, I have to get this done, and then go establish an alibi.”
She braced herself for the excruciating pain when he broke her pinkie and probably her wrist. To get out of this, she wouldn’t be able to count on her right arm anymore.
“What? No witty repartee?” Dekker chuckled. “No flashy comeback to put me in my place before I snuff you out like a desperate, pathetic candle?”
A shadow down the hallway drew Alexis’ attention. “No. Just that my boyfriend is coming.”
“Nice try, but I’m not gullible like you.” Dekker’s fingers squeezed her trachea. He lifted her from her feet. “Good-bye, Lexie. It’s been fun.”
“Police!” Nick yelled. “Let her go!”
Alexis struggled, her feet dangling as her body screamed for oxygen.
“He’s not going to shoot,” Dekker said, putting all his weight into the stranglehold.
A gunshot popped in the room. Dekker stood for a moment, his expression shocked. Blood oozed from his shoulder.
But Alexis knew that one bullet wouldn’t stop him. With her free hand, she punched straight in, nailing Dekker in the solar plexus. Gasping, he released his hold.
Sputtering to catch her breath, she threw an elbow, catching him in the ribs. Lurching to the side, he left his chin unguarded. She came in with a right hook. His head snapped to the side and he fell to the ground. Alexis brought her foot up and stomped down on his face. She hauled back for another kick when Nick caught her around the waist.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” her partner said. “He’s down.” That didn’t matter. Every muscle in her body wanted to keep kicking until he never got up again. But Nick held her tight. “This isn’t how we do it, Alexis.”
Panting, she backed away a step. Nick was right. Her badge stood for justice. Not revenge. But how her muscles burned and her fingers flexed.
Bending down, Nick placed his fingers against Dekker’s neck, checking for a pulse. He shook his head, holstering his gun. “He’s gone.”
“Are you hurt?” Nick asked as he rubbed up and down her arms.
“No.” Nick cocked his eyebrows, surprised. “Not badly,” she said, her body shaking as the adrenaline wore off.
“Damn, Alexis, you are just lucky I checked my messages! You could have been a little more informative.”
He grabbed the chenille blanket off her chair and draped it over her shoulders.
“ ‘Swing by on your way home,’ didn’t exactly prepare me for this,” Nick said, gesturing toward Dekker’s body on the floor.
When Alexis left the message, she wasn’t even sure if Nick would come. After the way she had treated him, she wouldn’t have blamed him.
Nick glanced out of the window as sirens shrieked in the distance.
“Come on,” Nick said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder. “We should get you out of here.”
Alexis stepped over Dekker’s body. A sob escaped her lips. Nick hugged her tighter as he led her down the stairs and out the front door.
Callie walked up the sidewalk, shaking her head. “Jeez, I leave for a minute to buy some new fuses, and pandemonium breaks loose.”
Her roommate must have caught on to the fact that neither of them was laughing as two cop cars skidded to a stop outside the house.
“What in the hell’s going on?” Callie demanded.
Alexis moved away from Nick. “Go. You’ve got a crime scene to secure.”
He looked at her with concern, but Alexis folded into Callie’s outstretched arms. “I’ll be okay.”
As Nick ran to meet the cops, Callie squeezed her tight. “Honey, what happened?”
“It was Dekker … He was … He did …”
Callie led Alexis over to the wrought iron bench in their garden. “Oh, sweetie. Shh.”
“Nick got here just in time,” Alexis sniffed as she wiped her eyes with the corner of the blanket. “He saved me.”
Callie smoothed Alexis’ hair off her face. “Not too bad for a milquetoast, eh?”
Alexis looked over at Nick, who still kept a watchful eye on her. Having a nice, boring relationship had never sounded so good.
“No. Not bad at all.”
###
Afterword
Elena and I would like to thank you for reading
Full Body Contact
! Researching the MMA world then translating it into a romantic suspense was nearly as thrilling as the book itself!
If you enjoyed the action and romantic tension we’d like to ask a huge favor of you to go back to Amazon and leave an honest review.
We authors live and die by our reviews so the few seconds it will take you to review Full Body Contact would be greatly appreciated!
Want more action and excitement? Check out the next section for more works by Carolyn McCray and Elena Gray!
Want more from Carolyn McCray or Elena Gray?
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Full Body Contact?
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People are being martyred, but not for their faith. Instead, the deaths are part of a serial killer’s sick game, as he chooses his victims by their names … and then kills them in that saint’s grisly manner.
“
Scary and smart,
All Hallow’s Eve
is perfect for anyone who wants to read a horror story that hits them in the gut. From the intricate psychopathology of the serial killer, to the hair-raising tension, to the skewering of pop culture,
All Hallow’s Eve
is simply a great read.”