Luminous (10 page)

She removed the boxers and put her mouth on the long, hard length of him. He buried his hands in her hair. “This is why your hair should be longer,” he whispered.

She flicked the tip of her tongue over his penis. He smelled a little sweaty, a little musky but clean and male. His chest rose and fell in a deep sigh as she took him entirely into her mouth.

“Doesn’t seem quite fair. I’m not doing that much for you,” he said.

Shut up, Al, she thought. Sucking on him, touching him, had aroused her as nothing she could ever remember. Impatient, she let go of his penis and straddled him. His erection pressed against the crotch of her sweatpants. Her hands curled into fists. Her body trembled even from that small contact. Good thing she’d discarded the shirt in the kitchen. It saved time. “Touch me, Al.”

He reached out for her, letting his fingers first trace her shoulders and then lower. His hands stopped when they found her breasts. She closed her eyes and sighed as he stroked her nipples with his thumbs. It felt so good that it was almost painful. Her back arched.

She was reborn, alive for the first time she could remember. Al pulled her close and found her nipple with his mouth. She nearly yelped as he traced it with his tongue, teasing her with soft, quick touches. His face was rough with afternoon stubble against the side of her breast. This was Al, and he was perfect.

She stood up for a second and tossed off the sweatpants.

“Going somewhere?” Al asked.

“Never.” She straddled him again and his erection brushed between her legs. She rubbed against it, teasing herself.

“Hell,” Al muttered.

She thought that meant she should keep going. She smiled. He was hers now.

She was so lost in what she was doing that it was a shock when his fingers caressed her between the legs. His mouth enveloped her breasts again.

“Ahhh…” She threw back her head and let out a long moan. “I’ll get on you in just a second—”

He kissed the base of her throat. “Not yet. Let me.”

His fingers found her clitoris. She shuddered and dug her hands into his shoulders as he stroked her. She bit her tongue to keep from crying out.

“No one’s here, Noir. Get as noisy as you like.”

His permission released the scream she’d been fighting. She rocked against his hand, moving up and down to get that sweet sensation to grow.

“Now.” He shifted his hands to her hips. She took him inside, all that hardness touching areas that she didn’t think anyone had ever reached. She threw her head back and started riding. He kept tight hold of her hips, helping her move up and down, guiding her.

All she felt was Al inside her and the grip of his hands on her hips. All she heard was their mingled moans. She forgot he couldn’t see her, forgot she was invisible, forgot she was a freak.

The climax started small and then spread to every part of her body. She grabbed Al’s shoulders and clung to him, no longer in control. He pulled her against his chest and she felt him come with her. It was perfect.

He kissed her as if trying to weld them more closely together. Their hips ground together, and they held each other until the sensations faded, until her conscious thought returned.

“And you said I didn’t find you attractive,” he said.

“I was handy and I have a pulse.”

“You’ve got something, that’s for sure. Whatever it is, I’ll take more, please.”

Chapter Eight

It was full dark by the time they left his apartment. Al did not put the tie back on. For some reason, it felt wrong to wear it again, considering what part it had just played in his newly awakened sex life. That was probably weird or somehow repressed. But not any stranger than his life had become.

Strange was good.

He had had offers in the last year, but they all seemed to come with complications. Women who wanted him around more than he could promise or who saw him as a protector, not a partner. Neither was very appealing.

He liked simple. Of course, being with Noir completely went against that inclination. An invisible woman who didn’t even remember her own name.

He didn’t care. He wanted everything she had to give. Partner, hell. She was his lover and he didn’t think he would ever want another.

She followed him down the steps, wrapped in her cloak and wearing her black mesh mask and hat.

And absolutely nothing underneath. He thought about arguing, but she was right. She could be a good scout if they needed one tonight. She’d earned the right to do this. He understood. She’d been through hell and had to work her own way back out.

Besides, she’d be safer invisible. She still had a slight limp.

They got in the car. “You’ll follow my lead.”

“I did good with the lead just now.” She relaxed back in the seat.

“Yeah, you did. But like that, we’ll do this together. Just trust that I know my job, all right? And if something goes wrong, I expect you to back me up.”

“Right.”

He couldn’t tell if that was agreement or sarcasm. “The last time you didn’t listen, you were shot and our target escaped. Remember, we’ve got at least one life at stake. You want to be my partner, learn to think with your head.”

She sighed. “All right. But I’m not staying in the car.”

“I never thought you would.”

She stripped during the drive to the warehouse. He tried to keep his mind on the job ahead, but he kept thinking about how she had felt, naked, moving against him. This was why the department warned against screwing your partner. Bullshit. The department should be a lot more worried about corruption than what officers did when off shift.

When he went through the Mickey D’s drive-through to get coffee before they parked, the cashier gave him an odd look when handing him two cups instead of one. What, no one bought coffee for others in this neighborhood? He answered his own question. This was Charlton City. No one bought anything for anyone else, unless it was a bribe.

As he cut off his headlights, Al wondered why the hell he did this job. It wasn’t the pay. It sure as hell wasn’t the supposed “brotherhood” of cops. He’d hoped for that once, but his stubbornness in staying clean of bribes had left him a loner on the force. No one was sure they could trust someone who wasn’t on the take.

He looked to his right and saw the coffee cup seemingly moving in midair.
That
was why he did this. For Noir. For those like her who’d been abused. For the victims in the bank.

No one else would, so he would represent them as best he could.

He parked under an overhang set diagonally to the warehouse he thought contained their enemy and settled back. The full moon supplied plenty of light for his purposes, and his eyes adjusted easily.

The parking lot around the warehouse was cracked and worn from years of neglect. The documents he’d found in his research said the place was once used to make hubcaps but the factory had been vacant for a decade. Grass and weeds had grown up through the gaps in the blacktop.

Except one area was suspiciously free of tall weeds. The gap in the growth was just the size of a tractor-trailer. He could picture it in his mind’s eye, the truck backing up to a loading dock, squashing the plants under its massive tires.

Close, but not exactly confirmation. He needed more. If he was right, someone who had the money to bribe people at Dixon Supplies, Inc. would have money to pay guards to patrol the site. He guessed the roof and concentrated his gaze higher.

Noir set the empty cup down. “Al?”

“Impatient already?” he asked. “I’m watching so we don’t go in blind. Then we talk about the next step.”

“That’s not what I was going to ask about.”

“Okay. What were you going to ask?”

“Before. When we were together, that was good.”

He should have guessed. Of course she wanted to talk about it. She was a woman. He wished he could see her face, or at least watch her body language. This kind of conversation was always a minefield. Now he had to have it without even seeing how she reacted to his fumbling attempts at saying the right thing.

“It was great between us,” he said. She could hardly disagree with that, right?

A long pause. He drank down his coffee, terrified of speaking again and putting his foot in his mouth.

“Doc Leslie talked about using body paint to give me a visible shape again. He thought maybe enough shape to have some kind of job.”

“A spray-on tan might work too,” Al allowed. His mind wandered to what it would be like to paint her. Incredible.

“Do you think it’s possible for me to have a job like a normal person?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been a normal person with a normal job.” He fiddled with the cover to the empty cup. “What kind of job did the doc talk about?”

“Hospital security.”

He snorted. “He would. He’d love someone to watch his back, that’s for sure.”

“And he said I had talent. I mean, with the drawing. He said that artists are allowed to be eccentric and I wouldn’t raise any alarms even if I stayed masked.”

“I think the doctor gave you some excellent advice.” And Leslie certainly had been talkative too.

Noir clasped Al’s hand. “I never thought past getting Jill. I figured my life would always be like this.”

“Being single-minded about catching bad guys myself, I’ve been down that road. I’m told, though, that people have lives and shit like family all the time.”

She laughed.

Whew. He’d said the right thing.

He waited a moment to see if she wanted to talk more about “them” but she didn’t so he concentrated again on the warehouse. He wondered if he should mention reaching out to officials in Queen City, looking for missing persons who matched Noir’s general description. No, he’d wait on that until he had something concrete.

He almost missed the telltale glimmer on the rooftop, but he narrowed his eyes, looked again, and the glare of the moon caught the barrel of the gun being held by the guard on the roof. Now he had confirmation, enough to call for backup. Even if this wasn’t Jill’s headquarters, it was likely someone was using the place for something illegal. Either way, it would be a good bust.

And he’d need backup to fight Jack the monster. He sent out a call over the police radio for a patrol car. They could be his backup while he walked closer to case the place. He didn’t like the idea of sending the tactical force in blind, not with the way Jack had ripped apart the people at the bank. He wouldn’t miss the squad leader but some of his team could be good cops.

Noir could scout ahead for him. He needed the edge her invisibility provided to rescue the hostage.

“I want you to get out and walk to that loading dock. Stay in the shadows. Jill knows you’re invisible, remember? Let’s not give her or anyone else a reason to suspect you’re there.”

“I’ll have to take off the bandage.”

He nodded. He heard the crunch of tires over broken pavement. The patrol car pulled to the side of his unmarked vehicle. “Noir, stay clear of these guys. The less we have to explain to people, the better.”

“I know that.”

Al imagined that she’d rolled her eyes at him. He got out of the car and felt her slip out behind him before he closed the door. He adjusted his weapon holster, doubled-checked the frequency on his police radio and faced the newcomers. The weight of the snub-nosed revolver in his ankle holster reassured him.

He didn’t recognize the officers. That was probably good since most of the cops he did know were dirty. Maybe these were good guys. They certainly looked fresh-faced enough.

“Lieutenant Aloysius James, homicide,” he said to the uniforms. “I’m investigating this as the location of the suspect wanted in connection with the bank murders.”

They nodded.

“I’m going to get closer and have a look around.”

The two officers, one white and one Latino, exchanged a look. “You want us to go in with you, Lieutenant?”

“No, I want you to stay here, monitor the situation and call for help if needed. You’ll need the tactical team if you lose contact with me.”

“No can do.” The white officer drew his gun, grinning.

Fuck.

Al went for his weapon, but the second cop grabbed his wrist. The first one slugged him in the jaw. He sagged momentarily, and the two of them had time to disarm him and slap cuffs over his wrists. For good measure, one of them punched him in the stomach. He doubled over and spat on their shoes.

“You’re taking blood money,” he told them.

“Money’s money,” the white cop said.

“You’re too young to be cynical,” Al said.

“I’m too old to be poor,” answered the Latino.

“Are you taking me inside or are you going to shoot me here?” He was pretty sure they weren’t going to shoot him in the open. If that’s what they planned, they could have done that already.

Al took a deep breath, winced at the pain in his gut, and prayed Noir would stay out of this. Or, if she didn’t, that she was smarter about attacking the enemy this time.

“We’re not killers. We’re just delivery boys,” the Latino cop said.