Grant didn’t need any more encouragement to convince him to get naked. He wanted to feel her fingers stroke naked flesh before he had to don a condom. He’d love to feel her mouth, too, but he’d take whatever she wanted to give and count himself the luckiest man alive.

It took him longer than normal to get his pants off, even though he sat on the edge of the bed to make it easier. Isabelle was kneeling on the bed behind him, rubbing her breasts against his bare back as she kissed his neck and stroked his shoulders and chest. For some reason, his jeans were stuck, and there wasn’t enough blood left in his brain for him to figure out how to fix the problem for a few seconds. Finally, the brain cells sputtered enough for him to remember he was still wearing boots. He fumbled to unlace them, and finally, he was home free.

Isabelle reached around him and wrapped her hands around his jutting penis. “Do you have a condom?” she asked.

Grant’s head was about to blow off from the force of sensation that shot through him at her touch. It took a moment for her words to make sense though the buzz of pleasure filling his ears. “We’re not going to need one if you keep touching me like this. I’ll come in your hands instead.”

He pulled on her wrists and she let him go. When he turned around, she reached for him, smiling.

She didn’t try to hide her body. In fact, she didn’t appear shy at all with him. Not that she had any reason to be. She was beautiful. Tall, slim, but not skinny, and curved like a woman should be in all the right places. The way her nipples stood out made his mouth water for another taste, and those long legs of hers were going to feel so good wrapped around his waist. He was sure of it.

Grant had no idea what he’d done to deserve this time with her, but he hoped he figured it out fast enough that he could do it some more before he left.

He went into her outstretched arms and kissed her. She purred her pleasure into his mouth, and he eased her back down to the mattress.

The feel of her naked body stretched out next to his was exquisite. She was all smooth and soft everywhere he looked. Everywhere he touched.

His hands roamed over her hip, down into the indentation of her waist, and back up over her ribs. He traced the delicate bones with his fingertip until he worked his way up high enough to cup her breast. Gently, he pinched her nipple between two fingers. She leaned into his touch and shivered, so he knew he was doing it just like she liked.

A satisfied smile curved Grant’s mouth as he kissed his way over her jaw and down her neck. He wanted to feel her nipples against his tongue again and make her writhe with need. He latched on to her other breast and she nearly came off the bed.

“Grant.” His name was a breathless sigh of need, a sound he’d never forget.

“Let me feel you,” he said, barely pressing his fingertips against her mound. “Open your legs, honey.”

Isabelle did, and Grant let his hand slide down over slick, hot skin. She was wet for him, scalding hot.

Grant groaned, and his hips bucked against her once before he got himself back under control. He couldn’t stop his fingers from parting her soft folds to feel her more completely, nor could he stop himself from pressing one finger inside her. She was snug but relaxed, and he slid in easy.

Isabelle sucked in a breath and stiffened. Her legs clamped closed on his arm, locking his hand against her.

“Give me the condom,” she told him.

“In a minute. There’s no hurry.”

“That’s not what you said a minute ago.”

“A minute ago, you had your hands wrapped around my cock. I’m more in control now.”

“Oh, yeah?” She reached down and stroked his erection from tip to base and back again. “How about now?” she taunted.

Grant’s voice shook when he ordered her, “Let go of my hand.”

Isabelle relaxed her legs, freeing his hand. Grant fetched a condom from his jeans and ripped it open with his teeth and covered himself.

“Spread your legs for me,” he said as he moved over her. Isabelle complied, but not enough to make room for his body. He nudged her knees farther apart and settled between them. His penis throbbed, begging for him to shove himself inside her, but that was the caveman side of his brain talking. Instead, he rubbed against her slick folds without penetrating her.

Isabelle shifted restlessly beneath him, gripping his hips as if she could actually control where they went. She spread her legs wider and lifted her bottom. “If you don’t stop teasing me, I’m going to—”

Before she could finish her threat, Grant eased his erection a few inches into her slippery body. She stiffened and dug her fingers into his flesh.

He was pretty sure he wasn’t going to make it more than two minutes, and he’d be damned if he came before she did. He had his pride.

“You good?” he squeaked out.

She hummed her approval and grabbed his ass, pulling him closer.

Grant could take a hint with the best of them, so he pressed forward, sliding in a couple more inches.

Isabelle started panting, which was either a really good sign, or a really bad one.

“You still with me?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah. Right here all the way.”

Grant kissed her and began a slow, steady pace. He tried not to think about how good she felt so tight and slippery around his cock. Instead, he focused on her reactions. Gauged her breathing and all the little hitches he caused when he drove deep. He found the spot she liked and angled his hips to hit it just right. It didn’t take long before she was digging her fingernails into his back, arching up to meet his thrusts.

Grant felt the crushing weight of his climax bearing down on him. Sweat beaded on his skin, and he recognized he was nearing the point where all rational thought vanished. Where all that existed was his own body and the pleasure he could wring from it. He didn’t want to do that to Isabelle—didn’t want to use her like that.

He eased an arm under her hips to raise her slightly and pushed into her until he was seated to the hilt. She tensed and clutched his biceps, making desperate little panting noises that made Grant feel like the biggest stud on the planet. Her eyes were dark, with only thin rings of green around the pupils. Her hips undulated, grinding her clitoris against his pubic bone, pushing her closer to the edge.

“That’s right,” he whispered to her. “Almost there, honey.” He pinched her nipple and gave it a slight tug.

Isabelle sucked in a breath and held it. Her hips bucked harder and Grant shifted, giving her the extra friction she needed in short, hard thrusts.

He felt her climax ripple through her belly and tighten the muscles gripping his penis. Isabelle let out a long, low cry of release, and he couldn’t hold back any longer. Not with her sweet voice filling his ears and the scent of her arousal filling the air.

He let go of his control as she came, moving in long, frantic thrusts that sent him over the edge in seconds. Raw pleasure spiraled up his spine and coursed out over his limbs. His cock throbbed as he came, shoved as deep into Isabelle’s tight body as he could go. His vision went a little gray around the edges, but he didn’t care. Nothing mattered but the soft cushion of her sated body beneath his and the aftershocks of pleasure ricocheting through his system.

His heart was pounding hard, and the ragged sound of his breathing filled the room.

Grant had had a lot of sex in his life, but he’d never had an orgasm as intense as that. In fact, he still wasn’t sure he was going to live through it.

A man could get used to sex like that. If it didn’t kill him outright.

Isabelle’s hands stroked his back in clumsy sweeps. She wasn’t any better off than he was if the way her heart was racing like a rabbit’s was any indication. And he was crushing her, which couldn’t be comfortable.

Grant lifted himself off of her, hating the feeling of separating his body from hers. He would have loved to stay joined with her, as close as a man could get, but he didn’t dare risk it.

He pulled away from her and sprawled on the bed until he could find the strength to get rid of the spent condom.

“That was . . . wow,” she said, her voice as unsteady as his pulse.

“Amen.”

“I’m just going to rest here for a minute, okay?”

Grant leaned over her and kissed her eyelids, her nose, her bruised cheek. Even with the bruises, she was the most precious, beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Generous and kind. He was a lucky man to have her in his life, if only for a short time now and then.

She grabbed his head so she could get a proper kiss. Her lips were soft, a little puffy from all the attention he’d been giving them. He’d never get enough of her mouth, not if he married her and he lived to be a hundred.

The thought jolted him, scaring him to death. He wanted to settle down someday, but not until he was sure he could be a decent husband and father. He would not do to Isabelle, or any other woman, what his father did to him and his mom. Until he was sure that he wasn’t wired the same as his old man, he had no right to think about marriage or family, no matter how much he wanted it.

Wanting something and being able to have it were two different things. He had to remember that so no one got hurt.

“I’ll be back in a minute. Gotta clean up.”

Isabelle gave a sleepy nod, and Grant used the excuse to escape to the bathroom. He needed a moment alone to clear his head and get his priorities straight. Sex with Isabelle was fantastic, and he was already aching to do it again, but he had a job to do. He had to keep her, Dale, Amanda, Rachel, and Keith safe, and he wasn’t going to do that if he kept thinking with his dick.

There was work he needed to do, and it was about damn time he got to it.

Amanda’s home was dark when she pulled in to the cracked driveway that was now closer to gravel than concrete. The scent of old cooking oil clung to her uniform and hair, making her stomach turn.

She’d lost too much weight since she’d left Bobby, but too much worry and not enough time to eat had taken its toll. She’d thought the worst was over—that she was finally getting back on her feet.

And now this.

If she left town—assuming her car would even get her that far—all her hard work and meager savings would be gone in days. There was no friend she could stay with. She’d lied to Isabelle because the truth was too humiliating. Bobby had torn her away from every friend she’d ever had in an effort to isolate and control her. And God help her, she’d let him, thinking it might bring them closer, might make him happy.

Amanda’s head dropped to the steering wheel with a thud. She was so tired. Worn too thin. A sad, secret part of her almost wished for it all to end so she could finally rest.

If it weren’t for Rachel, Amanda was pretty sure she would have saved the killer the trouble by now and taken care of the job herself.

But she did have Rachel, so she kept going even though she was numb with fatigue, struggling for every breath while simultaneously wondering why she bothered.

Amanda locked her car out of habit, even though no one would want it, and went inside.

Her babysitter, Nicole, was asleep on the couch. The goth clothes and overdone makeup looked ridiculous on her, but she was a good kid, and Amanda didn’t exactly have a lot of choices for child care in her neighborhood.