Read Online The Hinky Velvet Chair by Jennifer Stevenson - Free Book Online Page A

could get us into deep shit here!”
    He twisted gently, sending good feelings all up her leg and
into her hoopla. “Better?” he said.
    “Don’t stop that. I’m serious.” It was hard to act serious
when she was so, so loaded, and his touch was so good. “You could screw this
case royally. If we do get evidence, it might be ruled in — mmMMoh — inadmissable
because you tangled the cases.”
    “It’s only a spa day with the girls. I thought you would
like a chance to scope the joint.”
    “Well, stop thinking. Oh, and another thing.” She had to
pause because he’d switched feet and was now working his thumbs into the arch
of her left foot, bringing muted ecstasy. “What the hell and a half have you
been telling Griffy about me? I admit she could get secrets out of a stone with
that face, but I would think you could keep a secret.” I must be sobering
up. I couldn’t have said that ten minutes ago.
    “She is innocent,” Clay said with a solemn face. “You
believe that, don’t you?”
    “Yes.” Somehow Jewel was on her back on the bed. She felt
grand.
    “Good.” He pulled off her polyester pants. “Tell Griffy to
buy you some clothes while you’re on the Magnificent Mile.”
    “Nina will bring over some of my weekend clothes.” Something to make Randy look at me, not at
Sovay.
    “Good, because these things are dreadful.”
    She got up on her elbows and found him kneeling between her
thighs. “Hey.”
    He kissed her and pushed. She fell on her back. “Hey
yourself.” He tossed her pants away. “I propose a detente. You’re right, we’re
outclassed here. We need to pull together.”
    The ceiling swam over her. He continued working the
polyester off her unresisting body. She had that old familiar feeling, the
feeling that she was making a colossal fool of herself and would regret it in
something like twelve hours.
    Although not right now.
    This isn’t so bad, she thought, repeating a mantra from sluttier days. I like him. Which was true. Working with Clay for two weeks hadn’t
inspired her with confidence in his honesty or his urge to follow orders, but
she liked other things about him. He was kind, patient, and more polite than
her average fellow investigator, though that might be because she’d dated and
dumped most of them. But she had to keep her mouth shut around him. Clay
couldn’t be trusted with secrets.
    “Why is it,” she said aloud, “that a confidence man betrays
your confidence?”
    “How much did you drink?” he said to her left ear as he
groped behind her back. He grunted. “Lift up, I can’t get this bra undone.”
    She giggled. Randy never had trouble getting her naked.
    “I remember doing you,” she accused. “You’re normal.”
    Clay licked the hollow of her throat. A frisson shot down
her side into her buttock. She yelped.
    “That’s good, is it?” he panted. “Ah.”
    The bra strap snapped open and her breasts, always
uncomfortable in traction, eased apart against his naked chest. When did his
chest get naked?
    He threw the bra over his shoulder. “I hate these things.”
    She said, “I do, too, but they keep me out of trouble.”
    He lifted himself in a push-up over her. The heat of
his body between her thighs was distracting. “Trouble?” he said, twinkling. “You?
Hard to believe, Officer Teflon.”
    “True. There’s a reason I dress like this. It keeps my coworkers
happy.”
    He squinted at her breasts. “Naw.”
    “Okay, it keeps the men from thinking lustful thoughts about
me. Look like that if you want, but I couldn’t keep a partner. I mean, I tried.
Ed set me up with every guy in the department.” The more she talked, the more
everything sounded like sex. “I mean, Ed made me their partner.” In a small
voice she confessed, “I did them all. It didn’t help.”
    “This partner thing is important to you.”
    “I need a partner. I can’t do any important work without
one. This is my first big case in forever.”
    Clay seemed