Finding Thyme Read online

  He wraps his arms around me and leaves kisses along my neck. I meet his lips and dive into him while I run my hands through his hair. He lifts me up and sits me on the edge of the black granite countertop.

  I peel off his clothes at the same time that he peels off mine. He lays me backwards and I push the bag of groceries off to the side and hear it fall onto the floor, but right now I don’t care if anything broke.

  All I want is Nick, again and again. His mouth is the perfect fit to mine. He tugs my jeans off and throws them to the side and drops his to the ground also. I care for nothing other than Nick inside me.

  A nuclear warhead could explode next to us and I wouldn’t be able to stop what’s happening right now! His erection feels heated, pressed against my inner thigh as my legs draw him in. My heart quickens—this feels so good that I am almost bursting with excitement.

  I’m swept away with the passion of being wrapped around Nick and my cheeks flush with a prickling heat. I feel him slowly nudge inside me and then he grips onto me and guides himself in. My legs shudder and my body feels awash with heat from feeling his largeness filling me inside. I clutch onto him so hard and hear him moan from both the pleasure and pain in my grip. I trail my lips around to his ear and suck on his perfectly constructed lobe as he guides my body backwards and forwards over him with intense strokes.

  “Oh fuck, Mia. If you keep doing that I’ll come quicker than I did when I was fifteen with my first porno magazine.”

  I look up at Nick and grin. “This is no time for humour,” I whisper in his ear and suck back on his lobe again.

  “You asked for it!” he says as he pushes me back down against the countertop and grips onto my waist and thrusts into me over and over again. I can’t take it anymore and can feel myself climaxing very quickly. I watch him as he looks down, watching himself entering into me.

  “Like what you see?” I ask in complete submission to him.

  “I like you, Mia,” he says as he climbs up onto the countertop and over the top of me.

  He pulls me up to him and I wrap my legs around his torso. He swings around so that his legs are over the edge of the bench and he grips my rear and starts to slowly rock me backwards and forwards. There is a shift in the build-up inside me and I feel it take over my body in a whole new way.

  How the hell does he do this to me? Before I can even think another thought, he reaches a place inside so deep that I explode with mind-altering force. My back arcs and my head throws itself backwards as the climax enslaves my very being.

  My whole body tenses to the point of trembling. I feel Nick swell as he drives a little further into me. My body still wretched in pleasure, gripping his every stroke. I want to yell out that I love him but I pour myself into his mouth and wrap my lips around his instead. He moans into my mouth and I feel his strokes become more prolonged.

  He wraps his strong hands around me and I can feel his orgasm reaching its climax. The feeling sends me into another spate of climaxing desire and I kiss him deeper.

  Just before Nick reaches his peak, he looks straight into my eyes. “I want to do this with you forever,” he says as he spills out into me.

  “You have me forever,” I say.

  He groans and releases himself, still holding me with an intensity that I cannot explain. My head feels like a balloon that’s about to burst. I don’t think I’ve ever climaxed with someone like that in all of my days as a prostitute.

  I can’t even explain where that orgasm came from, but it’s somewhere deep, somewhere where no one has been before. Nick’s still heaving with every breath he draws and I’m too afraid of looking into his eyes, for fear of saying something involuntary. Like how much I am falling for him—mind, body and spirit. This feeling is beyond anything I’ve ever felt, or imagined I’d ever feel. Nick picks up our clothes that are strewn across the kitchen floor. I giggle and slide them slowly back on.

  “I guess it’s going to be too late to have a roast dinner cooked now.” Nick winks at me.

  “Looks like a pizza delivery night.” I laugh back.

  I can barely keep a straight face through dinner about our little kitchen episode. What is wrong with me? It’s not like I’ve never done that kind of thing with a guy before, but with Nick it all feels like a brand new experience.

  I follow him into the kitchen to start cleaning up. Nick stacks our plates in the dishwasher and gives me a look that doesn’t make me feel comfortable.

  “What’s wrong?” I have to ask.

  “Did you want to go over what happened to Sally?” he asks with a closed question.

  I inhale and take the last sip of my wine and nod once, before I regret it. I guess I’d better get this over and done with. What will I do when I actually know what someone did to her? Will I regret knowing? Am I better off being comfortably ignorant to the gory details of her murder?

  I follow Nick back through to the lounge room and take a seat on my large blue couch. He comes back into the room carrying a thick dossier and takes a seat next to me on the couch.

  “Are you ready for this, Mia?” His eyes are full of the horror of what I’m about to see.

  I nod once and he flips open the file’s cover, pulling out photographs and placing them across the coffee table. It’s worse than anything I imagined.

  From every possible angle are pictures of a bloated, lifeless body. The only thing that even resembles Sally in the photographs is her blonde hair, but that too is matted and scraggily. Her naked body is every colour of the rainbow. Pink, white, purple, green and black. I look at Nick and hold my hands to my mouth to stop that last sip of wine from coming back up.

  “Why is she naked?” I ask from between my fingers.

  Nick shrugs. “Not sure. This is how they found her. What we do know is she was asphyxiated. Strangled. But beaten first unfortunately. They knocked out her front teeth. She had trauma to her left eye from a blunt force and she had several broken bones,” Nick says as he points to the associated photographs strewn across the coffee table. “She was dumped in the harbour at least two days before she was found, when she floated back up to the surface.”

  All of her injuries are exactly the same as those in my dream several months ago. I feel sick.

  “Do you know why they did this to her?” I ask quietly.

  “We believe she found out what Joe Tench was up to. She tried to warn you. If we hadn’t been involved, this may have been your fate too.” My eyes shoot up at Nick as he says the last sentence.

  “Thank god you were watching me,” I utter, feeling even more nauseous now.

  “Nothing would’ve happened to you. It never will. I will always be with you now.” He cups his hand around the side of my face.

  I look back down at the photographs, at a close-up shot of the bruises around Sally’s neck. A tear spills out from my eye and rolls over my cheek.

  “Are you okay? I know this is hard to see. Do you want me to pack them away?” Nick wipes the tear from my cheek with the back of his index finger.

  “I know who she was with on the night of her last booking, before she went missing.” I look up at Nick. His eyes spring to mine.

  “You do? But all the police reports from the other girls at the agency stated that they didn’t know anything. As far as we knew, none of the girls at Miss Stephanie’s agency know who’s going on a booking with whom,” Nick says in surprise.

  I frown. “Did my report also state that I didn’t know anything?”

  Nick’s lips pucker and he nods slowly. “Ah, well played girls. You’re all too shrewd, you know. I didn’t even think otherwise. The detectives that interviewed all of you have years of experience—they always pick up when someone is lying. Miss Stephanie’s report also collaborated with the girls’ claims and she too stated that none of you are told of each other’s bookings.”

  “Usual spin.” I nod. “We’re all told the same thing when we start, but girls will always gossip, and there is a whole agency full of girls. We’re s
worn to secrecy, but once you’re in the doors things change. Once Miss Stephanie accepts you, things change even more. You learn things about the place that not many people in mainstream society ever see or hear. You would not believe who some of the men are that use that agency.”

  “So I’m beginning to learn,” Nick replies. “You don’t think Miss Stephanie has any connections with Joe Tench, do you?”

  “I started to wonder that myself when Tench bought me from the agency. The way he acted when he was around her was different. It was almost like he was inferior to her, like she had something over him.”

  “She had you over him that’s what.” Nick wraps his arm around me.

  I don’t understand how he can still talk to me about Tench. It must be so hard for him to hear any of this. It’s hard enough for me to talk about it, let alone talk about it with Nick.

  “No. It was more than that. There’s still something telling me there’s more to Miss Stephanie. Look at the fact that you have no intel on the agency. Isn’t that raising alarm bells to you? Aren’t you supposed to know stuff about anyone and everyone?”

  “I just thought it was the identity of the men she was protecting.”

  “You aren’t that naïve, surely? What if she’s protecting more than that? Sally was with the guy who owns a brothel on Elizabeth Street. That in itself is strange. He was a little obsessed with Sally though. But something’s just not right with him.”

  “Let me follow up on that lead,” Nick says with a tender smile.

  This day has been huge. I look over the pictures of Sally and can’t help but feel like it was my fault she was murdered. It was because of me, because she tried to warn me, as any good friend would do … and in return she was killed. I hate to know why she was naked, but I have a feeling I know why, I just don’t want to ask. The last few moments of her life must’ve been horrifying. My poor Sally.

  “I’m so sorry, Sally,” I whimper as tears spill down my cheeks again.

  “Hey, hey, gorgeous. Don’t start thinking any of this is your fault.” Nick tries to soothe me, but unfortunately for him, calling me “gorgeous” only exacerbates the issue … that’s what Tench used to call me. I bury my head in my hands, trying not to think of Tench or having to go back to him, but fail miserably in the process.

  “Do you want me to run you a bath and pour you another glass of wine?” Nick says softly.

  “The bath sounds nice but going off my track record with you, wine is only going to knock me out,” I say with my head still in my hands.

  “Ah, yeah. About that … There’s something I should probably tell you.”

  I feel Nick move his arm away as he speaks and I look up at him through watery eyes.

  “What? What is it?” I ask, worried at his change in tone.

  “Well. You never really passed out around me because you were tired or had too much to drink.”

  I stare at him while he speaks, fury building inside me. I think I know exactly what he’s about to say.

  “Well, you were just so damn irresistible. I didn’t know how much longer I could stop myself when you ooze so much sex appeal!”

  “Nick, cut to the fucking chase and tell me what you did to me!” I can feel myself boiling over.

  “I had to slip you something to put you to sleep so that I didn’t have sex with you while I was working.”

  “While you were working?” I yell.

  “Mia, please. You know I was on the job when I was with you, but you became more than ‘the job’ to me. You know that. You of all people should understand this.”

  I can’t believe what I’m hearing. I knew it! I knew it all along! What an asshole! He will always think of my past and bring it up.

  “You can see yourself out, Nick. I’m going to take that bath now.” I get up and make my way to my bedroom, not bothering to see if Nick is following.

  I slam the bathroom door and lock it before I let out a frustrated scream. Leaning against the enormous bathtub, I turn the taps on and watch it fill below me. My tears join the filling bath and I undress slowly before sliding into the warm water, crying harder. I am so sick of crying. I sink further down into the bath, holding my breath as I submerge under the water. I remain there for a few moments, relishing in the weightless silence underwater.

  I re-emerge to find Nick standing over me. When I see one of my hairclips in his hand, I can’t help but roll my eyes.

  “I will never do that to you again, I promise,” Nick says as he starts to undress.

  “What are you doing?” I wish I could grab at the bath’s water and pull it up over me like a sheet, protecting me from this feeling of vulnerability.

  “I’m coming in there to hold you whether you like it or not. I want to be here for you, Mia. You need to stop pushing me away. I know you’ve done it on your own for a long time and you’re tough. But you don’t need to be alone anymore. You have me now.”

  With those words he lands my heart—hook, line and sinker. No matter how much I try and stop it, I am head over heels in love with Nick Davis.

  ELEVEN

  Nick slips into the bath behind me and slides his legs around my waist. My eyes sting from the tears that continue to flow. He strokes my hair and runs his hands down to my shoulders. My shoulders feel heavy and tight as his strong hands rub against them. I tilt my head to the side and enjoy his gentle yet strong touch. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now. Despite just learning that Nick drugged me every time we were together, I find it easier to deal with that than dealing with the sight of Sally’s body in the photographs. Nick grabs the natural sea sponge and lathers it up with some bath gel before he lovingly runs it across my back.

  “Mia, I’m going to protect you forever. I know it’s hard for you to get your head around having to go back to being Miranda again, but I know you can do it. I’m going to be here when it’s all over. Then we can start living our life together. Where are we going to go, by the way?”

  I look back at Nick and smile. “You make it all sound so easy.”

  “What’s so complicated about two people who love each other living their life happily ever after?” Nick runs the soapy sponge down the front of me and I lean back into him.

  “What makes you think I love you?” I laugh as casually as possible, meanwhile dying with awkwardness inside.

  Nick continues to run his hands softly across the front of my body, gently fondling my breasts with his fingertips. I can feel the heat from his breath on my neck.

  “I know you love me. I can see it in your eyes when you look at me,” he says into my ear.

  All the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention. At the same time, my nipples and lower region both react to his words and shoot out a quick throb. Has he really seen it in my eyes? Am I that obvious? Have I loved him longer than I realised? I’ve only just worked it out for myself—how did he know I loved him before I knew? Not a single word finds its way to my mouth. My whole nervous system seems to be completely unresponsive to this whole moment. My heart on the other hand, is completely opposite and drums a wicked beat.

  “It’s alright. Your secret’s safe with me, kid,” he breathes into my ear.

  I chuckle at his sexy confidence and shake my head.

  “What are you laughing at?” he says as he grabs me in a bear hug and playfully squeezes me.

  “You, Nick Davis, are far from convincing,” I manage to spit out from my constricted lungs.

  Nick tightens his grip and kisses along my shoulder, trailing his lips to the sensitive skin behind my ear. I draw in a deep breath and let the wave of heat take over my entire body. The bath water swells around me as I roll over to kiss Nick deeply.

  “Maybe I do love you,” I slowly say between breaths.

  I feel Nick’s ocean blue eyes on me. “Really?”

  “Just a little bit,” I whisper back before I’m whipped into a slow and passionate mess with Nick. I slide up onto him and straddle down around him. My body naturally wa
nts to lower down onto him, no longer am I in control. A whimper escapes my mouth as I lower myself onto Nick’s well-endowed erection. He feels amazing inside me, like he’s the perfect fit for my body. The bath’s water slowly laps around us and adds a fluid momentum to our strokes. Nick wraps his arms around my body and his lips brush across my chest. My nipple slowly bounces in and out of his mouth. When he reaches my other breast the feeling makes me run my fingertips down his back and lean into him so that I’m firmly pressed against his entire body. My hips meet his strokes, each stroke becoming more intense than the last. The water wraps around us and draws us closer together. Nick looks up at me and smiles momentarily before we plunge back into each other’s mouths. Our tongues rub against each other in perfect time to the motion below the water. Nick holds me even tighter and I can feel his size swell inside me. I grip onto the edge of the bathtub on either side of me and use it as leverage to ride Nick. Our pace quickens and the bath’s water splashes out over the edge as we start to thrash against each other. Nick looks back up at me again and I feel myself swimming in his eyes once more.

  “Fuck, I love you,” he breathes before he grips onto my hips and plunges me over him again and again.

  I can’t hold it any longer and my panting quickly becomes a slow moan. My erect nipples continue to rub against Nick as he holds himself against me. Without another second’s notice, I explode into an intense orgasm. Nick’s body shudders underneath me and he jostles himself further into me. I pant heavily as we slowly come down from the climax.

  I look into Nick’s eyes. “I never thought love would be like this.”

  “Me either,” he replies, equally as quiet, as if we have just told each other our deepest secret.

  As I slowly wake up, I feel the warmth of Nick’s skin against my cheek. My eyelids lift and I scan around briefly to work out the time. Judging by the bright light flooding the bedroom of my sky tower apartment, I’d say it’s about eight in the morning. I peel my face from Nick’s strong chest and look up to catch him peacefully sleeping. His body starts to shift around me and I watch as he peers at me, instantly beaming the brightest of smiles.