Something to Dye For (Curl Up and Dye Mysteries, #2) Read online

  My heart still ached over Georgia’s death and it seemed more tragic when the person who killed her was someone she trusted implicitly. The butler wasn’t always the person who did it, sometimes it was the seventy-year-old housekeeper. I took every opportunity to harass Gabe and his partner, Adrian Goode, about being bested by an elderly woman. Adrian said he should’ve known better because his grandmother could still do a cartwheel at seventy-five years old.

  I rose out of bed when my alarm went off on my cellphone. I liked to tease Gabe about being a wimp when it came to cold weather so I was glad he wasn’t home to witness my sprint to his bathroom to start the shower. I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste then climbed beneath the spray of water as soon as it heated up to my preferred temperature–hot enough to please Satan. I tempered it with a tiny bit of cold water on the times that Gabe joined me, but he wasn’t there so I could enjoy every second of depleting his hot water tank.

  I had just stuck my toothbrush in my mouth and began to scrub my teeth when the shower curtain was yanked aside. I screamed in a horribly unmanly fashion and clutched my chest. I felt my face flush with embarrassed heat when Gabe started laughing at my reaction. I knew that dumbass wasn’t laughing at me because I held the keys to his favorite kingdom; a portal of pleasure so thrilling I could put an amusement park out of business.

  “Get in here, you’re letting all the heat out.” He wasn’t wearing any clothes for me to grab so I snatched onto some chest hair and tugged. “You’re lucky I didn’t deep throat my toothbrush with your stupid stunt.”

  Gabe took my toothbrush out of my hand and set it on the shelf before he backed me up so that he too could stand beneath the scalding spray. For once he didn’t complain about the burning water temperature so I knew the blood had already headed south toward his cock. “Mmmm. Deep throat.” Gabe’s moan sent thrills racing down my spine. He began kissing a path from my collarbone to my jaw.

  “Oh no,” I said firmly. “You nearly gave me a heart attack and my heart needs to rest now.” I turned my back on him, as if I was angry, but all I really wanted to do was push my ass into his groin.

  Gabe took the bait, grabbed my hips, and pressed his erection between the globes of my ass. “Forgive me,” he whispered huskily in my ear.

  I was ready to forgive him before the bulbous head of his dick rubbed against my greedy hole. My legs parted on their own accord to grant him more access. I couldn’t imagine a time when I wouldn’t want to take him inside my body. Gabe had done something I thought was impossible; he burrowed himself so deep inside my soul that I’d need divine intervention to extract him.

  “You know what we both need to kick off our morning right.” Gabe reached around and fisted my cock in his large hand. “It’s adorable when you pretend not to want me.”

  It was hard to argue with him when I was grinding my ass on his dick like the cock addict I’d become. “Stop calling me adorable.” I had to find something to fight him on or he’d think I was sick and take his hard-on away.

  “Fucking adorable,” he growled the same time he pushed a lubed finger inside my ass. I never asked, but I wondered if perhaps Gabe had been a Boy Scout when he was younger because he was always prepared. I somehow doubted that there was a badge for lube and condom preparedness, but if there was he surely had one. He never failed to whip out a stash from somewhere when the mood struck. In the shower, he kept them stashed on the shelf next to his shampoo.

  After that, there was no more talking. Grunting, groaning, and moaning were the only things we could muster once he suited up and slid inside me. I braced my arms on the shower wall when Gabe started to move in earnest. He slid his hands up to pinch and roll my nipples, knowing it made me crazy. I laid my head back against his shoulder when it became too heavy for my neck to support. Gabe rubbed his morning scruff against my neck because he knew the response he’d get from me, just as I knew how he loved the feel of my beard against the skin on his inner thighs. He knew my body better than I did and after such a short period of time too.

  He rode me fast until I sprayed my spunk all over the tile, then it was all I could do to hang on while he chased his own release. I could tell he was close by how tight he held my body and the animalistic growls that escaped his throat. He came hard and loud, driving me up on my toes as he spilled deep inside me. Gabe pressed his forehead to my shoulder and rested there until his breathing slowed down and his blood returned to his brain.

  I could get used to this. It wasn’t the first time I had the thought and I was certain it wouldn’t be the last. I was more certain that I was nowhere close to being ready for cohabitating with him. The insane lust I felt for Gabe had turned into genuine affection, but we were still too new to be thinking of doing anything as crazy as move in together.

  “Two more weeks until we go to Florida and you meet my parents.” Gabe’s words snapped me out of my post-coital fog.

  I had always wanted to mean enough to a guy to be introduced to his parents. It had never happened, in fact, I seemed to have the opposite effect on men. They tended to want to hide me away in shame due to my sometimes–okay often–flamboyant nature. People often mistook flamboyancy for femininity and it couldn’t be further than the truth in my case. I had always been the guy you fucked, not the one you took home to Sunday dinners. Until Gabe.

  Gabe had thought of me as feminine at first, but he’d since seen the light. He also saw something in me that made him want to take me home to Florida to meet the parents. I still got a mushy feeling in the pit of my stomach every time I remembered opening the plane tickets on Christmas Eve. He figured the week of Valentine’s Day would give me enough notice for my schedule. He learned in a very short time that my clients scheduled their appointments months in advance and there was no such thing as “off season” when it came to a woman’s hair. Hair maintenance wasn’t a sport; it was a lifestyle.

  I finally had a man who wanted to show me off and all I could do was quake with fear. What if they didn’t like me? They probably loved his ex, Kyle, and we were nothing alike. Gabe could stand proud in front of his family with Kyle, the veterinarian. I am just a hair stylist… That was when my panic came to a screeching halt. I had never been ashamed of what I did for a living. I wasn’t just a hair stylist; I was a successful motherfucking business owner who made women, and a few men, feel good about themselves. I would not cower in shame in front of anyone for my career choice nor would I hide my success.

  “Quit freaking out.” Gabe’s rough chuckle that followed his words had my spine snapping straight up.

  “I was not.” I sounded like I was five, at best.

  “Babe, your body got tight enough with tension to snap off my dick when I mentioned meeting my parents.” Gabe pulled his softening dick out of me just in case. “They’re going to adore you.”

  “Will I adore them?” I thought it was a reasonable question, but Gabe’s laughter said it was funny.

  “You will. They’re easygoing people who are fun to be around.” Gabe kissed below my ear with a wet smack. “Just don’t let my dad talk you into playing poker for money. You and your pets will be on the streets before you can blink an eye.”

  “You doubt my ability to play poker competently, huh?” I wasn’t offended by his opinion because I knew it wasn’t intended as an insult.

  “Your face is so expressive, Josh. I can’t imagine you being able to conceal the fact that you have a good or bad hand.” See, he wasn’t being derogatory so there was no need for my insecurities to flare up and cause an argument. Look at me acting all adult-ish. He had no way of knowing I was raised by the queen of card sharks since he’d never met my parents either. Hmmm.

  “You know, you’re not the only one whose parents live in Florida,” I said. I bit back a laugh when I felt him tense against me. Seemed like I wasn’t the only one who was nervous about meeting parents. “My folks can’t be more than an hour north on I-95.”

  “It wouldn’t be right going all the way to Flori
da and not spending time with your parents too,” Gabe said. I could tell it was his good Southern manners behind the words more than anything. “We’ll split our time between the parents.”

  “Um, Gabe.” I turned within the circle of his arms to face him. “We don’t have to spend every second of our time in Florida with either set of parents.”

  “True.”

  I felt a subtle drop in the water temperature and knew we wouldn’t have long to wash before it dropped to frigid cold. That thought led me to Gabe’s early morning adventure. “Where’d you get called out to this morning?” I handed him his shower gel then reached for my own.

  “You won’t believe it,” was his answer. He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it either. He lathered up his hands and began washing his body. I loved the differences between our builds and coloring. Where I was slender, fair, and blond, Gabe was muscular, tanned, and dark. The sight was almost enough to make me lose my focus, but another subtle drop in temperature prompted me to get to washing.

  “Try me,” I replied drolly. I split my attention between washing and listening to Gabe tell me about Nate Turner’s demise.

  “I don’t know what the fuck he was doing out here, but I guaran-fucking-tee it wasn’t for good reasons.”

  “I don’t believe it,” I said in shock.

  “I told you.” Gabe’s gloating remark and smirky smile earned a wet smack on his ass. “What was more shocking was the way the sheriff tested me for GSR and had my car checked over like I was the one who ran him off the road and killed him.”

  “GSR?” I asked.

  “Gunshot residue.” Gabe explained to me what happened when a person shoots a gun. “So the swabs came back negative and my car was cleared of any foul play.” Gabe shook his head then his dark brown eyes widened. “I forgot to tell you the worst part.”

  I couldn’t imagine what could be worse than getting called out of your warm bed to identify a douche bag club owner’s brain-splattered corpse only to be treated like a suspect when all you did was tell the truth. But I was all ears. “What was the worst part?”

  “Ugh, this awful homophobic deputy was on the scene and later at the station. I’m telling you, babe,” Gabe said after releasing a frustrated breath, “Billy Sampson and I will go a round or two before long.”

  I could tell by the scowl on his face that he saw the way I stiffened when I heard Billy’s name. Okay, meeting him was way worse than the cold, gruesome body, and the interrogation that followed. I hated the way my heart raced and my stomach churned from just hearing his name.

  “I wasn’t aware that he moved back.” The words were barely a whisper when they crossed my lips. How had his return flown under my radar? My brain instantly returned to times so dark that I thought my life wasn’t worth living, that no one would ever love me because I wasn’t worthy. Don’t go there, Josh. You’re much stronger now. As if fate wanted to shock me back to the present, the water coming from the showerhead turned ice cold.

  “Fuck!” Gabe reached around me and turned off the water. He reached outside the shower curtain and grabbed our towels off the hooks. He handed my towel to me before he began toweling his hair.

  I stood their awestruck and watched the play of muscles in his chest and arms. I marveled for the hundredth time that Gabe wanted me the way I was. He thought I was worthy and I clung to those feelings instead of the sorrow that tried to move in and ruin my day at the mention of a demon from my misguided past. He looked up from what he was doing and caught me staring at him. The cocky grin he wore told me he mistook my interest as purely sexual. It often was sexual, but not right then.

  “I really like you,” I told him. “I just thought you should know.” I looked away and began toweling myself off before I was blinded by his white smile. “You should’ve been in a toothpaste commercial,” I groused.

  “Aw, you say the sweetest things.” He reached for me as I started to climb over the edge of the bathtub, but I eluded his grip. I’d be late for work if I gave in to the urge to play around with him.

  Once we were dressed and in the kitchen, Gabe pulled me to him and asked, “Do you have time for breakfast?”

  I did, but I was honestly still reeling from the bomb that Gabe inadvertently dropped on me in the shower. I needed to regroup and get myself together before my first client arrived. Besides, I wanted the opportunity to talk to my best friends about the latest development before the rest of the staff showed up for work.

  “Raincheck?” I asked him.

  “Anytime,” was his swift reply.

  The goodbye kiss he gave me at his back door was anything but swift and it was exactly what I needed to warm my heart during the walk home because two blocks felt like two miles in January. Gabe would’ve given me a ride home, but I found the brisk air to be exhilarating on most mornings. That morning all it did was wrap its icy fingers around my already stressed heart and squeeze.

  Both Meredith and Chaz were running a little behind that morning so I didn’t have a chance to speak to them about Billy’s return to Carter County. I knew without a doubt that neither of them knew or they would’ve told me. I had practically befriended Chaz at birth and my beautiful queen came along in ninth grade. I knew without a doubt that I could count on them for anything, even if it meant they had to deliver unsettling news.

  Not only were Chaz and Meredith late, my client was early, so there wasn’t time to chat. I had to push aside all my conflicting thoughts and feelings so I could focus on making Mrs. Applegate feel like a million bucks. I closed my eyes briefly, found my center, and went on about my day as if nothing and no one could hurt me.

  “CAPTAIN, CAN I HAVE a minute?”

  Captain Shawn Reardon looked up from his desk and assessed me with keen eyes. I wasn’t sure of his age, but I placed him in his late forties to early fifties. He struck me as one of the guys who went gray early but kept their youthful faces. His light blue eyes were a lot like lasers when they were locked on a person, as they were on me right then. I had worked for the man for three years and it was the first time I requested to speak to him privately instead of the other way around.

  “Come on in, Gabe.” Captain folded his hands on top of his large desk. “What’s on your mind?” he asked briskly. Many people probably found his demeanor to be abrupt, but to me, he was a man whose every word and action had a purpose.

  “I got a call in the middle of the night from Sheriff Tucker regarding a homicide on one of his county highways. The victim didn’t have any ID on them, but he did have my business card in his wallet.” The captain sat up straighter, if that was even possible, and listened as I told him everything that happened during my visit to Nate’s office a few months prior and the early morning activities.

  “Let me see if I understand you correctly. Sheriff Tucker called you out to ID a body and once you did, he treated you like a suspect. Did I hear you right?” Captain asked.

  “Well, I wouldn’t say…”

  “Professional courtesy dictates that he should’ve at least called me, your superior, and informed me of what was going on. Did he ask you if you wanted a union rep present?” Captain’s eyes turned an icy shade of blue and a vein popped out on his forehead as he became angrier with every word he spoke.

  “No, but I…”

  “It doesn’t matter that you volunteered the information and agreed to the tests. There is protocol that he should’ve followed. I’ll be calling that fat bastard’s office later today.” The level of animosity the captain felt for Sheriff Tucker was shocking. I was certain I resembled a cartoon character with bulging eyes and a gaping mouth after the captain’s tirade. He rarely showed any emotion at all. I was beyond curious about the source of his dislike for the sheriff. He pinned me with narrowed eyes and said, “Never again, Detective Wyatt.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  My hearty agreement seemed to appease the captain and I could see his countenance returning to normal until once again his stoic façade was in place.
“Do you have any idea what Nate Turner was into or why it seemed like he was coming to see you in the middle of the night?”

  “I don’t, sir,” I answered honestly. “I just know he didn’t want police involvement in identifying his harasser, well, not in the traditional sense any way. I have no idea why he was in this area at that time of night after a snow storm had moved through.”

  “It reeks of desperation. I have to ask you a tough question and I need your complete honesty, Gabe.”

  “You got it, sir,” I replied.

  “Did Nate Turner have reason to believe that you’d harbor or protect him from the person making threats?” Captain tipped his head slightly to the side like he was mulling over his next words. “Was there anything personal between you?”

  “No, sir.” Maybe our definitions of personal were different, but I didn’t think the one time I got bent over Nate’s desk in his office counted as personal. I had given the guy my card after I pulled up my pants. He tossed it in the trash then told me that he didn’t do repeats. I considered the short time I was in his presence to be very impersonal, regardless of the fact that his dick had been in my ass. I was shocked when he called me out of the blue a year later and asked for help.

  “I guess we’ll never know what he was doing here then.” The captain pointed his finger at me and said, “If Tucker calls you again…”

  “I’ll make you aware of the situation immediately.” I rose from my chair and was prepared to leave when his next question caught me off guard.

  “Do you think that you’re in any danger?” I was used to an unreadable expression on his face, so the concern I saw in his furrowed brow and pinched lips gave me pause.