The Hunted Girls by Jenna Kernan (best book club books for discussion txt) 📕

she bounced. She scooted backward before he landed beside her. He drew away her panties with his teeth and eager fingers as she released her bra. His boxers sailed past her and caught on the lampshade. He held her panties to his face and inhaled. The erotic sight made her skin stipple. Then he tossed them away.

The thrill of anticipation trickled over her skin. The waiting was done. He was all hers.

She reached. He stroked. They pressed together and apart and together again, unable to get close enough as they lifted their heads to gasp for air, struggling to contain the inferno of need roaring between them.

Clint retrieved a condom from the side table, tearing open the packaging. Nadine straddled his hips and rolled the condom over the beautiful erect length of him. Then she lowered herself over him.

They moved together, striving toward satisfaction. Their long absence and the need brought them to a swift plateau that burst first within her. She arched and he drove forward, holding her hips as he followed her over the edge. The waves of pleasure rippled outward, curling her toes.

She gasped and collapsed upon his slick body, sliding over warm flesh as he stroked the long muscles of her back. He lifted one arm and threw it across his eyes.

“That was amazing.”

“We’re amazing,” she murmured.

Her body went slack as the lethargy stole through her. She closed her eyes, floating on the wave of contentment and savoring the sound of the steady thump of his slowing heartbeat.

Next came his snore and she smiled, pressing her palm to his chest to better feel the steady drum of his heart and each long intake of breath. She reached for the blankets, flipping them over their cooling bodies.

The growl of her stomach woke them both. She glanced at the clock beside the bed and saw she’d been asleep only twenty minutes or so. She chuckled at the sight of his boxers, dangling from the lamp finial.

“We better get you fed.” He lifted her hand and kissed her palm.

He rolled to his feet and she growled her displeasure as he retrieved the menu and returned to bed. After a few minutes’ discussion he called in their order and then placed the handset on the cradle.

“Forty minutes,” he said.

“I could starve in that amount of time.”

“Not if I distract you.”

She smiled. “I don’t think you’re that good. I haven’t eaten a thing in six hours.”

“Is that a challenge?”

He did not wait for an answer but disappeared beneath the covers.

Nadine did not think about food again until her heart rate returned to resting and she focused on the hunt for her panties. She found them in the armchair and slipped them on.

“Would you like my robe?” he asked.

She accepted the offer. When the knock sounded at the door, Nadine was dressed in his striped robe and he wore only a tight cotton T-shirt and overlarge running shorts.

The porter set up in record time and left with a hefty tip in appreciation. Nadine did not even wait for Clint to return from locking the door before she had the plate covers off and her napkin on her lap.

She sat in the armchair before the table. Clint retrieved the desk chair and set it across from her.

Conversation ceased as they ate. She liked that he let her be quiet. A natural extrovert, Clint could have overwhelmed her. But he seemed to know that she required stillness to think and eat.

Sometime later, she wiped her mouth for the final time and sighed, leaning back. Nadine had left nothing on her plate but the onions that accompanied her steak.

“May I?” he asked, motioning toward her leavings.

She gestured him to help himself. He did, adding them to the remains of his baked potato.

“I’m so full,” she complained.

As he finished, she fiddled with the shredded end of the robe tie. Molly’s work, she suspected.

She glanced at the bed, wanting to return to the warmth of his body, but knowing she should head to her room. She didn’t want to presume or to give him the idea that she planned to move in with him.

She told him about the correspondence between Arlo and Tina and about her mother securing a biographer.

“No wonder you’re tense.”

“Not anymore. My arms feel like noodles,” she said.

“Glad to help.” He carried the tray away and left it outside the door.

“Oh, one bit of good news. Not good exactly, I suppose. Anyway, Santander was picked up by Immigration.” She told him what Tina had learned.

“That’s too bad,” he said. “But at least you can cross her off your list.”

She made a humming sound in her throat and let her eyes drift closed.

“How’s the offender profile coming?”

Nadine’s eyes popped open.

“Full of holes.” The kind that could only be filled by more evidence. More death.

“You know what you’re doing.”

She did. Because she thought like them. Understood them at a deep, visceral level. She could be good at this if she let that part of her out. That dangerous part she suppressed, trying to deprive it of oxygen with years of therapy.

All her breakthroughs came from standing in the place of a killer. In her mind, she had already done it, murdered both of those victims after their deaths. Thought about it, felt it, dreamed of it. She was like her mother, apart from one thing. She hadn’t killed anyone.

Except in her mind.

“What have you got so far?”

“Offender is white, male, unmarried, athletic, employed and comfortable in the outdoors. Drives a truck with a cab.”

He interrupted. “A cab?”

“He’s a hunter. Hunters like SUVs and trucks, but he transported his victims, so…”

“…wouldn’t want the bodies in the rear section surrounded by all those windows. Yeah, a truck with a cab. Okay.”

She continued. “Hunting experience is likely. There’s more. I’ll forward it to you.”

“Sounds a lot like Arnold. Our guy who found the bodies.”

“Maybe. Oh, I almost forgot.”

She told him about the DNA sample collected with Arnold’s discarded cigar.

“I wonder if they’ll find a match.”

“We’ll see. There’s a lot