Marc (11 page)

“I don’t know, sir.” And Roy hadn’t.
He’d been dealing with her for less than five years and she seemed to get worse
all the time. When she’d found out that his panther was Jonny Thomas, she’d gone
over the edge. It had taken him nearly a week to get his office back to rights.

“You mark my words, Dawson, if you don’t
get rid of her—and I mean get rid of her—she will bring you down with her. She’s
nothing but trouble. And she creates it when she can’t get anyone else to.”

And now she sat in Roy’s office,
bitching about how much she wanted Jonny killed. He had always wanted to ask
her what she’d done to her, but had been afraid of her rage. So he’d looked it
up.

There hadn’t been anything or, it seemed,
any contact between her and Thomas until he found the article about Anita’s
brother, Samuel, being killed. After reading the article twice, he finally saw
what he’d thought was a connection. There had been mention, only slightly, that
a panther had been seen within the bank he and a woman named Deb Anderson had
been in the process of robbing when the young man Samuel had been killed by his
partner. After paying out an ungodly amount of money to have records searched,
he found that Deb had been sent to prison and that she had a child. That was
all there was, and no matter how much he paid, there had never been any mention
of her again. But he had found a picture of Anderson and was amazed at how much
the woman looked like his Jonny Thomas.

“Are you even listening to a fucking
word I’m saying?” He looked up at her, trying to remember what she’d said. “I
fucking don’t believe you. I said we should simply put out a hit on her. Daddy
does it all the time and it usually takes care of the problem in no time.”

“I need her to fulfill my contracts. If
she’s dead, I’m going to have to pay back every penny to those waiting for her,
and that’s a great deal of money. Money that mostly went up your nose.” He
snapped his mouth closed when he realized that he’d spoken out loud. “I didn’t
mean that. But I’m nervous about this falling through.”

“You think I like snorting coke? You
think I like being high all the fucking time?” He was pretty sure she did but
didn’t say anything. But he did put his finger on the trigger when she stood up
to come around to his side of the desk.

“You could get help.” She snorted at
him. “Your father said he’d pay for it, you said. You told me that he promised
to give you a million dollars if you completed the program and remained sober
and clean for a year. That’s a lot of money, Anita.”

“Yes it is, but it’s not even a drop in
the bucket to what he’s really worth. I just figure that he’ll die soon enough
and I’ll get all of it without having to be a goody two-shoes.” She staggered
to his liquor cabinet and poured herself about three cups of bourbon into a
glass. “I know what he does for a living and I know how much he’s worth too.
Billions upon billions, and it’ll all be mine someday.”

Heaven help us
was Roy’s only
thought. She moved to the chair again and nearly tipped it over trying to sit. He
didn’t get up to help her…he was afraid to get too close to her. She tended to
lash out when she didn’t want help and cry when you gave it to her. She was a
fucking wreck.

“I’m going to make her pay for what she
did to me. That fucking kid shouldn’t have a life after her mother killed my
only friend.” She started crying, and Roy sat very still. She was like a time
bomb and he wasn’t going to be hit with any flying pieces when she exploded.

“You should just go to bed, Anita. Take
a long nap, and when you wake, you’ll feel much differently.” She shook her
head. “Please, Anita, I need this girl. She’s going to make me a very wealthy
man.”

“I don’t care about you and your damned
money. I only agreed to help you so that I could get close to her so I could
kill her. And I’m going to kill her too. Dead.” She stood, reached her hand
into her pocket, and pulled out a gun, and his entire body went on alert. “With
this gun right here. This is the one her cunt of a mom killed my brother with,
and then she just stepped over him like he was nothing. Nothing. Oh yeah, she’s
dead all right. Dead. Dead. Dead.”

She moved out of the room, still waving
her gun. When he heard her go up the stairs, he let out his breath. Christ, she
was going to hurt him if he didn’t do something about her soon. And he would have
to make it permanent.

Chapter 11

There was something incredibly sexy
about waking next to a naked woman. He supposed that he being naked as well
helped. Rolling over so that he spooned in behind her, Marc licked along her
shoulder. Christ, he could get used to his.

“You’re supposed to sleep late. Isn’t
that what you said when we went to bed?” She looked over her shoulder and
smiled at him. “It’s not late yet. It’s only five in the morning.”

“You woke me. It’s entirely your fault
I’m awake.” He rocked into her ass and heard her moan. “See? That’s why. You’re
just way too sexy to let lay there all warm and cozy.”

She rolled to her belly, and he over
her. Sitting up and straddling her thighs, he ran his finger up her spine and
back down. She responded by moaning his name, and he leaned down and kissed
her.

“How about a massage?” She moaned again
and he rubbed his hands up her ribs and down her back. “You’re very beautiful
even like this.”

Moving up over her ass so he could reach
her shoulders, he began digging his fingers into her muscles. She wasn’t tense,
but she was firm, her body tone, as well, defined. Bringing her arms down, he
rubbed her bicep, digging his fingers deep into the muscle and then down to her
forearm and wrist. He took her fingers and rotated them, pushing his thumbs
deep and hard. Then he repeated the same process on her other side.

Her back was next. Down her spine and up
he worked her scapula, his thumbs digging again until she was putty. Her ribs beckoned
him, and he leaned down and nipped at her tender flesh. Moving down to her
thighs, he ran his hand over her lovely ass.

His cock ached to be inside of her as he
pulled and dug at her muscles. He could smell her arousal so strongly that he
could swear he could taste it on his tongue. Moving down her body was becoming
a painful experiment, but he was enjoying himself. Each time she moaned, said
his name on a soft sigh, he felt his love for her strengthen and grow.

Sliding off her, he lifted her leg. As
soon as he did, he nearly fell over her and took her. Her scent was calling to
him, and he had to concentrate hard on what he was doing. He thought talking
would help.

“I want to run with you again. Last
night was too short.” That wasn’t helping. It had been short because he’d lost
her twice in the woods. She was good at hiding out.

“You want to run with me now?” He
stopped massaging her foot and looked up at her as she stared over her
shoulder. “The thought of you taking me, chasing me, has me…please?”

All he could manage was “go.” He sat
there for ten seconds after she got up before he could move off the bed to
follow her. When he entered the kitchen, the door was open to the outside and
he just caught a glimpse of her as her cat darted toward the woods.

He leapt from the deck and shifted at
the same time. His body seemed to scream out its joy at being free. His cat
snarled and kept running after his mate. Marc smiled, thinking there was not
going to be anything short about this run.

He could smell her at every turn. She
was moving quickly and leaving him a trail that screamed for him to find her. He
spotted her once as she moved between trees, and then again when she jumped at
him, knocking him to the ground and rolling him over. She was gone again before
he could get up. He didn’t just want her now, he had to have her.

He hunkered down and waited. Her scent
was all around him and he knew now that the only way to catch her was to
outsmart her. He had a thought that outsmarting her was going to be just as
hard, but decided never to tell her that. She might just outsmart him again.

He heard her before he saw her. She was
barely making a sound, and he probably wouldn’t have heard her at all if it
hadn’t been for him being so close. She moved by him slowly, her paws barely
touching the ground. When she moved past him, he nearly forgot what he was
doing, he’d been so caught up in her beauty.

When she was only a foot away, he stood
and jumped at the same time. He brought her down quickly but had to scramble to
hold her. As soon as he was over her, she reared up and snarled.  Marc bit her
shoulder hard to hold her down. He put his paw on her back and held her there
while he positioned himself behind her. She fought harder until he had to bite
her harder.

Christ, if I last longer than a second inside
of you I’ll be amazed.
Moving closer, he pressed her harder into the
ground while he mounted her. She was so wet that he slid in and moaned. His
cock filled her so tightly that it took him several seconds to realize that she
was a virgin like this. And that she was biting his forearm.

Lifting his head from her shoulder, he
licked the wound and felt her let go of his arm. He moved in and out of her
slowly and let her get used to him. His cat snarled, but for the most part,
Marc wasn’t an animal. Laughing to himself, he knew that with this woman he always
would be.

When her ass came up to meet his strokes,
he moved quicker and deeper. When he felt his balls tighten, ready to fill her,
he bit her again. This time she didn’t bite back, but he did feel her shift
beneath him, her body milking him as she came. Marc threw back his head and
roared out his own release.

Lying over her, he panted hard. He
wanted more, he needed more, and shifted. His cock jerked and lengthen at the
sight of her lying there, his mate. Ordering her to shift, she was human in
seconds, her body still the way he’d taken her. Moving up behind her again, he
slammed into her hard, gripping her hips and bringing her back to him with each
pound into her. She moved up to her hands, her breasts swinging freely. He
watched them, mesmerized how her nipples strained and her areolas darkened.

“Marc, please. I need you. Please.” When
she stretched up and wrapped her arms around his neck, he rolled back on his
heels. Running his hands up her ribs, he cupped her breasts and tweaked at her
hard peaks. He could bite her like this, sink his teeth into her and mark her
again and again, but she was begging him for release and he wanted her to come
with him.

“Lay down, baby. Let me make love to
you.” She moaned and moved off him. He looked down at his cock and fisted it as
she lay there looking up at him. He wanted to come on her, he wanted to spew
his cum all over her and rub it into her skin.

Her hands moved down from above her head
and she filled them with her breasts. Marc moved closer to her, his thighs
touching hers as he sat on his heels between her legs. He tightened around his
shaft and slowly moved up and down it as he watched her.

“Touch yourself for me. I want to see
you touch yourself like I imagined you doing while I was on the phone with
you.” Her hands moved down over her hips and brushed over her skin just above
her neatly trimmed pussy. “That’s it, baby. Bring yourself to peak so I can
come all over you.”

She bent her knees and opened her legs for
him. He would remember this for the rest of his life, the sight of her exposed
for him, like a feast that only he could enjoy. Watching had become both a
pleasure and a painful experience. He wanted to be inside of her almost as much
as he wanted to see his cum staining her skin.

When she slid her fingers into her
nether lips, his cock began to seep. She danced first one, then another inside
of her, teasing him with what she was doing. As soon as her free hand came down
to join the first, she spread her lips wide and he nearly strangled his cock
when he watched her finger her clit.

Her body rolled, her moans were louder,
her keening less coherent. The faster her fingers moved and slipped inside of
her the harder he pulled on his cock. When she stiffened, he did as well, his
balls so tight to his body that he held them as they filled. When she screamed
out his name and her body bowed up and her thigh touched his balls, Marc felt
his climax run the length of his cock and out onto her.

He watched as his cum hit her nipple,
her chin, and her belly. Great streams of it sprayed over her arms and her
breasts. She ran her hand over it, rubbing it over her as she came again and
again, her entire being taut with the strength of her release. Even as he
continued to come he lifted her and buried his cock inside of her, taking her
hard, filling her with yet another climax from his body. She wrapped her legs
around him, pulled him down, and took his mouth. He could taste himself there;
his cum was on her tongue, and he devoured her more just to taste them
together.  Fucking her through another release, he slowed, his body spent. Dropping
down and rolling over to his back, he pulled her over him and closed his eyes. He
couldn’t have moved right now even if an entire platoon of soldiers came
tromping by them.

When she sighed, he hugged her to him
but didn’t move to get up. Feeling his body come back to itself slowly, he was
so relaxed that he knew that if he didn’t get up now he might never. It was his
last thought as sleep claimed him.

~~~

Jonny moved and her body screamed at
her. Opening one eye, she realized that they were still in the woods and they
were both naked, without any clothes to put on to go back to the house. She
stretched over him and grinned as he opened his one eye. When he opened the
other, she laughed.

“You don’t wake very easily, do you?”
She laughed harder when he growled. “We need to get going. Do you have any idea
what time it might be?”

Marc shook his head and closed his eyes.
“I don’t really care either. As far as I’m concerned, if we spent the next
hundred years out here doing what we’d did earlier, I’d die a happy man.”

“Yes, and that won’t be long because
we’d starve to death first.” She put her hand on her belly when it growled. “My
belly thinks my throat has been cut. I’m going back to the house and having
some cereal. Do you have any in that fancy kitchen of yours?”

“No fucking way. Cereal? Gross. Let me lie
here for a few more minutes and I’ll go inside and make you my famous pancakes
and sausage links.” She slapped his chest. “You are seriously violent in the
morning, aren’t you?”

“I don’t want pancakes. I hate them.”
She nearly laughed when he sat up and looked at her, a shocked expression on
his face. “All they are is soggy bread with liquid sugar all over them. Now
that’s gross. I want waffles. Thick ones too. Can you make that with all that
equipment in your kitchen?”

“There is nothing wrong with my equipment,
I’ll have you know.” He stood up and looked down at her. “What are you going to
do, wait for me to bring it to you on a silver platter? Not going to happen.
And if I cook, you have to clean up. Share and share alike, I think. Come on.”

They walked hand and hand to the house. It
didn’t bother her as much as she thought it would to be naked and doing this.
She had never been so happy in her life. She realized that they’d left the
doors opened, and worried that someone or something had gotten in while they
were gone.

“Smell the room. Do you smell anyone
else?” She did as he asked as he handed her one of his shirts from the clean
clothes on the washer. She pulled it over her head and brought the sleeve to
her nose.

“I can smell you on this shirt and in
this room but…nothing.” He nodded as he pulled on the bottoms to the shirt she
had on. “You wear pajamas?”

“Only when someone comes over to stay
the night. About two weeks ago I had an all-nighter with my team and Dennis
stayed here rather than drive all the way back. We were working on a case.”

The phone rang as he was pulling out
things from the refrigerator. He asked her to answer it. She tried to get out
of it, but he insisted she’d have to sooner or later, and now was as good as
time as any.

“Hello, my dear. It’s George…the older
one, not the baby. Though I’m thinking that he’ll be answering the phone on his
own soon enough. It’s those Bowen genes, you see. They make for a much smarter
panther than most.” He laughed, as did she. “I don’t suppose Marc is lying next
to you, is he? I need to speak to him.”

“We’re in the kitchen, not the bed.” She
felt she owed him for his teasing her. “Actually, we didn’t even use the bed
last night. We’ve decided to have sex on every piece of furniture that is in
here and out. And surfaces too. No wall too thin for us. Of course, we may need
to replace the coffee table. Not as strong as it looked, I’m afraid. How long
do you suppose it will take us?”

She glanced at Marc, who was holding his
hand over his mouth and laughing so hard that he was bent over from it. His dad
was sputtering on the phone so badly that she was sure he was soaking the
sucker. She handed the phone to Marc when he could breathe normally again and
sat on the counter to listen.

“She said…. Oh my, she is…Marc, I think….”
Poor George seemed to be at a loss for words. “I think I will call you back.
Whatever I had to say is…I just can’t remember.”

She laughed with Marc as he put the
phone back on the charger. “I think you just got my dad the best he’s ever been
gotten. I’ve never heard him so dumbfounded in my life. I loved it. I love
you.”

“I love you too.” He stilled and looked
at her. “I do. You make it hard sometimes, but I think I’ve loved you all my
life. Well, maybe wanted to love you all my life.”