Marc (17 page)

“Is he hurt?” Her mom shook her head. “I
thought he was bleeding. I was so terrified when I saw that blood on his
chest.”

“It was on my shoulder, and I shifted.”
She looked at Marc. “What the hell were you thinking? You could have been
killed. I thought Khan told you to stay still.”

“Don’t you dare take that tone with me.
I was trying to save your sorry ass. What were you doing getting shot in the
first place?” She sat up in the bed when her mom stood. “You think I couldn’t
handle myself? I had it under control, you pompous ass. Do you think that
you’re the only panther in the world that can be brave? I will let you know
when I need—”

He tossed her back on the bed and kissed
her. His hands seemed to be everywhere at the same time, and she moaned when he
cupped her breast. The door clicking closed had her reach up, wrap her arms
around him, and pull him closer.  When he lifted his head, she looked up at
him.

“You scared me.” She nodded, knowing how
he felt. “When that idiot shot you, I lost it. Will you never do anything like
that again?”

“I’ll try.” He pinched her nipple. “Ouch.
That wasn’t necessary, was it? I’ll promise you if you do the same for me.
Seeing you there was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.”

She winced when he ran his other hand up
her ribs. He rolled to his back and she could see that he was aroused. His cock
was filling out his jeans very nicely, and she wanted him. She reached for him
only to have him grab her wrist to stop her.

“Don’t. There are a number of people
down in our living room wanting to talk to us. They want to know how you came
to be in the house where three people were killed.”

That had her sit up quickly. She wanted
to ask him how, but he shook his head again. “It’s best if you don’t know
anything until we get downstairs. We told them you were there to get your
belongings from Roy and that the other two showed up after. Caitlynne is
telling them that when she rolled in with her men that you were bleeding in a
corner and that the other three were dead.”

“So they’re dead.” He nodded and helped
her up. “And you guys weren’t there? I was there alone when it went down.”

“Yes. No one is alive to dispute your
word. Caitlynne is telling them that your parents told her about Roy and his
meeting with Kidd. The daughter showing up had been a surprise. Jack took care
of the rest. Did you know she has no fingerprints?”

Nodding, she went down the stairs with
him holding her. She felt stupid and told him so, but he said that she was shot
and that they needed to believe that. She sat on the couch and looked at the
men in the room. Caitlynne and another man she didn’t know were sitting with
her.

And so the questions began. Five hours
later, she was hurting and wanted to just take a nap. When the man with
Caitlynne stood up, so did all the other men. He looked down at her and smiled
before turning to the men.

“I think Mrs. Bowen has had enough,
gentlemen. She’s told you all several times why she was there and what she
remembered. If anything, we should be thanking her for what her family did for
us, not bombarding her with endless questions.” He turned to her again. “On
behalf of the President of the United States and me, we want to thank you for
what you did for the country. Having a man like Anthony Kidd off the streets is
one step closer to having safe towns again.” Each man shook her hand as they
left. She turned to Caitlynne when the room was empty of everyone but her, Marc,
and herself.

“Who the hell was that?” Caitlynne
started laughing, and Marc joined her. She sat back down, feeling very
murderous toward them both.

“That was Marshall David, personal
assistant of the president.” Caitlynne sat down and stretched out. “You’re all
right there, Miss Thomas, so when is the wedding?”

Chapter 17

“I need for you to tell me what
happened.” Marc looked at her over their dinner table. “I keep having these odd
moments when I think I remember something, but I’m not sure.”

“What do you remember?” She shook her
head at him. “Okay. How do you want this? Me pissed when I get to the part
where you stepped in front of a bullet aimed for me, or the version where I try
to think about how you saved mine and my other brother’s ass?”

“The second one, please. And I remember
the part up until I was standing in front of Roy, but I sort of….” She played
with her pork chop. “I killed him, didn’t I?”

He’d been waiting for her to ask. Walker
and Khan had both told him not to tell her unless she asked him. He’d wanted to
tell her how he’d been impressed with her and how much he loved her for saving
him, but he’d waited. And now that she was asking, he wasn’t sure he wanted to
tell her.

“Yes. You killed him and Anita.” She
looked up once, then back down. “If you want this, I need for you to look at
me. I’ll feel better about telling you if I can see your face.”

She looked up at him and then down. He
waited, knowing that her need to know was going to override her fear of
knowing. When she looked back at him, she looked like she was ready, but he
could still feel her terror.

“You were standing in front of Roy,
facing him. I don’t think he could see you, because he kept telling Reed to get
the fuck out of his way, that you were going to pay. He never really said for
what, just that he was going to make you pay by taking away the one thing you
loved.” She nodded as if she remembered that. “But then he lifted his gun and
you leapt at him. I don’t think he ever saw you. But he knew that you were
there. You knocked him back on his backside, and he screamed. He’d landed on a
broken chair, and it had come up through his arm.”

“I remember the smell of his blood. It
was…it was as if it was tainted with something. Like…it was his drugs he had in
his system. When I bit him, I could taste them too. I knew that if he got back
up, we were all going to be dead. I had his throat in my mouth when there was….
I don’t remember the next part.”

He picked up his dish and hers, taking
them to the dishwasher. Their cook and his wife, their new housekeeper, were starting
tomorrow morning, and they’d been talking about them until she’d brought up the
house and Roy. He loaded the dishes in the washer after scraping them off. He
took a deep breath.

“Anita struggled with her dad when he
pulled out his gun. Dylan and I had come into the room about then, and he’d
been knocked on his ass by the couch coming back at him when Anita stood up and
tumbled back. Her dad had fallen as well. When we heard the gun going off, I
thought Dylan had been shot, and he thought you had. When he stood up, I was
distracted enough that I was shot by a stray bullet from one of Caitlynne’s
sharpshooters. That’s how I had been shot in the shoulder.”

“Roy didn’t shoot you?” He shook his
head. “But how did Reed get by the shooter without getting hurt too? I mean, he
was outside with the rest of them, right?”

He hadn’t figured that out either and
told her so. And Reed said that maybe because he’d been outside they had seen
him. It didn’t matter. They were all safe and sound.

“And Anita? How did I kill her?” He knew
this was the part that she’d been having the nightmares about. He’d heard her
screaming for Anita to back down and she would live, but in reality she’d only killed
her because she had gone for him.

“You had been trying to get Khan to get
us out and then you killed Roy. That was over within seconds. Anthony had been
shot in the belly, but with proper medical care, he would have lived long
enough to go to prison, but Anita had picked up his gun and put it right on his
forehead and pulled the trigger. She killed her father just like that. But I
think it was the screaming and gleeful dancing about that her daddy was dead
and that she was going to be very wealthy that got you. You snarled at her, and
when she turned the gun towards you, I think…. I don’t really know what
happened. You must have disappeared for her, because she began screaming again,
screaming your name and that you were going to die.”

He waited, seeing that she remembered.
When she stood up and began putting the salad fixings away, he reached for her
and pulled her into his arms. She seemed so stiff and cold that he knew she had
to say it.

“I stood behind her as plain old Jonny
and I broke her neck. I reached up and grabbed her chin and head and…. It came
off in my hands. Her head did. I tore her head from her shoulders and killed
her.” When her arms wrapped around him, he held her. “I killed two people who
richly deserved it, but I killed them all the same.”

“Yes, you did. And had you not, Dylan
would be dead, as well as Reed and the rest of us. When Anita couldn’t find you,
she started shooting around the room. Dylan was hit in the shoulder, as I had
been, but she was going for him while he was down. Had you not done what you
did, she would have killed him.”

They finished the kitchen and went into
the living room. As they sat and watched a program that neither of them seemed
to be interested in, he watched her. She looked to be about a million miles
away. When she turned to him, he smiled at her.

“I want to go back and work for you. You
said that Mia decided not to come back, and I don’t know how to be idle. Do you
think you could stand that?” He nodded and grinned. “There will be no sex
during working hours.”

He pouted at her. When she laughed, he
pulled her onto to his lap and held her there. He started to tickle her and
realized with a start that she was extremely ticklish. Tickling her lasted
until his phone rang.

“I wanted to know if you guys can come
over tomorrow for a meeting.” He raised his brow at Khan’s tone. “I talked to Mom
and Dad about the house, and they’re none too happy with me right now. They are
saying that I paid the guy who came out and looked at the house foundation to
say that it was too bad and that they’d be better off dozing the house rather
than try to rebuild.”

“And what will the meeting be about? How
to string you up? Or is it something to do with you being buried under the new
foundation and we visit you on weekends?” Khan growled, and he laughed. “I told
you this was going to happen.”

“I know that. Don’t you think I know
what you said and everyone else said? But I had hoped that it would be okay for
a few more years. Something more than his condemning the fucking house. And now
she wants to move to a retirement home across the state, with Dad and her
coming to see us once in awhile.”

“Shit.” Khan agreed. “And the meeting?
What is this going to be about, because they are not moving across town?”

“To see which one we’d like to put them
in.”  Khan sounded like he was having his heart ripped out of him. And Marc
felt that his was as well. He didn’t want them to move and told Khan that
they’d be there to help convince them not to leave.

He told Jonny what they had to do, and
she sat down with him on the couch. He loved his parents and couldn’t imagine
life without them just down the street. He started telling Jonny about Christmases
in the old house, and big holiday dinners with everyone eating too much.

“Maybe my parents can talk to them.” He
looked at her. “They could give them some insight on what it’s like not seeing
me for a long time. In the meantime, I’m going to work on that thing with your
dad. I can’t let him get away without making his happy ass pay.”

He’d forgotten about that. Jonny had
been planning this for weeks, and everyone was on board, even their mom. Then
she told him what was going to happen, and he started feeling pretty good. They
were going to take his happy ass down. But first….

“I was thinking that you coming to work
for me is a good idea. It’ll give us more time together, and we can solve more
cases if I’m actually at work and not wanting to be here with you. I’ve sort of
neglected my business of late.”

“No shit. But I’ve loved being with you.
And we sort of had other things to take care of around here.” He nodded. “When
can I start? I have some really cool clothes I want to be able to wear.”

“About that. You were a bad girl at the
shop. And do you remember what I promised you?” Her eyes darkened, and she
nodded. “I’ve been shopping online for things for toys for me to punish you
with.”

“I saw the package on your desk. I had
to move it so the new cook and his wife didn’t see it.” She lay back on the
couch and looked at him. “Are you going to tell me what it is?”

“No. I’m going to show you by using it. I
think you’ll enjoy it.” She nodded at him, and he stood up. “But you need to go
up to the bedroom and get it for me. And when you come back down, I want you
naked.”

He told her where to find it and walked
to the fireplace when she left. Stoking up the fire, he turned off the
television and then lit some candles. By the time she returned, he was standing
in only his boxers and the room was set.

Marc knew nothing about sex toys. He’d
been with a couple of women who had used them, and had gone on that little
experience. He had thought for all of one second of asking for help, but knew
that any one of his family members he asked would give him shit. He just wanted
to please his mate. And looking at her now, standing there gloriously naked, he
marveled that she was all his.

“I thought you would have opened it.” He
shook his head. “What if it’s…I don’t know, not right?”

“Are you excited?” She nodded. “Then
it’s just what I expected. Come here, please. I want to see you when you open
it.”

Marc handed her his knife and watched
her open the tape. She was moving slowly, peeling the tape back and then
opening the four corners gently. He didn’t want her to hurry more than he
wanted her to rip it open and take it out. When she did finally get the box
opened, there was a second box inside among the plastic bubble wrap.

She took it out of the packaging and
held the big pink dildo in her hand. “It’s huge. Almost as big as you are.”

He grinned at her. “Just what a man
wants to hear. It’s supposed to be fully charged and ready for your pleasure.”

He asked her to sit down on the couch
and he sat in front of her. Neither of them seemed all that sure of where to
begin. It was different to play with one of these when it was someone you loved,
he realized.  Taking the plastic cover off, he cleaned it and turned it on.

Marc watched her face as he moved it
over her to the apex of her thighs. She moaned when it moved over her pelvis,
and again when he brushed it over her hip. This was going to be better than he thought.

“Open for me. Let me see how much you’re
enjoying this.” When she spread her legs, he pulled her to the edge of the
couch seat. She was so wet already that he wanted to taste her. Leaning down,
he licked her from gate to clit and sat up to look at her again.

“You can’t come. Not yet anyway. I want
to have my fill of you, and then I might let you. And no touching, me or
yourself.” She nodded and put her hands up over the back of the couch.  Her
breasts tightened, and her nipples became hard stones. Sitting up, he took one
peak into his mouth and nibbled on it until she rubbed her foot over his cock.
He looked down at her.

“That’s not touching you. That’s rubbing
you. Are you saying you don’t like it?” He pulled her foot off him and set it
on the floor. “You’re going to get payback, you know that, right?”

“Christ, I hope so. Now behave so I can
explore you. You’re always in such a hurry, and I can’t look.” Marc worried and
chewed on her other nipple until it was pink from his teeth. “Next thing I want
to get is some nipple rings. The thought of making these beauties ache from them
makes me want to find an Internet connection right now.”

Her moan had him moving down her body, biting
little hurts here and there, and licking them better. By the time he got to her
navel, she was panting, and so was he. Making her suffer was having a direct effect
on him. He swirled his tongue into her belly button as he moved the dildo over
her again.

She was so wet when he sat between her
legs again that he drank from her again, careful this time not to touch her
clit. He moved the vibrator slowly in and out of her, going only an inch deep. It
was enough for him to feel it vibrate against his cheek as he joined it inside
of her. Lifting his head, he moved it deeper into her and pulled it out over
and over again as she moved her hips in time to it.

“Marc, please. Please.” He slid his
fingers under her ass and watched her face. He rubbed his thumb hard over her
tight muscles with her juices, and when she moaned the next time, he pressed inside
of her. She screamed out her climax. Leaning in, he took her clit into his
mouth and suckled until she came twice more. Moving the vibrator, he tore off
his boxers, jerked her off the couch, and impaled her over him.

Her body bowed with her next climax, and
he rolled them to the floor. As soon as her back touched the rug, he felt her
legs tangle around his body and her ankles lock around his hips. His cock felt
as if it were about to explode, and he leaned down and took her mouth in a
quick, hard kiss