Phillip: Lanning's Leap - Paranormal Erotic Romance (12 page)

“You got me a dog.” Max nodded and kissed her on the doggy wet cheek. “Why would you think a dog would be a good gift? You do know that I am the head of our clan and that I have duties to perform? And a dog, in this case a puppy, is going to require more work than I wish to put into it.”

“But when you’re here alone and I’m not here, he can keep you company. Look at him, he already knows that you’re his master. Now you have to pick a name for him.” Several came to mind, but he only looked at her. “You have to give him a name that you can call out in public.”

“I see.” She sat down and the puppy, worn out from tasting her no doubt, whimpered a little, then rolled to his side and promptly fell asleep. “This isn’t the only reason you came here, is it? To disrupt my busy morning by bothering me with a mongrel?”

Max grinned at her. She loved this boy more than she’d ever thought possible, and he had her wrapped tightly around his little finger. He knew as well as she did that she’d drop everything to see him and to spend time with the little monster. And she also knew, as he did, that the puppy would stay with her forever.

“You’re going to have company.” She knew this, of course, and had been trying to think of a way to avoid her since yesterday. “You have to see her. And if you’d like to do me a big favor, I’d like for you to agree with everything she asks of you.”

“You mean this plot of hers to take over the castle.” Max nodded and leaned back on the sofa. Leila nodded at Durk when he brought them both tea and cookies, and even a snack for the sleeping dog. “You do know that she’s planning to ask me to stand behind her. And to have our kind there with us when she goes before the queen.”

“I do. And bring all the men and women that you can gather.” She asked him what he was planning. “Nothing really. I mean, I’d like for you to be there with her to keep her from running should she try. And your men there will be able to subdue the others should they try and be brave. I don’t think they will. Once Sonya is taken, I think they’ll simply lay down their arms and give up.”

“But you’re not sure.” He shook his head. “Do you know what she’s planning to do there? I mean, besides try and take the castle?”

“Some. It’s like some of its easy to see and some of it’s murky and cloudy. I tried to concentrate harder, but all I got for my troubles was a headache and a bloody nose.” She worried that he couldn’t see it all. Max was stronger than she was, and he wasn’t even a full-blooded Doran. She wondered what children of his would be able to do. “Grandma, do you suppose it’s murky because it can change?”

“That could be it. Or it could be something that you’re not to see. Something that happens that you are a part of. I have taught you the rules of seeing in the future. You know that you cannot change what is yours or the ones you love.” He nodded at her, but she could see that he was distressed about it. “Let me talk to this witch today and see what I can find out from her. Perhaps she’s changing the game on us and we’ll have to wait for her.”

“All right.” But he didn’t seem to think it was finished, so she sipped her tea and ate two cookies before he spoke again. “Mom is going to have a baby.”

Leila knew that. All the women, it seemed, were breeding in the Lanning family but one. And she’d be that way soon enough too. But to look at her grandson, she thought it was more than that. Much more.

“You’re going to have a sister or brother, I guess. And I’ll be a grandmother again. I’m looking forward to that, aren’t you?” He grinned and said he wasn’t going to be a grandmother at all. “Very funny. What has you upset? The baby or the fact that you think they’ll pick it over you?”

“No. Carter said he’d never do that. And I believe him. Nah, it’s not that. Mom will be a great mom.” Leila waited. “She took the job as sheriff the other day. I mean, she needed to do it. It’ll keep her closer to home.”

Whatever was bothering Max, it had to do with this new job. She started to ask him, but Durk interrupted her. He said that Miss Sonya was here and she would like a meeting. Leila looked at Max when he stood up.

“Tell me what it is.” He shook his head. “A favor for a favor. You tell me and I’ll do this for you. You know I would have anyway, but I’ll look, and you know that will cause me great harm.”

“She has to kill someone.” Leila nodded. She knew that her daughter had been a cop, and a damned good one too. And she thought perhaps she’d killed before. “Not like this. Not this time. She has to kill them because of me.”

“How so?” He pulled free of her and started pacing. “Max, you know your mother would give her life for you. For any of your new family too. But like you, she’s an immortal. Nothing will happen to either of you.”

“This man comes for me. He tries to get me to do things for him. Not sexual, but for him. I get myself caught. And no matter how many times I try to look, I can’t figure out what I did to get there. But he takes me and…and Dad gets hurt. Then Mom has to shoot someone she knows. Someone that she loves.”

Durk came to the door again, but he only stood there. That damned woman was here and as much as she wanted to kick her out on her ass, Max had asked her to help him. Standing up, she pulled him into her arms and held him. It was then she realized how tall he’d gotten. He looked up at her when she said his name softly.

“Don’t let this worry you too much, all right?” He nodded. “Your mother loves the Lanning family and all it entails, correct? She’s never let anyone hurt any of you, no matter what.”

“I know that. They’re our family. She said that we were very lucky to have them in our lives.” Leila nodded. So was she. “You’re going to tell me it can’t be one of them, aren’t you?”

“Sort of. But what if it was one of them? What if it was Carter or one of the others that she had to shoot just to get them out of harm’s way, or you out of it? What if it was the only way to save you?” He just stared at her. “Max, think about what you said. You said she has to shoot someone. Not behead them. Not take a sword and remove their body parts one at a time until they were in pieces, but to shoot them. Ghastly as it all sounds, you can’t be killed by a bullet.”

“It won’t kill them.” He let out a long harsh breath before he continued, as if hearing her say it somehow confirmed it for him. “It might hurt them pretty badly, but it won’t kill them. They’ll be safe.”

“Yes. And so will you.” He nodded, and she could see that he felt a great deal better about it. So did she, as a matter of fact. “So, back to this sorcerer. Are you sticking around or are you going to leave me with her? All alone. In my house.”

Max laughed. “I think you can handle her. And as much as I’d like for you to just kill her and be done with it, I think this needs to happen.” She asked him why. “So that in the future, no one else will get it in their head to do something against the queen.”

Making an example of her sounded good to Leila. Then perhaps things would settle around here. It was getting almost to the point where she wanted to move in with her daughter and new son just to keep them safe at all times with her magic. Not yet, but it was getting there. Smiling, she walked to the door with Max and then stared at Durk. She asked him if he’d taken in refreshments.

“No, my lady.” He grinned. “If I should, I would suggest that you don’t partake. It might make you wish you hadn’t.”

“Why, you sly devil you. When did you get so sneaky?” He grinned bigger at her. “Ah, you’ve been that way all along and I’ve only just noticed.”

“Correct, my lady. Your…guest, she is waiting. And I should like to tell you something more.” She asked him what. “Do not give her your back.”

She thought that an excellent idea and told him so. As soon as she entered the big room where Sonya had been seated, she felt as if she’d been put with an imposter. The woman practically oozed good will and charm. She was buttering her up for the kill, as Max would have said, and Leila let her fawn all over her, agreeing with what she needed, even going so far as to suggest that her men come too. It was over, this plan of Sonya’s, almost before it began as far as Leila was concerned. Yes, this was going to be fun, she thought. And she had a front row seat to it all.

Chapter 11

Phillip felt amazing. He stretched out and reached for his cock when it felt warm and curled his hand in her hair. When he opened his eyes and looked down at the beauty that was sucking his cock, all he could think about was he could wake this way every morning and never tire of it.

“Come up here. I want to enjoy you too.” She shook her head and cupped his balls tightly in her hand. “I want to come inside of you then. Ride me.”

When Charlie lifted her head from him, he moaned. Christ, she was gorgeous right now, and he wanted to throw her back on the bed and pound her. As he reached for her, she shook her head and backed away.

“I want to taste you coming down my throat.” Phillip nodded, not sure he could have spoken anything that would have made sense anyway. “When you do, I’m going to get you hard again. Then I’m going to let you fuck me, all day, until I can’t move.”

“I love that plan.” He watched her lower her head to him once again and cried out when instead of taking him into her mouth, she licked him from root to tip then circled his crown. “Please, baby, you’re going to kill me.”

When she swallowed around him, her throat muscles tightening around him, Phillip rocked his hips upward until she did it again. Fucking her this way, feeling her hands on his body, made him cry out every time she gave his balls another squeeze. And when she fisted him, her mouth open to catch his cum, Phillip watched as his release shot from his cock to her face as she finished him off this way. But he was far from done with the beauty.

He needed more, and was pretty sure that she did as well. When he jerked her up to him and rolled her to her back, he slammed his cock deep even before she wrapped her legs around him. Phillip fucked her as hard as he could, pounding her even as he heard her scream out her first, then second and third release before he emptied in her once again. As he dropped over her, he heard her soft giggle when he rolled to his back, taking her with him.

“You were supposed to let me do the work. Why must you take over every time?” He laughed with her. “I would like, one time, to have my way with you. Do you think you can manage that?”

Not even thinking about it, he told her no. “You are far too sexy and much too gorgeous for me to simply lay still while you have your fun. Do you have any idea how much I love making you come, hearing you scream out my name when you’ve peaked? Christ, it’s all I can do to remember to breathe when I’m inside of you, much less let you be in charge.”

“I love you.” He held her closer to him as he told her he loved her as well. “I have so much to do today, I thought I’d start our day off right before we had to leave here.”

“You can do this every day, and I’m pretty sure it will make anything better for me. But I’m sorry about working today. Misha told us yesterday that we had to go in and finish up some paperwork. I know that I’ve been leaving you alone a lot, but it’s my job.” She lifted her head up and looked at him. “Christ, I really do love you.”

“And I love you. But…I do have a job too. Not much of one just yet, but I’m working on it.” He knew that she was bored and had wondered if she was going to try and find a place to work on her baskets again. He remembered the buildings downtown.

“Hey, we own a building. Well, four of them actually, and you should go down and see what can work for you.” She had been in the process of standing up and turned to him when he spoke. “I won’t be able to tell you if you don’t find something to cover with. I am a much neglected man.”

“You are a very strange man is what you are. What are you talking about? What buildings do we own?” She pulled on her robe, much to his disappointment, but he could think better. When she asked him again, he smiled.

“The county seat is trying to generate businesses downtown by selling off some of the older but in good shape buildings along Main Street and a few of the side ones. Much like revamping, I guess. Max told me about it. Anyway, I did him a solid by putting in a bid for the one he wanted, and bought four of them for my own use. Misha did as well, but I don’t know how many he got. For all I know—” She cleared her throat. He had to think where he’d been going with his story when he remembered. “But we own four of them. You should go and have a look at them and take one for your own business. I’m going to have to put someone in them in the next sixty days before the first payment is due, so one of them might as well be you. That way you don’t have to worry about getting a barn put here.”

“How big are they?” He said that one was a warehouse, but the others were just businesses that had gone under at some point. “And I can just move into one of them. No problem.”

“I think it might need some work, like to be cleaned up and stuff. They’ve been closed up for some time. One I know for sure has been for at least ten years, the other maybe longer than that. But I’ve been assured that they’re structurally sound and that all the wiring is replaced. I guess about five months ago the town thought about using them for something and had them brought up to code. But other than that, I don’t know.” He thought of something else. “You know that Carter has this apartment complex, don’t you? Well, it’s filled with some people, families mostly, that have been down on their luck. Maybe a few of them would be able to help you out. Cleaning up or even working with you.”

“I don’t know anything about having people working for me.”

He nodded and decided to have someone talk to her about it. Giving those people a helping hand as well as some money to spend would help out everyone, and he thought he’d try to make it work for him as well.

When she entered the bathroom, her cell started to ring. He told her, but she said to answer it. Only his family had the number, so it had to be one of them. It was Murph.

“I was going to go into town and wanted to see if Charlie wanted to join us. Your mom and sisters are going with us. Not Linyah. I guess she has to work, but the rest of us are. She said she might come over later. We’re going to have some lunch and buy some baby things for Hannah before the shower next month. Oh, and I wanted to say thanks before I forget for helping Max out. He is excited about being a property owner.” He told her it had been his pleasure and told her what he done and how he’d had mentioned it to Charlie too. “So you think she’ll move into one of them?”

“I don’t know. I hope so. It would be nice for her to have her old job back, as well as doing something that she’s really good at. I told her about the people that live in Carter’s apartment building too, and she’s nervous about that. I know little about hiring people, but Carter has done all the background checks and things, so that will be one less thing to worry about too.” Murph said she liked that idea as well. “You talk to her. Not into it, but just talk to her. And if she’s all right with it, we can have her things moved in when it’s ready.”

“Did you know that she’s still paying rent on her other house? I’m sure that someone is going to have to go there and clean that out as well. I can arrange it, call in a few favors.” He said he’d ask Charlie. “Good plan. By the way, you should know that Max might be hanging around with you guys at the office today, and for a few days too. I think he wants something to do between classes. Maybe you guys can have him sweep up or something. I don’t know.”

He did know. Max was a whiz at a great many things, and could make a computer do just about anything as well. They’d just had their systems updated recently, but he wanted to see if Max wanted to work for other businesses around town. Like Charlie’s when she was set up, and other places that might need someone to come in and just get them started. It would make him a few bucks and keep him from being bored.

As soon as Charlie got out of the shower, he told her what was going on. And when he mentioned to her about having someone go and get her other house cleaned out, she agreed with him. It was time, she told him.

“I have some things in storage too. Not a great deal, mostly some baskets that I got really cheaply.” He started writing things down as she dressed. “And there is the rental agreement I had with the landowner. I don’t know what he’ll do about my deposit, but it was a pretty hefty amount.”

“I don’t think I told you, but…well, we’re rich. I mean, what my mom called nasty stinking rich. I’m just putting that out there so you know that if he does take your deposit, it won’t be that bad for us.” She sat down on the chair with her blouse half buttoned. “We had money, all of us did, before we met our mates. I mean, billions. Rider had the most by then, but…. Anyway, after Linyah and Thomas married, we sort of, as a family, got more.”

“How much more?” Her voice was low and sort of scary, but he sat down to answer her. So he told her, ball park. “No, seriously.”

“Actually, there’s more than that, but…I don’t know how much. At one time Nildale said he didn’t think there was a number for the amount of money we were to get as family, so we sort of rounded it to something that we knew.” He watched her face. It was a good face and one that he would love dearly for the rest of their days together. “I have invested well and done some things with—”

When she raised her hand up, he stopped talking. It was funny really, the way she seemed to be in a state that he thought of as comatose. But when she got up to move back and forth in front of him, he not only watched her face but her lovely ass too. She caught him looking at the latter of the two.

“I’m being serious here and you’re thinking of my ass.” Nodding, he grinned at her. “This…why didn’t you…why would you not…?”

“Why would I not what?” She told him. “I didn’t tell you before because it never came up. I mean, I should have, sure, but I simply never thought of it. We have money and that’s all I really cared about. And I have you that makes it all worthwhile.”

“And these buildings you bought. You think to turn them into more money, don’t you? I mean, you can never have too much, right?” He wasn’t sure what she was getting at, but the anger was there so he asked her what she meant by that. “You want it all. All the money in the world.”

“No. I don’t. I didn’t ask for what I got. So having more…are you pissed because we have money or is there—?”

“
We
don’t have money. You do.” Phillip started to laugh, but he could see that she was serious, and he stood up to go to her. “Don’t touch me right now. I’m sort of angry.”

“No, you’re not. You’re upset, but not angry. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I honestly never thought about it.” Charlie nodded. “If it makes you feel any better, I would give it all back if that’s what it takes.”

“You most certainly will not.” He laughed when she did. “I’m sorry. I’ve been struggling to get my business off the ground for years before it finally paid off. Then when the money started to come in, this stupid thing with the book started. Then the tumor, and now this dumb woman that wants to take over the kingdom.”

“Yeah, we have to deal with her tomorrow, did you know that?” She nodded and told him that Murph had told her. “Good. And when we get there, we’re going to have to stand together. Did she tell you that?”

“Yes. Do you think this woman will get what she wants?” He told her there wasn’t any way for her to win against all of them. “And this thing with us, you think that she’ll convince someone that you and I aren’t supposed to be together? And they’ll pull us apart?”

“No. Never.” The doorbell sounded throughout the house, and he knew it was Murph and the other women. “You go and have a good time. See the buildings with the others and pick which one will best suit your needs. Then we’ll think of something to do with the other three.”

After she was gone, he and Rocco worked out a schedule to have someone come in and do some of the repairs on the house. There wasn’t much to be done, but enough that it would require more time than he had to devote to it. When it was settled that Rocco would take care of it all, Phillip left the house knowing that it would be taken care of. Just as he was leaving, however, Misha pulled into the drive to give him a lift to work. It was out of the ordinary, but he got in his car with him just to see what was up. Because he knew there was something.

“I have a favor to ask.” Phillip said that he’d do it. “You don’t even know what it is. For all you know, I could be asking you to cut off your dick. I’m not, but don’t say that unless you mean it.”

“I do.” Misha looked at him before looking at the road again. When he didn’t say anything, Phillip decided to fill the quiet with what he was up to. “Charlie is going to go and look at those buildings with the women today. And I’m supposed to warn you that Max is coming by as well.”

Phillip knew that he wasn’t paying any attention to him when he nodded. There was something wrong, but he’d never pry. Not unless it became necessary. But when they pulled in the lot of their business, neither of them made any attempt to get out.

“I don’t want to do this anymore.” Phillip said nothing. He was sort of shocked, but waited for Misha to explain. “I mean, I really loved it for a long time, but now…now I find myself wanting to hurry through the work to get back home and be a husband and father. It’s not…it was never fun, but I’m simply worn out by all the devastation.”

“Carter is still having a hard time too. I mean, not as bad since he met Murph, but he’s still has bad days.” Misha nodded. “So what was the favor you needed from me?”

“It’s not really a favor so much as…what do you think of this? I mean, is this something you can see yourself doing forever?” Phillip wanted to tell him he hated it, but that really wasn’t it either. He just, like his brother, had had enough.