Phillip: Lanning's Leap - Paranormal Erotic Romance (14 page)

“No. Alone. Or with one of the others to take me. Max said that he’d go with me to some of the places. He wishes to sleep in his back yard. To have a fire to warm him, food should he need it, and to have a tent if the weather proves to be uncooperative. I would like to join him.” Nildale was warming to the idea. Max would be a good escort. But the boy, for all his smarts, was still just a twelve-year-old. “And I’d very much like it if no one knew who I was. I will be only Kendra…I’ve no last name, but I’ll think of one. Kendra, who has some money and is having a wonderful time discovering herself.”

He wanted to go, too. Not with her, of course, but to have fun as she was telling him. But he’d do this for her. Not because she’d asked him to, but because she needed it. And badly, he thought. Then he remembered what she’d said when he’d first come out here.

“And a male? Do you suppose to find him while you are discovering yourself?” She said that she didn’t know and really only wanted to go and have fun for a time. “All right then. But I do think you need a male in your life. As you said, someone that can hold you like none other.”

“Dad, you and Mom have a wonderful relationship. Even Linyah is happy as I’ve ever seen her, but for me…I just don’t think it’s going to happen for me. I’m a queen and any male that I find would have to be able to stay in the background, let me run the castle, and few men, hardly any, would be that understanding.” He asked her why he’d have to stay in the background. “Because I am queen.”

It was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. It was as if she was saying that any male that she had in her life would be too stupid to stand beside her, to be a helpmate in any way. But she was happy right now, smiling again, and he didn’t have it in him to tell her she was wrong. Because in this, he was sure that she was.

As they worked out some of the details of what she was going to do, he reached for his own mate and told her what was going on. He could hear her fear over their daughter being alone in a place they only knew a little of, but she was happy too. And when she came to join them, now in the study, Sina said nothing to their daughter about her plans for a male. Nildale could see, too, that Sina was as happy as he was that Kendra was smiling. But after their daughter left them, he pulled his mate into his arms and held her. When she started to shake, he thought she was crying until she looked up at him.

Tears of laughter were streaming down her face. Her eyes were alight with humor, and he couldn’t help it, he smiled as well. When he asked her what was so funny, it took her several starts and stops to tell him.

“Her. When she falls in love. I should like to see her face when she does. I think her male will be…strong, because he will need to be, but he will not take her putting him in his place. I hope that she meets a man that…well, is a great deal like you are. You would never let me put you behind me. Not even when it was good for you.” He remembered those days with a lovely sort of fondness and smiled again. “You were such a wonderful king, Nildale. And whoever she finds, he will be as well. We can only hope so.”

Nildale had a feeling that he was going to be something else. Something more than his daughter was expecting. Yes, sir, he thought, his daughter was going to be in for a very rude awakening. And he, for one, was looking forward to it.

Chapter 13

Charlie was scrubbing the desk when she heard someone behind her. Turning, she knew before she looked who it was, and she smiled at Phillip. He moved toward her, slowly and with purpose. She stood waiting for him.

“Seeing you bent over that desk brings to mind all sorts of things I could be doing to you. I could have you screaming in seconds if you’d let me.” Her body heated up, and she could feel her nipples tighten in her bra. “I can smell you. The way your body is calling to mine. I’d like to see just how wet you are.”

“There are people just downstairs.” He told her that he’d sent them to lunch. “So you could come up here and ravish me.”

“Yes.” He turned her around and pushed her down on the desk. “I have some news to tell you, but right now I want to fuck you slowly like this.”

He pulled her shorts down over her hips, and she felt the coolness of the fan in the room blow over her. Instead of cooling her off, it only served to heat her more. And when Phillip started to rub his hands up and down her ass, she moaned and pressed back against him. She wanted him as much as he did her.

“Do you have any idea how beautiful I find this part of you? I find all of you gorgeous, but your ass is nice and firm, and I love holding onto your hips while I take you. My cat wants to take yours this way again. Run you down like he did last night. Fuck his mate hard so that I can have you afterwards.” His cat had chased her all over the woods until she was knocked down from behind and ordered to strip. She’d come so many times that she’d been dizzy from it. “He loves the taste of you. The way you come down his throat over and over.”

Phillip’s cock touched her pussy, and she moaned. Moving back, trying to get him to fill her, he smacked her ass hard and she nearly came from it. He spanked her twice more before he leaned over her and pulled her blouse up and over her head. Her bra was lifted as he cupped her breasts in his hand. His cock, thick and hard, slid between her thighs but never inside of her.

“Phillip, please. I need to come.” He told her she would. Soon. “Now. I need to come now. I want to feel you fucking me this way.”

His cock slid near her clit again, and she wanted to turn and hit him. He must have known that she was nearly violent with him and pulled back and slammed hard into her. Charlie could have sworn she saw stars when she came, and her entire body seemed to scream at her that it needed more. When he pounded her hard enough to move the desk several feet, she slid her fingers into her pussy and felt Phillips hot wet cock as it filled her over and over.

He nipped at her shoulder, and pulled at her breasts. Dizziness from all the sensations nearly had her closing her eyes, but she wanted to see if stars danced again when she came. Because she knew as surely as she was gearing up for a climax, this one was going to be the best one she’d ever had. And when Phillip sank his teeth into her shoulder, tearing at her flesh, Charlie’s breath stopped, and she was sure that her heart did as well. Then it took her.

Even knowing that it was going to be huge hadn’t prepared her for her release. She had no breath to scream. Her heart was pounding so hard she was sure that she could have seen it had she been able to look, and every cell in her body seemed to have paused in the moment before to marvel at the feeling. Her climax took everything from her, including her vision.

Waking in Phillip’s arms startled her. She looked up at him, his head leaning back on the chair that had only just been delivered that morning. He was sleeping, his body relaxed, his eyes closed. But when she moved, he looked down at her and smiled.

“I thought I’d killed you.” She smiled at him, and he smiled back. “That was fantastic. No, that’s too tame a word. That was fan-fucking-tastic. Christ, I really…words just fail me on that. Are you all right?”

“Yes. No. I have no idea. What did you do to me?” He told her he had no idea, but he’d love to try and do it again. “Not today. If you tried it again, I think you might just kill me. But my God, that was really amazing.”

He held her after that, both of them basking in the afterglow of making love. The desk was no longer where it had been when she’d come up here; they’d managed to move it nearly to the windows. And she thought perhaps she liked it better there. The other things, the boxes of supplies that she would need, letterheads and other items, were in this room, as the storage room had yet to have shelves finished. But for now she was content to have the mess in here.

“I don’t have a job.” She looked up at him when he continued to stare out the window. “I mean, we’re going to finish out the month, but Misha is already making plans to close up the rescue business. He asked me this morning what I thought.”

“Will you be all right not doing it any longer?” Charlie knew that Hannah didn’t like being alone with Misha gone so much. And even working in the office as she had been, Charlie didn’t like it. And Charlie also knew that Carter had been having thoughts of leaving anyway. He’d been plagued with nightmares off and on for some time now.

“Yes. And when Misha asked the others what they thought about it, he and I both were surprised at how badly they wanted out, too. Not that we didn’t enjoy it for the most part, but it’s not really an easy job. And it does take us away a great deal. Nearly all of us have families now, and we want to be here.” Charlie nodded but reached up and pulled Phillip’s face to her when he still hadn’t looked at her. “I have no idea what to do now.”

“You’re not without the funds to do whatever you want, you know that right?” He nodded. “So? What do you want to do?”

“I have no idea. I mean, since I was a teenager we’ve been doing the search and rescue thing. I’ve never worked at another job. Never flipped burgers or delivered newspapers. The only thing I’ve done is that.”

“Do you want to deliver newspapers? Or work in a restaurant?” He said not really. “Then go out and find a project. You have several empty buildings that you need to work on. There are any number of jobs that need to be finished around the house. You wanted to expand the kitchen pantry. Do it. The pool house needs a new roof…you know, don’t do that one. You might fall and break your neck.”

“Thanks.” He pulled her up on his lap more and she sat across him. He was dressed, as was she, and she figured that he’d done it for both of them. She could also hear the rest of the workers, people from Carter’s apartment complex, coming back to work below them. “What if I told you that I’d like to open a hardware store? Not the big kind that is down the road and sells everything from screws to house kits, but one that has the odds and ends in it that are used for antiques. Like leather hinges to order. Odd cut glass. Colored glass that can be used in stain glass replacement.”

She liked the idea. “I used to deal with this company that only sold old buttons. I was surprised when I found this out, but after I did, I used them a lot. People like getting old buttons for gifts for some reason. One of my recipients told me that she pours them out on the table and separates them into categories, then makes up a story to go with each one. She’s a writer that had a button as her logo. I’ve read her things—she’s pretty racy.”

“You’re supposed to say ‘no, Phillip, get a real job.’” She just stared at him. “That’s not what I want you to say, but what you should say. It’s what my mom is going to say. After she pops me in the back of the head.”

“I fill baskets up with odds and ends for a living. Shop for people with too much money and no time to do it for themselves. I once shopped for a nine-year-old little boy when his father was on his honeymoon with his fourth wife, and was told to spend five grand on his birthday gifts so he could outdo the boy’s mother. If anyone needs popped in the back of the head it would be me.” She stood up and went to her window near the desk and pulled out a sheet of paper from the top of the desk. “Here, read this.”

He took it and read it. “‘Black basket filled with every kind of black thing you can find. Even if it’s just a can of black paint. Black rocks, a black rose. I want the bitch to know that her heart is black as shit.’” Phillip asked her what it was.

“My first order. I was shocked to say the least, but I filled it. And you know what?” Phillip shook his head. “She thought it was funny. I mean, it took her five minutes of laughing before I could get her to sign for it. She told me that the guy who sent it to her was pissed off because she wasn’t going to drop her son off at the sitter for a month and go with him to Vegas to go gambling. She said he needed to get his head on straight. After that, I never went on deliveries, nor did I talk to the people who gave the orders to me. It was just too much when they thought they had to explain why they were doing this. My way was much easier back then.”

“And now? What will you do now? You’re kinda out here, aren’t you?” Yes, she supposed she was, but only shrugged. “I think you’re going to do very well. You’ll have to. I’m not working now.”

Phillip started to help her, but she sent him on his way. He had things to do as well. And after giving him a list of people that she’d worked with that had dealt in antiques as well as objects that weren’t easily found, she set to work on the desk again. Things were beginning to look up.

~~~

Max moved to the door of his new building and thought of the person who was coming to open the store for him. It would be an antique store for not just furniture, but for all sorts of things. Books and tables, of course, but he wanted to fill it with things like comic books and old phones that worked. Clothing that was so out of date it would be wonderful. He could see the displays that he’d have to help set up, as well as the old fashioned cash register that he already had his eye on online. Things were going to come together as soon as the woman came to town.

He had no idea who she was. Or what she was, for that matter. But he’d dreamt of her. Her long hair, her blue eyes. She’d be perfect for the store that he had in mind, and for so much more. She was for his uncle. And when they came together, neither of them would be the same again.

“Which one?” He looked over at his mom, completely forgetting that she’d come with him. “Andrew or Rider? Which uncle is going to murder you in your sleep for doing this to them until they figure out that you were right all along?”

“I don’t know.” She nodded at him as if she didn’t believe him, but Max really didn’t know. “She’s beautiful, but not alone. I’m not sure what that means, but she has something with her that she protects.”

“A child?” Max told her that he didn’t think so. It just didn’t feel like a child. “Well, it doesn’t matter, I guess. Either one of the other two will love and protect her.”

“Yes, we all will.”

His mom moved to the place he’d already said was going to be the office. There was a huge safe in the office that had not been opened since the other owners had left in a hurry. He knew that it was full of things, but not what they were. He thought the walls too thick for him to breach, but also thought that it might be more than that. When she was close enough to the safe and to him, Max reached out and hugged her to him. And when she hugged him back, he felt him.

“Can you open this?” He shook his head. He knew that it could be opened, but not how to do it. The combination was somewhere in his building, but it wasn’t his to find just yet. “You’re being very mysterious, you know that, right? Why is that, I wonder?”

“Perhaps it’s because I want to have some of my own secrets. Like you do.” His mom asked him what he was talking about. “The baby. When were you going to tell me? I’m not stupid, you know.”

“No, you’re not. But we were kinda waiting for your party to be over with first. We didn’t want to take away from the fact that you’ve finished college at the top of your class.” He nodded, embarrassed now. “Do you suppose you can live with having a little sister or brother around?”

“Brother, though I wouldn’t mind either, and yes. I’d like that.” He looked at her, wondering if she’d known it was a boy or not. “Did I mess up by telling you that?”

“No. I sort of knew. I haven’t told Carter yet because he’s been hoping for a girl. There’s not been that many born to this family, in the event you missed that.” Max told her that everyone would be happy no matter what they had.

Aunt Hannah was due in a month. She’d have a boy as well. And Linyah was going to have a girl. Her little girl was already starting to show herself as much like her mother. Stubborn and magical as well. He looked at his mom when he realized that he’d missed something. She asked him what he knew about the woman coming here.

“Nothing. She’s been on her way for some time. Not to here but in this direction. I’m not calling her here but I think something is. The shop will be for her. My store, of course, but she’ll run it. That’s the job you’re going to offer her when she comes to you.”

“She’s coming to me before her mate?” He told her that it was the way he’d seen it. “And whatever she’s bringing with her…what do you know about that other than it’s not a child?”

“It’s not a child and she is very…I guess tired of it. Something about it…while she needs to protect it, she doesn’t all that much care for whatever it is.” Murph nodded, as if she understood. “Were you ever tired of me? I know that it was a lot of work to keep me safe. Did you ever want to just say screw it and leave me with the sitters?”

“Every day. And while I was at it, I thought it would be just as easy to cut out the other half of my beating heart too. You know, to leave behind with the rest of it.” He grinned at her. “Don’t be a goof. I could no more leave you behind than I could hate you. You were my world then and now. I love you.”